APA – Accra (Ghana)
The speech of the newly elected flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, assuring the rank and file of the party that he will not disappoint them is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that the newly elected flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has assured the rank and file of the party that he will not disappoint them.
He has, therefore, expressed his profound gratitude to all party faithful for putting their trust in him.
Sharing his vision after he was officially outdoored as the leader of the party in Accra on Saturday night, Nov 4, Dr Bawumia said, the NPP remained the best option for the progress and prosperity of Ghanaians.
He said he has his own vision and priorities and therefore given the opportunity by the people of Ghana to lead, he would build an inclusive, food self-sufficient, data-driven and systems based nation that would fully participate in the global digital revolution to solve the problems of Ghana.
“I want to lead a nation that improves and unleashes the talents of our youth and offers good jobs with good pay and sustainable growth with macroeconomic discipline,” he added.
As the leader of the NPP for Election 2024, Dr Bawumia expressed confidence in the talent of the Ghanaian youth in various sectors such as information technology, robotics, entrepreneurship, creative arts and sports saying when these talents were mobilised “we will surely build a mighty nation.”
He, therefore, invited the youth to join him in “my journey of great possibilities.”
The newspaper says that the Ghana Chamber of Mines has called on the government not to sink the mineral royalties into the Consolidated Fund but redirect them to mining communities.
This, the chamber said, would free up more resources from the Minerals Development Fund (MDF) for the development of mining communities.
Speaking at an Editors Forum in Accra, the President of the Chamber, Joshua Mortoti, said the capping of royalties earmarked for the Minerals Development Fund (MDF) make beneficiary mining communities worse off.
For instance, last year, MDF received GH¢285.5 million instead of GH¢359.2 million, reflecting a shortfall of GH¢78.6 million that was “creamed off” into the Consolidated Fund by the government.
“Member companies of the Chamber prioritise the development of mining communities as it impacts their social licence”.
“We therefore call for the exclusion of MDF from the fiscal measures as it perpetuates the poor state of infrastructure in mining communities”, he said.
“On average, mining companies inject $29 million into their host communities annually,” he added.
The Chamber of Mines executive also called on the government to exempt exploration companies from the payment of taxes to reduce the risk and high cost of mining explorations.
That would help to reduce the barriers to exploration companies seeking to enter the mining industry which constitutes Foreign Direct Investment for the country.
Mr Mortoti said aside from mining expeditions being risky, the probability of making a commercial find was also low, hence the need to remove the taxes to make exploration easier.
He said the cost of holding land by exploration purposes, among other costs, induced stress on many of the exploration firms in addition to the different types of taxes they paid.
Ghanaian Times reports that the British Council Ghana, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with two state institutions as part of its collaborative partnership for the development of Ghanaian youth.
The partnership, which is between the Council, the National Service Secretariat (NSS) and the National Youth Authority (NYA), will among other things seek to empower the youth in the acquisition of skills.
The collaboration will also afford the Council the opportunity to work with NSS and NYA, in implementing its policies and programmes, to facilitate youth employment and development.
Speaking at the signing of the MoU in Accra, last Friday, the Country Director of the Council, Nii Dodoo Dodoo, said the partnership sought to provide skills and opportunities to Ghana’s youthful population.
He said “today’s meeting here is to show the British Council’s ambi¬tion to work with current potential partners to use the opportunities to address the challenges that this situation presents.”
Nii Dodoo said the Council was hoping to make the NSS more meaningful and impactful to enable service personnel to acquire critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
He explained that the growing youthful population presented opportunities for the tapping of skills and capacities for socio-economic development of the country.
The newspaper says that the head of the newly created Media Relations Directorate of Parliament, David Sabastian Damoah, has called on the Editor of the Ghanaian Times, David Agbenu.
The visit is part of measures taken by the new directorate to further deepen the relationship between the legislature and the New Times Corporation (NTC), publishers of the Ghanaian Times and the Spectator, in particular and the media in general.
Leading his lieutenants to the premises of the NTC in Accra on Thursday, Mr Damoah said the decision to embark on the media tour was in line with the new directorate’s mandate to give parliament a good and positive image.
He said over the years, the primary mandate of parliament to make laws and act as an oversight over the other arms of government had been misconstrued to developmental role.
As a result of this decades-old misconception, he said his outfit was going to embark on initiatives not to only educate the citizenry on the mandate of their MPs but to bring the legislature closer to the people and the buy-in of the media would be critical.
The policies, he itemised, included the Speaker and editors fora, where from time-to-time, editors would engage the Speaker and leadership and management of parliament, a yearly capacity building programme for parliamentary reporters and the development of a media policy to streamline activities of the various media houses that report from parliament.
Parliament, Mr Damoah said, would be taking its openness a notch higher with the promulgation of new Standing Orders to allow members of the general public have access to the committees and the media would be critical in that endeavour to ensure that accurate information was churned out.
“We know parliament has a strong relationship with Times and we are very happy working with you. We believe that we can consolidate that relationship as we move forward and at the end of the day, we can deepen that relationship and bring parliament closer to the people,” he said.
GIK/APA