My Ghana Electronic Desk

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Three of the Ghanaian Journalists Five Ghanaian journalists, including two staff writers of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), are among 12 African journalists invited to participate in a week-long Green Growth study tour of Denmark.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The day is coming, when members of the public would be able to buy units from vendors for their electricity meters as they currently do for their mobile phones. Consumers of electricity would also be able to purchase electricity online if they are far away from home, or buy from handheld devices operated by accredited agents at public places.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Mrs Linda Thomas-Greefield The Assistant Secretary, African Affairs, United States (US), Mrs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has said that Ghana and other peaceful countries in Africa, gave the US government optimism for the rest of the continent. She indicated that it was therefore the US’ intention to work with Ghana and the other countries, building on that optimism, until all countries in Africa at war were infected with that peace.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE PAC Chairman, Mr Agyeman-Manu The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Wednesday requested the appearance of two officials of the National Board for Professional and Technician Examinations (NBPTE) who have been cited for corrupt practices.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The 'Kamkaso' Victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) would have cause to smile.   The world’s first ever clitoral repair hospital for victims of FGM, located in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, is set to open on March 7, 2014, according to a US-based, non-profit organisation, Clitoraid.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Mr Kofi Asamoah Organised labour has given the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) and the government 10 working days to slash the recent tariff increases. The group warned that it would be forced to resort to industrial action if the ultimatum was brushed aside.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The decomposed body of an unidentified woman believed to be in her mid-20s was retrieved by the police from a litter bin behind the Morning Star High School at Tantra Hill in Accra yesterday.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Mrs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, The Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs of the United States of America, Mrs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has lauded the successful conduct of Ghana’s election petition hearing by the Supreme Court. She said this had demonstrated how far Ghana had come with democracy.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A section of cocoa farmers at the durbar President John Mahama has said the government remains committed to paying producer prices for cocoa that will not leave Ghana’s hard-working cocoa farmers worse off. He said in spite of the daunting challenges facing the crop globally as a result of rising costs and declining world prices that had given rise to concerns for sustainability, the government would ensure that adequate prices were paid for cocoa.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Emeritus Professor Kwame Gyekye  Emeritus Professor Kwame Gyekye, Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, has advocated a new notion of private member’s bill in Parliament from citizens and not from the government. According to him, such a bill would give a voice to ordinary citizens in matters of governance.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Sylvester Mensah, has stated that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has become a model for other African countries to learn from, although it continues to receive a lot of criticism from Ghanaians.

  BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Former South African President, F. W. de Klerk, has stated that much as he admires American and British democracies, they should not be dogmatic about Africa following their example. “There is often an enormous chasm between Western protestations of democratic rectitude and their social practices back home”, he said, noting that the two democracies were not as perfect as they had been made to appear.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE When CEPS took its turn. Pix Credit: Daily Graphic Four Ghanaian state departments and establishments have been invited to appear before the Commission of Inquiry established by President John Mahama to inquire into Judgement Debts Payments and other related matters, at its public sitting on Wednesday, September 11, 2013.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Health Service Workers’Union (HSWU) of the Trades Union of Ghana (TUC) has appealed to government to reconsider its position on the coverage of diseases as well as remittances to accredited service providers. According to the Union, the appeal stems from the exclusion of certain treatments and services by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which subjects Ghanaians to some financial difficulties.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Rotary signage in the heart of Abidjan Rotary District 9102,  comprising 66 clubs in Ghana, Togo, Benin and Niger, has held a   special breakfast meeting with 100 leading Chief Executive Officers of corporate Ghana. The Breakfast Meeting, which was held   Tuesday, 20th August   2013  at the Movenpick Hotel  Accra, was intended   for District 9102 to interact with business leaders in Ghana on the ideals of Rotary and also as a platform to introduce Rotary’s humanitarian   and sustainable service projects in the District.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE DHL Express, one of the world’s leading logistics companies, is supporting Little Sun, a solar light company, by moving free of freight charges, 4,000 lamps to Ethiopia and South Africa from Germany as part of Deutsche Post DHL’s activities around the United Nations World Environment Day. In a similar move, the courier company has also partnered with Solar without Borders, a Belgian non-profit organisation to get light to some countries in sub-Saharan Africa. After executing all kinds of solar projects from Guatemala to Mongolia, Solar without Borders have combined their expertise and developed the ‘Solar Kiosk’, a central solar installation per village where 100 self-developed solar lamps can be charged.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The African Development Bank and the Nigerian government will Monday, July 29, 2013, hold a high level policy dialogue on ‘Infrastructure and Structural Transformation in Nigeria’ in the federal capital of Abuja, a press statement from AfDB has said.   According to the release, the meeting, which is jointly organised by the AfDB, Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance, and the country’s National Planning Commission is expected examine ways in which Nigeria could accelerate the reduction of poverty and social inequality.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Prof. Kwame Karikari Panellists at a public forum Tuesday, July 9, 2013 in Accra, on the theme “The Courts, Free Speech and Judicial Accountability in a Democracy: Defining the Boundaries” expressed worry that the law on Contempt of the Court has not been clearly delineated in Ghana’s statute books and yet attracts punishment. Apart from not being clear to people what constitutes contempt of the court, it is also nebulous while the penalty is not prescribed anywhere, the panellists agreed.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE H.E.Ali Bongo Ondimba H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Gabonese Republic, has announced the creation of a $200 million fund, in association with the New York Forum Institute and with the support of the whole CEMAC region (Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo). The fund, called “Train My Generation”, was announced at the closing session of the New York Forum AFRICA, and will finance the creation of 50 professional schools that will train 100,000 students in 18-24 months, whereas the training programmes will last from 12 to 18 months. Announced at the biggest pan-African summit in the world, the fund will also be presented to the G8 Summit currently ongoing in the United Kingdom.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE AfDB President Donald Kaberuka African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Donald Kaberuka, today June 17, 2013, applauded the G8 for its emphasis on the issues around resource mobilisation through greater transparency in taxation of Africa’s natural resources. Speaking as G8 leaders began meeting in the United Kingdom, Kaberuka urged the international community to promote transparency, curb tax evasion and ensure more balanced contracts in the natural resources sector, saying transactions in the sector were very opaque. “It is only in this way that our countries will be able to find the financial resources they need to fund infrastructure and trade corridors, which until now have been very dependent on donor funding,” Kaberuka said.