Presidency not retirement package - Botwe

Mr Daniel Kwaku Botwe, an aspiring flag bearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Sunday declared, "The post of a Chief Executive Officer of Ghana, the Presidency should not be considered as a retirement package"."The job is four years and possible eight years continuous strenuous labour, which demands dynamisms, vigour, resilience and the tenacity to endure. This is not a place for the aged.

Their place is the Council of State," Mr Botwe stated in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra."It's not an end of service package for successful service to the nation. Ghana deserves the services of an energetic and hard working personality to continue the transformation and maximize the economic gains for the benefit of the citizens," he said."To rule a country requires a dynamic organisational structure, good communication network and a high degree of meticulousness for a Third World country to standout among the community of nations" Mr Botwe stated."I am endowed with potentials capable of leading the NPP to victory," he said and urged delegates to the December 22, Special National Delegates Congress of the NPP to elect him as the flag bearer of the party for Elections 2008.

Mr Botwe reminded the delegates that the destiny of the party and Ghana was in their hand and said "You are under obligation to elect a flag bearer for the NPP and President for Ghana. You must therefore maintain your focus in the face of wooing antics by most of the aspirants to attract you attention and votes. Choose a leader who can broaden our party's support base and win Elections 2008".The NPP former General Secretary also advised the National, Regional, Constituency Executives as well as polling station chairmen to continue to nurture the bond of unity that had made the party a unique political organisation to forestall internal bickering that could destroy and distract it from its goals.He said, "I have been there before. Processes leading to congress are stressful moments, but as commanders of our great party you need to keep your focus, as posterity will never forgive you if you fail to organize a free, fair and transparent congress, we have a tradition to defend, the Danquah/Busia philosophy."Mr Botwe who was also a former Minister of Information said if he were given the nod to lead the party, he would put premium on the training of polling agents, ward chairmen and other identifiable executives on the dynamics of modern politicking and the electoral systems.Mr Botwe identified rumour mongering was a major drawback to the party's progress describing it as "a cancerous growing deep into its rank and file".He appealed to party activists to feel free to come out with their grievances and be prepared to engage in dialogue to enable the party to grow in unity.Mr Botwe assured NPP executives that if he were made the flag bearer he would continue to work assiduously with them as a team, marshal all resources and logistics to ensure effective organisation. He noted that he was the most popular and dynamic of the presidential aspirants."My experience in politics especially gained since the 2000 elections, has adequately equipped and exposed me to design the necessary strategies to enable the party to win the next general elections, I have done it before and I will do it again," he said. "Dan Botwe is already a market brand in Ghanaian politics my previous position as General Secretary afforded me the opportunity to tour the length and breadth of this country to interact directly with the people from all walks of life".He called on the members to vote for him as their presidential candidate to promote unity among the people of Ghana regardless of ethnic origin, religion, position, gender, occupation; status in society or political affiliation."I will bring together like minded citizens of the country so that they will strive for Freedom and Justice by the appreciation and protection of human rights and the Rule of Law through the practice of true democracy."To build in this country a free and democratic system of government under which all citizens will be able to contribute to the welfare, peace and prosperity of our nation and keep its people free from dictatorship and oppression."To harness to the full the human and natural resources of the country and ensure development of all Regions and Districts of the country without discrimination, these are my humble commitment," Mr Botwe stated.
Source:GNA

Economy sound for offshore banking

Central Bank Governor, Dr. Paul Acquah on Friday assured investors, who would want to take advantage of the offshore banking facility, that the country had in place a tight regulatory environment to protect their funds.Speaking at the launch of the first ever off-shore banking facility in West Africa, which is a joint venture between the government and Barclays Bank, Dr. Acquah said the Banking Act and other pieces of legislation should offer investors the necessary guarantee that the country was a safe haven for them to lodge their funds.

Offshore banking is the provision of tailor-made banking services for non-resident, expatriates and institutions to save their money abroad rather than those in their home countries. It offers a tax efficient environment for a wide range of savings and investment products.The management of Barclays Bank Ghana Limited was granted a General Banking License by the Bank of Ghana to operate the facility under the International Banking Component of the International Financial Services Centre.The International Financial Services Centre, which is part of a comprehensive financial sector development programme, will have a full range of non-bank financial services.Dr. Acquah described the launch of the centre as a significant landmark in banking in the country, attributing the achievement to the sound economic performance in the last six years and stable political environment.He urged the management of Barclays to exhibit strong operational strength and integrity to meet the best practices in the world, saying it was the only way that the country would enjoy the benefits of the International Financial Services Centre.Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu enumerated the advantages that would accrue to the country with the launch of the offshore banking facility.These include making available a pool of capital inflows that institutions and companies could tap into to spur the country's economic development as well as enhanced country's revenue generation.Mr. Frits Seegers, Chief Executive Officer, Global Retail and Commercial Banking Barclays said the initiative would put Ghana into prominence in the financial arena and promote cross-border business within the West Africa sub-region."By becoming an international financial services centre, Ghana will see benefits including new jobs, increased foreign exchange inflows, and skills transfer in international banking. This will place Ghana on the map for international financial markets, opening new markets that have not been available before."Mrs Margaret Mwanakatwe, Managing Director of Barclays Ghana Limited, said the bank was committed and prepared to deal with the challenges associated with international banking services. She said Barclays would offer such services without compromising efficient and effective customer service.
Source:GNA

Kufuor launches Ghana's landmark offshore banking

Ghana on Friday celebrated a historic landmark in its banking industry with the launch by President John Agyekum Kufuor of In-Country Offshore Banking Services in Accra. The facility, a joint venture of Ghana and the Barclays Bank, is the first of its kind to be established in West Africa and is seen as an important step towards the realization of the Government's vision of making the country a major financial hub of the Sub-Region. It would provide banking services to non-resident customers by creating a portfolio of assets and liabilities and other investment products.This way the country is expected to gain through more foreign exchange inflows, job creation and skills transfer in international banking.Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Ministers of State, Members of Parliament and Government delegations from Nigeria, Togo, C=F4te d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso attended the ceremony.President Kufuor said the Government was fully aware of the numerous challenges and difficulties inherent in the operation of the facility and gave the assurance that the necessary safeguards had been put in place to stave off abuses.Legal and administrative measures, he said, had been enacted to provide the needed checks and balances within the economy in particular and society in general."These measures should promote best practices in service delivery. More importantly, they should affirm the good faith and determination of the entire society to make Ghana a safe, secure and peaceful environment for investment."President Kufuor, through whose initiative the offshore banking had become a reality, said the nation already was acknowledged as investor-friendly and asked that the "Project" should exploit this positive image in securing the confidence of foreign and domestic customers.It must help to transform the financial system for accelerated socio-economic development."It is gratifying that the results of the years of hard work on the macro-economy and the commitment to good governance are yielding fruits. The economy is stable, inflation and interest rates are declining while the Cedi maintains its value against major trading currencies."
Source:GNA

Parliament Is A Rubber Stamp - MP

Hon P.C. Appiah-Ofori, the Member of Parliament for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa has stated that the current parliament is a rubber stamp, dedicated with blindly approving all that the government pushes before it. He has also stated that the current government only rewards those who sing its praises, and that all those who dedicate themselves to offering criticism of government policies and programmes can only expect to be denied the right to serve in government.

Hon. P.C. Appiah-Ofori, who is a leading member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) made these claims during a news programme on an Accra based radio station on Wednesday.Speaking to newsmen in reaction to a recent report by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) that there is a perception that parliament is a rubber stamp, Hon Appiah Ofori expressed his agreement.“Yes I agree with the CDD. When a motion is brought into parliament members make it a case of towing party lines so therefore vote on party lines,’ Hon. Appiah Ofori said. He said that the phenomenon does not allow development for Ghana. Explaining his point, he said that the former Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) passed the Minerals Law in 1986 which was too favourable for the mining companies.He said that when the NPP came to power it decided to change the law and he suggested that a clause be put in the law to make it mandatory for the mining companies to retain a high percentage of their earnings in Ghana.“I did all I could but none of them supported me. After the motion was off the table some of the MPs came to me and said P.C. what you said was true,” he said. He said that the MPs refused to support him because they were afraid.“They are the people who get the ministerial positions,” he said.Asked if expressing critical thought would militate against one getting a position in government, Hon. Appiah-Ofori answered in the affirmative, and said that he did not go to parliament to get a ministerial position, but to serve.“My people did not vote for me to go and enrich myself, they voted me to go and help build the country for the voters to also enjoy the good life. So when government brings the policy and it is not good for the people of Ghana I will not support it,” he said.
Source:Searchlight

All Prez Aspirants Urged To Declare Assets

Dr Kwaku Osafo, a developing economist, has launched his bid to be elected as the presidential candidate of the Convention People's Party (CPP) for Election 2008 and challenged all aspirants to publicly declare their assets."I urge all presidential aspirants of all political parties to publicly declare their assets now and all selected presidential candidates to declare publicly within three months of being selected.""Whoever wins the presidential elections should publicly declare his or her assets before taking office," Dr Osafo said in Accra on Wednesday.Dr Osafo is the second to publicly declare his intention to contest the CPP presidential slot after Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, a former Director General of the Ghana Health Service.Other aspirants are Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, a former Minister of Public Sector Reform, Mr Bright Akwetey, a lawyer, and Mr George Opersika Aggudey, CPP's presidential candidate in Election 2004.Dr Osafo said under his presidency all ministers and senior officials appointed should publicly declare their assets within three months of taking office "to demonstrate our fight against corruption.""For the first time in the history of this country, I am declaring the hardware of my assets and the means of their acquisition even as a party presidential aspirant to demonstrate in no uncertain terms that corruption will not be tolerated in my administration."He said his administration would enter into agreements with international banks, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to divulge secret accounts of the president's ministers and all high government officials including the police, military and the judiciary."Corruption, stealing of public funds, sheer graft and greed have eaten into our modern political fabric and should be thoroughly dry cleaned," Dr Osafo.Dr Osafo published his assets in a booklet he made available to journalists.He said he generated his income as a World Bank expert for 8 years and later as Economics Advisor for the African Development Bank."My total income during this period was between 1.3 to 1.5 million dollars from which my various investments were made. As president I shall duly inform the Ghanaian public every year on the state of my assets and liabilities," he said
Source:GNA

Doctors Find Herbal Cure For AIDS

A group of Ghanaian doctors and ethno-botanists and their collaborators in the US have moved closer to global fame with their discovery of herbal medicines for the cure of the dreaded HIV/AIDS and Hepititis B.The group staked their claim after 11 years of intensive research in Ghana and the US into the herbal medicines, which have proved potent in subduing the AIDS virus after several tests on some HIV infected persons in Ghana and the US.The discovered HIV/AIDS herbal medicines are known as MAB Formula One, which kills the virus, and MAB Formula Two, which is an immune booster or immune modulator.Although significant advances had long been made in the research, which began in 1996, the researchers had kept their discovery close to their chest until last Saturday when Dr Jacob Akumoah-Boateng, the Medical Director of MAB Medicare Centre, a private health institution in Accra, under whose auspices the research is being carried out, spilled the bean at a ceremony to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the centre.Giving further details on the discovery later in an interview, Dr Akuamoah-Boateng said the Ministry of Health had taken samples of the herbal medicines for further scrutiny after which the group would launch them on the local and international markets.“Even as I’m speaking now, there are a lot of patients on the medicine. There are a lot of bed-ridden patients who are now doing press-ups”, he claimed, adding that the condition of most of the patients in Ghana and the US had improved after they started using the medicine.According to Dr Akuamoah-Boateng, the research had produced 15 postulations out of which 12 had been approved by international bodies.He said the remaining three postulations had not been approved because there was no discovery that could be used as a basis for their approval.Dr Akuamoah-Boateng said various tests had been done at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine at Mampong-Akuapem and internationally acclaimed health institutions in the U.S, such as Corning Hospital in New York and Maryland Medical Laboratory in Baltimore.An acute toxicity test carried out at Mampong affirmed that the herbal medicines were not poisonous and had no side effects.A report on the phytochemical analysis and safety assessment of “MAB Formula I”, carried out by the centre, said it was established in the acute toxicity studies that the laboratory animals needed to consume almost 59 times the normal adult dose (one tot or 30ml) twice daily in order to produce an acute toxic effect.“MAB Formula I is, therefore, safe according to the dosage indicated by the manufacturer”, the report said. A similar conclusion was made by the centre on the “MAB Formula II”.Dr Akuamoah-Boateng said the test kits used for the research were imported from a company in Germany called Boris Wellcome, which was a world leading producer of research test kits.He explained that the research test kits under reference helped to show the presence of the virus in the blood and the detection of anti-bodies, unlike other tests which normally centred on only the detection of anti-bodies, which were the products of the virus.Dr Akuamoah-Boateng said at the initial stages, the test was conducted on three occasions after which it was found out that the virus was no longer present in the blood, however, the anti-bodies were still present.He said, baffled by the outcome, the group decided to carry out further research in the US where they managed to do a viral culture test, which he explained as a very specific and determined test to culture the blood at every stage of the three-prong tests.He said at the end of that research, it was found out that the virus and the anti-bodies were missing.According to Dr Akuamoah-Boateng, the application of orthodox medicine in the treatment of HIV/AIDS was such that although the potency of the virus reduced, the treatment could not be stopped until the death of the patient because the virus would re-emerge if the medication was stopped but that was not the case with the herbal medicine.Earlier at the fifth anniversary of MAB Medicare Centre, a renowned broadcaster, Mr Joe Lartey, who represented the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Sheikh I. C. Quaye, advised residents of the area to eschew politics and take advantage of the National Health Insurance Scheme to benefit from free healthcare.
Source:Graphic

Starlets Succumb To The Might Of Spain...U 17

Spain was Physically Superior...... Spain 2-1 Ghana Scorers: D. Aquino(67') Saddick Adams (80') Bojan (116) Live Links: Others for US/Canada Viewers Ulsan, South Korea -- They say that the pressure of being among the favourites makes the task of winning a tournament all the harder. If that is indeed the case, then both Spain and Ghana fully deserve their places in the semi-finals at the FIFA World Cup Korea 2007. All that remains to be decided when the duo meet at the Ulsan Complex Stadium on Wednesday is who will have the honour of contesting Sunday's Final and who will have the consolation of battling for third place.
The stakesThe Iberians had to dig very deep to shake off France in the quarter-finals. The boys in blue dominated for long periods by adopting a simple tactic - keeping the ball. And it was only when coach Juan Santisteban switched things around in the second half that Spain got into the game and showed their teeth up front, something they will certainly need to do against the Ghanaians. The major doubt surrounding the Spanish is how they will react after expending so much energy in last Saturday's gruelling duel with the French.
The Black Starlets should be much in fresher condition after comfortably disposing of Peru. Sellas Tetteh's side have also improved since the tournament began and appear to be peaking at just the right time. Much will depend on how Ghana's potent strike duo of Ransford Osei (five goals to date) and Sadick Adams fare against the solid Spanish defence, marshalled by in-form keeper David de Gea.
The playersNeither Ghana nor Spain have any suspension problems. Ghana boss Tetteh has a full squad to choose from after Francis Boadi served out his one-match in the quarters, while opposite number Santisteban is still waiting on midfielder Jordi's ankle injury and defender Alberto Morgado's muscle strain.
The pastThe Ulsan clash will be the fifth meeting between the sides at a FIFA U-17 World Cup. With two wins and two draws so far it is Ghana who have the edge, the most important of those triumphs coming in the Final at Italy 1991, where they won 1-0 to land the first of their two world titles in the category.
The two sides met earlier on in that competition, drawing 1-1 in the group phase, a result they repeated at the same stage at New Zealand 1999. The Africans' other victory came at Egypt 1997, where they beat the Spanish 2-1 in a group match.




The words"The main challenge facing us will be physical, as Ghana are a very tough side and they have not had to work as hard as we have. We also need to be intelligent. When we've got the ball we need to move it around and try to frustrate them, and when they have it we need to be on our guard and try and hit them on the counter." Juan Santisteban, Spain coach.
"Possession is vital to us because we struggle when we don't have the ball. It's going to be very hard because Ghana aren't like other African sides who are physically very strong but lack a little technique. They've got both things." Jordi, Spain midfielder.
"Our finishing needs to be a little sharper because we can't afford to miss any chances that come our way against the Spanish. It could cost us dear if we do. All the same, I'm convinced we can play good football against anyone, even against a team as strong as Spain." Sellas Tetteh, Ghana coach.
"We know we've got what it takes to reach the final. Spain are a good side but we are determined to beat them and go for the title. Although we are playing really well, there is always room for improvement, and we hope to step up another level against the Spanish." Ransford Osei, Ghana forward.
Source:FIFA