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