Volume 3 Issue 2 February 2010

Ghana Today

State of the Nation Address by His Excellency, John Evans

Atta Mills, President of the Republic of Ghana

Mob. 07776 396396 or e-mail info@swiftfreight.com

His Excellency, President John Evans Atta Mills pre-sented his second State of the Nation Address to Ghana Par-liament on Thursday 25 February 2010. In his address, President Mills said Ghana could grow and mature as full participant in the 21st century Global village and be a sta-ble, prosperous, democratic leader in Africa only when love of country superseded personal ideology and the people agreed on these objectives. Under the theme "Partners in Vision" the 72-minute address made observations on the Economy, Agriculture, Employment, Youth Development, Education, Health, Housing, Security and Governance. He said: "One year after our election, I'm proud to stand before you and say with confidence -'The State of the Nation is good. and I can confi-dently say `So Far-Much Better." Highlighlights of the State of the Nation Address Government to review ROPAA Law: The President said the passing of the Representation of People's Amendment Act (ROPAA) was based on flawed processes for its introduc-tion and not on the principle of Diaspora Voting The president said his government’s commitment to provid-ing the opportunity for Ghanaians abroad to exercise their franchise was not in doubt and that the Government would review the ROPAA Law in its entirety and would not adopt a piecemeal amendment of the legislation. He called for the total involvement of all political parties to reach a consensus to enable the Government to replace the existing ROPAA

.Flagship Project: Government has directed the Ministries of Energy and Transport to fast-track investments into the construction of a Deep Sea Port with a dedicated oil services facility, and the rehabilitation of the Western Railway corri-dor. He said the government was laying a foundation for an

integrated aluminium industry, based on bauxite, a petrol-chemical industry based on salt and natural gas, a fertiliser industry to give momentum to agro development, a salt-based industrial chemical indus-try for caustic soda as well as allied consumer prod-ucts and exports based on oil and gas.

Housing: Beginning from this year Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies would be ex-pected to invest a size-able proportion of their District Assembles' Com-mon Fund in rental housing for lower and lower-middle-income groups in the country. The President said a Na-tional District Assemblies Rental Housing Project Taskforce would be es-tablished to monitor the project throughout the country to solve the per-ennial homelessness and

streetism in the country.

President Mills said he had also directed the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing to complete all the "affordable" housing projects the previous Gov-ernment started to solve the acute housing problem in the country. The Drug Menace: Ghana would no longer continue to be a subsidiary for the illicit drug trade and a sanc-tuary for the drug barons. The president said Ghana was no longer an attractive destination for the illicit drug trade. He noted the country was still having a hangover effect from the drug boom of the immediate past, but that it was only a matter of time that this would be brought to an end. The President said the nation owed this to our youth who have become unwitting targets of the activities of these evil creatures. It is a case of “no retreat; no sur-render”.

Page 2 Volume 3 Issue 2 February 2010

Food production in Ghana is to receive a major boost as govern-ment plans to provide farmers with over 3,000 units of tractors in 2010. Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi disclosed this at this year’s Farmers’ Day celebra-tion in Tamale in the Northern Region. Mr Ahwoi said the tractors, to be sourced from Brazil, USA, India and Japan, will come with other implements such as planters, harvesters and a host of other inputs. Even before this, some combine harvesters have been ordered with 31 having already arrived in the country. The move was part of what he said was a “comprehensive strat-

egy to revolutionalise and accelerate the modernization of agriculture in Ghana” – an aggressive programme to sub-stantially boost food production and make the country self-sufficient in food production. The programme, Mr Ahwoi indicated, will expand land area to be cropped from 11,500 hectares to 240,000 hec-tares.

3,000 tractors for farmers in 2010

.

The Bank of Ghana is to introduce a GH¢2 (Two Ghana Cedi) denomination in response to the need for an

intermediary banknote between the GH¢1 and GH¢5 banknotes. In a statement issued on Thursday the decision follows a review of the cash cycle conducted by the Bank in 2009, which indicated that there was a lot of pressure on the GH¢1, resulting in the notes circulating too fast and being over-used. The worn-out state of the GH¢1 defeats the bank’s Clean Note Policy, which seeks to ensure that only good quality banknotes remain in circulation, the bank said. The introduction of the new denomination will expand the series of banknotes in circulation, enhance exchangeability and facilitate transactions.

AMA to generate energy from waste

The Accra Metropolitan Authority has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a private firm EWS Ghana Pty, to set up a waste management plant at Teshie – Accra by August for the proc-essing of the waste generated in Accra.

According to the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, the company would process over 2000 tonnes of waste generated daily in Accra and its environs into energy to aug-ment the country’s energy supply.

He disclosed that the project is expected to generate about 45 megawatts power, which would be fed into the national grid.

He said under the agreement the company would provide about 140 waste vehicles and refuse containers for the city's nine sub-metros for waste collection to ensure regular supply of waste to the plant.

The project is expected to bring huge financial relief to AMA, which spends large chunk of its revenue on waste management.

NATIONAL HONOURS: The President announced his intention to repeal the National Honours Instrument of 2008, which he described as "Discriminatory and Inappropriate". "A repealing Executive Instrument would be laid before the Parliament in the course of the year, which would restore the original non-discriminatory honours warrant of 1st July, 1960 executed by the First President of the Republic, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah”.

SECURITY: President Mills said his government had the sharp drop in armed robbery and organized crime in the country. He commended the Police and other security agencies for their efforts at fighting crime. He promised that the Government would continue to strengthen the human and logistics base of the security agencies for them to protect life and property to attract more investors into the country. CORRUPTION: The President expressed his government's determination to reduce corruption to the barest mini-mum by making the penalty for corruption so high that it would be become something to avoid at all cost.

The NDC government would adopt two steps approach to reducing corruption. First, the government would strengthen the anti-corruption Agencies of State to make them more effective, rigorously enforce the provisions of the Whistleblower’s Act and vigorously prosecute all past and present officials of State who fall foul of the anti-corruption laws.

Secondly, the NDC government would wage a massive education campaign against corruption involving public anti-corruption institutions, civil society anti-corruption agencies and the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition and the Ghana Integrity Initiative and others. Education: Government would this year implement more educational programmes to raise the standards of education in the coming years. These programmes would include the refurbishing of science resource centres in schools, provision of infrastructural facilities in Senior Secondary Schools, the removal of schools under trees and the elimination of the school shift system. Government has ordered investigation into the utilization practices of the GETFund in the past and called for a re-view of the GETFund Act. Government to decentralize the operations of the Board and the broadening of the fund to

involve more educational institutions.

State of the Nation Address — Continue

Volume 3 Issue 2 February 2010 Page 3

News In Brief

The monetary Policy Com-mittee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana has reduced its Prime lending Rate from 18

percent to 16 percent in line with the prospects of falling inflation and im-provements in economic activity and output growth.

The Ghana Higher Commissioner-designate to the United Kingdom, His Excellency Professor Kwaku Danso-Boafo on the 9th February 2010, presented his letters of cre-dence to Queen Elizabeth ll at the Buckingham Palace in London.

His Excellency Professor Danso-Boafo, clad in a colourful rich Kente cloth was accompanied by his wife and senior officials of the Ghana Mission in the UK. The entourage was escorted by the Marshall of the Diplomatic Corp, Mr. David Gray from the Ghana Mission in Belgrave Square, to the Buckingham Palace in a procession of 1864 built horse drawn carriages. Her Majesty the Queen of Eng-land, expressed confidence in the Government of President John Evans Atta Mills . The Queen said she was encouraged by the formi-dable strides the Ghana had made in search of stable democratic gov-ernance. She hoped Ghana would continue to be a lodestar on the African continent, especially in terms of the country’s democratic governance and economic success.

The Queen urged Ghana to put in place an enduring and transpar-ent system so that the country could benefit from the revenues that would accrue from the recent oil discovery in the country.

The Queen was delighted to note that Ghanaians resident in the UK were law abiding and praised them for their contribution to the development of the UK economy.

On his part Professor Danso-Boafo, expressed the optimism that the oil revenue would be judiciously used to benefit the citizenry. He told the Queen that the President had set up a special committee to supervised and manage the oil revenue and that “prudent strategies have been put in place to help avoid the mistakes of other countries in terms of the managing and channelling of oil revenues.” He recounted the lasting relationship between the two countries and pledged his commitment to work hard to further strengthen the bonds of cooperation. Prof. Danso-Boafo had previously served as Ghana’s Ambassador to Cuba with concurrent accreditation to Jamaica, Trinidad and, Nicaragua and Panama. An impressive reception to congratulate the High Commissioner was later held for the Ghanaian community, Heads of Commonwealth Missions in the UK and staff of the Mission.

Ghana High Commissioner - designate presents credentials to the Queen

New Cement Factory for Central Region

A Central Region construction company, Adwenpa Construction and Engineering Services Limited have disclosed that they are to partner a Japanese firm to construct a cement factory at Winneba in the Effutu Dis-trict of the Central Region.

According to the Executive Director of the company, Mr. Julius Kwaku Ankomah, the factory when completed would have plant processing capacity of 3,000 tonnes of cement per day.

The factory to be known as "Central Region Cement" (CENTROCEM) would be operational next year. The inves-tors of the project, Sojitz Consortium based in Japan, has its African head-quarters in Angola, while the contrac-tors for the project are FLSmidth En-gineering Company.

Bank of Ghana cuts Prime Rate

Inflation Rate falls in January

Ghana’s inflation rate fell for the seventh consecu-tive month in January from 15.97 per cent in December 2009 to 14.8 percent in

January , raising expectations the Bank of Ghana will cut interest rates for the second time in three years.

Page 4 Volume 3 Issue 2 February 2010

News Round

Disclaimer This publication is mainly for dissemination of local news to

Ghanaians resident in the UK & Ireland. Views expressed in this newsletter, unless otherwise stated, are the author’s personal opin-ions, and do not necessarily represent the policies of any particular

party. The editor reserve the right to edit all contributions to conform to space and household standards. Please send comments to the

Editor at editor_e@ymail.com

Proactive Interna-tional, a UK based NGO has donated items worth more than five thou-sand Ghana Cedis to lo-cal farmers and some Junior High

Schools in the Hohoe North constituency of the Volta Region..

The items included one hundred and twenty (120) cut-lasses to be distributed among needy local farmers and internet based computers and fax machines for deprived local schools in the Hohoe North Constitu-ency. In addition, Proactive International provided funds for the registration of one hundred local people under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Donating the items, the president and founder of Pro-active International, Mr. Theophilus Kojo Dzimega Jnr said over the next five years, his international based NGO would endeavour to register a minimum of twenty five people from deprived areas of Hohoe Mu-nicipality every quarter under a Proactive Health Help Initiative. He said the items donated were his personal contribution in appreciation for the support the com-munity gave him in the days gone which had turned him into what he is today.

Receiving the items on behalf of the local community, Mr. Reginald Dogbe, an opinion leader in the commu-nity thanked Proactive for the kind gesture and urged other Hohoe residents in the Diaspora to emulate Mr. Dzimega’s example. Mr Dogbe asked for more to be done to help improve health and education in the mu-nicipality.

The President of Proactive, Mr Theophilus Dzimega Jnr., a UK based engineer said Proactive together with its partners would soon embark on some initiatives to help improve education in the Hohoe municipality. He said these would include free vacation classes for all JHS and SHS students in the municipality. He said proactive would also be providing new internet based computers to deprived schools during the next aca-demic year.

Mr Dzimega Jnr. who is also member of the UK & Ire-land Chapter of the National Democratic Congress later donated two computers, two printers and a scan-ner to the Hohoe North Constituency of the Party. Re-ceiving the items, the Constituency Chairman, Mr. Wonder Buasilenu thanked Mr Dzimega Jnr. for his kind gesture and called on him to support the Con-stituency party to relocate to a new office to facilitate the work of the party.

Proactive International donates Cutlasses to farmers in the Hohoe North

Constituency

NDC - Milton Keynes holds Ward elections

The Milton Keynes’ Ward of the National Democratic Congress, UK & Ireland Chapter held its biennial Con-gress over the first weekend in February 2010 to elect new Executive Committee members. The following persons were sworn in by Mr Horace Ankrah, the Chairman of the NDC UK & Ireland Chapter as new Executive Committee Members of the NDC Milton Keynes Ward. Mr Peter Kumadi, Chairman Mr Gilbert Amartey Vice-Chairman Mr Elijah Tawiah, Secretary Mr Frank Evans Fiaka, Assistant Secretary Miss Judith Kotia, Organiser Mrs Regina Kumadi, Women’s Organiser Ms Gifty Kpobi, Welfare Mr Rasheed Khawasa, Youth Organiser Mr John Kaburi, Treasurer Mr Kwame Ofori-Manu, Assistant

The Tripartite Committee, comprising Organ-ised Labour, Employers and the Government, has agreed on a new daily minimum wage of GH¢3.11 effective February 1, 2010.

The previous daily minimum wage of GH¢2.655, was implemented in April 2009. Mr. Abraham Coomson, a member of the negotiating team, told newsmen that Labour has pencilled in a minimum of GH¢4 but has to concede some grounds during the negotiations. Discussions have been on-going since last year.

The committee also agreed on a new income tax-free thresh-old of GH¢240 per annum to GH¢1,800 per annum to re-duce the burden on the economy’s formal sector workers.

The new threshold means workers who earn less than GH¢1,800 per annum are exempt from tax. The GH¢240 thresh-old was fixed in 2006.

Government Announces New Minimum Wage