The report of 874.01 million dollars’ worth of investments from 122 projects in the first half of 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the survey which says that unemployment remains the major issue Ghanaians want the government to address are some of the trending storoes in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Times reports that Ghana’s attractiveness as an investment destination has proved resilient amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with the country raking in 874.01 million dollars’ worth of investments from 122 projects in the first half of 2021.
Of the total investment of US$874.01 million, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) component amounted to US$829.29 million while the local component accounted for US$44.72 million.
The FDI amount of US$ 829.29 million was a remarkable increase of 32.15 percent in inbound FDI compared to the FDI value of US$ 627.52 million recorded in the same period last year.
“This strong FDI performance in the first half of the year was driven by success in key sectors including the services sector with 63 projects at an estimated value of US$ 597.63 million, the manufacturing sector with 24 projects at a value of US$98.74 million, as well as general trading and Building and construction with FDI values of US$41.87 million and US$22.63 million respectively,” a statement issued by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) in Accra yesterday has said.
It said, with operations at full capacity, the projects registered so far, have the potential to generate 8,931 jobs, thereby improving aggregate employment.
The Graphic says that unemployment remains the major issue the people want the government to address, a survey conducted by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has revealed.
And in spite of the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey also showed that health was the fifth top priority of the people, with roads and infrastructure, education and the management of the economy coming second, third and fourth, respectively.
Dubbed CDD-Ghana 2020 Post-election Survey, the research was conducted from May 23 to June 3, 2021, with a sample size of 2,400 people randomly selected from across the country.
The Director of Research of CDD-Ghana, Dr Edem Selormey, who presented the findings in Accra yesterday, said with the exception of the 2020 pre-election survey, unemployment continued to be the topmost priority in many of the researches conducted by the organisation.
“Health came in fifth, which is a little surprising, in view of the fact that we are in a pandemic,” she said.
The survey also showed that majority of the people (36 percent) wanted the government to channel more investment into the free senior high school (SHS) policy, with only five percent asking it to dedicate more investment to its industrialisation agenda, such as the One district, One factory policy.
The newspaper reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo through the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare has today made payment of GH¢14,394,397.58 for the cost of the operation and the purchase of surgical equipment for the surgery of the conjoined twins at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.
It will be recalled that in July, the Chief of Staff announced on behalf of President Akufo-Addo that the government had taken up the entire cost for the separation of the conjoined twins.
Medical doctors are set to perform the first local separation of twins conjoined at the head next month.
A team of 166 specialists, pooled both local and internationally, are engaging to facilitate the surgery whose entire cost has been underwritten by the government.
The conjoined twins were delivered at Nsawam on March 30, 2021, but were transferred to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital immediately for the necessary medical interventions that would lead to their separation.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Charity Sarpong, said since March 2020, the technical team of specialists from all over the country had been collaborating with international medical specialists in preparations towards the scheduled September separation procedure.
“We hope to see a very successful operation,” she said.
She said there had been a lot of support trickling in for both the family and the medical team.
The Graphic also reports that 29 individuals and organisations have been recognised at this year’s Human Resource (HR) Role Model Excellence Awards.
They were honoured for demonstrating superior HR best practices in their respective areas of operation in the era of the COVID-19.
Held in Accra last Friday, the awards, organised by Alica Consulting Limited, a capacity-building organisation, were on the theme, “HR in the New Normal: Leading the Shift from Surviving to Thriving.”
The HR Directors of the Bank of Ghana and Ecobank Ghana, Mr Gloria Darline Quartey and Mrs Daphine Oppong, respectively, jointly won the ultimate prize as the HR Leaders of the Year.
Addressing the event, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, indicated that for the country to thrive in the post COVID era, businesses required dynamic and professional human resource managers to identify, recruit and build right teams of productive talents that were capable of helping them deliver their industrial goals and objectives.
He further explained that it was only when the private and the public corporates expanded that production would increase desirably while creating more jobs to cure the growing unemployment problem and also help the government to get the needed revenue through taxes for development.
“Looking at the various HR studies, it is beyond obvious that things will never be the same, hence, HR practitioners need to carefully observe and examine the challenges and prospects and be determined to process the lemons to lemonade while taking advantage of the prospects to improve professional delivery,” Mr Awuah said.
He noted that the role of HR manager in identifying, recruiting and building teams sustainably to obtain corporate objectives had not changed but rather, it was the entire corporate atmosphere that required new approaches.
GIK/APA