President Akufo-Addo’s statement that the government has created a fertile gound for businesses to thrive in the country and the appeal by the Ghana Cocoa Board to businesses to invest in the country’s cocoa processing sector to boost earnings in the cocoa value chain are some of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the government has created a fertile gound for businesses to thrive in the country.
He said apart from an effective automotive policy, Ghana also had a business friendly and enviable democratic credentials that made it the most preferred business environment on the African continent.
The President was speaking at a meeting with the management of Volkswagen (VW) automobile company, who called on him at the Jubilee House in Accra last Wednesday.
He said the government was determined to ensure that operations at the Volkswagen assembling plant that had been established in the country were successful to send a signal to the global business community that Ghana was ready for business.
President Akufo-Addo said the government had placed orders for some vehicles from the company “to give confidence to the industry and the public that VW is here to do serious business”.
The company opened its assembling plant in Accra last year, making Ghana the fifth destination of such plants in sub-Saharan Africa.
The other assembling plants are located in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda.
President Akufo-Addo expressed optimism that the new automotive policy of the government would help create a vibrant industry in the country.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has urged businesses to invest in the country’s cocoa processing sector to boost earnings in the cocoa value chain.
According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD, Mr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo, there were many investment opportunities in Ghana’s cocoa value chain that remained untapped.
The CEO, who was speaking at the maiden cocoa value chain investment meeting in Accra yesterday, expressed concern over the fact that Ghana earned less than six per cent of its entire cocoa value chain of about $110 billion.
The event, organised by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), in collaboration with COCOBOD and other partners, was on the theme: “Ghana’s brown gold: Sustaining investments and leveraging AfCFTA”.
The participants included stakeholders in the cocoa value chain, such as manufacturers, investors and consumers, who deliberated on investment opportunities in the country’s cocoa value chain.
Mr. Aidoo said COCOBOD was now focusing on modernising cocoa farming to boost production to ensure that there was constant supply of cocoa beans to encourage mass processing.
“Let me assure everyone that so long as there is the cocoa productivity enhancement programme, there will be constant supply of cocoa. The beans are what will make the country’s cocoa industry sustainable, and we are doing exactly that,” he said.
Mr Aidoo said Ghana had the desired geographical conditions for cocoa production, thereby offering it competitive advantage over Asian and Far East countries such as China.
“We should not be worried about Hainan because our geographical conditions give us that competitive advantage. Cocoa cannot thrive in areas where temperatures fall below 18 degrees Celsius. In Ghana, our temperature is even above 21 degrees Celsius.
The Graphic also reports that the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) has set up sentinel sites at selected locations around the country to monitor the resistance of mosquitoes to insecticides.
An epidemiologist with the NMCP, Dr. Nana Yaw Peprah, has revealed that insecticide resistance in mosquitoes had emerged not only in Ghana but in other malaria-endemic areas of the world.
However, Dr. Peprah said, new strategies had been developed to overcome the challenge in order to win the fight against malaria.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic after a recent study found super resistance to some insecticides among mosquitoes in a small cocoa growing community, the epidemiologist said in such areas, new chemicals had been added to insecticide treated nets to increase their effectiveness.
Dr. Peprah said new generational nets had also been developed as part of strategies to overcome the resistance to insecticides.
He said in areas where indoor residual spraying was adopted as part of the preventive measures, the insecticide used to fight the larvae was varied to ensure that the mosquitoes did not develop resistance to them.
A research conducted by the Biotechnology and Nuclear Research Institute (BNARI) of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) revealed extreme resistance to insecticides among anopheles mosquitoes at Atatam in the Adansi Asokwa District in the Ashanti Region.
The research showed that there were two major malaria vectors, one dominating during the dry season and the other during the rainy season; although in many communities, there was only one transmission season, usually the rainy season.
The Daily Guide says that three persons engaged in galamsey activities were killed when an illegal mining pit caved in at Denkyira Breman in the Upper Denkyira West district of the Central Region.
According to DSP Irene Oppong, Public Relations Officer of the Regional Police Command, the Police at Denkyira Dominase received information around 06:50hrs on Wednesday and rushed to the site.
The police, subsequently arrested two suspects who are assisting in investigations.
The bodies of the deceased identified as Kwasi Yeboah, 45, Fabatia, 13 and a female adult yet to be identified have been deposited at the Dunkwa-on-Offin Hospital morgue for preservation, identification and autopsy.
The Police PRO said a team proceeded to the crime scene together with officials of Natural Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and rescued some of the victims and also retrieved the bodies.
GIK/APA