GRi Newsreel 07-04-99

Accra (Greater Accra) 7 April  

The government has announced new measures for the acquisition of Ghanaian passports. The measures require that application forms collected by District Immigration Offices should now be sent to relevant Regional Headquarters.

The Regional Immigration Commander on receipt of the forms shall send them to the Passport Section at the Immigration Headquarters under a covering letter, before they are sent to the Director of Passport.

Only appointed liaison officers at the Ghana Immigration Service shall now handle the schedule, a statement signed by Nii Okaija Adamafio, Minister of the Interior and issued in Accra on Tuesday said.

After the issuance of the Passports, Immigration Headquarters personnel or liaison officers shall collect them for distribution to the respective Regional Commanders, for collection by the applicants in person.

"With this new procedure it is expected that no individual, applicant or immigration Officer from the regions will send any application form to the passport office directly.

"The general public is hereby informed that the passport office remains out of bounds to all persons except the officials working there, the statement said The statement explained that the government recently put in place some measures to make the acquisition of passports easier and more accessible to nationals, especially those living in the rural areas.

''Regrettably, this relaxation of the process appears to have created new avenues for the usual passport contractors and other fraudsters to undermine the integrity of the Ghanaian passport by illegally acquiring them for non-Ghanaians through misrepresentation and other fraudulent means.

"An increasing number of drug traffickers and other criminals from virtually all countries in the sub-region, as a result, now use Ghanaian passports for their illegal activities abroad while genuine Ghanaian travellers are subjected to indignities in world capitals due to the passports they hold.

The statement asked the general public to co-operate with these measures to help restore integrity and value to the Ghanaian Passport.

Accra (Greater Accra) 7 April 

The visiting 34-member U.S. business delegation to Ghana said on Tuesday that it is looking forward to making Ghana a hub of its activities to serve the entire West African sub-region.

The delegation from the Bay Area Africa Initiative, which arrived in the country on April Four, said it is interested in a reciprocal arrangement with governments and private business institutions ready to work with it.

Areas mentioned for business co-operation include linkages in health, housing, education, trade, the liberalised skies programme and product imports to Ghana.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee, leader of the delegation, told a business matchmaking luncheon in Accra that one important area for the delegation is a sister-city arrangement between San Francisco City and the twin city of Sekondi-Takoradi.

This is intended to bring the two cities together in order to promote business and development.

Madam Lee said the team came to Ghana because "most trade missions from Ghana or outside the U.S. usually go only to Washington DC, New York, and sometimes Atlanta, leaving the rest of the country".

"Those of us outside these areas do not receive the main menu of the major trade delegations hence this trip to explore the best areas and avenues for business, trade and development partnership".

Welcoming the delegation, Mr Solomon Abam Quartey, First Vice-President of Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, described the visit as timely in that it comes after "profound changes in Ghana's macro-economic environment". The private sector in Ghana is pleased that inflation is falling and is dragging down interest rates, he said.

Mr Quartey told the delegation that the economy is growing steadily and that the private sector is trusting that the liberalised economic regime will result in progressive economic development with the support and goodwill of willing partners.

Mr David Alexander, General Counsel of the Bay Area Africa Initiative, said the group is highly interested in the Ghanaian economy. "In this programme, we will want to have some partnership arrangement with Ghana Airways and another one which also organises intra city flights so as to make us easily accessible to the whole continent with our co-operation programme".

Ave-Havi (Volta Region) 7 April 

Communities which spend time and resources on conflicts and disputes would be left behind in terms of development, Alhaji Seidu Iddi, Volta Regional Minister, has cautioned. The government is pre-occupied with the task of development and that scarce resources cannot be used on resolution of conflicts, he said.

At a durbar to mark the maiden celebration of the Ave "Bliza" (corn) festival) of the Ave traditional area under the theme "Unity, Peace and Development", the minister, appealed to the people to minimise their land and chieftaincy disputes and spend their limited resources on positive things that can bring qualitative change to their lives.

He commended the people for organising the festival and asked them to use the occasion to promote peace and foster development.

The occasion was also used to launch a 50 million-cedi educational endowment fund to develop infrastructure and improve on the quality of education in the area.

Mr Eddie Doe-Adjaho, member of parliament for Avenor, who launched the fund, called for the establishment of a board of trustees to manage the fund for the benefit of the people. He pledged 500,000 cedis to the fund and an additional five million cedis from his constituency fund if the initial amount is used well.

Navrongo(Upper East) 7 April

The central theme of this year's Northern Easter School, which opened at Navrongo in the Upper East region today is Problems hindering effective education in northern Ghana.

The five-day school, which has attracted about 300 participants from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions is on the theme "Education and Development in the next Millennium -- issues affecting Northern Ghana".

It aims at identifying and finding solutions to problems militating against development in the three regions. It will also discuss the poor educational standards that have plagued the area over the years and look for measures that will reduce the incidence of marginalisation of the north.

Professor R.B. Bening, Vice-Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS), noted that poor educational standards, high school dropout rates and poor enrolment figures in schools of the north are all due to poverty and ignorance.

"Since availability is not accessibility, abject poverty has continued to deprive some enterprising northern children of continuing their education," he added

Prof Bening said northerners constituted less than 10 per cent of freshmen who entered the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1997, an indication that the educational gap between the north and south would not close up in the near future.

The majority of the population who are farmers, produce barely sufficient for sustenance mainly due to unfavourable weather pattern and poor soils, he said, adding that this makes the people unable to get involved in other important things.

The Vice-Chancellor indicated that the relationship between education and development could not be ignored. A good education offers a firm foundation for personal freedom.

Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, Upper East regional minister who opened the school, appealed to parents and district assemblies to embrace the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Educational (FCUBE) programme and ensure that all children of school-going age are enrolled and made to stay.

He expressed concern at the low rate of literacy in the region, saying that only about 20 per cent of rural children between the ages of six and 10 years attend school.

Alhaji Sulemana called on the participants to pay more attention to the discussion on girl-child education and come out with strategies that would change the present situation.

The school will study and discuss the increasing access to education in northern Ghana, ways of enhancing the status of the girl-child in northern Ghana and improving agricultural practices in the region.

Other topics centre on population and family life education, environmental and public health education.

Accra (Greater Accra) 7 April 

The President of the International Bar Association, Dr Klaus Bohlhoss has arrived in the country to take part in its African Regional Conference scheduled to take place in Accra on today.

He was met on arrival, at the Kotoka International Airport, by Mr Sam Okudzeto, former President of the Ghana Bar Association.

The three-day conference, the first to be held in the country is on the theme ''Practising Law in the 21st Century-Meeting the Challenges'' and would be attended by 173 bar associations.

It would discuss professional ethics, continuing legal education, access to justice and law office management among other topics.

Accra (Greater Accra) 7 April 

Out-patients departments in public hospitals in Accra remained empty on Tuesday as the strike by junior nurses entered its seventh day. The nurses have refused to heed the call by the Minister of Health, Mr Samuel Nuamah Donkor to resume work whilst negotiations continue.

During a visit by the GNA to some of the hospitals, emergency and accidents centres were also empty. Senior nursing officers at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital who have been holding the fort since last Wednesday running a 12-hour shift met on Tuesday to discuss how to handle the situation, especially patients on admission.

Miss Comfort Odoi, Acting Director of Nursing Services at the hospital, said no patient has been admitted since the strike action and senior nurses are taking care of those who were on admission before the action. There are over 500 patients at the hospital but there are only a few senior nurses running 12-hour shifts to take care of them. "Not until we receive directives from our association, the nurses will be forced to work from 0800 hours to 2000 hours for the morning shift and from 2000 hours to 0800 hours for the night shift".

Most of the senior nurses who are elderly women complained of fatigue because only one nurse is assigned to each ward which has between 28 and 35 patients. Miss Odoi said the new working hours are becoming too heavy for the senior nurses who, as departmental heads, work together with at least three or four others on a normal shift.

For example, she said, in the Department of Allied Surgery that mainly has accident victims, there are about 113 patients currently on admission in the 18 wards but has only six nursing officers to care for them now.

She appealed to the health authorities to address the problem on time to save the senior nurses from breaking down or there will be nobody to take care of the patients.

At Korle Bu Polyclinic, Dr Evelyn Millicent Lamptey, Principal Medical Officer, said though junior nurses are not working, doctors are around to attend to a few patients who report. However, she said, in the absence of junior nurses, "we do not allow them to detain patients with serious cases because the few senior nurses who are on duty cannot cope."

GNA also found out that para-medical staff, including laboratory and X-ray technicians, pharmacists and dispensary attendants, were not working. In addition, enrolled and community nurses who are not members of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association were also not on duty in any of the hospitals and clinics visited.

At 37 Military Hospital, Dr D. A. Twum, Commanding Officer, said though demands are heavy, the situation is not chaotic. He explained that experiences from strike actions in the health sector which have been regular in the past 10 years and the one by the doctors last December had forced the hospital to evolve methods to address such situations.

Dr Twum mentioned some of the methods as the running of two shifts as against the previous three and admission of patients for shorter periods.

Departments facing a huge influx of patients include the accident and emergency, maternity, female and some male wards. Dr Twum said his worry is the dwindling resources of the hospital such as gloves and drips.

The long hours that the staff have to put in are beginning to take their toll, he said. "We expect that the Ministry of Health would step in with supplies of some of these gloves and other resources...." He appealed to families to come for their bodies since the mortuary is choked.

Nurses at the We government hospital on Tuesday joined their colleagues in the strike action to press home their demand for extra duty allowance.

Only six senior nursing officers and four ward assistants are taking care of patients at the hospital and they are working round the clock to save lives.

Most of the patients on admission have been asked to go home, ostensibly to reduce the burden on the skeleton staff on duty. Some of the patients talked to, claim they are still not well but have been asked to go home.

Admissions have been limited to two children at the children's ward, three men at the male medical ward, and a female at the casualty ward.

Mrs Mary Bapuurah, principal nursing officer in charge of the hospital, said four ward assistants would be on night duty while the senior nurses take care of patients during the day.

Mr Lawrence Walter, Upper West Regional Chairman of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association appealed to Ghanaians not to blame nurses for the strike action. "The action is necessary because the government has been insensitive to the plight of nurses".

Accra (Greater Accra) 7 April

The governments of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire have signed an agreement with the United Kingdom and a British Company, Penspen Limited, for feasibility study to construct a gas pipeline between the two West African countries.

The UK department of Trade and Industry will share the cost of the study estimated at 200,000 pounds sterling (about 800 million cedis) with Penspen Limited.

A statement issued by the British High Commission in Accra today said the agreement was signed by Mr Fred Ohene Kena and Mr Kablan Duncan, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire Ministers of Mines and Energy.

Others were Mr Tony Lloyd, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister, and an official of Penspen Limited.

The study aims at exploring the economic feasibility of exporting gas from Cote d'Ivoire to Ghana.

The statement said Ghana, with her intention to source more gas for power generation, had shown interest in recent onshore and offshore gas discoveries of Cote d'Ivoire.

Mr John Battle, Britain's Energy and Industry Minister, said the project is important and that the UK will like to see her continuing presence through the expertise of Penspen Limited.

He expressed the hope that the signing of the agreement would serve as the beginning of a wider UK role in the development of energy projects in West Africa.