Minister steps in GRC, GBC impasse
Kwesi Botchwey at Nsawam prison
Govt won’t promulgate non-performing laws - Minister
Tarkoradi (Western Region) 03 June 2003 - The minister of Ports, Harbours and Railways, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi has intervened in the tariff adjustment war, which is going on between the management of the Ghana Railways Company (GRC) and the Ghana Bauxite Company (GBC), which has almost marred the cordial relationship between the two companies.
As his first step to find an amicable solution to the problem, the minister has directed that the intended appointment of an independent consultant to cost the operations of the two companies and decide the realistic tariff paid by GBC be suspended.
A deputy managing director of the GRC, Rufus Quaye who disclosed this to the Chronicle when he was contacted on his cell phone last week, said the minister had instead directed the management of the two companies to sit on a round table and renegotiate for an acceptable tariff within two weeks.
The minister’s decision to cancel the appointment of an independent consultant to cost the operations of the two companies was borne out of the fact that it would delay the negotiation process which started a long time ago but has, up to date, not achieved any success.
Rufus Quaye further told the Chronicle that in his desire to have the issue resolved as early as possible, the former university don has scheduled a meeting for the coming Tuesday, June 3 for all the parties to meet in Accra to start the negotiation which he himself is expected to preside over.
When asked whether his management which has already been threatened with strike action by the workers over the low tariff being paid by the GBC - thus hampering the progress of the company - have accepted the minister’s intervention in the impasse, Rufus Quaye responded in the affirmative but said GBC has made known their intention to fly in an expert from their parent company in Canada to guide them in the negotiation process.
According to him, GRC has not, and will not object to their decision to fly in an expert because facts which they hope to table at the negotiation, will always remain facts that could not be disputed. “Akli, I think you can testify to the fact that fuel prices have gone up by almost 100%. Materials that help us to run the company have also gone up by the same margin.
“These are all facts one cannot dispute”, he noted.
The deputy-managing director could however not tell the actual figure his management was going to table at the negotiation table but said it would surely not be less than $11 per tonne of bauxite they would haul from Awaso to the port of Takoradi.
When he was asked whether the Ghana Manganese Company (GMC) that is based at Nsuta and a major customer of the GRC is also part of the current negotiation team, he responded in the negative. According to Quaye his management would not encounter any problem when they decide to negotiate for the upward adjustment of the current tariff they are paying.
He was hopeful that with the timely creation of the new ministry responsible for railways, and the concern that has been shown by the minister in charge, the seemingly unsolvable issue would soon be resolved.
The impasse between the GRC and GBC started some years back when the latter refused to allow an upward adjustment of the current $9.35 per tonne they are paying for the haulage of their minerals by the GRC to the Takoradi port for export. Several negotiations on the issue did not yield any results.
Interestingly, figures being paid by Alcan, the parent company of the GBC in other West African countries where it is operating is over and above the current figure it is paying to the GRC.
Just recently, GRC workers threatened to lay down their tools and also go on demonstration if their management failed to conclude negotiations for the upward adjustment of the tariff.
The workers’ agitation was based on the fact that they could only get pay rise if the tariff was adjusted. They have already filed a petition to the London based International Transport Federation to bring international pressure to bear on the overseas managers of the GBC to allow for the increase in the tariff. - Chronicle
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JAK promises $1000 per capita in 10years
Accra (Greater Accra) 03 June 2003 – President John Kufuor, has stated that his administration would do all it could to raise the per capita income of the country from$350 to $1000 within ten years.
The president said this last week when he gave the closing remarks at the Ghana Investors’ Advisory Council’s (GIAC) third meeting in Accra. He was convinced that with the help and expertise of the GIAC members, the transformation of the country’s economy to that of $1000 per capita income would be possible in a few years. His Excellency assured the members of GIAC of his government’s fullest co-operation and support to attract more foreign investments into the country.
Earlier in his address to the council, the president gave a report on the progress made last year by his government in the implementation of recommendations of the GIAC made last year.
He said the most essential was law and order about which he revealed that crime rate has reduced by 18%. He noted that there has been an improvement in the security status of the country and he attributed this to the provision of equipment for the Police Service.
On land reforms, President Kufuor said the government had identified all the several parcels of land that were acquired by the state, evaluated them and compensation paid where it had not been paid. He noted that those lands would be added to the Land Banks, which would be created very soon.
President Kufuor said with the establishment of the fast track high courts, commercial disputes are being dealt with more quickly. He said the alternative dispute resolution forum that aims at helping the resolution of disputes outside the formal court system, which was introduced by the government, is proving to be popular with the people.
On the establishment of offshore banking industry, he said progress was being made with the help of Morocco, Mauritius and Malaysia. Touching on the clearing of goods at the country’s ports, he said the inspection and four different people instead of one are doing price verification regimes at the ports.
He said some modest gains had been made in the quest to address the problem of accessing long-term funds by the establishment of a credit line of $40m, which had been secured from the HSBC Exim bank of USA to support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).
Salt and agro-processing got credit from the ECOWAS Bank for Development and Investment in addition to $5m that was received from the government of Canada to support micro, small and medium enterprises.
The president said the period saw Telenor, a Norwegian Telecom Company, taking control of Ghana Telecom, the Indo-Ghana ICT project almost complete and placing the National Institutional Reform programme under the direction of the senior minister.
He expressed the government’s conviction that the macro-economic gains recorded have a better chance of being sustained after the cedi came under pressure because of the increases in the prices of petroleum products a few months ago. May 9 also saw the Executive Board of the IMF $258m for the country in support of economic reform programme for 2003 to 2005 under the poverty reduction and growth programme.
He announced that a One-Stop-Shop concept would be operational at the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) very soon. The president set up a three-man committee to supervise the implementation of the GIAC’s recommendations and to report directly to him.
The committee consists of Kwanena Bartels, the Minister for Private Sector Development, Ebenezer Assoka, Managing Director of Standard Chartered Bank and Prof. Kweku Appiah-Adu, Head of the Policy Co-ordination, Monitoring and Evaluation, Office of the President.
A communiqué issued by the GIAC and read by the minister for private sector development called for accelerated structural reforms in five areas including agriculture and agro-business, customs and civil service reform, financial, labour and land reforms.
Later in an interview with the chief executive officer of Data Bank, Ken Ofori-Atta about offshore banking, he said the challenge of the country’s economy to grow at 9% per year is to fill the huge gap between savings and investments and that it was this basis that led the council to recommend offshore banking and modernization of the country’s financial system.
He said the country could be the regional financial services centre, if these measures are resolved. In another development, the Ghana Site Manager of Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), Jim Charles, announced the creation of a new technology centre in the country.
The 40,000square-foot new office complex would include 1,000 workstations, full satellite communication capabilities, a training centre, library, and a cyber café to provide workers online access to the internet and also to enhance their training and development.
He said, the workforce of the company is expected to reach 2000 by next year and the country would become ACS’ single largest location of workers in the sub-region. The manager stated that the company now employs 1300 workers. ACS currently performs data processing services supporting numerous clients in the communications, healthcare, and insurance.
The manager later donated a cheque of $1,000 to the
president for the construction of wells and bore hole for the folks in the
rural areas. – Chronicle
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Accra (Greater Accra) 03 June 2003 – Former National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential aspirant and Ghana’s most acclaimed finance minister, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, last Friday called at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons, to visit former NDC ministers who are currently serving various sentences there.
They are Kwame Peprah, Victor Selormey and Ibrahim Adam, former minister and deputy minister of Finance and minister of Food and Agriculture respectively in the NDC government that crashed out of power in 2000.
The fourth person Dr. Botchwey visited was Dr. George Sipa Yankey, one time legal director at the Finance Ministry who together with Peprah and Adam were imprisoned by the Fast Track court over the Quality Grain case. Victor Solormey was also jailed over the Court’s computerization scandal by the Fast Track court.
Incidentally, while Peprah took over from Dr. Botchwey at the Finance Ministry, both Selormey and Yankey worked under Botchwey as deputy minister and director respectively.
Speaking reluctantly to this reporter who happened to be at the Nsawam Prisons, Dr. Botchwey said he was glad to see that his former colleagues were in good spirits in spite of their obviously difficult circumstances.
On the conviction Dr. Botchwey said he was naturally
saddened and that “jailing political office holders and public servants without
any evidence of self enrichment or criminal intentions as such sets some very
troubling standards for public office,” which he hoped Ghana as a nation would
reflect very deeply and dispassionately on. – Chronicle
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South African firm to take over railways
Durban (South Africa) 03 June 2003 - Spoornet, along with Rand Merchant Bank and KMM, are hoping talks with the Ghanaian government to take over the running of the country's western railway lines will be successfully concluded by the end of the year.
Jan-Louis Spoelstra, the acting executive manager of Spoornet's international joint ventures, said that if all was agreed by December, the consortium would start running the network at the end of next year.
The 400km western line, which services bauxite and manganese ore producers, is the busiest of Ghana's railway network. The deal is worth between $12m and $13m. Spoelstra said the opportunity was identified by Rand Merchant Bank, which invited Spoornet and KMM to come on board. Moeletsi Mbeki, the brother of President Thabo Mbeki, heads KMM.
Among other things being negotiated was the length of the
concession, which Spoornet hoped would be 25 years. Spoelstra said the
investment required would be about $20m. Of that Spoornet would contribute
between $1m to $2m, subject to board approval. The rest would be sourced from
other shareholders, soft loans from the European Union and ordinary commercial
debt. – Business Report
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Accra (Greater Accra) 03 June 2003 - Many people are waking up to the fact that natural fruits and drinks are healthier than artificially flavoured drinks and beverages.
A close observation at various functions across the country, including wedding ceremonies, cocktails at hotels, funerals and parties, has revealed that between 60 and 80 per cent of the attendants or participants prefer natural fruit juice to the traditional mineral beverages.
In the face of this high taste and demand, the natural fruit juices are very expensive, especially if produced locally. A four-litre container of natural pineapple juices sells at between ¢25,000 and ¢35,000, while a litre of the imported fruit juice costs between ¢12,000 and ¢18,000.
Consequently, only the elite and a small number of the average income earner are able to afford them, pushing a greater number of Ghanaians out of the health benefits of natural fruit juices.
The situation has also resulted in the influx of large volumes of fruit juices on the local market. Ironically, they come with inscriptions of natural fruit juice but a sample taste of some of them reveals otherwise: they are mostly artificial fruit juices.
More than 42 brands of foreign drinks were counted on the market during a recent market survey at major supermarkets and on the open market.
They include brand names such as Ceres, Ribena, Iced Tea, Pure Heaven, Just Juice, Tang Orange as well as Candour and BB products. Many of the drinks come in labels of lime, pineapple, orange, apple, guava and cocktail of fruits. The survey also revealed that most of the drinks are imported from South Africa, Spain and other parts of Europe.
The only local fruit juice visible competing with the foreign products are Kalyppo, Refresh and Tampico. Almost all attendants at the shops visited, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed that sales tend to be lower for the flavoured juices than for the natural fruit juices, which also tend to be more expensive.
Although the country has great potential in fruit growing, the picture on the ground portrays that the country makes little use of this resource. Very little of the variety of fruits produced in the country are processed, either in full or part.
For instance, in 2001, 67 exporters exported 35,173.900 tonnes of pineapple, earning $13.316m. In 2002, the value increased to $15.519m, having exported 46,391.300 tonnes, according to the 2002 annual report of non-traditional exports supplied by the Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC).
For orange, there were six exporters, whose exports of 1,335.870 tonnes in 2001 yielded $126,378, as against three exporters in 2002, whose 15,213.200 tonnes of produce yielded $671,986.
Banana earned $3.250m from the 3,232.640 tonnes exported in 2002. This was against the 2001 revenue of $3.188m, having exported 3,251.410 tonnes.
The report further indicates that mango exports yielded $78,475 in 2001 and $69,608 in 2002. There were other small scale exports such as pawpaw, water melon, coconut and lime. However, the statistics indicate that only a marginal proportion of the fruits produced in the country were exported in their processed or semi-processed form.
In 2001, there was a lone pineapple juice exporter whose 37,720 tonnes yielded $28,123. Two exporters exported this same product in 2002, with their collective exports yielding $139,462, an increase of 0.03 per cent.
Three exporters exported 0.187 tonnes of orange juice,
accounting for $50.77. There is no record of orange juice exports in 2001.
However, 378.675 tonnes of fresh fruit peels were exported in 2001, yielding
$137.084 million, with the value reducing to $5.267m in 2002. Cut/peeled
pineapple exports in 2002 earned $12.306m in 2001, compared to $9.705m in 2001.
- Graphic
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Accra (Greater Accra) 03 June 2003 - A local gold and metal smith has called on the government to institute measures to slash the price of gold locally.
Ms Irene Prah, owner of Irene’s Jewellery in Accra, said these measures will enable local goldsmiths and other small-and medium-scale enterprises which depend on the precious metal for production to become competitive. She said the measure will also make prices of ornaments affordable and thus limit the entry of foreign ones into the local market.
In an interview in Accra, Ms Prah also suggested to gold mining companies in the country to help to improve the situation by offering a certain amount of their produce for sale to local goldsmiths.
She pointed out that local goldsmiths buy the precious metal almost at the prevailing world market price and said when the prices fall on the world market, it takes a while to reflect on the local market. This, she stressed, has been a major setback to the industry.
“We cannot struggle with the price. If you do not buy, somebody else will and this is how the pricing affects the local industry,” she explained. She said since the total demand for gold by the local smithing industry is very negligible and forms an insignificant proportion of what the companies export, the action will not constitute a drawback to the operations of the mining companies.
Ms Prah, a graduate of the College of Art of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi who has set up her own smithing workshop and showroom, said it is paradoxical for local prices of gold to soar in a country such as Ghana where the product is derived.
She disclosed that she buys a pound (seven grammes) of gold at between ¢680,000 and ¢720,000 and said this is even one of the reasonably quoted prices on the local front.
“The expensive pricing of the raw material (gold) also undermines custom-made production, which is our mainstay,” she stated and further intimated “that this condition erodes our working capital and exerts enormous stress on our operations.”
She also appealed to postal and courier services to make the posting of gold products to other countries workable. “Currently, postal agencies and courier services in the country do not accept such postage,” the goldsmith lamented.
Ms Prah suggested that insurance companies should be roped in to collect a reasonable amount of insurance premium on the items to be posted, adding that this is done in other parts of the world with ease.
She stated that there have been many instances where
tourists and foreigners have unsuccessfully tried to order smithed products by
post because of the endemic constraints. “This is certainly discouraging the
market as well as barring us from doing business more globally, such as on the
Internet,” the female goldsmith pointed out. – Graphic
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Accra (Greater Accra) 03 June 2003 - The government has decided to strike out the State Housing Company (SHC) Ltd from the Divestiture list to enable it to attract direct investment.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Alhaji Mustapha Idris Ali, who announced this, said looking at the significant role the company has played, coupled with its vision of providing affordable housing for the majority of the people, it must be supported to perform its roles.
Speaking during a familiarisation tour of the company in Accra yesterday, he gave the assurance that the government “will make interventions at the appropriate places with the promise that you will work extra hard to justify the action”. “Considering the national spread of the company, there is the need to remove the divestiture tag from it to make it attract investors,” he said
Alhaji Ali said the country is suffering from acute housing problems and explained that leaving estate development in the hands of the private sector alone would allow for the construction of houses that “we cannot afford”.
The Minister announced that the ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, will design a plan to provide at least 50 houses in each of the districts to support the housing projects in the country.
“You kept a low profile for a period of time. Go out and tell the people that you are still on track, the ministry must be out to support you,” he told the SHC.
The Deputy Managing Director of the company, Ben Mensah, said the company has, since January, last year, commenced a 234-acre housing estate at Buduburam in the Central Region.
He said various types of the company’s houses and flats are being developed, adding that “about 67 units are currently on the ground at various stages of completion”. He said the company also has plans to construct varying types of houses in Kumasi, Sunyani, Takoradi, Koforidua, Ho and Winneba. – Graphic
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Tema (Greater Accra) 03 June 2003 - The Saltpond Offshore Producing Company Limited (SOPCL) has contracted an inspection company to assess the quantity and quality of the returned crude oil, which left the country’s shores under mysterious circumstances in a hired oil tanker two months ago.
Messrs Q&Q, which has been given the contract, is expected to conduct a thorough examination of samples of the oil at the Tema Oil Refinery’s (TOR) laboratories and thereafter issue a certificate on its findings before the vessel, MT Asterias 1, will be allowed to leave the shores of Ghana.
The Board Chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Stephen Sekyere-Abankwa, announced this at a news conference in Tema yesterday to inform Ghanaians that the GNPC, in collaboration with Lushann-Eternit, has secured the return of MT Asterias containing 73,701 barrels of crude oil worth $2m intact.
The board chairman was flanked at the well attended conference by the Director of Legal and Administration of the GNPC, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, Henry Addae, General Manager of SOPCL, John Boateng, Legal Consultant of GNPC and Mrs Comfort Dapaah Mensah, Director of Finance and Corporate Planning of GNPC and other officials.
He said, “the certificate confirming the quantity and the quality is needed to be able to export the oil,” which was returned to assure Ghanaians that neither the government nor the GNPC had a hand in the missing crude oil as was alleged in certain quarters.
Abankwa explained that under the existing sales agreement between SOPCL and Ocean and Oil Limited, owners of the vessel, the oil will be sold to the latter to defray the debt accrued by SOPCL from charter party fees. The tanker, MT Asterias 1, returned to the Tema Harbour on Sunday night with its cargo intact of 73,701 of oil it originally took away, valued at $2m.
The tanker left Ghana’s shores on 28 March without the notice of the GNPC or officials from the Ministry of Energy and without regard to specified procedures, payment of royalties due the government and without informing the security agencies. This created public outcry.
The tanker's return was as a result of an agreement reached between Lushann Eternitt Energy Limited and Ocean & Oil Limited of Nigeria, owners of the vessel. Under the new agreement, Lushann Eternit Energy Limited, the technical managers of SOPCL has sent letters of credit in favour of Ocean & Oil Limited to cover the payment of a total debt of $1.915 million owed it.
Abankwa pointed out that the necessary export documentation which will involve officials of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) will be performed before the ship will be allowed to sail off.
Abankwa who is also the board chairman of SOPCL, apologised to the government and people of Ghana for the unfortunate incident, “which has embarrassed all of us.” The board chairman and the other directors later conducted journalists round the vessel to ascertain the veracity of the return of the oil.
The Captain of the ship, an Ukranian, who gave his name only as Wellington, emphasised that the returned crude oil is nothing but pure crude.Officials from the Ocean & Oil Limited opened the tunnel containing the crude oil and inspected the cargo.
The vessel is expected the leave the shores of Ghana as soon as the customs procedures, the inspection and other laid down procedures are completed.
Last March, the then Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, reported that MT Asterias 1 with 73,701 barrels of crude oil valued at $2m was missing from the Saltpond Oilfields in the Central Region.
Reports later indicated that Ocean & Oil Limited, owners of the vessel, exercised a lien over the cargo over non-payment of accumulated charter fees totalling $1.915m, by SOPCL.
On 3 April, the then Minister of Energy, Albert Kan-Dapaah, announced at a press conference in Accra that the cargo vessel had been located in one of the West African countries but failed to name the country.
Last April, the government decided to hold Lushann-Eternit Energy Limited, the technical managers of SOPCL, fully responsible for the departure of the oil tanker MT Asterias 1, from the shores of Ghana. The management of Lushann Eternit later apologised to the government and people of Ghana for the embarrassment caused the country by the ship owners.
Kan-Dapaah is on record to have said that following the inaccuracies in the agreement between the government of Ghana and Lushann Eternit over the production of oil at Saltpond, the NPP government on assumption of office, set up a committee to review the arrangements and terms since they do not conform to internationally acceptable norms.
Kan-Dapaah said under the new agreement the government has three per cent royalty, GNPC 15 per cent, a government income tax of 30 per cent, an annual training allowance of US $ 50,000 and an annual rental of US$50 per square kilometre.
He said the assets of GNPC have also been valued at $10m and Lushann will be responsible for the decommissioning of the rig after production. – Graphic
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Lome (Togo) 03 June 2003 - There was an isolated incident of arson at Tsevie, about 35 kilometres from Lome, following the outbreak of political disturbances. Reports indicated that militants of the opposition parties burnt down the local mayor’s office in the aftermath of Sunday’s presidential elections.
A communiqué released by the Interior Ministry confirmed that the mayor’s office was burnt down following the suspicion that some ballot boxes, which were used during Sunday’s vote in Tsevie, were stuffed with ballot papers at dawn before the actual voting began in the morning.
The communiqué said that in the confusion, which followed the resultant fracas, the ballot boxes were destroyed. One soldier was wounded while his combat gun was taken away. Also lorry tyres were set on fire in the main streets of the town.
The communiqué attributed the confusion to a false alarm raised by opposition members of the Independent Electoral Commission. The opposition members are Zues Atta Messan Adjavon and Victor Oris Nerry, who visited the polling station at Tsevie on the voting day.
A visit to Tsevie yesterday morning indicated that tension remained high in the town so authorities have dispatched security reinforcement to maintain law and order.
The Interior Minister also denied that ballot papers allegedly used by soldiers to cast their vote 72 hours before Sunday’s polls had been found in a nearby bush in Lome.
Ballot boxes containing the ballot papers used by soldiers in casting their votes remain sealed, he said. Meanwhile, the rest of the country is experiencing relative calm apart from the isolated incident in Tsevie Meanwhile, normal life has returned to Lome as shops, offices and markets opened and school children are back to school.
Counting of votes has ended in more than 450,000 polling stations spread throughout Togo, after the Sunday election. The Electoral Commission official said that the results from the polling station have been sent to various collection centres for harmonisation and computerisation process.
Some of the opposition parties have started crying foul,
claiming vote wriggling and intimidation of their agents and are calling for
the annulment of the election results. The first official results were expected
to have been announced yesterday. – Graphic
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Accra (Greater Accra) 03 June 2003 - The Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Mrs Gladys Asmah, has said that the government will not promulgate any law that will create more problems for the society than it intends to solve.
Referring to the Domestic Violence Bill, currently before Parliament, she said since violence usually occurs in the immediate surroundings and affects the victim and the aggressor in various ways, it is “important that any law passed to deal with it should be one which the various communities will accept and respect.”
Mrs Asmah, who said this when she opened a workshop on “Domestic Violence” organised by the International Federation of Women Lawyers- (FIDA) Ghana in Accra, therefore, called for an extensive public debate on the draft law by civil society and organised groups.
She cautioned against promulgating a law that will create more problems than it intends to solve and called on all stakeholders to make an input during the discussions. “We need to remind ourselves of the high rate of divorce in some of the countries with domestic violence law, with particular reference to provisions like marital rape,” she said.
The minister said although there will be instances, where coercion may be necessary to deal with recalcitrant, incorrigible and violent individuals, there is the need for a co-operation and understanding on the part of the couples, their families and the community at large.
Mrs Asmah quoted media reports as indicating a high incidence of domestic violence and spousal deaths, which have occurred on a nationwide scale. She, therefore, suggested the need for legal and other measure to-curb them to protect victims but noted that “domestic violence and its effect on family life in this country, cannot be dealt with solely by legislation”.
“Legislation is definitely one of the instruments required to deal with the perpetrators of this socially undesirable behaviour. Legislation to combat the phenomenon of domestic violence should be drawn up, taking into account the cultural and traditional attitudes and values of the various communities,” she said.
She said for the law to have the required legitimacy and acceptance, there must be intensive education of society about what is meant by domestic violence, why it is socially and morally undesirable and that would send signals to would-be perpetrators to know what is in store for them.
The minister said the definitions, which emanate from other cultures, particularly Western Europe and American notions, concept and traditions, may not necessarily be appropriate for our circumstances.
Mrs Asmah said the ministry has plans to begin a series of sensitisation workshops in all the 10 regions of the country to enable it to stir up the debate on the issue.
In a welcoming address, the President of FIDA, Mrs Chris Dadzie, said although a large number of women experience some form of domestic violence, the customary or traditional legal structures that should have protected the domestic relationship have proved to be woefully inadequate.
The Deputy Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Ms Gloria Akuffo, urged the promulgators of the law to work in collaboration with traditional authorities because some of the laws are culturally based. – Graphic
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