Industrialisation goes with reliable electricity- Deputy VRA CEO

By George-Ramsey Benamba

Accra, June 7, GNA- Mr Kenneth Mensah Arthur, Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Services at the Volta River Authority (VRA) has asserted that without reliable and affordable electricity, the potential industrial growth cannot be realized. 

“Ghana’s industries consume about 33 per cent of the electricity produced which is very significant’. 

Mr Arthur stated this during the seventh Ghana International Trade and Finance Conference (GITFiC) held at Senchi in the Eastern Region and attracted patrons from over 10 African countries and beyond.

The conference was on the theme: “Sovereign Economic Vulnerabilities; An Endorsement for a Single Trading Currency for Africa – with ECOWAS as a case study.

He said the VRA had over the years continued to increase its generation capacity while improving reliability of supply, to meet the growing electricity needs of the country. 

“VRA expects to obtain competitively priced financing from banks to enable VRA continue to develop new power plants at competitive prices to meet the growing electricity needs. 

“Reliable and affordable electricity also helps to promote regional trade because it helps to give a competitive advantage to counties that exhibit these qualities.

The conference which dwelt on building a single currency for the sub-region also made strides in the intra-African trade to reduce import bills for member countries.

On a single currency for the sub-Region, he said the VRA believed that the concept of a single currency was in sync with electricity generation and trading. 

“Electricity does not know any boundaries; all it needs is for the two systems to be connected and it flows. The electrons that form the electricity is the same in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo and any other country for that matter. The electrons behave like a single currency and so we do appreciate the push for a single currency to promote trading.

On VRA’s role in Promoting International Trade, he said since its inception, it had been promoting international trade through electricity exports and also natural gas supply Power Export. 

He said the VRA started exporting power to Cote d’Ivoire from 1984, to Togo/Benin from 1984 and to Burkina Faso from 2003 and now exported about 250 MW to neighbouring countries.

With respect to natural gas, he said VRA had been a foundation customer to the West African Gas Pipeline Project (WAGP) which led to the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Nigeria through Togo/Benin to Ghana and VRA’s role was a major boost for realization of the needed volumes of natural gas to make the WAGP project viable. 

“Today gas supply from Nigeria plays a critical role in power generation in Ghana”.

He said VRA was a pioneer member of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) seeking to promote cross border trading of electricity within West Africa and played a key role in WAPP, serving on various technical committees, and special task forces to help WAPP in its operations.  

“Realization of the full potential of WAPP will improve reliability of power supply within the sub-region, reduce the overall investment requirement for additional power plants of countries (because countries can import without building a new power plant) and also increase trading amongst the countries that are in a position to export power. 

Mr Arthur said the VRA had maintained High Standard in Power Operations in its hydro, thermal and Renewable Energy Operations and maintained high availability standards and adopted best practices, which was a key attraction to neighbouring countries for supply of power.  

He said the Energy Transition also presented some opportunities for the power sector and industries and the target of the government of Ghana was to achieve net-zero by 2070. 

“This, the government intends to achieve by implementing nuclear power generation, using natural gas and increasing the Renewable Energy in the generation Mix. We in VRA are partners with GoG in the development of the Nuclear Power Plant. These initiatives we believe also present opportunities to industries in the Renewable Energy space”. 

Mr Arthur said the VRA supplied over 50 per cent of the country’s electricity with 87 per cent penetration and hoped to achieve Universal access by 2030

On generation Mix for 2022, he said Hydro was 36.8 perr cent, Thermal: 62.9 per cent, Solar: 0.1 per cent and Imports amounted to 0.2 per cent.

GNA

Prosecute Transnational Organized Crimes and money laundering – Ndego

By Laudia Sawer 

Tema, June 1, GNA - Mr. Benjamin Ndego, a criminologist, has called for concurrent investigations and prosecution of Transnational Organized Crimes (TOC) with money laundering to enable relevant institutions to recover proceeds of such crimes. 

 

Mr. Ndego, who is also an Expert in Organized Crime and Money Laundering, said the current practice of institutions focusing only on predicated crimes before going to tackle money laundering would give the perpetrators enough time to divert the monies and cover them up. 

 

He made the call during the ongoing two-week Maritime Security and Transnational Organized Crime (MSTOC) programme organized by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) with support from the German Government. 

 

He said that the proceeds of all TOCs activities such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking and smuggling, and terrorism, among others, end up in money laundering. 

 

He said it was a vicious cycle in which the crime generated monies that needed to be laundered as a way to avoid detection, and those monies were then used to sponsor more crimes to generate higher proceeds. 

 

"Arresting people and jailing them without collecting the monies involved in the proceedings is just a waste of time and national resources, as they go and come back to enjoy the money they made from those crimes," he said. 

 

Mr. Ndego said the criminals wash their dirty monies by initially injecting the illegal cash into banks or security companies and sometimes transforming it into other assets, and they also remove the monies far from the location of acquisition to avoid detection. 

 

He said they lay the money through its conversion into monetary instruments such as bonds and also sell the initial assets acquired. 

 

The criminologist said the last part of the money laundering involved integrating it into real estate, buying properties, and buying loss-making enterprises, among others. 

 

Touching on the types of money laundering, he said some laundered the monies through third parties who were not involved in the committing of the crimes, whiles some do self-laundering as well as stands alone. 

 

He said some of the features of money laundering were having monies from a criminal origin, with the aim of obscuring the origin while making the funds appear legitimate, using front companies, strawmen, and philanthropic activities, and co-mingling the money as a cover. 

GNA 

Hypertension in pregnancy could lead to premature delivery

By Angela Ayimbire, GNA  

Tema, June 01, GNA – Hypertension in pregnancy, if not managed, could lead to complications including seizures, coma, premature delivery, and an increased chance of intrauterine growth restriction in the baby, Dr. Derrick Darko, a Medical Officer, has cautioned. 

 

Other consequences include detachment of the placenta, bleeding in pregnancy, and a higher probability of remaining hypertensive after delivery. 

 

Dr Darko, a medical officer at the International Maritime Hospital (IMaH), noted that among maternal deaths that occurred during delivery, about 50 percent were attributed to hypertension.  

 

Speaking at a weekly health discussion programme called "Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility,  Dr. Darko said even though the causes of hypertension were yet to be established, some contributory factors included a high intake of salt and fatty foods, a hereditary condition, and a sedentary lifestyle. 

 

"Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility is Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative aimed at promoting health-related communication and providing a platform for health information dissemination to influence personal health choices through improved health literacy 

 

The Office developed the public health advocacy platform "Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility" to investigate the components of four health communication approaches: informing, instructing, convincing, and promoting. 

 

He explained that there are four categories of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia-eclampsia, and chronic hypertension with superimposed preeclampsia. 

 

Dr. Darko said apart from recording high blood pressure readings, other signs to look out for were protein in the urine, which could be picked up through the various tests done during pregnancy. 

 

Others include severe frontal headaches that could not be reduced with the intake of painkillers, visual blurriness, flashes of light on the face, continuous nausea and vomiting, experiencing pain just beneath the breast or right side of the abdomen, and a sharp increase in weight with swellings of the hands and feet that look shiny. 

 

He explained that hypertension in pregnancy could be categorized in two ways: those who were already diagnosed as hypertensive before getting pregnant and those who developed it during pregnancy. 

 

He said those already diagnosed must seek pre-pregnancy counselling from their doctors before getting pregnant, adding that, with that their medications and dietary needs could be checked to avoid complications. 

 

He urged women to start antenatal care immediately after they recognized that they were pregnant to enable their blood pressure to be taken, recorded, and monitored to help in the early detection of any symptoms of hypertension and its related complications and to help save the lives of both mother and baby. 

GNA 

Bank Managers call on gov’t to flush out ‘black market’ operators

By Dennis Peprah

Sunyani, May 31, GNA – The heads of banking institutions in the Bono Region have called on the Government to be proactive enough and flush out money exchangers in the ‘black market’ for the Ghana cedi to regain its strength.

They observed that the illegal money exchange business was flourishing in Sunyani, the regional capital, and thereby putting undue pressure on the cedi, saying, because their exchange rates were high, they had high patronage from the public.

“I think the Government must do more to restrict the activities of the black marketers because their illegal businesses have a huge devastating toll on the banking business,” Mrs. Gloria Mensah Atakora, the Bono Regional Manager, GCB Bank PLC stated.

The Bank Managers made the call when they interacted with Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister in a meeting in Sunyani.

Mr Charles Eshun, the Bono Regional Manager of the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB), also advised the public to desist from exchanging foreign currencies in the black market to support government efforts to strengthen the Ghana cedi.

The Bank Managers also called on the National Identification Authority (NIA) to be expeditious in the issuance of the Ghana cards to the public, particularly Ghanaian residents abroad.

“Because they find it difficult to access the Ghana card, many Ghanaians who returned home from abroad are unable to open bank accounts and most of them also patronise the activities of the black marketers,” Mr Foster Frimpong, the Bono Regional Manager of the Zenith Bank stated.

They also appealed to the Regional Security Council to intervene and help increase Police presence at the Sunyani central business district (CBD) where most of the major banks were situated to enhance security in the enclave.

On her part, Madam Owusu-Banahene commended the managers for their frank discussions and assured that the Bono Regional Coordinating Council would also work hard in tackling some of the challenges impeding their operations in the region.

The Regional Minister called on the banks to open cash outlets in some of the major rural communities in the region to serve the rural population.

Madam Owusu-Banahene indicated that about 60 per cent of the regional population were farmers spread in the local communities, hence the need for the banks to extend their services to them too.

Meanwhile, activities of the illegal money exchangers are very common and rife, as several ‘black marketers,’ mostly nationals from Niger and Burkina Faso are dotted around corners of the CBD.

They transact their illegal businesses in the open as they approached visitors in the enclave for foreign currency exchange, with emphasis on the Euro and US dollar.

Good governance guarantees national stability - Former National Security Coordinator

By Dennis Peprah 

Sunyani, May 31, GNA - Mr Francis Poku, a former National Security Coordinator has said good governance and regime protection is a guarantee to national security and stability. 

"If we are able to ensure good governance, then we wouldn't have problems with threats of violent extremism and radicalism in the country," he stated. 

Mr Poku said the high unemployment rate and underdevelopment create dissatisfaction and thereby undermined national peace and stability. 

The former national security coordinator under the former President John Agyekum Kufuor's government was speaking at the Regional Dialogue session on trending conflict issues in Sunyani. 

The National Catholic Secretariat organised the day's session, attended by traditional leaders, representatives of religious bodies, security services, youth groups, policy implementers, trade associations and Senior High School students. 

It was on the theme: "Trending Conflicts in Ghana, Fertile Grounds for Violent Extremism: A Call for Action," and was in line with the Sahel Peace Initiative project being implemented by the Secretariat with funding from the Catholic Relief Services, a non-governmental organization. 

Citing Burkina Faso as an example, Mr Poku said about 60 per cent of that country had been taken over by rebels where people could not go on with their normal lives. 

"In fact, Ghana must ensure we don't run into that kind of situation where traditional chiefs had been slaughtered openly before their subjects," he stated. 

Insecurity, Mr Poku emphasized, remained a serious problem, hence the need for the nation to do more by tackling its security threats proactively to sustain national stability. 

Mr George Agbozo, a Senior Lecturer at the Catholic University of Ghana and an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Practitioner, expressed regret that the citizenry had certain misconceptions about governance, with some gradually losing faith in the judicial system. 

This, he added, had the potential to breed the culture of violence and extremism, if not tackled proactively. 

Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister mentioned chieftaincy conflicts, illegal mining, unemployment, and activities of nomadic Fulani herdsmen as some of the security challenges, which needed attention in the region. 

She commended the organisers for the dialogue and expressed the hope that it would strategised and help provide realistic interventions to tackle the threats of security, not only in the region, but the nation by extension. 

Deputy Foreign Minister pays tribute to UN Peacekeepers

By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, May 29, GNA - Mr Thomas Mbomba, a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has paid tribute to United Nations (UN) Peacekeepers on their day of recognition and commended them for the contributions towards the maintenance of global peace.

The Deputy Minister gave the commendation during a flagraising and wreath laying ceremony in Accra in commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers on the theme: "Peace Begins With Me: 75 Years of UN Peacekeeping."

This year's theme recognises the service and sacrifice of peacekeepers, past and present, including more than 4,200 who have given their lives under the UN flag. 

Mbomba said it was a great pride and honour to pay tribute to the remarkable achievements of the UN Peacekeepers who had selflessly dedicated themselves to the cause of peace, security, and stability across the globe.

As one of the pioneering Troop Contributing Countries of the UN peacekeeping efforts, Ghana recognises the key role that the UN plays in the maintenance of international peace and security. 

"We have volunteered approximately 100,000 uniformed personnel as well as civilians in various capacities in more than 35 UN Missions around the world," Mr Mbomba said.

"Our uniformed personnel have served with pride and distinction since the 1960s, working in diverse and challenging conflict and post-conflict situations". 

Their contributions had not only brought hope to conflict-affected regions but had also brought honour and pride to the nation.

He said for 75 years, UN peacekeepers had played a vital role in saving lives, protecting civilians, and rebuilding communities torn apart by conflict. 

The Deputy Minister said those brave men and women had faced immense challenges and danger while striving to achieve extraordinary outcomes. 

He said their unwavering commitment, sacrifice, and dedication deserve their utmost admiration and gratitude.

Ghana had witnessed firsthand the impact of its peacekeepers in restoring stability, promoting dialogue, and facilitating the delivery of humanitarian assistance. 

Mr Charles Abani, the UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana, reaffirmed that the UN would continue to be a reliable partner in the agenda for peacekeeping adding: "I call on everyone; man, woman, young and old, to join the global movement for peace.”

“Let us become the catalyst for peace and change makers. Achieving peace is a goal for all."

Mr Dominic Nitiwul, the Defence Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, urged member nations to recommit themselves to the noble ideals of the UN and forge a future where generations could live in a world of lasting peace.

GNA

Selorm Dzramado to contest as independent candidate

By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, May 29, GNA - Mr Selorm Dramani Dzramado, a political activist, has declared his intention to contest the Tongu Central parliamentary seat as an independent candidate in the 2024 general election.

Mr Dzramado announced his intention on Monday in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency.

"I declare to run as an independent parliamentary candidate for Central Tongu in the upcoming 2024 general election after giving it enough thought and consulting with a wide range of people within and outside the constituency," he said.

"As a selfless political activist who has consistently held governments accountable for 23 years, I have exceptional understanding of the real challenges the residents of Central Tongu Constituency are facing as well as the effective solutions to those challenges."

Mr Dzramado said his leadership would be echoed in forward-thinking ideas and the 'servant leadership' principle, which prioritised the needs of the group over the interest of the individual.

"I shall soon articulate my vision and objectives for the residents of Central Tongu when I officially launch my campaign."