The plan for young people who dare to set up businesses and employ others in the process are charting the course for an entrepreneurial future for the country and,the planting of trees at various places in a national tree planting exercise as part of efforts to green the country are some of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that young people who dare to set up businesses and employ others in the process are charting the course for an entrepreneurial future for the country and, therefore, need to be encouraged and supported, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has said.
He said what the nation needed was a thousand young people starting small businesses and employing 10 people each, instead of waiting for an individual to employ 10,000 people.
The minister said it was in line with that objective that the government had rolled out some interventions to provide opportunities for the youth to become entrepreneurial, in view of the high unemployment situation in the country.
“Listen to me, young people: your job opportunities will either come from you depending on others to give you jobs or from you awakening the entrepreneur in you by making use of the opportunities that are available in the public and the private sectors,” he said
Mr Ofori-Atta was speaking as the guest mentor at a springboard roadshow virtual convocation held in Accra yesterday.
The event is an initiative of the Springboard Road Show Foundation and focuses on entrepreneurship, investment, career and talent development for young people between 18 and 35 years.
It was on the theme: “Repositioning: Navigating through COVID-19 and finding career and business opportunities”.
The newspaper says that Ghanaians will come together today to plant trees at various places in a national tree planting exercise as part of efforts to green the country.
More than five million tree seedlings of different species will be planted and nurtured to maturity as an aggressive measure to preserve the country’s forest cover and the environment and roll back climate change and its debilitating impact.
The government’s initial target of planting five million trees in a day under its Green Ghana Project has now ballooned, following the expression of interest in the initiative by a number of organisations.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced the Green Ghana Project in the 2021 State of the Nation Address in March to mobilise Ghanaians for an aggressive nationwide tree planting exercise.
Subsequently, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. Samuel Abu Jinapor, on March 23, this year, launched the greening project as part of activities to mark this year’s International Day of Forests, which fell on March 21.
The ministry plans to institute June 11 each year as a tree-planting day.
The Graphic also report that the country has completed the implementation of an action plan required by a global watchdog to enhance internal structures and systems against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The action items were completed in February this year, ahead of the scheduled time, and acknowledged by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body that sets standards for countries to follow in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), Mr. Kwaku Dua, announced this at a sensitisation workshop for banking sector practitioners on anti money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) in Accra yesterday.
The workshop was part of a series of capacity-building programmes to help strengthen Ghana’s AML/CFT regime.
He explained that the completion of the action plan now paves the way for the task force to meet later this month to take a decision on removing Ghana from its ‘grey list’, a condition that affects the country in many ways, including limiting its financial institutions’ ability to access concessionary funds from the international market.
Mr. Dua said the action plan included the implementation of a policy on AML/CFT, a comprehensive assessment of money laundering and financing terrorism, risks associated with key persons and the improvement in risk-based supervision by regulatory institutions.
He said those actions were aimed at boosting the country’s fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.
The plan roll out became necessary after the country was found by the FATF to have some deficiencies in its AML/CFT regimes.
The Times says that Ghana has signed onto international treaties that will ensure that its quest to establish a nuclear power plant to augment the energy mix did not compromise acceptable safety standards.
The Executive Director of Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG), Dr. Stephen Yamoah dispelling fears among the public that the technology could pose harm to the country assured that anything short of using the plant ‘peacefully’ would cost the nation, and that, would not be risked.
“If at any point we decide that because we have the technology we can flex our muscles and enter into other ulterior activities like what is happening in Russia and other countries, the international community will step in because they are seriously monitoring what is happening,” he said, during a courtesy call on management of the New Times Corporation (NTC) yesterday.
Accompanied by other Executive Members of the NPG and management team of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the visit was to build partnership between both organisations for their mutual benefits.
According to Dr. Yamoah, nuclear energy as an alternative source of power for the country had long term benefits in terms of reliability and affordability.
“We are very much limited with our hydro generation as a country because 65 per cent of our resource have been exploited and coupled with environmental issues like galamsey and climate change, among others, we are likely to face serious power challenges in coming years which is why we need to begin looking into the future.
Nuclear is not to knock off hydro or thermal but to provide a strong energy source that will balance the mix and offer long term solutions because once you start nuclear power, it can run for about 18 months at full capacity before you shut down for routine maintenance that gives you time to plan and recoup.,” he stated.
The Executive Director disclosed that four operating sites have been identified in the country for feasibility studies to establish the plant, out of which one would be settled on.
GIK/APA