Spread Sat. march 29/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
FEMALE prisoners at the Nsawam Medium Security are appealing for legal aid services since they cannot afford to hire private legal practitioners.
According to the inmates, most of them qualified to make appeals but because they could not afford the services of lawyers, they were compelled to serve their full term in the prison.
The inmates made the appeal when the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mrs Oboshie Sai Cofie, paid a working visit to the prison on Thursday to let the inmates know some of the policies that had been put in place by the government to benefit especially women, as well as to observe International Women’s Month which falls in March every year.
A spokeswoman for the inmates said legal aid, the legal assistance given to people who could not afford to pay for lawyers from their own resources, had for a long time been non-existent in the prison.
She said most of them had been in the prison for a long time and their children were becoming wayward, saying, “I came here as a young girl and I have spent all my prime time here.”
They also appealed for more amnesty to be extended to them and also a system to be put in place whereby prisoners incarcerated during the tribunal period would be able to go in for appeals.
According to them, those who were jailed by the tribunal system which was phased out about 15 years ago had no means of appealing for their cases to be looked into because the system did not exist any longer.
They said most often when such convicts were taken to court for appeal, they were turned back because there were no legal systems in place to hear their cases.
They also called for a support scheme dubbed, “Half way home”, whereby when prisoners were released after serving their jail terms, they were given money to start an economic venture to be able to support themselves financially.
According to them, because such systems were not in place, most ex-convicts found their way back to the prisons because they were not properly integrated into society.
The minister, addressing the inmates, said the government had put in place numerous programmes that would benefit them when they came out.
She mentioned the School Feeding Programme, the National Health Insurance Scheme and credit schemes being offered to women through some ministries.
She said there was a bright future for them when they came out and so they should hope for the better in life.
An Assistant Director of Prisons in charge of the Nsawam Female Prisons, Madam Charity Araba Magnusen, who welcomed the minister and her entourage, enumerated some of the problems that they faced, including the lack of modern equipment to train inmates in skills development, as well as dilapidated beds which she said were causing health problems for most inmates.
She said currently the 200-capacity prison had 113 inmates, made up of 73 convicts, 24 remands, three condemned, three on trial, with one nursing mother and two pregnant women.
The minister later presented feminine necessities such as sanitary pads and toilet rolls, as well as baby food and soap, to the inmates, after which they also handed her a parcel made up of some of the produce of the inmates.
She later visited the Rural Women’s Skills and Development Foundation, also at Nsawam, and the Amasaman chief’s palace.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Ministry develops policy on sanitation
Pg 54. Thurs. March 27/08
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing is developing a policy to make environmental sanitation an essential social service and a major determinant for improving health and standard of living in the country.
The policy will among other objectives help resolve human and institutional capacity development issues that continue to hamper the environmental sanitation sector in order to provide a solid foundation for rapid progress.
The Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Christopher Addae, made this known at a symposium in Accra to climax this year’s World Water Day.
The day, which was celebrated on March 22, was on the theme: “Sanitation”, and also marked the celebration of International Year of Sanitation.
Mr Addae said the policy would also enhance the evidence base, knowledge, attitudes and practices of individuals, households and communities as partners in environmental sanitation to contribute to advocacy and improvement of the sector.
It will further provide actions that will lead to harmonising sanitation sector laws, promulgating appropriate and enforceable regulations as well as establishing minimum standards and guidelines.
Mr Addae called on the public to consider improved sanitation as a strategic issue, saying that the way people addressed sanitation would affect the achievement of the country’s Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) II and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
He said fortunately Ghana had set its priorities towards ensuring the provision of good drinking water and sanitation-related services for its increasing population in both the rural and urban areas.
Citing the National Water Policy which was launched in February 2008, he said the policy provided clear actions and measures that addressed water-related hygiene education and environmental sanitation issues.
The Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Mr Kobbie Kesse, in an address said the theme for the year was relevant to the country’s quest to find solutions to the problems facing it in the delivery of water both to the urban and rural population.
He said “the day falls at a time when people are experiencing water scarcity in almost all cities and towns in the country mostly because of the drying up and pollution of water sources”.
He stressed the need for people to be educated on the threat facing world water resources from pollution, over use, climate change, land use and other man-made forces.
He said the Weija lake that supplied about 50 per cent of Accra’s current water production was under serious threat from direct pollution and poor land use in its environs, adding that the pollution had resulted in high treatment costs for the company, a situation which he said was also being experienced at Owabi in the Ashanti Region, where the country had its second major treatment plant.
He stated that although the picture looked gloomy “I am optimistic that this can be arrested”.
He appealed to the consuming public to be supportive of its efforts at promoting access to safe potable water in the country, saying that as the company through its, operator Aqua Vitens Rand Limited, was actively straightening its management practices to reduce water losses at the source of production and distribution, consumers must also help by optimising water usage and reducing wastage.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Joachim Saweka, who read a speech on behalf of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, said the MDG, which envisioned halving the proportion of people living without access to basic sanitation by 2015, could not be achieved looking at the pace of development in that area across the world.
He said at the present rate, sub-Saharan Africa would not be able to reach that goal until 2076 and experts also believed that by 2015, a total of 2.1 billion people would still lack basic sanitation.
He said while there had been advances, progress was hampered by population growth, widespread poverty, insufficient investments to address the problem and lack of political will.
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing is developing a policy to make environmental sanitation an essential social service and a major determinant for improving health and standard of living in the country.
The policy will among other objectives help resolve human and institutional capacity development issues that continue to hamper the environmental sanitation sector in order to provide a solid foundation for rapid progress.
The Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Christopher Addae, made this known at a symposium in Accra to climax this year’s World Water Day.
The day, which was celebrated on March 22, was on the theme: “Sanitation”, and also marked the celebration of International Year of Sanitation.
Mr Addae said the policy would also enhance the evidence base, knowledge, attitudes and practices of individuals, households and communities as partners in environmental sanitation to contribute to advocacy and improvement of the sector.
It will further provide actions that will lead to harmonising sanitation sector laws, promulgating appropriate and enforceable regulations as well as establishing minimum standards and guidelines.
Mr Addae called on the public to consider improved sanitation as a strategic issue, saying that the way people addressed sanitation would affect the achievement of the country’s Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) II and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
He said fortunately Ghana had set its priorities towards ensuring the provision of good drinking water and sanitation-related services for its increasing population in both the rural and urban areas.
Citing the National Water Policy which was launched in February 2008, he said the policy provided clear actions and measures that addressed water-related hygiene education and environmental sanitation issues.
The Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Mr Kobbie Kesse, in an address said the theme for the year was relevant to the country’s quest to find solutions to the problems facing it in the delivery of water both to the urban and rural population.
He said “the day falls at a time when people are experiencing water scarcity in almost all cities and towns in the country mostly because of the drying up and pollution of water sources”.
He stressed the need for people to be educated on the threat facing world water resources from pollution, over use, climate change, land use and other man-made forces.
He said the Weija lake that supplied about 50 per cent of Accra’s current water production was under serious threat from direct pollution and poor land use in its environs, adding that the pollution had resulted in high treatment costs for the company, a situation which he said was also being experienced at Owabi in the Ashanti Region, where the country had its second major treatment plant.
He stated that although the picture looked gloomy “I am optimistic that this can be arrested”.
He appealed to the consuming public to be supportive of its efforts at promoting access to safe potable water in the country, saying that as the company through its, operator Aqua Vitens Rand Limited, was actively straightening its management practices to reduce water losses at the source of production and distribution, consumers must also help by optimising water usage and reducing wastage.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Joachim Saweka, who read a speech on behalf of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, said the MDG, which envisioned halving the proportion of people living without access to basic sanitation by 2015, could not be achieved looking at the pace of development in that area across the world.
He said at the present rate, sub-Saharan Africa would not be able to reach that goal until 2076 and experts also believed that by 2015, a total of 2.1 billion people would still lack basic sanitation.
He said while there had been advances, progress was hampered by population growth, widespread poverty, insufficient investments to address the problem and lack of political will.
'Discuss draft decentralisation policy further'
Spread Mar. 26/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
CABINET has directed that the Draft Comprehensive Decentralisation Policy Framework developed by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development should be discussed and further improved on by civil society organisations.
The policy, which forms part of the National Decentralisation Action Plan (NDAP), will be re-submitted to the Cabinet after all partners have made their input.
This was made known by the sector minister, Mr Kwadwo Adjei Darko, when he took his turn to address the press in Accra yesterday.
He said a review committee had also been set up to look into the legal environment of decentralisation and local government reforms to address issues that had emerged with the implementation of the local government reforms.
He said his ministry together with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning had developed an inter-governmental fiscal framework which sought to address the issue of revenue, expenditure and functional assignments between national and the sub-national levels of government.
Mr Adjei Darko said for the purpose of the development of the framework, an inter-ministerial committee had been set up and a first draft of the framework had been developed and validated.
He said a legislative instrument (LI) which integrated all decentralised departments at the district assembly and regional levels into the assembly fold and the regional co-ordinating council had been produced and submitted to the Cabinet.
The LI, among other things, outlined the roles and responsibilities of each department and made the district assemblies the centre of activities at the district level, he disclosed.
He said with the launch of the Local Government Service Council in December 2007, the council and its secretariat were currently working on integrating the line departments and central government agencies into the departments of the assemblies at the district level to ensure that the assemblies had the requisite and competent staff to fulfil their mandates.
He added that with the launch of the council, over 30,000 staff had been transferred from the Civil Service to the Local Government Service with effect from January 2008.
Mr Adjei Darko said the rationale behind the splitting of district assemblies was to make the assemblies more effective, adding that in the past five months, 32 new district assemblies had been created out of which 31 had been established and another 31 raised to municipal and metropolitan status.
Chronicling some of the achievements of the ministry in the past year, Mr Adjei Darko said the ministry in collaboration with the Merchant Bank and the Jomoro and Krachi district assemblies had successfully constructed two boats to facilitate lake transportation, adding that the boats had been designed to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers.
On the District Assemblies Common Fund, the minister said the allocation of five per cent of the national budget to district assemblies had been increased to 7.5 per cent with effect from this year, in view of the enormous developmental responsibilities of the assemblies.
Consequently, he said, in fulfilment with the Internal Audit Act provisions, the ministry in collaboration with the Internal Audit Agency had established and staffed internal audit units in all ministries, municipalities, districts and agencies (MMDA).
Also an initiative to assist the MMDAs to significantly increase their internally generated funds had been introduced through the Ghana Municipal Finance and Management Initiative of the Government of Ghana with sponsorship from the Cities Alliance, World Bank and the UN-Habitat.
The initiative, he said, would help the MMDAs to identify and find ways of blocking financial leakage and improve their management and accounting systems, to be able to raise enough funds to meet the backlog of infrastructure and service delivery requirements, adequately provide for people’s needs, gain public confidence and ultimately achieve the level of being able to borrow from the capital market.
On the environment, the minister said a National Environmental Sanitation Co-ordination Council had been revived and further strengthened to co-ordinate and collaborate with all stakeholders involved in sanitation management, adding that the ministry had also revived the national Environmental Sanitation Policy, which was yet to be submitted to the Cabinet.
He further stated that a research team based in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) had been constituted to undertake research and studies into the Bui Dam Project and its impact on the environment, health and safety, the ecosystem and aquatic life with the view to improving the quality of life in the area, as well as maximise the value of any investment made in the area.
The research team, which, he said, would work closely with the Tain and Bole District Assemblies, would develop a comprehensive environmental health safety programme, undertake research and investigate environmental health and safety liabilities, as well as provide credible health and safety information.
On the School Feeding Programme introduced by the government, the minister said despite some problems, 987 schools with 477,714 pupils across the country were currently benefiting, saying that by the end of the year it was expected to cover 1,556 schools and gradually scale up to 2,889 schools with 1.4 million pupils by the end of 2010.
He said by March 2008, about GH¢24 million had been disbursed with The Netherlands government providing about GH¢2.1 million.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
CABINET has directed that the Draft Comprehensive Decentralisation Policy Framework developed by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development should be discussed and further improved on by civil society organisations.
The policy, which forms part of the National Decentralisation Action Plan (NDAP), will be re-submitted to the Cabinet after all partners have made their input.
This was made known by the sector minister, Mr Kwadwo Adjei Darko, when he took his turn to address the press in Accra yesterday.
He said a review committee had also been set up to look into the legal environment of decentralisation and local government reforms to address issues that had emerged with the implementation of the local government reforms.
He said his ministry together with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning had developed an inter-governmental fiscal framework which sought to address the issue of revenue, expenditure and functional assignments between national and the sub-national levels of government.
Mr Adjei Darko said for the purpose of the development of the framework, an inter-ministerial committee had been set up and a first draft of the framework had been developed and validated.
He said a legislative instrument (LI) which integrated all decentralised departments at the district assembly and regional levels into the assembly fold and the regional co-ordinating council had been produced and submitted to the Cabinet.
The LI, among other things, outlined the roles and responsibilities of each department and made the district assemblies the centre of activities at the district level, he disclosed.
He said with the launch of the Local Government Service Council in December 2007, the council and its secretariat were currently working on integrating the line departments and central government agencies into the departments of the assemblies at the district level to ensure that the assemblies had the requisite and competent staff to fulfil their mandates.
He added that with the launch of the council, over 30,000 staff had been transferred from the Civil Service to the Local Government Service with effect from January 2008.
Mr Adjei Darko said the rationale behind the splitting of district assemblies was to make the assemblies more effective, adding that in the past five months, 32 new district assemblies had been created out of which 31 had been established and another 31 raised to municipal and metropolitan status.
Chronicling some of the achievements of the ministry in the past year, Mr Adjei Darko said the ministry in collaboration with the Merchant Bank and the Jomoro and Krachi district assemblies had successfully constructed two boats to facilitate lake transportation, adding that the boats had been designed to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers.
On the District Assemblies Common Fund, the minister said the allocation of five per cent of the national budget to district assemblies had been increased to 7.5 per cent with effect from this year, in view of the enormous developmental responsibilities of the assemblies.
Consequently, he said, in fulfilment with the Internal Audit Act provisions, the ministry in collaboration with the Internal Audit Agency had established and staffed internal audit units in all ministries, municipalities, districts and agencies (MMDA).
Also an initiative to assist the MMDAs to significantly increase their internally generated funds had been introduced through the Ghana Municipal Finance and Management Initiative of the Government of Ghana with sponsorship from the Cities Alliance, World Bank and the UN-Habitat.
The initiative, he said, would help the MMDAs to identify and find ways of blocking financial leakage and improve their management and accounting systems, to be able to raise enough funds to meet the backlog of infrastructure and service delivery requirements, adequately provide for people’s needs, gain public confidence and ultimately achieve the level of being able to borrow from the capital market.
On the environment, the minister said a National Environmental Sanitation Co-ordination Council had been revived and further strengthened to co-ordinate and collaborate with all stakeholders involved in sanitation management, adding that the ministry had also revived the national Environmental Sanitation Policy, which was yet to be submitted to the Cabinet.
He further stated that a research team based in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) had been constituted to undertake research and studies into the Bui Dam Project and its impact on the environment, health and safety, the ecosystem and aquatic life with the view to improving the quality of life in the area, as well as maximise the value of any investment made in the area.
The research team, which, he said, would work closely with the Tain and Bole District Assemblies, would develop a comprehensive environmental health safety programme, undertake research and investigate environmental health and safety liabilities, as well as provide credible health and safety information.
On the School Feeding Programme introduced by the government, the minister said despite some problems, 987 schools with 477,714 pupils across the country were currently benefiting, saying that by the end of the year it was expected to cover 1,556 schools and gradually scale up to 2,889 schools with 1.4 million pupils by the end of 2010.
He said by March 2008, about GH¢24 million had been disbursed with The Netherlands government providing about GH¢2.1 million.
Special courts to prosecute people for illegal water connections
Pg 14. Mar. 24/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Abubakar Sadique Boniface, says he will as a matter of urgency seek parliamentary approval for the establishment of special courts to prosecute people who connect water illegally to their homes, offices or workplaces.
According to the minister, the activities of such people was a major cause of financial loss to the government. He would, therefore, liaise with the Attorney-General’s Department for the establishment of such courts.
The minister said this on Monday when he accompanied the General Manager of Distribution, Aqua Vitens Rands Limited, Mr Theo Smit, and a disconnection team to stop people who had illegally connected water into their premises.
The operation was carried out in Sukura, Zambrama Line and Kaneshie (all in Accra) where the team disconnected four water sources which had been illegally reconnected after they had been disconnected about a year ago.
At Sukura, an illegal connection was disconnected at a house of a teacher who was absent when the team got there.
According to the disconnection team, the house’s water connection was disconnected about a year and a half ago but they had a tip-off that the landlady had reconnected water to her apartment.
At Zambrama Line, two illegal connections of water were identified, one of which had been connected to a public bathhouse for commercial purposes, The alleged culprit took to his heels when the team got to the scene.
After the disconnection, the minister tasked the chief of the area, Chief Haruna Maiga, to ensure that people within the area were educated on the effect of their actions on the efficient supply of water as well as revenue generation for the government.
At Kaneshie, the team disconnected a house which had been disconnected earlier but was tapping water from a neighbour without his knowledge.
The team earlier visited the Dansoman Police Station where a 65-year-old man, Mr Ofei Ashiley, had been arrested in the morning for stealing two water meters belonging to the St. Margarete Mary Secondary School at Dansoman.
The Head of the Loss Control Unit, Accra West District of Aqua Vitens Rands Ltd., Mr Joseph Nyante, said within the past three months, his outfit had received 57 cases of missing water meters.
An Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) at the Dansoman Police Station, ACP Florence Arthur, who briefed the minister on the current rate of armed robbery in the area, also appealed to people to volunteer information to the police to enable them take action.
The Communications Manager of Aqua Vitens Rands Ltd., Mr Kweku Sakyi-Addo, while briefing the media, attributed the current water shortage in the capital to the activities of some illegal operators.
He said such activities were preventing the company from generating enough revenue that would enable them to work efficiently.
The team also visited Osu Kuku Hill where the company had provided the community with two 9,000-litre capacity polytanks as part of the short-term measures that the government was introducing to help mitigate the current water crisis that was being experienced in Accra.
Other areas where similar polytanks have been provided are the La Bola Junction and La Wireless and according to the officer in charge of Distribution-Accra West, Mr Charles Brobbey, two other communities within the catchment area will benefit from the intervention before soon.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Abubakar Sadique Boniface, says he will as a matter of urgency seek parliamentary approval for the establishment of special courts to prosecute people who connect water illegally to their homes, offices or workplaces.
According to the minister, the activities of such people was a major cause of financial loss to the government. He would, therefore, liaise with the Attorney-General’s Department for the establishment of such courts.
The minister said this on Monday when he accompanied the General Manager of Distribution, Aqua Vitens Rands Limited, Mr Theo Smit, and a disconnection team to stop people who had illegally connected water into their premises.
The operation was carried out in Sukura, Zambrama Line and Kaneshie (all in Accra) where the team disconnected four water sources which had been illegally reconnected after they had been disconnected about a year ago.
At Sukura, an illegal connection was disconnected at a house of a teacher who was absent when the team got there.
According to the disconnection team, the house’s water connection was disconnected about a year and a half ago but they had a tip-off that the landlady had reconnected water to her apartment.
At Zambrama Line, two illegal connections of water were identified, one of which had been connected to a public bathhouse for commercial purposes, The alleged culprit took to his heels when the team got to the scene.
After the disconnection, the minister tasked the chief of the area, Chief Haruna Maiga, to ensure that people within the area were educated on the effect of their actions on the efficient supply of water as well as revenue generation for the government.
At Kaneshie, the team disconnected a house which had been disconnected earlier but was tapping water from a neighbour without his knowledge.
The team earlier visited the Dansoman Police Station where a 65-year-old man, Mr Ofei Ashiley, had been arrested in the morning for stealing two water meters belonging to the St. Margarete Mary Secondary School at Dansoman.
The Head of the Loss Control Unit, Accra West District of Aqua Vitens Rands Ltd., Mr Joseph Nyante, said within the past three months, his outfit had received 57 cases of missing water meters.
An Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) at the Dansoman Police Station, ACP Florence Arthur, who briefed the minister on the current rate of armed robbery in the area, also appealed to people to volunteer information to the police to enable them take action.
The Communications Manager of Aqua Vitens Rands Ltd., Mr Kweku Sakyi-Addo, while briefing the media, attributed the current water shortage in the capital to the activities of some illegal operators.
He said such activities were preventing the company from generating enough revenue that would enable them to work efficiently.
The team also visited Osu Kuku Hill where the company had provided the community with two 9,000-litre capacity polytanks as part of the short-term measures that the government was introducing to help mitigate the current water crisis that was being experienced in Accra.
Other areas where similar polytanks have been provided are the La Bola Junction and La Wireless and according to the officer in charge of Distribution-Accra West, Mr Charles Brobbey, two other communities within the catchment area will benefit from the intervention before soon.
Fire destroys Baron Distilleries • Causes death of woman
Pg 41. March 24/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
A middle-aged casual worker, Ms Janet Antwi of Baron Distilleries, which produces alcoholic beverages at Oyibi, Near Dodowa, was burnt beyond recognition when the production unit of the company caught fire.
The fire which destroyed the entire structure of the production section, including chemicals and other alcoholic beverages, running into millions of Ghana cedis, started around 9 a.m. last Wednesday.The fire was suspected to have been caused by a gas leakage at the cleaning section where Ms Antwi was working.
It took about seven hours for four fire tenders from the Madina, Trade Fair, the Industrial Area and the Headquarters of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to bring the fire under control.
According to the Ga East Divisional Commander of the GNFS, Mr Victor Godwill, the intensity of the fire was one of the worse that had been experienced in the capital.
He said the fire became more intense as drums of alcoholic beverages burst into flames, and that they had to bring in trucks of sand to fight the fire so that it did not spread to nearby structures.
He said but for the timely intervention of his men, the fire would have gutted the new site of the factory where the bottling of finished products took place, about a hundred meters away from the production unit.
According to Mr Godwill, investigations so far conducted showed that a gas cylinder which was normally used to melt oil in some of the bottles that were being cleaned leaked and got into contact with the alcohol, which sparked off the fire, leading to the death of Ms Antwi who was then working on the bottles.
It was observed that although the fire in the main production unit was brought under control, it was still intense in a 40-footer container in which some of the raw alcohol was stored.The firemen therefore had to isolate it from the main yard.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
A middle-aged casual worker, Ms Janet Antwi of Baron Distilleries, which produces alcoholic beverages at Oyibi, Near Dodowa, was burnt beyond recognition when the production unit of the company caught fire.
The fire which destroyed the entire structure of the production section, including chemicals and other alcoholic beverages, running into millions of Ghana cedis, started around 9 a.m. last Wednesday.The fire was suspected to have been caused by a gas leakage at the cleaning section where Ms Antwi was working.
It took about seven hours for four fire tenders from the Madina, Trade Fair, the Industrial Area and the Headquarters of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to bring the fire under control.
According to the Ga East Divisional Commander of the GNFS, Mr Victor Godwill, the intensity of the fire was one of the worse that had been experienced in the capital.
He said the fire became more intense as drums of alcoholic beverages burst into flames, and that they had to bring in trucks of sand to fight the fire so that it did not spread to nearby structures.
He said but for the timely intervention of his men, the fire would have gutted the new site of the factory where the bottling of finished products took place, about a hundred meters away from the production unit.
According to Mr Godwill, investigations so far conducted showed that a gas cylinder which was normally used to melt oil in some of the bottles that were being cleaned leaked and got into contact with the alcohol, which sparked off the fire, leading to the death of Ms Antwi who was then working on the bottles.
It was observed that although the fire in the main production unit was brought under control, it was still intense in a 40-footer container in which some of the raw alcohol was stored.The firemen therefore had to isolate it from the main yard.
Let’s involve women in conflict resolution -Attafuah
Pg 17. Thurs. Mar. 20/08
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Executive Director of the Justice and Human Rights Institute, Dr Ken Attafuah, has stated that the social role of women as good negotiators in times of conflicts has been undermined through the negative effects of some cultural and traditional practices.
He said in some communities in Ghana, the views of women are treated with contempt when issues pertaining to negotiations, conflict resolution and mediation are being discussed, just because they are female.
According to him since women suffer the most when there are conflicts such as tribal or civil wars, involving them in the negotiations for peace, most often helps to arrive at a lasting solution to such crisis.
Dr Attafuah, who made the statement at a day’s seminar to mark this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) in Accra, said that amounted to underutilising the potential of women as good negotiators.
The seminar, organised by the Department of Women which is under the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, brought together women’s groups, some members of the international communities and non-governmental organisations who deliberated on the global theme "Investing in women and girls".
He said when women were involved in finding solutions to such problems, they often came up with compromising positions that suited both parties better.
Dr Attafuah, who was speaking on the topic ‘‘Investing in protecting the rights of women and girls in Ghana is investing in development”, said women were better created to mediate in conflicts and, therefore, should be made to take centre stage in peace-making efforts.
He said although gender equality had been identified as an essential tool for development in a nation, 64 per cent of the world’s illiterate population had been identified to be women and that, according to him, was a negative factor for the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Dr Attafuah, who is also a former Executive Secretary of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), said issues of gender equality must be factored into the nation’s development framework to ensure that it benefited women and girls.
He advised parents not to exploit their daughters for financial gains and said that led to the betrothal of girls below 18 to older men thereby making such girls suffer mental and psychological trauma.
An International Gender Consultant, Ms Jane Kwawu, spoke on the topic, ‘Investing in eliminating inequalities faced by women and girls, a pathway to Ghana’s development. The role of the community, government, private sector and development partners’. She said the issue was not just about investing in women and girls but also providing the investment at the right time.
She said the most important aspect of investing in women and girls was making finance available to educate the girl-child, and added that this would mean making a conscious investment in girls for them to become women of substance to contribute to the development of the nation’s economy.
The Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, said investing in women and girls had a multiplying effect for a nation’s development, stressing that the government would continue to support efforts that promote both the economic and social emancipation of women and girls, through the provision of facilities such as micro-credit finance and the promotion of good health and girl-child education.
A member of the Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Mrs Dorcas Coker-Appiah, who also took the participants through ‘Investing in strengthening gender management systems in Ghana for development’, said there was the need for a national gender policy document that would clearly spell out how to address gender inequalities in the country.
She said for that to happen, MOWAC should be put in a position where it would be able to co-ordinate the activities of other ministries, departments and agencies to ensure that they mainstream gender in all their activities.
• Mrs Oboshie Sai Cofie (second right), Minister for Information and National Orientation addressing participants at the Seminar. On her left is Hajia Alima Mahama, MOWAC Minister and Dr. Ken Attafuah, Executive Director of the Justice and Human Rights Institute who had earlier addresses the participants.
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Executive Director of the Justice and Human Rights Institute, Dr Ken Attafuah, has stated that the social role of women as good negotiators in times of conflicts has been undermined through the negative effects of some cultural and traditional practices.
He said in some communities in Ghana, the views of women are treated with contempt when issues pertaining to negotiations, conflict resolution and mediation are being discussed, just because they are female.
According to him since women suffer the most when there are conflicts such as tribal or civil wars, involving them in the negotiations for peace, most often helps to arrive at a lasting solution to such crisis.
Dr Attafuah, who made the statement at a day’s seminar to mark this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) in Accra, said that amounted to underutilising the potential of women as good negotiators.
The seminar, organised by the Department of Women which is under the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, brought together women’s groups, some members of the international communities and non-governmental organisations who deliberated on the global theme "Investing in women and girls".
He said when women were involved in finding solutions to such problems, they often came up with compromising positions that suited both parties better.
Dr Attafuah, who was speaking on the topic ‘‘Investing in protecting the rights of women and girls in Ghana is investing in development”, said women were better created to mediate in conflicts and, therefore, should be made to take centre stage in peace-making efforts.
He said although gender equality had been identified as an essential tool for development in a nation, 64 per cent of the world’s illiterate population had been identified to be women and that, according to him, was a negative factor for the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Dr Attafuah, who is also a former Executive Secretary of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), said issues of gender equality must be factored into the nation’s development framework to ensure that it benefited women and girls.
He advised parents not to exploit their daughters for financial gains and said that led to the betrothal of girls below 18 to older men thereby making such girls suffer mental and psychological trauma.
An International Gender Consultant, Ms Jane Kwawu, spoke on the topic, ‘Investing in eliminating inequalities faced by women and girls, a pathway to Ghana’s development. The role of the community, government, private sector and development partners’. She said the issue was not just about investing in women and girls but also providing the investment at the right time.
She said the most important aspect of investing in women and girls was making finance available to educate the girl-child, and added that this would mean making a conscious investment in girls for them to become women of substance to contribute to the development of the nation’s economy.
The Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, said investing in women and girls had a multiplying effect for a nation’s development, stressing that the government would continue to support efforts that promote both the economic and social emancipation of women and girls, through the provision of facilities such as micro-credit finance and the promotion of good health and girl-child education.
A member of the Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Mrs Dorcas Coker-Appiah, who also took the participants through ‘Investing in strengthening gender management systems in Ghana for development’, said there was the need for a national gender policy document that would clearly spell out how to address gender inequalities in the country.
She said for that to happen, MOWAC should be put in a position where it would be able to co-ordinate the activities of other ministries, departments and agencies to ensure that they mainstream gender in all their activities.
• Mrs Oboshie Sai Cofie (second right), Minister for Information and National Orientation addressing participants at the Seminar. On her left is Hajia Alima Mahama, MOWAC Minister and Dr. Ken Attafuah, Executive Director of the Justice and Human Rights Institute who had earlier addresses the participants.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
EU/UN gender programme launched
Pg 24 Sat. March 15/08
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
AN European Union (EU)/United Nations (UN) Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace has been launched with a call on the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to collect a comprehensive data along gender lines for development purposes.
A comprehensive approach to data collection is said to be crucial to a sustainable and equitable economic growth and human development in the country.
The Chief Advisor to the President, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, who made the call at the launch in Accra on Wednesday said, such a data was the surest way to systematically obtain useful information for the formulation of people-centred, gender-sensitive public policy.
The EU/UN partnership project which would be implemented by UNIFEM with support from the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs is aimed at supporting the integration of gender equality as a key driver of development in the country.
The occasion was also used to begin a National Consultation on the mapping Study on Aid Effectiveness and Gender Equality in Ghana.
The EC/UN partnership aims to identify approaches with which to integrate gender equality and women's A European Union (EU)/United Nations (UN) Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace has been launched with a call on the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to collect a comprehensive data along gender lines for development purposes.
A comprehensive approach to data collection is said to be crucial to a sustainable and equitable economic growth and human development in the country.
The Chief Advisor to the President, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, who made the call at the launch in Accra on Wednesday said, such a data was the surest way to systematically obtain useful information for the formulation of people-centred, gender-sensitive public policy.
The EU/UN partnership project which would be implemented by UNIFEM with support from the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs is aimed at supporting the integration of gender equality as a key driver of development in the country.
The occasion was also human rights into new aid modalities, in accordance with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness adopted on March 2, 2005.
The Declaration is an international agreement to which ministers, heads of agencies and other senior officials adhered and committed their countries and organisations to continue to increase efforts in harmonisation, alignment and managing aid for results with a set of monitorable actions and indicators.
Mrs Chinery-Hesse said “as we pursue the strategy of gender mainstreaming, we should recognise that especially in Africa, there should still be space to accommodate interventions that specifically target women’s needs, concerns and perspectives.
This she said can be achieved with high impact gender specific initiatives as a complement, with the ultimate objective of mainstreaming these activities at a later time.
In this way, she said “we would eliminate the risk of women’s needs being lost in the mainstream when conditions are not ripe for them to compete on the same footing as men”.
She said the importance of collecting and disseminating statistical information in respect of gender issues was crucial to planning and evaluation, adding that data assumes meaning and usefulness for this purpose if there is disaggregation along gender lines.
She called for the mapping studies to also take into account the paid and unpaid for economic contributions of women such as their role as mothers.
The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Prof. George Gyan-Bafour, said the government would continue to show commitment towards addressing gender equality and equity issues as reflected in the GPRS II.
He said that the national budget statement and the economic policy of government has shown strong commitment towards addressing gender equality and equity issues.
The Head of Delegation of the European Commission to Ghana, Mr Filiberto Ceriani Sebregondi, said the EU believed that investments in gender equality was fundamental to the effectiveness of development assistance and therefore it was contributing a total of 2.5 million euros which is part of the total cost of 4.7 million euro partnership programmes.
He said the European Commission had committed to channel 50 per cent of government to government assistance through national planning and budgeting frameworks, adding that for the EC, general and sectoral budget support would increasingly become the preferred mode of aid delivery.
He said the partnership programme would support the integration of gender equality as a key driver of development in the context of the aid effectiveness
The National Programme Coordinator of UNIFEM, Ms Afua Ansre, said the project would be focused on 12 pilot countries namely Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
The rest are Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Honduras and Surinam.
She said there were five strategies — knowledge generation, capacity building, information sharing, advocacy and partnership building which the project will focus on and that at the national level there will be close collaboration with government departments, national institution for women and gender equality, women's NGOs and networks, civil society among others.
The Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, who chaired the launch stressed that the government was committed to addressing gender equality and had, among other things, demonstrated this further by coming out with modalities for gender budgeting, starting with the ministries of Agriculture, Health and Education.
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
AN European Union (EU)/United Nations (UN) Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace has been launched with a call on the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to collect a comprehensive data along gender lines for development purposes.
A comprehensive approach to data collection is said to be crucial to a sustainable and equitable economic growth and human development in the country.
The Chief Advisor to the President, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, who made the call at the launch in Accra on Wednesday said, such a data was the surest way to systematically obtain useful information for the formulation of people-centred, gender-sensitive public policy.
The EU/UN partnership project which would be implemented by UNIFEM with support from the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs is aimed at supporting the integration of gender equality as a key driver of development in the country.
The occasion was also used to begin a National Consultation on the mapping Study on Aid Effectiveness and Gender Equality in Ghana.
The EC/UN partnership aims to identify approaches with which to integrate gender equality and women's A European Union (EU)/United Nations (UN) Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace has been launched with a call on the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to collect a comprehensive data along gender lines for development purposes.
A comprehensive approach to data collection is said to be crucial to a sustainable and equitable economic growth and human development in the country.
The Chief Advisor to the President, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, who made the call at the launch in Accra on Wednesday said, such a data was the surest way to systematically obtain useful information for the formulation of people-centred, gender-sensitive public policy.
The EU/UN partnership project which would be implemented by UNIFEM with support from the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs is aimed at supporting the integration of gender equality as a key driver of development in the country.
The occasion was also human rights into new aid modalities, in accordance with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness adopted on March 2, 2005.
The Declaration is an international agreement to which ministers, heads of agencies and other senior officials adhered and committed their countries and organisations to continue to increase efforts in harmonisation, alignment and managing aid for results with a set of monitorable actions and indicators.
Mrs Chinery-Hesse said “as we pursue the strategy of gender mainstreaming, we should recognise that especially in Africa, there should still be space to accommodate interventions that specifically target women’s needs, concerns and perspectives.
This she said can be achieved with high impact gender specific initiatives as a complement, with the ultimate objective of mainstreaming these activities at a later time.
In this way, she said “we would eliminate the risk of women’s needs being lost in the mainstream when conditions are not ripe for them to compete on the same footing as men”.
She said the importance of collecting and disseminating statistical information in respect of gender issues was crucial to planning and evaluation, adding that data assumes meaning and usefulness for this purpose if there is disaggregation along gender lines.
She called for the mapping studies to also take into account the paid and unpaid for economic contributions of women such as their role as mothers.
The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Prof. George Gyan-Bafour, said the government would continue to show commitment towards addressing gender equality and equity issues as reflected in the GPRS II.
He said that the national budget statement and the economic policy of government has shown strong commitment towards addressing gender equality and equity issues.
The Head of Delegation of the European Commission to Ghana, Mr Filiberto Ceriani Sebregondi, said the EU believed that investments in gender equality was fundamental to the effectiveness of development assistance and therefore it was contributing a total of 2.5 million euros which is part of the total cost of 4.7 million euro partnership programmes.
He said the European Commission had committed to channel 50 per cent of government to government assistance through national planning and budgeting frameworks, adding that for the EC, general and sectoral budget support would increasingly become the preferred mode of aid delivery.
He said the partnership programme would support the integration of gender equality as a key driver of development in the context of the aid effectiveness
The National Programme Coordinator of UNIFEM, Ms Afua Ansre, said the project would be focused on 12 pilot countries namely Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
The rest are Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Honduras and Surinam.
She said there were five strategies — knowledge generation, capacity building, information sharing, advocacy and partnership building which the project will focus on and that at the national level there will be close collaboration with government departments, national institution for women and gender equality, women's NGOs and networks, civil society among others.
The Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, who chaired the launch stressed that the government was committed to addressing gender equality and had, among other things, demonstrated this further by coming out with modalities for gender budgeting, starting with the ministries of Agriculture, Health and Education.
Efforts by GWCL to solve water problem
Pg 23. Sat. March 15/08
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
AS part of its efforts to resolve the water shortage in Accra, the management of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) on Friday inspected three boreholes at Tantra Hill which were constructed to increase water supply in that area.
The boreholes are part of 13 mechanised boreholes to be drilled as the company’s short-term measure aimed at increasing water supply in and around the city.
The three sites have been scheduled to be completed in a month’s time and will produce approximately 1,300 litres of water per minute to people within Tantra Hill, Taifa and parts of Dome and Ofankor.
Other areas that are to benefit from the borehole projects are Ashongman and Pokuase, which will have four sites each, and Aburi which will have two sites.
Since the latter part of last year, Accra has been hit by water a shortage, a situation which gets worse by the day. Many people made up of the young and old are seen carrying receptacles of all kinds in search of water.
The Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Boniface Abubakar Saddique, at a Meet-the-Press last week said work on six of the boreholes at Tantra Hill, Dome and Ashongman would be completed in two weeks, adding that when completed, water supply to those areas would be considerably improved.
When the GWCL team visited the Tantra Hill sites, it was discovered that the boreholes which were drilled some two years ago and were awaiting the installation of pumps to connect them to a central reservoir had water gushing out because people living around had illegally drilled holes into the PVCs through which they tapped water.
The Drilling Engineer at the site, Mr Alhassan Balo, said the boreholes, which were 40 meters deep, would finally be completed within a month.
He mentioned the supply of electricity as a factor that was hindering the smooth execution of the project.
The Deputy Managing Director of GWCL, Mr Kweku Botwe, who also briefed the media present, said the work, which was multi-sectoral, could not be completed if all the sectors did not play their part.
He confirmed the possible completion of the project within a month, saying that the Electricity Company had shipped in transformers that were going to be installed at the various sites.
He said the company’s resort to the use of mechanised borehole should not be a source of worry to the public as, according to him, most developed countries including the United States of America drew most of their water supply from boreholes, adding that they were cheaper and safe for consumption.
The team also visted the McCarthy Hill Booster station and the two sites at Aburi.
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
AS part of its efforts to resolve the water shortage in Accra, the management of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) on Friday inspected three boreholes at Tantra Hill which were constructed to increase water supply in that area.
The boreholes are part of 13 mechanised boreholes to be drilled as the company’s short-term measure aimed at increasing water supply in and around the city.
The three sites have been scheduled to be completed in a month’s time and will produce approximately 1,300 litres of water per minute to people within Tantra Hill, Taifa and parts of Dome and Ofankor.
Other areas that are to benefit from the borehole projects are Ashongman and Pokuase, which will have four sites each, and Aburi which will have two sites.
Since the latter part of last year, Accra has been hit by water a shortage, a situation which gets worse by the day. Many people made up of the young and old are seen carrying receptacles of all kinds in search of water.
The Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Boniface Abubakar Saddique, at a Meet-the-Press last week said work on six of the boreholes at Tantra Hill, Dome and Ashongman would be completed in two weeks, adding that when completed, water supply to those areas would be considerably improved.
When the GWCL team visited the Tantra Hill sites, it was discovered that the boreholes which were drilled some two years ago and were awaiting the installation of pumps to connect them to a central reservoir had water gushing out because people living around had illegally drilled holes into the PVCs through which they tapped water.
The Drilling Engineer at the site, Mr Alhassan Balo, said the boreholes, which were 40 meters deep, would finally be completed within a month.
He mentioned the supply of electricity as a factor that was hindering the smooth execution of the project.
The Deputy Managing Director of GWCL, Mr Kweku Botwe, who also briefed the media present, said the work, which was multi-sectoral, could not be completed if all the sectors did not play their part.
He confirmed the possible completion of the project within a month, saying that the Electricity Company had shipped in transformers that were going to be installed at the various sites.
He said the company’s resort to the use of mechanised borehole should not be a source of worry to the public as, according to him, most developed countries including the United States of America drew most of their water supply from boreholes, adding that they were cheaper and safe for consumption.
The team also visted the McCarthy Hill Booster station and the two sites at Aburi.
Friday, March 14, 2008
CUA top brass in a dilemma over bill
Pg 34. March 14/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
TOP executives of the Credit Unions Association (CUA) of Ghana are in a dilemma whether to go ahead with a proposed Credit Union Bill to be passed into an act or change it into a Legislative Instrument (LI) to regulate the activities of credit unions in the country.
The dilemma stems from the fact that the proposed bill, which has been on the drawing board for the past nine years, will have to go through additional periods of waiting when it is presented to Parliament for passage.
However, should the association settle on an LI, it will come into effect from May or June this year.
At a seminar organised for chairpersons of CUA and their representatives from the regions, which also brought together members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance and officials from the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the CUA representatives agreed to go back for consultations with the Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Nana Akomeah, on the way forward.
The Director of the Legal Department of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Kwaku Addeah, presented the option to them and explained that an LI, which would still put the union under the country’s non-banking financial institutions, would serve the purpose of the association better, whereas opting for an act would also mean the imposition of regulations that pertained to the banking sector on the association, since it also played roles similar to those played by the banks.
A representative of the Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Mr Kofi Kudamey, who is the acting Registrar of Co-operatives, summed it up when he called on the union to “take into account the current macroeconomic situation of the country, since this will, to some extent, have an effect on your service charges, loan payments, investment opportunities and level of savings”.
He said financial co-operatives needed a clear legal basis, appropriate regulations and effective supervision to grow and function sustainably, adding that the legal framework which played double roles should empower them to reach their target population and also ensure that rules in the financial sector were appropriately applied, particularly to protect owners and depositors against poor financial management.
The Co-ordinator of the Tax Policy Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kofi Nti, who represented the Deputy Minister of the ministry, Prof George Gyan-Baffour, said the current law, the Co-operative Decree, NLCD 252 of 1968, was totally out of date and did not reflect the current technologically advanced business environment, saying that there was no prudential performance targets, weak regulatory regimes and dissolution procedures.
“For this reason, unscrupulous people have defrauded and still, in the name of credit union, defraud unsuspecting members of the society of various sums of money and their savings,” he said.
“It is the wish of the government that credit unions would be established at all workplaces, among professionals, market women and in all rural communities to assist people to learn how to manage their own resources wisely and become actors of their own future development,” the deputy minister said.
He, however, said any support that the government had provided and was still providing would not be complete without providing the credit unions with the appropriate legal environment that would make them vibrant, competitive, and financially viable, as well as the type of image that would project their future growth and development.
The Managing Director of CUA, Mr Emmanuel Oduro Darko, said the association was developing a deposit guarantee scheme of GH¢600,000 to insure its members.
He said the scheme, which would take effect from 2011, would insure over 500,000 members who formed the association throughout the country.
According to him, the association, which formulated the idea seven years ago, was putting its own mechanisms in place to ensure that all savings that it had were insured.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
TOP executives of the Credit Unions Association (CUA) of Ghana are in a dilemma whether to go ahead with a proposed Credit Union Bill to be passed into an act or change it into a Legislative Instrument (LI) to regulate the activities of credit unions in the country.
The dilemma stems from the fact that the proposed bill, which has been on the drawing board for the past nine years, will have to go through additional periods of waiting when it is presented to Parliament for passage.
However, should the association settle on an LI, it will come into effect from May or June this year.
At a seminar organised for chairpersons of CUA and their representatives from the regions, which also brought together members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance and officials from the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the CUA representatives agreed to go back for consultations with the Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Nana Akomeah, on the way forward.
The Director of the Legal Department of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Kwaku Addeah, presented the option to them and explained that an LI, which would still put the union under the country’s non-banking financial institutions, would serve the purpose of the association better, whereas opting for an act would also mean the imposition of regulations that pertained to the banking sector on the association, since it also played roles similar to those played by the banks.
A representative of the Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Mr Kofi Kudamey, who is the acting Registrar of Co-operatives, summed it up when he called on the union to “take into account the current macroeconomic situation of the country, since this will, to some extent, have an effect on your service charges, loan payments, investment opportunities and level of savings”.
He said financial co-operatives needed a clear legal basis, appropriate regulations and effective supervision to grow and function sustainably, adding that the legal framework which played double roles should empower them to reach their target population and also ensure that rules in the financial sector were appropriately applied, particularly to protect owners and depositors against poor financial management.
The Co-ordinator of the Tax Policy Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kofi Nti, who represented the Deputy Minister of the ministry, Prof George Gyan-Baffour, said the current law, the Co-operative Decree, NLCD 252 of 1968, was totally out of date and did not reflect the current technologically advanced business environment, saying that there was no prudential performance targets, weak regulatory regimes and dissolution procedures.
“For this reason, unscrupulous people have defrauded and still, in the name of credit union, defraud unsuspecting members of the society of various sums of money and their savings,” he said.
“It is the wish of the government that credit unions would be established at all workplaces, among professionals, market women and in all rural communities to assist people to learn how to manage their own resources wisely and become actors of their own future development,” the deputy minister said.
He, however, said any support that the government had provided and was still providing would not be complete without providing the credit unions with the appropriate legal environment that would make them vibrant, competitive, and financially viable, as well as the type of image that would project their future growth and development.
The Managing Director of CUA, Mr Emmanuel Oduro Darko, said the association was developing a deposit guarantee scheme of GH¢600,000 to insure its members.
He said the scheme, which would take effect from 2011, would insure over 500,000 members who formed the association throughout the country.
According to him, the association, which formulated the idea seven years ago, was putting its own mechanisms in place to ensure that all savings that it had were insured.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Rainstorm causes havoc in Accra
Back pg. March 08/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
HEAVY winds accompanied by rains hit parts of Accra and other areas of the country last Thursday night leaving in its wake the destruction of valuable properties.
The worst affected areas are Dome, Kwabenya, Awoshie, Kwashieman and Darkuman.
Also affected was Borkorborkor, a suburb of Ablekuma in the Ga West District, where many people were rendered homeless.
Roofs of houses and shops belonging to traders, along the main Dome-St. John’s road, running into several hundreds of Ghana cedis were destroyed by the heavy winds.
The wind also destroyed several sign boards including one belonging to the newly opened Dome branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), as well as canopies of shops, and also uprooted trees.
One of the hardest hit was the Dome Pillar Two taxi rank located near the Dome Railway Crossing, where the wind destroyed a makeshift parking lot for taxis.
The parking lot which also served as a shelter for commuters and drivers alike, had been built close to a waterway and the wind blew off the structure into the water, living the pillars that supported it while an MTN branded container which was also situated nearby was also blown into the water.
As early as 6.30 am, the drivers, not deterred by the destruction, were working while some tried to put the place in order by lifting the container and the roofs from the water way.
The roofings of some parts of the Dome market was also not spared by the winds as they were blown off.
Most of the people whose properties got destroyed were seen busily rebuilding them while others also counted their losses as they could not do anything about them.
At the St. John’s junction, food stuff sellers who had ignored several warnings to vacate the area to make way for contractors working on the Achimota-Ofankor road, were also not left out as water collected in the trenches created by the construction taking place and left them with no other option but to move far away from the main road.
At Borkorborkor, many single and self-contained houses had their roofs ripped off while others collapsed completely, reports Boniface Ablekpe
The fence walls of some houses also collapsed.
Most of the victims were asleep when the disaster struck, forcing them to seek refuge in nearby uncompleted buildings.
The children of one of the victims went missing until the morning when they were found.
According to Mr Joe Apeh, the victim, when the roof of their single roomed house was ripped off he and his wife and the children escaped, in search of a place to lay their heads.
Apparently in view of the darkness the children sought refuge with neighbours without the notice of their parents until they went home on Friday morning.
At the time of going to press the affected victims were busily preparing temporary places of abode.
The Meteorological Services Department has described the rainstorm that hit the northern parts of Accra and other areas of the country as a normal phenomenon, especially as the country moves away from the dry season, reports Stephen Sah
Mr Amos Narh, a Senior Meteorologist, told the Daily Graphic that the occurrence was bound to happen in this transitional period of the year.
He said the rains also affected areas in the Eastern, Central and Western regions and Abetifi, for instance, recorded 46.1 mm, Asamankese 34.2 mm and Assin Fosu in the Central Region, 37.2 mm, while Axim in the Western Region recorded the highest rainfall figure of 55.7 mm.
According to him, what happened was a local development, particularly over the high grounds and forest regions and it was an indication that the country was about to enter the rainy season.
Mr Narh said that hilly areas should also expect the occurrence in the evenings and late afternoons.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
HEAVY winds accompanied by rains hit parts of Accra and other areas of the country last Thursday night leaving in its wake the destruction of valuable properties.
The worst affected areas are Dome, Kwabenya, Awoshie, Kwashieman and Darkuman.
Also affected was Borkorborkor, a suburb of Ablekuma in the Ga West District, where many people were rendered homeless.
Roofs of houses and shops belonging to traders, along the main Dome-St. John’s road, running into several hundreds of Ghana cedis were destroyed by the heavy winds.
The wind also destroyed several sign boards including one belonging to the newly opened Dome branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), as well as canopies of shops, and also uprooted trees.
One of the hardest hit was the Dome Pillar Two taxi rank located near the Dome Railway Crossing, where the wind destroyed a makeshift parking lot for taxis.
The parking lot which also served as a shelter for commuters and drivers alike, had been built close to a waterway and the wind blew off the structure into the water, living the pillars that supported it while an MTN branded container which was also situated nearby was also blown into the water.
As early as 6.30 am, the drivers, not deterred by the destruction, were working while some tried to put the place in order by lifting the container and the roofs from the water way.
The roofings of some parts of the Dome market was also not spared by the winds as they were blown off.
Most of the people whose properties got destroyed were seen busily rebuilding them while others also counted their losses as they could not do anything about them.
At the St. John’s junction, food stuff sellers who had ignored several warnings to vacate the area to make way for contractors working on the Achimota-Ofankor road, were also not left out as water collected in the trenches created by the construction taking place and left them with no other option but to move far away from the main road.
At Borkorborkor, many single and self-contained houses had their roofs ripped off while others collapsed completely, reports Boniface Ablekpe
The fence walls of some houses also collapsed.
Most of the victims were asleep when the disaster struck, forcing them to seek refuge in nearby uncompleted buildings.
The children of one of the victims went missing until the morning when they were found.
According to Mr Joe Apeh, the victim, when the roof of their single roomed house was ripped off he and his wife and the children escaped, in search of a place to lay their heads.
Apparently in view of the darkness the children sought refuge with neighbours without the notice of their parents until they went home on Friday morning.
At the time of going to press the affected victims were busily preparing temporary places of abode.
The Meteorological Services Department has described the rainstorm that hit the northern parts of Accra and other areas of the country as a normal phenomenon, especially as the country moves away from the dry season, reports Stephen Sah
Mr Amos Narh, a Senior Meteorologist, told the Daily Graphic that the occurrence was bound to happen in this transitional period of the year.
He said the rains also affected areas in the Eastern, Central and Western regions and Abetifi, for instance, recorded 46.1 mm, Asamankese 34.2 mm and Assin Fosu in the Central Region, 37.2 mm, while Axim in the Western Region recorded the highest rainfall figure of 55.7 mm.
According to him, what happened was a local development, particularly over the high grounds and forest regions and it was an indication that the country was about to enter the rainy season.
Mr Narh said that hilly areas should also expect the occurrence in the evenings and late afternoons.
Social welfare looks for parents of missing children
Pg 11 (w'mens pg). Sat. March 08/08
Story & Pix by Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Shelter for Abused Children under the Department of Social Welfare at Osu is confronted with an additional task of catering for 20 missing children who have been found and sent to the institution.
The operators of the facility said this had compounded their problem since they needed additional resources to cater for the children in addition to their mandated role of catering for abused and children awaiting prosecution.
The shelter with its meagre resources is presently saddled with the medical and feeding bills of the children because their parents cannot be found.
Officials of the institution said most of the children were trafficked to the city to serve as domestic helps and that due to unfavourable conditions they run away and found their way to the police station where they were sent to the shelter.
They are Ebo Ibrahim, 7, Stephen Kwame, 8, Fuseina, 8, Kwame Ansah 12, Comfort Atsupi, 9, Rose Adatsu, 10, Ransford Badowu, 12, Bernard Harrison, 11, Elisabeth Mensah, 15 and Kwame Kwakye, 14.
The rest are Junior Adatsi, 9, Latifa Abraman, Obaayaa Ayitey, Precious Amanful, and Alberta Mann, all aged 11, Deborah Akuabua and Bernice Neku, aged 12 years each Faustina Otoo, 9 and Yaw Thomas and Rebecca Kuwornu, aged 13 years each.
Most of the children, according to the managers of the shelter, give false names as they are afraid they would be discovered and sent back to their parents or guardians while others cannot just give their surnames, where they come from or their age. The ages of those children were guessed by the managers based on their physical appearance.
Although the authorities anticipated that they would be able to trace the relatives of the children after a brief period, some have stayed at the place for about a year while others have been there for months.
The institution which is already burdened with water and transportation problems now has to stretch its budget to feed the children three times daily, give them medical care as well as clothing.
Although several policies and protocols adopted by the government are aimed at safeguarding the rights of the child such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Human Trafficking Act, some children in the country still continue to be in servitude with many more living under deplorable conditions.
All the 20 children at the shelter are not in school as required by the government’s Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education Programme.
When the International Desk Officer of the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC), Mrs Marilyn Amponsah Annan, was contacted on the plight of the children, she said it was the responsibility of the Department of Social Welfare to cater for such children.
She, however, said that because the department did not have enough centres, the missing children had to be placed in the shelter as a temporary measure.
Mrs Annan said it was however unfortunate that some of the children had been there for as long as a year, a situation which was not anticipated.
• A group picture of the 20 missing children at the Shelter for Abused girls at Osu.
Story & Pix by Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Shelter for Abused Children under the Department of Social Welfare at Osu is confronted with an additional task of catering for 20 missing children who have been found and sent to the institution.
The operators of the facility said this had compounded their problem since they needed additional resources to cater for the children in addition to their mandated role of catering for abused and children awaiting prosecution.
The shelter with its meagre resources is presently saddled with the medical and feeding bills of the children because their parents cannot be found.
Officials of the institution said most of the children were trafficked to the city to serve as domestic helps and that due to unfavourable conditions they run away and found their way to the police station where they were sent to the shelter.
They are Ebo Ibrahim, 7, Stephen Kwame, 8, Fuseina, 8, Kwame Ansah 12, Comfort Atsupi, 9, Rose Adatsu, 10, Ransford Badowu, 12, Bernard Harrison, 11, Elisabeth Mensah, 15 and Kwame Kwakye, 14.
The rest are Junior Adatsi, 9, Latifa Abraman, Obaayaa Ayitey, Precious Amanful, and Alberta Mann, all aged 11, Deborah Akuabua and Bernice Neku, aged 12 years each Faustina Otoo, 9 and Yaw Thomas and Rebecca Kuwornu, aged 13 years each.
Most of the children, according to the managers of the shelter, give false names as they are afraid they would be discovered and sent back to their parents or guardians while others cannot just give their surnames, where they come from or their age. The ages of those children were guessed by the managers based on their physical appearance.
Although the authorities anticipated that they would be able to trace the relatives of the children after a brief period, some have stayed at the place for about a year while others have been there for months.
The institution which is already burdened with water and transportation problems now has to stretch its budget to feed the children three times daily, give them medical care as well as clothing.
Although several policies and protocols adopted by the government are aimed at safeguarding the rights of the child such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Human Trafficking Act, some children in the country still continue to be in servitude with many more living under deplorable conditions.
All the 20 children at the shelter are not in school as required by the government’s Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education Programme.
When the International Desk Officer of the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC), Mrs Marilyn Amponsah Annan, was contacted on the plight of the children, she said it was the responsibility of the Department of Social Welfare to cater for such children.
She, however, said that because the department did not have enough centres, the missing children had to be placed in the shelter as a temporary measure.
Mrs Annan said it was however unfortunate that some of the children had been there for as long as a year, a situation which was not anticipated.
• A group picture of the 20 missing children at the Shelter for Abused girls at Osu.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
The Woman who designed Ghana's national flag
Pg 11. March 06/08
BY Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
A veteran Ghanaian artist, Mrs Theodosia Salome Okoh (nee Asihene), has stated that the current calls on aspirants of the various political parties contesting in the 2008 general election to consider choosing women as their running mates must be critically analysed.
She said apart from looking at the educational background of the names that are coming up, there was also the need to consider their zeal, enthusiasm and hard work.
Expressing these sentiments in an interview with the Daily Graphic as part of Ghana’s 51st Anniversary, Mrs Okoh, 85, who designed Ghana’s national flag, said women in the 1950s contributed their part by ensuring that they made their presence felt through hard work.
She mentioned one of such women as Justice Annie Jiaggie, the first female judge and founder of the Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) in Ghana.
Recounting the contributions made by some women in the country’s independence struggle, Mrs Okoh said a number of women who were mainly working for the Convention People’s Party (CPP), one of the leading political parties at that time, dedicated all their time and efforts to the party’s cause and ensured that they achieved success in whatever they did.
She said although women were playing active roles in politics today, they were not making the needed impact since they work towards attaining different goals for their political parties.
To her, although most women of today were educated, they were not able to develop their full potential as their roles were greatly influenced by their male counterparts.
She said Dr Nkrumah initiated programmes that contributed to the liberation of women and today, women were appointed or elected to important governmental positions, the Judiciary and the security services.
Mrs Okoh said although there were now more qualified women for important positions in government and public services than in the past, there was the need to identify those who were ready to work, especially in the political arena.
She said just after independence, women who worked in political circles were more dedicated to their work than looking for financial benefits.
Inspired by the words in the patriotic song “Yen Ara Ye Asase Ne”, composed by the late Dr Ephraim Amu ”, she said she designed the Ghana flag, which had the colours red, gold and green with a black star in the middle of the gold.
With many medals to her credit for her role in Ghana’s independence struggle and sports, Mrs Okoh is also a good hockey player and is described as the “Joan of Arc” of Ghana hockey for her immense contribution to the development of the game.
As part of recognition for her services to the nation, in 1992 Mrs Okoh received the Entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ECRAG) Mahogany Award in 1996 for designing the national flag.
She also received a Grand Medal from the state during the 40th Independence Day celebration of the country in 1997 and received the Art Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ACRAG) award for designing the national flag. In 2004 she received an award from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports for her role in building a national hockey pitch.
Her fraternity with hockey started when she was at Achimota School where she learnt and played the game for three years. Luck shone on her when Dr Kwame Nkrumah in a bid to boost the game, designated a minister for it and made her an assistant to the minister.
She became the chairman of the national hockey team in 1961 and established the national hockey pitch in 1964. This has now been named after her and presently, she is the patron of the Sports Writers Association.
The then Chairman of Ghana Sports, the Late Ohene Djan, after watching a splendid performance of the national hockey team against Nigeria after she had revived it, named her the “Joan of Ark” of hockey.
According to records, she was the first woman to have acted as the coach of a team all- male hockey players to the world hockey game, where the team represented Africa at Malaysia in 1975 and although they did not win, they received a medal for fair game and her all-Black team was also the first to play against an all-White team in a friendly match at Spain to precede the world cup.
She was the Director of Ghana’s Junior Red Cross and a fund-raiser for the YWCA.
The first woman to become the president of the National Sports Association, Mrs Okoh, who is a specialist teacher, was also the first certified female teacher to teach in and around Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region. She was, therefore, referred to as “Teacher Awura” (lady teacher).
Born to a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Mr Emmanuel Victor Asihene, and Mrs Dora Asihene, Mrs Okoh a Presbyterian from Anum but born at Akyem Wenchi. She had her elementary education at Agogo and after Standard Four, she applied for an advertised specialised teachers course (Art work) at Achimota where she learnt her profession for three years.
Mrs Okoh got married in 1949 to her late husband, Mr Enoch Okoh, who was the Head of the Civil Service, and gave birth to her three children, Ernest, Stanley, and Theodosia.
BY Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
A veteran Ghanaian artist, Mrs Theodosia Salome Okoh (nee Asihene), has stated that the current calls on aspirants of the various political parties contesting in the 2008 general election to consider choosing women as their running mates must be critically analysed.
She said apart from looking at the educational background of the names that are coming up, there was also the need to consider their zeal, enthusiasm and hard work.
Expressing these sentiments in an interview with the Daily Graphic as part of Ghana’s 51st Anniversary, Mrs Okoh, 85, who designed Ghana’s national flag, said women in the 1950s contributed their part by ensuring that they made their presence felt through hard work.
She mentioned one of such women as Justice Annie Jiaggie, the first female judge and founder of the Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) in Ghana.
Recounting the contributions made by some women in the country’s independence struggle, Mrs Okoh said a number of women who were mainly working for the Convention People’s Party (CPP), one of the leading political parties at that time, dedicated all their time and efforts to the party’s cause and ensured that they achieved success in whatever they did.
She said although women were playing active roles in politics today, they were not making the needed impact since they work towards attaining different goals for their political parties.
To her, although most women of today were educated, they were not able to develop their full potential as their roles were greatly influenced by their male counterparts.
She said Dr Nkrumah initiated programmes that contributed to the liberation of women and today, women were appointed or elected to important governmental positions, the Judiciary and the security services.
Mrs Okoh said although there were now more qualified women for important positions in government and public services than in the past, there was the need to identify those who were ready to work, especially in the political arena.
She said just after independence, women who worked in political circles were more dedicated to their work than looking for financial benefits.
Inspired by the words in the patriotic song “Yen Ara Ye Asase Ne”, composed by the late Dr Ephraim Amu ”, she said she designed the Ghana flag, which had the colours red, gold and green with a black star in the middle of the gold.
With many medals to her credit for her role in Ghana’s independence struggle and sports, Mrs Okoh is also a good hockey player and is described as the “Joan of Arc” of Ghana hockey for her immense contribution to the development of the game.
As part of recognition for her services to the nation, in 1992 Mrs Okoh received the Entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ECRAG) Mahogany Award in 1996 for designing the national flag.
She also received a Grand Medal from the state during the 40th Independence Day celebration of the country in 1997 and received the Art Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ACRAG) award for designing the national flag. In 2004 she received an award from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports for her role in building a national hockey pitch.
Her fraternity with hockey started when she was at Achimota School where she learnt and played the game for three years. Luck shone on her when Dr Kwame Nkrumah in a bid to boost the game, designated a minister for it and made her an assistant to the minister.
She became the chairman of the national hockey team in 1961 and established the national hockey pitch in 1964. This has now been named after her and presently, she is the patron of the Sports Writers Association.
The then Chairman of Ghana Sports, the Late Ohene Djan, after watching a splendid performance of the national hockey team against Nigeria after she had revived it, named her the “Joan of Ark” of hockey.
According to records, she was the first woman to have acted as the coach of a team all- male hockey players to the world hockey game, where the team represented Africa at Malaysia in 1975 and although they did not win, they received a medal for fair game and her all-Black team was also the first to play against an all-White team in a friendly match at Spain to precede the world cup.
She was the Director of Ghana’s Junior Red Cross and a fund-raiser for the YWCA.
The first woman to become the president of the National Sports Association, Mrs Okoh, who is a specialist teacher, was also the first certified female teacher to teach in and around Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region. She was, therefore, referred to as “Teacher Awura” (lady teacher).
Born to a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Mr Emmanuel Victor Asihene, and Mrs Dora Asihene, Mrs Okoh a Presbyterian from Anum but born at Akyem Wenchi. She had her elementary education at Agogo and after Standard Four, she applied for an advertised specialised teachers course (Art work) at Achimota where she learnt her profession for three years.
Mrs Okoh got married in 1949 to her late husband, Mr Enoch Okoh, who was the Head of the Civil Service, and gave birth to her three children, Ernest, Stanley, and Theodosia.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Health sector has seen many reforms
Pg. 43. Wed. March 05/08
Compiled by Lucy Adoma Yeboah and Rebecca Quaicoe Duho.
THE health sector, which is one of the critical sectors of the Ghanaian economy, has over the past 50 years played its role through the introduction of many policies and reforms to provide health care to Ghanaians.
These policies and reforms have been assigned to a governmental institution, the Ministry of Health (MoH), with the responsibility to see to their implementation so as to improve the health status of all people living in Ghana to enable them to contribute to the country’s development.
Although the MoH has seen changes in its policies over the years, its main focus of improving the health status of the Ghanaian population through the development and promotion of proactive policies for good health and longevity, the provision of universal access to basic health service, and provision of quality health services which are affordable and accessible, have remained the same.
The MoH has over the years been directly responsible for the provision of public health services delivery in the country until the creation of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the late 1990s.
Since Ghana’s independence 51 years ago, various governments have been challenged with the task of improving the country’s health care system.
As part of the country’s Golden Jubilee Celebration last year, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, the former Director-General of Ghana’s health services, admitted that the country had achieved “mixed success” in its bid to ensure health for all Ghanaians. In a report carried by the Voice of America (VOA), Professor Akosa stated that the colonial legacy in the health sector was pretty bad; hospitals had been built for the Europeans, and Ghanaians had virtually nothing to contend with — few medical units to deal with some public health problems, but that was about all.
After independence in 1957, the situation improved, Akosa said. “The first government set out to develop health infrastructure; the government made a bold initiative of starting a medical school in Ghana and starting with employing Ghanaians.”
Prof Akosa added that Ghana’s first medical school became “one of the best” of such schools in the world. “Graduates from the medical school were everywhere,” he said. But, he explained, Ghana receded into terms of quality health care when subsequent governments failed to invest in the system.
“We have a policy that every district should have a hospital … but this is difficult to accomplish because building a hospital is a lot of money. And, therefore, we are heavily reliant on support from donors … So what I will say is that the amount of investment in health certainly has not been the best. And I think this would be applicable to all regimes. Some people have invested more in health; others have not,” he revealed.
As a policy, Ghana operated a cost-recovery health delivery system known infamously as the ‘cash-and-carry’ system since 1985, whereby patients were required to pay up-front for health services at government clinics and hospitals. That, however, pushed health care far beyond the reach of the ordinary Ghanaian until the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2003.
Health Sector Reforms
Ghana’s health sector has had many reforms. The most recent reform that has been in process since the early 1990s has been finally documented in what is popularly known as “Medium Term Health Strategy, 1996-2000”. It aims at improving access to health services, quality of care and efficiency, strengthening links with other sectors such as the Ministries of Agriculture and Education which also have health components in their activities or impact on the health of people (Ministry of Health, 1996). Its main achievement or focus has been the introduction of user fees.
The introduction of user fees in Ghana has also been a component of a range of strategies that are part of an international health reform agenda. They are linked to a broad set of public sector reform ideas and initiatives collectively known as the ‘new public management’ (NPM).
The NPM in the health sector has other policies apart from the user fees — decentralisation of the health sector with changes in organisational management and culture, and autonomous hospital boards and deregulation, and regulation of the private sector.
The main objectives of these policies are achievement of sustainable financing of health services, quality improvement, and equity with respect to access.
Institution of User Fees and Exemption of the Poor
Fees for health services in public facilities, first introduced in 1971, were very low and aimed at reducing unnecessary use of services rather than to generate revenue.
The fees were raised slightly in July 1983 and increased substantially in July 1985 when a new hospital act was passed under the military regime of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), aimed at recovering at least 15 per cent of operational costs.
Initially, the Act allowed health centres and clinics to retain only 25 per cent of the revenue from fees collected while hospitals were allowed to retain 50 per cent. In 1990, this provision was amended and some public health institutions were selected for a pilot programme and allowed to keep all revenue generated from user fees.
In 1992, the new fees were implemented nation-wide as the government, influenced by multilateral donors, abandoned a phased implementation procedure started in 1990. Since then, a decentralised system of charging fees has been operating in the public health facilities and all revenue has been retained for operational or non-salary budget. Budget surpluses that are not invested in improving the quality of care are sent to the Ministry of Health (MoH).
A revolving fund for drugs was initiated in 1992 by which all health institutions were to recover the full cost of drugs and keep this revenue to purchase drugs only. An overhead cost of 10-15 per cent is added and the full cost was revised in line with inflation.
The public health facilities also charged other fees for the following: Out Patient Department (OPD) cards and initial registration, consultation, admissions, gloves gauze, needles and syringes. Informal fees with various shades of legality and unauthorised fees were also collected from users.
Implementation of Ghana’s Health User Fee Policy and the Exemption of the Poor.
The 1992 law, however, has a clause providing for exemption for the poor and treatment of emergencies whether patients are in a position to pay immediately or not. It does not indicate the criteria by which the poor can be identified though — whether by income, geographical area, occupation, etc.
Health workers were just instructed to use their discretion to grant exemption to anyone who said he/she could not afford fees. They later applied for refund from government, the exemptions that they granted.
The implementation of the new user fee was described by some as successful with respect to revenue generation despite some registered abuses. Revenue raising dominated other concerns and was at the expense of health care needs, to the extent that the exemption clause had been either ignored or just labelled as difficult to implement, even in clear-cut cases where exemption could be granted.
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)
In March 2004, President John Agyekum Kufuor launched a National Insurance Health Scheme designed to offer affordable medical care, especially to the poor and vulnerable among Ghana’s 19 million people.
Under the scheme, adult Ghanaians are paying a yearly minimum subscription of GH¢7.20. In addition to free services to contributors to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and SSNIT pensioners, the government is catering for health treatment of the aged, the poor as well as children of parents who both subscribe to the scheme.
Currently, about 50 per cent of Ghanaians have registered under the scheme, which covers all districts in the country under District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes (DMHISs).
New Health Policy.
Currently, the health sector has initiated a new health policy that emphasises health promotion and prevention of ill-health in the promotion of healthy lifestyles, behavioural changes and healthy environment.
Dubbed, “Regenerative Health and Nutrition Programme”, the health sector is educating Ghanaians on the need to reduce their salt, sugar, fat and alcohol intake and rather drink enough water, consume vegetables and fruits, have physical exercises and enough rest to live healthily. The programme has the theme — “Renew Your Strength-Prevent Diseases”.
With this and other policies previously introduced, the health sector believes the country would be relieved of most of its health problems such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, cholera, measles, typhoid, tuberculosis, chicken pox, yellow fever, trachoma, and river blindness.
Others are guinea worm, various kinds of dysentery, river blindness or onchocerciasis, pneumonia, dehydration, venereal diseases, poliomyelitis and malnutrition, among others.
Compiled by Lucy Adoma Yeboah and Rebecca Quaicoe Duho.
THE health sector, which is one of the critical sectors of the Ghanaian economy, has over the past 50 years played its role through the introduction of many policies and reforms to provide health care to Ghanaians.
These policies and reforms have been assigned to a governmental institution, the Ministry of Health (MoH), with the responsibility to see to their implementation so as to improve the health status of all people living in Ghana to enable them to contribute to the country’s development.
Although the MoH has seen changes in its policies over the years, its main focus of improving the health status of the Ghanaian population through the development and promotion of proactive policies for good health and longevity, the provision of universal access to basic health service, and provision of quality health services which are affordable and accessible, have remained the same.
The MoH has over the years been directly responsible for the provision of public health services delivery in the country until the creation of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the late 1990s.
Since Ghana’s independence 51 years ago, various governments have been challenged with the task of improving the country’s health care system.
As part of the country’s Golden Jubilee Celebration last year, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, the former Director-General of Ghana’s health services, admitted that the country had achieved “mixed success” in its bid to ensure health for all Ghanaians. In a report carried by the Voice of America (VOA), Professor Akosa stated that the colonial legacy in the health sector was pretty bad; hospitals had been built for the Europeans, and Ghanaians had virtually nothing to contend with — few medical units to deal with some public health problems, but that was about all.
After independence in 1957, the situation improved, Akosa said. “The first government set out to develop health infrastructure; the government made a bold initiative of starting a medical school in Ghana and starting with employing Ghanaians.”
Prof Akosa added that Ghana’s first medical school became “one of the best” of such schools in the world. “Graduates from the medical school were everywhere,” he said. But, he explained, Ghana receded into terms of quality health care when subsequent governments failed to invest in the system.
“We have a policy that every district should have a hospital … but this is difficult to accomplish because building a hospital is a lot of money. And, therefore, we are heavily reliant on support from donors … So what I will say is that the amount of investment in health certainly has not been the best. And I think this would be applicable to all regimes. Some people have invested more in health; others have not,” he revealed.
As a policy, Ghana operated a cost-recovery health delivery system known infamously as the ‘cash-and-carry’ system since 1985, whereby patients were required to pay up-front for health services at government clinics and hospitals. That, however, pushed health care far beyond the reach of the ordinary Ghanaian until the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2003.
Health Sector Reforms
Ghana’s health sector has had many reforms. The most recent reform that has been in process since the early 1990s has been finally documented in what is popularly known as “Medium Term Health Strategy, 1996-2000”. It aims at improving access to health services, quality of care and efficiency, strengthening links with other sectors such as the Ministries of Agriculture and Education which also have health components in their activities or impact on the health of people (Ministry of Health, 1996). Its main achievement or focus has been the introduction of user fees.
The introduction of user fees in Ghana has also been a component of a range of strategies that are part of an international health reform agenda. They are linked to a broad set of public sector reform ideas and initiatives collectively known as the ‘new public management’ (NPM).
The NPM in the health sector has other policies apart from the user fees — decentralisation of the health sector with changes in organisational management and culture, and autonomous hospital boards and deregulation, and regulation of the private sector.
The main objectives of these policies are achievement of sustainable financing of health services, quality improvement, and equity with respect to access.
Institution of User Fees and Exemption of the Poor
Fees for health services in public facilities, first introduced in 1971, were very low and aimed at reducing unnecessary use of services rather than to generate revenue.
The fees were raised slightly in July 1983 and increased substantially in July 1985 when a new hospital act was passed under the military regime of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), aimed at recovering at least 15 per cent of operational costs.
Initially, the Act allowed health centres and clinics to retain only 25 per cent of the revenue from fees collected while hospitals were allowed to retain 50 per cent. In 1990, this provision was amended and some public health institutions were selected for a pilot programme and allowed to keep all revenue generated from user fees.
In 1992, the new fees were implemented nation-wide as the government, influenced by multilateral donors, abandoned a phased implementation procedure started in 1990. Since then, a decentralised system of charging fees has been operating in the public health facilities and all revenue has been retained for operational or non-salary budget. Budget surpluses that are not invested in improving the quality of care are sent to the Ministry of Health (MoH).
A revolving fund for drugs was initiated in 1992 by which all health institutions were to recover the full cost of drugs and keep this revenue to purchase drugs only. An overhead cost of 10-15 per cent is added and the full cost was revised in line with inflation.
The public health facilities also charged other fees for the following: Out Patient Department (OPD) cards and initial registration, consultation, admissions, gloves gauze, needles and syringes. Informal fees with various shades of legality and unauthorised fees were also collected from users.
Implementation of Ghana’s Health User Fee Policy and the Exemption of the Poor.
The 1992 law, however, has a clause providing for exemption for the poor and treatment of emergencies whether patients are in a position to pay immediately or not. It does not indicate the criteria by which the poor can be identified though — whether by income, geographical area, occupation, etc.
Health workers were just instructed to use their discretion to grant exemption to anyone who said he/she could not afford fees. They later applied for refund from government, the exemptions that they granted.
The implementation of the new user fee was described by some as successful with respect to revenue generation despite some registered abuses. Revenue raising dominated other concerns and was at the expense of health care needs, to the extent that the exemption clause had been either ignored or just labelled as difficult to implement, even in clear-cut cases where exemption could be granted.
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)
In March 2004, President John Agyekum Kufuor launched a National Insurance Health Scheme designed to offer affordable medical care, especially to the poor and vulnerable among Ghana’s 19 million people.
Under the scheme, adult Ghanaians are paying a yearly minimum subscription of GH¢7.20. In addition to free services to contributors to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and SSNIT pensioners, the government is catering for health treatment of the aged, the poor as well as children of parents who both subscribe to the scheme.
Currently, about 50 per cent of Ghanaians have registered under the scheme, which covers all districts in the country under District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes (DMHISs).
New Health Policy.
Currently, the health sector has initiated a new health policy that emphasises health promotion and prevention of ill-health in the promotion of healthy lifestyles, behavioural changes and healthy environment.
Dubbed, “Regenerative Health and Nutrition Programme”, the health sector is educating Ghanaians on the need to reduce their salt, sugar, fat and alcohol intake and rather drink enough water, consume vegetables and fruits, have physical exercises and enough rest to live healthily. The programme has the theme — “Renew Your Strength-Prevent Diseases”.
With this and other policies previously introduced, the health sector believes the country would be relieved of most of its health problems such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, cholera, measles, typhoid, tuberculosis, chicken pox, yellow fever, trachoma, and river blindness.
Others are guinea worm, various kinds of dysentery, river blindness or onchocerciasis, pneumonia, dehydration, venereal diseases, poliomyelitis and malnutrition, among others.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Soldier Bar owners demolish parts of structure
pg 24. Mon. March 03/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Parliamentary Caucus on Population says it will not hesitate to close down or demolish the Soldier Bar, a brothel at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
The Chairman of the Caucus, Madam Teresa Tagoe, said this when members visited the brothel to have a first hand view on how the place was operated and later recommend actions that needed to be taken.
The members expressed their shock and disgust at the horrible conditions under which people, including children practise prostitution, when they visited the place.
The brothel was in the news in December last year after more than 150 suspected prostitutes including children were rounded up by the police who raided the area.
The parliamentarians were accompanied by some members of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, the police, CID, Social Welfare and the Department of Children.
The brothel, situated behind the Airport-Circle taxi rank, has a drinking bar at its frontage with over 50 cubicles behind has been operational for decades where both the young and old patronised it.
The cubicles which are about 4 feet x 4 feet square has only a make-shift bed and mattress in them with the doors, which are often locked when occupied, serving as the only ventilation.
It also has four smaller cubicles serving as bath rooms and toilets which are also used by the prostitutes.
The area where the brothel is situated stinks and poses a health hazard to its occupants as it is near a big gutter that runs behind it.
Although the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has written a “stop work” notice on one of the structures, business was still booming as the place was still operational.
Although no body from the brothel was around when members of the caucus visited the place, some elderly couples suspected to be customers were seen leaving one of the rooms to avoid a confrontation.
Three young men despite the heat at the place due to its low ceiling, were seen fast asleep in one of the rooms.
One of them when confronted said they did not have money to patronise hotels and therefore they resulted to such cheap places.
The Chairman of the Caucus, Madam Teresa Amerley Tagoe, in an interview said the caucus was going to meet on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, to take a final decision which would be sent to parliament for action to be taken on the place.
She said the place was dehumanising and did not understand why people would want to have pleasure in such places.
Madam Tagoe said it was the duty of the members to protect the interest of all people including children and therefore would not hesitate to recommend its demolishing.
She was of the view that raiding the place was not going to solve the problem but rather there was the need for concrete steps to be taken.
The Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinator of the Department of Children, Mr Peter Akyea who was with the MPs in an interview said 14 of the teenage prostitutes who were detained during the raid in December, three of whom after medical checks were found to be pregnant with four others already with babies, have been rehabilitated and reintegrated into vocational training centres in their various communities.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Parliamentary Caucus on Population says it will not hesitate to close down or demolish the Soldier Bar, a brothel at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
The Chairman of the Caucus, Madam Teresa Tagoe, said this when members visited the brothel to have a first hand view on how the place was operated and later recommend actions that needed to be taken.
The members expressed their shock and disgust at the horrible conditions under which people, including children practise prostitution, when they visited the place.
The brothel was in the news in December last year after more than 150 suspected prostitutes including children were rounded up by the police who raided the area.
The parliamentarians were accompanied by some members of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, the police, CID, Social Welfare and the Department of Children.
The brothel, situated behind the Airport-Circle taxi rank, has a drinking bar at its frontage with over 50 cubicles behind has been operational for decades where both the young and old patronised it.
The cubicles which are about 4 feet x 4 feet square has only a make-shift bed and mattress in them with the doors, which are often locked when occupied, serving as the only ventilation.
It also has four smaller cubicles serving as bath rooms and toilets which are also used by the prostitutes.
The area where the brothel is situated stinks and poses a health hazard to its occupants as it is near a big gutter that runs behind it.
Although the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has written a “stop work” notice on one of the structures, business was still booming as the place was still operational.
Although no body from the brothel was around when members of the caucus visited the place, some elderly couples suspected to be customers were seen leaving one of the rooms to avoid a confrontation.
Three young men despite the heat at the place due to its low ceiling, were seen fast asleep in one of the rooms.
One of them when confronted said they did not have money to patronise hotels and therefore they resulted to such cheap places.
The Chairman of the Caucus, Madam Teresa Amerley Tagoe, in an interview said the caucus was going to meet on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, to take a final decision which would be sent to parliament for action to be taken on the place.
She said the place was dehumanising and did not understand why people would want to have pleasure in such places.
Madam Tagoe said it was the duty of the members to protect the interest of all people including children and therefore would not hesitate to recommend its demolishing.
She was of the view that raiding the place was not going to solve the problem but rather there was the need for concrete steps to be taken.
The Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinator of the Department of Children, Mr Peter Akyea who was with the MPs in an interview said 14 of the teenage prostitutes who were detained during the raid in December, three of whom after medical checks were found to be pregnant with four others already with babies, have been rehabilitated and reintegrated into vocational training centres in their various communities.
MPs briefed on EPA
Pg 44. Mon. March 03/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Mr Joseph B. Danquah Adu, has called on civil society groups to partner the government to find ways of making the interim Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries beneficial to Ghana.
According to him, the country stood to gain more from the EPA, since it sought to promote the establishment of multi-national companies.
Mr Danquah Adu, who said this at a civil society briefing to members of the Trade, Finance and Agriculture committees of Parliament in Accra on Wednesday on the consequences of the EPAs, said the fear of civil societies should not be the European Union markets penetrating the Ghanaian market but rather China, which he said was bringing in goods that were putting small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs out of job.
The EPA replaces the trade provisions under the Cotonou Partnership Agreement which expired on December 31, 2007, and aims at creating a free trade area (FTA) between the European Union and ACP countries as a response to continuing criticism that the non-reciprocal and discriminating preferential trade agreements offered by the EU were incompatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
Mr Danquah Adu, who reiterated an earlier stand that Ghana had not signed into the agreement but had rather initialled, also said the EU did not export into the country as China did but rather established multilateral companies that the country stood to gain, and therefore called on civil societies to see the good side of the EPAs.
He called on civil society groups not only to fish out for the negative aspect of the EPAs but also to propagate some of its benefits, saying that the agreement had a package that included provisions on trade, fisheries and economic development co-operation.
He said what was causing civil society unrest was the gradual liberalisation of 80 per cent of the country’s trade for imports from EU, which he said covered mainly capital, raw material and intermediate products over a period of 15 years, but, however, gave the assurance that the government would not do anything that would be inimical to the country.
Two representatives of civil society groups, Mr Ibrahim Akalbila, Co-ordinator of the Ghana Trade and Livelihoods Coalition, and Mr Gyekye Tanoh of the Third World Network Africa, who briefed the MPs on the significance, concerns and how Ghana’s commitments threatened its democracy and development, called for a reversal of the interim agreement.
According to them, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, the only two countries which had so far initialled the agreements, had completely undermined the regional negotiating positions of the sub-region.
According to them, the agreement would only serve Europe’s commercial and geo-economic interests, adding that it would not support Africa’s development and regional integration.
They, therefore, commended countries that had not initialled the agreement and further called on the parliamentarians not to ratify the agreement in Ghana.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Mr Joseph B. Danquah Adu, has called on civil society groups to partner the government to find ways of making the interim Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries beneficial to Ghana.
According to him, the country stood to gain more from the EPA, since it sought to promote the establishment of multi-national companies.
Mr Danquah Adu, who said this at a civil society briefing to members of the Trade, Finance and Agriculture committees of Parliament in Accra on Wednesday on the consequences of the EPAs, said the fear of civil societies should not be the European Union markets penetrating the Ghanaian market but rather China, which he said was bringing in goods that were putting small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs out of job.
The EPA replaces the trade provisions under the Cotonou Partnership Agreement which expired on December 31, 2007, and aims at creating a free trade area (FTA) between the European Union and ACP countries as a response to continuing criticism that the non-reciprocal and discriminating preferential trade agreements offered by the EU were incompatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
Mr Danquah Adu, who reiterated an earlier stand that Ghana had not signed into the agreement but had rather initialled, also said the EU did not export into the country as China did but rather established multilateral companies that the country stood to gain, and therefore called on civil societies to see the good side of the EPAs.
He called on civil society groups not only to fish out for the negative aspect of the EPAs but also to propagate some of its benefits, saying that the agreement had a package that included provisions on trade, fisheries and economic development co-operation.
He said what was causing civil society unrest was the gradual liberalisation of 80 per cent of the country’s trade for imports from EU, which he said covered mainly capital, raw material and intermediate products over a period of 15 years, but, however, gave the assurance that the government would not do anything that would be inimical to the country.
Two representatives of civil society groups, Mr Ibrahim Akalbila, Co-ordinator of the Ghana Trade and Livelihoods Coalition, and Mr Gyekye Tanoh of the Third World Network Africa, who briefed the MPs on the significance, concerns and how Ghana’s commitments threatened its democracy and development, called for a reversal of the interim agreement.
According to them, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, the only two countries which had so far initialled the agreements, had completely undermined the regional negotiating positions of the sub-region.
According to them, the agreement would only serve Europe’s commercial and geo-economic interests, adding that it would not support Africa’s development and regional integration.
They, therefore, commended countries that had not initialled the agreement and further called on the parliamentarians not to ratify the agreement in Ghana.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
‘Street food vendors’ attend workshop
Pg. 11. Sat. March 1/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
A number of people who find themselves outside the home during the day due to their work schedules, have resorted to buying and eating food from ‘street food vendors’ especially, during lunch hours.
Such food comprise a wide variety of ‘ready-to-eat’ foods such as cooked rice, fried yam, banku, plantain, fufu, konkonte with soup, sauce and stew and beverages, which are sometimes prepared and sold in public places.
According to researchers, the patronage of food from street vendors is common in many countries where unemployment is high, salaries are low, work opportunities and social programmes are limited, and where urbanisation is prevalent.
By selling snacks, meals and refreshments at relatively low prices, street food vendors provide an essential service to workers, shoppers, travellers and many others.
What is worrying, however, is that most consumers are mostly interested in getting satisfied than to look for safety, quality and hygiene.
Health officials say the consumption of ‘street food’ can be one major cause of the spread of diseases in the country as most of these foods are not prepared under hygienic conditions and are contaminated during their preparation and improper handling by vendors.
The handling and processing of food is very vital as poor handling or processing can cause food poisoning, typhoid, cholera or diarrhoea.
To enlighten street food vendors on the essence of good hygiene, 30 food vendors, including two men from the Greater Accra Region have undergone a three-day training programme aimed at educating and upgrading their skills in food processing and handling.
The training, which was organised by the Women in Agriculture Directorate (WIAD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, was also aimed at educating the vendors on the potential dangers that their actions and inaction can cause to consumers who patronise their services.
The vendors were taken through basic nutritional education, food handling and safety, food processing (fortification) and business and financial management.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture in charge of Livestock and WIAD, Mrs Hannah Nyamekye, who opened the workshop, said the industry served as a major source of income and employment for entrepreneurs with low capital base especially, women and the youth.
She said “growing urbanisation and its associated changes to the way food is produced, marketed and consumed also presented a potential food-borne hazard as a single source can have widespread consequences”.
Mrs Nyamekye, therefore, called on the participants to ensure that they applied the knowledge they had acquired to ensure the safety of their consumers.
According to the minister, street food vendors whose food were affordable “are indeed our lifeline especially, at this time when many people are time constrained due to work-related issues and traffic congestion in the cities”.
She said the vendors were made to go through health checks and screened for infectious diseases, adding that “there is still the need to sensitise them on the proper handling of food both before and after it has been prepared to avoid contamination”.
The acting Director of WIAD, Ms Paulina Addy, called on the vendors not to only think of the profit that they could make but also take the health needs of their customers into consideration.
She called on them to consider the quality of ingredients and water used, the environment in which they operated, the handling, processing and safety of the food, as well as ensure that they washed their hands frequently.
Ms Addy reminded the participants that they served as an important link in preventing food-borne illnesses and, therefore, called on them to practise good personal hygiene.
The Officer in charge of the Value Added Tax Unit of WIAD, Rev Mrs Nyuieme Adiepena, said another batch of vendors would be trained later. She, therefore, called on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the government for that matter to provide appropriate places for the vendors to operate.
She said the directorate, which started the training programme last year, had so far trained 60 market women on proper handling of foodstuffs and added that they would be monitoring their activities to ensure that they operated under approved conditions.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
A number of people who find themselves outside the home during the day due to their work schedules, have resorted to buying and eating food from ‘street food vendors’ especially, during lunch hours.
Such food comprise a wide variety of ‘ready-to-eat’ foods such as cooked rice, fried yam, banku, plantain, fufu, konkonte with soup, sauce and stew and beverages, which are sometimes prepared and sold in public places.
According to researchers, the patronage of food from street vendors is common in many countries where unemployment is high, salaries are low, work opportunities and social programmes are limited, and where urbanisation is prevalent.
By selling snacks, meals and refreshments at relatively low prices, street food vendors provide an essential service to workers, shoppers, travellers and many others.
What is worrying, however, is that most consumers are mostly interested in getting satisfied than to look for safety, quality and hygiene.
Health officials say the consumption of ‘street food’ can be one major cause of the spread of diseases in the country as most of these foods are not prepared under hygienic conditions and are contaminated during their preparation and improper handling by vendors.
The handling and processing of food is very vital as poor handling or processing can cause food poisoning, typhoid, cholera or diarrhoea.
To enlighten street food vendors on the essence of good hygiene, 30 food vendors, including two men from the Greater Accra Region have undergone a three-day training programme aimed at educating and upgrading their skills in food processing and handling.
The training, which was organised by the Women in Agriculture Directorate (WIAD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, was also aimed at educating the vendors on the potential dangers that their actions and inaction can cause to consumers who patronise their services.
The vendors were taken through basic nutritional education, food handling and safety, food processing (fortification) and business and financial management.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture in charge of Livestock and WIAD, Mrs Hannah Nyamekye, who opened the workshop, said the industry served as a major source of income and employment for entrepreneurs with low capital base especially, women and the youth.
She said “growing urbanisation and its associated changes to the way food is produced, marketed and consumed also presented a potential food-borne hazard as a single source can have widespread consequences”.
Mrs Nyamekye, therefore, called on the participants to ensure that they applied the knowledge they had acquired to ensure the safety of their consumers.
According to the minister, street food vendors whose food were affordable “are indeed our lifeline especially, at this time when many people are time constrained due to work-related issues and traffic congestion in the cities”.
She said the vendors were made to go through health checks and screened for infectious diseases, adding that “there is still the need to sensitise them on the proper handling of food both before and after it has been prepared to avoid contamination”.
The acting Director of WIAD, Ms Paulina Addy, called on the vendors not to only think of the profit that they could make but also take the health needs of their customers into consideration.
She called on them to consider the quality of ingredients and water used, the environment in which they operated, the handling, processing and safety of the food, as well as ensure that they washed their hands frequently.
Ms Addy reminded the participants that they served as an important link in preventing food-borne illnesses and, therefore, called on them to practise good personal hygiene.
The Officer in charge of the Value Added Tax Unit of WIAD, Rev Mrs Nyuieme Adiepena, said another batch of vendors would be trained later. She, therefore, called on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the government for that matter to provide appropriate places for the vendors to operate.
She said the directorate, which started the training programme last year, had so far trained 60 market women on proper handling of foodstuffs and added that they would be monitoring their activities to ensure that they operated under approved conditions.
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