The $4.5 million three-year Project Agreement with the United Nations Development Programme to support Ghana’s healthcare delivery digitisation project is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Government of Japan has signed a 4.5 million dollars three-year Project Agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support Ghana’s healthcare delivery digitisation project.
The project dubbed: “Digital solutions for health, nutrition and medical services” is aimed at strengthening the use of digital technology for health, nutrition, and medical services in the country.
It is being implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Japanese private sector Consortium (NEC, Sysmex and The Ajinomoto Foundation).
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Accra on Thursday, the Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu said the project followed the Memorandum of Co-operation (MOC) signed in 2019 between the MoH and Government of Japan, as part of Japan’s Africa Health and Well being Initiative (AfHWIN).
The initiative was aimed at strengthening collaboration and enhancing health promotion, supporting prevention, control, and treatment of Communicable and Non-Communicable Disease (NCDs) and strengthening private-public partnership on health.
He said the project was timely and vital since it would help improve the use of digital solutions in the health sector.
“Indeed, this project is also very timely and relevant, because as we all know, the use of digital solutions to improve health outcomes has gained increasing significance especially during this COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
The newspaper says that the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has attributed the decreasing trust in the media by the populace to misinformation.
According to the minister, trust in the media for some time has suffered a hitch per reports from afrobarometer due to misinformation by some media practitioners.
Speaking virtually at the 5th Edition of the West Africa Media Excellence Conference and Awards (WAMECA) in Accra yesterday, he said the only way to win public trust was for them to fact-check their information to ensure credibility, accuracy and reliability, to combat fake news.
The event held on the theme: “Misinformation, digital media regulation and journalism in Africa,” brought together media practitioners from different West African countries.
It was organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) with focus on positioning the media as key actors and supporters of democratic consolidation and national development in the sub region.
Elaborating on the theme, Mr Nkrumah explained that misinformation, digital media regulations and journalism in Africa, were three important pillars when looked at could restore the trust in the media, and also promote national development.
He noted that the increasing rate of the use of digital media has had its toll on mainstream media, as media practitioners fail to verify their information before publication thus ignoring the basic ethics of the profession.
He noted that as way of ensuring that media practitioners adhered to the ethics of the profession, government had rolled out a media capacity enhancement programme which seeks to provide training for media practitioners.
The Ghanaian Times also reports that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and the Ministry of Commerce of China on Friday signed their first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish an expert group on economic co-operation.
The group, when assembled, would share experience on intellectual property rights, customs procedures, digital trade, competition policy, among other areas, and exchange concepts, policies, and progress on the institutional capacity and implementation of the AfCFTA.
China would share information on its foreign trade and investment facilitation cooperation including Africa; the group would enhance trade and investment cooperation between the two parties, as well as co-ordinate China’s support towards the building of the AfCFTA and the execution of the secretariat’s mandate.
Under the MoU, the expert group would also be expected to facilitate dialogue between the AfCFTA Secretariat, the AfCFTA State Parties, and the relevant Chinese departments and institutions in collaboration with the African Union (AU) Representative Office in Beijing.
The Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, WamkeleMene, and China’s Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, QianKeming, signed the documents at a virtual ceremony witnessed by delegations from the secretariat and country respectively.
Mr Mene said the MOU presented an important platform for strengthening the relations between the continent and the country which is rooted in mutual cooperation and shared growth, thereby contributing to the achievement of the AfCFTA objectives.
He said China was a strong partner to Africa and had provided Africa with significant development and investment support through infrastructure and industrial projects in Africa as well as opened up its market of 1.4 billion consumers to African products.
The newspaper says that the Queen’s Baton will relay will arrive in the country today at 11am ahead of the quadrennial Queen’s Baton Relay event set to precede the next Commonwealth Games.
According to the Queen’s Baton Relay Planning Committee chairman, Mr Frederick Lartey Otu, the Baton will be presented to the President, Nana Akufo-Addo.
That will pave the way for the two-day Queen’s Baton Relay event that will be held in Accra, Tema and the Ashanti region tomorrow and Wednesday.
According to Mr. Otu, the presentation of the Baton to the president today was part of a few changes made to the earlier programme of activities announced for the event.
He said with today’s presentation, the relay will now begin at the British Council in Accra tomorrow with 100 personalities including politicians, celebrities and other eminent persons.
It will then pass through the Liberation Road (Ako Adjei Interchange), Opeibea House Traffic Light, the Stanbic Heights area, the Airport Bypass Road and continue to the Giffard Road to end the first leg at the Elwak Stadium.
GIK/APA