Nana Akufo Addo – NDC has Failed To Deliver On Its Promises

Kwabeng, August 30, GNA – The flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, says the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Government has failed to deliver on its campaign promises.

He said almost 20 months after the NDC led by Professor John Evan Atta Mills took office, little had been done to justify the Better Ghana promise he made to Ghanaians.

Nana Akufo Addo said the hardships Ghanaians were going through due to high increase in utility tariffs, was a clear indication that the government had failed.
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Ga and Adangbe people in Toronto (Canada) Celebrate Homowo 2010

August 21, 2010 at the Luna Ballroom in Toronto, Ga and Adagbe people in Toronto celebrated Homowo, a harvest festival celebrated by the Ga people from the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The Ga’s had the most beautiful dinner and dancing together, and celebrated with unity. Great work by the current Ga Adagme Association of Toronto and the current Ga Royals in Toronto.

Below are some of the images from the event. Pictures courtesy of GhanainToronto.com

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Ex-President Kufuor – Right Leadership Is Key To Africa’s Development

Johannesburg, Aug 12, GNA – Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has said nurturing of people to take up leadership positions in Africa was a prerequisite to the development of the continent.

“Leadership is the key to unraveling the problems of Africa. With the right leadership good policies would be enacted that will create the right condition for economic growth, respect of the rule of law and a conducive atmosphere for business to thrive,” he said.

A statement signed by his Spokesperson Mr Frank Agyekum said Former President Kufuor was speaking at the world launch of ‘Why Africa is Poor and What Africans can do about it,’ a 400-page book written by Dr Greg Mills, the Executive Director of the Brenthurst Foundation of the Oppenheimer and Son Group.
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West African Examination Council Has Released BECE Results

The West African Examination Council (WAEC), on Monday said it had released provisional results of the April 2010 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

A statement issued in Accra and signed by Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Principal Public Affairs Officer of WAEC, said that the results of various schools would be despatched through the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directors of Education.

It said that candidates might access their results online from tomorrow, Tuesday, August 3.

The statement said 1,075 candidates had their subject results cancelled while 76 candidates had their entire result cancelled.

The affected candidates were involved in various examination irregularities.

These include bringing foreign materials into the examination hall, seeking/receiving help from non-candidates such as invigilators, supervisors and tearing parts of their question papers and answer booklets and collusion.

President Mills Interacts With Ghanaians in Uganda

President John Evans Atta Mills on Tuesday said the Government would maintain the peace the nation enjoyed and would help her sister African nations to ensure that peace prevailed on the Continent.

He underscored peace as pre-requisite for development and condemned terrorists and advised people, who did not want peace, to disabuse their minds of using violence as the only way to resolving problems.

President Mills made the remark during an interaction with Ghanaians resident in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, where he attended the three-day 15th Summit of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, which discussed largely the way forward for African countries and how to counter terrorist attacks that were surfacing in parts of the Continent.

The meeting was planned to discuss the role of Governments in ensuring maternal, infant and child health in the development of the African Continent, but the discussion of peace and security took centre-stage alongside the main summit theme in the wake of two separate bomb attacks that rocked Kampala city two weeks prior to the Summit.
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Population and Housing Census To Cost GH¢70 Million

The two-week 2010 Population and Housing Census (PHC) scheduled for October is estimated to cost about GH¢70 million, Dr Grace Bediako, the Government Statistician, has said.

She said government had released funds for 60 per cent of the budget while development partners had pledged to support although there would be a gap of about GH¢20 million which had to be worked on.

Some of the development partners are UNFPA, UNICEF, DFID, CIDA and DANIDA.

Dr Bediako was speaking on the topic 93Population and Housing Census and the Role of the Media” at the launch of 2010 World Population Day under the theme 93Quality Data: A Tool for Effective Planning and Development”.
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Ghana Earned $1.6billion From Tourism Last Year

Ghana earned about 1.6 billion dollars from tourism as the fourth largest foreign exchange earner last year after gold, cocoa and remittances from Ghanaians resident abroad.

Mrs Zita Okaikoi, Minister of Tourism, said tourism contributed about 6.2 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year.

She was addressing a press conference on the two-day 2010 Ghana International Tourism Investment Forum (GITIF) scheduled for Accra from July 26-27.

The forum being organised as part of this year’s Emancipation Day celebration is under the theme: “Ghana-Time to Explore: The Role of the Investor in the Tourism Sector”.

Mrs Okaikoi said as a service sector, tourism was labour-intensive and a major job creator especially for young people, women and indigenous communities who host tourists and created direct and indirect employment to 260,000 Ghanaians in 2009.

She said third quarter investment report for 2009 indicated that out of new projects estimated at about 267.25 million dollars, investments in the tourism sector was 55.61 million the second after agriculture of 99.08 million dollars.
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Obama’s Visit Still Generates Huge American Interest

GNA – Ghana continues to attract huge American business interest a year after the visit of President Barack Obama, United States Embassy in Accra stated on Wednesday.

“The Embassy has seen a 100 per cent to 200 per cent increase in the number of inquiries from American businesses seeking to do business in Ghana.

“This month two new airline services were inaugurated by American flag carriers flying direct to Ghana, tripling the number of direct flights between our countries each week from 6 to 18, and tripling the numbers of ports of entry for Ghanaians taking direct flights to the US: New York, Washington, and Atlanta.
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Black Stars Ranked Seventh Best Team At 2010 FIFA World Cup

Johannesburg, July 8, GNA – Ghana’s Black Stars has been ranked the seventh best team at the ongoing South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The Stars, the only African team to advance past the group stage before they crashed to Uruguay at the quarter-finals, were ranked ahead of reigning and defending World Champions Italy and are also the only African team in the top 10.

The final standings of the competition was released by World soccer governing body, Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) on Thursday ahead of the third-place playoff and the grand finale on Sunday, 11 July.

Conspicuously missing from the standings are the first to fourth placed teams since the outcome of  the matches were unknown at the time of the release of the rankings with Spain, Netherlands, Germany and Uruguay expected to fill the vacuum later on.

Information gathered by GNA Sports from the FIFA Secretariat in Sandton has it that the standings was influenced by the performance of the respective teams including points haul from matches, goals scored, goals conceded and the general team conduct amongst others.

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First ‘Ghanaian’ elevated to British House of Lords

On July 1 2010, Paul Boateng, previously British High Commissioner to South Africa, a former British Member of Parliament for Brent South, a former British Cabinet Minister and Chief Treasury Secretary in the Blair government was elevated to the House of Lords as ‘Baron Boateng of Akyem and Wembly’ in recognition of his illustrious public service. Rt Hon Boateng was also a former UK minister in the Department of Health, a minister of State in the Home Office and Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Boateng has been a privy councilor to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II since 1998. He is a solicitor and barrister admitted in England & Wales (Gray’s Inn) and is involved in many charitable organizations including the Prince of Wales Trust and Feed the Hungry. Paul Boateng is the son of Rev Kweku Boateng, a minister in Nkrumah’s government. Also a Methodist minister, Paul remains engaged in many charitable and business activities to uplift the African image and forge better understanding among religious groups and between the UK and its former African colonies. Paul remains an inspiration to countless African youth in the Diaspora.

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