APA – Accra (Ghana)
President Akufo-Addo’s inauguration of the third phase of the District Water Supply Project for 95 communities at Adaklu-Waya in the Volta Region is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has inaugurated the third phase of the District Water Supply Project for 95 communities at Adaklu-Waya in the Volta Region.
The five-phase € 11.5 million water system is to benefit 89,000 people.
The beneficiary Districts include Adaklu, Aortime-ZIiope, Ho-West, North- Tongu and Central Tongu Districts of the Volta region.
The project which was constructed by Strabag AG of Austria, was started in November 2020, and is aimed at finding lasting solution to groundwater challenges the beneficiary communities faced in the project areas.
As planned, work is expected to start on the fourth phase of the project, to end the water problem facing the people in parts of Central Tongu, Agortime-Ziope and the Ho- West Districts.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, the President stressed on the government’s determination to provide the basic needs of Ghanaians including access to quality water, and asked the people to trust and support government to deliver on its developmental agenda.
President Akufo-Addo said it was important for the beneficiary communities to protect the water system at all times to prolong the facility, saying 155 kilometre pipelines were laid from Adaklu-Waya to Ziope to extend water to the residents in the that district.
The newspaper says that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has concluded investigation into four high-profile cases with nine under probe and 150 others at various stages of consideration.
The four cases include the suspected corruption and corruption-related offences concerning Charles Adu Boahen, a former Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, which was contained in an investigative documentary titled ‘Galamsey Economy’ published by Tiger Eye P.I. and the investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
Another is the alleged use of public office for profit against Charles Bissue, during his tenure as Secretary to the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), arising from an investigative documentary titled ‘Galamsey Fraud Part I’ published by Tiger Eye P.I. and the investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
This case is part of a wider investigation into illegal mining in the country, according to the 2023 Half-Yearly Report of the OSP, available to the Ghanaian Times.
“The Special Prosecutor will issue directives and further action on the matter(s) in due course,” it said.
The 13-page report, in pursuance of section 3(3) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959), is the third half-yearly report of the tenure of Kissi Agyebeng, the country’s second SP, who was appointed in 2021.
It highlights the corruption cases investigated and prosecuted by the OSP and the highlights of activities undertaken by the Office from January 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023.
The two cases concluded are the alleged attempt by an unnamed and wealthy business¬man to bribe some members of the majority caucus of Parliament, and the suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in respect of the procurement by the Gaming Commission of Ghana.
The ongoing wider investigations into the suspected corruption and corruption-related offences regarding illegal mining involves some officials of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Forestry Commission , the dissolved IMCIM, Akonta Mining Limited and other companies; nationals of foreign countries and some Municipal and District Chief Executives.
The Electricity Company of Ghana Limited, National Sports Authority, Ghana Water Company Limited, are being investigated over corruption issues and so is the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). which is under OSP probe over complaint against Labianca Company Limited and auction sales of vehicles and other goods by the Customs Division.
Investigation is being conducted into the alleged Airbus SE bribery scandal; the banking and financial sector crisis ; recruitment exercise of Course 51 of Cadet Officers Training at the Ghana Police Academy; and the Estate of former Chief Executive of Forestry Commission, the late Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie (aka Sir John).
“The Office is also investigating 150 other cases at various levels of consideration. These would be publicised if the Special Prosecutor determines that they are within the mandate of the Office and that they should be moved past the preliminary investigation stage,” the report said.
The Ghanaian Times also reports that Rating agency, Fitch is warning Ghana of the rising interest cost on domestic debt despite securing an International Monetary Fund programme.
According to the rating agency, it does not help with the overall debt sustainability in the medium term.
Interest rates on Treasury bills (T-bills) have been going up after falling drastically to about 18 per cent in March 2023 from 35 per cent, raising concerns about a probable restructuring of the short-term securities.
Speaking at a webinar on Africa Sovereigns Amid Financing Crunch, Senior Director for Emerging Markets, Toby Iles, cautioned Ghana and other African governments against the rising interest costs on domestic markets.
“As I mentioned right at the beginning, there has been more development in the domestic debt market and so it’s become more important. When we look at things in terms of interest cost of the government; break them down by domestic debt interest cost and compare them with external interest cost, the share of interest cost on domestic debt has been going up. So domestic debt becomes more of a question mark,” he said.
Toby Iles added that the terms of the debt restructuring might not help in the overall debt sustainability.
“Terms of the actual restructuring: it definitely helps in terms of liquidity but it doesn’t help in the overall debt sustainability over the medium-term. It presupposes there will also be other fundamental improvements in fiscal consolidation,” he added.
Meanwhile, Fitch has stated that banks in Ghana would have recorded huge losses in 2022 if a flexible treatment had been applied to the Net Present Value (NPV) calculation.
According to the U.K-based firm, the intervention by the Ghana Association of Banks helped to reduce the expected losses of the financial institutions.
Banks recorded about GH¢6.6 billion net losses in 2022, after several billions of cedis were written off as bad debt due to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
The Graphic says that the second edition of a national Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) competition for second cycle schools was yesterday launched in Accra.
Dubbed: “STEMMNNOVATION 2023”, it will serve as a platform to unlock the innovative skills and abilities of students by embarking on projects that would create practical solutions to challenges and contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.
The initiative which will be on the theme: “Solving Tomorrow’s Problems Today”, will have participants from more than 800 senior high schools (SHS) and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions this year.
They would be challenged to develop STEM projects on urban gardening, clean water and flexible use of electricity.
Present at the launch were stakeholders in education, including heads of sector agencies and heads of various second cycle institutions, among others.
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, said the government was on the “right track” to transform the nation’s education sector to boost the socio-economic development of the country.
In line with that, he said various infrastructure projects were being undertaken across the country to make STEM education more accessible, affordable and attractive to younger generations.
Dr Adutwum, therefore, called on industry and entrepreneurs to show interest in the competition by collaborating with the Ministry of Education to commercialise some of the inventions that would come out of the project to drive growth.
GIK/APA
Ghanaian press focuses on inauguration of €11.5m water projects, others
