Socio-economic devt in Ghana is the best in Africa

The visiting Mayor of London, Mr Alderman John Stuttard, on Tuesday commended Ghana for her impressive political and socio-economic development and stressed the need for the Government to work hard to consolidate the achievements made for the benefit of the citizenry."Ghana's exhibition of good governance, integrity and successful democratic dispensation is the best in Africa in recent times especially among emerging economies," he added.

Mr Stuttard made the commendation during a courtesy call on Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, at Manhyia Palace in Kumasi.He was accompanied by Mr Gordon Wetherell, British High Commissioner to Ghana and Madam Patricia Appiagyei, Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive.Mr Stuttard arrived in Ghana last week with some businessmen and technocrats to explore avenues that would boost co-operation between United Kingdom (UK) and Ghana especially in financial services and education.

He noted that the relationship between Ghana and UK dated back to the pre-colonial era and UK was committed to collaborate with Ghana in all fields of endeavours to further improve on the achievements made in education, financial services and culture.Mr Stuttard said such collaboration, was crucial to eliminate poverty and improve on the living standards of the vulnerable in society and in addition, facilitate Ghana's bid to attain middle-income status by 2015.He commended the Asantehene for his visionary leadership and immense efforts to enhance good neighbourliness among Asantes and other ethnic groups in Ghana, very crucial to consolidate democracy in the country.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu said there was the need for stakeholders to evolve proactive measures that would ensure Ghana's democratic dispensation was enhanced."We should commit resources to ensure stability, employment for the youth and improve upon the prudent management of the economy," he added.The Asantehene noted that with the 50th independence anniversary celebration, there was the need for stakeholders to take stock of the past achievements and brainstorm to accelerate development. He appealed to Mr Stuttard to work hard to strengthen the existing relationship between the City of London and Kumasi Metropolis for their mutual benefit.

Mr Andrew Holmes, Managing Director of Taysec, an international road construction firm, who accompanied Mr Stuttard donated 70 million cedis towards the Otumfuo Education Fund. 23 Jan. 07

Welcome home, a distinguished son of Ghana......The land of gold!!!

The immediate past UN Secretary General Kofi Annan would be returning home after years of distinguished service at the United Nations. He sairved as the chief civil servant/diplomat of the world.
For me he served the whole of mankind, but as a Ghanaian, he represented national pride for us. He represented a major free PR image for Ghana in the last decade .

Just as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became an African icon in the immediate post independence era of the 50s and 60s, Kofi Annan in the closing years of the last century and the beginning of this new century also assumed an equally visible and honourable image for Africa.

As he returns home tomorrow, it is with pride that we welcome him and hope that we will accord him the honour and dignity he deserves.


It is at this point that I humbly request of every Ghanaian to accord our own true son the peace of mind he needs at this time off international diplomacy to rest.
Putting him in a political cloak in my view will be dangerous.



The political temperature in Ghana is very umpredictable and could be unfriendly at most times. I hope Mr. Anna will stick to what he plans to do and not be pushed into taking any political posts at this time of his life.
Welcome Home Sir and all the best.

MCA In Danger?

WASHINGTON (Wall Street Journal) -- President Bush's signature foreign-assistance program is likely to run out of money this year, leaving in the lurch Ghana and several poor countries that have labored to meet its strict eligibility standards, according to aid officials.
Mr. Bush introduced the Millennium Challenge program in 2002 as a new approach to fix the perceived failures of overseas-development assistance.

The grants would be large enough to transform the recipient nations' economic fortunes, he said then, and the money would go only to countries that met quantitative standards for honest government, free-market policies and generous social spending.
Now the program's budget is expected to fall short of its projected needs by $400 million to $1 billion, depending on the outcome of congressional negotiations over the coming weeks. The crunch comes at a time when Morocco, Tanzania, Mozambique and several other developing nations are nearing agreements on huge aid packages.

"At a lower level of funding, [the program] will need to turn away countries that have developed sound proposals designed to assist millions of the poor -- such as microfinance programs that help women, and water, irrigation, and transportation systems that enable poor farmers to participate in the local economy," said John Danilovich, chief executive of the Millennium Challenge Corp., which implements the aid effort.
When the program was launched, the president promised to secure $5 billion a year from Congress for his plan.

Instead, he has consistently asked lawmakers for less than that, and lawmakers have consistently provided less than he requested.
The Republican-led Congress failed to complete fiscal 2007 spending bills before this month's hand-over to the Democrats. It appears likely that the Democrats will hold this year's spending largely to 2006 levels and focus instead on the fiscal 2008 budget, which takes effect Oct. 1.
DEVELOPING PROBLEM * What's New: President Bush's program to help the developing world faces a funding squeeze.* What's at Stake: Congress is unlikely to increase funding for the program.* The Bottom Line: Countries that have worked to earn development assistance may be left empty-handed.

"The Republicans' failure to get the job done will unfortunately leave a number of agencies in a situation that is less than ideal," said Rep. Nita Lowey, New York Democrat and chairwoman of the subcommittee that funds the aid effort.
The squeeze will likely provide the aid program with between $1.14 billion and $1.75 billion this year, compared with the $3 billion Mr. Bush had requested. The president again plans to ask Congress for $3 billion for the program when he presents his 2008 budget next month, according to two people familiar with the proposal. Antipoverty advocates are lobbying furiously on the Hill to ensure that request is fully funded.

The Millennium Challenge Corp. was still struggling to get off the ground and facing stiff congressional criticism when Mr. Danilovich, a former oil-shipping executive and Republican activist, took over in late 2005.
He accelerated its grant-giving, and the agency now boasts 11 aid agreements totaling $3 billion, including a $461 million package for Mali and an equivalent deal for El Salvador.
Mr. Danilovich has met with scores of lawmakers to plead the agency's case. The program's demanding eligibility standards, he says, have given countries from Lesotho to Georgia an incentive to crack down on corruption and other impediments to economic growth.

Still, many lawmakers worry that the Millennium Challenge Corp., which is barred by Congress from employing more than 300 people, is paying more attention to signing deals than it is to ensuring that they are implemented well enough to actually promote growth and reduce poverty.
"There are very few champions [on Capitol Hill] and, I think, dwindling support," said Sheila Herrling, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Center for Global Development think tank in Washington.

Ms. Herrling said that some key lawmakers want to steer Millennium Challenge aid away from roads, airports and other infrastructure projects and toward health, education and other social programs.
Source:MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS for WSJ

Adansi Traditional Council informs President Kufuor about Adansihene’s death

A delegation of Chiefs from Adansi Traditional Council on Sunday called on President John Agyekum Kufuor at the Residency in Kumasi to officially inform him of the death of Nana Ofori Agyeman II, Adansihene. Nana Agyeman 69, died at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra on July 15, 2005 after a short illness.




Nana Asiama Guahyia Ababio, Adubiasehene and Acting President of the Council who led the delegation said the funeral rites would be observed from Monday, January 29 to Thursday, February 1. President Kufuor expressed appreciation for the information and said the late Adansihene was a brother and his mate in school, adding “his death is a blow to him and the nation.” Nana Agyeman reigned from 1997 to 2005.GNA

Golden Jubilee Inaugural lecture at national theatre

The Ghana @ 50 Secretariat on Sunday announced that venue for the Golden Jubilee Inaugural Lecture scheduled for Thursday, January 25 has been changed to the National Theatre in Accra. A statement issued and signed by Mr HenryWellington Okyne, Public Affairs Officer said the time for the lecture remained the same.

A programme drawn by the Secretariat said it would be delivered by Busumuru Kofi Annan, Former Secretary General of the United Nations under the theme " Championing Africa's Renaissance: In Pursuit of Self-reliance and Sustainable Economic Liberation in Africa".

It said President John Agyekum Kufuor would be the Special Guest of Honour with Professor Adzei Bekoe, Chairman of the Council of State chairing the function. Attendance is strictly by invitation. GNA

Press Release: Dan Botwe For President 08'

My attention has been drawn to a leaflet that was distributed at the NPP congress with the caption “Declare, Dan Declare!” by a group called Patriotic Force. My office has received several calls and emails to ascertain weather this ‘Force’ causing the “under current” at the NPP delegates congress is in fact affiliated with us.

I wish to state that Patriotic Force is the local and grassroot working team of www. Move4Dan08.org an international campaign aimed at soliciting massive support for Daniel Botwe at the impending NPP delegates Congress to elect a flag bearer.Daniel Kweku Botwe is the immediate past General Secretary of NPP and immediate past information Minister.

He is the current Chairman of the Research and Strategy for NPP.Coordinator!Move4Dan08.org Info@move4dan08.org
Source:GHP

I Was Not Responsible For IFC, CNTCI Scam Loans - Osafo-Maafo

Just as Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver in the Bible, so Yaw Osafo-Maafo, NPP Presidential candidate aspirant, has betrayed his colleague competitor aspirant Alan Kyeremateng for the NPP Presidential candidacy slot by washing his hands clean off the scandalous IFC and CNTCI scam loans which nearly brought down the Kufuor administration on two separate occasions.

Speaking in a Radio Gold interview, Mr. Osafo-Maafo stated categorically that he was not responsible for arranging those two scandalous loans but that he had to present and defend them in Parliament as Minister of Finance in accordance with the principle of collective responsibility.Answering a question by Radio Gold’s James Agyenim-Boateng, that: “Your detractors are likely to say that—CNTCI is a baggage for you, IFC is a baggage for you”, Mr. Osafo-Maafo, who was Minister of Finance at the time the two scandalous loans were contracted by the NPP Government and aborted by the NDC opposition, stated as follows:“People do not understand how Government functions and the role of the Finance Minister and therefore let me explain them further to you. The Minister of Finance is responsible for mobilizing financial resources to run the country.

We have three types of resources.We have bilateral resources, i.e., between Ghana and Germany, Ghana and France, country to country and we have multilateral resources, between a country and groups of countries, like Ghana and the World Bank of Ghana and the IMF. When you are borrowing bilateral or multilateral, it is the responsibility of the Minister of Finance to go and do the borrowing and nobody else can.

Now there are a number of projects which require financing outside bilateral and multilateral resources. Indeed there are much more resources outside the bilateral and multilateral resources than we have there. For example in Ghana, there are about 18 banks and only 4 of those banks are state banks. The rest are all private banks and they are much bigger than the state banks and that’s how the world of financing is.There is a lot of money in the private sector apart from bilateral and multilateral. Now when you need money from the private sector for instance you need money to do the Bui dam.

The Minister of Energy can go and look for money from the private source and bring to cabinet for consideration and approval and therefore any borrowing outside bilateral and multilateral can be initiated by Ministers other than the Minister of Finance and indeed the IFC loan was never initiated by me. Indeed the IFC loan when it was taken to cabinet, I was outside the country.The records are there, I was at the World Bank but cabinet approved it. Once Cabinet approved it, it is the collective responsibility of all of us because Cabinet, about 35 people have said yes. Now according to the rules, it is only the Minister of Finance who can send a loan application to Parliament.

This is very important and you don’t understand it. And therefore when I come and Cabinet has approved a loan, I cannot say I cannot take it to Parliament because I am the Minister of Finance; otherwise I should resign. If I am the Minister of Finance and I should remain as that then I should send it to parliament.So I sent both the IFC and the CNTCI to parliament purely as the Minister of Finance but none of the two was initiated by me.

Ghana Palaver is however aware that both the IFC and CNTCI loans were initiated by Mr. Alan Kyeremateng, Minister of Trade, Industries and PSI when he was Ghana’s Ambassador in Washington, and involved persons like Professor Eddie Ayensu, a garrulous Ghanaian academic on the international circuit who is known to be an adviser to President Kufuor.At the time of the IFC and CNTCI loans however, Mr. Osafo-Maafo and Senior Minister J.H. Mensah not only look responsibility for them but stoutly defended them as the best things that ever happened to Ghana.

Observers of the political scene are certain that Mr. Osafo-Maafo has opened a can of worms and that as the campaign rolls by, IFC and CNTCI will be baggage for him until he has truthfully answered the question—--”Who initiated the IFC and CNTCI loans”?If he should confirm it to be Alan Kyeremateng, that will be the end of the latter’s Presidential ambitions.
Source:Ghana Palaver