The travel advice issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration against all travel to the Gao region of Mali and surrounding areas is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has issued travel advice against all travel to the Gao region of Mali and surrounding areas.
The Ministry said the advice was in view of recent abductions and executions of travellers especially Christians (including Ghanaians) in the region.
The Ministry is a press release also urged all Ghanaians in the region to immediately leave the area for their safety and security.
“Commercial transport operators and drivers who still ply the Gao route from Ghana are particularly advised, as a matter of urgency, to suspend all operations to that part of Mali,” the release said.
“Ghanaians in the Gao Region are also advised to leave immediately for their safety and security. Those who, for any reason, are unable to leave are advised to minimise their movement, monitor developments in the local security situation and follow precautions based on their own best judgment.
The release said the Government of Ghana’s ability to facilitate the departure of Ghanaian nationals from the region was very limited, adding that those “who require assistance to leave should contact the following numbers: +223 71762020, +223 20295768 and +233 77807676”.
“Those who choose to depart the Gao Region are advised to exercise the utmost caution as they move to a departure point, only when judged to be safe to do so”.
The newspaper says that the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has allayed fears of imminent shortage of fuel following reported shortage of petrol and diesel at some filling stations.
The Authority said though some oil marketing companies recorded shortages at some of their outlets, there was no shortage of petroleum products in the country as speculated.
It said as of Monday, May 16, 2022, the quantity of diesel available could ‘feed’ the country for up to four weeks while the quantity of petrol in the country’s reserve could last for about six weeks.
According to the Head of Communications, NPA, Mr Mohammed Abdul-Kudus, said there was no need for panic.
He said the Authority had put adequate measures in place to ensure constant supply of fuel to meet the demands of consumers.
“Between now and the next four weeks we can’t ran out of diesel in Ghana,” he assured.
The Graphic also reports that the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, Wamkele Mene, has asked African countries to leverage the platform provided by the trade pact to create regional trade networks and global affiliations.
He said this would enable their markets to build resilience in the supply chains and reduce reliance on external markets.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has provided us a once in a lifetime opportunity to make bold decisions that will put us on a path to resilient, inclusive and sustainable economic recovery.
“With the AfCFTA, Africa now has an important instrument to assist countries to look inward for solutions to their COVID-19 economic challenges,” he said during the opening of the 13th World Trade Promotion Organisations (WTPO) conference in Accra on May 17.
The two-day event is being organised by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), under the theme, “Bold Solutions for Resilience and Recovery.”
Mr Wamkele noted that the conference comes at a time when countries were recovering from the pandemic, a development he said had impacted economies and triggered the sharpest recession in over 25 years, and halted critical gains made in reducing poverty in Africa.
“Indications are that the recovery will be an arduous and complex process as there are still many uncertain and changing factors, including Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has created new concerns.
“Now is the time to rebuild our economies and secure Africa’s future,” he said.
The Ghanaian Times says that there are 476, 400 migrants in Ghana with more than one million Ghanaians living abroad, the Chief of Party of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Ghana, Ms Abibatou Wane-Fall, has revealed.
She said these migrants were engines for social development in their host communities and origins hence the need for alliance and robust measures to help leverage the positives of migration and limit its adverse impacts.
“Presently, Ghana is faced with a dynamic migration context. Situated in the Economic Community of West African States— a place which has been described as a region of hyper migration — it is a country of origin, transit and destination for migration,” she said in Accra yesterday.
Ms Wane-Fall was speaking at the launch of the IOM Ghana’s Country Strategy (2022-2025) which brought together migration stakeholders including the United Nations, and state institutions.
Over the next three years, IOM Ghana would focus on six strategic priority areas comprising immigration and border management; counter-trafficking; assisted voluntary return and reintegration; migration and development; migration health and emergency, preparedness, response, and stabilisation.
Ms Wane-Fall said the strategy, in line with IOM’s strategic vision of resilience, mobility and governance, was consistent with national and international migration frameworks including the Sustainable Development goals.
She said mainstreamed in the priorities were issues of environment and climate change; gender dynamics, migration data, right-based approach to programming and youth.
The newspaper says that as food inflation in the country continues to rise, further pushing national inflation to unprecedented levels, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is urging government to invest in a comprehensive storage strategy to deal with post-harvest losses in the country.
This the CSIR believes will eventually make food available all-year round which will keep prices and food inflation under control.
While the national inflation rate stands at 23.6 per cent for the month of April, it is important to note that food inflation according to data from the Ghana Statistical Service accounts for 50 per cent of that the national rate.
All the 15 food subclasses recorded positive year-on-year inflation with Oils and Fats, recording the highest of 43.4 per cent. Other sub-classes like Water, Cereal products as well as Fruits and Vegetables recorded inflation rates of 42.1 per cent, 31.5 per cent and 30.1 respectively.
The sub-class to record the least rate of food inflation of 18.5 per cent from April 2021 to April 2022 was Coffee and Coffee substitutes.
Speaking to Citi Business News, on ways to check the rising rate of food inflation, the Director-General at the CSIR, Professor Paul Bosu said, despite the improvement in the number of storage facilities, government needs to now look into the effective transportation of food items from the hinterlands to the storage facilities across the country to ensure food stored during peak seasons are made available in lean seasons to keep prices stable.
GIK/APA