The rise in inflation rate to 10.3 percent in February 2021 compared to 9.9 percent in January and the effect the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has on crimes are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Times reports that the year-on-year inflation rate rises to 10.3 percent in February 2021 compared to 9.9 percent, the previous month, the Ghana Statistical Service has said.
The rate is 0.4 percentage point higher than the rate for January.
The month-on-month inflation between January and February was 0.8 percent.
Professor Samuel Annim, the Government Statistician, said the slight increase in the inflation rate was due to a rise in non-food inflation.
Non-food inflation rose to 8.8 per cent from the January rate of 7.7 percent.
The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages inflation fell to 12.3 percent from 12.8 percent.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation was zero percent, Prof. Annim said.
“With this rate, Food contributed 52.6 percent to overall inflation. This is the lowest since September 2020,” he said.
The Graphic says that some say that the outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in people hating crime. Others argue that criminal activities are going on despite the pandemic.
Prolific and opportunistic criminals are taking advantage of it to attack government institutions, organisations and individuals, according to the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL).
Investigations show that known malware, formerly relatively dormant, have been detected since the pandemic.
Though these cyber threats are constantly evolving, some of the latest threats identified include malicious domains, online scams and phishing, data harvesting malware, disruptive malware (ransomware and DDos).
Undercover investigation by INTERPOL revealed that there has been an increase of domains registered with the key words ‘COVID’ or ‘Corona’ to take advantage of the growing number of people searching for information about COVID-19.
Many of these are considered to be developed with malicious intent.
As at the end of March 2020, there were 2,022 malicious and 40,261 high risk newly registered domains, according to Palo Alto Networks.
The newspaper reports that the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and caretaker Minister for Finance, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has stated that the government will this year commence a new scheme that will provide eligible Ghanaians with low-interest loans to enable them to pay rent advance.
He said the scheme will be called the National Rental Assistance Scheme (NRAS) and will initially be funded by the government with GH¢100 million.
Presenting the 2021 budget statement and economic policy on the floor of Parliament on Friday, March 12, 2021, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu added that the scheme will also receive additional investment from the private sector.
“Mr Speaker, in partnership with the private sector, we will commence the establishment of a National Rental Assistance Scheme (NRAS), with a seed of GH¢100 million. The scheme will crowd-in additional investment from the private sector, to provide low-interest loans to eligible Ghanaians to enable them pay rent advance,” he said.
The scheme was first mentioned by the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, last August at the official launch of the New Patriotic Party’s election 2020 manifesto, in Cape Coast last.
At the time, the Vice President said the scheme would help young people with their accommodation problems.
He also stated that the government was also looking for a long term solution for some of the issues in Ghana’s housing market.
The Graphic also reports that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) recorded significant reduction in maternal deaths, institutional infant mortality and neonatal deaths in 2020 despite some disruptions in service delivery due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Deputy Director-General of the service, Dr Anthony Adofo Ofosu, has announced.
“With increased national commitments towards ending preventable maternal and child deaths, the service recorded considerable progress in a numbers of key indicators in 2020,” he stated during the 2020 Bono East Regional Health Directorate Annual Performance Review meeting at Kintampo.
The meeting was on the theme: “Continuity of quality service delivery in the midst of COVID-19.”
Giving some statistics to indicate the situation, Dr. Ofosu said institutional maternal mortality ratio reduced by 8.8 percent, with Ashanti Region recording the highest drop of approximately 34 percent in 2020.
Antenatal Care (ANC) registration increased by 4.37 percent, with the Upper West Region recording the highest increase of about 9.53 percent.
There was also reduction in infant mortality rate and total neonatal deaths, which reduced by 11.2 percent and 4.8 per cent respectively.
GIK/APA