Day: March 23, 2024

The Ellembelle District Assembly has expressed its readiness to enter broader consultation with the Eastern Nzema Traditional Council to educate the people before rolling out any form of taxation and property rates.

The move forms part of measures to enable the Council make inputs into the tax and property rates components to be imposed on the people.

Chief of Basake ,Nana Bonya Kofi who expressed the concerns during the Traditional Council meeting at Atuabo , asked the District Assembly to go back to the drawing board with broader consultation with the traditional council and allow the chiefs and elders to make inputs into how much should be paid by tax payers in the district.

Mr Solomon Agyei, Coordinating Director at the Ellembelle District Assembly on behalf of the District Chief Executive Kwasi Bonzo, told the Council that the Assembly had carried a directive from central government to form Revenue Committees to collect taxes and property rates to generate more revenue.

As part of the modalities, he
said the Assembly would generate revenue from signposts, billboards, and temporal structures.

The Road Safety Committee would emboss a sticker on motorcycles in the Okada business, Pragyaa and other Tricycle transport popularly called Aboboya.

Awulae Amihere Kpanyinli III, the President of the Eastern Nzema Traditional Council, asked the Assembly to consult the Council before the Assembly rolled out any taxes on the people.

Nana Akye Blay, Chief of Menzezor also stressed the urgent need for the District Assembly to liaise with the Council before taxes were fixed for people in the area.

In another development, Management of ADAMUS Mines donated GHc5,000.00, soft drinks and bottled water to support the Council.

The management of 7 Stars Mineral Water at Aiyinasi also presented cash of GHc5,000.00 to the Council.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Huawei has released the National Cloud 2.0 solution world to help government organisations around the world accelerate national digital transformation and promote intelligence.

Mr Hu Yuhai, Vice President of Huawei Hybrid Cloud, said: ‘Global digital transformation has reached a new stage of full intelligence driven by data and AI.

The National Cloud 2.0 solution from Huawei provides trusted cloud infrastructure, innovative cloud services, and extensive industry know-how. We aim to help governments achieve national digital visions faster.’

He said more than 170 countries and regions had announced digital transformation strategies and as innovative technologies like AI models see more widespread adoption, the digital transformation of government customers was reaching a new stage.

Mr Hu said previously, government customers were focused on moving their applications to various clouds and now they were seeking data- and AI-driven industry intelligence.

‘They look to leverage digital and intelligent technolo
gies to empower smart city governance, better government services, and greater economic growth,’ he said.

He said the solution was backed by Huawei’s ICT innovation and robust experience driving digital transformation for customers and partners around the world.

Mr Hu said it provided trusted cloud infrastructure, innovative cloud services, and extensive industry know-how, helping governments achieve their national digital visions faster.

He said Huawei had established secure, reliable, and open cloud-native infrastructure and provided green, low-carbon IT hardware and cloud-native infrastructure.

He said Huawei aimed to lay a robust foundation for the national digital transformation of government customers.

On innovative cloud services, Huawei leverages data and AI technologies to provide innovative cloud services, aiming to help government customers unleash data value and establish data sovereignty.

He said around extensive industry know-how, Huawei provided a series of professional services, includin
g high-level design, service planning, deliveries, and implementation, all backed by extensive experience with numerous global projects.

‘Huawei looks forward to working with more industry partners in the future and to accelerating national digital transformation for government customers around the world,’ he added.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ketu South Municipal office, Department of Agriculture has urged farmers in the municipality to register under the second phase of government’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ 2.0) programme.

Mr Kafui Agbe, the Municipal Director of Agriculture in an interview with Ghana News Agency said registration onto the recently initiated PFJ 2.0 was the only way farmers could take advantage of the countless opportunities the programme presented.

He said the underpinning model for the new design – Input Credit System (getting people to supply inputs to farmers for production at zero-interest) as well as addressing the challenge of post-harvest losses were some of the benefits farmers would enjoy when enrolled onto the programme.

He said: ‘The PFJ Phase II offers a lot of benefits. First, it introduces aggregators who supply the inputs to registered farmers and after production, the farmers pay for the input in kind (using their produce).

‘This input credit system is an improvement on the initial PFJ programme wh
ere government subsidised inputs for farmers for production.

‘With the new design, the market issue of farmers will be solved. Also, financing for land development and preparation as well as seeds and fertilisers will no longer be issues to the farmer. This is because during registration, Agriculture Extension Agents (AEAs) and other technical officers will take biodata of farmers and coordinates of their farms to enable aggregators link up with them.’

Mr Agbe said a mobile and web application platform called Ghana Agriculture and Agribusiness Platform (GHAAP) had been developed and being used for the ongoing registration and it was important for all farmers in Ketu South to get enrolled.

‘I urge every farmer to register in the ongoing process through the technical officers to enjoy the benefits of the programme which include market for their produce.

They should contact the officers, the AEAs or visit us in the office. The registration is free. All they need is to have their Ghana card.’

The Planting fo
r Food and Jobs Phase II is a bold, innovative, and comprehensive five-year plan to tackle head-on the challenges of players in the agriculture sector to attain food and raw material self-sufficiency in some 10 crops and poultry.

Through its underpinning model – Input Credit System, the programme aims to address critical challenges including access to credit, quality of agro inputs, unstructured markets of agricultural produce and low mechanisation.

It is building on the initial PFJ, government’s designed and implemented programme structured around five pillars including seed, fertiliser, extension services, marketing and, fertiliser and monitoring with the aim to promote growth in food production and create jobs across the country.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Church of Pentecost, Nkwanta Area has organized a cleanup exercise to ensure a clean and healthy environment.

Apostle Seth Dwamena Asante, Nkwanta Area Head of the Church of Pentecost, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the exercise was part of the Church’s nationwide ‘environmental care campaign.’

He said it was to ensure the wellbeing of the people and their respective environs as indicated by the Sustainable Development Goal (3) and the Millennium Development Goal (7) to ensure there is environmental sustainability respectively.

Members of the Church from various locations joined the cleanup despite their busy schedules to help keep their surrounding clean.

Apostle Asante applauded the leadership, including District pastors, elders deaconesses, deacons, members and Zoomlion Department, for the good initiative.

He urged Church members as well as residents to emulate the habit of cleanliness at all times in tandem with the adage ‘cleanliness is next to Godliness.’

The Church later pra
yed for God’s intervention in restoring peace to Nkwanta township after the exercise.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Collins Kwamikorkor, the Oti Regional Director of Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) says Mastercard Foundation will train about 11,288 Ghanaians youth through BizBox in the Oti Region for the next four-years.

He said the BizBox programme focuses on holistic development rather than direct financial assistance.

He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that the programme comprises five components such as Youth skills development, Access to market, Access to start-up kits, Youth social network, Institutional Strengthening Policy, and regulatory support.

The project support includes agriculture and businesses of about 50 per cent, Tourism, and creative industry also about 30 per cent and Building and Construction also 10 and other sectors too 10 per cent.

He said this would improve the well-being and resilience of young entrepreneurs by creating an enabling environment for agriculture and agri-businesses to thrive and contribute to national development.

Mr Kwamikorkor said a significant focus of the program is em
powerment with more than 70 percent of the target participants being young women and 10 percent of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), reaffirming its commitment to inclusivity and diversity in economic participation.

He said BixBox programme emerges as a beacon of hope, fostering economic empowerment and laying the foundation for a prosperous future for the youth of Ghana.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) has resumed gas delivery at its Regulating and Metering Station at Tema in the Greater Accra Region after a system shut down.

A statement signed by Dr Isaac Adjei Doku, WAPCo General Manager, Corporate Affairs, said at about 2230 hours on Friday, March 22, WAPCo’s Tema facility completely shut down due to a system glitch.

‘Our engineers worked assiduously through the night, and we resumed gas delivery to our customers in Tema at around 0630 hours this morning,’ the statement said.

It gave the assurance that WAPCo was committed to delivering safe and reliable services to its customers.

It noted that WAPCo’s engineers were investigating the root cause of the problem to prevent future recurrence.

‘WAPCo is grateful to its key stakeholders for their patience, while the system was being fixed and regrets any inconvenience caused, especially to our customers in Tema that rely on WAGP gas for power generation,’ the statement said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Albert Kofi Owusu, has said the credibility in the presentation of news is the hallmark of the Agency, which deepens its performance on the media landscape in the country.

He said the credibility harnessed in news presentation at the Agency was prime and consistent with the quality associated with it, indicating that the Agency would not compromise on this yield, as long as editorial policies of the Agency were concerned.

Mr Owusu said these when he addressed staff of the Agency in Tamale, while on duty tour to some offices of the Agency in Northern Ghana.

He underscored high level credibility associated with the GNA, emphasising that the Agency’s news was critical, and a reliable referral point for national and international institutions.

The CEO was emphatic on the readiness of the Agency to excel even in difficult times to maintain its unique posture in the media circles.

Mr Owusu who was accompanied by his Director of
Administration, Mr Joseph Baffoe, praised the staff in the Tamale office for holding a strong newsroom and producing quality stories to enhance the general output of the Agency’s news.

He advised them to be opened to more exclusives to ensure that their news shaped public opinion positively.

The CEO outlined various innovative strategies management had initiated on the progress of the Agency and said it was determined to flag the 2024 general election to let it be a referral point for credible, accurate and reliable elections news in the country.

Members of staff in the Tamale office took turns to contribute to the discussions and commended management for repeatedly seeking the welfare of staff and appealed to the CEO to use his connections to increase improvement in staff welfare to enhance productivity.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Institutional maternal, neonatal mortality increases in Northern Region

March 23, 2024 GNA

By Albert Futukpor, GNA

Tamale, March 23, GNA – The era of more women dying through child birth has resurfaced in the Northern Region as the region recorded 100 institutional maternal deaths in 2023 compared to 69 deaths in 2022.

This brought the region’s institutional maternal mortality ratio to 136.7 per 100,000 live births in 2023 compared to 94.5 per 100,000 live births for the year 2022, with the national target being 125 per 100,000 live births.

Dr Abdulai Abukari, Northern Regional Director of Health, announced the figures during the 2023 annual health performance review meeting in Tamale.

The annual health performance review examines health service delivery, the gaps and measures to address the identified gaps and or challenges.

Dr Abukari described the situation as a serious challenge in the fight against maternal mortality in the region, saying ‘the Regional Health Directorate had taken some serious mea
sures towards addressing this worrisome trend of maternal deaths in the region’ adding ‘We now have regional as well as districts and facilities’ task force on maternal mortality.’

He said the region’s institutional neonatal mortality rate also witnessed a slight increase from 4.6 per 1,000 in 2022 to 4.7 per 1,000 in 2023.

He said the slight increase in neonatal mortality was largely due to service delivery challenges of occasional absence of medical doctors in some of the major referral centres in the region leading to suboptimal functioning of those hospitals.

He touched on the doctor-patient-ratio of the region, saying the region, as at the end of 2023, had 335 medical doctors with 275 (82%) at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

Dr Abukari added that ‘We currently have 50 medical doctors within the Ghana Health Service facilities, which is an improvement from 30 medical doctors as at the beginning of the last quarter of 2023. With a population of 2,409,018, this therefore, brings the doctor-to-population r
atio to about one doctor to 2,277.’

He indicated that malaria, upper respiratory tract infection, diarrheal diseases, anaemia and urinary tract infection were still the five top causes of out-patient department (OPD) attendance in the region, saying ‘We, therefore, need to intensify our health education to reduce the incidence of these diseases.’

Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director-General, Ghana Health Service said while progress was being made in some areas, ‘OPD per capita, institutional infant mortality, institutional under five mortality, percentage of skilled delivery, institutional maternal mortality ratio, and all immunization coverage have been quite stagnant but we shall do more intentionally this year to see a shift in the right direction.’

He urged health staff to be focused on delivering good quality work as always, saying ‘Let us forge good relationships and partnerships wherever we are, for alone we can do little but together with others, we can do so much more.’

Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu,
Northern Regional Minister, whose speech was read on his behalf by the Northern Regional Coordinating Director, said, ‘There is no doubt that central government alone cannot meet the health needs of all the citizenry, hence the need for effective partnership and collaboration for continual effective health service delivery across all levels.’

Source: Ghana News Agency