The package of $10,000 each for the players of the Black Satellites Squad for winning the Under 20 African Cup of Nations announced by Ghanaian President and the opposition’s view that the State of the Nation Address by President Akufo-Addo failed to tell Ghanaians about the true state of the economy are the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced a package of $10,000 each for the players of the Black Satellites Squad for winning the Under 20 African Cup of Nations.
“The country is very proud of your achievements,” he told the players at the Jubilee House, and said the amount was a token from the people of Ghana “to show our gratitude for what you have done”.
Each member of the technical team will also receive $5,000 as an expression of the nation’s appreciation.
The President said $5,000 of the money for the players would be invested on their behalf while the remaining $5,000 would be given to them in cash.
After receiving the trophy, President Akufo-Addo said the decision to invest the $5,000 over the next 10 years was to enable them to have something to live on in future, considering the short duration footballers spent in the sport.
“The people of Ghana are all together giving you $330,000 in appreciation of what you have done,” he said.
The newspaper says that the Minority in Parliament has said they are disappointed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo failed to tell Ghanaians the true state of the economy.
They said the President was silent on the current debt plaguing the country, as well as the true number of Ghanaians, who had been made jobless as a result of the impact of COVID-19 and the banking sector clean-up.
“My first major disappointment is the President’s silence on our national debt. We have a national debt of about GH¢287 billion, meaning about 78 percent of gross domestic debt (GDP), which is worrying,” the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, stated.
Speaking to the press in reaction to the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) yesterday, the Minority Leader said when the President delivered his 2017 SONA, he was quick to tell the nation how much debt he inherited.
“So today too, President Akufo-Addo must be quick to tell us how much he has inherited from his previous administration in terms of our national debt,” he stated.
Mr Iddrisu, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South, said Ghanaians needed to know the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic had contributed to unemployment in the country.
On the contrary, he added, the President only gave an indication of people whose wages had been reduced, instead of the number who had been made jobless.
The Graphic also reports that family members of the 12 children who drowned while swimming in the sea in Apam in the Gomoa West District in the Central Region last Sunday say they are yet to come to terms with the death of their children.
According to them, the news of their passing came to them as a surprise, especially because they could not fathom out how the children managed to gather at the beach to engage in different forms of activities, including swimming, which resulted in the deaths.
Apam, the capital of the Gomoa West District, was thrown into a state of mourning last Sunday when about 20 teenagers drowned in the sea.
So far, 12 dead bodies have been retrieved, two girls and 10 boys, while two males were rescued.
About three additional families have informed the police that their children had not returned home since Sunday.
When the Daily Graphic visited the community yesterday, it was observed that residents were still grieving, with some still finding it very difficult to come to terms with the incident, unheard of in the town.
Many residents were spotted in groups still discussing the incident, which has left many people dumbfounded, as they could not fathom how the children managed to get close to the forbidden area to entertain themselves.
The Times says that the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Alan Kyerematen, has reiterated that the most beneficial way to deepen regional integration in Africa is to increase trade through the protocols of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.
AfCFTA is a flagship project of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which is a blueprint for attaining inclusive and sustainable development across the continent over the next 50 years.
Mr. Kyerematen made the point in a speech read on his behalf at a day’s seminar on ‘Regional Opportunities on the Benefits and Opportunities of the AfCFTA’ in Ho last week.
“The AfCFTA is a major milestone towards regional integration and remains a viable vehicle for industrialisation and economic development of our countries,” he pointed out.
Mr. Kyerematen insisted that the efficient and smooth implementation of the AfCFTA agreement would definitely boost intra-African trade, stimulate investment and innovation and also foster structural transformation as well as improve food security.
GIK/APA