Seth J. Bokpe's Ghana Newsreel

THE bill to amend the law establishing the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and situate it as a public broadcaster is being submitted to Cabinet for consideration. The amendment will define the parameters of broadcasting and also establish a clear distinction among public, commercial and community broadcasters. The Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, announced this in a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, at a symposium organised by the Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN) to celebrate its 10th anniversary at Ada in the Dangme East District of the Greater Accra Region. The GCRN, which is the umbrella body of all community radio stations in the country, was formed in 1999. The community radio concept is aimed at using the indigenous languages of the various communities in which the network operates to educate and sensitise people to their civic rights and responsibilities and allow grass root involvement in topical issues of national

A South African consortium, GHANSA Investments Limited (GIL), is to establish a $300 million farm in the country to produce poultry, catfish, maize and sorghum. The company is expected to begin its operation in the country next year with the first batch of farmers arriving in January. The Chief Executive of the group, Mr Rudolf J. Smith, disclosed this in a presentation at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) last Friday and stated that the group intended to bring more than 700 large-scale South African farmers into the country. For that purpose, he pointed out, the company had acquired over 30,000 hectares close to Sogakope in the South Tongu District in the Volta Region. Mr Smith said the company would begin with 40,000 chicks and 117 tonnes of catfish, a maize production base of 100,000 tonnes and another 100,000 tonnes of sorghum. He said the company would employ 1000 Ghanaians on a full-time basis and create more marketing avenues for persons interested in packaged fish a

The Water Resources Commission in Collaboration (WRC) with the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) has introduced pupils of selected schools and community groups in the Weija community, in Accra, to simple water quality kits that facilitates the determination of the quality of raw and treated water. The project is to create awareness and ensure public involvement in protecting water resources around the world by engaging the citizenry to monitor their local water bodies using the kits provided. The initiative, which is under the auspices of the International Water Association (IWA), is in line with an international education and outreach programme under the World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) programme of the IWA. The primary goal of the WWMD is to educate and engage people in the protection of the world’s water resources as many people are ignorant of the impact of their actions on water quality. The groups were taken through using the kits to measure the relative clarity of wat

A book entitled Auditing, Theory and Practice (The Auditing Compendium) has been launched in Accra. The 670-page book written by the Vice-Rector of the Pentecost University, Prof. Kwame Bosiako Omane-Antwi is expected to be a guide to professional accountants and auditors and also shape the general landscape of auditing in the country. It covers the appointment of auditors, their remuneration, audit management, internal control issues, and risk assessment, internal audit, international auditing standards among other topics. Prof Omane-Antwi said the Pentecost University sponsored book facilitates bridging the gap between the academia and the corporate world. He indicated that the book would go a long way towards sharpening the knowledge of students and practitioners to play their watchdog role in a professional manner adding that effective auditing practice promotes good governance. Prof Omane-Antwi said accountants could also rely on the book to appreciate the work of auditors. Laun

THE much-awaited Achimota Transport Terminal designed to ease congestion on the Accra-Nsawam road was inaugurated yesterday, with the government pledging to develop a quality public transportation system. The 800-vehicle capacity terminal has a clinic, a police station, two passenger halls, passenger sheds, five canteens, toilet facilities and an administration block. With the inauguration of the terminal, all the trotros and taxis which had been using the shoulders of the Accra-Nsawam road as a parking lot are expected to leave the area. In a speech read on his behalf, President John Evans Atta Mills said the government was in the process of developing a pilot bus rapid system to assist in the delivery of quality public transportation in the city of Accra. The Chairman of the Council of State, Professor Kofi Awoonor, who read the President’s speech, cut the tape to inaugurate the terminal. President Mills explained that the pilot bus rapid system was expected to facilitate the prude

THE Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has given awards to seven of its former ministers for their contributions to the development of the country's agricultural sector in the past 25 years. The occasion was also to eulogise the efforts of the former ministers in sustaining the National Farmers Day celebrations which served as a platform to appreciate the work of Ghanaians farmers who toil to produce food to feed the people and raw materials for the country's industries as well as revenue for the country through export. The National Farmers Day Awards started in 1984 when the first best national farmer took home a pair of Wellington boots and a machete. The award ceremony which form part of activities marking the 25th National Farmers Day Celebrations had the ministers receiving tractors, refrigerators and 39-inch LCD televisions. Former Peoples National Defence Council (PNDC) Secretary for Agriculture ,Dr Isaac K. Adjei- Marfo, from 1985-1986 received a tractor for c

Traders at Danquah Circle in Accra arrived at work on Tuesday morning to find their structures and wares demolished. When a team of Graphic reporters arrived at the scene, what was known to be a vibrant shopping corner for some tourist in Osu was reduced to a pile of rubble. Traders were seen retrieving any of their remaining goods from the debris. Chairs, tables, plates, kiosk and plastic wares were broken and scattered all over the place. A container that served as a Coca-Cola vending joint was over-turned and pushed into a nearby drain. Narrating events before the demolition to the Daily Graphic, an electrical accessories dealer, Mr Joseph Manu, said a team of about 50 police Officers arrived at 4:00 am and ordered him and others out of their shops. “We were asked to collect our things from the shops. 5 minutes later, a bulldozer appeared and started destroying everything adding that their pleas to remove all their goods fell on death ears. Gifty Nartey, another victim of the destr

Professional Network Association (PRONET), a health and sanitation non-governmental organisation (NGO), in collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has organised a community needs prioritisation forum for residents of Nima 441. The forum was to enable residents discuss with the AMA, their most important needs which would then be incorporated into the AMA’s short to long-term planning process. Participants of the forum were selected from households and various youth groups in the community. During the forum, the residents identified water, roads, professional teachers, a health centre, refuse dump, drains and street lights as their important needs, arranged in the order of priority. Participants called on the AMA, as matter of urgency, to address the water problem that plagues the community, and stated that the problem had affected all aspects of their lives. Addressing the participants, a Planning Officer at the AMA, Mr Kwame Oduro, said the initiative formed part of

The Ghana Standards Board (GSB) is working with the Cashew Processors and Exporters Association of Ghana and other government agencies to establish national standards for cashew nuts and processed cashew. The standards are expected to conform to international norms to create avenues for cashew nuts from Ghana on the world market without difficulty. The Minister of Trade and Industry (MoTI), Ms Hannah Tetteh, made this known at the launch of the Africa Cashew initiative (ACi) in Ghana. The ACi has as some of its objectives, increasing the income of 150,000 cashew farmers, including 25,000 from Ghana annually and the creation of employment avenues for 5,500 people, mainly women, in the cashew processing sector in Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Mozambique. It hopes to achieve this through the improvement of cashew quality and production increases, dissemination of information on cashew of African origin on the global market, increase sustainable cashew processing, identifi

A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr James Agyenim-Boateng, has denied allegations that certain government officials wanted to steal a Chrysler Aspen vehicle that was confiscated at the Tema Port. “That allegation is not true but rather a calculated attempt to injure the reputation of the persons involved,” Mr Agyenim-Boateng said, adding that “the personalities involved did not put up any fraudulent conduct to warrant the speculation”. Mr Agyenim-Boateng, who was briefing journalists after inspecting 20 stolen and confiscated vehicles parked at the State House Workshop, said a letter authorising the movement of the vehicle in question was signed by the office of State Protocol Vehicle Allocation and copied to the Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GHAPOHA), Custom Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and others on November 30, 2009 to facilitate the movement of the car from the Golden Jubilee Terminal at Tema to the State Protocol Car Park in Accra. He sa

The government has expressed strong reservation over the decision of the United States government to include cocoa from Ghana on its Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorisation Act (TVPRA). “This is unacceptable and serves to undermine the efforts that we are making to address the issue of worst forms of child labour, as well as a disincentive for other countries to embark on any comprehensive effort,” it said. The Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, made the pronouncement at the second meeting of the International Joint Working Group for Cocoa Labour Practices in Accra yesterday. The meeting provided the platform for Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, the global chocolate industry and civil society the opportunity to jointly assess cocoa sector labour practices common to both countries, as well as formulate appropriate strategies to guide and co-ordinate remediation activities. The Vice-President indicated that the government was of the view that cocoa from Ghana be expunged from the TVP

The African Alliance Automobile (AAA) Limited, a Nigeria based transport company, has launched its West African route in Ghana. The company, which runs a fleet of intercity buses in Nigeria would now transport passengers from Ghana, through Togo and Benin to Lagos, Nigeria. In a speech read on his behalf at the launch ceremony of the company, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, Senator Musiliu Muhammed Obanikoro, said even though the establishment of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) was to facilitate regional integration, its founders did not envisage that such difficulties would arise with the movement of people, especially within the transport sector. Senator Obanikoro advised the management of the company to take their operations in Ghana seriously so that it would not add to the numbers but be among the best in the country. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Clement Mokedi, said the transport industry remained critical to the development of

The threat of a new influenza which is a combination of the avian influenza otherwise known as ‘bird flue’ (H5N1) and the swine flue ( H1N1) is eminent. Several resurgence of the pandemic virus (H5N1) is expected to resurface combining with the H1N1 to become more lethal leading to increased attack or death. A United States Africa Command Representative at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Lieutenant Colonel Nancy Jean-Louis, disclosed this to participants in the Pandemic Influenza Regional Civil-Military Contingency workshop underway in Accra. The workshop was designed to strengthen the capacity of the military in Africa to plan and respond to pandemic disasters. The workshop, organised by the United States African Command (AfriCom) Response Program, was also expected to build the capacity of the military of the participating countries to play a key role in collaboration with the ministries and non-governmental entities in maintaining security, provi

Weeds threaten aquatic life in Volta Story: Seth J. Bokpe, Sogakope AQUATIC life and the generation of hydro-electric energy at the Kpong Dam are said to be severely threatened by an invasion of aquatic weeds in the area. Communities along the dam also face crisis, as fishing, river transport and water supply to those communities are hampered by the aquatic weeds, identified as “invasive aquatic weeds”. The Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr Jonathan Allotey, drew attention to the problems in a speech read on his behalf at the annual workshop on the Integrated Management of Invasive Aquatic Weeds at Sogakope in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region. The project, under the auspices of the EPA, is aimed at integrating biological, manual and mechanical methods of water weed control for optimum effect to help reduce the incidence of bilharzia, as well as improve fishing, river transport and water supply in the concerned communities. The workshop was

The Chinese Embassy is to promote the Ghanaian art and craft industry through the exhibition of Ghanaian artefacts in China in a Chinese government partnership. The embassy is also interested in joining forces with the government to encourage cultural exchange programmes that would further strengthen the ties between Ghana and China. The Deputy Head of the Chinese Embassy, Mr Shiren Zhao, disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic at the 4th African Gift Fair which is underway in Accra on the theme: “African Renaissance Starts Today”. The fair, which is mounted at the African Market at Osu and under the auspices of the African Art and Culture Development Company Limited (AACD), seeks to promote the use of indigenous arts and crafts as gift items for all occasions and also to reduce poverty by assisting local artists, especially those in the rural areas, to earn a decent living. Mr Zhao indicated that the arts and crafts industry in Ghana could be packaged in such a way as t

THE governments of Ghana and Denmark have signed an $80-million budget support agreement, under the Support to Private Sector Development (SPSD) programme, to boost the development of the private sector in Ghana. The beneficiary agencies include the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) and BUSAC, which will use its allocation to finance the Private Sector Development Support II (PSDS II). The others are COVET for its Enterprise Growth and Job Creation Programme, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in its skills development and agriculture value chain activities and the Apex Bank to enhance rural financing. The occasion also saw the signing of a GH¢522,000 grant between the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) to facilitate the second phase of the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in cocoa growing communities. Signing the agreement, a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Tekper, said the support

REPRESENTATIVES of health workers and drug manufacturers in West Africa have noted that counterfeit drugs constitute a menace to health delivery in the sub-region and called for collaborative efforts at eradicating it. Counterfeit medicine is said to impede the growth of the pharmaceutical industry in the region, undercutting any possibility of West African countries attaining security in the supply of quality medicines both through trade and local production. Addressing participants at a forum in Accra on the theme: ” Towards an ECOWAS Convention on Access to Quality Medicines”, the president of the West African Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (WAPMA), Mazi Sam Ohuanbunwa said with the present level of counterfeit drugs in the sub-region, the person at the greatest risk was the consumer. He added that the government and other intervening agencies like donors and the pharmaceutical industries were losing huge revenue as a result. He explained that clinical health professional

THE Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the government of Ghana has established a specialist eye care centre for preventable blindness in children in the country. Ghana is the only country that is benefiting from this project, which is to be undertaken in 30 developing countries worldwide to prevent and eradicate blindness and visual impairment in children by 2020. The first phase of the project involved the establishment of an eye-care unit for children at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) and another eye-care centre in Koforidua, which is currently taking care of the southern sector. An ophthalmologist and lecturer at the University of Ghana Medical School, Dr Vera A. Essuman, disclosed this during a presentation at the Joint Consultative Zone/Region meeting of the Lions Clubs in Ghana held at the weekend in Accra. Originally, the project was to have benefited the Greater Accra Region and the Eastern Re

THE Trinity Home Academy at Tutu on the Akuapem Range in the Eastern Region last Saturday received donations worth more than GH¢ 1,700 from friends of the Home. The items included cooking oil, five cartoons of Indomie noodles, a carton of milk, bags of rice, two cartons of tin tomatoes, toiletries, a quantity of used clothing, story books, Indomie branded exercise books, toys and other assorted food stuffs. Speaking at the presentation, Ms Mabel Adjaottor, one of the donors, said the items were contributions from herself, her twin-sister, Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah, and the husband, Mr Samuel Obiri-Yeboah, their younger brother, Vincent Adjaottor and some of his colleagues at the John Radcliffe Hospital at Oxford in the United Kingdom (UK). The donation, she stated, was part of the group's annual contributions towards the running of the Home, which currently houses 42 children. Ms Sophia Nana Ampea Asare, the Proprietress of the Home, who received the items, expressed her gratitude

he Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, has appealed to Ghanaians to stock the country’s blood banks to help save lives during emergencies. He said the threat to life as a result of insufficient stock of blood called for total commitment of all stakeholders to the National Blood Programme. Dr Kunbuor made the call in a speech read on his behalf at the 9th National Blood Donors Day and the launching of the annual blood donation campaign held in Accra last Saturday. It was on the theme: “Safe, adequate blood for transfusion, responsibility of every citizen.” Statistics from the Ministry of Health (MoH) indicated that annual blood collections fell below 50 per cent of the national requirement of 150,000 units while total blood collections from voluntary donors in 2008 was 40,000, a far cry from the national requirement. The day is set aside to recognise and honour regular voluntary non-remunerate blood donors whose continuous support kept the blood service running and provided hope

THE Textile, Garment and Leather Employees Union has(TEGLEU) appealed to the government to set up task force to track down the activities of Chinese textile smugglers and bring them to book. Addressing a press conference in Accra on arresting textile smuggling in the country, a General Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour, Mr Benjamin Mingle, said the task force which should comprise of the representatives of the security agencies, Ghana Standard Board (GSB), the local manufacturers and the Trade Union should conduct periodic checks at the point of sales of these smuggled products with the aim of arresting the culprits and confiscating goods smuggled into the country in view of the dangerous economic implications of the activities of the traders. Citing a Daily Graphic Publication of Monday, November 30, 2009, as an example, he said apart from copying designs and brand, names of local companies were boldly embossed on the fake prints smuggled into the country to deceive unsu

The chiefs and people of Odumase Krobo, traders and drivers plying the Odumase-Oterkpolu road have expressed concern over what seems to be total neglect of an accident-prone portion of the road. The spot, located at Asitey, a suburb of Odumase in the Lower Manya Krobo District, has over the years claimed several lives and many people have been injured there but has never received any attention. It is located at the end of a steep mountain and has a ditch at the right side of the bend which has been the recipient of the vehicles and the debris from the numerous accidents. The crash barrier at the curve has been knocked off and the only road sign there has been damaged beyond recognition. A pit on the opposite side of the road is also without any form of protection, making children in particular vulnerable to danger. Information made available to the Daily Graphic by a source at the Korletsom Police Station at Odumase indicated that 49 accidents had been recorded since the year 2005, ou

THE maiden Food and Agriculture Show 2009 (FAGRO 2009) which is to showcase and create marketing avenues for farm produce, agricultural equipment and products opened in Accra on Sunday. The five-day exhibition, mounted at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park on the theme, "Promoting and Adding Value to Agricultural Production for Poverty Eradication", is aimed at providing a platform for farmers, producers, manufacturers and buyers to interact directly with agricultural service providers and stakeholders in the sector. It is also expected to boost agriculture through the showcasing of agricultural products, equipment and machinery, as well as promote indigenous Ghanaian food and its nutritional values. Opening the exhibition, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, said the agricultural sector remained the backbone of the economy, as it employed more than 60 per cent of the country's population. Additionally, the sector contributed close to 35 per cent of the