The celebration of Founders’ Day to commemorate the contributions of all our forebears, especially the “Big Six” who led the way towards Ghana’s independence dominates the headlines of Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that Today is Founders’ Day and it is a statutory public holiday to commemorate the contributions of all our forebears, especially the “Big Six” who led the way towards Ghana’s independence.
The “Big Six” are Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who later became the first President of Ghana, Joseph Boakye Danquah, affectionately called J.B. Danquah, and also described as the ‘Doyen of Ghana’s politics:, Edward Akufo-Addo, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey, William Ofori Atta and Ebenezer Ako-Adjei.
The Founders’ Day is celebrated on August 4 each year since it was instituted in the first term of office of President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2018.
The Founders’ Day replaced the Founder’s Day which was celebrated to mark Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday that fell on September 21, each year in honour of his involvement in the independence struggle of Ghana.
President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration, in 2018, laid before Parliament a Public Holidays Amendment Bill by the Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, and passed to amend the Public Holidays Act, 2001 in 2018.
The new amendment quashed three Public Holidays and gave birth to two new holidays.
The affected holidays were the Republic Holiday which fell on July 1, African Union (AU) Holiday, which fell on May 25, and the Founder’s Day which was on Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday of September 21.
Consequently, August 4, was made a public holiday because according to the proponents, the actual fight for Ghana’s independence began on August 4, 1947 when some Ghanaian patriots, like George Alfred Grant, also known as Paa Grant, J.B Danquah, R.A Awoonor- Williams, Edward Akufo-Addo, Ebenezer Ako-Adjei and some chiefs, formed the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) which was founded on the foundation of the Fante Confederacy of 1868 and Aboriginal Rights Protection Society in 1897 for the independence of Ghana.
The newspaper says that the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has launched an initiative to improve the greenery of the country.
Known as the Green Street Project (GSP), the initiative seeks to plant trees in the median and avenues of roads in major cities in the 16 regional capitals.
The ultimate objective of the project is to improve the aesthetic beauty of cities and also help address the climate change menace.
It will be spearheaded by the Department of Parks and Gardens, in collaboration with the ministries of Lands and Natural Resources, Local Government, Rural Development and Decentralisation and Roads and Highways.
To facilitate the implementation of the initiative, a nine-member national planning committee has been inaugurated to work on the modalities.
The committee is co-chaired by the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in charge of Forestry, Benito Owusu-Bio, and the Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Decentralisation, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah.
Other members of the committee are also drawn from the two ministries and the Roads and Highways Ministry.
Also represented on the committee are state agencies, such as the Forestry Commission, the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA), the Department of Parks and Gardens, the Department of Urban Roads and two private sector entities – Zoomlion Ghana Limited and Mullen Lowe.
The committee is required to identify principal streets and avenues in the cities where resilient and fast-growing tree species will be planted, as well as develop a detailed strategy, work plan and budget for the project.
It will also explore sustainable sources of funding for the initiative.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Toyota assembly plant which commenced commercial production in 2021, will also start assembling Suzuki vehicles this year.
This significant increase in assemblers will broaden the choice of made-in-Ghana vehicles to 13 brands of automobiles.
According to Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Ghana Automotive Development Programme under the Strategic Anchor Industries Initiative, continues to attract investment from global vehicle brands.
In April 2022, Nissan commissioned an assembly plant in Tema in the Greater Accra Region.
Currently, it is the largest automotive assembly plant in Ghana, with the capacity to assemble over 31,000 vehicles per annum.
The plant will also produce Peugeot brand of vehicles and these locally assembled vehicles will be marketed domestically and to neighbouring countries.
This will bring the number of global brands assembling vehicles under the Ghana Automotive Development Programme to five namely, Volkswagen (VW), Toyota, Sinotruck, Nissan, and Peugeot in addition to Ghana’s own Kantanka.
As part of measures to support the programme, Mr Ofori-Atta said the enabling Act provided for an increase in the Customs duties to 35 per cent of the CIF value on vehicles in the same category as those being assembled locally and the ban on import of salvaged vehicles and vehicles over 10 years of age.
The government, he said, would pass regulations to implement these measures before the end of the year.
“Additionally, to make the prices of these vehicles competitive, supplies of these vehicles will be zero-rated for VAT purposes until December 2023”, he explained.
Mr Ofori-Atta continued that automotive assembly opens up opportunities to localise the production and supply of components and parts, including spare parts for the automotive industry.
“In this regard, the government is drafting a Component Manufacturing Policy for implementation,” he added.
The newspaper says that Tullow Ghana has concluded a 10-month-long Supplier Finance Readiness Programme designed to provide selected suppliers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the oil and gas industry in Ghana, financial and business advisory support to build financially resilient and sustainable businesses for the future.
The programme, which was implemented by Invest In Africa (IIA), a private sector-led initiative focused on growing local businesses, brought together more than 150 individual participants and over 35 companies to undertake a rigorous training in financial modelling, business plan preparation, financial management, corporate governance, and business risk management over the programme period.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony in Accra, Managing Director for Tullow Ghana, Wissam Al-Monthiry, said “Tullow Ghana will continue to support local capacity development through various targeted knowledge sharing interventions to equip local companies and increase their participation in the industry while making them globally competitive.”
The training also gave participants, important financial toolkits to enhance their interactions with lending institutions and strengthen their capacity and preparedness to access finance.
Overall, 151 suppliers gained knowledge of various funding options as well as insights into financial restructuring opportunities, while 36 businesses received one-on-one business advisory services.
The participating businesses were selected from Tullow’s supplier list and IIA’s African Partner Pool (APP) companies operating in the oil and gas industry in Ghana.
GIK/APA