Ghana TV News, 18.07.2010 | | | | News: 19.07.2010 Ghana International Airlines Shuts Offices * Source: Daily Guide | Ghana International Airlines (GIA) is just waiting for its landlord to close its offices in Accra since management of the company has been saddled with a huge rent.
The telephone lines of the company have been severed recently and the internet service could also be cut anytime soon. Aggrieved workers of the airline who spoke to CITI & BUSINESS GUIDE said the company was just hanging onto the last straw.
Government has decided not to fund its operations rendering management of the airline unable to pay salaries owed to its staff for about three months.
A more worrying aspect of this treatment meted out to the airline is that investors who expressed interest in helping the airline have been stopped from investing in its operations. Government’s release of funding to GIA in tranches has grossly affected its operations.
“GIA initially needed an original business start-up of $55 million, but Government provided $4.9 million while minority shareholders provided $2.1 million. Summarily, money invested into the business stood at $7 million, leaving a wide difference of $48 million.”
Management of the airline recently told the media there had been a significant cash flow challenge ever since the airline was started in 2005 and as a result of the manner in which the support to the airline was released; it has found it very difficult to execute the company’s business plan.
According to Sylvia Lawson, a management member of the airline, the previous government invested an amount of $46.7 million between January 2006 and December 2008, noting that $16 million was obtained from the Social Security & National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
In the case of the incumbent administration, she said it provided $16.6 million between January 2009 and April 2010, stressing that government had provided a total amount of $63.3 million to GIA.
She also revealed that GIA had a greater part of its market in the Ghanaian community in the UK and therefore such a development did not bode well for the airline and the Ghanaian economy. Aircraft owners and fuel providers have often seized the properties of the airline as a result of huge debts. | Ghana should invest in tourism sites- Diaspora Tours * Source: GNA | Accra, July 19, GNA - Mr Percy Amoah Gogoe, General Manager of Diaspora Tours, a tourist organisation has called on government to back the capital intensive efforts to promote the country's tourism potentials with infrastructural development to tourist sites.
He said it is a national sham for resources to be spent towards the wooing of tourists, when the attractions are under-developed.
Mr Gogoe, who made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Sunday said: 93A visit to the Mole and Kakum National Parks for instance reveals poor road network and general neglect of the two tourist attraction destinations."
He noted that hotel accommodation and other frontline tourist attractions in the country are too expensive.
"Most clients complain about expensive air fares that connect them to Ghana.
"There is also a general lack of promotion and marketing of the country's tourism potentials to foreigners."
Mr Gogoe asked traditional authorities to expose the rich cultural heritage of Ghana such as child naming ceremonies and festivals, to the outside world, since it could attract a number of tourists.
He asked government to encourage domestic tourism, saying 93what is the point in wooing tourism to Ghana when Ghanaians are apathetic to explore what is available to them".
Mr Gogoe also expressed dissatisfaction about the disparity in the tourism industry, explaining that the authorities in especially Europe and America, are only satisfied in visiting Africa and other developing nations to satisfy their curiosity, but when Africans express similar interest to explore their terrain there is always a stalemate. | Swedru residents crying for reconstruction of collapsed bridges * Source: GNA | Agona Swedru, July 19, GNA - Residents of the Agona Swedru Municipality include transport union executives, business people and traders have expressed concern about the difficulties they were going through following the collapse of the two bridges over River Akora a month ago.
Some of them said if the two bridges were not rehabilitated as soon as possible they might be compelled to abandon Swedru since their businesses were on the verge of collapse.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview Mr Mosie Otabil, Swedru Texaco branch No 2 Chairman of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, said the transport business had almost collapsed due to the break down of the bridges following a heavy downpour.
He said the situation had forced the Union to be divided into two groups, one operating at Swedru Chapel Square to handle vehicles from the Southern part of the town and passengers going to Winneba, Accra, Apam, Cape Coast and other parts of the Western Region.
The other group is operating from Texaco filling station to cater for passengers leaving Agona Swedru to Akim Oda, Bawjiase, Breman Asikuma, Kumasi and other towns at the northern part of Agona Swedru.
Mr Otabil said some drivers had taken the law into their own hands and were operating anyhow because of the absence of personnel of Motor Traffic and Transport Unit who cannot cross the bridges to discharge their duties.
He said the Texaco area, which is the heart of Swedru, needed a fire tender and police vehicles to protect life and property in case of fire outbreak and armed robbery because the two important institutions had been left at the other end of collapsed bridges.
Nana Yaw Fayah, Central Regional Chairman of the Progressive Transport Owners Association, said school children feared to cross the new swinging walk way temporally erected across the Akora River.
He appealed to the government and non governmental organization to assist the people of Agona Swedru and rehabilitate at least one of the collapsed bridges.
Alhaji Awudu Musah, a contractor, said the health of the people was in jeopardy, especially late in the night, since doctors cannot drive to attend to emergency cases at hospitals.
Ms Joyce Arthur, a trader, said traders paid huge amounts to porters who carried their wares across the broken down bridges to their stores and markets. | Under 2% of Ghanaian schools have access to ICT * Source: GNA | Cape Coast, July 19, GNA - The Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Dr Sam Jonah, on Saturday disclosed that as compared to Singapore's 100 per cent and Malaysia's 14.7 per cent, only 1.4 per cent of schools in Ghana had access to Information, Communication and Technology (ICT).
He therefore called for massive investment into ICT in the country's educational sector to help accelerate the nation's development process, calling on students to take the study of ICT seriously as it was a determining factor in the current job market.
Dr Jonah made the comparison when he delivered the keynote address at the Centenary Durbar and Awards day of Adisadel College in Cape Coast, at the weekend.
The durbar, which attracted a large number of people from all walks of life including, President Professor John Evans Atta Mills, Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, old boys and other personalities, was on the theme: "Projecting the Adisadel Spirit into the Next Century".
Dr Jonah called for exchange and outreach programmes between urban and rural Junior and Secondary Schools, as well as schools outside Ghana in the area of sports, drama and debate for exchange of ideas between the students, and also create a congenial environment for learning.
He bemoaned the inadequate infrastructure in the school and re-echoed calls for partnership support from the private sector, alumni of the school, as well as government to help correct the situation, saying, it would drastically reduce the financial burden of the school.
He also called for scholarship packages for financially deprived students in order to create equal opportunity for them to excel in life.
On the issue of extra classes organized for students by some teachers, Dr Jonah said it was unheard of in their days, yet they were able to excel.
He called on students not to rely on extra classes, but should rather study hard and pass their examinations once and for all.
President Mills who was presented with his portrait, was made an honorary old student of the school and was decorated with a badge.
Other personalities honoured included a former headmaster of the school, Mr Robert Thompson Orleans-Pobee who was made the centenary Santaclausian, Mr Kojo Yankah, President of the African University College of Communication, and Dr Jonah were decorated with badges for their contribution towards the development of the school. | | |
_____________________________________________________ ----- | - Ghana International Airlines Shuts Offices - Ghana should invest in tourism sites- Diaspora Tours - Swedru residents crying for reconstruction of collapsed bridges - Under 2% of Ghanaian schools have access to ICT | _________________________________ | Your Opinions | Have Your Say!
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