Day: April 30, 2023

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Morocco’s U-17 Football Team Departs for Constantine to Participate in AFCON

Morocco’s national U-17 football team has departed the Rabat-Sale International Airport, heading to Algeria’s Constantine to participate in the U-17 African Cup of Nations (AFCON), Morocco’s Royal Football Federation (FRMF) confirmed on Friday.

Algeria allowed a direct travel route for the team on Thursday following pressure from FIFA, according to converging reports.

The competition will kick off on Saturday and will last until May 19. Morocco will play in Group B alongside Nigeria, Zambia, and South Africa.

FRMF official Mohamed Boudrika confirmed that the team had secured a direct travel route on Thursday.

The leadup to the tournament was overshadowed by doubts over the team’s participation due to the ongoing tensions with Algeria.

As with the latest African Nations Championship (CHAN), the FRMF had conditioned its U-17 team’s participation in the continental tournament on the possibility of traveling directly from Rabat to Constantine.

Morocco had ended up forfeiting their participation in the CHAN as Algeria denied the FRMF’s request for a direct travel route.

Algeria closed its airspace to Morocco after it severed its ties with its neighbor in 2021 after decades of tensions around Algerian support for the separatist Polisario Front.

This year marks the Moroccan U-17 team’s third appearance in the continental tournament. Their best performance came in 2013, when they finished fourth.

FRMF President Fouzi Lekjaa also held a meeting on Thursday night to ‘motivate’ the players, the federation said, adding that the senior national team’s technical staff led by Walid Regragui were also present.

Regragui stressed the importance of representing Morocco in continental competitions, urging the players to think of the group and not be selfish in order to achieve success at the tournament.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Emmanuel Shammah wins 2023 Aboakyer Cycling Race

Emmanuel Shammah Mensah of Accra-based Young Stars Cycling Club outpaced over 50 cyclists to win the 2023 edition of the Aboakyer Festival Cycling Race at Winneba, in the Central Region.

Mensah earned a cash prize of GHC1,500. He also won the overall best of the Inter-Mediate Spring, Long Escape Spring and the Leader of the Aboakyer Race Jerseys respectively.

The one-day 65km event started from the Accra Sports Stadium to Akotia junction and ended at the Winneba taxi rank.

In an interview with the GNA Sports, Mensah expressed joy for his first victory and pledged to win more medals in future.

He said, ‘I am very happy that today I was able to come out as a victor in the race, the preparations I have gone through wasn’t easy at all and luckily today God has counted my efforts’.

‘I am very proud of the win, and I want to use this opportunity to thank all those who supported me especially my coach, team captain and all the Young Stars Cycling riders for their belief in me.

‘This is my first win for an official race, and I want to continue so that in future I would be able to win an international competition for myself and my country.

‘For now, I don’t do any professional job, my focus is riding, and I would continue with my training when I get back to Accra for the upcoming competitions.’

Source: Ghana News Agency

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ECG will prosecute recalcitrant customers to the letter- Manager

Mr Paul Asibi Abariga, General Manager in charge of Prosecution, Electricity Company of Ghana, says the company will prosecute all defaulting customers over debts and non-payment of bills.

Mr Abariga said, ‘Pay all that is due ECG or else we would come after you. Recalcitrant customers would be prosecuted to the letter to set as an example to the other customers.’

He was speaking to the GNA after Daniel Kwakye, Hotel Operations Manager of Hillburi Hotel, Aburi appeared before an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly consuming power of GHS665,180.09 from November 30, 2020, to March 24, 2023.

Kwakye who has been charged with Intentionally interfering with suppliers Distribution system and stealing, pleaded not guilty.

The court presided over by Mr. Samuel Bright Acquah admitted Kwakye to bail in the sum of GHS50,000 with one surety.

Prosecution led by Mr Abariga said accused had made payments in respect of the debt owed by the Hotel and he (accused) has presented the receipts in court.

According to prosecution, they were ready with the disclosures for trial to commence.

The matter has therefore been adjourned to May 8.

The fact of Prosecution is that the complainant in the case is Stephen Bassie Taylor, a Technician Foreman at the Revenue Protection Unit of ECG, Head office.

Prosecution said on March 28, 2023, at about 1200noon, ECG Revenue Protection Auditing Team on a field exercise at Hillburi Hotel at Aburi detected an illegal connection of electricity power by the hospitality centre and same was reported to ECG office.

It said the complainant was then called upon to proceed to the scene and verify the ‘state of bypass.’

Prosecution said the photographs were taken to that effect and illegal source of power was disconnected.

It said on April 11, 2023, an official complaint was made against the accused person.

Prosecution the complainant accompanied by ECG police investigators pointed out ‘by passed underground cable.’

‘Four prepaid meters with identification numbers P63282580, P632910, P6329711, P6329712 were found installed at the premises. Investigation led to the arrest of the accused person.’

The prosecution said, ‘investigations revealed that, from November 30, 2020, to Mach 24, 2023 though there were four meters for power supply to the facility, the accused person who was in charge of the facility at the time by passed all these meters that supplied power directly and therefore making the facility consumer power illegality without paying for same.’

It said a bill of GHS 665, 180.09 was surcharged to the Hillburi Hotel management which a part of payment of GHCS365,180.08 has been made by the accused.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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CCTU Vice-Chancellor extols giant strides

Professor Joshua Danso Owusu-Sekyere, the outgoing Vice-Chancellor of Cape Coast Technical University (CCTU) has applauded the university’s commitment to academic excellence that had culminated in its recent giant academic strides.

Regardless of the institution’s enormous challenges, he said it had chalked enormous successes in academic innovation, technology, human resource, and infrastructure development.

Others are renewed partnerships, collaborations, and health improvements that had set the institution apart among its co-equals in Ghana and West Africa.

Prof. Owusu-Sekyere disclosed this at the 19th Congregation of the university, which saw a total of 1,280 students graduate with various Degrees and Diplomas.

Of the total, 336 students comprising 26.25 per cent graduated with Bachelor of Technology degrees as 525 students representing 41.02 per cent were also honoured with Higher National Diploma whilst 419 students making 32.73 per cent received Professional Diploma certificates.

Highlighting the gains, Prof. Owusu-Sekyere said the Department of Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship had developed an innovative and interdisciplinary curriculum aimed at enhancing practical knowledge and employable skills in the field of entrepreneurship and agribusiness.

It involved the establishment of a Business Incubation Centre, which provides students with the opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge in a practical setting through support, planning, and tools to succeed.

Through that, he said the Department of Construction Technology and Management had won a GHS1.3 million grant from the Ghana Skills Development Fund to aid their activities.

Relatedly, he said the Engineering Design and Innovation Centre had also commenced its novel ECORIDE Project, which seeks to offer CCTU students and staff an environmentally friendly and commercially viable transportation system.

It seeks to provide an alternative means of transportation while serving as a source of internally generated funds to the University.

In addition, work had began on the ECOBUS project-a mobile classroom for experiential learning with a conference room on wheels and a standby generator.

It is equipped with solar panels and a battery bank system to supply energy to the bus for the lighting and powering of all electrical or electronic systems on the bus, and a charging centre for the solar trikes during power outages.

For agricultural innovation, Prof. Owusu-Sekyere said CCTU had started designing and fabricating equipment suitable for mechanizing the production and processing of commercial crops.

They include cowpea, soybeans, sugarcane, maize, carrot, and cabbage.

Furthermore, it had designed its first seed planter which he said was undergoing testing and evaluation to improve its functionalities to be unveiled this year.

Prof. Owusu-Sekyere said CCTU had embarked on an initiative to upgrade at least one innovative student project with commercial viability each year.

For that matter, CCTU has selected an automatic drink bottling machine designed and fabricated by Mechanical engineering students to be upgraded and powered by solar.

The equipment scheduled to be unveiled this year, will be useful to local drink makers in both urban and rural areas where electricity remained a challenge.

For the Department of Tourism Management, he said CCTU has also won a grant of GHS200.044.00 for the training of the staff and the purchase of various equipment for teaching support.

Prof Owusu-Sekyere said the institution had increased its programme offerings from 30 in 2019, to 70 and were duly accredited by the Ghana Education Commission (GTEC).

They include; two M-Tech, 22 four-year B-Tech, 14 B-Tech topup, 14 Higher National Diploma and 20 Diploma programmes.

For human resource development, he said 35 staff were persuing doctoral studies, six on MPhil programmes, 11 pursuing bachelor’s degrees and nine staff pursuing HND, among others.

For his part, Prof Harold Amonoo-Kuofi Council Chairman, advised the students to put their skills to good use and support their alma mater.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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We are a major contributor to financial inclusion – MTN Ghana

MTN Ghana says it has made major contributions to financial inclusion through its products and services, business start-ups and job creation.

It said its products and services had helped to unlock talents, businesses and sectors of the Ghanaian economy as the entity had grown from a telecommunications company to a technology one.

Madam Sylvia Otuo-Acheampong, Head, Product and Services, Mobile Money Limited, MTN in a plenary

session, said over 13 million Ghanaians were using mobile money and 140, 000 merchants using it for payment transactions.

‘We have about 15, 000 Point of Sales (POS) that accept mobile money nationwide, and we have around 240, 000 agents nationwide,’ she said.

Madam Sylvia Otuo-Acheampong was speaking at the company’s Business CTIO Roundtable Africa 2023 in Accra to alloe industry players discuss strategies and issues to strengthen the Fintech sector and businesses while creating value for customers.

Madam Otuo-Acheampong said: ‘One of the ways mobile money is also dealing with security is to create an ecosystem within an ecosystem where we do a thorough deep-diving in how to secure partners and customers so that even if one platform is affected it would not affect others.’

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), she said staff were always sensitised on fraudulent activities, adding that there were tools in to protect customer data.

‘We are collaborating with the security agencies to deal swiftly with fraud cases the moment it is detected so we can nip it in the bud, however, we need to do more education for our vulnerable customers not to share their pins,’ Madam Otuo-Acheampong said.

MTN currently has five platforms, the Mobile Money platform which renders Fintech solutions; Ayoba App that delivers digital services; Enterprise services that supports business start-ups; Network services and the African API marketplace with products like e-health and e-commerce.

Mr Dario Bianchi, Chief Digital Officer, MTN, said,

data privacy and cyber security were crucial to the industry and MTN had robustly designed their security key, adding that government, MTN and agencies must continue to collaborate against threats.

He told the GNA there were plans to give incentives to customers who use their Apps and in the next three months there could be some special bundles and promotions.

Mr Solomon Kofi Richardson, Director, Technical Services, National Information Technology Agency (NITA), said government had begun some measures and foundations to promote growth like the Digital Economic Policy at the Cabinet level for consideration.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Assembly, NGO to construct fence wall for Kpando Community Inclusive Special School

Kpando Municipal Assembly and Frank Foley Educational Support Fund (FFESF), a Non-governmental Organization (NGO) have jointly cut sod for the construction of a fence wall for Kpando Community Inclusive Special School (KCISS) at Kpando- Abanu in the Volta Region.

The move followed the presentation of forty (40) bags of cement by the Kpando Municipal Assembly to the school, towards the realisation of this objective.

The KCISS was established in the early 90s and is believed to be the least resourced of all the segregated special schools in the country in terms of infrastructure.

The most pressing need of the school amongst its tall infrastructural deficit is a fence wall, the absence of which resulted in the missing of two learners of the school some years ago, with another one getting drowned in the Volta Lake.

Speaking at the event, Mr Geoffrey Badasu the Municipal Chief Executive of Kpando, lauded the staff of the school and the Kpando- Abanu community for their sacrifices towards the upbringing of the learners at the special school, adding that, ‘the Good Lord is the only one that can reward you for your love and care for these unfortunate children.’

Mr Badasu reiterated the government’s commitment to supporting the school and gave the assurance that the Assembly would continue to assist in any way possible to better the lives of the learners.

The MCE reminded all who pledged to support the project, or the school should redeem such pledges saying ‘it is a serious business to want to support such a venture. It is better not to pledge to support these young ones than to do so and dishonour such a pledge,’ he said.

Mr Frank Foley, founder, and Executive Director of FFESF, noted that the role of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in the overall development of the country could not be over-emphasized.

He said the decision by his organization to collaborate with the Kpando Municipal Assembly and other stakeholders was borne out of the plight of the learners at the school.

Mr Foley bemoaned the lack of inclusion and discrimination against PWDs, including persistent exclusion from development programmes and funds, employment, health services, economic empowerment programmes as well as transport services, and called for a change in the status quo.

Mr Foley mentioned the renovation of the Hohoe Municipal Library in 2016, the construction of the Female and Juvenile Holding Centres (Cell) at Hohoe, roofing of the Hohoe R. C. Boys’ School as well as the donation of food items, provision of toiletries to the three special schools in Hohoe between 2019 and 2022, as some of the successes chalked since the inception of the Fund, some ten years ago.

Madam Hilda Amegatcher, the Kpando Municipal Director of Education, said, every child has the right to the same opportunities as others, regardless of the difficulties they face.

She said, children with special needs, like autism, down syndrome, cerebral palsy, behaviour and emotional disorders, among others, can participate in instruction and school life to a great extent when given the chance to do so.

Madam Amegatcher lauded the Assembly and the NGO for the initiative saying, ‘ it will go a long way to enables the children acquire knowledge in line with their unique needs and abilities with the help of Special Educators and well-equipped classrooms.’

Mr Michael Alayi, headteacher of the school, lamented the huge infrastructural deficit of the school.

He mentioned lack of boys’ and girls’ dormitories, an administration block, headmaster and teachers’ bungalows, classrooms, vocational training centers as well as a kitchen and dining hall complex, as the major challenges facing the school.

He appealed to individuals, NGOs, and other benevolent organizations across the country to come to the aid of the school in helping address these challenges going forward.

The Kpando Community Inclusive Special School was established in the early 90s and later absorbed into the public school system in the early part of the year 2000.

The school currently has a staff strength of 23, made up of 9 teaching and 14 non-teaching, and a learner population of 73.

Stakeholders, individuals, and invited guests who were present at the event made instant donations and pledges of cement and cash towards the initiative.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Juaben model STEM school to absorb about 10 Junior High Schools

A new Model Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) School under construction at Juaben in the Ashanti Region is set to absorb about 10 Junior High Schools (JHSs) when completed.

Funded by the Arab Development Bank, the school is one of five being constructed in the Ashanti Region as government pursues a new concept of JHS, which seeks to equip pupils at that level with 21st century skills.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister of Education who briefed the media on the new concept, said bringing JHSs in Juaben under one roof with well-equipped laboratories and other facilities was the way to go as a country to build a solid foundation for the education system.

He said if the concept was replicated across the country, it would not only cut down the cost of running schools, but also promote serene academic environment.

According to the Minister, the goal was to equip Junior High Schools in the country with facilities at the Senior High School (SHS) level to make pupils familiar with them as they progressed from the lower to higher secondary.

‘You cannot do 21st century education without putting the children in places where basic equipment and tools are made available to them,’ the Minister pointed out.

Exposing the children at that level to modern laboratory equipment, would make it easier for them to handle at the higher level and also hasten the learning process for improved outcomes, the Minister argued.

‘That is how you lift the weak middle to make sure you are putting the children in a situation where they have quality six-year secondary experience, which is the lower end before moving to the high school,’ he said

The Minister is on a four-day working visit to the Ashanti Region where he has been visiting selected Senior High Schools as well as project sites of ongoing educational infrastructure.

Accompanied by the Director-General of Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Eric Nkansah and heads of other agencies under the Ministry, Dr. Adutwum spent time in every school he visited to counsel students on academic progression and career development.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Over 7,000 students graduate from UDS

The University for Development Studies (UDS) has held its 23rd congregation with 7,072 students graduating with various degrees.

A total of 27 students graduated with PhDs, 261 graduated with master’s degrees while 6,784 were undergraduates.

Professor Seidu Al-hassan, Vice-chancellor of UDS, in his address said enrollments over the past five years had sharply increased and attributed it to the Free Senior High School Programme.

Professor Al-hassan said the University needed to improve on its infrastructure such as science laboratories, lecture halls, students’ accommodation, robust internet service amongst others to cater for the increased enrollment figures.

He appealed to the government, civil society organisations, and philanthropists to support the University to improve on academic facilities on its various campuses.

He said the University had recently established new schools and faculties, which would train more human resources to enhance socio-economic development of the country.

He mentioned the new schools, which included School of Business, School of Economics, School of Dentistry, Faculty of Law, and the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Alhaji Shani Ahassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, who delivered a speech on behalf of President Nana Akufo-Addo, said government was committed to expanding the use of modern technology in institutions, by establishing e-platforms for distance and virtual learning to ensure quality education in the country.

He gave assurance of government’s commitment to address the infrastructural challenges facing the University.

He entreated the graduands to accept National Service Scheme postings to wherever their services were needed to contribute to the country’s development.

Source: Ghana News Agency