GRi Newsreel 07 - 08 -
2003
Work on Accra-Cape Coast road begins in September
Modernisation of Capital City not for fan - Kufuor
Minister calls for protection of water bodies
Bill on Tobacco smoking goes to Parliament
Lotto Agents and writers to establish Health Insurance Scheme
Govt to construct English-Arabic School at Nima
Evangelist steals cash and gifts of newly wedded couple
Tertiary education, a necessity of economic growth
Govt urged expedite reverting schools to Churches
Work on Accra-Cape Coast road begins in September
Accra (Greater Accra) 7 August 2003 - The government has received an initial amount of $24m out of the $83m Japanese grant for the rehabilitation of the Accra-Cape Coast road.
President John Kufuor, who announced this in Accra on Tuesday, said a Japanese contractor to undertake the project would arrive soon to commence work in September.
Addressing separate durbars at Odorkor and the business community at Abossey Okai as part of his tour of the Accra Metropolis, he said contract had also been signed for work to begin on the World Bank sponsored dual carriageway from Mallam to Kasoa.
President Kufuor also inspected on-going projects at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and commissioned the rehabilitated Tuesday Market at Mamprobi.
He said the completion of works on the arterial roads from Accra to the Central Region would boost the country's economy and help reduce the rate of accidents in the region.
President Kufuor said a Task Force comprising surveyors and planners would be formed soon to tackle the perennial flooding of some parts of the Metropolis and appealed for co-operation to solve the problem.
He said property owners to be affected should not hesitate since that was the only way to solve the problem, adding that, after the re-zoning of the areas those qualified would be compensated by the government. President Kufuor said about 230 million cedis from the HIPC funds had been spent on a school block at Odorkor while streetlights had been extended to the area, which would get telephone facilities soon.
He said the government's hard work and sincerity would be the criteria for Ghanaians to retain it in power. "We will not buy votes. We want the sincerity and honesty of labour to be the sincere support from the people. We are on course and will continue to be on course. Government will never deceive the people," he said.
Commissioning the market, President Kufuor said even though the previous government started the project, it was not abandoned but continued and completed because it was a viable one. He said, "This is how the country should be governed. Any viable project initiated by a previous government should be continued. We are not in competition with anyone".
President Kufuor said the market was not only beneficial to traders in Accra
but also for those from all parts of the country and urged them to maintain the
facility and to keep it clean always.
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Modernisation of Capital City not for fan - Kufuor
Accra (Greater Accra) 7 August 2003 - President John Kufuor on Tuesday, said the creation of the Ministry of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City is not for fan. For the past two years a team of architects and planners had been tasked to re-plan the capital city to a level in line with any city in the world from the Airport Residential Area through the principal streets to the beaches, he said.
President Kufuor was addressing a durbar of the Chiefs and people in the Ga Traditional Area at Bukom, in the Accra Metropolis as part of his tour of the Greater Accra Region. He said the new Ministry was working very hard to put the plan in action and noted that, in due course Ghanaians would appreciate the essence of the plan envisaged.
President Kufuor invited ideas for consideration and incorporation into the modernisation plan for the city since it would not be effective without the co-operation of the government, chiefs and the people.
"We want to prepare Accra and Bukom being the centre of the city in such a way that, visitors could see and observe the authentic Ghanaian heritage". "We also want to modernise Accra and Bukom to maintain their cultural essence," President Kufuor said.
He appealed to the Chiefs and people to co-operate with the government to maintain the peace, stability and the rule of law prevailing in the country, adding, "When you co-operate with the government, the peace and stability prevailing would translate to economic growth".
President Kufuor said government had taken measures to solve some of the problems facing the people such as bad roads and the construction of an abattoir befitting the status of the city.
He said with Bukom as the cradle of boxing in the country, a modern gym should be built in the area for budding talents to train and win more laurels for Ghana.
"A sportsman or woman cannot prepare well to become a world champion without the availability of scientific and technological inputs and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports would be involved in the establishment of the modern gym and better educational facilities for the youth to prevent teenage pregnancies in the area," he said.
President Kufuor stressed the need for the MP for the area, the Metropolitan Chief Executive, the Regional Minister and the Fisheries Department to collaborate to establish an ice making and freezing facility at Bukom for the fishermen to prevent them from dumping their catch back into the sea.
He said the fishermen and fishmongers who benefited from the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) under the HIPC loan facility would be offered more assistance and extended. President Kufuor said the rehabilitation of the Salaga Market would be completed next month and appealed to the traders to maintain and keep it clean.
Nii Adote Obuor, Sempe Mantse, commended the government for the peace and stability prevailing in the country, which had led to a reduction in the crime wave. This year's Homowo celebrations would be a worthwhile period to consider the city modernisation plan, he said, adding that, when well implemented would ensure remarkable improvement in the city of Accra.
Nii Obuor called for unity and co-operation with the government to implement
its policies and programmes and assured the government that the people were
prepared to assist for the country's socio-economic development.
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Minister calls for protection of water bodies
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 7 August 2003 - Nana Kwadwo Seinti, Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, on Wednesday called on Ghanaians to adopt innovative ways of conserving water through rainwater harvesting.
He made the call in a speech read for him at the regional celebration of the World Environment Day, organized by the Regional Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and attended by students of 10 Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) in Sunyani.
The day is to create awareness on the state of the environment and to educate the public on the need to protect it. This year's celebration had the theme "water, a vital resource for life". Nana Seinti said water was a vital resource since it formed about 70 per cent of the human body "and yet such important resource is the most abused by man."
''We pollute our water bodies with human excreta, solid waste matter, dangerous chemicals from our factories and mining industries and make the water unfit for human consumption.'' He said these pollutants destroy the natural habitats of fishes and other creatures that live in rivers, lagoons and lakes.
Nana Seinti said deforestation through excessive logging, illegal felling of trees, bushfires and poor farming practices, result in the drying up of rivers through excessive evaporation.
Isaac Osei, Regional Officer of EPA, said the environment had continued to be assaulted in spite of the numerous educational programmes carried out by stakeholders. The situation has contributed to environmental disasters such as erosion, reduction in soil fertility and atmospheric pollution, he said.
As part of the celebration, the students planted 1,000 tree seedlings
provided by the Regional Forestry Department and Tree Farmers Association, an
NGO at Techiman. The students marched through the principal streets of Sunyani
with placards, some of which read, "Deforestation is a threat to the
environment", "Preserve our forests and our water bodies" and
"Be kind to plants."
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Bill on Tobacco smoking goes to Parliament
Accra (Greater Accra) 7 August 2003 - A bill on the ban of smoking cigarettes and other tobacco products at public places will soon be presented to Parliament for discussion and approval, Prof Agyeman Badu Akosa, Director- General of Ghana Health Service said on Wednesday in Accra.
The bill, which would be guided by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, would address issues such as advertisements, sponsorship and warning to prevent people, especially the youth from accessing tobacco and tobacco products.
Briefing the press in Accra on Tobacco control, Prof. Akosa said government in 1989, made a pronouncement of ban on smoking in public places, which included cinemas, restaurants, theatres and public offices.
He said government had made efforts to control tobacco use, though there was no legislation backing the pronouncements. A directive was given by the Ministry of Health further banning smoking on the premises of any health facility throughout the country.
"An order was given again in 1991, that cigarette and tobacco products should bear clear health warning to inform users of the consequences of the use of the product, whilst direct advertisements of tobacco products on state and private radio, television and newspapers was also banned".
He said the health hazards warning were not legible enough to warn smokers of the dangers involved by smoking, hence, "the need to enforce a law that would control that habit", he added. Smoking kills five million people a year through tobacco-related diseases and 100 million people worldwide have died of smoking in the last century and it is estimated that there would be one billion deaths in this century unless smokers quit their habit.
Prof Akosa noted that smoking was a habit, which when started was difficult to stop therefore, it was important for both smokers and non-smokers to learn the facts about it. Prof. Akosa said in view of the seriousness of the epidemic worldwide, the World Health Oganisation, Ghana joined the 192 member states to adopt the framework convention to back the control of smoking.
He appealed to the media, especially the electronic medium, "being the
door to the public," to help in the fight against smoking with the rural
folks as audience targets. The Director-General also urged night clubs, bars,
restaurant operators to respect the health of their clients by creating a space
for customers who are keen to "smoke their lives away" in order not to
endanger the lives of the others since it was very costly treating patients.
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Lotto Agents and writers to establish Health Insurance Scheme
Koforidua (Greater Accra) 7 August 2003 - The Eastern Region branch of the National Association of Lotto Agents and Writers is to establish a health insurance scheme for its members this year. The Association would begin the scheme on a pilot basis in the New Juaben Municipality after which it would gradually be extended to all 15 Districts in the Region, Michael Asiamah, Regional Chairman of the Association, said at a seminar on the scheme on Wednesday.
Asiamah called on all lotto agents and writers to join the association so that they could honour their tax obligation to the government.
Ms Dzifa Akoto of the Eastern Regional Secretariat of the Health Insurance Scheme said membership of the scheme would be voluntary and that nobody needed to coerce people to register with it.
She advised members of the Association not to associate any political party
or government to their scheme, explaining that if that happened, the scheme was
likely to collapse whenever that party or government lost power.
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Govt to construct English-Arabic School at Nima
Accra (Greater Accra) 7 August 2003 - The government is to construct an English-Arabic School from nursery to the Junior Secondary School (JSS) level, at Nima in Accra. It would be financed from the $300,000 donated to the government by the Saudi Prince during his visit to Ghana to improve on education.
President John Kufuor stated this when he addressed the Chiefs and people of Nima and Fadama in the Accra Metropolis as part of his tour of the Greater Accra Region.
He said the Nima market would also be modernised and urged the Greater Accra Regional Minister, the Metropolitan Chief Executive and the MP for Ayawaso East to co-ordinate their efforts to improve sanitation in the area.
President Kufuor said recreational facilities would be improved to unearth the many talents in the area and advised the youth not to indulge in social vices that would affect them in future.
He asked the people to channel their grievances through the appropriate
channels for redress. Dr Mustapha Ahmed, MP for the area, appealed to the
government for assistance to provide educational facilities for the people and
called on the people to unite to develop the area.
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Evangelist steals cash and gifts of newly wedded couple
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) - Isaac Boakye, a self-styled Evangelist, who collected envelopes and parcels meant for a newly wedded couple and bolted with them, on Wednesday feigned deafness when he appeared before a Kumasi circuit court charged with stealing.
It took the intervention of the police detective investigating the case before the accused talked. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was remanded to re-appear on 15 August.
Police Chief Inspector John Afful told the court that the accused had been a long-standing friend of the bridegroom, Akwasi Boakye. He said the accused poses as an Evangelist and preaches on commercial vehicles that ply the Kumasi-Sunyani route and within the Kumasi Metropolis.
Chief Inspector Afful said on 26 July, the complainant was wedding his fiancé at the Kotei Church of Christ near the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and that though the accused was not invited he managed to sneak into the church premises where he posed as one of the people tasked to collect gifts on behalf of the couple.
He said after collecting a bulk of the envelopes containing money and other gifts into a sack the accused bolted with the booty. After the ceremony, the couple lodged a complaint with the police, who mounted an intensive search for him but could not trace him.
Chief Inspector Afful said the couple traced the accused to his hideout at
Abuakwa near Kumasi and he was arrested.
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Tertiary education, a necessity of economic growth
Accra (Greater Accra) 7 August 2003 - Ghana will not be able to accelerate its annual economic growth rate to the envisaged 15 per cent if the majority of the age group that should receive tertiary education do not gain admission.
The Senior Minister, Joseph Henry said all national aspirations would be indefinitely frustrated so long as "97.5 per cent of the age group that should be receiving tertiary education to become managers, professionals and teachers remain outside the education and training system".
He said; "the 2.5 per cent of the youth in those echelons who today receive education and training up to tertiary level cannot by any alchemy galvanise the economy towards those double digit rates of growth".
Mensah was delivering the inaugural Busia Memorial Lecture on: "The Danquah-Busia Tradition: Some Contributions Towards A New Strategic Agenda," in Accra on Wednesday. The Lecture was instituted by the Busia Foundation to recognise the achievements and contributions of Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia, Prime Minister in the Second Republic, in educational, economic and political development of the country. It was also to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death.
Mensah stressed the importance of tertiary education, saying, a pool of highly trained managers, professionals and teachers is crucial to any government programme aimed at pulling the country out of the hole of economic stagnation in which it had been entrapped after so many decades.
He said the current low funding of tertiary education had made it impossible to maintain standards, adding that budgetary allocations per student have fallen from the equivalent of 1,114 dollars in 1997 to 566 dollars per student by 2001.
Mensah said in view of the demands of other pressing social responsibilities including health and infrastructure development, there was no way that the current budgetary resources could be stretched to make up for the shortages in educational financing.
He called for a radical change and approach to the issue of funding, saying, as first step stakeholders in tertiary education should view it more as a public good rather than private. "Secondly, we should stop thinking of educational expenditure as consumption and start thinking of it as investment, on which the returns will accrue over a period of time in the future."
Mensah suggested borrowing from various sources to finance the training of high-level manpower, expand student intake and restore quality in tertiary education. He said SSNIT could support such borrowing by making available to government a regular compulsory loan for investment in higher education and manpower training and development, adding that, this would be a better investment of the nation's savings than empty office buildings.
Mensah said the country should plan to join the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) world on terms and ways in national interest. He stressed the need to formulate policies and instruments that could be used to bring the benefit of ICT to bear on the daily lives of Ghanaians through the adoption of policies and programmes, which encouraged private investment.
An Endowment Fund for a Professorial Chair of Sociology in the name of Dr
Busia was launched at the lecture. Prof Busia was the first African Professor
and the first Head of the Sociology Department of the University of Ghana. He
became Prime Minister in August 1969 but was overthrown in a coup d'tat 27
months later.
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Govt urged expedite reverting schools to Churches
Ho (Volta Region) 7 August 2003 - Rev Livingstone Buama, Moderator of the Evangelical Presbyterian (E.P) Church, Ghana, on Wednesday appealed to government to facilitate discussions on the reversion of mission schools to their mother organisations to restore discipline and raise academic standards.
"Christianity could not discount communal approach to quality teaching and learning, as no one person could educate a child," he said, adding that co-ordinated approaches by all stakeholders was needed to enhance efficiency and proficiency.
Rev Buama was delivering a lecture on: "The Cry and Quest for Quality Education: Guidelines and Hints from the Biblical Perspective", at the Rev Trost Memorial Lectures being hels as part of the 53rd Honours Day of Mawuli School in Ho.
The weeklong activity is under the theme, "Success Through Personal Initiative". Rev Buama said teachers and students moulded in the Biblical tradition had a holistic vision and a clear road map for quality education.
This, he said, involved basically the training of the "head, heart and
hand", needed for the physical and the spiritual nourishment of mankind.
He, therefore, called on religious bodies to evolve vigorous strategies aimed at
complementing government's intention towards the provision of quality and
affordable education.
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