The information on the new coronavirus variant in Nigeria and the caution by the leading scientist against comparisons with new strains found in South Africa and the UK and the commemoration of the 39th anniversary of the 31st December Revolution on Thursday December 31, 2020 are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday
The Graphic reports that a leading scientist who identified a new coronavirus variant in Nigeria has cautioned against comparisons with new strains found in South Africa and the UK.
Christian Happi, head of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics and Infectious Diseases in Nigeria, said more studies were needed to see whether the country’s new variant was linked to a recent spike in infections.
Nigeria’s new strain was found in two out of two hundred samples collected between August and October.
South Africa said its new variant could explain a recent increase, especially affecting younger people.
It has become the first country on the continent to register more than one million Covid-19 cases.
Last week, South Africa recorded a daily average of 11,700 new infections – a rise of 39% on the previous week – and from Wednesday to Friday, the daily number of new cases was above 14,000.
Nigeria recorded a 52% increase in cases last week, Reuters news agency reported.
It has recorded more than 82,000 cases and 1,200 deaths.
The newspaper says that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in partnership with the Office of the former President Jerry John Rawlings and the Central Planning Committee of the 31st December Anniversary will commemorate the 39th anniversary of the 31st December Revolution on Thursday December 31, 2020.
The event will take place at the Osekan Park on the Atta Mills High Street in Accra.
Organised in honour of the late Founder of NDC and leader of the Revolution, the ceremony will commence at 8.30am.
The dress code for the commemoration is black or red.
The Central Planning Committee of the 31st December Anniversary and the Office of former President Jerry John Rawlings, in partnership with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will host the commemoration of the 39th Anniversary of the 31st December Revolution on Thursday December 31 at the Osekan Park on the Atta Mills High Street.
Organised in honour of the late Founder of NDC, former President of the Republic of Ghana and leader of the Revolution, the ceremony will commence at 8.30am.
The Graphic also reports that 100 members of the Irrigation Company of the Upper Region (ICOUR) Women Farmers Association based in the Tono Irrigation area in the Upper East Region have paid back all the credit facilities they received from the Akuafo Nketewa Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG).
The beneficiary women farmers were expected to pay back over GH¢ 20,000 worth of NPK fertilizers they were provided with by the Company in the form of loans to support their farming activities within 12 months.
However by the 10th month the women paid back all the loans in cash in spite of the challenges they faced during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic lock down period.
At a meeting held at Navrongo on Saturday, December 26, 2020 to promote an interaction between the beneficiaries, the PFAG and its partners as well as to discuss the way forward for the farmers, the Head of Programmes and Advocacy of the PFAG, Dr Charles Nyaaba said the successes chalked up by the group indicated that the popular saying that “farmers do not pay back loans” is not entirely true.
He explained that the reason some farmers are not able to pay back credit facilities provided them is that either the facilities were not given at the right time or that the facilities provided do not meet the quality required by the farmers to get the needed yield to enable them pay back the facilities.
“This year the farming season coincided with the COVID-19 lockdown which also came with the financial sector challenges and so farmers could not get the needed resources to boost their farming activities,” Dr Nyaaba noted.
He therefore called on government, the private sector and financial institutions to provide more support to farmers saying “if they cannot do it directly, they should channel it through the PFAG because we are there to hold it in trust for them”.
GIK/APA