Ghana hit its tele-density target

Ghana hit its tele-density target of 20 per cent ahead of time at the end of June instead of December 2006, Communications Minister Professor Mike Ocquaye said on Wednesday. The Government had forecast to record a tele-density (the penetration of telephones throughout the country) to hit 20 per cent by the end of 2006 and 30 per cent by 2010 in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).Ghana is likely to exceed the MDG target at the rate of penetration.Professor Ocquaye, who was speaking at a function organized by the Ministry in Accra to create a platform for telecommunications operators to interact with Journalists, commended the efforts of the operators in helping the Government to achieve the target. "Some of the innovativeness that exists in the industry has given employment to especially people in the hinterland," Prof. Ocquaye said, and added that there was the need to take stock and look ahead to confront the challenges.He, therefore, called for regular dialogue between stakeholders in the telecommunications industry to promote understanding of issues concerning their operations between them and the public. The Minister said telecommunications were essential parts of development and required a constant review of work done but the media mostly speculated about the issues.This, he said, did not allow the public to appreciate the issues that confronted the industry.Prof. Ocquaye said the Government would not relent on efforts to push the agenda for developing the sector forward.He said a 40 million-dollar loan from the World Bank would help the Government to bridge the telecommunications gap between the urban and the rural areas through the hastening of the fibre optic project. Mr Bernard Forson, Deputy Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), said tele-density could reach 25 per cent by the end of the year.He expressed optimism that the industry could also hit the tele-density target of 10 per cent in the rural areas by 2010, although he noted that the growth in the industry had also brought about challenges.He said there was the need to consider the area of Internet penetration as part of efforts to address the needs of the rural communities.Mr Forson said the NCA would ensure that the obligations to customers by the operators were met and that there existed a level playing field.Mr Kofi Asante, Administrator of the Ghana Investment Fund for Telecommunications (GHIFTEL), said his outfit was granting initial partial funding to entrepreneurs to help to provide universal access to telecommunications facilities to the rural communities.He explained that the work of the GHIFTEL was to promote socio-economic development and this would be done equitably. Mr Asante said GHIFTEL had done upfront assessment of the needs of the industry and had initiated projects to cover selected areas of the country.GHIFTEL expects to implement 22 such projects by the early part of 2007.

Forty billion cedis to finance School feeding project

Forty billion cedis is to be spent on the school feeding project from now until the end of the year. About 198,000 pupils in 500 first cycle schools throughout the country are expected to benefit from the programme, which was piloted last year.Mr Kwame Nuako, Director in charge of monitoring and evaluation at the School Feeding Programme, told the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday,He said an amount of three thousand cedis had been budgeted to provide one hot meal for each pupil on the programme.Mr Nuako said by the end of the last academic year, about 69,000 pupils from 200 schools nationwide had been fed by the programme. "That number has been increased to 141, 800 pupils from 380 schools at the beginning of the academic year, which started last week. "The number would hit 198, 000 pupils from 500 schools by end of the year and the Government would make available 40 billion cedis to cater for the programme from now till the end of the year"Mr Nuako explained that evaluation of the school-feeding programme for last academic year when it started indicated that it was responsible for an average of 25 per cent increase in school enrolment.He stated that the evaluation also revealed that retention and attendance rates were higher in schools on the feeding programme.Mr Nuako explained that as an added impetus, the programme was offering employment to more than 2,500 caterers engaged to cook for the 500 schools.He said the Programme Directors were working closely with beneficiary district assemblies and communities to sustain it."We are planning to expand the programme to meet Government's objective of making every school child happy and also there is a huge cry for the programme in areas where it has not reached yet." 27 Sept. 06

COCOBOD is ready for 2006/7 cocoa season – Chief Executive

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) on Wednesday said it had made adequate preparations to eliminate bottlenecks that might affect the smooth running of the 2006/7 major cocoa season, which opens in October 2006. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the celebration of Cocoa Producers Alliance (COPAL) Cocoa Day, Mr Isaac Osei, Chief Executive of COCOBOD, said 14 bales of jute sacks and twines, enough to allow Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) to purchase and bag about 300,000 tonnes of beans had been released. Last week, COCOBOD announced the signing of a trade finance facility agreement involving 810 million dollars to be used to finance cocoa purchases for the 2006/7 crop year. The money would be made available to LBCs as seed money for them to purchase cocoa during the new season. Mr Osei said the loan agreement would provide buyers "adequate cash flow" to make prompt payment for the produce from farmers. He said a 50,000 tonne-capacity warehouse at Tema would be inaugurated as part of measures to minimize congestion of cocoa beans at the country's ports. Similar facilities are being constructed at Takoradi. "In addition, we're using private warehouses to fill the gap. We're also going to manage the scheduling of truck arrivals to limit the pile-up," he said but quickly added “but that is not to say we’ll eliminate the problem completely”. Mr Osei said a significant portion of Ghana's cocoa trees were infected with swollen shoot disease. He said in pursuit of the policy to increase local processing of cocoa, COCOBOD had finalized negotiations with some major firms to grind the beans into semi-finished and finished products. One such company that would soon come on board is Afro Tropic with an installed processing capacity of 10,000 tonnes, according to Mr Osei. Others which are also expanding their processing capacity include Swiss confectionery giant, Barry Callebaut and the Cocoa Processing Company, both in Tema. Mr Osei put the current total domestic processing capacity at 285,000 tonnes. He said increased domestic consumption of cocoa products was being encouraged through celebrations such as the COPAL Cocoa Day as a means to sustain the industry. The day, which falls on October 1 every year, was instituted by the Cocoa Producers Alliance to promote the local processing and consumption of cocoa to boost consumption in member countries. This year's COPAL celebration would be marked at Sunyani on October 1 and would include activities such as a health walk, recognition of some farmers, fair and exhibition.

Lukewarm attitude of civil servants dampens good intentions

New Patriotic Party (NPP) youth activist has observed that the lukewarm attitude of some Civil Servants towards the implementation of government policies had militated against the good intentions of the programmes to improve the living conditions of the people. Mr Samuel Jinapor Abdulai mentioned for instance, the National Health Insurance Scheme, as one among a dozen of policies that the government had initiated to improve the health of the people. He lamented however that, bureaucratic tendencies at the implementation stages had become a source of concern to the government. Mr Abdulai, who is in the Northern Region to explain government policies and programmes to the people and find out issues affecting the party, made the observation at a media encounter in Tamale on Wednesday. He said the country needed a civil service, whose leaders were disciplined and visionary to move the country forward, even in spite of the harsh and unpleasant conditions under which they worked. He, therefore, called on the government to meet all challenges confronting the service by providing the needed logistics and improving the working conditions of the service to enhance productivity.
On the question of a Northern politician to bear the flag of the NPP in the 2004 general election, Mr Abdulai said, "The NPP has a democratic tradition". "It is for congress to determine who leads the party and the decision is devoid of any ethnic considerations. "The wisdom of congress would prevail and we must all be prepared to follow the choice of congress," he said. On the Millennium Change Account (MCA), the youth activist said the criteria used in selecting the beneficiary districts were not discriminatory. He explained that even though the Upper East and Upper West regions had been identified as poor and had potential in agricultural production, other regions might have comparative advantage over them. "It is government intention to support all regions in the country to harness its potentials to enhance national growth," he said. Mr Abdulai said the government would therefore, not shun its responsibility of ensuring that the two regions got their fair share of the national cake to exploit their potentials for the rapid development of the people.