The pledge by President Akufo-Addo of Ghana’s commitment to meet the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the required timeframe in spite of current economic turmoil is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reiterated Ghana’s commitment to meet the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the required timeframe in spite of current economic turmoil.
He said the SDG’s provided the framework for an expansive development agenda for the nation despite the economic and geopolitical challenges.
“Government will continue its march to make bold decisions to our current challenges whilst ensuring the country is on the right trajectory, for an inclusive and sustainable development to enable the next generation live free from poverty and conflicts.
“If we are successful in achieving the SDG’s that will propel us to the future that we all want and therefore we must take urgent action now,” he said.
The president’s remarks were contained in a speech read on his behalf by the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Prof. George Gyan-Baffour as the NPDC launched the Voluntary National Review (VNR) report last Friday at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).
This is Ghana’s second VNR report following the maiden one in 2019.
The decision to conduct a second voluntary national review according to the President in these challenging times reflected Ghana’s commitment towards the goals of the SDGs and the principles underlying Africa’s 2063 growth agenda towards the Africa envisioned.
He said the 2021 SDG report that highlighted 124 million people, set back with extreme poverty, the worse seen in a generation coupled with rising increase in food and fuel prices triggered by post COVID-19 complications and exacerbated by the Russia–Ukraine war called for an ambitious pursuit of the SDGs.
He identified that the financing gap which was annually estimated at 45 billion by the World Economic Forum(WEF) was the major drawback to the accelerated implementation and called for smart funds mobilisation and private investment.
“We can only achieve this objective if the annual financing gap is seen as a business opportunity by the private sector and adoption of innovative means to mobilise the much needed revenue,” he noted.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has warned persons involved in fertiliser and agro-inputs diversion to desist from the practice or risk facing the full rigours of the law.
According to the Board, it has observed that the fertilisers which are distributed to farmers to increase Ghana’s cocoa yields were being diverted by some “unscrupulous persons”.
It has thus put the security agencies on high alert to look out for persons involved in the act.
In a press statement copied to the Ghanaian Times in Accra on Thursday, the COCOBOD said the act was criminal and persons who would be caught would be subjected to prosecution.
“We wish to inform the general public that the cocoa fertilisers have been heavily subsidised by government to ensure accessibility and affordability to all farmers to increase farm yields, and any attempt to resell them amounts to diversion which is an offence.
“COCOBOD will, therefore, like to use this medium to warn all persons involved in this illegal act to desist from the practice or risk facing the full rigours of the law which will include arrest and prosecution.
“We also wish to caution cocoa farmers who are conniving with such miscreants in the diversion of the subsidised fertilisers to refrain from it immediately or face the consequences of their actions,” the statement said.
The statement called on the security agencies to be on the lookout for such “unscrupulous persons” and effect their arrest.
The Ghanaian Times also reports that all schools, including private schools will participate in the National Standardised Test (NST) from next year, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw OseiAdutwum has assured.
This followed the successful implementation of the intervention in the public schools for this year.
The NST is an intervention introduced by the Ministry of Education to access the extent to which learners have covered the content of the teaching curricula approved by the Ghana Education Service (GES).
It provides an assessment targeted at measuring the proficiency of pupils at the basic level, especially in English and Mathematics.
Dr Adutwum disclosed this in Accra on Friday when he addressed the media on a number of issues currently ongoing in the education sector.
He said the NST formed part of a number of interventions instituted by the government for the transformation of the educationalsector.
The Minister said in all about 390,000 pupils from 14,883 public schools participated in the test and analysis of the results showed that the Ahafo, Bono East and Bono regions emerged tops in the maiden test which was limited to just primary four pupils.
“After the test in Mathematics and English Language, P4 pupils in the Ahafo Region posted the highest mean scores of 67 per cent in English and 58 per cent in Mathematics, while those in the Bono Region posted 65 per cent in English and 55 per cent in Mathematics, with those in the Bono East Region scoring 58 per cent in English and 50 per cent in Mathematics,” he said.
On the issue of textbooks, the Minister said suppliers had already commenced, however, plans had been put in place to ensure that all schools were supplied with their required textbooks by the close of the year.
He said the USAID was supporting with the printing of 3,742,624 textbooks and were ready for distribution.
The Minister also used the occasion to appeal to the media to guard against allowing themselves to be used for “proxy wars” but rather support in the effort to transform the country’s educational sector.
The Graphic says that a Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr John Kumah, has said that the government is confident that measures put in place to improve revenue will yield the expected results.
He said one key intervention in revenue mobilisation for economic development was the automation of the revenue administration processes and big data management which would help increase revenue.
He said the Ghana Revenue Authority had also introduced and was implementing a number of revenue administration systems including the Integrated Customs Management Systems (ICUMS), the Ghana.gov. platform, the cashless system, the Revenue Assurance and Compliance enforcement interventions and the debt management measures.
“These key interventions are meant to identify and eliminate revenue leakages by taking out the human factor in the processes and block revenue loopholes.
“This is a sure way to increase domestic revenue mobilization and improve the revenue to GDP ratio for Ghana from the current 13 per cent to the 20 per cent target by 2023,” he stated.
Dr John Kumah said when he delivered a speech at the 2022 Internal Audit Conference.
He said the Ministry would continue to rely on Internal Auditors to provide assurance on revenue administration to improve the work of revenue administration.
He said in order to ensure macroeconomic stability and fiscal policy of the country, the government had introduced several policy initiatives aimed at creating jobs and accelerating economic development.
He pointed out that The Ghana Cares Program, the YouStart, the Planting for Food and Jobs, the Free Senior High School Education among others have seen substantial investments by government.
He therefore urged the Internal Audit Director-General to continue to provide assurance over the use of such funds to help ensure proper use of the funds for the achievements of the noble intentions of government.
“As the economy gradually recovers, there is the need to sustain efforts aimed at eliminating weaknesses in our financial management processes which continue to undermine the revenue mobilization and effective expenditure management goals of Government.
“It has become critical to address fiscal indiscipline, and minimize corruption, and waste in the management of public resources while ensuring that development is attained with the limited resources available,” he said.
GIK/APA