Day: May 15, 2023

Martin Lesiba, a South African tour guide, has called on tourists across the globe to visit the Pilanesberg National Park in Northwest Province of the country as their choice destination for safari exploration.

Lesiba said this while he guided a group of tourists and journalists around the park on Saturday.

According to him, the game reserve is known as the home for the “Big 5”- Elephants, Rhinos, Lions, Buffaloes and Leopards.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tour was an extension of the just-concluded Africa’s Travel Indaba expo, to familiarise tourists with destination sites across the country.

The tour guide said the park remained tourists’ delight because of its untamed African lanscape.

According to him, the park attracts huge number of local and international tourists due to its beautiful landscape, lush-green vegetation, man-made lake and other fauna and floral features.

He explained that tourists were not allowed to walk through the park because of the wild animals, but could be explored in a 200 kilometre drive.

“This is the fourth largest park in South Africa, it was originally owned by four of the numerous local tribes in the Northwest Province.

“We have over 360 bird species and 7,000 animals in this park.

“Here, in South Africa, poaching is a great offence and it attracts 30 years imprisonment for whoever engages in such ilegal activity,” he said.

Lesiba, who gave a brief history of the park, said it was named after a Tswana Chief, with the name “Pilane”.

According to him, the park also accommodates various medicinal plants and trees, among which is the buffalo thorn.

“The leaves and roots of the buffalo thorn are used medically and magically for pain relief, respiratory complaints and skin infections.

“It is also used for chest and stomach disorder. The leaf, if crushed could be used to stop bleeding.

“Certain tribes here believe the tree is safe to use as shelter against lightning.

“Aside the buffalo thorn, we have lots of other plants which have therapeutic effects. Indeed nature is beautiful,” he said.

NAN also reports that the tour was extended to Mphebatho Cultural Museum where the history of the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela people of the northwest province of South Africa was relayed.

In adventurous mood, tourists in quad-bikes moved through the Muruleng Leeto Kgolo villages, with some off-road experience and mountainous tarred roads.

There was also a stop at the first non-missionary school within the province.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Katsina State’s governor-elect, Dr Dikko Radda has assured the people of the state that he will run a transparent, fair and open-door government.

The governor-elect also assured the people of Katsina State that he would block all leakages and waste of the state’s commonwealth

Radda gave the assurances at a dinner held in his honour on Sunday in Abuja by Mr Olawale Fasanya Director-General of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).

The dinner was also in honour of Alhaji Abdullahi Ahmed, lawmaker-elect for Musawa/Matazu federal constituency.

“I will do everything possible to make the lives of the people of Katsina State better and I want to operate an open and transparent government.

“I will block all leakages that may arise from some of the abnormalities that are happening in the state,’’ Radda said.

The incoming governor solicited the support of the Federal Government, development partners, other stakeholders and the people of Katsina State to ensure that his administration succeeds.

“I want you to join hands with me to develop the people and to manage the resources of the state.

“We cannot succeed without the support of development partners and we won’t succeed without the support of the Federal Government and we will be very friendly towards them,’’ he said.

Radda, who described his victory at the March 18 poll as a difficult task prayed that God would guide him to steer the affairs of the state successfully.

“Initially, I thought I could do it easily but as the time gets closer I start to develop fear, but I ask God Almighty to guide us.

“I prayed to God that if I won’t deliver, may He give it to the person that can deliver and God gave it to me, so it is a challenge,’’ Radda said.

Radda of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the governorship election in Katsina State with 859,892 votes.

He defeated his closest rival, Sen. Yakubu Lado-Danmarke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 486,620 votes by 373,272 votes.

Earlier, Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investments, Amb. Mariam Katagum, commended Radda for promoting the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) during his tenure as its director-general.

She said Radda showed outstanding performance when he worked with her to review Federal Government’s MSME policy and urged him to transform Katsina State into an industrial hub.

In her remarks, Director, Agric-Business Development Department of SMEDAN, Hajiya Safiya Balla, described Radda as a leader par excellence who displayed professionalism in the discharge of his duties.

“Radda is a very humble and honest person with great tolerance for people.

“He could be tired but be smiling and be attending to people. He doesn’t wear his powers on his shoulders and he is a very understanding and open-minded person,’’ she said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Dr Adwoa Kwegyiriba, Principal of the St Francis College of Education (FRANCO), Hohoe, has said female admissions to the College’s 2022/2023 academic year satisfied its objective of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Strategic Plan of Gender Parity Attainment of 50:50.

The College has a total number of 160 female students out of 310 admitted students for the 2022/2023 academic year representing 51.6 per cent as against 150 male students representing 48.4 per cent.

Dr Kwegyiriba in her address during the College’s 16th Matriculation said they received 2,716 applications out of which 2,231 qualified for admission but the College was able to admit only 310 representing 13.8 per cent of qualified applicants.

She said out of the admitted students, 295 opted for the Junior High School (JHS) Education Programme representing 95.16 per cent and 15 students for Primary Education representing 4.83 per cent while 165 students were offering Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics-related programmes.

Dr Kwegyiriba said Franco had a well-planned environment with beautiful scenery and infrastructure and notwithstanding, management was making frantic efforts to improve the infrastructural development.

‘Currently, a 300 Capacity Hostel Project for students is ongoing as an initiative by Government through GTEC. Our Library is also in the transformational process to an ultra-modern one.’

She said the College was working on an e-library that would support and enhance research activities, had resourced its Computer Laboratory with over 50 computers and lecture halls undergoing a facelift with some renovations which would soon be well-furnished to make them more conducive for learning.

Dr Kwegyiriba said discipline was one of the core values of the College and admonished the new students to obey the authorities, staff, as well as their fellow students and added that any act of indiscipline would not be tolerated.

She said the College had built good relations with the Hohoe community, strived to live peacefully with members of the community and would not expect any of the new students to tarnish the good image and reputation by engaging in acts such as fighting and smoking.

Professor James Flolu, Chairman of Governing Council of the Ho Technical University, said it was the expectation that the new students would become professionals in future and contribute their quota to the state and serve as role models.

He urged them to be prepared to become responsible, self-reliant, independent individuals and take responsibility for their decisions and academic performance to make their standard of learning comparable to the University of Cape Coast.

Professor Flolu urged the staff to confront the new students in their approach and attitude to teaching and introduce new, challenging methods in imbibing knowledge in them.

Ms Akakpo-Mawutor Esther, Master Lawrence Soglo and Ms Addo Abigail presenting the matriculants’ expectations addressed on behalf of the new students, noted that they expected the College to equip them with the necessary and relevant pedagogical skills of a 21st-century facilitator.

They said they expected that the College would assist them to acquire in-depth content knowledge through the help of experienced and hardworking tutors, a well-equipped library, a robust computer laboratory and services from the Guidance and Counseling, Quality Assurance and the Academic Affairs Units.

They also said they were expectant that the College would make them more technologically inclined and organize seminars, conferences, and webinars for them to witness.

The new students swore the matriculation oath and took a declaration of obedience.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has applauded the decision of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to review the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme and replace it with the aggregator and out-grower model under the ‘Enhanced PFJ’.

PFAG said there were proven records of out-grower models that were delivering value for farmers when properly implemented, adding ‘A value chain approach, which supports mechanisation, extension services, warehousing and marketing services should be aggressively pursued against an approach that focuses mainly on fertilizer and seeds.’

Dr Charles Nyaaba, Executive Director of PFAG gave applause when he presented the findings of an assessment of experiences of value chain actors during a stakeholders’ validation workshop on the 2022 implementation of the PFJ in Tamale.

The assessment was to provide positive feedback to help improve the PFJ’s implementation going forward.

The assessment found high prices of PFJ fertilizer and seeds in 2022 compelling 85 per cent of respondents to reduce their farm sizes, 89 per cent to shift from the cultivation of food crops to tree crops while 15 per cent abandoned farming completely for non-farm activities.

It also found over 80 per cent of respondents perceived the PFJ fertilizer and seeds as of inferior quality while only 15 per cent claimed the quality to be good.

The assessment, on whether PFJ should continue or not, found majority wanted the PFJ to be scrapped and a proper support system given to farmers, adding ‘The inability of the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate to hold companies delivering poor quality inputs when evidence is available, led to dwindling interest of farmers on the PFJ inputs.’

It said, ‘This contributed to escalating food prices for consumers and industry and eventual collapse of over 70 per cent of poultry farms in the country.’

The PFAG, while, supporting MoFA to succeed, cautioned it to be watchful of opportunists and corrupt individuals, who could hijack the programme in the name of farmers leading to the failure of the project.

Mr Sayibu Morrison, a farmer from Mion District in the Northern Region, throwing more light on the issues, lamented the high cost of PFJ inputs last year and said it limited the farm sizes of most smallholder farmers.

He said ‘The last year’s situation was unpleasant one. There were no differences in prices between the open market and PFJ fertilizer and yet some companies got paid. Most farmers could not afford the expensive fertilizer and had to reduce their farm sizes.’

Hajia Abiba Baako, a farmer from Saboba District in the Northern Region complained about the inability of farmers in the district to access the PFJ inputs due to the bad nature of the roads and the refusal of input dealers to travel that far due to low-profit margins.

She urged the government to improve the state of roads in rural areas to enable farmers to receive input at the right time.

Mr Marifah Abdul, a farmer from Sissala East in the Upper West Region said the quality of inputs under the PFJ should be a matter of concern, as farmers no longer had confidence in any PFJ fertilizer.

He said ‘Last year, there was PFJ fertilizer everywhere, but farmers were not interested in it due to experiences of poor quality. I hope the government will listen to our concerns and do the needful.’

While supporting MoFA to succeed with the Enhanced PFJ, stakeholders during the workshop expressed fears about the possible political hijacking of the programme and called for broader stakeholder consultations to develop transparent and efficient models that would deliver optimum results for farmers leading to increased food production and lower prices for consumers.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Norsaac, a civil society organsation, has engaged Deans of Coordinating Directors of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) as part of efforts to co-create a process to carry out joint implementation of the agenda 55 across the northern part of the country.

Deans of Coordinating Directors from the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Savannah Regions attended the day’s meeting, which was held in Tamale.

Hajia Hafsatu Sey Sumani, Head of Programmes and Policy Influencing at Norsaac, speaking at the meeting, said it was also ‘To let our Deans of Coordinating Directors appreciate our Agenda 55 initiative where we want to see how they implement policies that respond to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) effectively.’

Hajia Sumani added that ‘So, it is about the implementation of policies that we want to see, and in this one, we want to see how the MMDAs are able to even assess themselves and peer review on the strategies they are using to assess themselves.’

Norsaac, with support from OXFAM in Ghana launched the agenda 55 in November 2022 to co-create with government an annual evidence generation platform on protecting girls against SGBV.

The agenda 55 seeks to facilitate the sharing of experiences including successes, challenges and lessons learned with a view to accelerating the implementation of policies that address SGBV in all the 55 MMDAs in the five regions in the northern part of the country.

It also seeks to strengthen implementation of policies, institutions of government and to mobilise multi-stakeholder support and partnerships in response to the Sustainable Development Goals.

During the meeting, the Deans of Coordinating Directors identified child defilement, domestic violence, especially against women, early marriages and betrothal, child abuse and child prostitution as some key issues within their areas that needed to be addressed.

Hajia Sumani said ‘The Agenda 55 is voluntary, and so, we are expecting that the Leadership of Coordinating Directors will share the information with other Coordinating Directors to able to come on board.’

She said ‘With this programme, we are also expecting that it reflects at the national level, and so, we are gradually going to use this concept to see how we respond to SGBV. In this part of the country, SGBV issues are increasingly scaring us.’

The Deans of Coordinating Directors gave assurance of sharing the information on Agenda 55 with their colleagues and reviving their inter-sectorial coordinating committees to ensure effective implementation of the agenda 55 within their areas.

Alhaji Mohammed Rufai, Savelugu Municipal Coordinating Director, who is also Dean of Coordinating Directors in the Northern Region, commended Norsaac for initiating the agenda 55, saying its objectives were in line with the responsibilities of the MMDAs.

He said MMDAs had plans to address issues of SGBV but lack of funds hampered implementation and expressed optimism that the implementation of the Agenda 55 would help to reverse the trend.

Pognaa Fati Issaka Koray, Wa Municipal Coordinating Director, who is also Dean of Coordinating Directors in the Upper West Region, said it was a good project, which would be of immense benefit to the MMDAs and the people.

Source: Ghana News Agency