The address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo today at the United Nations General Assembly Hall at the annual gathering of world leaders in New York City, United States is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will today mount the podium at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly Hall at the annual gathering of world leaders in New York City, United States.
It will be the fifth time he addresses the UN General Assembly as President, having done so four times already in his capacity as President during his first term.
Today’s address is the first one in his second term as President.
In all previous addresses, President Akufo-Addo mounted the podium in person, apart from 2020 when, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world body resorted to technology to address the global fraternity from the comfort of their offices.
When he mounts the stage at the 76th UN General Assembly at the UN Headquarters, situated in the Turtle Bay neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York City, the President is expected to touch on two vexed issues confronting the world — ending the COVID-19 pandemic and redefining the post-pandemic economy.
President Akufo-Addo is also likely to reiterate his clarion call on the developed world to see the urgent need to ensure a fairer distribution of COVID-19 vaccines among all nations, irrespective of their economic might, to deal with the increasing threat of the virus, which has been mutating.
Still on the pandemic, the President is expected to make a strong case for support for nations such as Ghana that have shown promising indication of manufacturing or replicating some of the vaccines and also putting themselves in good stead to deal with future outbreaks of viruses.
The newspaper says that hundreds of members of the #FixTheCountry movement yesterday staged a demonstration in the twin-city of Sekondi-Takoradi in the Western Region to press home their demand for the government to address prevailing challenges in the country, including ensuring the amendment of portions of the Constitution.
The demonstrators started massing up at the Nkrumah Roundabout, the convergence point, about 5 a.m., with the march eventually taking off about 6 a.m. through the Mankessim White House road to the Takoradi Central Market (Ground Zero).
The protesters, clad in red and black and the national colours, amidst singing, drumming and dancing, proceeded to the Paa Grant Roundabout, the Sekondi-Takoradi highway through Kweikuma, finally converging on the Fish Roundabout (Enamnaase), near the Naval Ratings Mess in Sekondi, where they were addressed by various speakers.
The Convener, Mr Enesto Yeboah, said no government in the country had produced a leader like Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah in terms of achievements and commitment to the development of the nation.
He urged the youth to emulate the determination and fearless nature of Dr Nkrumah, who said: “The secret of life is to have no fear; the youth of Ghana must have no fear — we have to be fearless.”
According to him, the prevailing social and economic conditions in the country were unacceptable and blamed successive governments for the situation.
Mr Yeboah, however, said the time had come to ensure that the concerns of the people were fixed, adding: “Let no one see us as leaders; we are all leaders and we have to force them to address our development challenges.”
“What Dr Nkrumah said in 1949 that we have a battle and that the battle would be against old ideas is still relevant today,” he added.
A leader of the movement, Lawyer Osagyefo Barkar Vormawor, said part of the reasons people could not get the change they deserved was that there was some deficiency in the Constitution which needed to be amended.
He, therefore, appealed to the people to join the campaign for the change of the Constitution by appending their signatures to a petition that was being circulated.
The Graphic also reports that the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Mrs Elsie Addo Awadzi, has reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to initiating and promoting policies that will ensure inclusive growth for all citizens and actors in the economy.
Mrs Awadzi said the bank was particularly interested in ensuring that women and youth were equally empowered and motivated to contribute their quota to economic development.
In that regard, she said the central bank would ensure that the regulatory environment allowed all economic actors, particularly women and youth entrepreneurs, to innovate and access appropriate forms of finance at cost-effective rates to help launch, grow and sustain their businesses.
Mrs Awadzi was speaking at the graduation ceremony for the first cohort of the Standard Chartered Bank’s Women in Technology (WIT) Business Incubator Programme, which was done in partnership with the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre of the Ashesi University.
The WIT Business Incubator programme set out to provide business incubation and financial support for women-led or women-owned businesses that desired to launch new technologies or grow their businesses with technology, while making a significant impact in their communities.
Mrs Awadzi said while data showed that Ghana’s private sector was dominated by women entrepreneurs, second only to Uganda, it suggested that women-owned businesses tended to remain smaller and less profitable than those of men.
She said that was as a result of the lack of access to business support services and finance.
The Ghanaian Times says that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged the African Diaspora to follow in the footsteps of W. E Dubois by making Africa their home, and contributing to the development of the continent.
The President made these remarks, on Monday at the signing of a historic partnership arrangement between the Du Bois Museum Foundation Ghana, an affiliate of the W. E B Dubois Foundation New York, and the Government of Ghana, represented by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.
The partnership, which was initiated by the President in 2019 as part of his trip to promote “The Year of Return,” will see to the transformation of the current Du Bois Memorial Centre and burial site in Accra, into a state-of-the-art museum complex and world-class destination for scholars and heritage tourists.
Dr. Du Bois, a civil rights pioneer and one of the world’s leading black intellectuals and thinkers, became a citizen of Ghana, and resided in the country until his death in 1963.
The Partnership will see the Du Bois Museum Foundation Ghana, leading the construction of a multi-million-dollar Museum Complex to preserve Dr. Du Bois’ legacy, over a 50-year period.
The Du Bois Museum Complex aims to transform the Centre, and create a living museum that revives the transformative spirit and vision of Dr. Du Bois for a unified ancestral home for Africans in the diaspora around the world.
Upon completion, the complex will serve as a historic memorial site, where visitors can honor his life and legacy, connect to their cultural and ancestral roots, and serve as an impetus to inspire solidarity between people of African descent.
At the signing ceremony in New York, President Akufo-Addo highlighted the significance of the agreement in strengthening historical, cultural, and economic ties between Ghana and the United States, and Africans in the Diaspora.
GIK/APA