The swearing in of the first female Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana and the pledge by President Akufo-Addo to give the female leaders occupying the top hierarchy of the university the necessary support to enable them to succeed is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday pledged to give the female leaders occupying the top hierarchy of the University of Ghana (Legon), the necessary support to enable them to succeed.
The President, made the pledge at the swearing in of the first female Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, was optmisistic that the team of female leaders can take the nation’s premier university to great heights.
The University of Ghana currently has Prof Amfo as its Vice-Chancellor, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, as the Chancellor, Justice Sophia Akuffo, retired Chief Justice as Chair of the University Council and Mrs Emilia Agyei-Mensah as its Registrar.
It is the first time a quartet of female leaders was occupying the top positions of the university in its 73 years of existence.
President Akufo-Addo said the University of Ghana’s tradition of male Vice-Chancellors had been broken with the appointment of accomplished women to lead the management of the affairs of the university.
He urged the males in the academic hierarchy of the University not to be threatened by the new development, adding that the time had come for women to also take charge of the affairs of the institution.
“That tradition has fortunately been broken. The premier university, University of Ghana, Legon, has as of now a new Vice Chancellor, who is female. Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Anful, warm congratulations on your achievements and the best of luck and God’s guidance in the discharge of your duties” he said.
The newspaper says that the Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, has won the Woman of the Year Honour at the 6th edition of the EMY Africa Awards held in Accra.
Patricia was among 30 outstanding personalities from diverse fields of endeavor, who were celebrated at the awards ceremony for their remarkable commitment to societal progress.
The Woman of the Year honorary award, which is the only female category in the all-male awards, celebrates a distinguished woman, who is an inspiration to many people, has broken new ground or old barriers, and has contributed to the community and nation through her professional or volunteer leadership.
Her citation reads, “You have contributed immensely to the telecommunications industry and continue to serve as a shining example to budding professionals. As the first Ghanaian CEO of Vodafone Ghana, you have championed various innovations in the industry, more so during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our board of patrons, faculty and secretariat find you worthy of this honour, considering all your achievements and your impact in growing the telecommunication sector”.
Receiving the award, Ms Obo-Nai expressed her profound gratitude to the organisers of the event.
“I thank God for his grace, thank you so much Team Vodafone Ghana, thank you to my family and thank you EMY Africa for doing me this honour. I’m really humbled and very grateful. When women win, we all win,” she said.
This recognition is the latest among a long list of local and global honours that Vodafone Ghana CEO, Patricia Obo-Nai has amassed since she took over the reins of Vodafone Ghana in April 2019. Her remarkable and transformational leadership has earned her the most awarded CEO in this short period.
Her list of awards includes Africa’s Most Respected CEO in Telecoms (Dubai, UAE), Telecom CEO of the Year (Ghana Information Technology and Telecom Awards), Telecom Personality of the Year (National Communications Awards), and HR-Oriented CEO of the Year (HR Focus Awards).
The Ghanaian Times also reports that the proportion of the Ghanaian population using improved drinking water and sanitation services has increased between 2015and 2020, the National DevelopmentPlanning Commission (NDPC) has said.
With water, it said, the proportion has gone up from 33 percent to 41 percent at the national level; 11 percent to 16 percent in the rural area and 52 percent to 60 percent in the urban area.
A planning analyst of the NDPC, Ms Patience Ampomah, who disclosed these at a learning exchange event in Accra yesterday, said the section of the population using improved sanitation services swelled from 11 percent to 13 percent.
She was presenting the “Status of Water, Sanitation Hygiene (WASH)and water resources management” in the country with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) goal six on clean water and sanitation.
The SDGs comprising 17 Goals, 169 Targets, 232 indicators were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
The event organized by IRC Ghana, a non-governmental organisation in collaboration with NDPC, WaterAid Ghana and Water4, was on theme “Local systems strengthening to deliver safe and sustainable Water Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) services: reflections on the district-wide approach towards meeting the target for SGD-6.”
The learning exchange created the platform for partners and some district assembly representatives implementing district-wide approaches to achieving WASH and WASH-related SDGs to share their experiences and deliberate on how to improve the sector.
Ms Ampomah said in improving access to safe and reliable water supply services for all, there were on-going projects involving drilling and maintenance of boreholes/mechanized and maintenance of water systems.
The Challenges, she said, were percentage of distribution losses of 50.52 for 2019 and2020; regulating and managing self-supply and other suppliers of drinking water; water quality testing and non-functional water and Sanitation Management Teams in some communities.
The newspaper says that Shelley’s Eagle-Owl, a giant owl and one of the most elusive and mysterious of all birds, has been rediscovered in the Atewa Forest, after going unnoticed in Ghana by scientists for almost 150 years.
The discovery was made by two British scientists working in Ghana.
The Shelley’s Eagle-Owl Bubo shelleyi was described in 1872 from a specimen obtained from a local hunter in Ghana by Richard Bowdler Sharpe, curator of the bird collection at the Natural History Museum in London and founder of the British Ornithologists’ Club.
A statement signed by Mr Daryl Bosu, Deputy National Coordinator of A Rocha Ghana, an Environmental Non-governmental Organisation and copied the media said there had been no confirmed sightings in Ghana since then, and very few glimpses elsewhere.
“It remains almost completely unknown. The only photographs of a living individual were grainy images taken in 1975 of a captive individual behind bars at Antwerp Zoo,” the statement said.
“This all changed when, on October 16, 2021, the species was conclusively rediscovered by Dr Robert Williams, a freelance ecologist from Somerset, and Dr Joseph Tobias, a biologist at Imperial College London and leader of a UK-government funded field project studying biological impacts of agricultural development in Africa.”
The scientists, who visited the Atewa Forest during their time in Ghana, disturbed the huge bird from its daytime roost while they were walking in the forest, and initially thought it was an eagle as it flew through the tall trees.
Luckily, it perched on a low branch, where they had a few seconds to clinch the identification and take the first known photographs of a wild Shelley’s Eagle-Owl.
GIK/APA