| News Home (Main Page) | | African Newspaper | | LATEST WORLD NEWS | | | | | NEWS ARCHIVE 2009 | | NEWS ARCHIVE 2008 | | NEWS ARCHIVE 2007 | | PHOTO REPORTS | | VIDEO REPORTS | | ARTS in GHANA | | Food & Drinks in Ghana | | Africa Cup 2008 | | Ghana Hotels | | Links / Websites | | Ghana Districts | | Ghana Tourism | | Ghana Classifieds | Names in Ghana | | | | * 05.02.2010 | Praso Health Directorate raises concern about teenage abortions * Source: GNA | Twifo Praso (C/R), Feb. 5, GNA - The medical director in charge of the Twifo Praso Government Hospital, Dr. John Benjamin Annan, has expressed concern about the rate at which teenage girls in the area carry out abortions with a particular birth control drug. He said last year his facility recorded 251 abortion cases and many of them were incomplete abortions with excessive bleeding and that two of the victims had their uterus perforated because they failed to seek medical attention on time.
Dr. Annan said this at the annual performance review meeting of the Twifo Praso District Health Directorate at Praso on Thursday. He said in 2008, 183 abortion cases were treated at the hospital as against 192 in 2007.
Dr Annan said he was pleased that due to vigorous education on air by health personnel and on home visits by health volunteers, supervised deliveries had increased and urged pregnant women to attend ante-natal clinics for supervision and care to prevent maternal and infant mortalities. On maternal mortality, he said of the 1,399 deliveries made at the hospital three mothers lost their lives as against two the previous year. Dr. Annan said anaemia and pneumonia cases had gone up in the district due to high malnutrition while malaria still tops the 10 deadly diseases at the hospital.
Dr. Annan appealed for the posting of more health personnel particularly, a doctor, nurses, pharmacist and an administrator to the district to beef up the staff strength which he said was inadequate. Dr. Wilberforce Adade, the District Director of Health Services, abhorred the practice where the National health Insurance Scheme delayed in reimbursing claims to health facilities and the arbitrarily slashing of claims of some facilities without any explanations. He said the NHIS owes the district over one million Ghana cedis and called for immediate payment to keep the facilities running. He also expressed worry about the acute shortage of health professionals in the district, stating that there was only one medical doctor at the Praso Hospital that renders 24-hour service while many of the midwives were aging and nearing retirement and therefore needed to be replaced.
Dr Adade said the directorate with the assistance of the district assembly had built four new Community based Health planning and Services (CHPS) compounds in addition to the existing four and commended the World Vision (WV) for procuring some health equipment to facilitate their work. He said the government would soon build a new hospital at Daamang. | | | | ______________________ |
| * * * * * Please note: Some links may open in a new window! 
| LATEST GHANA NEWS Friday, 5 February 2010 WEEK 05 - 2010 |
| * Friday, 5 February 2010 | Akufo-Addo Denies Allegation * Source: Signed: Herbert Krapa Press Aide | 
(c) ghana-net.com | The office of Nana Akufo-Addo’s attention has been drawn to a certain malicious allegation that was made on a radio program by a worker of Akosombo Textiles Limited on February 4, 2010, to the effect that some workers of the company have been laid off because Nana Akufo-Addo has refused to pay for printed wax that was designed for him during the 2008 electioneering campaign.
We wish to state categorically that no such order was made by Nana Akufo-Addo’s 2008 campaign team and that this is a total fabrication meant to dent the hard won reputation of Nana Akufo-Addo.
We are informed also that the Distribution department of ATL has since openly denied the allegation, stating that no such order was made by Nana Akufo-Addo from the factory.
We hope to see a new culture in Ghana, where the mass media will not serve as a mere conveyor belt of any allegation, however false and malicious. | | > BACK to TOP < | More support for taxes on packaged water in Ghana * Source: GNA | Accra, Feb. 5, GNA - Stakeholders in the water and sanitation sectors on Friday expressed support for the proposed 20 per cent tax on packaged water.
At a workshop to discuss government's budgetary allocation for the sector, participants agreed that there was the need for more funding in the sector to enable them to provide efficient water and sanitation services to all people.
Mr Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, General Manager, Communications at Aqua Vitens Rand Limited, Operators of Ghana Water Company Limited, suggested that the tax should not only be on bottled water but also on sachet water since the latter was produced more and caused more environmental problems. He said some percentage of the tax should be used for development in the water and sanitation sectors to ensure better provision of services.
A Bill that approved a 20 per cent 'ad valorem' tax on bottled and packaged water has generated heated debate as to whether it includes sachet water. The Ministry of Finance has set up a technical committee to look at the development.
Mr Sakyi-Addo pointed out that the water sector especially needed more investment in terms of infrastructure and equipment, and stressed that there was the need for increased funding in the sector. Other participants at the workshop agreed that the tax should be implemented and some suggested that a greater chunk of money that accrued from such taxes should be used mainly for development in the water sector.
The workshop was organized by GrassRoots Africa, a non-governmental organization that advocates improved water and sanitation services especially in rural areas, to discuss possible funding options for the development of the sector.
Mr Rudolf Amenga-Etego, Executive Director of GrassRoots Africa, said the lack of money in the sector was the biggest obstacle that hindered the implementation of policies that could help Ghana to achieve improved services in the water and sanitation sectors. | | > BACK to TOP < | Akosombo Textiles may resume full operation on Monday * Source: GNA | Accra, Feb. 5, GNA - Akosombo Textiles Limited said on Friday that it would resume full operation from Monday when expected consignments of residual fuel oil (black oil) is supplied to the factory.
"Management would like to stress that the stoppage of production is entirely due to shortage of black oil and that we are anticipating that the problems with supply from Tema oil Refinery will be resolved to allow continuous operation," it said in a statement issued in Accra. It said it received sufficient supplies of black oil on Thursday from private oil marketing companies to allow the factory to resume production for two days only.
The statement said assurances had been obtained from other private oil marketing companies for additional supplies which, if received, would enable production to continue for a further one week. Under these circumstances, workers in the Printing and Dyeing Departments were asked to report for work on Friday.
"If the expected consignments are received by Saturday, February 6, the factory will resume full operation as from Monday, February 8, when workers in our Spinning and Weaving Departments will be asked to report for work," the statement added. | | > BACK to TOP < | Many children of school going-age not in the classrooms * Source: GNA | Koforidua, Feb 5, GNA - Many children still roam the streets of Koforidua selling during school hours in spite of the Capitation Grant and other educational intervention by government to ensure that every child of school going age has access to education.
Only at Koforidua? (c) ghana-net.com
These children sell sachet water, oranges, biscuits, plantain chips, coconuts and other vegetables in the markets, lorry parks and from office to office in the New Juaben Municipality.
Ghana News Agency has interacted with at least 35 children who expressed their desire to go to school but had been asked by their parents or guardians to sell to be able to provide for their needs in school. Some of the children between the ages of nine and 15 years had travelled from nearby towns such as Tafo, Nkurakan, Oyoko and Suhyen to sell those items to enable them pay for school levy, or to buy footwear or a book for school.
Kofi Mensah 12, a coconut seller, who had come from Tafo told GNA that he was living with his paternal grandmother and for the past two weeks had been following his elder brother who sells coconut to enable him buy books needed for school. He said although the grandmother was a palm oil producer she asked him to also sell to provide for some of his needs hence the decision to come to Koforidua to sell coconuts.
Rita Owusu, 13, and a class six pupil who sells oranges told, said she stays with her parents and that she was the first of six children. She said her mother had asked her to sell oranges to raise some money to support the family income. Rita said she provided for all her school needs from the trade and so when there was no money she had to stay out of school. When the Regional Director of the Department of Children, Mr Charles Dontoh, was contacted on the issue he said the Children's Act stipulated that every child of school going age must have access to school without any hindrance. He said equally the law obliged all parents as well as guardians to provide the needs of their children, especially those that border on education so that they did not deny the children their right to at least basic education. Mr Dontoh quoted section 15 of the Children's Act and said any person who contravened it was liable to a court fine not exceeding GHC 500 or a jail term of not more than six months. He said for reasons of poverty, government had intervened with the capitation grant, free uniforms and feeding and therefore parents had no excuse to use their children for trading at the expense of schooling. Mr Dontoh said his outfit had embarked on education on the need for parents to send their children to school. He appealed to the public to report any parent who deliberately refuses to send her ward to school to the nearest police station. | | | | | > BACK to TOP < |
_____________________________________________________ ----- | | | Friday, 5 February 2010 | - Akufo-Addo Denies Allegation - More support for taxes on packaged water in Ghana - Akosombo Textiles may resume full operation on Monday - Many children of school going-age not in the classrooms - Biometric passports put on hold - Praso Health Directorate raises concern about teenage abortions | | | Archived News for 2010 | Go to 06.02.2010 Go to 04.02.2010 Go to 03.02.2010 Go to 02.02.2010 Go to 01.02.2010 Go to 31.01.2010 Go to 30.01.2010 Go to 29.01.2010 | | Your REPORT Your STORIES * Your PHOTOS PUBLISH NOW! | 
| | All about the Ghana Election 2008 | | | | * 05.02.2010 | Biometric passports put on hold * Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana | The Passports Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration says its plan to begin the issuance of biometric passports to Ghanaians has been put on hold until the heavy backlog of passports applications currently at the office has been cleared. 
It has, therefore, set March 23, 2010, as the new date to begin the sale of new forms for the biometric passports, which should have begun on Wednesday.
The period will also be used to replace all hand-written passports being held by Ghanaians abroad with appropriate booklets.
Under the schedule for the introduction of the biometric passports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration was to release the new forms from January 25, 2010, while the launch was to take place on Wednesday.
Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, the Foreign Minister, however, told the Daily Graphic that the date for the sale of the forms had to be changed to coincide with the launch date to avoid the situation where applicants would have to wait till the launch.
Already the Controller and Accountant-General's Department (CAGD) has taken delivery of the application forms and 750,000 biometric passport booklets ready for the launch.
Alhaji Mumuni said the postponement of the launch date was also to ensure the maturity of the Legislative Instrument currently before Parliament for the new fees to be charged.
He explained further that it also became obvious that the launch of the biometric passports was going to create problems for the issuing authority, since quite a number of applications were still in their possession.
He said until the biometric passports will be launched on March 23, 2010, persons who urgently required passports to travel could apply for the present generation of passports.
Reacting to concerns of the quality of the biometric passport, Alhaji Mumuni said a lot of checks had been done on it and explained that the design was approved by a stakeholders committee made up of representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance, National Security, Bureau of National Investigations, the police, Ghana Immigration Service and the Controller and Accountant-General's Department.
Alhaji Mumuni said the company printing the biometric passport booklets was not new to the business as it currently printed those of Liberia.
He said the Attorney-General's Department had also given the company a clean bill of health after the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigated it for a series of allegations.
According to the minister, the government could not abrogate the contract because the government had already paid out £5 million of the entire project cost to the company. He referred the Daily Graphic to an advertisement in the March 3, 2007 edition of the Ghanaian Times which solicited comments on the award of the contract to the company.
He said it was after no adverse comments were submitted that the government signed the contract.
Alhaji Mumuni said the company had also kept to its timetable and referred the Daily Graphic to a letter written by the company on March 28, 2008, complaining about the delay in the implementation schedule.
The biometric passport will incorporate features such as a watermark paper, holographic foil, invisible and visible features and digital photographs such as the Supreme Court, Parliament House and the adinkra symbols and, therefore, make it difficult to forge and also to prevent multiple acquisition.
Alhaji Mumuni said Ghana's missions in London, Rome, Berlin and Washington had been identified to also issue the biometric passports until a time that it would be extended to other missions.
|
|
|