Day: June 7, 2023

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Eunice Nkeyasen Eco Foundation launched to fight environmental degradation

Eco-Earth Foundation International, has in collaboration with Environmental Protection Agency and Forestry Commission, launched the ‘Eunice Nkeyasen Eco Foundation (ENEF) to fight environmental degradation and climate change. The Eunice Nkeyasen Eco Foundation initiated by Eunice Nkeyasen, Miss Earth Ghana 2022, aims to fight and educate young children on global warming and climate change. The Foundation was launched in Accra, witnessing five pageants of Miss Earth 2022 from England, Scotland, Burundi, India and Cameroon. Miss Eunice Nkeyasen, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the Foundation would educate the public and children especially on how they could contribute to curbing environmental pollution. She said environmental protection must begin from the basis; therefore, it was crucial to educate young people about the contribution factors of man to this global warming menace. Its effects on mankind and how to prevent them. She said the Foundation will not solely be in education but also practical for the public to see. ‘As the saying goes, catch then young and they shall be yours forever; I believe education is a major key that can help broadcast this message on global warming and climate change,’ she said. Miss Nkeyasen said tackling climate change was a key issue for economic growth as far as environment and tourism is concerned. She urged stakeholders to enforce policies on environmental protection, and everyone to make a pledge and say, ‘No to littering the environment’, ‘Yes to proper waste management’ and ‘Yes to planting trees’. The Foundation is set to have many activities including donation, education, research training and propagating the idea of protecting the environment. Awards were given to some outstanding individuals who helped in building the project and made it be implemented.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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GMA committed to ensure maritime security within Ghana’s waters

The Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) has given assurance that it is committed to ensuring that Ghana’s waters were safe and secured for vessels and others using the maritime domain. Captain Inusah Abdul-Nasir, the Director of Technical of the Authority, said the GMA was living up to its mandate of monitoring, coordinating, and regulating all activities within Ghana’s maritime sector. He said this when 33 participants from 13 Gulf of Guinea countries on the Maritime Security and Transnational Organized Crime (MSTOC) visited the Vessel Traffic Management Information System (VTMIS) as part of the course. The MSTOC was organized by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) with support from the German Government. He said with the VTMIS which operates a 24-hour service, his outfit was able to discharge its mandate by electronically surveying and monitoring Ghana’s coastline including the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to ensure the protection of her maritime resources. He noted that the GMA protected offshore installations, oil terminals, and gas pipelines, as well as prevented illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, piracy, and the prevention of pollution from ships. He called for collaboration, coordination, and information sharing among countries, noting that addressing the security issues in the maritime sector went beyond the remit of one state as critical issues such as IUU and piracy transcend more than one country. Captain Abdul-Nasir, touching on ships’ safety, said the GMA also had the mandate to ensure that chapter 11 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) which have special measures to enhance maritime security was attained. He added that his outfit also supervised and audit the country’s sea ports to ensure compliance with the International Ship and Port Facilities Security Code (ISPS Code) which required that governments must ensure that port facility security assessments were carried out, in addition to the port facility security plans being developed, implemented and reviewed. He added that certificates of compliance to the ISPS Code must be issued as part of the requirement to the ports periodically after review to ensure the safety of vessels that call at the facility. Naval Captain Isaac Aratuo, Course Director for MSTOC, at KAIPTC, commended the GMA for continuously hosting participants of the course and providing them with the practical aspect of the training. Naval Captain Aratuo reiterated the need for state and non-state agencies, as well as countries to collaborate with each other to fight against maritime insecurity and transnational organized crimes.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Eastern Region mining communities educated on minerals and surface rights

The Inspectorate Division of the Minerals Commission in the Eastern Region has been educating mining communities on mineral and surface rights to ensure that holders of both rights abide by the law. The engagement is on the theme: ‘Obligation of Mineral Right Holder on Land Ownership and Environmental Impact Mitigation: What Landowners and Lawful Occupiers Need to Know.’ Multiple communities in the Eastern Region are endowed with mineral resources, which can occasionally spark conflict between mineral and surface rights holders. The Minerals Commission organised one of these engagements in the Yilo Krobo municipality’s Bueryonye community, which drew together several community members from Yilo and Lower Manya Krobo municipalities, where quarry mining occurs. Mr. Desmon Boahen, the Eastern Regional Head of the Minerals Commission, told the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the event that every mineral identified in the country was entrusted to the president for protection on behalf of the citizens. He stated that when a mining organisation applied for mineral rights, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, through the Minerals Commission, granted the right to explore, extract, and sell the minerals. ‘Mineral rights are the ownership rights to minerals that are located beneath the surface of a property. Mineral rights are issued to mining companies upon application, who then have the right to extract the minerals from the land and sell them in the market,’ Mr. Boahen said. Regarding surface rights, he mentioned that the ownership of the land’s natural surface by title or lease for agricultural and construction purposes, and added, ‘Surface rights can also be sold.’ He said while Minerals and Mining Act of 2006 (Act 703) regulate surface rights, the Land Act of 2020 (Act 1036) regulate mineral rights. He also stated that when the mineral rights and surface rights belonged to distinct entities, the bearer of the surface right had the legal right to seek compensation for any disturbance or harm from the holder of the mineral rights. ‘The compensation must be agreed upon between the holder of the mineral right and the holder of the surface right, or determined by the High Court if the parties are unable to agree,’ he said. The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is expected to approve the application for mineral rights. But after the approval, Mr Felix Addo-Okyireh, the Eastern Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said permits must be issued to the mining rights holders prior to the commencement of operations. He explained that Section 2(i) and (12) of the EPA Act of 1994 (Act 490) and Part 1 of the EAR of 1999 (LI 1652) require the EPA to issue an Environmental Permit for all operations with an environmental impact. He said the procedures involved in granting permits, including the receipt of the completed ‘Form EA1,’ screening and field inspection by EPA officers, evaluation of all pertinent documents, and implementation of compliance enforcement and monitoring. ‘Protection of the environment and achieving public health and safety are collective efforts, and we must all come together to achieve them through responsible and sustainable mining,’ he added.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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SSNIT pension benefits are higher than treasury bill yields – SSNIT

The self-employed and workers in the informal sector have been encouraged to join the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Pension Scheme to guarantee them retirement income to take care of their needs when they can no longer work. Mr Charles Akwei Garshong, Public Affairs Manager of SSNIT, who gave the encouragement, cautioned the self-employed against preferring treasury bills to SSNIT Pension Scheme, saying ‘Investing your money in treasury bills will not yield you more returns than what SSNIT will be paying you during your retirement.’ He said apart from regular annual increases on pension allowances, SSNIT also paid any contributor, who is declared unfit (invalidity pension) to continue working, monthly pension allowances no matter his or her age before being declared unfit to continue working. He was speaking at a sensitisation workshop for media practitioners in Tamale on the SSNIT Pension Scheme to equip them with information to help create content to encourage the self-employed and workers in the informal sector to join the SSNIT Pension Scheme. Participants were drawn from the Northern and Upper East Regions. The sensitisation workshop was in line with the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED) of SSNIT, which focuses on extending pension coverage to the self-employed and workers in the informal sector. Statistics show that about 85 per cent of the country’s economy is informal, comprising 6.7 million self-employed persons from a total working population of 9.9 million. However, only about 34,000 active SSNIT contributors are self-employed. This necessitated the SEED, which was a repackaging of the tier one pension to provide social protection to such workers (self-employed and workers in the informal sector) by providing them with a regular source of income during retirement. He reiterated that SSNIT Pension Scheme was not created for just public and formal sector workers but all workers in the country including the self-employed and informal sector workers. He said SSNIT was focused on reducing old age poverty, which arose when people did not have pensions to rely on, hence the need for the self-employed and workers in the informal sector to join the pension scheme.

Source: Ghana News Agency