The Vice-President’s call for more effort to rationalise the governance of educational systems to achieve greater coherence, cooperation and coordination and the appeal to the government to reintroduce the road toll system to increase revenue for accelerated development are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called for more effort to rationalise the governance of educational systems to achieve greater coherence, cooperation and coordination.
He, however, cautioned that Africa would not be able to deliver change without building and sustaining political momentum in the region.
Dr Bawumia was speaking at a day’s conference aimed at promoting human capital in the respective regions of the continent in Accra yesterday, June 27, 2022.
It was attended by 22 ministers of Finance and Education from Central and Western Africa.
The conference, which was interspersed with panel and break-out sessions, was under the auspices of the World Bank.
The Vice-President said Ghana’s educational agenda could benefit from collaborations and synergy with its regional partners and, therefore, urged the conference to explore how to spur the collective growth of the continent because “alone we can do so little, together we can do so much”.
Dr Bawumia said policies on educational access, quality, equity, relevance and skills acquisition reflected how Ghana was using education as a leveller for human capital development and socio-economic transformation.
He said the country had introduced some key policies and reforms to strengthen the quality of education and its management across the sector.
According to him, in the last five years, the government had initiated some reforms to reposition the entire educational system in the country.
The newspaper says that the government has been urged to reintroduce the road toll system to increase revenue for accelerated development.
According to the Director of the Institute for Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Professor Peter Quartey, the Ministry of Roads and Highways could introduce an electronic pass (E-pass) system through a public-private partnership (PPP).
“It is about time the government revisited this issue of the road tax system to address the revenue gaps that exist in the economy,” he said.
Prof. Quartey was delivering a lecture on ‘The global economic situation — Impact on sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries’ at ‘The Cedi Summit’ in Accra yesterday, June 27, 2022.
It was organised by Citi TV as part of its 2022 Citi Business Festival, in partnership with ISSER and ABSA Bank Ghana.
The day’s forum focused on the state of the global economy and its effects on sub-Saharan African countries.
Participants analysed the various policy response options open to governments and examined the feasibility and implications of possible solutions for SSA economies in general and the Ghanaian economy in particular.
Prof. Quartey said “the outright removal of road tolls is not in the interest of the government, since it sends the wrong signals to private investors who wish to express interest in a PPP arrangement.”
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen, is advocating the establishment of a Loan Guarantee Scheme that will offer liquidity in the banks to support development of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
As the life blood of every successful business venture, he explained that the availability of financial or liquidity support for small businesses through such a scheme would be beneficial to the growth of MSMEs in the country.
He, therefore, called on the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana to lead the processes towards the introduction of the scheme.
The Minister was speaking in Accra yesterday during the launch of 37 Business Resource Centres (BRCs) across the country.
The BRCs are a one-stop enterprise support centre at the district level designed to provide broad range of business development services to potential and existing entrepreneurs and enterprises.
Developed under the Rural Enterprise Programme (REP) and operationalised under the supervision of Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), the BRCs are funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
With 37 operationalised across the country currently, works on 30 more are at various stages of completion and expected to be opened by the end of the year.
Mr Kyerematen said support for MSMEs would transform Ghana’s local economy by providing employment, ensuring sustained flow of foreign exchange and create global business giants.
The newspaper says that the Risk Communications Officer of the Ghana Veterinary Services Directorate, Dr Benjamin KissiSasu, says the COVID-19 preventive protocol of hand hygiene, social distancing and mask wearing were useful to keep Monkeypox at bay.
Additionally, he has cautioned the public not to think of the disease as less deadly but rather keep to the precautionary measures to minimise risk of being infected.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times yesterday on the gradual rise in Monkeypox cases in the country, Dr Sasu said, “although Monkeypox isn’t deadly like COVID-19, one could lose his or her life depending on the level of immunity or underlying health conditions, if infected.”
“The protocols are still very relevant and we must continue with them; hand washing, keep physical distancing and avoid crowded areas, avoiding contact with animals that could harbor the virus and reporting early signs immediately at the nearest health facility,” he said.
It would be recalled that in an address to update the public on health emergencies in the country last Thursday, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said from five confirmed cases of Monkeypox reported on June 8, 2022, cases have since risen to 18 as of June 14, 2022.
He said the infected persons were between the ages of nine months and 41 years and although no death had been recorded among the confirmed cases, the Service was picking cases from theGreater Accra, Ashanti, Bono and Eastern regions.
Dr Sasu said people should be on the lookout for early signs of Monkeypox, including headache, fever, diarrhoea and skin rashes which was typical of the disease and report immediately to a health facility.
He further advised citizens to exercise restraint when dealing with animals saying, “as much as we cannot avoid animals entirely, people must be mindful of protective measures for them; build better shelter, vaccinate and get them to veterinary centres as soon as they are sick.”
“When people go to the zoo and other eco-parks, they need to obey rules around getting closer to the animals and in case of any suspicion, get authorities informed immediately so that we can reduce the spread of infections from animals to human beings,” he said.
GIK/APA