ICU to submit proposals on workers of liquidated banks
Kufuor’s running mate in the offing…
Late Asantehene’s funeral slated for March 19
Sack this man now!
Daily Graphic
ICU to submit proposals on workers of liquidated banks
The Daily Graphic reports that the leadership of the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) is to submit proposals on the settlement of salaries and other entitlements of the affected workers of the two liquidated banks to the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare.
In a front-page story, the Graphic says that this is to enable the government to press for the speedy implementation of the employee creditor scheme being put in place to address the problem. The paper says that Mr Austin Gamey, a Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, who disclosed this in an interview in Accra, stated that the proposals would also enable the ministry to advise the Registrar-General, the official liquidator accordingly, on the necessary steps to take within the shortest possible time to alleviate any intended suffering the liquidation of the banks, Banks for Housing and Construction (BHC) and Co-operative Bank, might cause.
The two banks have been declared insolvent for their inability to satisfy adequacy and minimum capital requirements set out under the banking law, following persistent losses arising from the deterioration of the loan portfolios of the two financial institutions.
GRi../
Kufuor’s running mate in the offing…
In its top story, the Free Press reports that the running mate for Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, NPP presidential candidate, will be nominated in June, this year. Mr Kufuor is said to have dropped the hint during the inauguration of the Tertiary Students’ Confederacy, an NPP student wing, at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.
The paper says that Mr Dan Botwe, the NPP General Secretary, confirmed this and explained that unlike the presidential candidate, who is elected at the party’s congress, the presidential candidate himself in consultation with the national executives nominates a running mate.
The Free Press says that when Mr Botwe was asked as to who are the potential candidates, he stated that it is too early to say, to give any hint, adding that Mr Kufuor will soon present his choice or choices before the national executives for scrutiny. The story says that meanwhile, certain names are being tossed about by political analysts and within the party itself.
The names are said to fall into three categories, the first, made up of contestants for the presidential slot during the NPP national congress at Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region, about two years ago. They are Nana Akufo Addo, Minority Spokesman on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minority Spokesman on Finance, Mr J.H. Mensah, Minority Leader in Parliament and Alhaji Malik Al-Hassan Yakubu MP for Yendi.
The second category, the paper says, is to choose a woman as Kufuor’s running mate, while the third option is to strike the ethnic and regional balance. In such a case, the candidate would either come from the North or the Volta Region.
GRi../
The Ghanaian Times
Late Asantehene’s funeral slated for March 19
The Ghanaian Times, in a front-page story, reports that the first funeral rites for the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, will be performed on Sunday, March 19, this year. The paper says a detailed programme for the funeral will be released soon. The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is reported to have announced this in Kumasi yesterday at the first meeting of the Asanteman Council, and asked ‘Nananom’ to begin preparations for the ceremony.
The Times quotes Otumfuo Osei Tutu as saying that he would formally and customarily inform the council at a later date. He reminded the council that the first anniversary of the death of Opoku Ware II, would be on Thursday February 24, this year.
The paper says that Otumfuo Osei Tutu announced that the "Opoku Ware Foundation", which awarded scholarships to 150 pupils in junior secondary schools, realised 180 million cedis. He is reported as saying that 500 students from the University of Ghana, Legon, Cape Coast University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, will benefit from the "Otumfuo Education Fund", by the end of this month.
The Board of Trustees of the fund he said, would in the course of the year, submit proposals and recommendations to the Asanteman Council for the improvement of education in Ashanti.
GRi./
Weekly Insight
Sack this man now!
The Weekly Insight in its lead story says that there can be no reason for keeping Dr Joe Abbey, boss of the Centre for Economic Policy Analysis (CEPA) on the National Economic Management Team. According to the paper, Dr Abbey’s heyday is over and the earlier he is removed the better it will be for the efficient management of the national economy.
The Weekly Insight says that Dr Abbey’s involvement with the management of the national economy began in late 1982, when he became one of the loudest voices in the ears of Flt-Lt Jerry Rawlings, then Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). The paper says that Flt-Lt Rawlings in those days, could not take any decision without reference to Dr Abbey, who had become some kind of an economic guru in the corridors of power.
The paper says that on the prompting of Dr Abbey and against stiff opposition from the left wing of the regime, the PNDC adopted the Economic Recovery Programme in 1983, with its disastrous consequences of increased unemployment, the people’s lack of access to social services and increased foreign control of the national economy.
The story says that it can be affirmed that since 1983, no major economic decision has been made in Ghana without the nod of Dr Joe Abbey, whose prescription for national economic survival is a mix-bag of doctrinaire surrender to market forces and monetarism.
According to the Weekly Insight, since Dr Abbey got involved in national economic management, everything has gone haywire and his push for the devaluation of the cedi has virtually destroyed the national currency.
The paper says that what is strange about Dr Abbey is that after messing u the economy, he hides under the canopy of CEPA and pretends to be a neutral economic analyst.
GRi../