The contraction of Ghana’s economy in the second quarter of the year and the plan to verify all certificates presented for employment and admission by the National Accreditation Board are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that Ghana’s economy contracted by 3.2 percent in the second quarter of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
This compares favourably with countries such as Nigeria and South Africa whose economies contracted by 6.1 and 17.1 percent, respectively, in the second quarter.
On the global front, the economy of the United Kingdom (UK) shrunk by 21.7 percent; that of Germany by 11.7 percent, France by 19 percent and the United States of America (USA), 9.1 percent.
Ghana’s non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which measures productivity within the economy, also shrunk by 3.4 percent within the same period.
The slowdown puts the economy at risk of recording its sharpest yearly contraction in 37 years.
The newspaper says that the National Accreditation Board (NAB) in Ghana has reiterated its call to all educational institutions and employers to refer all academic and professional qualifications to it for determination of their respective statuses before accepting them for any form of admission, employment or job progression.
The call follows the continuous use of academic qualifications and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) titles by some individuals, purportedly awarded to them by institutions the NAB has long ceased to recognise and therefore does not accept qualifications awarded by them.
Besides that, the unaccredited institutions in Ghana have been dishing out honorary doctorate degrees to some prominent Ghanaians.
The Times reports that Ghana Football Association (GFA) Club Licensing Board manager, Dr. Kwame Baah-Nuako, has disclosed that Ghanaian clubs – Asante Kotoko and AshantiGold SC, would not be allowed to participate in their CAF Inter-club competitions, unless they pay their players and technical team and salaries that have been outstanding for more than six months.
The directive, according to him, came from CAF to the various Federations and Licensing Boards not to approve any club that owes its players and technical team over that duration.
The new CAF directive, the Club Licensing manager said, was already in place and would apply to Kotoko and AshantiGold competing in Africa this season.
Clubs in the West Africa region are known to be highly indebted to their players and technical team which has always been denied by the officials, and thus leaving the main actors, players, go hungry over months of unpaid fees and salaries.
Dr Baah-Nuakoh gave a hint on the instructions given the Club Licensing Board and the Ghana FA ahead of the upcoming CAF Champions League and Confederations Cup respectively.
The newspaper says that the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations in collaboration with Parliament of Ghana has passed the Labour (Domestic Workers’) Regulations, 2020 (L.I. 2408) to establish a governance framework for the regulation of domestic work and ensure full labour protection for domestic workers.
The new regulation requires the employer and the domestic worker to enter into a written contract of employment, which will stipulate the conditions of service and related matters.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffuor Awuah, yesterday when he took his turn at the periodic “Meet The Press” series organised by the Ministry of Information to apprise journalists on the work of the Labour ministry.
According to the minister, available data indicated that domestic workers represent 0.5 percent of the total labour force in Ghana. Demographic factors such as ageing populations, decline in welfare provision, the increasing participation of women in the labour force, and the challenges of balancing work and family life in urban areas had contributed greatly to the increasing demand for domestic workers.
However, despite the significant contribution of domestic workers to GDP, they continued to suffer indecent working conditions, all forms of abuse and vulnerability.
GIK/APA