Posts in category: Other News

Thirty-Eight women have been nominated as chief executives for the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

The 38 represents 14.6 pre cent out of a list of 260.

Some women advocates had expected the female nominees to hit 30 per cent.

In the first term of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 36 out of the nominees for the position of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives were women.

Breakdown

Out of the 16 regions, the Ahafo and Western North regions did not get any female representation.

In the Greater Accra Region, Mrs Elizabeth Sackey led the pack of eight females nominated for the various MMDCEs.

Mrs Sackey is the nominee for the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to replace Mr Mohammed Adjei Sowah.

The other assemblies in the Greater Accra Region with women nominees are  Ablekuma Central, Ada East, Ayawaso East, Ayawaso West, Ga East, La Nkwantanan Madina and Tema West.

In the Ashanti Region, four females were nominated for Obuasi East, Sekyere South, Atwima Nwabiagya, Ahafo Ano North and Sekyere South.

In the North East, two females, Zuwera Nasiru and Rashida Mahama were nominated for the Chereponi and East Mamprugu.

However, the nomination of Madam Nasiru has led to some supporters of the New Patriotic Party vandalising the party’s office, reports Mohammed Fugu.

The angry supporters stormed the party’s constituency office,  broke into it and vandalised everything.

They also set some party property including structures and paraphernalia on fire. The youth are said to be registering their displeasure with the nomination of the Madam Zuweira Mada Nashiru who they said was not their preferred candidate.

Concerns

According to them, the nominee was a staunch member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the constituency and the daughter of Hajia Mary Nakobu, a former DCE for the area in the erstwhile John Mahama regime.

One of the aggrieved supporters, Adam Munkaila, told the Daily Graphic that “we cannot trust the loyalty of Madam Zuweira because she is a well-known NDC member.”

Other regions

In the Eastern Region, five females got the presidential nod for positions with Madam Margaret Darko as candidate for the Suhum Municipal Assembly.

The Central Region got three females while the Bono and Bono East had one female each for the Tain and Nkoranza South districts.

The Western Region had two females while the Volta Region got one female nominee and Upper West getting three.

In the Upper East Region, three females got lucky with their nominations while the Savannah, Oti and Northern regions had three, two and one female nominations, respectively.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral, Apostle Prof. Opoku Onyinah, has expressed reservations about the criticisms against the construction of the edifice.

According to him, he always prays for God to forgive the critics.

This is because he believes they do not know what they are doing and do not have adequate understanding of the citadel for God.

“We don’t have to speak against our leaders or insult them because we don’t agree with them on something. So I always pray that God forgives the critics of the National Cathedral,” he said.

He made these remarks on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen, stating that some people have politicised the construction though it is not supposed to be so.

“We must eschew politics in the discussion of the National Cathedral. We are too partisan in our lives as a people,” he cautioned.

Apostle Prof Onyinah expressed optimism the naysayers and critics will admit their fault and even apologise once the construction is done.

Meanwhile, he has urged Ghanaians and the Christian fraternity to be supportive in every way they can to ensure the success of the Cathedral.

“One million Christians or Ghanaians can help us build the National Cathedral and we would do monthly accounts of all our activities, so we should be patient for what the outcome will be,” he appealed.

Source: Myjoyonline.com

The German Government is giving Ghana 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to aid in the country’s vaccination campaign against the pandemic.

The donation is part of the pledge made by Germany to make up to 70 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine available to African countries this year to help the continent’s bid to vaccinate its 1.3 billion population.

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel pledged last Friday after a summit with African leaders on the G20’s Compact with Africa Initiative held last week.

“As we speak, President Akufo-Addo has dispatched a plane to Germany to take delivery of the 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines,” said the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin whilst addressing the Presidential Press Corp at the Jubilee House, Accra.

The contribution from Germany is in addition to 1.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine that the American Government has given Ghana to aid the Government’s quest to have at least 20 million of the adult population of the country vaccinated by the end of the year.

“At this particular stage, I think it is a good initiative that has been undertaken by the Government of President Akufo-Addo towards helping to rid our country of COVID-19, and, hopefully, his pledge of ensuring 20 million Ghanaians by the end of this year are vaccinated. Slowly but surely, I believe we are on course to realizing that particular pledge of ensuring that the entire adult population of Ghana is vaccinated.

“So, 1.5 million vaccine doses from Germany is on its way to Ghana,” Mr Arhin said.

The Communications Director who was briefing the Press Corp on the President’s seven-day working visit to Germany said President Akufo-Addo held bilateral talks with his German counterpart on vaccines, acquisition of naval patrol boats for the Ghana Navy, and strengthening the bonds of cooperation between the two nations.

The President also participated in the G20 Compact for Africa, initiated under the German Presidency to promote private investment in Africa, including infrastructure, where he made clear that the Compact initiative had had a tremendous impact on Ghana’s ambition to become an investment hub in Africa, with auto and industry giants pitching camp in the country.

Source: GNA

Ghana has set a new cocoa production record with 1.033 million tonnes of beans for the 2020/2021 season.

This comes six weeks before the 2020/2021 cocoa season gets to a close, which means that the figure can still go up before the harvest period ends.

The previous record was 1.024 million tonnes which was recorded in the 2010/2011 season.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, announced this at a press conference in Accra yesterday.

Aside from announcing the new production figures, the press conference was also to introduce new electric weighing scales which have been procured by COCOBOD for the Licence Cocoa Buying Companies (LBCs).

He commended the hardworking cocoa farmers for the feat and said the achievement was also as a result of the support of the government and the determination of the management and staff of COCOBOD.

“Thanks to all stakeholders in the industry, we have been able to achieve this,” he stated.

Productivity enhancement

The chief executive also noted that the milestone was achieved due to the Productivity Enhancement Programme (PEP) which was introduced by the board.

Interventions under the PEP include rehabilitation of cocoa farms, mechanised pruning, fertiliser subsidy, mass spraying, artificial hand pollination, irrigation, distribution of cocoa seeds and continuous farmer education on good agronomic practices.

Through the PEP programme, Mr Aidoo said cocoa extension service was extended to all the regions.

“We also provided high quality and high yielding cocoa seeds to the farmers.

“Our research institute in Tafo also stepped up their activities and the quality control unit also did very well,” he stated.

Way forward

Mr Aidoo pointed out that looking at the trends, COCOBOD was confident that the prospects for the coming season would also be good.

He encouraged the farmers to continue to avail themselves of the various educational and sensitisation extended to them.

They should also continue implementing all the intervention programmes introduced by COCOBOD.

“If they do so, their farm productivity is going to change and they will continue to see improvements in their yields and better days will come,” the COCOBOD CEO stated.

Mr Aidoo said the achievement also placed a huge task and responsibility on COCOBOD to do better in coming seasons, assuring that “we want to sustain the achievements.”

New weighing scales

The new weighing scales will be used by the LBCs from Wednesday, September 1, this year when the new cocoa season begins.

The introduction of the new scale is to check illegal adjustments, which the CEO described as a pertinent issue in the industry.

Mr Aidoo said COCOBOD had already procured over 44,000 of the electronic weighing scales which would soon be distributed to the LBCs.

“We have worked on this together with the LBCs in total agreement to change the weighing scales from the manual to the electronic system. “We wanted the kind that can be used everywhere in the country. So we have procured both electronic and solar scales,” he said.

Mr Aidoo added that it would end the days when cocoa farmers felt cheated by LBCs whom they claimed adjusted their weighing scales.

He noted that the new electronic scales were recommended by the Ghana Standards Authority following a survey of the manual scales presently being used across the country.

“We take the issue of weighing scale tampering very seriously as we believe it has a negative impact on interventions that COCOBOD has put in place to improve the earnings and livelihoods of cocoa farmers,” Mr Aidoo said.

Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world, just behind Cote d‘Ivoire. Production in both countries accounts for more than 60 per cent of the volume of cocoa beans in the world.

Apart from the 2010/2011 cocoa season which saw the country produce one million tonnes of beans, the country’s production has ranged between 650,000 and 900,000 tonnes.

Cote d’Ivoire, the world’s leading cocoa producer, currently produces about two million tonnes.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has agreed to suspend its strike, following an emergency meeting with the National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.

This is contained in a Memorandum of Agreement between the government and the UTAG, copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education, signed for the government while Professor Charles Ofosu Marfo, National President of UTAG, signed on behalf of the Association.

UTAG and the government in the Memorandum agreed to begin negotiations on the matter from Monday, August 23, 2021.

It also agreed that the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, in conjunction with the National Labour Commission, would take steps to discontinue all legal processes against UTAG while UTAG would also take steps to suspend the ongoing strike action.

The statement said the government acknowledged the need to improve the working conditions of University teachers and would treat the agreement with all the seriousness it deserved.

NLC secured the court injunction against UTAG’ s strike on August 2, arguing that the law barred UTAG from proceeding on the industrial action when negotiations were underway.

UTAG is demanding the implementation of a 2012 Single Spine package, which put entry-level lecturers on a salary of $2,084.

Source: GNA

The Ghana Health Service says it is updating the status of all persons who have been fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 disease in the country.

This has come as a result of challenges being faced by individuals, especially persons wanting to travel outside Ghana, to verify their vaccination status using the barcode at the back of their COVID-19 vaccination card.

This was contained in a statement signed and issued by the Director General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye on Thursday, August 5, 2021.

The GHS, as part of its COVID-19 vaccination data quality assurance process, set up a system of data validation for persons who have received a full dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The process includes placement of a registered metallic peel – hologram with security features – on the vaccination card as proof of full vaccination and a barcode to check vaccination status.

The GHS is however facing challenges with the system as some vaccinated individuals, especially those travelling outside Ghana, are unable to verify their vaccination status using the barcode.

The service has therefore set up a desk at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) for travellers to aid with their vaccination verification process.

“Fully vaccinated outbound travellers (i.e., travellers who have received two doses of AstraZeneca or Sputnik-V vaccine) departing from KIA should contact the Vaccination Verification Desk of the Port Health Unit at the Departure Hall of KIA to verify their vaccination status prior to departure,” the statement said.

It added that other fully vaccinated individuals desirous of verifying their vaccination status should visit the nearest health facility or District Health Directorate for assistance.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

Information available to Joy News indicates that COP Dr. George Akuffo Dampare will take over as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) from August 1, 2021.

He takes over from James Oppong-Boanuh, a lawyer and police officer, who was appointed to be the police boss by President Akufo-Addo in October 2019.

COP George Dampare until his appointment was the Director-General in charge of Administration at the Service.

COP Dr George Akuffo Dampare has been in the Ghana Police Service for close to 30 years.

He joined the service as a Constable and has risen to the highest rank of Commissioner of Police, becoming one of the youngest Police Officers to have attained this in recent years.

He has served in many leadership capacities in the Service including; Director General (Finance), Director General (Welfare), Director General (ICT), Commandant of the Police Command and Staff College, and Accra Region Police Commander. He is currently the Director-General (Operations) of the Service.

COP Dr. Akuffo Dampare became a chartered accountant at the age of 25 while serving as a Police Constable and currently holds a PhD in Finance.

He has been an Adjunct Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and at the University Of Cape Coast in Ghana.

Amongst his credentials; George Akuffo Dampare (PhD) was a Special Assistant to the Regional Commander, United Nations Mission in Bosnia Herzegovina, Municipal Police Commander, Cape Coast, ADC to the Vice President of Ghana, Accountant/Finance Officer, Ghana Police Service and the Head of Police and Narcotics Desk at the Ministry of Interior.

He has been credited for his lead role in the swift arrest of the alleged killer of former Abuakwa North MP, J.B. Danquah.

Source: Myjoyonline.com.

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has, for the second time, extended the mop-up enumeration exercise for the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC).

To last for 12 days (July 19 – 30), the latest extension is to allow the GSS to exhaust the remaining six per cent of households that are yet to be covered in the exercise in some parts of the country.

The 2021 PHC, which started on Monday, June 28 in all 16 regions, was expected to end on Sunday, July 11, 2021, but the GSS extended the deadline to Sunday, July 18.

According to the GSS, the move was to ensure that all persons in the country were reached and counted.

Coverage

At a press briefing in Accra on Monday, July 19, the Government Statistician, Prof. Kobina Annim, said at the end of the initial mop-up exercise, 94 per cent of the listed households were enumerated, leaving a backlog of six per cent to be cleared.

He indicated that in line with the GSS’s principle of leaving no one uncounted, the service gave a second window to ensure that everyone was counted to get reliable data on the country.

Prof. Annim added that as of Sunday, July 18, the data collected showed that apart from the Greater Accra Region where 75 per cent of the households had been enumerated, all the other regions exceeded 90 per cent enumeration status.

Prioritised MMDAs

He said 25 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) had been identified as priority areas for the next phase of the mop-up exercise because they hosted most of the remaining six per cent of persons yet to be enumerated.

The MMDAs are located in the Greater Accra, Central, Western, Eastern and Volta regions.

“The identification of these selected areas for the extension and the accompanying duration are driven by a number of factors including calls received by persons in Ghana on their status and experience of the enumeration, departure from benchmark indicators, assessment of the coverage and quality of data received so far,” he said.

Challenges

The Government Statistician added that the enumeration could not be completed in some of the areas, particularly in the Greater Accra Region, because those were fast-growing areas.

Additionally, he said some respondents were unwilling to participate in the exercise for various reasons while the enumerator also faced challenges such as motor accidents, snakebites and dogs attacks.

Although some of the challenges delayed the completion of the enumeration exercise as scheduled, he said the GSS was focused on reaching all the six per cent of outstanding households by the July 30 extension period.

Responding to a question on what the implication of the extension of the exercise was on the PHC budget, he said adequate provision had been made for the mop-up exercise so the GSS was confident that it would complete the exercise within the stipulated budget.

Quality assurance

Prof. Annim said the GSS had instituted spot checks in enumeration areas to get individuals who had not been enumerated to call and be captured.

The move, he said, was part of measures to be sure that quality work had been done by the field officers.

“In the process of spot-checking, verification and validations are done at three levels – listing of all structures, covering of all households in structures and counting of all members in the household,” he said.

He said the GSS had also instituted physical visits to selected households for the purpose of verifying information collected by its field officers.

“These visits will be done by field monitors who will be wearing field monitors’ jackets, branded with 2021 PHC and GSS logos and carrying photo ID,”  he added.

Furthermore, Prof. Annim said as part of the quality assurance process, the GSS had instituted outboard calls to selected members of the public seeking to verify and validate information collected by the field officers.

The GSS boss assured members of the public who were yet to be enumerated that they would not be left out of the exercise.

He also appealed to members of the public who were unwilling to participate in the enumeration exercise to cooperate with enumerators by allowing themselves to be counted.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) Sunday started the actual enumeration of people, starting with those in transit.

Enumerators in the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) visited various places to count people in homeless households in makeshift structures and open spaces, described as “outside sleepers”, people who were in transit, those at transport terminals, those who were spending short stays in institutions such as hotels and guest houses and hospitals.

The Census Night, defined as the period between 6 p.m. yesterday and 6 a.m. this morning, saw more than 60,000 enumerators across the country spending the night counting the eligible class of people.

Sunday, the counting of people in big hospitals and hotels had started across the country, the Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, told the Daily Graphic.

He said in the hotels, forms would also be left to be filled by guests who were not available to complete them.

For the outside sleepers, the target of the enumerators was to count almost all, but the officers, who wore reflective blue jackets, carried ID cards and adhered to all COVID-19 protocols, would return to the places for a mop-up.

“Enumerators will leave call-back cards at residences where no one is at home to answer questions. All are urged to use the call-back cards to schedule a convenient time that enumerators can return,” Prof. Annim stated.

He said to avoid double counting during the exercise, all persons enumerated last night would be given a ‘certificates of enumeration’.

Briefing

Earlier, at a press briefing yesterday, the Government Statistician had explained that last night’s exercise was restricted to the short stay and homeless households, with the counting and enumeration of people in households and long-stay institutions starting from today until Sunday, July 11, this year.

Prof. Annim said no one was required to travel or move to a specific place just to be enumerated, stressing that “all people should go about their normal business as usual.”

He indicated that an adult member of a household/institution could answer the questions on behalf of other members.

The Government Statistician, who was at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle himself for the enumeration exercise, thanked the public for their cooperation during the listing exercise and said the service was counting on same support for the enumeration.

Readiness

Prof. Annim said 98.3 per cent of the expected number of structures had been chalked and listed as of the end of the 11th day of the 2021 PHC.

What was left included pockets of structures at places such as Ledzokuku (Teshie), Krowor (Nungua), the Kassena Nankana Municipality, Talensi and Bolgatanga East due to refusals as a result of boundary disputes.

Prof. Annim mentioned other contributory factors such as the absence of structure residents or owners when enumerators visited, large sizes of enumeration areas and rapidly expanding localities, but gave an assurance that the chalking of all remaining structures would be completed before the start of enumeration this morning.

Monitors

Meanwhile, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has deployed 40 population experts from the international community to monitor the PHC.

The Country Representative of the UNFPA, Mr Niyi Ojuolape, who confirmed this to the Daily Graphic yesterday, said the deployment was in response to the government’s request for the UNFPA to implement the peer monitoring of the 2021 PHC.

He said the purpose of the monitoring exercise was to observe and report on the training and data collection procedures viz-a-viz international standards and best practices that could be replicated elsewhere on the African continent, with documented lessons learned.

He said the monitoring was also predicated on the need to closely monitor and provide objective assessment and feedback on the impact of the extensive use of new methodologies and technologies (innovations) on the quality of enumeration and share the experiences and best practices with other countries through South-South cooperation.

Mr Ojuolape said the independent monitoring of census exercises had gained currency, especially in the last two census rounds.

He said more developing countries and experts were requesting to be involved in the initiative, as it also facilitated knowledge gathering and experience sharing.

“The ultimate report will be used to share knowledge, experiences and best practices with other countries through UNFPA-led South-South cooperation. Population censuses have been conducted in Ghana at approximately 10-year intervals since 1891, the last being in 2010,” Mr Ojuolape said.

He said the inclusion of people from other countries would enable the process to be truly independent.

“Additionally, the independent monitoring process will benefit from skills and experiences from other parts that may be lacking within the Ghanaian context. Then, again, the inclusion of international citizens from developing countries enhances South-South exchanges,” he said.

Technology

The UNFPA Country Representative said all previous censuses, including those conducted post-independence, had been manually conducted with paper-based questionnaire.

Mr Ojuolape said for the first time ever, the PHC would be done using a fully digital modality.

“The modality utilises the Computer-Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) method, which involves the use of tablets for data collection. While the use of technology allows for a more efficient data collection and analysing process, there are still calls to strengthen quality assurance of data collected,” he added.

Innovation

Mr Ojuolape said to facilitate the census, several innovative and unique features had been introduced in the 2021 PHC that would enable the collection of quality and policy-relevant data and ensure rapid release of user-friendly results.

He said aside from the deployment of the independent observers, the UNFPA had supported the GSS with an international consultant who had been providing technical assistance for the census process since 2019.

Enumerators can be identified by their attire – they are in reflective blue jackets and white caps emblazoned with the 2021 PHC logo.

They are required to present photo IDs when they visit.

Respondents with concerns about an enumerator should call the toll-free call centre on 0800-426-426.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

Ghana has been ranked the second most peaceful country in Africa in the 2021 Global Peace Index report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

The IEP is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to shifting the world’s focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress.

A look at the snapshot of the global state of peace as captured in the report, Ghana is ranked 38th in the world out of the 163 countries reviewed. Ghana scored 1.715 which represents a two point move upwards from the previous Global Peace Index report.

Other African rankings

Mauritius, the only African country ahead of Ghana in the Peace index on the first position in Africa ranked 28th in the global space. Botswana took third place in Africa and was ranked 41st on the global peace index.

Iceland is ranked number one as the most peaceful country in the world with a score of 1.1. New Zealand, Denmark, Portugal, and Slovenia are ranked second, third, fourth, and fifth respectively.

Least peaceful countries

The five least peaceful countries in the world, according to the 2021 global peace index are Iraq (ranked 159th), South Sudan (ranked 160th), Syria (ranked 161st) Yemen (ranked 162nd) and Afghanistan (at the bottom ranking163rd)

Covid-19 impact on peace

As part of the key findings of the 2021 Global Peace Index, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has wreaked massive economic havoc around the world also had “a significant impact on levels of conflict and violence”. The level of civil unrest the report says “rose in 2020, fuelled in large part by responses to coronavirus restrictions”. Over 5,000 pandemic-related violent events were recorded between January 2020 and April 2021 worldwide.

“The deterioration in militarization and improvement in ongoing conflict were both influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a major negative impact on economic activity, human movement, and international relations in 2020. The pandemic had a noticeable impact on the violent demonstrations and political instability indicators, with 25 and 46 countries respectively recording deterioration on these indicators,” the report further highlighted.

Global peace deterioration

According to the Index, “the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.07 per cent in the 2021 Global Peace Index. Although a relatively small deterioration, this is the ninth time in the last 13 years that global peacefulness has deteriorated”.

The report notes that “in the past year, 87 countries recorded an improvement in peacefulness, while 73 countries recorded a deterioration. Three countries recorded no change in their overall score. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remained the world’s least peaceful region. It is home to three of the five least peaceful countries in the world. However, it recorded the largest regional improvement over the past year”.

Europe the report says “remains the most peaceful region in the world. The region is home to eight of the ten most peaceful countries, and no country in Europe is ranked outside the top half of the index”.

The GPI and IEP

The 2021 Global Index report is the 15th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness.

The report presents the most comprehensive data driven analysis to-date on trends in peace, its economic value, and how to develop peaceful societies.

The GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace across three domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security, the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and the degree of Militarization.

IEP achieves its goals by developing new conceptual frameworks to define peacefulness; providing metrics for measuring peace; and uncovering the relationships between business, peace and prosperity as well as promoting a better understanding of the cultural, economic and political factors that create peace.

IEP is headquartered in Sydney, with offices in New York, The Hague, Mexico City, Brussels and Harare. It works with a wide range of partners internationally and collaborates with intergovernmental organizations on measuring and communicating the economic value of peace.

Source: Myjoyonline.com