The arrival in Accra of 17 Ghanaian students who fled the ongoing war in Ukraine to reunite with their families dominates the headlines of Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that 17 Ghanaian students who fled the ongoing war in Ukraine yesterday arrived back home to reunite with their families.
Arriving in separate flights by Qatar and Turkish Airlines at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra, they are part of about 527 Ghanaians who have so far safely crossed the Ukrainian border to neighbouring Poland, Moldova, Hungary and Czech Republic.
Upon their arrival at the KIA at 6:25 am and 7:30 a.m. respectively, the students were taken through the mandatory COVID-19 testing after which their results were handed over to them.
The students were received at the airport by a delegation led by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong and the Deputy Minister of Information, Fatima Abubakar.
Mr Ampratwum-Sarpong reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring that their colleagues who were still at Ukraine and those who have moved to other neighbouring countries were evacuated.
He commended them for exhibiting bravery and perseverance in the dire situation they found themselves.
The newspaper says that Ghana has so far earned a total of $6.55 billion in petroleum receipts since it discovered oil ten years ago ( 2011 – 2020), an assessment by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), has revealed.
Carried and Participating Interest (CAPI) generated the highest share of $3.81 billion (58 per cent); followed by royalties at 1.64 billion (25 per cent) and then corporate income tax at $1.08 billion (17 per cent).
The remaining amount was covered by other smaller income receipts including gas receipts, income (interest) earned on the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF), and price differentials/other income.
This was contained in a report titled “Assessment of the management and use of Ghana’s Petroleum Revenues (2011-2020)” which captures how the country’s petroleum resource has been utilised over the 10-year period since oil was discovered in commercial quantities.
Launched in Accra yesterday, it was compiled in line with Ghana’s Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA), 2011 (Act 815, as amended by Act 893) and Petroleum Revenue Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2381).
It was carried out by Stobe Law Limited, with funding from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland through the Governance for Inclusive Development programme of GIZ.
Presenting the highlights of the PIAC Chairman, Professor Kwame Adom-Frimpong, said cumulatively, about $31.22 billion of value had been generated from all of Ghana’s three producing fields, comprising both entitlements due to the contractor parties and the Ghana Group.
The Ghanaian Times also reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has declared June 10 as this year’s Green Ghana Day with a target to plant 20 million trees across the country.
He has, therefore, called on all Ghanaians and foreigners living in the country to plant at least one tree to help increase the country’s forest cover, which has been depleted by over eight million hectares since the 1900s, to address the negative impact of Climate Change.
“We have chosen as a theme for this years’ edition, ‘Mobilising for a Greener Future’.”
“A greener future is necessary for the survival of our planet, and we must do all we can to bequeath to future generations, a greener, better planet,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo made these remarks when he launched the 2022 Green Ghana Day in Accra yesterday.
“This requires that we mobilise our entire population to ensure that each Ghanaian and each foreigner living in Ghana plants at least one tree on the day.
“But we can only achieve this if we mobilise our populations, and commit to the restoration of our ecosystems,” he said.
The Graphic says that Ghanaian passengers who were admitted into the country for the first time with the Ghana Card, instead of passports, have described the system as fast and convenient.
Numbering 14, the passengers, who arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) about 11:15 a.m. on Monday, March 1, 2022, onboard an Ethiopian Airline flight (ET 921) from Addis Ababa, went through the process, which was conducted by officials of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).
This came to light when officials of the GIS took some journalists to the arrival hall of Terminal 3 of the KIA to observe the process as part of the official introduction of the use of the Ghana Card, March 1, as an ICAO-compliant travel document.
In separate interviews, two of the passengers, Mr Dennis Bekoe, who arrived from the United Kingdom (UK), and Ms Akua Mansa from South Africa, said the card was easier to use, as against the passport, since they spent less time going through the arrival processes.
The Deputy Head of the Management Information Systems (MIS) Department at the GIS, Chief Superintendent Sharif Karikari, told the media after the observation of the arrival process that some booths had been designated as places to admit Ghanaians with Ghana cards into the country.
On arrival, he said, the identity of the Ghana Card holders would be verified against the national identity register “before we go ahead to admit the passenger to be sure the owner is, indeed, the rightful owner of the card.”
He added: “When one has only the card, we process the person through the system, and after verification, the person is processed through the embarkation card and then he is admitted into the country.”
Furthermore, Chief Supt Karikari said all the airlines had been communicated to on boarding with Ghana cards.
GIK/APA