GRi Press Review 10 - 09
- 2003
JSS concept needs an overhaul - NGO director
Ghana Telecom, Spacefon standoff takes new turn
Osafo-Maafo admits negligence
Ghana in a fix as America, Europe take opposing stands
Lecturers' strike halts academic calendar at university
Cartel at Diamond House smashed
BNI probes another "coup attempt"
President Kufuor orders yet another VRA probe
J J's kids fly private plane
Don't invest HIPC money - Finance Minister
Ashanti buyer must share risk and reward
JSS concept needs an overhaul - NGO director
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 10 September 2003 - George Baffour Owusu Afriyie, Executive Director of Neglect Foundation, a Kumasi based local non-governmental organization, has attributed the increase in street children to the inadequacies of the JSS concept to produce skilled graduates.
Owusu Afriyie said the concept intended to equip JSS graduates with vocational and technical skills in preparation for life needs an overhaul to make it more practical and meaningful.
The Executive Director observed at a day's workshop on streetism in Kumasi that the concept originally designed to train pupils in handicrafts had failed because the three-year programme had not helped in equipping the students with the required skills.
He suggested that the government should revert to the old system where the children were given four years of training so that the fourth year could be dedicated for acquisition of useful skills.
Owusu sounded a note of caution to parents, guardians and the adult population against the exploitation of children by engaging children in minial jobs at the expense of their education, welfare and general development. He advised the youth to be serious with their educational programmes and skill training and not just enter into trading.
Owusu Afriyie appealed to the government, stakeholders and all well meaning Ghanaians to join in the effort to reduce streetism to the barest minimum not only in Ashanti but also throughout the country.
Miss Sarah Afful, Project Co-ordinator of Neglect Foundation, noted that streetism was gradually becoming a menace in the society with a sizeable number of them in their teens.
She said the phenomenon of streetism in the Ashanti Region had reached its crisis stage and that over 23,000 porters (kayayoos) currently living in the Kumasi metropolis had added to the problem.
The project co-ordinator pointed out that the situation had been made worse by the fact that about 7,000 out of the 18,000 porters registered in 1999 fall within the age group of nine and 18 years.
According to her, a survey conducted by Neglect Foundation indicated that 105 out of the 485 cobblers boys who slept in front of stores around Kejetia and its environs were JSS graduates who engaged in unhealthy activities.
Miss Afful disclosed that Neglect Foundation had united 81 children with their families in their various hometowns and it had enrolled some children in schools and provided employable skills like dressmaking and hairdressing to others. - Chronicle
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Ghana Telecom, Spacefon standoff takes new turn
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 September 2003 - The impasse between Ghana Telecom (GT) and Spacefon over interconnectivity rates took another twist yesterday when the latter accused GT of misleading the public with wrong information
Addressing a press conference in Accra, the Managing Director of Spacefon, Ahmad Farroukh, said GT wanted to increase its service charges, but instead of explaining to the public the factors that have necessitated the increase, it rather sought to put the blame of its past and future losses on mobile phone operators and the National Communication Authority (NCA).
He said for the past three months, GT management has sought to deceive the public through the media by presenting wrong information, and only last week incited GT union workers, who threatened to take the unlawful action of suppressing traffic flow from GT to Spacefon network.
Farroukh said according to international standards and NCA regulations, interconnectivity between networks was a must, as it was the essential right of the consumer to make and receive calls to and from any network.
He said, " It is very important to understand that the cost per minute for a mobile subscriber is far higher than that of a fixed one because of the different technology and the amount of capital expenditure involved in operating them. It is not an invention or theory developed by Spacefon; it is a factual thing in the telephony market and this difference in pricing is seen all over the world".
Explaining further the rationale for the difference between fixed and mobile phone charges, Farroukh pointed out that because all parameters were determined with the fixed lines, a call went from one fixed destination to another.
However, with the mobile technology, a call could emanate from any point in the network's coverage area to any other point in the network, meaning that the parameters were always variable due to the constant mobility of the user.
"In other words with the mobile phones, the network has to roam and search for the receiving customer throughout the network, at any given time, that is why a mobile user can make a call from Winneba and be talking until he ends the call in Tema".
The MD accused GT of intentionally twisting the facts about the traffic imbalance between GT and mobile operators "to portray the picture of a company that is bleeding operationally and financially" from the low payment of rates of mobile operators, in order to win public sympathy while covering up its inefficiency.
He debunked the claim by GT workers that the company paid over 90bn as a result of traffic imbalance, pointing out that, " more than 50% of the calls coming from GT to the mobile operators were of international incoming origin, on which GT derives 0.10cents for every minute, therefore by its own calculations GT will generate 100bn over the same period from national and international usage of its network. Therefore Spacefon should be excluded from any ratio because it is only GT and Westel, which have the international operational gateways.
Besides that, "ONE TOUCH" which is GT's mobile network had the second largest network after Spacefon in terms of customer base, and because it did not have interconnection problems with GT fixed lines, about 25% of national traffic went to One Touch, which meant that 25% of the 140,625,000 minutes that GT terminates on the Mobile were terminated on its own One Touch, and the remaining 105,468,750 was what was terminated on mobile operators.
On the issue of tariffs imbalance, the MD said Spacefon operated on the same GSM technology as One Touch, therefore theoretically, the costs should be the same or there should not be a very big difference.
He stressed that it was very important to compare the charges of One Touch and Spacefon per minute to a GT fixed line, saying whilst Spacefon charged ¢2,800 as was correctly quoted, One Touch charged ¢3,850, an excess of over ¢1000.
Farrouukh observed that as per NCA regulations, operators should agree on interconnection rates between themselves. Consequently, all mobile operators met with GT and the NCA on June 26 2003 and agreed on new inter -connection fees.
Another meeting was held in August, at which it was agreed that the effective date for the new inter- connection rates was to be effected on 1 September 2003, yet to his surprise GT out of the blue, started a sequence of events that have compelled Spacefon to come out with the facts.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 September 2003 - The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Yaw Osafo-Maafo on Tuesday confirmed that Ghana has been blacklisted from selling rough diamonds outside its border but said the ban was temporary.
He said that Ghana was blacklisted because of Parliament's inability to ratify the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), the new accredited diamond certification, before going on recess. "We were just about to go to the second reading when we went on recess but when parliament resumes we will tackle the matter," Maafo said.
He said government has written to KPCS to ask for an extension of the deadline in an effort to comply with the rules regarding the sale of rough diamonds.
"So we are waiting for their response and I hope that the response is going to be positive," Maafo said. The "Chronicle" newspaper's front page lead story last Friday said Ghana had been blacklisted from selling rough diamonds outside its border for failing to beat the 1 September deadline for ratifying the KPCS.
Some civil society groups globally notably among which were Amnesty International, (AI) Global Witness and Partnershi Africa-Canada (GWPA-C) and World Diamond Council (WDC) initiated KPCS in 2002. The rationale was to agitate for the establishment of the Kimberly Process Certification to block sale of "conflict diamond" particularly from Africa.
Generally, it is believed that conflict stones from Africa are used to fuel civil wars on the African continent or swell the foreign accounts of rebel leaders in most African conflicts.
After a series of international conferences on KPCS, the signatory countries including Ghana set July ending this year to ratify its legislation to meet the requirement as member states.
Ghana's rough diamond production increased by 11.9 per cent in 2002. The revenue increased from $18.5m to $20.7m. In carats, rough diamond production increased by 14.1 per cent in 2002 from 870,000 the previous year to 993,000 carats.
Although Ghana is considered as small diamond producing country, its production is steadily increasing. Ghana mainly exports rough diamonds to Belgium and Israel, but is looking to expanding its horizons. Ghana is currently in negotiations with India to supply its industry directly with rough diamonds. - Chronicle
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Ghana in a fix as America, Europe take opposing stands
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 September 2003 - As the transatlantic dispute over the acceptability of the Genetically Modified (GM) organisms and foods to reduce poverty and hunger in the world hots up, Ghana is torn between siding with the United States, which is promoting it and the European Union (EU), which is against it.
But the Scientific Secretary of the Food Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Robert Yawson, says the country will gain a lot rather than lose in terms of food security if she should embrace GM organisms and foods.
Yawson, who spoke to The Chronicle in Accra last Friday, said Ghana's acceptance of the new technology would reduce poverty and hunger, especially in the northern part of the country because these foods are very nutritious in terms of vitamins and other ingredients and could withstand pests and other crop diseases.
He advised the government to include the production of GM foods in the poverty alleviation strategy programme. Yawson said through genetic engineering rice with added vitamin A and iron could help prevent blindness and anemia in the North where vitamin A deficiency is prevalent.
"This will help reduce the amount of money spent on importing vaccines. "Rice can be more nourishing, higher yielding and more resistant to pests," he said.
Swiss scientists have developed "golden rice" into which the beta-carotene has been inserted in order to prevent blindness induced by vitamin A deficiency.
He noted that so far, no one has proven any dangers associated with the consumption of GM foods. He said despite the unblemished record of safe use, critics have mounted stiff opposition against the technology and have raised concerns about its potential impact on human health and the environment.
In Europe, these campaigns have seriously undermined public confidence in the safety of foods produced using new technologies. The EU has therefore established new rules and procedures designed to address genetically modified organisms. This action has created international trade conflicts, which have cost farmers millions of dollars and threatened to drive away agricultural scientists and researchers from field research, which has the potential of solving food security and environmental problems.
"Ghana cannot afford to follow them blindly," Yawson said, adding that the country stood to gain a lot by adopting this technology and accepting the consumption of GM foods. "The government cannot afford to ignore and just do what comes naturally," he added.
"America produces and consumes about 70% of GM foods it produces and if it is so bad, do you think America would allow her citizens to eat them?" he asked. He said Ghanaians might be eating GM foods, as there is no mechanism to detect whether foods imported from the USA are GM or not.
However opponents of GM foods like Friends of the Earth and People United Against Genetically Modified Foods, say they are not against progress, science and new technologies, so long as they do not interfere with the very essence of life and nature and the wonderful complex and unique structure of each creature on this planet.
They maintain that whether created by God or not, they do not own nature and humans have no right to try to change the genetic make-up of any living plant and creature.
Friends of the Earth Corporate Globalisation Campaigner, Eve Mitchell, said not only has this already occurred, but also now, large multinational companies are producing potentially unsafe genetically modified foods.
She noted, "Nature has existed for millions of years; it has evolved slowly since it's beginning. How can we now claim to change the result of this slow evolution in a matter of weeks and still claim that it is safe for people and for the world? What do we know? The fact that Americans have been eating GM foods for several years does not prove anything."
"If these result in something catastrophic, it may not happen until two or three generations from now, we don't know. And if this happens sooner or later, we won't simply be able to withdraw GM foods from shelves and fields, it would be too late," she said.
According to the Regional Director of the office of Consumers International, Amadou Kanoute, genetic engineering would not solve the problems of hunger and famine but would pose potential dangers like destroying the model of production that sustains about 70% of farmers in Africa.
Biotechnology involves taking genes from one species and inserting them into another in an attempt to transfer a desired character or trait. It is now possible to introduce genes from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans into plants.
Genetically modified foods are then foods that have been harvested from genetically modified organisms or crops. Most Christians see genetic engineering as tempering with the very origins of life that is the gene; therefore challenging God.
Controversy over GM foods was at its peak last year when some countries in the southern part of Africa (Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe) refused GM foods as aid during a food crisis.
Currently, about 35 countries, including the EU member states, Australia, Japan, China, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, which account for half of the world's population, have refused to use GM technology. - Chronicle
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Lecturers' strike halts academic calendar at university
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 September 2003 - The crisis at the University of Ghana, Legon, remained unchanged as the University Teacher's Association of Ghana's (UTAG) strike action entered its ninth day.
The students were confused and did not know whether to leave for home or remain on campus yesterday to ascertain the situation there, it found out that as a result of the strike most of the student just roamed around, chatting. Others left for the city every morning to do whatever they wished.
In the light of these the Student Representative Council (SRC) of the University, yesterday said the students would advise themselves should the lecturers' strike continue.
According to the vice president, Francis Acquaye, the SRC on Tuesday delegated some people of the students "to seek police permission to carry out whatever action we would decide on doing". He said the perpetual strike by UTAG was having a very serious social and economic impact on them.
He explained that some non-residential students always paid lorry fares to the university only to go back disappointed because of the strike. He also expressed concern that the situation was likely to affect the academic calendar or even lead to the closure of the university.
A major source of worry to the SRC, he said was the fact that foreign students at the university were also suffering the pinch. He urged the government to give UTAG a good hearing on its demand for an amicable settlement of the impasse.
When contacted, Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, Dean of Students, gave the assurance that the strike action would not have any serious impact on the university. He said the strike could not lead to the closure of the university as being speculated.
Already, he said, some of the lecturers had begun lecturing and that was an indication that the strike action would last long. "Immediately the strike action is called-off, the lecturers would be rushed to complete their back-logged topics," he said, adding, "there is no way that we shall postpone this year's calendar".
Dr Antwi-Danso also expressed concern about the negative signals that would be sent to the international community as a result of the action. He therefore appealed to UTAG to resume work unconditionally, while negotiations on the demands continued. - Times
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Cartel at Diamond House smashed
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 September 2003 - What has been described as a cartel, operating at the Diamond House in Accra and believed to be the source of huge losses in earnings to Ghana, has been dismantled.
The cartel was broken last Thursday at a tender by Balaji Diamonds, an Indian company that was caught in a recent controversy between Ghana Consolidated Diamond Company (GCDC) and DWS Diamonds, an Israeli company over the sale of GCDC's diamonds on the open market.
Balaji won the tender which took place on 28 August 2003 when it offered to buy GCDC's rough diamonds at a floor price of $30.24 per carat as against $28.10 offered by DWS Diamonds.
Winning the tender gives Balaji the sole right to purchase GCDC rough diamonds for a period of three months, a privilege DWS had enjoyed for well over a year. Insiders say some of the leading brokers at Diamond House that had formed the cartel had been buying the GCDC's precious stones in turns at a cheaper price than their real market value.
The Chronicle learnt that the cartel's operation has contributed immensely to the cash-strap status of GCDC, which is now facing the threat of divestiture. Working within such a network environment GCDC could hardly raise the funds to sustain its operations.
A source said DWS attempted breaking the cartel when the company won her first tender to purchase GCD's rough stones. Now with the recent tender being won by Balaji Diamonds, GCDC accepts $30.24 per carat as the price for the 'standard parcel' (quality or high grade diamonds).
The float parcel (low grade diamonds) will be delivered together with the standard parcel to Balaji. The price for the float will be negotiated with the buyer on or prior to delivery.
As part of the agreement Balaji Diamonds have made a payment of $500,000 to offset a revolving loan the GCDC took from DWS Ltd, last year. "The offer by the Indian company is the highest ever to have emerged at the GCD tender', insiders told The Chronicle. - Chronicle
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BNI probes another "coup attempt"
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 September 2003 - The security services are once again examining claims that a coup could be in the offing.
Although security sources admit that they do not yet have any evidence, which suggests that any group is plotting to overthrow the Kufuor administration, they are taking newspaper reports of an impending coup seriously.
According to the "Insight" newspaper , Osbert Lartey, Editor of The Vanguard, has been invited by the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) to substantiate claims that former President Rawlings is planning a coup. - The Insight
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President Kufuor orders yet another VRA probe
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 September 2003 - President Kufuor has ordered a third enquiry into allegations of mismanagement and corruption at the Volta River Authority (VRA).
Sources close to the Presidency told the "Insight" newspaper that this time, the enquiry is being carried out by the security agencies with a view to harmonizing the contents of the reports prepared by the Auditor-General and another by the Ministerial Committee which probed the Authority.
The report of the Auditor-General has been made public, but the Ministry of Energy has refused to publish the report of the ministerial Committee. - The Insight
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 September 2003 - Three of ex-President Rawlings' four children arrived in the country, on a private chartered plane late last week.
The kids arrived with their mother, after attending the wedding of a daughter of General Ibrahim Babaginda, in the northern Nigeria State of Kaduna.
The cost of the chartered flight is however, not known. The children, who are studying in prestigious schools in the UK, have since returned with their mother, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, to the UK. They were in Ghana for a brief summer vacation. - Daily Guide
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Don't invest HIPC money - Finance Minister
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 September 2003 - The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has warned all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies not to invest HIPC money in treasury bills.
According to him, the money was strictly meant for development projects geared towards poverty reduction and that guideline had to be adhered to accordingly.
He gave the warning at the weekly "meet the press" series in Accra yesterday when he announced the government's intention to release an amount of ¢183.6 billion from the HIPC funds to the various assemblies.
He said the practice where some of the recipients invested the money in treasury bills and short-term bonds, among other things, at the expense of the beneficiaries should cease to enable the people for which the money was disbursed to derive the full benefits.
He mentioned the breakdown of the allocations to the Metropolitan Assemblies as follows: Accra, ¢5.40bn, Kumasi ¢3.85bn and Sekondi/Takoradi, ¢3bn.
For the Municipalities, each of them would be allocated ¢2.30bn while the District Assemblies would be given ¢1.54bn each.
He said, 50 per cent of the allocations were to be released immediately upon application and indicated that the use of these allocations should be limited to education, health, water and sanitation. - Graphic
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Ashanti buyer must share risk and reward
Accra - Any company that buys Ghana's Ashanti Goldfields must be willing to spend as much as $1bn to access the deep underground reserves of its Obuasi mine, chief executive Sam Jonah said yesterday.
"The key is Obuasi," Jonah said. "We are looking to a partner who wants to share that risk and the reward." Ashanti's board and its largest shareholder, Lonmin, the world's third-biggest platinum producer, have accepted a $1.31bn stock offer by AngloGold, the world's second-largest gold mining company.
Randgold Resources, based in Jersey, Channel Islands, has said it may offer $1.5bn of its own stock for Ashanti.
Investors may favour the AngloGold bid, which has a market value of R67bn, because it can raise money more easily than Randgold, which has a market capitalisation of $663m. AngloGold has said it would spend $680m on Obuasi.
Randgold chief executive Mark Bristow last month declined to say how Randgold would fund the project. "Once you bring in very large capital commitments it blows Randgold's bid out of the water," said Leon Esterhuizen, an analyst at Investec Securities in Johannesburg.
AngloGold shares closed R9.50 up at R317.21 in Johannesburg. Randgold stock rose 37.5p to close at £15.425 in London. Ashanti's shares were up 0.04c at e9.56 (R79.58) in Germany.
Buying Ashanti, the first African company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, would help AngloGold chief executive Bobby Godsell boost reserves by 31 percent and cut costs by $15m a year. The purchase would lift AngloGold's output by 27 percent to within 1.3 percent of Newmont Mining, the world's biggest gold mining company.
"Obuasi is fully explored; it should be the largest mine within the group, whether we join AngloGold or Randgold," said Jonah, who will be president of the merged company if the AngloGold purchase goes through. "It has huge reserves."- Bloomberg Business Report
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