Toast Selects FreedomPay as its Preferred Payments Partner for Global Enterprise Merchants

Toast will now enable enterprise merchants to combine FreedomPay’s best-in-class global Commerce Platform with its leading restaurant digital platform

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FreedomPay, the world’s leading independent commerce platform and Toast, the all-in-one digital platform built for the entire restaurant community, signed a partnership agreement making FreedomPay Toast’s preferred payments gateway partner for select enterprise brands.

Toast will be able to offer its cloud-based digital platform for restaurants to leading enterprise merchants in the U.S. and Canada who are on the award-winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform.

Kelly Esten, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise at Toast stated: “As the restaurant industry rapidly adapts to new service models, Toast continues to deliver the industry’s trusted digital platform to help restaurants of all sizes and types—including franchisees—drive profitability, create the streamlined dining experiences guests expect, and make managing food service operations across properties easier than ever. We look forward to partnering with FreedomPay as we drive our enterprise expansion.”

FreedomPay Senior Vice President, Sales & Digital Development Nate Ware added: “This exciting collaboration between FreedomPay and Toast delivers advanced capabilities to large merchants. We are quite simply ‘unleashing the power of pay’ to thousands more businesses to help support Toast’s growth across enterprise level merchant solutions.”

FreedomPay is one of the world’s fastest growing Fintechs, innovating and transforming commerce to Next Level™ payment solutions. FreedomPay is aggressively expanding in new markets including the Middle East, South America, Africa and APAC. FreedomPay has recently been named one of the Fastest Growing FinTechs to Watch in 2022 and is a finalist for the Best Payment System in the PayTech Awards, London 2023.

FreedomPay and Toast will be exhibiting together at HITEC in Toronto, June 26-29. Visit booth 516/518 to learn more.

About FreedomPay
FreedomPay’s Next Level Commerce™ platform transforms existing payment systems and processes from legacy to leading edge. As the premier choice for many of the largest companies across the globe in retail, hospitality, lodging, gaming, sports and entertainment, foodservice, education, healthcare and financial services, FreedomPay’s technology has been purposely built to deliver rock solid performance in the highly complex environment of global commerce. The company maintains a world-class security environment and was first to earn the coveted validation by the PCI Security Standards Council against Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE/EMV) standard in North America. FreedomPay’s robust solutions across payments, security, identity, and data analytics are available in-store, online and on-mobile and are supported by rapid API adoption. The award winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform operates on a single, unified technology stack across multiple continents allowing enterprises to deliver an innovative Next Level experience on a global scale. www.freedompay.com

Jennifer Tayebi
Hill+Knowlton Strategies for FreedomPay
+1 734 395 0780
jennifer.tayebi@hkstrategies.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8856540

Dominica Ranks as Safest Country in the Caribbean in 2023 World Citizenship Report: CS Global Partners

London, June 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Commonwealth of Dominica has been crowned as the safest place in the Caribbean in the second annual World Citizenship Report published by the world’s leading government advisory and marketing firm, CS Global Partners.

Using data from the World Citizenship Index (WCI), the World Citizenship Report’s data-driven tool which measures 188 countries across five motivators most relevant to the mass affluent, the Nature Isle topped the Safety and Security pillar in the region with a score of 76.9, bringing it to the 38th safest place in the international arena.

In the Caribbean, Grenada (46), St Kitts and Nevis (48), Saint Lucia (50) and Antigua and Barbuda (52) followed Dominica’s safety and security rank of 38. Iceland (1), New Zealand (2) and Switzerland (3) kept their top rankings globally for the second year in a row, while economic giants like the US (65) and China (111) trailed much further behind Dominica.

Dominica continues to place emphasis on physical safety, rule of law, and political stability and ranks high in categories like voice and accountability, where citizens feel empowered to hold leaders accountable to their demands and needs.

The post-pandemic return to ‘normal’ has been marred by generational inflation, broader macroeconomic volatility as well as the geopolitical instability stemming from the crisis in Ukraine – which has threatened to upend the ‘Long Peace’ enjoyed since the end of WWII.

The resultant supply chain, energy, and political pressures have pushed the global economy closer to a recession and are forcing governments to enact monetary and fiscal policy changes that are pressurising households the world over. Perhaps more importantly, the upheaval of the last two years that has engendered both restrictions on local and international movement and increased economic headwinds have compelled the world’s citizens to reappraise their relationship with their own governments with respect to freedom, safety, and opportunity.

The mass affluent and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) are looking for alternative destinations as a bolt-hole for future crises in countries that offer the freedoms that are lacking in their home nations.

With many parts of the world also experiencing an uptick in violent crime due to ineffective policies and rising inequality, smaller jurisdictions in particular are increasingly prioritising efforts to ensure the rule of law for all as part of efforts to boost tourism and attract digital nomads. In the Caribbean for example, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data shows that St Kitts and Nevis saw a 50 per cent reduction in its average crime statistics over the past five years resulting in it being ranked among the safest islands to visit in 2023 by well-known tourist guide “Travellers Worldwide”.

Caribbean nations that offer investment migration schemes such as Dominica, offer global citizens access to some of the best travel and economic markets in the world.

Dominica began welcoming foreign nationals to obtain citizenship in 1993. The island remains politically and economically stable, with a low crime rate and rich investment opportunities.

Chantal Mabanga
CS Global Partners
+44 (0) 207 318 4343
Chantal.Mabanga@csglobalpartners.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8856088

Cohere Lança Série C de US$270 Milhões para Levar IA Geradora para Empresas

Financiamento irá acelerar a posição de liderança da Cohere e proporcionar para as empresas a capacidade da IA na plataforma de nuvem de preferida, para a manutenção dos dados privados e seguros

SÃO FRANCISCO e TORONTO, June 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  A Cohere, principal plataforma de IA para empresas, anunciou hoje a disponibilização de novo capital no valor de US$270 Milhões como parte de seu financiamento da Série C. A Inovia Capital liderou a rodada, com participação adicional de um grupo diversificado de investidores institucionais e estratégicos globais, incluindo NVIDIA, Oracle, Salesforce Ventures, DTCP, Mirae Asset, Schroders Capital, SentinelOne, Thomvest Ventures e retorno do investidor Index Ventures. Este grupo representa investidores dos EUA, Canadá, Coreia, Reino Unido e Alemanha, e inclui algumas das empresas de tecnologia mais respeitadas do mundo.

“A IA irá impulsionar a próxima década de sucesso nos negócios”, disse Aidan Gomez, CEO e cofundador da Cohere. “Com a empolgação inicial com a IA generativa se transformando em novas maneiras de acelerar os negócios, as empresas estão procurando a Cohere para posicioná-las para o sucesso em uma nova era da tecnologia. A próxima fase dos produtos e serviços de IA irá revolucionar os negócios e estamos prontos para liderar o caminho.”

“Estamos no início de uma nova era impulsionada pela computação acelerada e IA generativa”, disse Jensen Huang, fundador e CEO da NVIDIA. “A equipe da Cohere contribuiu fundamentalmente para a IA generativa. Seu serviço irá ajudar empresas em todo o mundo a aproveitar esses recursos para automatizar e acelerar.”

IA Criada para Empresas
A plataforma de IA da Cohere foi projetada exclusivamente para empresas, oferecendo opções de implantação seguras de dados nos ambientes de nuvem, personalização e suporte ao cliente existentes das empresas. A plataforma inclui também um ecossistema de parceiros de consultoria e integradores de sistemas para ajudar as empresas em qualquer estágio de sua jornada para a IA.

A suíte de IA corporativa da Cohere é independente da nuvem, oferecendo os mais altos níveis de flexibilidade e privacidade de dados. A plataforma foi desenvolvida para estar disponível em todos os provedores de nuvem, implantada dentro do ambiente de nuvem existente de um cliente, nuvem privada virtual (VPC) ou até mesmo no local, para atender às empresas onde seus dados estão abrigados. Isso capacita as empresas a transformar produtos existentes e criar a próxima geração de soluções inovadoras que definem a era, mantendo seus dados seguros.

“Temos por objetivo investir em grandes empreendedores que tenham grandes missões e ambições em todo o mundo”, disse Steve Woods, CTO e sócio da Inovia Capital. “Poucas ideias podem mudar fundamentalmente a sociedade e agregar mais valor à humanidade. Esta é obviamente uma dessas oportunidades e estamos entusiasmados em fazer parceria com a Cohere para poder fazer parte deste empreendimento.”

A notícia de hoje dá seguimento a vários acontecimentos da Cohere em diversas áreas: anúncio recente de colaboração com a Salesforce Ventures para a promoção de uma IA geradora com valor comercial; engajamento com a LivePerson para impulsionar a experiência dos clientes; e uma série de demandas e interesses adicionais por parte do mercado corporativo. Com o avanço da tecnologia líder do setor da Cohere, a avaliação mais recente do modelo de linguagem da Stanford também classificou o modelo de Comando da Cohere com alta precisão em relação aos modelos comparáveis. A Cohere também lançou recentemente o primeiro modelo de compreensão multilíngue publicamente disponível, treinado em dados autênticos de falantes nativos; este modelo tem capacidade para ler e entender mais de 100 dos idiomas mais falados do mundo.

“A Cohere tem uma rara combinação de talentos de primeira linha, a tecnologia mais inovadora e está mais bem posicionada para aproveitar a oportunidade do mercado corporativo global de IA Gerativa e LLMs”, disse Lance Matthews, Diretor Administrativo da DTCP. “Nossa estrutura de fundos e relacionamentos exclusivos nos permitem reunir uma coalizão de investidores institucionais e estratégicos globais, incluindo a Deutsche Telekom, para acelerar a visão da Cohere de oferecer essa tecnologia para empresas de todo o mundo”.

Para mais informação sobre a Cohere e a sua equipa em crescimento, visite cohere.com.

Sobre a Cohere
A Cohere é a principal plataforma de IA para empresas. Sua IA de categoria mundial é unicamente adequada às necessidades dos negócios, desbloqueando a facilidade de uso, acessibilidade e privacidade de dados sem precedentes. A plataforma da Cohere é independente da nuvem, acessível por meio da API como um serviço gerenciado e pode ser implantada em nuvem privada virtual (VPC) ou mesmo no local para atender às empresas onde seus dados estão abrigados, oferecendo os mais altos níveis de flexibilidade e controle. Fundada por ex-alunos do Google Brain e um coautor do seminal artigo Transformer, a Cohere tem a missão de transformar empresas e seus produtos com a IA, desbloqueando uma maneira mais intuitiva do que nunca de gerar, pesquisar e resumir informações. A empresa é apoiada por um grupo de investidores institucionais e estratégicos globais, incluindo DTCP, Index Ventures, Inovia Capital, Mirae Asset, NVIDIA, Oracle, Radical Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Section 32 e Tiger Global, bem como vários luminares da IA, incluindo Geoffrey Hinton, Jeff Dean, Fei-Fei Li, Pieter Abbeel e Raquel Urtasun.

Contato com a Mídia
press@cohere.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8856104

Cohere annonce une série C de 270 millions de dollars pour mettre l’IA générative à la portée des entreprises

Le financement renforcera la position de leader de Cohere en permettant aux entreprises de bénéficier de l’IA sur la plateforme cloud de leur choix, tout en préservant la confidentialité et la sécurité de leurs données

SAN FRANCISCO et TORONTO, 12 juin 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  Cohere, la plateforme d’IA numéro 1 pour les entreprises, a annoncé aujourd’hui un nouvel apport de capitaux de 270 millions de dollars dans le cadre de son financement de série C. Inovia Capital a mené le tour de table, avec la participation d’un groupe diversifié d’investisseurs institutionnels et stratégiques mondiaux, dont NVIDIA, Oracle, Salesforce Ventures, DTCP, Mirae Asset, Schroders Capital, SentinelOne, Thomvest Ventures, et à nouveau l’investisseur Index Ventures. Ce groupe représente des investisseurs des États-Unis, du Canada, de Corée, du Royaume-Uni et d’Allemagne, et comprend certaines des entreprises technologiques les plus respectées au monde.

« L’IA sera le moteur du succès des entreprises au cours de la prochaine décennie », a déclaré Aidan Gomez, PDG et co-fondateur de Cohere. « À l’heure où l’intérêt initial pour l’IA générative s’oriente vers des moyens de renforcer les entreprises, celles-ci se tournent vers Cohere pour se positionner avec succès dans une nouvelle ère technologique. La prochaine phase des produits et services d’IA va révolutionner les entreprises, et nous sommes prêts à ouvrir la voie. »

« Nous sommes au début d’une nouvelle ère portée par le calcul accéléré et l’IA générative », a déclaré Jensen Huang, fondateur et PDG de NVIDIA. « L’équipe de Cohere a apporté des contributions fondamentales à l’IA générative. Son service aidera les entreprises du monde entier à exploiter ces capacités afin d’automatiser et d’accélérer leurs processus. »

Une IA créée pour les entreprises
La plateforme d’IA de Cohere est spécialement conçue pour les entreprises. Elle offre des options de déploiement sécurisé des données dans les environnements cloud existants des entreprises, une personnalisation et un support client. Cela inclut un écosystème de partenaires consultants et intégrateurs de systèmes pour aider les entreprises à chaque étape de leur parcours en matière d’IA.

La suite d’IA pour entreprises de Cohere est agnostique au cloud, offrant ainsi les plus hauts niveaux de flexibilité et de confidentialité des données. La plateforme est conçue pour être disponible chez tous les fournisseurs de services en cloud, déployée dans l’environnement cloud existant des clients, dans un cloud privé virtuel (virtual private cloud, VPC) ou même sur site, afin de répondre aux besoins des entreprises là où se trouvent leurs données. Cela permet aux entreprises de transformer les produits existants et de créer la prochaine génération de solutions révolutionnaires, tout en sécurisant leurs données.

« Notre raison d’être est d’investir dans de grands entrepreneurs qui ont une mission et des ambitions d’envergure mondiale », a déclaré Steve Woods, directeur technologique et associé d’Inovia Capital. « Très peu d’idées peuvent changer fondamentalement la société et représenter une vraie valeur ajoutée pour l’humanité. Il s’agit de toute évidence d’une telle opportunité et nous sommes ravis de nous associer à Cohere pour la mettre à profit. »

La nouvelle d’aujourd’hui succède à des avancées de Cohere dans plusieurs domaines : une annonce récente de collaboration avec Salesforce Ventures pour faire progresser l’IA générative afin d’apporter de la valeur aux entreprises ; un engagement avec LivePerson pour dynamiser les expériences des clients ; et une demande et un intérêt croissants de la part du marché des entreprises. Cohere continue de faire progresser sa technologie de pointe, et selon l’évaluation la plus récente des modèles de langage par Stanford, le modèle Command de Cohere atteint aussi un haut niveau de précision par rapport à des modèles comparables. Entre-temps, Cohere a récemment lancé le tout premier modèle de compréhension multilingue accessible au grand public entraîné à partir de données authentiques provenant de locuteurs natifs ; il est équipé pour lire et comprendre plus de 100 des langues les plus couramment parlées dans le monde.

« Cohere dispose d’une combinaison rare de talents de premier plan et de la technologie la plus innovante. L’entreprise est idéalement placée pour saisir l’opportunité que représentent l’IA générative et les LLM sur le marché mondial des entreprises », a déclaré Lance Matthews, directeur général de DTCP. « Notre structure de fonds unique et nos relations nous permettent de rassembler une coalition d’investisseurs institutionnels et stratégiques mondiaux, dont Deutsche Telekom, afin de mettre en oeuvre la vision de Cohere, qui consiste à rendre cette technologie accessible aux entreprises du monde entier. »

Pour en savoir plus sur Cohere et son équipe en pleine expansion, rendez-vous sur cohere.com.

À propos de Cohere
Cohere est la plateforme d’IA numéro 1 pour les entreprises. Son intelligence artificielle de classe mondiale est spécialement adaptée aux besoins des entreprises et offre une facilité d’utilisation, une accessibilité et une confidentialité des données sans précédent. La plateforme de Cohere est agnostique au cloud, accessible par API en tant que service géré, et peut être déployée sur un cloud privé virtuel (virtual private cloud, VPC) ou même sur site pour répondre aux besoins des entreprises, offrant ainsi les niveaux les plus élevés de flexibilité et de contrôle. Fondée par des anciens de Google Brain et un co-auteur du rapport de recherche novateur Transformer, Cohere a pour mission de transformer les entreprises et leurs produits grâce à une IA qui permet de générer, de rechercher et de résumer l’information de manière plus intuitive que jamais. La société est soutenue par un groupe d’investisseurs institutionnels et stratégiques mondiaux, dont DTCP, Index Ventures, Inovia Capital, Mirae Asset, NVIDIA, Oracle, Radical Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Section 32 et Tiger Global, ainsi que par plusieurs experts de l’IA, dont Geoffrey Hinton, Jeff Dean, Fei-Fei Li, Pieter Abbeel et Raquel Urtasun.

Contact auprès des médias
press@cohere.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8856104

Moroccan El Kouraji wins 2023 International Cycling Tour of Cameroon

El Kouraji Mohcine is the winner of the 19th edition of the International Cycling Tour of Cameroon, which took place from June 3-11, 2023.

The Moroccan grabbed the yellow jersey after recording the best overall performance in all eight laps. He finished 9th in the final phase of the competition.

“I came to Cameroon to win the tour. I had won my first tour in Cote d’Ivoire. This is the second tour for me. Thanks to all of the organizers of the competition” El Kouraji said.

The best Cameroonian, Michel Boris Tiencheu, was ranked fourth in the general classification. His compatriot Clovis Kamzong Abessolo, finished second in the last lap on Sunday, behind Ed Doghmy Achraf from Morocco, who covered the 118km distance from Bafia to Yaounde in 2 hours 57 minutes and 26 seconds.

45 cyclists thronged the streets of the four cultural zones of Cameroon in this year’s event from the North in Garoua, down South to Yaounde in the Centre region.

Nine teams from eight countries were represented, with cyclists from the Maghreban region of Africa dominating.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Ghana Shippers Authority trains haulage drivers

The Ghana Shippers’ Authority, has organised a day’s workshop for haulage truck drivers in the Western Region to expose them to industry best practices and the need to promote safety on the road.

The workshop centred on Dangerous goods and the rightful placards or signs, defensive driving strategy, security assessment and management of transit incidences along the corridor.

Mrs. Agnes Asamoah, the Branch Manager at Takoradi, in welcoming the participants said the training would ensure that truck drivers went about their duties in utmost security in accordance with demands of international trade best practices.

Ms. Benonita Bismarck, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana’s Shippers’ Authority pointed out that recent engagement with shippers in Burkina Faso and Niger, revealed the stagnation in the volumes of transit traffic.

This she noted could largely be attributed to a few factors, including, the continued application of VAT on transit goods, the seeming lack of transparent handling of transit cargoes, arbitrary application of exchange rates and harassment by uniformed personnel at the numerous check points along the corridor.

These concerns, she said set a clear agenda on what stakeholders must focused on to grow the transit trade.

According to her, recent reports indicated an upsurge of activities of insurgents along some transit corridors in the subregion.

‘The heightened security concerns and the risks posed to the transit consignment, the trucks and in particular the lives of the drivers and their assistants, have largely informed the emphasis of this event on security matters along the transit corridors. We have accordingly put together an array of resource persons to address these issues’.

Ms. Bismarck said as it had become the tradition since 2018, to effect quarterly fact-finding missions on the main transit corridors in Ghana to drive continuous improvement and address issues of infractions on Road Traffic Regulations, Police Harassment, malpractices at the Axle Load stations amongst others.

The Authority embarked on a fact-finding mission in March this year and the major findings included 67 Police and MTTD stops, eight Customs checkpoints, five Axle Load stations eight forestry and five Immigration check points’ she said.

The CEO noted how the Authority was liaising with relevant agencies to control the situation.

‘The Authority will continue to conduct sensitization seminars with all major stakeholders including the Police Service and Customs on the need to make Ghana’s corridor the preferred choice, thus the hub for transit trade in the West African subregion’ she added.

Mr. Fred Gassese, the Western Regional Manager of DVLA, said there was the need for stakeholders to come together to improve haulage transport, bearing in mind all best and safety practices.

He encouraged the drivers to take the scheduled time of rest and stops while on the road to avoid crashes.

Meanwhile, safe transport of cargoes with due regard to all road safety measures and protocols was a key requirement for international haulage of goods.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Child Labour: Over 400,000 children aged 5 to 17 engage in economic activities – GSS

The 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) report reveals that 419,254 children aged 5 to 17 are engaged in economic activity in the country.

Out of the figure, 76,439 are aged 5 to nine, 153,189 aged 10 to 14, and 189,626 aged 15 to 17.

This is in a statement by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on economic activities of children to mark World Day Against Child Labour.

The statement said children aged 5 to 17 worked on average 29.2 hours in the seven days preceding Census Night.

‘Children 15 to 17 years worked an average of 35.2 hours, children 10 to 14 years worked an average of 26.5 hours (about 5 hours per weekday), and children 5 to 9 years worked an average of 19.8 hours (about 4 hours per weekday), ‘ it said.

The statement said children engaged as paid apprentices worked the highest number of hours on average (48.4), almost twice that of those engaged as contributing family workers who worked the lowest hours on average (25.0).

It said children in the service sector worked 36.8 hours on average, while those in the agricultural sector worked an average of 25.6 hours.

‘Nationally, 153,773 children aged 5 to 17 engaged in economic activity had never attended school.

‘Out of this number, 37,963 children were 5 to 9 years. In all, 94,748 children aged 5 to 17 years engaged in economic activity were also attending school during the census,’ it said.

‘Eight in every ten (81.3 per cent) children aged 5 to 9 who were engaged in economic activity lived in six regions – Northern (19,727), Oti (14,875), North East (8,073), Upper West (7,071), Savannah (6,525), and Upper East (5,851),’ it said.

The statement said Nkwanta North (9,707), Krachi Nchumuru (7,598) and Nanumba North Municipal (7,598) had the highest number of children 5 to 14 years engaged in economic activities.

The three districts, the statement said had 21,726 children representing 10.8 per cent of all children 5 to 14 years engaged in economic activities.

It said the population of children engaged in economic activities in the Nkwanta North, Krachi Nchumuru and Nanumba North Municipal districts exceeded that of the Bono (3,635), Ahafo (3,261), Western North (2,088), Western (4,179) and Central (4,834) regions combined.

In all, 30 out of the 261 districts had more than 10 per cent of children 5 to 14 years

engaged in economic activity, the statement said.

It said the district with the highest percentage was Krachi Nchumuru, where one in every three children (34.8 per cent) was engaged in economic activity.

The percentage in the district was about 10 times the national average of 3.2 per cent.

Nkwanta North with 27.8 per cent and Yunyoo Nasuan, 25.3 per cent, were the two other districts where over a quarter of children were engaged in economic activity, the statement added.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Let’s monitor Green Ghana Day trees for higher survival rate-Compassion International Ghana

Mr Kobina Yeboah Okyere, National Director, Compassion International Ghana (CIGH), has urged the citizenry to monitor trees planted to mark the 2023 Green Ghana Day and make it a norm.

He said the afforestation goals, sustainability and higher survival rate would be achieved when the populace made the monitoring a routine.

‘If such monitoring becomes an integral part of the Green Ghana Day initiative, then we can achieve the afforestation goals.’

Mr Yeboah Okyere said this on the Green Ghana Day at Afienya District Police durbar, which was attended by Nene Tetteh Afutu III, Chief of Afienya; Chief Superintendent Emmanuel Nana Ofori, District Police Commander of Afienya; Rev Raymond Afutu Nartey, Emmanuel Methodist, Afienya; and Chief Imam of Afienya, Imam Amadu Rufai Alhassan.

The event was used to inspect trees planted by the Organisation and to plant new ones.

A news brief from the Organisation said its mission was to plant a tree for 97,000 individuals who had enrolled currently in its programme.

The Green Ghana Day initiative was introduced in 2021 with a target of planting about five million trees by President Nana Akufo-Addo to combat deforestation and address climate change, which had destroyed Ghana’s forest cover.

This year’s target is to plant 10 million trees.

Mr Yeboah Okyere said as part of the nationwide afforestation programme, Compassion International Ghana (CIGH) and its partners joined forces in 2022 and distributed over 18,000 seedlings for planting on Green Ghana Day.

‘A year later, CIGH took the opportunity to reflect on the impact of these seedlings and unveiled a comprehensive monitoring tool, revealing the survival of 8,030 trees out of the 16,670 seedlings planted,’ he said.

He said with the survival number of 8,030 trees, it was clear that effective monitoring should become the norm to ensure the initiative’s success in enhancing afforestation coverage and combating climate.

Chief Superintendent Emmanuel Nana Ofori, the Afienya District Police Commander, commended the Organisation and its church partners for the foresight to monitor planted trees.

He encouraged participants at the durbar to adopt the monitoring mechanism to ensure accountability in future tree planting exercises.

The dignitaries at the durbar planted trees to mark the Day and pledged to actively monitor their growth.

Compassion International Ghana is a Christ-centered organisation dedicated to transformative child advocacy and holistic child development, encompassing physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, and spiritual aspects.

Its focus lies particularly on ‘releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name’.

Through its church partners and global sponsors, CIGH aims to break the cycle of hardship by equipping children with the skills and resources necessary to improve their social standing and benefit their communities.

Source: Ghana News Agency