The departure of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the weekend to attend the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the United States of America is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Friday, left the country to attend the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the United States of America.
He will address the UN General Assembly on Wednesday; participate in the Global COVID-19 Summit hosted by President Joe Biden, and would hold several rounds of engagements and UN events on climate change, health and food security.
The President, who is also leading a high power government delegation and the private sector will hold bilateral engagements with some colleague Heads of State; NATO Secretary-General J. Stoltenberg; top Economist Jeffery Sachs; World Trade Organisation (WTO), Chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as well as other world figures.
There will be an engagement with sections of the Ghanaian and business community while there.
Additionally, President Akufo-Addo will participate in the Second Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Moment of the Decade of Action, and witness the signing ceremony between Minister of Tourism, Ibrahim Awal Mohammed, and developers of the Dubois Project.
The President will on Thursday, attend a fundraising event for the National Cathedral.
Meanwhile, Vice President, Alhaji DrMahamudu Bawumia is to act as President in accordance with Article 60 (8) of the Constitution until the President Akufo-Addo’s return on September 27, 2021.
The Graphic says that the Public Interest and Accountability Committee’s Report on Oil Revenue shows that Ghana has bagged over $6.5 billion over the last ten years of mining the “black gold”.
Out of the $6.550 billion received from 2011 to 2020, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation received $2,012.16 billion, representing about 30.72 per cent, Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) had $2,557.12 billion (39.04 per cent), the Ghana Heritage Fund had $0.587 billion (8.97 per cent), while the Ghana Stabilisation Fund received $1,393.18 billion (21.27 per cent).
Professor Kwame Adom-Frimpong, the Chairman the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), disclosed this at a forum in Takoradi for stakeholders in the Western and Central regions.
The forum formed part of the 10th year anniversary of PIAC, on the theme: “A Decade of the Management and Use of Petroleum Revenue in Ghana, Successes and Lessons for the future.”
The Oil revenue, however, dipped in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic with that year’s projections showing reduction in royalties from $236,794,156.13 in 2019 to $195,359,565.96 in 2020 while Carried and Participation Interest (CAPI) also went down from $505,987,937.41 to $300,926,631.91 within the same period.
Prof Adom-Frimpong said the Jubilee Fields produced 350,469.95 Million Standard Cubic Feet (mmscf) of gas, Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme (TEN) had 179,884.98 mmscf, and Sankofa Gye Nyame produced 199,126 .687 mmscf to reach a total of 729,481.61 mmscf of gas between 2014 and 2020.
He said the oil monies focused on 12 development poles including health, infrastructure, alternative energy sources, environmental protection, social welfare, security, institutional strengthening and agriculture.
The newspaper reports that the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) has busted a 42-year-old man with 656 ATM cards connected to nine banks operating in Ghana and Nigeria.
Bachir Musa Aminou, who claims to be a Nigerian but holds a Nigerien passport, concealed the cards in a black plastic bag containing kola nuts bound for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
He was busted at the Kotoka International Airport on September 12, when he was going through departure formalities en route to Dubai.
He arrived in the country on August 20, this year on transit to Dubai.
The suspect first arrived in Ghana on April 29, 2020 and left for Dubai on May 26, 2020 through Ethiopia.
The ATM cards are connected to a local bank and eight other banks in the country with Nigerian origin.
Aminou claimed, during interrogation, that 132 of the cards were his, and that he collected them from his extended family for his business.
He said the rest of the cards were for his business partners in Dubai.
He said he was a businessman who plied his trade in Dubai, China, Nigeria and Ghana and denied any links to fraudulent activities.
GIK/APA