Nananom slam election of President of National House of Chiefs
Three communities threaten to boycott 2000 elections
1.2 billion cedis fund for Afigya-Sekyere
Medical professionals to undergo vetting
Industrialist provides free uniforms for pupils
ECOWAS member-states urged to work towards free-trade area by the year 2000
Preach against social vices,-Bishop
Assembly members to get less in ex-gratia awards.
NPP condemns NDC education policy
Initiate sound educational policies-Co-ordinator
Nananom slam election of President of National House of Chiefs
Accra (Greater Accra) 23 July '99
Okyenhene Nananom Nkabom Kuo, an association of chiefs of Kyebi traditional area, on Thursday criticised the National House of Chiefs for electing a successor of its late President, Okyenhene Osagyefuo Kuntunkununku, and called for its reversal.
In a statement signed by Nana Fredua Agyeman Okontomere, President of the association, the group said "We find it culturally and traditionally offensive that the National House of Chiefs could make such a move when their late President has not been buried.
"Need we remind our chiefs that traditionally a successor is not chosen until the burial of the person?
"We find it most unfortunate, if not disgraceful, that the House, the umbrella body of the custodians of our culture and traditions, should accord such gross disrespect and contempt to the memory of the Okyenhene, Okyeman and chieftaincy in general."
The group demanded an unqualified apology from Nana Akuoko Sarpong, Presidential Staffer for Chieftaincy Affairs, for witnessing the event and Odeefuo Boa Amposem, the new President of the house.
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Three communities threaten to boycott 2000 elections
Ajumako Enyinasu (Central Region), 22nd July 99, -
Three communities in the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam district -Enyinasu, Boso and Solomon - have threatened to boycott the 2000 general elections if their 18-kilometre road is not reconstructed to facilitate the evacuation of foodstuffs and cocoa to the urban towns.
The decision was taken at an emergency area council meeting organised by the assembly and unit committee members of the three communities on Sunday at Enyinasu.
The meeting presided over by Mr Kobena Ofori, chairman of the unit committees and attended by elders of the communities expressed concern over delay tactics of past and present governments to repair the road which has been in a deplorable state.
Several petitions sent to the Regional Administration and the District Assembly has yielded no results.
The communities with a population of about 10,000 are major foodstuffs producing areas. They rank second in cocoa production in the district.
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1.2 billion cedis fund for Afigya-Sekyere
Agona (Ashanti Region) 23 July '99
The Afigya Sekyere District Assembly will use part of its 1.2 billion cedis common fund to finance on-going projects.
Mr Rexford Anokye, the District Chief Executive, told the ordinary meeting of the assembly at Agona that 472.2 million cedis would be used for on-going projects while 799.8 million cedis would be spent on new ones.
Among the on-going projects scheduled for completion include the three-storey administration block, a guest House, out-patients department at Agona Health Centre, extension of Tetrem clinic and the conversion of a hall into a district library at Agona.
The new projects would cover the construction of water systems, classroom blocks, sanitary facilities, town and area council offices, the rehabilitation of the Boamang police station and feeder roads.
Mr Anokye urged assembly members to let the common fund and the various intervention packages that the district was enjoying inspire them towards raising more revenue from traditional sources so as to attract a greater percentage of funding to the district.
Mr Albert Kan Dapaah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Afigya-Sekyere West, appealed to the assembly to urgently release funds to improve facilities at the Tetrem Secondary school to enable it to function as a second-cycle institution.
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Kumasi ( Ashanti Region) 23 July '99
The Ashanti Region is to be hooked to the Internet as part of the drive to attract investors.
Mr Kojo Yankah, the Regional Minister, said already, 112 pages of website have been prepared.
Mr Yankah was answering questions on his vision for Ashanti from a visiting 30-member delegation of the Savannah University of Georgia, United States, during a courtesy call on him at his office in Kumasi.
The delegation is exploring avenues for partnership with universities in the country.
Mr Yankah told them that a video documentary on the region's culture and resources has been made and that a Kumasi Business Club to spearhead the promotion of investment and business activities had also been formed.
The Regional Minister spoke of plans to hold a "Yaa Asantewaah Festival" in the first week of August, next year to honour the legedary war heroine, Nana Yaa Asantewaah, the late Queenmother of Ejisu.
Highlights of the festival, he said, include the first ever durbar of Queenmothers and an intellectual colloquium on women, the focal point of which would be on resistance.
Professor Joseph Silver Jnr., President of Academic Studies of the University of Savannah, told the Regional Minister that they have already been in contact with the
Vice-Chancellors of the univesities of Ghana and Cape Coast, and are also making efforts to get in touch with the authorities of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
The delegation praised Mr Yankah for his "real foresightedness".
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Ajumako (Central Region) 23 July '99
A 52 year old Akpeteshie checker of Ajumako Co-operative Distillers Society on Sunday allegedly committed suicide while in Ajumako police cells.
A police spokesman said Kwame Dum and two others were arrested by the Ochiso police for stealing seven drums of Akpeteshie.
The accused persons were being kept in different cells pending investigation but Dum was found hanging from the roof of his cell the next morning.
The body has been sent to Cape Coast Central hospital for post mortem.
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Medical professionals to undergo vetting
Accra (Greater Accra) 23 July '99
With effect from October this year, medical professionals trained outside Ghana will be vetted before they are allowed to practice in the country.
The Ghana Medical and Dental Council has instituted a system called "Pre-Registration Examination" to assess all foreign trained medical and dental professionals before registration without which they will not be recognised.
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, Dr Christain Botchway, Chairman of the Council, said this procedure is in accordance with the Medical and Dental Decree of 1972 (Section 21 of NRCD 91)
The law provides that: "Council may, if it thinks fit in any particular case, require the person to pass such examination as Council may prescribe prior to registration of that person under this Decree".
Dr Botchway said though this procedure is practised world-wide and locally by other health professionals, the first attempt by the Council in 1987 was shelved due to fears from certain quarters that it was a discrimination against specific practitioners including those already practising in the country.
Dr Botchway explained that carrying out this exercise is not meant to victimise any particular group of doctors or dentists. Rather, the prime concern is for the protection of patients by insisting on high standards of health care delivery in the country.
He said the action has become necessary because the Council has for sometime now been concerned about the wide variation in standards of practitioners trained outside who work in government facilities or are in private practice.
Though these deficiencies have been corrected in most cases, some of them have been serious and fundamental, he said and called for appropriate corrective measures.
Dr Botchway explained that the examination, which will be at par with that of the Medical Schools in Ghana, will be in four parts and that candidates will be given a pre-orientation course to prepare them. "No doctor will be registered to practice without passing the examination.
Doctors on short-term emergency and humanitarian visits to the country shall be exempted from the examination
Revision courses will be organised for two weeks for foreign-trained doctors, comprising ward rounds and at least four hours of tutorials in Child Health, Medicine, Surgery and Obstetrician Gynaecology.
The pass mark is 50 per cent and examinees must pass in all parts of the assessment - theory and orals.
The Council has recommended that candidates should have four attempts. If a candidate fails after the third attempt, his performance shall be studied and he will be referred to either of the Medical Schools for counselling and retraining for the final attempt.
The examination shall be held twice a year - February and August.
Dr Emmanuel Mensah, Director of Institutional Care at the Ministry of Health, who presided said the re-introduction of the procedure is in line with the law which has been set aside for a long time.
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Industrialist provides free uniforms for pupils
Adankwame (Ashanti Region) 23 July '99
An industrialist, Mrs Awura Abena Pokuaa Aninakwah, has given 600 school uniforms for free distribution to pupils from poor homes in deprived areas of Ashanti.
The donation was made through Mr Kojo Yankah, the Regional Minister, when he inspected a kindergarten Mrs Aninakwah has established for the people of Adankwame, a farming community in the Atwima district on Wednesday.
Mrs Aninakwah, who is proprietress of Awura Abena Fashions in Kumasi, has employed a teacher for the school with 31 children who receive free meals and uniforms.
The Regional Minister expressed profound appreciation for "this wonderful gesture towards disadvantaged children."
Mr Yankah, accompanied by Mr Peter Yaw Mensah, Atwima District Chief Executive, also inspected a Disabled Training Centre being built by Mrs Aninakwah for the community.
Constructional works on a dormitory, an administration block, a clinic and classrooms for the centre are in progress. More than 200 million cedis had already been sunk into the project.
Mrs Aninakwah hoped the centre, which would offer vocational training for the physically disabled, would be ready for use early next year.
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ECOWAS member-states urged to work towards free-trade area by the year 2000
Accra (Greater Accra), 23rd July 99 –
An official of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Secretariat warned in Accra on Thursday that the goal of establishing a free trade area by the year 2000 would only be on paper if member states do not redouble their efforts to achieve that goal.
Ms Eileen Iscandari, Principal Officer in charge of trade at the Secretariat, said in order to change this situation, an effective sensitisation campaign must be mounted throughout the region.
She was speaking at a two-day workshop organised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) in response to complaints by economic operators on the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS).
The scheme aims at facilitating free flow of goods and services, among other things, in the sub-region.
Participants include officials from Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, Immigration Service, Association of Ghana Industries, Ghana Chamber of Commerce, Ministry of Finance, Private Enterprise Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ghana Journalist Association.
Ms Iscandari noted that various policies have been introduced by member states to facilitate the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital. However, the success of these policies depend on the seriousness that members and various actors attach to their implementation.
"The promotion of intra-West African trade is so vital that the 16 heads of state and governments themselves have made it the focus of the entire regional integration process."
She noted that the main instrument adopted for this purpose is the ETLS which is supposed to have a bearing on the progressive establishment of the free trade zone and customs union for a common market.
"However, almost 10 years after the scheme's entry into force, it has made little or no impact on the intra-regional trade."
Ms Iscandari said the scheme has not been implemented faithfully as expected by all member states and called on them to redouble efforts towards achieving the goals.
"We need to develop and nurture economic integration as a powerful tool for the growth and development aspirations of our region."
Mr Peter Herman Peperah, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, said some of the rudimentary problems encountered by a number of operators include basic requirements like the completion of application forms.
This is aggravated by the fact that approvals are made by the Council of Ministers only once in a year.
"If an enterprise therefore has the misfortune of not qualifying for one reason or the other, the application has to wait for another year before it is re-submitted for consideration.
"This situation, I consider very frustrating and a disincentive for operators to register under the scheme."
Added to this is the fact that currently, the intra-ECOWAS trade is less than 10 per cent of global trade of member states and this does not augur well for the future of the sub-region.
Mr Peperah noted that individual countries are too fragile to stand on their own and would not be able to withstand the onslaught occasioned by fierce international competition.
He said irrespective of this, and the creation of the West African Monetary Union by West African Francophone countries, Ghana is still committed to the ideals of ECOWAS.
The Deputy Minister asked the business community to furnish MOTI with other problems associated with the implementation of the scheme for redress.
"The ministry will provide the necessary support for Ghanaian companies to penetrate the markets of our neighbouring countries."
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Preach against social vices,-Bishop
Goaso, (Brong Ahafo) 23rd July 99 –
The Right Rev. Peter Kweku Atuahene, Catholic Bishop of Goaso, has called on priests to preach against corruption, rape, robbery and other social vices plaguing the country.
The Bishop was preaching the sermon at the priestly ordination of the Rev. Father J. Owusu Yeboah, 31, of the Society of African Mission (SMA) and the Rev. Father Matthew Kwame Kumi, 34, a diocesan priest, at Goaso in the Brong Ahafo region on July 17.
He said constant preaching against these social vices would help to reverse the trend.
Bishop Atuahene urged Christians to be conversant with the teachings of the bible to enable them to be obedient to their creator.
He advised the new priests to live beyond reproach, "learn to be the Good Shepherd and get your sheep together to enable them to know their master", he added.
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Assembly members to get less in ex-gratia awards.
Kenyasi (Brong Ahafo), 23rd July 99 –
About 12.8 million cedis is to be paid by the Asutifi district assembly in the Brong Ahafo region as part payment of ex-gratia awards to its 61 assembly members on Tuesday, July 27.
Instead of the 350,000 cedis for each assembly member, the assembly has decided to pay 210,000 cedis each due to its poor financial position.
He said the assembly is expected to pay 21.3 million cedis to cover the ex-gratia award for the members
"We shall pay the balance as soon as our revenue position improves'', he added.
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NPP condemns NDC education policy
Koforidua (Eastern Region), 23rd July 99-
Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, Member of Parliament for Juaben has said government's educational policies were jeopardising the future of the youth.
Government polices are raising questions over the country's ability to effectively compete in the global village economy of the next millennium, Mr Owusu-Agyeman said at the inauguration of the Koforidua Polytechnic branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at Koforidua.
He said there was a "strong correlation between the sorry state of education" and the current levels of indiscipline, youth delinquency and the high crime wave.
Mr Owusu-Agyeman, minority spokesman on foreign affairs, said an NPP government would pay the highest possible attention to educational issues in order to enhance enrolment, teaching and learning from kindergarten up to the tertiary levels.
An NPP government will pursue an economic programme specifically intended to ensure rapid expansion of the economy and a fluid labour market with opportunities for the upgrading of skills to address the problem of youth unemployment.
"Ghanaians still have the potentials capable of achieving their academic, artistic and intellectual excellence provided the right environment and motivation is given", he said.
The MP said he was" shocked and scandalised" by recent media reports of threats by educational institutions in the United Kingdom to withdraw recognition of degrees from Ghanaian universities.
"If this threat is carried through, it would devalue our degrees to the level of High school certificates".
The MP for Offinso North, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, was critical of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government's economic policies.
He said with the level of foreign assistance pouring into the country over the past 20 years at an average of 800 million dollars a year, Ghana should have been recording over eight per cent growth in her annual Gross Domestic Product and not four per cent.
He said it was on the basis of the expected eight per cent growth that "Ghana's Vision 2020" was forecast to make the country a middle-level economy.
"At the current performance of the economy, it is unlikely that the projections in Vision 2020 can be attained."
Dr Apraku, also minority spokesman on finance, called on the youth to reject the NDC and give the NPP their support to enable it to turn round the economy within four years of administration.
He charged the NDC government with corruption, mismanagement, incompetence, making fraud a national culture, adding that "the enemy in Ghana today is the NDC government."
Ms Christine Churcher, MP for Cape Coast, speaking on "Women in Politics", referred to the high cost of education and health services.
She said the time had come for women to get actively involved in politics in order to help remove the present government to enhance good living.
"Women have been too long in assuming the front role of national politics in order to add the human touch in the formulation of policies", she said and blamed the unemployment problem facing the country on the bad policies of the government.
Mr Yaw Barimah, MP for Koforidua, who presided, regretted that the policies of the government had turned the once Gold Coast into a poverty coast."
He charged the youth to respond to calls to join the NPP to enable the party to win victory the next general elections in order to change Ghana's fortunes.
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Initiate sound educational policies-Co-ordinator
Atimpoku (Eastern Region), 23rd July 99
The government has been called upon to initiate sound educational policies to provide qualitative instead of quantitative education.
Mr Samuel Ayim-Ankomah, Asuogyaman District Co-ordinator of the National Service Scheme, said Ghana's bright future could only be realised if policies that emphasise on qualitative education are pursued.
He was addressing the joint launching of the Asuogyaman, Yilo and Manya Krobo districts National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) week celebrations at Atimpoku in the Asuogyaman district on Tuesday.
The weeklong celebration on the theme "Creating environmental consciousness-the role of NASPA", will be climaxed with a tree-planting exercise and an excursion to tourist sites as well as an awards and dinner night.
Mr Ayim-Ankomah recounted the invaluable role of NASPA towards the socio-economic development of the nation, saying "we were able to do this because of the sound education we received."
He said until recently, the scheme was providing about 60 per cent of the teaching staff in basic schools and cited several institutions like the Apegusu Secondary School which was created with service personnel as their pioneer tutors.
Mr Emmanuel Dwamena-Bekoe, Asuogyaman District Chief Executive, also recounted contributions service personnel had made towards national development and urged those in leadership positions to patronise their activities.
He commended the association for the theme it had chosen for the celebration and cautioned that if they failed to appreciate the socio-economic culture of the people and how they relate to the environment, their campaign would be of little success.
Mr Tara Squire, Asuogyaman district NASPA president, said poor sanitation and other destructive environmental practices would dissuade tourists from patronising tourist potentials in the area.
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