Former President to attend Ortega's inauguration

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has accepted an invitation from President-elect of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega Saavedra to attend his inaugural ceremony, which takes place in Managua, Nicaragua on January 10, 2007. Daniel Ortega served as Nicaraguan President from 1985 to 1990.

Defeated by Barrios de Chamorro in the 1990 presidential election, Ortega remained an important figure in Nicaraguan opposition politics, loosing the 1996 and 2001 presidential elections before winning the 2006 election.

A statement issued by Mr. Victor Smith, Special Assistant and Director of Public Affairs said Former President Rawlings, who leaves Accra on Sunday, January 7 and will be away for one week.

Ghanaians Eager For Ban On Smoking In Public Places

Fifty-eight-year-old Ghanaian civil servant Kwaku Anku has been a smoker for over 40 years. Despite knowing the dangers of cigarettes, he has no intention of kicking the habit. After all, he says, his grandfather was a smoker and he lived to the ripe old age of 84.

Anku respects the sensibilities of non-smokers and chooses not to light up in the workplace, but he does smoke in bars and restaurants, but maybe not for much longer.

Ghana's chief anti-smoking campaigner, the director-general of the country's health service, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, is stepping up a campaign to ban smoking in public places as a bill to ban smoking in public places continues to gather dust.Akosa is threatening to march on the seat of government with a signed petition over the government's failure to act on smoking."Eighteen months is too long for the bill to be with cabinet," says an exasperated Akosa, who is also calling for a ban on tobacco advertising and the imposition of higher taxes on cigarettes.

A survey by the Ghana Health Service conducted in October and November 2006 revealed that 96 per cent of Ghanaians are in favour of legislation on tobacco control.Studies show that some 14.3 per cent of pupils in junior secondary schools have tried smoking before the age of 18 and a whopping 45 per cent of residents in the three northern regions, Northern Region, Upper East Region and Upper West Region, are addicted to smoking.

The government may have developed cold feet on a smoking ban because of the large amount of taxes it collects from British American Tobacco (BAT), the sole cigarette manufacturer in Ghana.For example, BAT, which has some 90 per cent of the Ghanaian tobacco market, contributed about 5.9 per cent of Ghana's GDP between 1986 and 1990 and saved the government 1.7 million dollars during the same period as 80 per cent of raw materials were produced locally, instead of it being imported.

The company employed, before the decision late last year to close down the factory, some 245 staff in 10 stations in various tobacco producing areas and about 20,000 retailers.Some 1,300 farmers and their families depend for a living on tobacco with their total income in 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available, amounting to some 2.1 million dollars.But BAT is closing down its plant in Ghana in what it has described as an ongoing drive to minimize costs of production.

Tony Okwoju, corporate affairs manager at BAT in Ghana, says the company will now sell products imported from its subsidiaries.BAT Ghana is also the single biggest private company in afforestation, having planted about 4.5 million trees on nearly 3,800 hectares of plantation.Some of it is designed to help cure its tobacco from fuelwood.

Heat from the wood is used to cure the tobacco, hence the need to replace wood that is cut for the purpose.The company is also promoting water protection programme in several areas throughout the country and awards scholarships to university students.But, as Akosa warns, "Smoking kills and there is no way we should allow people to buy death."
Source:DPA

DFP to establish Gari Factories

The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) has plans to produce Gari in large quantities for export to generate adequate revenue for the country when given the mandate to rule the nation.Apart from the immense economic returns the nation would get, the move would help solve the unemployment problem confronting the nation as it would offer millions of the jobless youth in the regions permanent employment.

To ensure the fulfilment of this dream, the party plans to provide each of the ten regions, a giant Gari Processing Factory and encourage cassava growers to produce more to feed the proposed industries by offering them a better deal.Mr. John Amekah, Deputy General Secretary of the DFP said these when he addressed a cross-section of people, including farmers, fishermen and DFP regional executives at Awutu-Panim, near Ayensuako, in the Central Region.

The meeting was to explain the aims and objectives of the party to people in and around Awutu-Panim, who are mostly cocoa and food crops farmers.Mr. Amekah attributed the failure of the Ayensu Starch Factory at Awutu-Bawjiase to lack of proper planning by the initiators, adding that when DFP takes over the administration of the country and set up the proposed Gari factories, cassava growers would be worth their salt.

He said that the country could produce millions, if not billions of tonnes of gari to famine-threatened African countries annually to generate enough revenue to cushion her economy, adding that if succeeding governments had thought of it and initiated moves towards that decades ago.Besides, the commodity could also be exported to some Western and Middle-East countries for greater economic returns if proper feasibility studies were carried out in those countries to secure a lasting market for the commodity.

Mr. Amekah described as untrue, the perception by some leading politicians that no political group can solve the numerous socio-economic problems facing the nation single-handedly.He maintained that, "the mere fact that the two leading political parties, NDC and NPP have, as yet, not been able to secure the right antidote for the country's economic woes, does not imply that no political group could do so".

The Deputy General Secretary said that the DFP has got the answer for the country's economic and other predicaments and asked the electorate to give the DFP the nod in the forthcoming Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2008.He said the DFP would unite the people, irrespective of their political, religious and ethnic backgrounds, to ensure effective national cohesion and progress all the time.

Professor E. S, Okyne, a founding member of the DFP, who chaired the function, also assured Ghanaians of the party's determination to salvage the nation from its socio-economic predicament. 07 Jan. 07
Source:GNA

One Cedi will be worth One US dollar -JAK

In July this year, one Ghana Cedi would be equivalent to one US dollar after the denomination of the Ghanaian currency.

This was declared by President John Agyekum Kufuor at the national rally of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which was organized at Koforidua on Sunday to run off the three-day national delegates' conference of the NPP.

He explained that, the denomination of the cedi was arrived at, as a result on the enhancement of the value of the cedi and said that was achieved through good governance.President Kufuor said the day was exactly six years since he was sworn into office as the President of the country when the economy of the country was in very difficult situation and it was not easy to get petroleum products to buy in the country.

He said his government had to work very hard to get the country's economy to where it is currently without arresting or detaining some of the citizens of the country or seizing their properties.President Kufuor said, currently, the problem facing the economy of the country was insufficient energy, adding that the Government of China had agreed to provide funding for the construction of the Bui Dam and very soon, the Ministers of Energy, Foreign Affairs and the Attorney General would travel to China to sign the agreement to that effect.

He said the provision of more energy would lead to industrial growth and the generation of employment for the youth.The President said the NPP has four generations of devoted members, which was a sign of blessing and that the party would never die.The President called on the members of the party not to allow the "deceitful ones" to lead them astray and declared that the campaign of the party towards the 2008 elections had started.

The Vice-President, Aliu Mahama urged the delegates to move out in unity and start the campaign towards victory in 2008.The Foreign Minister, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo expressed appreciation to the effect that the members of the National Democratic Congress(NDC) were saying that, the 2008 elections would be contested on comparing the achievements of the NDC government against that of NPP.He questioned the records of the NDC and wanted to know if the "record of arrest and beating of people" was what the NDC want to compare with that of the NPP.

The Minister of Local Government and Environment, Mr Asamoah Boateng said for four years as the Vice-President of Ghana, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills, the Presidential candidate of the NDC could not have the street leading to his hometown tarred but it was President Kufuor who had the road tarred.The Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey in a graphic representation, said the NPP government had started the construction of a seven storey building to provide accommodation for all Ghanaians and had reached the second story.

He warned that if Ghanaians make a mistake to deny the NPP the opportunity to continue with the building, Ghanaians would loose the opportunity to get accommodation.
Source:GNA