The report that a total of 1,443 people have died through road crashes between January and July this year and that 9,218 injuries were recorded within the same period in 8,869 cases reported involving 15,239 vehicles is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that a total of 1,443 people have died through road crashes between January and July this year.
Also, 9,218 injuries were recorded within the same period in 8,869 cases reported involving 15,239 vehicles.
According to Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, the statistics, as compared to the same period last year, represented 15.42 per cent decrease in fatalities and 0.87 per cent decrease in persons injured.
These was contained in a speech read on his behalf in Accra yesterday at the launch of this year’s Ghana Driver and Road Safety Awards slated for December.
Organised by the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) in partnership with the Ghana Driver and Road Safety Awards Foundation (GDRSA), the event would be on the theme, “The Role of Information Technology in Promoting Safer Road Users.”
The awards is aimed at recognising and rewarding drivers, individuals, organisations and institutions for practising road safety in the use of the road, particularly as drivers and related activities over the past year in support of national efforts towards ensuring safer roads in the country.
Citing provisional data by the NRSA on road traffic statistics, Mr Asiamah said, the first half of the year also saw a decrease of 6.84 per cent in cases reported, 6.08 per cent decrease in vehicles involved, and 9.20 per cent decrease in pedestrian knockdowns.
To tackle the menace, he noted the need for a multi-disciplinary approach including awareness creation, strict implementation of traffic rules and scientific engineering measures.
He stated that, among other things, the government was working to ensure that long distance travelling vehicles were fitted with speed limiters as well as the introduction of the passenger manifest which would help to capture in full, details of all passengers who board long distance vehicles to be able to trace their family members and relatives of passengers in case of any crashes on the road.
The newspaper says that the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) on Tuesday released a total of eleven GH¢11.2 million as loans to some students in tertiary institutions in the country.
A total of 10,000 students from 182 tertiary across the country are to benefit from the amount which has been released to various beneficiaries’ accounts.
This is the second payment being made in three months after the official launching of the ‘No Guarantor Loan Policy’ launched in June this year in Kumasi.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SLTF, Nana KwakuAgyeiYeboah, who disclosed this to the Graphic on Tuesday said the amount is the second batch of releases to the No Guarantor applicants.
The CEO said the release follows the completion of the latest applications received by the SLTF after the release of the first batch of payments of GH¢12 million to applicants in July.
He commended the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for introducing the ‘No Guarantor Policy’ which has eased the burden of many students who could not get people to guarantee their loan application forms in the past.
Again the CEO commended the government for releasing the needed funds towards the payment to ensure that the students have the required funds to support their education.
The Chief Executive Officer pledged to continue working very hard to ensure that all applicants would be paid the required amount when necessary to ease their burden at school.
Nana Agyei Yeboah appealed to beneficiaries of the scheme to ensure that they voluntarily pay back their loans to ensure that the government gets enough funds at all times to run the scheme for the benefit of others.
He indicated that every effort was being made to ensure that no students were denied education due to lack of funding.
The CEO appealed to those who have not yet applied to the scheme to do so since they could also benefit from the loan which was readily available to all qualified students irrespective of political, social, religious and ethnic orientation.
The Graphic reports that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Ghana has expressed its commitment to help prepare the youth for the job market.
The UNDP Resident Representative in Ghana, Dr Angela Lusigi, said her outfit believes that young people’s ideas, creativity and innovation will drive the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Ghana.
“UNDP is proud to partner with the Government of Ghana through the national service scheme and our integrated support to entrepreneurship to prepare young people for the future of work.
“UNDP prides itself with the achievement of having retained several National Service Personnel (NSP) in the past and will continue to do so as more opportunities come up,” Dr Lusigi said this last Thursday after a capacity building programme in Accra for the Service personnel at the UNDP.
She advised them to stay focused, act with determination and be intentional in all they do as they go into the world of work.
The Operations Manager at UNDP Ghana, Kate Odzawo, said as part of efforts to ignite the creative and innovative potentials of the youth for the job market, the three months Capacity-Building Programme was organised to upscale and expand the capacities of all personnel in the organisation.
That, she said, was to prepare them for the ever-evolving and competitive job market.
“We at UNDP believe that one of the best ways to enhance knowledge and skills is through training and mentoring and that is exactly what we have done for 2021/2022 NSPs.
“The three-month capacity development programme included a one-on-one mentorship programme for our personnel to get hands-on experience from our seasoned staff,” she said.
Participants were also taken through sessions on public speaking, ways to tackle unemployment and career planning.
The newspaper says that public universities are not ready to be weaned off government payroll, a former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Ebo Bondzi-Simpson, has said.
“Unless a road map is settled on, no one on is ready. It is not enough that the concept may be attractive to one or both parties,” he said, adding that the “devil” and challenges would be in the details of implementation.
Prof. Bondzi-Simpson, who was speaking at an experts’ forum on weaning public universities off government payroll, added that such a road map should include clear provisions for bursaries and scholarships for students who might suffer from the policy, support for capital projects at the universities and seed money for endowment funds.
The forum was organised by the University of Cape Coast (UCC) branch of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) as part of activities to commemorate the university’s 60th anniversary.
It was on the theme: “Weaning public universities from government payroll: Implications for tertiary education landscapes”.
Prof. Bondzi-Simpson further said it was important to also discuss thoroughly the parameters of control of political powers with such a policy.
GIK/APA