Day: March 10, 2023

Members of the ‘Health Gate of Advocates for Christ Ghana’ has called on Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu, the Minister for Health to galvanise all the necessary resources to order and procure vaccines for children to reduce morbidity and mortality to vaccine-preventable illnesses. A news statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said, the health minister should take responsibility for the public health emergency and develop effective plans to curb shortages in the future and make the Expanded Programme on Immunisation more sustainable. The call was in reaction to the shortage of six childhood disease vaccines, resulting in the outbreak of measures in some parts of the country. It said there must be sufficiently equipped health facilities with the requisite logistics including incentivizing frontline healthcare workers to deal with imminent outbreak. The statement said the Minister must put in the necessary funding mechanisms in place to encourage research and development in vaccines and vaccine development in the country. ‘After 66 years of Independence, is it not time to have vaccine sufficiency as a country?’, it said. However, it said there must be a compensation to all affected families for any losses in case a child contracts any of the vaccine-preventable diseases soon. ‘We are dealing with highly contagious viral diseases, and this has to be urgently addressed’, the statement said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Targeted Review Mission Team of the National African Peer Review Mechanism Governing Council (NAPRM-GC) has intensified its engagement with stakeholders and the business community in the Upper East Region, to enhance corporate governance and improve trade. The engagement which is being rolled out across eight regions in the country is expected to help identify policy gaps and implementation challenges with regards to Ghana’s corporate governance practices and environmental bottlenecks to cross-border trade. This would contribute to the development of a National Programme of Action (NPoA) to support the productive and corporate governance capacities of the business sector to make them capable to take full advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and significantly contribute to intra-African trade. The engagement brought together participants from the Ghana Immigration Service, the Ghana Police Service, Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, traditional authorities, farmers, traders and Civil Society Organisations among others. It was held on the theme, ‘Corporate governance as a catalyst for the implementation of the AfCFTA’ Speaking at the engagement held in Bolgatanga, Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, Chairperson, NAPRM-GC, explained that his outfit was facilitating corporate governance among the informal sector to enable businesses leverage on the benefits of the AfCFTA which was centred in Ghana. He said it would also examine Ghana’s Corporate Governance structures, legislation, and regulations with the aim of strengthening government’s effort to promote good corporate governance standards and practice; enhance the regulatory framework and environment for ease of doing business. He said businesses would not be able to take full advantage of the AfCFTA if they continued to work individually instead of as a team in some form of corporate governance structures. He said it was expected that the challenges identified during the engagement would help make a recommendation to the government of Ghana who would in turn share with other African Presidents at the Africa Union Forum, to inform strategic policy direction to improve trade. ‘We are enjoined to fashion out concrete, strategic policies and procedures in the right mix to support the private sector which has served as the engine of growth of our economy, to make the most of AfCFTA. ‘We believe that the report will not critique anything but it will enhance the way that we can do business to take advantage of the wider market the AfCFTA offers us,’ he said. Mr Hugues Manzila, the Country Coordinator and Senior Researcher of the African Peer Review Mechanism, explained that the engagement was part of data collection process for a recommendation to be made for policies to be rolled out to support both local and national businesses to reposition themselves to take benefit fully from the AfCFTA. Mr Manzila noted that Africa had a population of about 1.3 billion people and an economy of about US$1.4 trillion and there was the urgent need to increase trade among African businesses to harness those potentials. ‘The purpose of this exercise is to improve at the grassroot level, policies that will help entrepreneurs and Ghanaian big firms to partake in this big market potential that we have that is still increasing in terms of our demography,’ he said. The Country Coordinator and Senior Researcher explained that most businesses found it difficult to access finances from the financial institutions to expand due to poor corporate governance and internal functions of the organisations and underscored the need for such challenges to be resolved to enable businesses benefit fully from the AfCFTA. Some of the challenges identified were bureaucratic processing in acquiring licensing, low investment for women in agriculture, insecurity at the borders due the threats of jihadists among others.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Bono Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has placed second in a cooking competition?organised for five groups in the Sunyani Municipality by the Department of Gender, Bono Region. The competition formed part of activities organised by the Department to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day, which fell on March 8 on the theme, ‘DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality’. The Ghana Private Road and Transport Union (GPRTU) that prepared ‘Fufu’ (pounded boiled plantain and cassava) with nkate-nkonto’ (groundnut?and ‘nkontomire’- cocoyam leaves) soup placed first with 25 points. The GJA represented by Daniel Dzirasah, a reporter with Ghanaian Times, Sunyani, and Claud Kumi Ebisa of Onua TV had 24 points after dazzling the judges with hot banku and okro stew while the third position went to the Ghana Immigration Service with eight points after preparing plain rice and corned beef?stew.? The Seventh Day Adventist Hospital with their ‘mpoto-mpoto,’ a local dish made from ripe plantain and the Ghana Education Service with jollof rice came fourth and fifth with seven and six points, respectively. Mrs Joycelyn Adii, the regional Director?of the Gender Department earlier in an address indicated technology had touched every aspect of human life, saying in terms?of trade most women, especially?market women were capitalising on its availability to order items even at the comfort of their homes using phones. She noted the benefits of technology were enormous, but the issues of unpaid care work could hinder many women’s access and adaptation to technology, saying unpaid care work was time-consuming. Mrs Adii explained women who bore most unpaid care work responsibilities might be limited to engaging with technology, saying this could prevent them from attending technology training programmes by either learning new skills or using technology for personal or professional gains. She indicated the programme was intended to solicit the support of men in addressing the issues of unpaid care work, which were many and varied in most homes and were disproportionately affecting more women and?girls. Nana Akosua Ankumah, the Sunyani ‘Sumpahemaa’ called for good home training for both the boy and the girl-child to ensure that they were productive in the house and could contribute effectively irrespective of gender. For their prizes, the first and second organisations were given hampers and other goodies while the third to the fifth groups also received some consolation prizes.

Source: Ghana News Agency

An Accra Circuit Court has remanded three persons into Police custody for abetment of crime and unlawful entry of an accounts’ office of a hotel. The accused persons are Abdul Wahab Issahaku, a 50-year-old scrap dealer, Godstime Joseph Edoho, 28 and Michael Awitor, 27, both unemployed. Issahaku and Edoho have been charged with abetment of crime and stealing. They pleaded not guilty to the charges. Awitor was charged with two counts of unlawful entry. He pleaded guilty and was convicted on his own plea, but sentencing was deferred. The Court presided over by Mr Samuel Bright Acquah remanded the accused persons in police custody. They are to reappear on March 21, 2023. The facts presented by Police Inspector Daniel Danku were that the complainant Mr Reynold Sarkodie is the head of finance at Ave Maria Hotel Limited and resided at Pokuase Afiaman. The prosecution said all accused persons resided at Achimota. It said early this year, the Police gathered information that Issahaku had recruited Edoho and Awitor, housed them Achimota, fed and clothed them, to steal and bring the booty to him. The prosecution said whenever Awitor embarked on any stealing expedition, he brought the booty to Edoho who kept them and informed Issahaku about it. It said that based on the information, the Police laid surveillance on the activities of the accused persons. The prosecution said on February 23, 2023, the complainant reported for work and detected that the door to his office was opened. It said the complainant entered the office and detected that one Dell and one Acer laptop computer were stolen. The prosecution said the complainant reported the incident to the Airport Police for investigation. It said following the information that the Police received on the accused persons, Awitor was arrested. The prosecution said he admitted the offence and led the Police to arrest Edoho. It said Edoho admitted that he received the laptop computers and handed them over to Issahaku. The prosecution said Awitor led Police to the scene and identified the complainant’s office as where he gained ingress and managed to steal the laptop computers. It said strenuous efforts were being made to retrieve the laptop computers.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Otumfuo Charity Foundation is set to strengthen partnership with the Ghana Education Service to provide the requisite infrastructure and facilities to enhance the teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in schools. Lady Julia Osei Tutu, wife of the Asantehene, who stated this, said STEM education must be taken seriously and students, particularly girls, must be encouraged to take it up as their courses to give the country a brighter future. Lady Julia, who is also the Patron of the Foundation, which seeks to improve the quality of life for under-privileged Ghanaian children through the provision of educational infrastructure, water, and sanitation as well as health facilities, pointed out that, STEM education was the surest way to bring the needed development to the country. She was speaking at a Mentorship Masterclass 2023 programme for girls in some Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the Ashanti Region to commemorate the International Women’s Day Celebration. The mentorship programme was held under the theme ‘Digital: Ensuring today’s Technology benefits all Girls and Women.’ It was attended by girls form 20 SHSs in Ashanti region who were mentored by four accomplished women. Among the topics they were taken through were ‘Etiquette’ and ‘Understanding oneself and Developing a unique identity’. The mentors were Mrs Margaret Boateng Sekyere, Board Chair of Societe General Bank, Rev. Akua Ofori Boateng, Director of Programmes, Anglican Diocese of Accra, Dr Phyllis Tawiah, Lecturer, (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and Dr. Eunice Akyereko Adjei, an Engineer. Lady Julia advised the girls to use their devices such as phones wisely and not be allowed to be influenced by its negativities. She encouraged the girls to eschew all forms of antisocial behaviours and take their studies seriously Professor Mrs Atinuke Olusola Adebanji, Head of Department for Statistics and Actuarial Science at KNUST emphasized the need for women and girls to be trained and empowered in digitization to eliminate all forms of inequalities. She said the digital gender gap must be bridged to ensure equality in the use of technology education. Girls must be inspired and encouraged to use technology to solve problems in their communities, adding that digital rights were women’s rights. Professor Mrs Adebanji urged girls and women to choose technology as a subject to help fight misleading content and discrimination against them. Nana Afua Kobi Prempeh, Executive Director of the Otumfuo Charity Foundation, said one of the major priorities of the Foundation was to ensure the welfare and proper development and growth of children, especially girls and young women in the Ghanaian society.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Dr Abed Bandim, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bunkpurugu has urged Ghanaians to support women to pursue their ambitions without any obstructions. He said this would enable women’s inherent leadership qualities to provoke desirable change in society when given the opportunity based on meritocracy. Dr Bandim said this in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency. He celebrated women in Ghana and Bunkpurugu/Nakpanduri District for playing an outstanding role in the service and development of the district. Dr Bandim emphasized that women would succeed when they were granted social, economic, and cultural opportunities in society. ‘Let’s continue to empower women and celebrate their strength, contributions and achievements in our society,’ he stated. ‘I know that every woman and girl in Ghana and in Bunkpurugu/Nakpanduri District in particular, can succeed in the social, economic, and cultural opportunities available to them.’ He underscored the role women had played in Ghana’s politics, which could not be overlooked and deserved recognition, and must be given the opportunity to participate in the affairs of leadership.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A Kumasi High Court has placed interim injunction on the enskinment of a new Sarkin Zongo (Zongo Chief) for the Ashanti region. The court presided by Mr Samuel Obeng-Diawuo, granted the order after hearing the affidavit of the plaintiff, Alhaji Mohammed Usman Muntawakil, which was read by his counsel, Mr Silas Kwaku Yeboah Akowuah. The injunction will remain in force for 10 days and the plaintiff shall repeat the application on notice to the defendants. The court ordered the kingmakers, their agents or those acting on their behalf to refrain from enskinning the defendant, Alhaji Sidi Abdul Kadir, as the new Sarkin Zongo. It also ordered the defendant to refrain from allowing himself to be enskinned as the next Sarkin Zongo of Ashanti.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, Member of Parliament for Tema West Constituency has organised a free medical treatment and screening for residents to promote access to health care facilities. In collaboration with Kusudi International (USA), the Municipal Health Directorate, and Tema Polyclinic, Mr Ahenkorah explained that the initiative was a conscious effort to make available experts to assist in the health delivery system in the country. He noted that health professionals from Kusudi International Incorporation collaborated with the Tema Polyclinic in accessing, diagnosing, and treating diseases or conditions affecting the feet and limbs of adults within the Tema West Municipality. Dr. Mercy Owusu Obrempong, Tema West Municipal Health Director told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the free medical treatment programme said the screening covered areas such as neurosurgery, physiotherapy, podiatry and bro-bono medical services. She said one major cause of inequity in access to health services was the cost associated with obtaining health care and inability of disadvantaged people to pay. ‘The initiative is to help reduce financial barriers and provide free consultation and free drugs to patients present at the clinic for the screening’ she said. Dr Nia Irene Mensah, Doctor of Physical Therapy Associate Professor and founder of Kusudi International Incorporation revealed that the collaboration was in line with the organization’s objectives which is to support countries around the world by providing medical treatment and screening for patients with muscles, and joints or nerve problems. ‘We have diagnosed a lot so far with low back pain and leg pain. We ask patients a few questions and examine them by offering some massages to find spots of pain and allow them stretch or make a few movements,’ he said. Dr. Mensah advised Ghanaians to sleep comfortably and look out for posture and movement especially during rest after work. She urged that individuals frequently massage areas of pain and exercise regularly, concentrating more on movement at the back to keep fit and ease back pain.

Source: Ghana News Agency