Atta Mills' worries
Standchart robbed of ¢130m in 63 days
Serial killings have stopped …So who were
behind it?
Ghana stock Exchange to Bounce Back
Hard way, the only way
Ghana will witness positive change
Atta Mills' worries
Professor John Evans Atta Mills, former
Vice-President and 2000 flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC),
has waded into the controversy over the national Reconciliation Bill, which was
before Parliament, expressing regret that it could not be passed by consensus.
Speaking on Frontpage, a current affairs
programme on Joy FM, an Accra based radio station last Friday, the former Vice
President said both sides of the House unfortunately took partisan lines, when
they could have reached a consensus on such an important national issue.
He defended the minority walkout over the
issue. According to him, the NDC had put forward a certain position that
merited consideration, but the other side did not think so, even though there
was a need to have a consensus on that particular point.
Prof. Mills again expressed disgust over some
of the statements coming from the public domain, pointing out they tend to give
him the impression that people are thinking less of reconciliation and more of
what does not appear to be reconciliation.
He cautioned that Ghanaians should bear in mind
that the reconciliation process takes more than two parties and saw no
difficulty in beginning the reconciliation process from 1957.
He added, "We have to think about the
reconciliation process very seriously that at the end one does not go in the
opposite direction."
The former Vice-President said he had no
objection to having the reconciliation focus on the Armed Forces Revolutionary
Council (AFRC) and Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) eras, but pointed
out that attention should be drawn to the other eras, such as the 1966 coup
when others had their parents killed in front of them.
"Their stories argued that when we decide
that certain periods should not be part of the reconciliation process it leaves
one wondering whether we want to reconcile or not, or in those periods nothing
happened which leads to reconciliation.
According to him, if indeed nothing happened in
those periods there is a need to ask and if no one comes forward then at least
the effort to reconcile has been made.
On the imprisonment of Mr Victor Selormey,
former deputy Minister of Finance, the former Vice President was of the view
that the absence of a crucial witness at the trial led to his conviction.
Hear the Prof. referring to an earlier
statement he had made on Selormey's conviction, "I did make a point
yesterday (Thursday) that I want to emphasize, 'A crucial witness who could
have made the difference for one reason or the other was not available and I
think that affected Victor Selormey's case."
Prof. Mills said even though he tried to follow
the former Deputy Minister's trial from 6000 miles away, he could not have
gathered all the evidence, but conceded that in any case the lawyers were
there.
When pushed by the host of the programme, Mr
Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, to comment on other ex-NDC officials who are entering the new
year with cases hanging over their heads, Prof. Mills declined to comment, and
rather indicated that at the appropriate time his views on the issue will be made
known to the public.
Former Deputy Minister Victor Selormey was
sentenced to eight years imprisonment on December 10, last year for causing
financial loss to the state. He was given four years each on the first two
charges, which have to run consecutively, and on the remaining four charges, he
was asked to pay ¢10 million within 12 months, which must run concurrently, or
in default serve two years imprisonment.
However, on the perceived harassment of the 31st
December Women Movement (31st DWM), Prof. Mills observed that the
movement made a good case for itself.
He hoped that some of the problems they are
going through would not discourage or deter them from moving on but that they
would overcome them and move ahead.
More…/
Standchart robbed of ¢130m in 63 days
On 31st October last year, at about
10.00 hrs GMT, a masked gunman walked into the crowded banking hall of the
Spintex Road Branch of Stanchart and after subduing everybody in sight robbed
the bank of various sums in both local and foreign currencies.
This occurred a few minutes after the newly
passed out Constable, under probation, sought permission to go and collect his
salary from a bank in Tema.
The gunman, who then parked his car at the
Johnson Wax area and entered the bank premises in a hired taxi before masking
himself, made away with $7,124, £5,720 and ¢247,520.
Exactly 63 days after that incident in which
the Constable was interdicted, a staff of the bank, a cleaner, had assumed the
role of a robber. He packaged ¢25 million into a food-box and went through the
otherwise tight security from the private sector unnoticed.
Investigation by the Chronicle uncovered that
on Tuesday, the first working day of the year, January 2nd 2002, at
about 0900 hrs GMT, the bank's cash carrier, Mr Adamu Seibu entered the vault
and was packaging money for the day's use, out into a cubicle before
distributing to the various cashiers.
Chronicle’s information was that the bank's
obedient cleaner, 30-year-old Olando Kwaku, a Builsa from Fumbisi, went to the
entrance of the vault to assist Mr Seibu, the cash carrier. He was reportedly
handed ¢50 million cash which he sent to the cubicle as the cash carrier
returned to the vault.
Olando Kwaku was reported to have gone out on
two occasions with the food box to provide breakfast for some staff members. He
went out again the third time, this time not to purchase food but rather the
food box was stuffed with ¢25 million from the bank.
He used the door where two private security
guards from Goldcrest were on duty. Their presence was to augment police effort
after the first incident.
There was grumbling at the bank as staff
grouped and talked about the stolen money. It took 30 minutes before the
incident was reported to the two policemen on duty at the main entrance.
Police on hearing of the theft went to comb the
nearby bush only to be told by a woman that she saw a youngman with a loaded
bag running from the bank direction.
The Tema Community 2 police when contacted said
they were investigating. Both Regional Commander, Agnes Sika Nartey, and
District Crime Officer, ASP Antwi Boasiako said both thefts are being pursued
vigorously.
Police sources however did not rule out the
possibility of an inside job on both occasions.
A woman manager at the branch was dumbfounded
when our undercover reporter attempted to know her reaction. The two private
security men were interrogated and released.
More…/
Power crisis looms
The Volta
River Authority (VRA) is undertaking a retrofitting project on one of its six
unit generators at Akosombo at a cost of ¢123,850,881. The retrofitting
exercise that began on the 19th of last month will be completed in
August of next year, a nine-month project. The aim is to save the dam built in
1965 at £70 million from collapse.
All the six unit generators delivering 912
megawatts capacity are not adequate to meet the nation's energy demand. To save
the situation, the Volta River Authority has advised the public to minimize the
use of high current drawing equipment between the peak period of 6.00 pm and
10.00 pm.
If this advice would be taken religiously,
about 200 megawatts of power could be saved to lessen the burden on the plant.
The Akosombo Plant Manager, Mr. Kirk Koffi,
hinted that the rainfall for this year at the catchment areas into the lake has
been very disappointing, and to curtail blackouts, the VRA needs 10 million
dollars every three weeks to import light crude oil for the Aboadze thermal
plant to supplement the generation from Akosombo. Formerly, the same amount was
used for 4 weeks.
Presently, VRA imports 7 cents per unit of
electricity from the Ivory Coast. In the past Akosombo alone could supply 30
per cent of power for domestic use and 70 per cent for non-domestic purposes but
it is now the opposite where domestic demand is rather higher.
The problem with the current situation,
however, is that the domestic consumer cannot pay hence the authority has an
outstanding debt of $50 million that it owes Ivory Coast.
On the supply of power to Togo and Benin, the
plant manager said that 30 and 50 megawatts respective contractual agreement
were entered into and some of the hard earned currency out of the supply is
used to purchase needed spare parts.
Mr Kirk Koffi wants Ghanaians to brace
themselves to pay high tariff to sustain the Volta dam and power supply in
general in Ghana.
At worse, he said, the 30 megawatt diesel plant
at Tema will have to be run for a few industries in Tema, especially, for
Ghacem but this also, he said, is very expensive.
Asked if the construction of another dam will
not be viable, looking at the blank state of power generation through diesel
and thermal plants, the manager said that will even cost more, stating that
after the Volta lake was created, 80,000 people affected were resettled at 52
resettlement villages whose main occupations included farming, poultry, piggery
and fishing.
The idea of pumping water back into reservoir
he said must be discarded because you need to run fuel-powered generators and
motors to achieve this and apart from the cost, which is unbearable, the
downstream dam at Kpong will also be affected.
After carefully considering this, the VRA has
taken the bold step to retrofit the existing six unit generators, which life
span of 30 years has exceeded and are in grace period. The project when
completed will improve the performance, reliability, maintenance and operations
of the units.
Potential for improvement identified were
replacement of the runner with a more efficient one, modification of the stay
vanes, wicket gates draft tube, rewinding of generator stator to improve upon
its generating capacity and upgrading unit transformers to deliver extra power
from the turbines.
According to him, efficiency test performed on
units that has been retrofitted establishes the guaranteed efficiency of 93.5
per cent.
Financial support for the retrofitting project
came from the International Development Association (IDA), $7,682,827; European
Investment Bank $47,168,059;VRA $61,912,112 in addition to local currency
(¢42,236,642,630) $7,087,888.
Major industrial nations such as the United
States of America, Canada and Japan are all retrofitting because apart from
renewing the units, some manufacturers of these equipment are no more existing
making it difficult to obtain spare parts.
Kirk Koffi said 1982, 1983, 1984, 1997, 1998
and 2001 were the worse periods for intake for the water level. In December
last year, the level was two feet below that of 2000.
Since the transformers were installed in 1965,
the incident that occurred last year was the third. According to him, the first
one happened in 1979, the second was in 2000 and then last year.
He stated that on Monday December 10, 2001 at
about 181 hrs GMT one phase of the transformer number one went off and he
quickly rallied his team of engineers and technicians to work. Luckily, a spare
180MVA transformer costing between $1 million and 1.2 million on standby for 21
years was used to replace the faulty one. Later investigations will be
conducted to ascertain why one phase went off.
GRi…/
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Himan is a ghost town
Himan, the scene of recent violence, is now a
dead town. All the able-bodied men have fled the town into the bush, leaving
only women, the aged, the infirm and children.
This was the situation that members of the
Western Regional Security Council found, when they arrived in the town at the
weekend to assess the extent of damage caused during the riots.
The team was led by the Regional Minister, Mr
Joseph Aidoo. They found the chief's palace vandalized, traditional stools
broken, ceiling fans and personal effects totally destroyed. Two people were
killed in the rioting and the police have arrested about 100 culprits.
The Tarkwa Divisional Police Commander,
Superintendent William Boss Baiden, briefing the council, named the dead as
Akwasi Prede, 30, a driver's mate, and Kwaku Bempong, 25, a
"galamsey" operator. He said that many others including Ama
Tweneboah, a JSS pupil, received various degrees of injuries.
The Police Commander said that he personally
led a detachment of police to the scene to restore law and order, and when he
realized that the situation was getting out of hand, signals were sent for
reinforcement from the police and military from Accra, Cape Coast and Takoradi.
Supt. Baiden said that in the course of their
operations, electricity supply to the town was disrupted, throwing the place
into darkness. After that, it became very difficult for them to see who was
doing what.
"Missiles were thrown at us, some of which
hit me personally. Two of my men were also hit and a soldier received a deep
cut on the head."
In his brief, the Wassa West District Chief
Executive, Mr Kwesi Ayensu, said that everything happened in his presence as he
went to the town to attend a funeral.
"My presence there might have been
misconstrued by the youth who attacked me. As I attempted to escape, they
pulled me out of my official vehicle, a Mitsubishi Pajero WR 1661 A, pushed the
car about 120 metres away and set it ablaze while some sympathetic youth
whisked me away, through the bush to Prestea."
The Security Council also went to Awudua, near
Tarkwa, where a similar incident happened on November 30, last year. Houses had
been vandalized, the chief's Toyota Land Cruser was burned to ashes, while his personal
effects were either burned or looted.
Awudua is also now a ghost town, with only
women and children left.
Addressing the people at separate meetings at
Himan and Awudua, the Regional Minister decried the incidents as counter
productive. He told them that the government was sensitive to the unemployment
situation in the country and was doing every thing possible to address it.
"But we will not allow a few of you to take the law into your own hands
and do what you like."
Mr Aidoo cautioned that the government would
not tolerate such acts of hooliganism and asked parents to counsel their
children to desist from them or have themselves to blame.
More…/
Cotton farmers in the Northern Region have been
gripped with fear and disappointment following the failure of cotton companies
to buy their produce in accordance with an agreement signed between the two
parties, early last year.
Tension began to rise among the farmers when
cotton companies operating in the region failed to honour their pledge to
commence the cotton purchasing season in the third week of November last year
as stipulated in the accord.
When the purchases eventually began, the
companies could not pay for the produce within seven days of procurement as
agreed between the two parties.
Mr Patrick Apullah, Secretary of the Cotton
Farmers' Association told the Ghana News Agency that the failure of the
companies to fulfil their part of the bargain did not augur well for the
textile industry. "The rate at which the purchasing is going on and the
non-payments are causing a great harm to the seed cotton farmers," he
said.
Mr Apullah said, "after sinking all our
monies into the cultivation of seed cotton, most of us are now desperately in
need of money to buy food for our families.
"We also need money to pay for our
children's school fees", he said, adding that the farmers were surely
going to face starvation and their children sent away from school if nothing
was done about the situation.
Mr Apullah, therefore, called on the government
to intervene on behalf of the farmers to ensure that the cotton companies
fulfilled their part of the agreement.
Such a step, he said would, prevent cotton
farmers from being taken advantage of, protect them from undue hardship and
save the cotton industry from undermining itself.
This was because no farmer would like to
venture into the field of seed cotton cultivation if nothing was put in place
to protect them from being swindled, he added.
Mr Apullah appealed to the cotton companies to
live up to the trust bestowed on them by the agreement and purchase the seed
cotton from the farmers to ensure that the co-operation so far enjoyed by the
two parties continued.
On May 31 last year, cotton companies and
cotton seed farmers signed an agreement, which stipulated among other things
that cotton companies would start cotton purchases from the third week of
November and pay for the produce between seven and 10 days after procurement.
GRi…/
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Serial killings have stopped …So who were
behind it?
"Fear grips Ghana as serial killer claims
34th victim" was one of the last headlines in the year 2000
about "killing" of women before it suddenly stopped with a change in
government. The article goes as follows:
"One of the world's most prolific,
ghoulish serial killers is terrorizing women in Ghana. The killer- or killers- claimed his
thirty-fourth victim in what police believe was a ritualistic murder. All the
victims have been women, found stripped from the waist down, with their legs
apart. In many cases unused condoms have been scattered around, and some of the
women had their genitals mutilated. Sometimes, empty syringes were left at the
scene. Close examination of some victims revealed pin pricks where some of
their blood had been removed.
Mystery surrounds the identities of the women,
some of whom are thought to have been prostitutes. Only a few families have
come forward to acknowledge the dead. Police have revealed virtually no
information about their investigations, claiming that it would help the killer.
They have not said what the cause of death is, but most of the women were not
visibly injured and were though to have been strangled or suffocated.
It is not though the women were raped. After so
many deaths, there are no clues whatsoever. It is strange.
“The police are not moving fast enough,"
said Elvis Aryeh, editor of the Daily Graphic, which has launched its own
investigation into the killings. The police silence, two years after the
killings began, has led to widespread accusations that they are being
complacent.
Thousands of women including the President's
wife (who is the head of the 31st December Women's Movement), Nana
Konadu Agyemang Rawlings - dressed in red - demonstrated against police
inaction."
The above article appears that no one knew the
solution of the "killings," not even the police, until the NPP
promised that when they come into power the killings would stop. Thus, for the police to have a solution to
the mystery, they should not look elsewhere outside the essence of the NPP's
promise.
Amazingly, and true to their promise, the
"killings" stopped as soon as NPP came into power and at a time when
they have had no time to improve the police service. What is equally amazing is
that the NPP government, despite claiming success where they have failed, is
silent on the "stopping" of the killings, an otherwise commendable
achievement. It is strange that the
government does not claim the solution of the mystery as one of their
achievements - the only promise they have "fulfilled" since they came
into power.
The press, except the Palaver (a pro-NDC
newspaper), have been silent on the topic of the "killings" of women
and rather concentrate on exhumation and reburial of forgotten skeletons.
Former President Rawlings has urged the government to get to the bottom of the
"killings" but Ghanaians have heard no response or any intention by
the government to do so.
The "killings" started with
middle-aged and elderly women, apparently those who had died their natural
death, and retrieved from mortuary and dumped at Mataheko/Dansoman area to
embarrass the then NDC government. When younger women were added, the
"Killers" tried to fool Ghanaians that they were prostitutes by
putting unused condoms by them, stripping them from waist down whilst forensic
evidence showed they had had no sex, either by rape or with consent. It is
ironic that the prostitutes did not have sex.
Bad boy Quansah, a "suspect" who
claims to have killed eight of the women, has not been sent to the Fast Track
court. When he was arrested and handcuffed, he was laughing.
Well, if police has not been able to solve the
riddle up to now, I believe, as most Ghanaians do after one year of NPP
government, that the "killings" were part of the negative propaganda
to create "confusion within the opposing NDC party."
At this stage, let us revisit the question:
"Who killed out women?"
GRi…/
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Ghana stock Exchange to Bounce Back
The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), which was once
regarded as one of the best stock exchanges in Africa and accordingly won a
prize, is slated to revive its image having suffered a slight setback following
Ghana's economic slump a few years ago.
In an exclusive interview with HSJ in Accra,
F.D. Tweneboa, managing director of the GSE, said the exchange's best years in
terms of total volume traded and total value traded were in 1997 and 1998.
In 1997 the total volume traded was 125,629,140
while the total value traded amounted to ¢93,354.70 million. In 1998, the
volume traded was 91,446,520, while the total value traded was ¢134,012.28
million.
In 1999 and 2000 when the economy showed signs
of recession, total volume traded was 49,568,220 and 30,717,090 respectively.
Total value traded for both years were ¢69,611.72 million and ¢50,622.05
million. For 2001, the total volume traded was 55,295,867, while total value
traded was ¢92,276.14 million.
In total value trading, last year was the best
(after 1997 and 1998) since 1996. The total volume traded since the exchange
started operations in November 1990 was 579,320,723, while the total value
traded for the entire 11-year period was ¢571,449.36 million.
According to the GSE market activity summary
for 2001, the inflation rate has dropped from 41-90 percent in March 2001 to
23-7 by the end of November 2001.
The discount rate dropped from 38.00 per cent
in March 2001 to 26.99 per cent by December 2001.
Asked why the exchange recorded the highest
total volume and value trading in 1997 and 1998, Mr Tweneboa said those were
periods when foreign investors had confidence in the Ghanaian economy and chose
to invest more. However, when they noticed a downturn in the economy in 1999
and 2000, many withdrew their investments on the capital market.
With the change of government in 2001, these
investors adopted a wait-and-see posture, he said, adding that there are strong
indications that foreign investors will return with more share holdings to the
exchange this year.
The managing director who took over from Mr
Yeboa Amoah with effect from December 2001, said it is now a policy that
divestiture proceeds of all state owned enterprises (SOE'S) should be channeled
through the Ghana Stock Exchange, adding that should government shed off its
shares in some companies they will eventually be listed on the exchange.
More…/
Hard way, the only way
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of
President J.A. Kufuor is one year in office.
It took over the reins of government at a time when, all agree, the
chips were down regarding all economic indicators. Opinions may differ
regarding the right assessment of the NPP government after one year in office.
However, what all are unanimous on is the fact that it has been one year of
tough but necessary measures.
First, was the Highly Indebted Poor Countries
(HIPC) Initiative, the increase in petroleum products by as much as 63 per
cent, a liquidity squeeze unparalleled in recent memory and an increment in
utility tariffs.
Perhaps these decisions, if they were taken in
year 2000, would have earned for the NDC an opprobrium that could have shaken
the very foundations of the nation. Contrary to the known Ghanaian way of
behaviour, these harsh measures were accepted without much grumble.
Perhaps, Ghanaians had accepted the NPP
government's explanation that the economy was in such a bad state that such
tough decisions were the only way to get Ghana out of the doldrums. Maybe also because
Ghanaians thought they should give the government time to sort itself out.
Indeed, the estimates that were presented in
the 2001 budget and economic policy statement of the government, showed a
financing gap of 2,607.7 billion cedis, equivalent to 6.9 per cent of GDP. To
bridge this financing gap, the government had to take measures that would
enhance revenue collection and improve expenditure management, including
perhaps a downward revision of total expenditures.
Thus, there were increases in fees, levies and
charges, restructuring of the domestic debt, an increase in withholding taxes
from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent and the reintroduction of excise (ad valorem
and specific) on petroleum projects.
All these measures were taken with the sole aim
of stabilizing the macro-economic environment. If indeed, that was the
government's aim, then that objective has been largely achieved. Inflation had
been brought down from 40 per cent to 23 per cent by the end of November. This,
the government points out is lower than its own budgetary target of 25 per cent
for the end of year 2001.
Besides, after two years of successive
depreciation, the cedi attained a stability that was largely not envisaged by
Ghanaians. Indeed, Ghanaians had become used to the idea that the cedi only had
to depreciate against major currencies. Last year, the cedi fell by only a mere
2 per cent after the successive years of 70 per cent depreciation.
As at the
end of June 2001, statutory payments totaled ¢2,517.2 billion against a
half-year target of ¢3,259.8 billion. Expenditures on external debt amounted to
1,088.87 billion of which 819.6 billion was for principal repayments. The
target for the half year for principal payments were ¢1,194.6 billion and ¢431.1
billion, respectively but actual expenditures on these items were much lower,
due to the savings arising from our decision to access the HIPC initiative.
Opponents of the government especially, were
opposed to the government's decision to access the HIPC initiative. But HIPC is
about numbers, and Ghana was willy-milly a HIPC country. Besides, considering
the fact that our national kitty was near empty and that time had come for us
to make debt repayments, one would agree that, opting for the HIPC initiative
was the best decision available to the government. What is also refreshing is
the fact that government itself is not too comfortable with remaining within
the HIPC initiative. And as the Minister for Finance stated recently, "I
sent Ghana into HIPC and I shall bring Ghana out of HIPC."
Hopefully, therefore, we shall so run the HIPC
programme in such a way and to be able to significantly improve our per capita
income and thereby get out of the HIPC zone.
Refreshingly, the government itself is not celebrating yet. The
President himself describes the gains made so far as "modest." He
prefers to describe what the government has done so far as the foundation. It
is the hope of the people of Ghana that the government will not rest on its
oars. For now the government has some cause to celebrate and the people of
Ghana.
GRi…/
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The Minister of Defence, Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor,
has stated that the improvement in military-civil relations as well as the
transformation of the military to anchor it to play a more active role in the
socio-economic development of the nation remains high on the agenda of the
Kufuor administration.
He said more resources will be given to the
Armed Forces to ensure that they discharge their obligation of helping to
ensure peace, order and stability and thus protect the country’s democratic
dispensation.
The defence minister was shedding light on the
achievements of the government on the military front during its first year in
office in an interview in Accra at the weekend.
According to Dr Addo Kufuor, who is also the
Member of Parliament for Manhyia, the development of these linkages and the
active involvement of the military in national affairs represent the best way
forward in the consolidation of the country’s democracy and the protection and
promotion of the rights and fundamental freedoms of the people.
“We have already put in place a number of
measures that are designed to increase the level of interaction between the
military and the civil population.
Dr Addo Kufuor mentioned the organisation of
open days at all military facilities across the country during which civilians
are encouraged to visit military installations and interact with the personnel,
the granting of more access for civilians to military facilities such as the 37
Military Hospital and the arrangement to have the 48 and 49 Engineer’s Regiment
bid for contracts and thus play a more active role in national development as
part of the measures.
Others include the provision of logistics,
including ambulances, to the Armed Forces to help in national emergency
situations across the country, the raising of the consciousness of the military
to help ensure greater respect for the Constitution and human rights, the
active involvement of the military in afforestation projects and the
institution of a choir to compete with its civil counterparts in entertaining
the people.
Dr Addo Kufuor said that the government, within
the first year in office, has successfully managed a peaceful change over of
the military high command, freed the military of partisan or sectionalist
political interests such as memberships of the ACDRs, 31st December Women’s
Movement, Osono Club and others and thus helped inject more professionalism and
cohesiveness into the forces.
He disclosed that the government has increased
the allowance of troops on peace keeping mission from $16 to $20 a day,
finalised plans for the construction of a 2,200 capacity Burma Camp Hall for
military personnel and a modern library and computer centre for the
rehabilitation of barracks and construction of new accommodation for troops.
“Government has also taken a strong and firm
position against all acts of harassment meted out by military personnel to any
civilian. This has been done, among others, through the firm and expeditious
handling of such cases and the appropriate levels of punishments meted out to
those found guilty of such infractions of the law” he stressed.
The defence minister said his vision for the
Armed Forces is one that would further improve upon their professionalism,
discipline and enhanced image and reputation locally and internationally so
that they would continue to maintain the peace, stability and progress of Ghana
and other nations the world over.
He expressed his personal gratitude and that of
President Kufuor and his government to the military high command, officers and
men and the staff of the Defence Ministry for the invaluable assistance
rendered him in the discharge of his duties and also for the peace and
stability of the nation in general.
More…/
Ghana will witness positive change
Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and
Industry, has predicted that Ghanaians will witness positive and significant
changes in all faces of the national life in the years ahead.
These changes, which he said will enhance the
living standards of the people, will result from the meaningful and pragmatic
economic policies and programmes the NPP government has put in place within its
first year in office.
Dr Apraku made the prediction at Juansa in the
Asante-Akim North District when he addressed a children's party when he
addressed a children's party organized by the Juansa Presbyterian Church.
He
reminded the people that the absolute peace and development prevailing in the
country is a testimony to the fact that the country is in the process of moving
out of its economic predicament. He cautioned that the government recognises
education as a formidable force in the country's economic development hence the
development of a programme to help the businesses of parents to flourish to
enable them to look after their children in school.
He said teachers will also be given the
necessary incentive packages to motivate them to give their best. He commended
the church for organizing such a get together for the children whom he
described as the country's future leaders.
Dr Apraku reminded Ghanaians that if the
children of today were given the right type of training and guidance, they will
grow to become responsible citizens in the future. He urged the people to rally behind the government in its efforts
to find lasting solutions to the nation's problems.
GRi…/
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