Atta Mills is my personal friend- Modibo Ocran
Accra (Greater Accra)
19 December 2002- Parliament on Wednesday approved the Second phase of a loan
agreement of $11.24m for the financing of the Rural Enterprises Project aimed
at reducing poverty and improving living conditions in the rural areas.
The Loan agreement
between the Government of Ghana and the International Fund for Agricultural
Development would especially increase the incomes of women and the vulnerable
groups through increased self-and wage earning employment.
Eugene Atta Agyepong,
Chairman of the Finance Committee in a Report said another objective of the
loan was to build up a competitive rural micro and small enterprise sector in
the 53 participating Districts for easily accessible and sustainable services.
The Project
components consist of business development services involving mainly technical
and management training through Business Advisory Centres and financial
services provided through rural banks.
It also consists of
technology promotion and support to apprenticeship training through Rural
Technology Facilities and policy dialogue on rural micro and small enterprise
development involving stakeholders including donor agencies, public and private
sector institutions and agencies.
Terms of the loan are
40 years of repayment period with 10 years grace period, 0.75 service charge
and interest rate of zero per cent. The first phase of the project became
effective in 1995 at a cost of 9.3 million dollars and as at 2002 about 88 per
cent of the loan had been disbursed.
It was implemented in
13 districts in the Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Regions, expanded to include six
districts in 1998 and five more districts in 1999 and was scheduled to end by
December 2002.
Mr Agyepong said the
Committee observed that as a result of the project intervention, most of the
clients are now engaged in viable enterprises including batik, tie and dye,
soap making, bee keeping, grasscutter rearing, metalworking, carpentry and
other industries.
He said the loan
would not only assist in alleviating poverty in the chosen districts but it was
concessional and does not attract any interest payment and therefore recommend
its adoption and approval by resolution.
Moses Asaga, ranking
member of Finance said the main concern expressed was the ability of
individuals and the District Assemblies to pay their share of the funds and
payment of the counterpart funds.
Edward Salia, NDC-
Jirapa said it was regrettable that the list of beneficiary districts numbering
53 were not presented but that the assurance given was that it was the poorest
among the poor who were to be assisted.
He said the project
should be guided by the needs of the rural people and to target the poorest in
the communities especially those in the three Northern Regions that have been
identified as mostly affected but have little reflection of any form of
assistance.
Andrews Adjei-Yeboah,
NPP-Tano South said the first phase of the project has made a tremendous effect
on the lives of the people and individual artisans have been able to improve
themselves and their livelihood.
He said the
disbursement of the loans faced many problems and it was necessary that the
schedule officers are mindful of it to assist the rural people to derive
maximum benefit from the loan and suggested the expansion of the loan facility
to benefit many more people.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
19 December 2002 - Professor Tawiah Modibo Ocran, a presidential nominee to the
Supreme Court, on Wednesday said Former Vice President Evan Atta Mills, was his
classmate and good friend and had no intention to give up that friendship.
"I teach and
research in a small town in the States. I have not been around for about 20
years. Mills is a personal friend. If the system cannot contain that kind of
friendship then I do not know."
Yaw Barima,
NPP-Koforidua, had asked whether he had endorsed anyone during the last
presidential elections when Prof Ocran appeared before a Parliamentary
Appointments Committee.
He said when
President Kufuor approached him on his nomination, he said, "I want you to
join the court because I want all shades of opinion to converge in our highest
Court. The President has a sense of nationalism."
On his political
ideology, he called Ghana's founder, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, his mentor. He said Dr.
Nkrumah gave Africans a sense of pride, which is still relevant in a world
where the black race is looked down upon.
"Those of us who
have travelled around for some time would realise how much pride and sense of
belonging one needs to be an African." He said the country's first
President offered a lot of social opportunities to the ordinary person in a
society where real life opportunities belonged to the elite.
"He made the
ordinary person to feel that he is part of the system. This is one of the
several legacies of Dr Nkrumah." The former student leader defended
leftist ideas saying, "you can call me comrade anytime."
On his views on the
constitution, he said the constitution should be allowed to operate for
sometime before any crucial amendment is attempted. "I am against any
amendment for now. Let's allow it to grow so that we would know the real
bottlenecks. There may be some problem areas but I still think we should
wait."
He said one of the
most controversial areas in the matters of the constitution was the indemnity
clause in the transitional provisions. "Even these clauses, which some
describe as problematic would be irrelevant with the passage of time."
On corruption, He
said Judges should endeavour to live above reproach, especially on matters of
corruption since the position of a Judge is not just ordinary. "Even
perception is more important than reality because a bad perception is dangerous
enough. How would people accept a verdict when the general perception goes
against the judge who delivers it.
He called for
monitoring of judges by investigative agencies and when one is found wanting,
the appropriate constitutional sanctions should be applied. Prof. Ocran called
for ceiling for number of judges for the Supreme Court.
He asked the media to
expose the ills of society and individuals with a sense of social
responsibility. The 60-year old law professor was born in Tarkwa-Nsuaem in the
Western Region. He is married with five children.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com