The $1.3 billion loan facility by a consortium of local and international banks to the Ghana Cocoa Board for the purchase of cocoa beans from farmers for the 2020/21 crop season and the suing the WAEC over the publication of a list of contact details of examiners for the 2020 WASSCE on social media by Africa Education Watch are some of the trending stories in Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that a consortium of local and international banks has signed an agreement to lend $1.3 billion to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to be used to purchase cocoa beans from farmers for the 2020/21 crop season.
The bids to offer the loan were oversubscribed by $400 million by the 28 banks that are syndicating the funds for onward transfer to the cocoa sector regulator.
The facility attracts an interest of 1.74 percent, in addition to the London Interbank Overnight Rate (LIBOR), a global reference for setting interest rates on offshore loans.
The loan is expected to be used to purchase about 900,000 tonnes of cocoa beans in the next cocoa season, which opens tomorrow.
As a commodity-backed transaction, COCOBOD is expected to use a portion of the season’s produce to repay the loan.
The newspaper says that a Civil Society Organisation, Africa Education Watch, has sued the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) over the publication of a list of contact details of examiners for the 2020 WASSCE on social media.
Africa Education Watch, in a suit filed at the Accra High Court on Tuesday, September 29, argued that the “careless” conduct of WAEC could compromise the just ended 2020 WASSCE [West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination] results.
In its statement of claim, the plaintiff argued that although WAEC had apologised and assured the public that what was leaked was not the final markers list, an SMS making the rounds suggest that the names on the leaked document had been invited to attend a coordination and conference marking of the 2020 WASSCE scripts.
This, according to Africa Education Watch, was an indictment on WAEC and raised credibility and integrity issues about the marking standards of the 2020 WASSCE.
Africa Education Watch is therefore praying the court to among other things order WAEC to halt meeting the listed examiners meant to mark and grade the results of all WAEC examinations until new appointments are made to exclude every name on the leaked documents making rounds on social media.
The Graphic also reports that the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has said the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government has so far spent GH¢27 billion on its major policy interventions.
He named some of the interventions as the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO), free SHS, the restoration of nursing and teacher trainee allowances and free water and electricity supply.
Dr Bawumia said this when he addressed a meeting with teachers and artisans at Mataheko in the Ablekuma Central municipality yesterday.
The Vice-President, who began a four-day working tour of the Greater Accra Region yesterday, was accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey; a Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Anthony Abeifa Karbo; the Nasara Coordinator of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Aziz Haruna Futa, and some national and regional party executives.
Dr. Bawumia said whereas former President John Mahama could not pay the GH¢70 million training allowances for teachers and nurses, the NPP government was able to spend GH¢27 billion because it had built a solid economy from the weak one it inherited from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
While calling on teachers to continue to support and give the government four more years to roll out more well-thought-through policies, he said the government had made education a major focus of its administration because the alternative of mass illiteracy would be more costly to the economy.
To that end, he said, the government cancelled utility bills for tertiary students and also increased scholarships by 70 percent.
The Times reports that 17-year-old Anita Halm and Ghana Eagles’ captain Alex Dorpenyo have both been named by the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) as the best rugby male and female players for 2019.
Ms Halm, a key member of the Ghana national team, Women Eagles and the captain of Lions Rugby Club, is the youngest player in the Ghana league.
The student of Cape Coast University featured in all international games played by Ghana and crowned the year by leading the Ghana Rugby Women’s Sevens national team, the Ghana Eagles, to win the 2019 Rugby Africa Women’s Challenge trophy in Monastir, Tunisia.
She is considered a special athlete because she doubles playing rugby and taekwondo, combining with higher education.
Male counterpart and captain of Ghana’s Eagles, Dorpenyo beat strong competition to become the 2019 SWAG Rugby Player of the Year.
Playing for Conquerors SC, Dorpenyo was instrumental in Ghana’s participation in the rugby qualifiers for the Olympic Games and the Africa Rugby Sevens Championship. He led the Ghana Rugby Eagles Men’s Sevens team to win the 2019 Rugby Africa Men’s Sevens trophy in Brakpan-South Africa.
The 45th SWAG MTN Awards will be held on Saturday October 10, with the Chief Justice of Ghana expected to grace the event.
GIK/APA