Day: May 28, 2023

Gbawe (G/A), The Prime Patriots, a vibrant wing of the Ruling New Patriotic Party has extended congratulations to Mr Ernest Yaw Anim, the New Patriotic Party MP-elect for Kumawu.

The Prime Patriots wished Mr Anim well in all his endeavours and prayed that the victory will spur him on to unite all constituents in Kumawu to aid the expected development.

Dr Alex Appiah, Chairman of the Prime Patriots who made this known to the Media at Gbawe in the Greater Accra region, said the by-election victory over NDC and others had proved a case for the party.

He praised the national, regional, constituency and all polling station executives of the party for their hard work, dedication and selflessness to duty which helped chalk the success.

The chairman also commended President Akufo Addo and his Vice, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who left their busy schedules to support the campaign that brought massive victory to the party.

He said the win was a big impetus to the supporters across the country, and it was obvious that breaking the 8 cycle was possible in the 2024 elections.

He also congratulated the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and his men and women for their assistance in ensuring a peaceful conduct of the polls.

Dr Appiah advised the contenders in the upcoming flagbearership race to be precautious in their campaigns to avoid divisiveness in the party.

He appealed to the national executives of the party to create a level playing field for all presidential aspirants to enhance unity and stability after the primary.

The chairman admonished the aspirants to desist from acts that could bring disaffection, adding that the party was expecting only one person to win and afterwards bring all hands-on deck to secure victory in the presidential elections in 2024.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, Two religious groups within the Judicial Service of Ghana have bid farewell to Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah at a ceremony in Accra.

The groups are the Christian Fellowship and Muslims Association.

Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah bowed out of service after attaining the age of 70 on May 24, 2023.

Justice Jones Victor Dotse is now the acting Chief Justice.

Mr. Moses Ansah Barnor Ankrah, President of the Christian Fellowship, said the fellowship recognised the Chief Justice’s good work in terms of massive infrastructural development across the country.

Mr Ankrah also lauded the Chief Justice for his simplicity to life, his affable nature and dedication to work, saying his nature ‘was very inspiring and exemplary.’

The President of the Christian Fellowship was elated that Chief Justice Yeboah offered them a place of worship within the Supreme Court complex.

He said the fellowship would not hesitate to invite him to attend the official outdooring of the fellowship.

Mr. Ankrah urged Justice Yeboah to ‘ continue in the faith of our Lord and Saviour Jesus and offer your best to the building of the body of Christ and the nation.’

The fellowship offered Chief Justice Yeboah a Bible as a parting gift.

Mr Mohammed Habib Hudu, President of the Muslims Association, commended Chief Justice Yeboah for allowing the association to organise events within the service.

‘We are indeed convinced that the compassionate attitude of his Lordship towards Association is a practical example of the status of Ghana as a circular state characterised by democratic constitutionalism and religious pluralism.’

According to Mr Hudu, the administration of Chief Justice Yeboah ‘ did not post any form of discriminative threats to the association.’

He was enthused over the fatherly love displayed by Justice Yeboah.

Mr Hudu said Chief Justice Yeboah would be missed for his wisdom, humility and legal opinions.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ho, The mortal remains of the immediate past?Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Ho, Prosper Pi-Bansah, has been laid to rest following a final funeral rites ceremony held for him in Ho.

The late Pi-Bansah passed away in February 2023, aged 61, and the burial ceremony, held at the Dela Cathedral of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ho, brought together hundreds of loved ones and well-wishers who joined the family to usher their beloved into eternity.

He was MCE for the Municipality from October 2019 to October 2021.

Present at the solemn ceremony was the current MCE, Divine Bosson, Chief Executives of the various Municipalities and Districts in the Region, as well as some past Chief Executives of Ho.

Also present were the New Patriotic Party (NPP) heads in the Region and executives of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Chiefs of the Asogli State were also well represented.

The NPP in the Constituency, in a tribute read by Mr Bright Doh, the Constituency Secretary, recounted how the late statesman joined the Party in 1992 after a stay in its stronghold of the Ashanti Region for tertiary education.

He said late Pi-Bansah became a founding member of the Party in the Volta region and had played key roles in its growth over the years.

The former MCE was the manager the Ho National Health Insurance Scheme in the year 2000, and later contested the 2020 elections as the NPP parliamentary candidate.

The Constituency Secretary said the late Pi-Bansah, delivered on his task to secure at least ten thousand votes for the Party at the elections.

He said the former MCE was known as one who provided opportunities for all, and that he had a legacy that would cause his memory to be immortalised.

Mr. Doh told the GNA that Pi-Bansah’s only son would be taken up by the Party and supported to grow to step into his father’s shoes.

Mr Makafui Woanya, Volta Regional Chairman of the NPP, also paid tribute to the former MCE, saying, he led the Municipality through the Coronavirus pandemic, and had delivered his best under the circumstances, and proven his worth.

He also assured us that the Party would make sure his memory lived on.

There were tributes from his wife, children, and other close relation, as well as from the Ho Municipal Assembly.

The Very Right Rev. Japhet Ledo, a former Moderator of the E.P Church, who delivered a sermon, said although it struck heavily, it was only through death that the dignity of a man would have accorded him, and prayed for divine consolement for the bereaved family.

He prayed also that his good initiatives did not fade but survived and were fruitful unto all people.

The late Bansah’s casket was draped in a tarp of the colours of the NPP, and was interned at the Ho public cemetery with a long convoy of sympathisers in tow.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ahwetieso (W/R), Two persons died in a gory motor accident that occurred along the Tarkwa-Takoradi highway in the Western Region on Sunday.

The deceased, believed to be lovers, were only identified as Francis and Raheal.

Meanwhile, bodies of the deceased have been deposited at the Apinto Government hospital morgue for preservation and autopsy

An eyewitness, Mr Daniel Amu, who confirmed the story to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said the accident happened around 2350 hours on Sunday, May 28, 2023.

He said the accident involved two vehicles, F- 150 Pickup and Trailer truck with registration numbers GC 8893-22 and GC 1732-Z, respectively.

According to Mr Amu, the driver in charge of the F-150 Pickup that escaped after the accident was a mechanic and a customer who had brought the said vehicle to his shop for repairs.

He said the (mechanic) took the vehicle, went, and picked up the deceased and went to a pub to have fun.

While returning home from Awhetieso direction, he veered off his lane, crashed into the incoming truck and killed the two in between the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Ghana National Fire Service office and Zen filling station, Ahwetieso branch on the Tarkwa-Takoradi highway.

The Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), Tarkwa Division, was informed and some officers went to the accident scene to conduct investigations and conveyed the bodies to the mortuary.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Takoradi, The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN Ghana, Mr Selorm Adadevoh, has called for a multi-sectoral collaboration to minimise mobile money and internet fraud in the country.

Considering that Ghana was fast transitioning into a digital economy, he said, internet and MoMo fraud posed a larger national threat and for that reason, stakeholders must work in concert to nip the menace in the bud.

Until December last year, the CEO said, the incidence of MoMofraud had subsided significantly.

However, fraudsters had engineered more sophisticated strategies to bypass established security systems in a new wave.

‘This comes with some responsibilities for everyone. As operators, we have responsibilities, government has a responsibility, and the media has a responsibility,’he explained.

‘What is important is that we all come together with a single plan we can execute to prevent the emergence of fraud.’

Mr Adadevoh made the remarks when he addressed the 2023 Central and Western Regional Media and Stakeholder Forum in Takoradi on the theme: ‘Leveraging Technology to Serve Customers with Excellence’.

The meeting was MTN’s 19th annual media engagement and the first after the COVID-19 pandemic, aimed at acknowledging the contributions of customers, the media and all other stakeholders.

The CEO said individual institutions had put defence mechanisms in place but stressed that more collaborations needed to happen among telecommunication companies, banks, security agencies among others.

‘The way to fight fraud is not for MTN to sit in its corner doing its own thing. We all have to come together and take fraud as a national issue and fight together because the vulnerabilities are not only on MTN’s side.

‘The vulnerabilities are in other places too,’ he added.

Beyond the collaboration, he said, it was necessary to intensify public education for people to become more empowered to mitigate fraud.

Mr Adadevoh said that MTN was committed to building the largest and most valuable platforms and solutions for Africa’s progress.

To achieve that, he said, it was working to deliver a bold new digital world, which would leave no one behind, irrespective oftheir location and status.

He said that the company was transforming the network to become a digital operator, while it was partnering government on its digital transformation agenda.

Mr Adadevoh said the telecommunication network was on course with its pledge to invest one billion dollars in network expansion by end of 2025.

The company has since 2021, invested about 650 million dollars and is hoping to exceed the one-billion-dollar target by 2025.

He explained that it was creating 350 new sites to improve service delivery out of which 50 were in the Western and Central regions alone.

Touting its contributions to national development, he noted among other gestures, that MTN in 2022 contributed more than four billion dollars to government revenue.

Mr Adadevoh, however, bemoaned the incidence of fibre cuts,which he attributed largely to the unbridled galamsey activities,particularly, in the Western Region and also road constructions.

He said the situation resulted in disruptions in the network and also increased its operational cost because millions were spent to replace the fibre optic cables.

To address the challenge, he said, MTN had engaged various stakeholders, including road agencies and the police in the Western and Central regions.

‘We are doing our best to stop the fibre cuts and we have provide maps of where our fibres are buried.

‘Road expansions are development projects and fibre is also a development project, so we need to collaborate. Road agencies need to contact us when there is the need for construction so that we take action to protect our cables,’ he added.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says Ghana’s new programme with International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not immediately eliminate the present economic difficulties in the country.

However, the three-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) of $3 billion, would restore the confidence of Ghana’s trading partners, creditors and investors in the country’s economy.

‘Fellow Ghanaians, access to the IMF facility will not spell the immediate end of the difficulties we are in presently, but the fact that we have been able to negotiate such a deal sends a positive message to our trading partners, creditors and investors.’

Addressing the nation on Sunday night, the President said the bailout deal would lead to the restoration of confidence in Ghana’s economy, which has been ravished in the last year and a half by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine.

The programme would also lead to the resumption of many of the stalled infrastructural projects across the country.

‘It should lead to the restoration of confidence and the reopening of avenues that had been closed to us this past year and a half. It should also lead to the resumption of many of the infrastructural projects that have stalled.’

The IMF on May 17, 2023, approved the $3 billion bailout package for Ghana.

The Fund has since credited Ghana’s national account with $600 million out of the $3 billion extended credit facility last week. The country will get the rest of the negotiated amount within a period of 36 months.

President Akufo-Addo said it was a painful decision he had to take going to the IMF, ‘especially as my government had gone the extra mile to bring to a successful end the IMF programme we inherited from the previous government.’

He said going to the IMF ‘was not part of the economic transformation agenda I had been pursuing,’ but he had to accept the challenge that the economy required assistance.

‘Who would have imagined President Akufo-Addo would order the closure of airports, offices, factories or schools?

‘We were in extraordinary times, and we took extraordinary measures, and when faced with the realities of the economic crisis last year, I accepted the challenge that the economy required a similar attitude, including the sacrifices many of us have made in recent times.’

The President urged all and sundry to support the government to implement the reforms required to make the IMF programme to work.

‘We must all work together to ensure that this programme is a success…We must all work together to build a better future for Ghana.

‘Fellow Ghanaians, we got ourselves out of a pandemic in which there were no precedents on which to rely, and where even the experts admitted they had no clear-cut solutions. We did it by being resolute, focused, working very hard, and accepting that we had to stick together.

‘With a similar frame of mind and attitude, we shall overcome the economic difficulties as well, sooner rather than later. I have no doubts at all in my mind that we are on the right path, and we would soon start to see significant improvements in the economy and in the living standards of Ghanaians,’ he said.

Source: Ghana News Agency