Day: June 5, 2024

Mr Frankline Addai, the Head of the Legal Department of the Bui Power Authority, says it is important to maintain transparency with the media regarding Ghana’s nuclear power project.

That, he said, will help foster a well-informed public and ensure that accurate information is consistently disseminated.

Mr Addai, also the Board Secretary for Nuclear Power Ghana, was speaking at the opening of a three-day workshop for media professionals on the theme: ‘Media Support for Ghana’s Nuclear Power Project: The Journey So Far.’

The annual workshop, organised by Nuclear Power Ghana, is in collaboration with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Private and Online Newspaper Publishers Association (PRINPAG).

He said nuclear power, despite its enormous benefits, often faced public scepticism.

Addressing those concerns, he said, required engagements with major stakeholders, including the media as part of efforts to demystify nuclear power and address fears with accurate information
.

Mr Addai said as much as there was a Right to Information Law, which required disclosure under Article 21 of the Constitution, there were some exemptions that prevented particular information from being shared with the media.

However, he noted that Right to Information, information disclosure and transparency were not the same.

He explained that the three must go together to ensure that all stakeholders were guided by the law to give out information to help demystify the misconceptions about nuclear power.

‘These three are not the same but move together for a successful implementation of the Ghana Nuclear Power Project,’ he said.

Mr Addai said the parties to that trilogy must endeavour to demonstrate a high sense of responsibility in their application.

The media, he said, must exercise a great sense of responsibility and that, ‘there should never be a time where the media are left in the dark or speculate about the project.’

He emphasised that the Implementer (NPG) must disclose fully what they were
allowed to disclose.

The NPG would live up to its responsibilities, and so should the media. We are in this together as partners, Mr Addai noted.

Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), expressed the Association’s support for the country’s nuclear project and urged practitioners to collaborate and ‘harness the power of media for sustainable energy future for Ghana.’

He said discussions on nuclear power had become ‘more relevant’ as the country dealt with issues of energy security.’

The GJA President said, ‘Let us shun away from politicising everything…We should start a campaign which is sustainable. Nuclear power project must not be politicised…any government that comes should ensure that this project is sustained in the interest of citizens.’

Mr Albert Kofi Owusu, General Manager, GNA, said continuous training on nuclear energy was relevant as the media played a crucial role in national development.

He observed that reportage on nuclear energy had improved over
the years, however, the media needed to intensify education as sections of the public remained sceptical about the country’s nuclear project.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ghana’s athletics team secured three gold medals in day one of the ongoing Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Region |I Seniors Athletics Championship at the University of Ghana.

Edwin Kwabla Gadayi, Ishmael Arthur together with the women’s 4×100 relay team displayed high level performances to grab top spots for the hosts.?

Gadayi finished first place in the men’s 100m final with a time of 10.28 ahead of Nigeria’s Israel Okon who clocked 10.34 to earn the bragging rights.

Ishmael Arthur needed no competition in the men’s 10,000m to snatch Ghana’s second gold medal for the night.?

Ghana’s 4×100 women relay team gave Nigeria a tough battle in the finals to crown their success in style.?

Ten West African giants, including Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Gabon, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire are hoping for a place in the Paris Olympic Games scheduled to take place later this year.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ofori Asare, Head Coach of Ghana’s national boxing team, the Black Bombers, says poor officiating in their various boxing qualifiers accounted for their inability to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Ghana would not present any boxers for the Paris Olympics following another disastrous qualifying campaign in Thailand, where all seven boxers failed to secure qualification.

The Black Bombers team, together with their female counterparts,? participated in numerous qualification encounters in Senegal and Italy, but couldn’t grab any slots for the Paris Olympics.

Speaking upon their arrival at Kotoka International Airport, Coach Asare said the qualifying experience was difficult and the officiating played a part in their non-qualification.

‘I can say that officiating was not fair on the African side, and we don’t have enough officiating officials on the continent, and in Ghana, not at all.

‘One of the boxers (Theophilus Allotey) should have qualified, but we were surprised that some of the judges scored a
gainst him, so it is a sad development,’ he said.

Coach Asare further noted that solving the problems of officiating on the local scene will prove crucial to Ghana’s boxing future at the Olympic level.

‘We have to focus on building the capacity of our officiating officials and not only concentrate on our boxers. We need to have our men as part of the judges because that is why we always fall short,’ coach Asare stated.

Both the men’s and women’s boxing national teams will now look forward to preparing themselves for future tournaments after their Olympic dreams have been shattered.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Catherine Korankye Eastwood Foundation, in partnership with the Family Medicine Directorate of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, has donated assorted items worth GHc 24, 000.00 to the Garden City Special School at Asokore-Mampong, near Kumasi.

The items included soft drinks, crates of eggs, toiletries, underwear for both boys and girls, bags of rice, sachet water, biscuits, sponges, towels, boxes of cooking oil, boxes of mackerel, cooking oil, cartons of milk and others.

The organization also organized a free health screening exercise for staff and children of the school.

Ms Catherine Korankye Eastwood, who is also the Nurse Manager of the Family Health Directorate of KATH, speaking to the media after the exercise, said the gesture was to bring joy to the children in the school.

She said the school, which had about 150 children with special needs, faced many challenges and there was the need for individuals and organizations to come in to assist to ensure that the children lived a comfort
able life.

Ms Eastwood praised the staff of the family Medicine Directorate of KATH for the unwavering support to the course of the children and said she would continue to mobilize resources from friends, individuals, and organizations to help bring relief to the children in the school.

Dr Mrs Roselyn Frimpongmaa Agyapong, Headmistress of the school, said the donation was timely and would help boost teaching and learning while encouraging the staff to give out their best.

She thanked Ms Eastwood and the Family Health Directorate of KATH for the gesture and said projecting nursing beyond the walls of the hospital was encouraging.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Karaga District Directorate of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has held an Inter-party Dialogue Committee meeting for political parties and other stakeholders to promote peaceful coexistence among residents.

The meeting was aimed at reinforcing the crucial role of political parties as key stakeholders in ensuring peace and security in the country before, during, and after the 2024 elections.

It also sought to establish effective procedures for addressing inter-party and intra-party grievances.

Attendees were representatives of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), political parties, women groups, people living with disabilities, security agencies, religious leaders, opinion, and traditional leaders.

There was an open forum for participants to share opinions and offer constructive suggestions to promote peace.

Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed, Northern Regional Director of NCCE, while addressing participants during the meeting at Karaga in the Northern Region, urg
ed them to contribute to maintaining peace to enhance socio-economic activities in the area.

He called for investment in children’s education, noting that children formed the larger group of society, who suffered the consequences of violence.

He stated that elections in some parts of the world had led to chaos and appealed to participants to prioritise peace for successful elections.

He encouraged political parties, particularly the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress to use decent language during political campaigns and urged party supporters to coexist peacefully.

Mr Mahama Osman, Karaga District Director of NCCE, said the Commission’s objective was to ensure peace and promote development, and expressed gratitude to the European Union for supporting the organisation of the meeting.

Mr Owusu Meshad, Karaga District Electoral Officer, commended the people of the area for cooperating with the Commission to ensure successful elections in 2020 and appealed to them to keep supporting the
Commission as this year’s elections approaches.

Source: Ghana News Agency

There is more to fertility than a man getting an erection, Dr Frank Ewusie Brown, a Consultant Specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Presby Hospital, Donkorkrom, has stated.

Dr Brown stressed that ‘sometimes, men believe that once I can penetrate a woman, I am fertile, and that’s a big fallacy,’ adding that in his professional practice, he has met a lot of men with such challenges.

He revealed this when treating the topic: ‘Fertility Management Options: Messages for the Community’ during a community awareness programme on infertility, diabetes, and hypertension organised by the Merck Foundation in partnership with First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo, ambassador of the Merck Foundation More Than a Mother project.

He explained that infertility in men could be caused by the absence of sperm production, indicating that the man can achieve erection, penetration, and ejaculation, but there is no sperm in the semen.

He added that there were instances where, even when there were sperms available, the qualit
y of the sperm was so poor that it could not penetrate an egg and cause fertilisation.

‘The woman must produce the egg called ovaries, and the man must produce potent sperm with capacity. Sometimes, sperms can be produced without capacity; they are frozen; they can’t move; I call them stressed sperms, and if a sperm cannot move, it cannot penetrate and fertilise the egg,’ he noted.

Dr Brown said pregnancy was a process that contained a lot of stages of natural fertilisation that started with the depositing of the sperm, explaining that the cervical mucus in the woman aided sperm penetration into the tubes.

He indicated that when the sperm was not well-formed with abnormalities, they could not?do anything; therefore, a very healthy gamete and a healthy anatomy on both sides of the man and the woman were needed to ensure the occurrence of fertilisation.?

He said a look at the female anatomy showed that penetration occurred in the vagina and the sperm were deposited at the back of the vagina, stressing that
the process was critical.

He stated, however, that there were times that the cervix could be very hostile, where sperm could not even penetrate, and it was equally important to have a very favourable cervix.

Dr Brown added that the male anatomy ensured that testes were positioned outside, as they functioned best in low temperatures, expressing worry that there were some boys and men whose testes were not descending, which he noted had implications for their future fertility.

‘I have met a man who has no testicles, so, you wonder, when growing up, what did our mothers do? Mothers need education to examine their boys’ tests to identify such issues early to prevent future infertility,’ he said.?

The Consultant Specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist said when men agreed to seek medical care for their infertility early, such issues could be diagnosed early and interventions such as treating poor sperm quality and medically assisted procreation could be initiated early.

He explained that during medically as
sisted procreation, the poor-quality sperm would be extracted, treated, energised, and injected into the woman during ovulation, adding that sometimes, lifestyle modification and some medications also help resolve the sperm problem in men.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Martin Adjei Mensah-Korsah, the Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD), has urged the various Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to champion the urban development agenda within their jurisdictions.

He said Ghana’s urbanisation trajectory post-2010 had seen several interventions that cut across sectors within the urban space.

The Minister was speaking at the opening ceremony of the two-day 2024 Ghana Urban Forum (GUF) held in Accra on the theme: ‘Nurturing Roots, Growing Futures: Combining Policies and Partnerships for Urban Resilience and Transformation.’

The Forum since 2009 has served as a collaborative platform for various stakeholders within the urban space to share knowledge and experiences as well as deliberate on important urban development issues while proffering solutions that are aligned with national and international frameworks.

Mr Mensah-Korsah said they encouraged stakeholders to take ownership of policies focused on urban deve
lopment to effect change and transform urban areas.

He said urbanisation presented many opportunities that had the potential to change the face of development.

The Minister said a major challenge to urban development as a country had been intersectoral collaboration and coordination, where the urban space saw many players including utility providers, telecommunications, roads and building infrastructure, and services including transport and health care.

He said the Ministry was charged with the mandate to promote and ensure good governance and balanced development at the local level enabling them to champion through laid down strategies, actions and partnerships to improve the living conditions of about 56.7 per cent of urban dwellers.

Mr Mensah-Korsah said the United Nation’s Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 identified sustainable urbanisation as one of the key priorities for global development.

‘The adoption of the New Urban Agenda in 2016 had engendered national and local governments a
round the world to embark on a transformative path towards making SDG11 a story of the past,’ he added.

The Minister said the government’s determination was reflected in the mandatory and periodic global and national reports, which showed the significant progress being made in urban spaces.

Madam Madhu Raghunath, Practice Manager at the World Bank, said Ghana was at a pivotal stage of urbanisation, where more than half of its citizens lived in urban areas, putting enormous pressures on service delivery, access to land and housing, and transportation, among others.

She said cities generated more than a third of Ghana’s GDP and were key to attracting talent and private capital, however, Ghana needed well-functioning cities and livable cities to usher the path towards a middle-income country.

The Practice Manager said cities had to be resilient in the face of climate change by preparing for the future onslaught of climate change as we were beginning to see increased intensity of natural disasters all over th
e world.

‘And cities where most of the population are getting impacted by these disasters, were not really what we saw in Accra a couple of years ago, where a huge flooding event basically flooded nearly most of the cities,’ she added.

She said the World Bank had also been engaged in the urban sector for the past three decades through analytical support in areas related to basic infrastructure improvements, flood protection, municipal revenue management and strengthening land administration.

‘We continue to provide technical and peer-to-peer support to cities and government on a wide-ranging topic as well as through sectors such as urban transport, water supply and sanitation, environmental management, social protection and private sector development,’ she added.

She said Ghana was setting a vision for its policy, which would be approved very soon, adding that some of these areas would make Ghana more livable and resilient.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ghana Tourism Authority on Tuesday launched this year’s Emancipation Day Celebration to rekindle unity among African descent and build stronger communities.

The celebration, which is scheduled to commence from July 22 to August 1, 2024, would be on the theme: ‘Unity and Resilience; Building Stronger Communities for a Brighter Future.’

Mr Mark Okraku-Mantey, Deputy Minister of Tourism Arts and Culture (MoTAC), said the theme for this year’s celebration ‘reflects on our ancestors’ struggles and triumphs, drawing strength from their resilience as we strive to build stronger, more cohesive communities.’

He said the harsh reality of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and its consequences could not be denied, adding that recrimination, suspicion, blame, and mutual distrust between the African Diaspora and those on the continent would only perpetuate the exploitation of the Blackman.

Mr Okraku-Mantey encouraged Africans, home and abroad, to acknowledge the importance of Emancipation Day to pay tribute to our fo
rebearer of the struggle for freedom from bondage.

‘I wish to state that those of us Africans at home and abroad must be encouraged to see the wisdom of the internationalization of the Emancipation Day celebration. Its acknowledgement is essential so we must all come together on August 1st each year to praise our great ancestors who featured prominently in the emancipation process,’ he said.

He added that ‘they have paved the way for us with their gory spirit, determination, purpose, and meaning of Emancipation. Let us allow their blood, sweat, and tears to continue to inform our lives as we prepare to meet the challenges ahead.’

Mr Akwasi Agyeman, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Tourism Authority, highlighted the plans to refurbish tourist sites, to observe the courage, community, and culture of African ancestors and the diaspora.

‘We are looking at the redevelopment of the various tourist sites for the Emancipation Day. Currently, we have work ongoing at the Salaga Slave Market and many more. We are ba
sing this on the courage of our ancestors who fought relentlessly, we also want to celebrate the community of African diaspora, the culture of Africans,’ he added.

Professor Esi Sutherland-Addy, Executive Director, PANAFEST Foundation, pleaded with traditional leaders to look within our culture and find things that would move us to understand that every time a festival is celebrated, it is important to acknowledge those who fought for our independence.’

She said there was a need for a deliberate effort to use social media to promote some of the past information about how Ghana became emancipated and those who contributed to the journey that has brought us this far.

‘From today let us try to get back on track to do things that will grow us. It will not happen by itself, but we have to deliberately do it,’ she added.

The launch was organised by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture (MoTAC) as well as the PANAFEST Foundation.

Source: Ghana News Age
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