Atomic Energy Commission to
help HIV/AIDS patients
NPP ‘talibans’ strike in
Upper West
Ghana in line for massive aid windfall
The untold story of Nationwide-Air
The tour
is under the auspices of the Spanish Foreign Trade Institute (ICEX) and the
Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE) of the European Union in
collaboration with EMPRETEC Ghana Foundation.
The areas of interest of the Spanish companies are construction, wood,
engineering and industrial equipment sectors. Speaking at the delegation’s
meeting with Ghanaian businesses, a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mrs Grace
Coleman, said the interaction marks another milestone in the growing relations
between Ghana and Spain.
She said between 1996 and this year, the Spanish Government has extended soft
loans worth US$122.6m and has promised more assistance to
Mrs Coleman noted that the government is determined to make the private sector
the prime mover of the economy and that reforms are being undertaken in customs
procedures, the legal system and the stabilisation of the economy to achieve
this objective. She disclosed that negotiations for a treaty that seeks to
promote and protect investment between
The Spanish Ambassador to
The
Economic and Commercial Councillor of the Spanish Embassy responsible for
The Chief Executive Officer of EMPRETEC Ghana Foundation, Dr George Manu, said
unlike its other trading partners,
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Atomic Energy Commission
to help HIV/AIDS patients
The Director of the Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute of
GAEC, Professor G.Y.P. Klu, said this at a day’s workshop on supplementary
feeding programmes for children in the country. The workshop is aimed at
reviewing the progress made in the Supplementary Feeding Educational Programme
(SFEP) to improve the nutritional status of children, pregnant women and
lactating mothers.
It was attended by nutrition experts from the Ministry of Health, the World
Food Programme, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, USAID and research
institutions. Prof Klu said HIV/AIDS and malnutrition have been identified as
major health problems in
He said
food supplements are necessary because the country has not reached the stage
where her agriculture and economic programmes can help in the provision of
diverse food supply in abundance all year round. Prof Klu said GAEC is in a
unique position to provide scientific information on the nutritional value of
foods that are available and develop supplements for them.
In a
speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Health, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, said
Dr Afriyie said maternal and childhood malnutrition has increased people’s
vulnerability to illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and high
blood pressure. He said poverty is one of the causes of malnutrition and said
to address this problem, the government has developed a poverty reduction
strategy to address food insecurity in the country. – Daily Graphic
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NPP ‘talibans’ strike in
Upper West
Wa (Upper West Region)
This time round, party supporters who are opposed to the Regional Executive, have adopted a new approach, moving away from the burning of party vehicles, demonstrations and the issuing of statements, to charging on individual executive members and issuing them with threats of physical assault if they ventured.
This was the scenario last week when a faction of NPP supporters popularly called the ‘Talibans’ numbering about ten, broke lose and charged on the Wa Central Constituency Chairman, Abdulai Safana alias ‘Plumb’ at his residence and threatened to beat him up.
They collected a Holy Quoran which he was reading from his hands and threw it at his face and insulted him. Their reason: Information gathered, spoke of plans by the party executives to conduct various constituency and regional delegates conferences secretly without their knowledge.
Credible information gathered by The Evening news had it that the “Talibans’ were in the chairman’s place to ascertain the authenticity of their information but did not take kindly to the chairman’s negative response that he had no knowledge of the secret moves, hence their action.
That was not all, the ‘Talabans’ on their return to a spot at Jengbeyiri, met the Regional Vice Chairman of the NPP, Alhaji Yakubu Seidu, also known as ‘no condition is permanent’ who had parked his vehicle and was conversing with another leading member of the party, Alhaji Sumani Bondana, and insulted them
The two, especially Alhaji Seidu, received a reasonable amount of insults, threats that he had been banned from the area by the ‘Talibans’. One of the ‘Talibans’ is alleged to have pulled a knife at Alhaji Seidu but was prevented from causing any havoc. Alhaji Seidu was later whisked away by one Forouk.
Some of the ‘Talibans’ told The Evening News that they would resist any attempt by the executives to hold any delegates conference secretly with the view to imposing people on them. The delegates conference is just the immediate problem but the deep rooted issued are that we have been sidelined and denied participation in party activities.
“Although some of us are quality for contract works, we have not been given any because we oppose decisions by the executive that are not in the interest of the party,” they said. The group threatened burning down the party’s new double-cabin pick-up allocated to the region anytime they see it doing job apart from party activities.
Ever since the NPP won the 2000 elections, there had been a sharp division between party executives and factions of the party’s supporters in the Upper West Region. The differences degenerated into crisis resulting in the burning of two party campaign Niva cars and the staging of various demonstrations.
A high-powered delegation led the Government’s spokesman, Kwabena Adjapong, visited the region sometime ago in a bid to solve the impasse, but it ended in a deadlock.
Meanwhile, the Regional Criminal Investigations Department (RCID) of the Upper West Regional Police Commands is investigating the threats and assaults on Alhaji Seidu by the ‘Talibans’ Although three names were given to the police as ring leaders and people who issued the threats on Alhaji Seidu, no arrests have been made by the rests have been by the police. - The Evening News
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Medical Association urges
for Health Fund
Accra (Greater Accra) 28 November 2002 - The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has called for the establishment of a Health Fund to ensure adequate health service delivery, especially for the less privileged in the country.
In an interview with The Ghanaian Times in
Briefing the “Times” on the just ended GMA’s 44th annual conference, Dr Plange-Rhule said that the fund could also help in correcting the gross imbalance in the distribution of primary and secondary health care facilities in many parts of the country.
The fund, he said might provide the necessary funding for local health “if such a fund was set up with strict guideline for the moneys that accrued, it would , to my mind, serve to spice-up tremendously the funding base of the health sector,” he pointed out.
He said, for the first time in the history of the sector, proposals in that regard had been submitted in consultations with the leadership of all health professional groupings to government. The GMA president explained that over the past fourteen months that the proposals were submitted, the sector had lost more health professionals, resulting in more work for the few in the system.
Health professionals have become
pessimistic and disillusioned and there have been a lot of silent agitations,
he said. Dr Plange-Rhule therefore called for action to be expedited on the
negotiations and finalized as possible to restore confidence amongst health
professionals in the country. – The Ghanaian Times
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Taking on critics who say the
The money will be in addition to the roughly $10bn the
In contrast, the official said, when foreign aid is directed to countries with
sound policies, private capital increases, helping to boost economic growth and
fight poverty. At a UN development conference in March, Bush touted the
programme as part of the U.S.-led war against terrorism, and put his advisers
to work hammering out the details.
Under Bush's plan, the Millennium Challenge Account will be rolled out in
phases over the next three years. In fiscal 2004, the world's poorest
countries, including
Once fully phased in, the
To win a
share of the resources, countries will be ranked based on 16 separate
"performance indicators," from civil rights to spending on public
health and education. A country's' "economic freedom" will be judged
on its credit rating, inflation, budget deficits, openness to trade and quality
of regulatory policies. Bush drew the line at corruption. "Corruption is
pass-fail. If you can't pass corruption you're presumed ineligible," an
official said.
Those
countries which perform better than the average on most indicators could
qualify for a share of the resources, pending a review by a cabinet-level panel
which will make final recommendations to the president.
To
administer the programme, Bush will ask Congress to create the so-called
Millennium Challenge Corporation. The independent agency would be supervised by
a board of directors composed of cabinet-level officials and chaired by
Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Officials
said the new agency would directly employ around 100 people and draw heavily on
the expertise -- and staff -- of the U.S. Agency for International Development and
other federal departments.
The new
aid could flow to the countries themselves, as well as non-governmental
organisations and the private-sector.
As initially proposed earlier this year, $1.67bn will start flowing in the
fiscal 2004 budget climbing to around $3.33bn the following year. At the end of
the three-year start-up period, an extra $5 billion a year will automatically
be included in the budget.
But administration officials said the fiscal 2004 commitment will probably be
smaller than the $1.67bn initially promised since it remains to be seen how
many countries will qualify.
Mary McClymont, president of InterAction, welcomed the plan but expressed
concern about the administration's commitment to provide full funding. "It
could be a very important tool to help improve overall aid effectiveness and
fight poverty," she said. "But of course what we will be watching is
to make sure the funds in fact materialise." – Daily Graphic
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The untold story of
Nationwide-Air
The
For President John Kufuor, the troubles and mountains of debt of Ghanair is a scare-crow and requires a whole ministry-perhaps, Ministry of Ghana Airways. But the government’s choice of Nationwide Air is even more befuddling than the solution to the problems of Ghanair.
Nationwide-Air is a one-man business owned by one Vernon Bricknell, an East Londoner and a motor racer who initially set up the company as charter-flight company in 1991 originally with a single Cessna 172.
The choice of Bricknell as the “Minister of
Ghana Airways Affairs” and Nationwide-Air as the “Ministry of Ghana Airways”
can only be described as a fools deal and a scandal of the dummies.” Bricknell,
the sole proprietor of Nationwide-Air, only purchased his first big, aircraft,
a BAC I-II in 1994 and started flying scheduled services within
As late as 1999-2000, he was still struggling with the South African Civil Aviation as the Aviation Authority had phased out his BAC I-II aircraft. Nationwide Air, was born when Vernon Bricnell purchased a small (defunct) airline.
It started with what was called the
Nationwide-Air Group in 1991, providing services within
Ninety per cent of the airline’s routes
remain domestic, basically within
Four flights between
According to Vernon Bricknell, Nationwide
has carried only two million passengers since its inception, a figure which
confirms the budding nature of the airline. According to investigations, it was
only eight months ago (that is March 2002) that Nationwide-Air began vying for
a licence to fly to
The airline, according to documents in the
possession of The Chronicle, was in
March this year bidding for the Johannesburg-Brussels route. The airline is
said to be eyeing
The
At the last check, Nationwide had submitted
application to the Department of Transport’s Air Service Council for the right
to fly seven return flight to
The commercial executive of the budding
airline, Chris Hoare, in his bid to persuade the council to grant them the
licence said that the 2003 World Cup Cricket and the world
“It is extremely difficult to get a seat on
an international flight to
Records at the South African Civil Aviation
Authority (SACAA), indicate that on
At the time of granting the application,
Nationwide was in violation of this federal regulation and was operating a
fleet of BAC I-II passenger aircrafts which were non-compliant with the
aforementioned regulation. The exemption was granted to Nationwide for an
initial period of 18 months, until
According to records, Nationwide applied for the initial exemption after an agreement had been reached between them and the Civil Aviation Authority on a BAC I-II phase-out and fleet renewal programme. The commissioner for Civil Aviation granted Nationwide-Air the exemption under the following conditions.
a) Nationwide-Air is required to limit flight levels on the Johannesburg-Durban route to 28,000 feet and on the Johannesburg Gorge route to 31,000 feet. Where the BAC I-II’s are used as back up, aircraft on the Johannesburg Cape Town route, they are permitted to operate at 31,000 feet.
The Commissioner indicated that he would seriously consider granting a further exemption for an additional 18 months to the budding airline on the expiry of the present exemption provided that he is satisfied that the BAC I-II aircraft are phased out according to the agreed phase-out schedule.
The agreed phase-out schedule stipulates that until December 2001, Nationwide may operate two BAC I-II’s at 30,000 feet.
From every indication, Nationwide is itself a struggling and a budding one man business. The Government’s choice is still a mystery but the whiff of Presidential complicity may be a proposition that my not be dismissed readily because in the NPP government of today, no minister takes a decision of any real significance without clearing with the President.
And that Dr Richard Anane currently, the most powerful minister in the cabinet in terms of proximity to the President, is an open secret and the Chronicle will be exposing mind-boggling decisions that could not have been taken by this young stiff-necked minister with no experience whatsoever in management or business. – The Chronicle
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