The call by President Akufo-Addo on wealthy economies to re-channel a portion of their Special Drawing Rights sitting with the International Monetary Fund to Africa to help fight hunger and food insecurity is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on wealthy economies to re-channel a portion of their Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) sitting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Africa to help fight hunger and food insecurity.
It would also augment health provision in the face of the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, he said.
This was contained in the ‘Accra Declaration’ issued by the President, in consultation with African Finance Ministers, at the end of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual General Meetings in Accra last Friday.
The declaration was handed over to the President of the AfDB, Dr Akinwuni Adesina, by the Vice-President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, on behalf of President Akufo-Addo.
The SDRs are an international reserve asset created by the IMF to supplement the official reserves of its member countries.
President Akufo-Addo said the SDRs could be disbursed to the continent through the AfDB for investment in projects critical to the recovery of the citizens and the economies from the pandemic.
The newspaper says that Canada has announced a $20-million support for four West African countries, including Ghana, to fight climate change.
The other countries are Liberia, The Gambia and Togo.
The money will help the beneficiary countries build the capacity of their national climate measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems within a four-year period.
The Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, announced this at a meeting with Ghana’s Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, and a Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio, in Accra last Friday.
Mr Guilbeault was on a three-day official visit to Ghana.
The MRV systems are crucial steps for nations to develop strong and effective mitigation policies and actions because they give government’s transparent, accurate and comparable information on emission sources.
Mr Guilbeault said the Canadian climate finance project was administered by NovaSphere, a Canadian non-profit organisation which helps countries track emission reduction progress as they work towards achieving their goals under the Paris Agreement.
He said NovaSphere would deploy targeted technical and financial support for climate governance to help build the capacity needed to establish effective MRV systems and also facilitate multi-sectoral coordination.
Mr Guilbeault said it would also help and enable “partner countries to scale priorities and attract financing at levels needed to implement their respective NDCs, enhance ambition and achieve transformational change”.
“Both Canada and Ghana are building a solid partnership with the shared goal of tackling climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution,” he added.
He said the partnership had been cemented by the ongoing co-leadership of the two countries to ratify a new legally binding global agreement on plastic pollution at the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA).
The Graphic also reports that the Catholic Bishop of Wa, the Most Rev. Richard Kuuia Baawobr (Missionaries of Africa (M. Afr.), has expressed appreciation for his nomination as a Cardinal by Pope Francis, saying it is a call to service.
“I did not expect this. I was in Rome a couple of days ago and nothing of this came up. I am grateful to Pope Francis for the honour done me and Ghana,” he told the Daily Graphic yesterday.
The Most Rev. Baawobr was yesterday named among 21 Catholic priests who had been nominated as Cardinals by the Pope after he had recited the Regina Coeli prayer.
He will become the third Ghanaian Cardinal, after the late Cardinal Peter Dery and His Eminence, Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, who is currently Chancellor of both the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
The Most Rev. Baawobr said he was ready to accept the challenge, adding: “It is not about titles but a call to serve God’s people.”
When asked if he would be leaving the shores of Ghana for Rome, he said: “I do not know if I will leave or stay.”
He asked the lay faithful to pray for him and other leaders to deliver on their mandates to serve them better.
The new Cardinals are expected to be inducted at a consistory on August 27, 2022.
The Ghanaian Times says that President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has underscored the fact that Ghana will not need to look outside when it comes to dredging works.
Dredging activities in the country, he said, included dredging of dams, reservoirs, ports, harbours, land reclamation among others could be done effectively by local firms.
President Akufo-Addo made the observation while commissioning two new IHC Beaver 50 dredgers and marine equipment acquired to augment the fleet of DML at its parking yard at Adjei Kojo in Ashaiman, Accra on Wednesday.
According to him, Dredge Masters, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), for instance, who have acquired the two new ultra-modern IHC Beaver 50 dredgers and marine equipment had made huge and significant contributions in the dredging space of this country, adding that the company’s introduction the ultra-modern dredgers “means that Ghana, within the West African market, had her own indigenous company which could dredge to a depth of 16 metres.
Dredging companies, he said, had traditionally contributed to coastal protection, stating that from 2017 and the government had invested an estimated GH¢450 million in various flood-control measures, all in an effort to end flooding in the capital city.
On the issue of climate change, the President admitted that it was already in Africa, noting that the citizenry was witnessing unprecedented floods in West Africa, depletion of large forests, vastly altered rain patterns that are threatening agriculture production and food security among others.
“All these are undermining Africa’s ability to grow and develop to bring prosperity to its people,” he said.
He tasked all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to ensure regular desilting of drains and gutters within their jurisdictions to allow for water to flow freely, especially when the country had entered the raining season.
GIK/APA