GRi Newsreel 10-03-99

Mr Collins Owusu Appiah, District Chief Executive for Fanteakwa, has said the poverty alleviation fund for farmers would not be provided in cash but as inputs to farmers.

He said this during a visit to Akwansrem, near Begoro, yesterday to explain government policies and programmes to the people.

The DCE noted that farmers have misapplied loans granted them in cash over the years which has contributed to their inability to repay such loans and asked those who applied for the poverty alleviation fund to disabuse their minds that the loans would be granted in cash.

Mr Appiah said timber concessionaires have been banned from operating in the district following their rampant destruction of the forests and asked unit committee members to be on the alert to bring chainsaw operators in the area to book.

The government has put in place the Village Infrastructure Project, as an affiliate of the poverty alleviation scheme, to assist the youth to go into agriculture, the DCE explained.

The District Director of Education, Mr D.M. Ankomah, expressed concern over low enrolment in the primary school in the town and asked parents to send their children to school.

Wa (Upper West), 10 March 

It has been discovered that phone card users in Wa insert cigarette sticks into the phone booths to slow down the movement of units in order to reduce cost.

Mr David Osei-Wusu, Upper West Regional Minister who made this revelation, said the practice has resulted in the breakdown of the systems in the community.

A lot of money is being used to procure new equipment to the detriment of providing facilities for the expansion and improvement of telecommunications nation-wide.

Mr Osei-Wusu was addressing the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs at a general meeting in Wa on Tuesday and called on them to help educate their people against the practice.

He appealed to the people to sink ethnic pettiness in the interest of the development of the region and urged the chiefs to dispose of all chieftaincy disputes peacefully to enhance smooth development. Mr Osei-Wusu said Unit Committees are not a parallel authority to the traditional councils, but rather provide the structure in support of the chiefs.

He announced that construction work on the Wa-Tumu road has been approved for tarring, and the construction of culverts on some other trunk roads in the region has also been awarded on contract.

The government has also approved the establishment of a polytechnic in the region, and urged the chiefs to actively lead in the crusade to reverse the falling standards in education.

Naa Bananwini Sandu, President of the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs and Paramount Chief of the Kaleo Traditional Area, expressed regret at the poor staffing of the secretariat of the House.

Tamale (Northern Region), 10 March 

Alhaji Abukari Sumani, a contractor, has appealed to the government to find a lasting solution to the

irregular supply of cement to the North Region which is holding up the execution of a number of development projects.

"I have been given three months to complete nine culverts in the Kpandai area of the East Gonja District, but due to inadequate supply of cement, I do not think I can complete the work on schedule," he told newsmen in Tamale yesterday.

He said although each culvert is expected to take about 120 bags of cement, it always takes Ghana Cement Company Limited (GHACEM) about two months to honour his average cement supply to 1,000 bags.

Mr Issah Musah, Northern area representative of GHACEM admitted that contractors have been facing problems with supply since last year but assured them that the situation is being looked into for improvement.

He said ideally, there should always be at least 20,000 bags in stock at the area depot in Tamale to satisfy customer demand but as at now only about 7,500 are available.

Mr Musah attributed the problems to the transportation of cement from Takoradi instead of Tema, adding, "most big transporters are reluctant to leave Tema for Takoradi to cart cement to the North."

Akatsi (Volta Region), 10 March 

The Akatsi District Assembly has exceeded its revenue target of 147.6 million cedis by 3.7 million cedis and expects to earn 161.7 million cedis by the end of the year.

The District Chief Executive, Madam Vicky Nazah-Gidigloh said this when she addressed the first ordinary session of the assembly last Thursday.

She said the assembly has not received its coded revenue for last year and this has created a problem in providing a fitting package for out-going assembly members.

Last year the assembly's share of the District Assemblies Common Fund was 9.25 million cedis which was expended mostly on development projects.

For effective collection of revenue, Madam Nazah-Gidigloh said the revenue collecting machinery has been strengthened, bringing in unit committees and area/councils to assist.

In line with the vision 2020 programme, the assembly will promote small-scale economic activities through the implementation of an integrated small enterprise and informal sector development programme.

The DCE said five District Economic Development Agencies will be established to provide assistance in business opportunity identification, basic management training, extension services, small-scale technology transfer, and small-scale and informal credit for 17,000 people in the project period.

Bolgatanga (Upper East), 10 March  

The Upper East Regional Co-ordinating Council is to institute measures to put up a new houses for police officers and renovate existing ones, Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, Regional Minister has said.

He said the various district assemblies would be given the responsibility to carry out the exercise, adding that the Bawku West District has started by building a police station and living quarters at Zebilla.

In an interaction with 50 police officers in the region at a durbar in Bolgatanga, Alhaji Sulemana said the gesture was to boost the morale of the policemen so they could perform their duties effectively

This, he said, was also in line with government's plan to strengthen the police force adding that criminals were becoming sophisticated and the police need to be well equipped in order to check the crime wave. Alhaji Sulemana commended the police for maintaining peace and security in the region and urged them to approach their duties without fear nor reluctance.

"You are competent and we know that when you want to perform, you can be very effective", he said, adding that no group of indisciplined persons should be allowed to take the law into their hands.

He advised them not to compromise their integrity but to maintain a high level of respect that society would appreciate.

Mr Adolphus Wemegah, regional police commander, said crime in the region reduced from 2,874 in 1997 to 2,124 in 1998 due to periodic police-military patrols, activities of the neighbourhood and community watch-dog committees and the co-operation of assembly members.

He said the 325 police officers and 13 police stations in the region were inadequate and appealed to the office of the Inspector General of Poto give the region two more police stations.

The officers appealed for means of transport to enable them carry out their duties.

Apinkra (Ashanti), 10 March

A 100 million-cedi clinic built at Apinkra in the Bosomtwe-Atwima-Kwanwoma district has been commissioned to serve the health needs of more than 30 farming communities.

The Anglican Church provided 80 million cedis to support the construction of the clinic with the chiefs and people of Apinkra contributing 20 million cedis.

It has facilities for an outpatients department, consulting rooms, maternity ward, records department and dispensary, and quarters for a medical assistant.

Mr Isaac Nyame, District Chief Executive, commissioning the clinic, praised the Anglican Church for assisting government to provide the health and educational needs of the people and advised them to make use of the clinic instead of resorting to self-medication.

Mr Nyame said the district assembly has earmarked 180 million cedis to enhance health delivery in the area this year. The money will be used to provide decent housing for health personnel.

The Very Reverend Albert Kwasi Mensah, Vicar General of the Kumasi Anglican Diocese, said the clinic is the Church's contributions to government's efforts at making health delivery accessible to all.

Accra (Greater Accra), 10 March

Madame Huguette Labhelle, President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), will pay a two-day visit to Ghana from March 11 to 12 to familiarise herself with the CIDA-Ghana Programme, the largest in Africa.

According to a statement issued in Accra on Wednesday, Madame Labelle will call on President Jerry John Rawlings and the Minister of Finance, Mr Kwame Peprah to discuss Ghana's development and Canadian assistance programme.

She will sign an agreement with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to fund a Directory of Public and Civic Bodies which, when completed will be posted on the Internet.

The statement said Madame Labelle would inspect a few CIDA-funded projects, meet with parliamentarians to get their perspective on progress made in consolidating democratic institutions.

This will enable her witness first hand progress made by the country since her last visit to Ghana in 1994, the statement added.

Offinso (Ashanti), 10 March

The Offinso District Assembly has set up an educational endowment fund to raise funds to provide teaching and learning materials for schools and offer scholarships to brilliant but needy students in the district.

Mr Benjamin Brefoh, District Chief Executive who announced this at a parade of school children to mark Ghana's 42nd independence anniversary at Offinso last weekend, said the assembly has also initiated programmes to ensure effective supervision of schools to improve educational standard in the area.

He said the provision of numerous educational infrastructure and community libraries is a reflection of the assembly's commitment to ensure quality education.

Mr Brefoh said the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) is aimed at offering quality education to future generations and called on parents to provide the needs of their wards to enable them to acquire thhe requisite knowledge, skills or vocational training to enable them earn a living in future.

He urged teachers to be committed to their profession and help produce disciplined and morally upright students, saying "education is the key to every nation's development".

Accra (Greater Accra), 10 March

The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, arrived in Accra on Wednesday at the head of a 22-member delegation for a two-day official visit.

The visit follows "the joint declaration on partnership in Africa", which was made by Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Jacques Chirac at the British- French Summit in December last year.

The declaration noted the special role and responsibility, which the United Kingdom and France, together with other partners have in Africa and their willingness to remain fully engaged there.

The French Foreign Minister, Hubert Vedrine, is expected later today.

The two foreign Ministers will undertake a joint programme and later pay a courtesy call on President Jerry John Rawlings.

Mr Cook was met by Mr Victor Gbeho, Minister of Foreign Affairs, his Deputy.

Bunso (Eastern Region)), 10 March,

Ms Patience Adow, Eastern Regional Minister, has stressed the importance that government attaches to the preservation of the country's forests.

She was opening the ninth annual review workshop of the Collaborative Community Forestry Initiative (CCFI), geared towards tree seedlings production and tree planting at the Bunso Cocoa College on Tuesday.

The five-day workshop is organised by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and it is being attended by American Peace Corps volunteers, officials of the forestry department, the ministry of Food and Agriculture, and regional community representatives.

The workshop will discuss seedling production and distribution, survival rates and loan recovery among other topics.

In an address read on her behalf, Ms Adow regretted that Ghana's huge forestry asset had reduced to 4.4 million hectares.

She said as at now Ghana has less than two million hectares of tropical rain forest " being still abused to our detriment and that of posterity."

She hoped that the workshop would seriously address this problem and come out with "strategies to propel the nation into the next millennium to halt the fast depletion of our forest".

Ms Adow said the problems of deforestation in Ghana have become so acute that even the vegetative cover along rivers had been totally destroyed, resulting in the drying up of rivers.

She commended ADRA's role in environmental restoration and called on other non-governmental organisations to emulate ADRA.

It is gratifying that ADRA and American peace corps volunteers have produced to date as many as five million tree seedlings. They have also planted 150,000 hectares of land with various species of trees, she added.

The country director of ADRA, Mr George Baiden, said-"environmental degradation is now part of our life," and therefore called for cordial working relationship between stakeholders to promote tree seedling production and tree planting.

Mr Baiden said CCFI formed 11 years ago faced problems of communication and resources and asked the participants to find ways and means to "remove these constraints and work as a team to promote environmental peace in the country".

He reminded them that tree planting is a vital economic activity, and therefore implored them to encourage their communities to embark on tree planting to stop environmental degradation.

A book of condolence has been opened at the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi as part of preparations towards the burial rites of Otumfuo Opoku Ware the second, Asantehene.

This was contained in a press release issued after a meeting of the publicity sub-committee of the Funeral Planning Committee at the Centre for National Culture in Kumasi today.

According to the release signed by Baffour Appiah Dankwah the third, Anantahene and chairman of the committee, the book of condolence will be opened from 0900 hours 1700 hours daily.

The release said those who want to pay tribute should send them to the private secretary of Otumfuo by hand or mail by Friday, March 12.