APA – Accra (Ghana)
The launch of a two-year project in Accra to boost the capacity of migration stakeholders in Ghana and leverage the United Nations (UN) expertise for effective migration governance is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that a two-year project has been launched in Accra to boost the capacity of migration stakeholders in Ghana, and leverage United Nations (UN) expertise for effective migration governance.
Named “Building Migration Partnerships” the project is being implemented by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), for the UN Network on Migration (UNNM), in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior.
Funded by the European Union (EU), the government would receive support to implement the National Migration Policy towards safe, orderly, and regular migration towards sustainable development.
The renewed effort to tack¬le migration is in line with the Global Compact for Migration, the first-ever UN global agreement on a common approach to internation¬al migration of which Ghana is a signatory.
Additionally, the government would be assisted to establish a National Coordination Mech¬anism (NCM) on Migration and a secretariat to enhance institutionalised coordination. At the project launch on Wednes-day, the Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, in a speech read on his behalf by the Ministry’s Chief Director, Adelaide Anno-Kumi, said the project would enhance ongoing migration efforts.
“We, as policy makers, are working to put in place measures to manage our migration programmes effectively to derive migration benefits for the country’s social and economic development. This proj¬ect is crucial in supporting Ghana’s migration governance.”
The Chief of Mission , IOM and UNNM Coordinator , Fatou Ndiaye Diallo said , despite the progress made in improving migra¬tion governance in Ghana, there were critical actions that should be taken immediately, including the set¬up of NCM, to ensure the effective implementation of the migration policy.
She said the IOM, in contin¬uation of technical and other support provided, would, through the project and IOM country strategy (2022 – 2025), reinforce the policy and legal framework for migration governance in Ghana to enable the country to derive the benefits from effective migration governance.
The EU Ambassador to Ghana, Irchad Razaaly, said the project was significant because the chal¬lenges and opportunities implied in migration were too significant and too complex to be dealt with unilaterally.
“Recent experiences have shown that a coordinated, partic¬ipatory and inclusive approach to migration management is not only the better option, but the only option if we want to ensure that migration benefits all,” he said.
The newspaper says that the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisa-tion is in the final stages of drafting and adopting the Digital Economy Policy Document (DEPD), the Director-General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Richard Okyere-Fosu, has said.
He said one of the major pillars of the policy document was skills development to ensure that the country developed the right kind of skills to support the digital economy and emerging technologies.
Mr Okyere-Fosu disclosed this during this year’s Technol¬ogy Job Fair held at the Accra International Conference Centre in Accra on Wednesday.
The day’s event, organised by the Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana, AFOS Foundation and other partners, was on the theme “Leveraging Technology to create inclusive and sustainable jobs”.
It brought together companies looking for new talents, on one hand, and job-seeking gradu¬ates, on the other, to exhibit and fill up job openings through an innovative and rapid recruitment process.
The NITA Director-General said DEPD was to replace the Digital Policy which had become necessary to be reviewed in view of the changing nature of tech¬nology.
He called on all the stake¬holders in the ICT industry in the country to support the ICT skills development of the youth.
Mr Richard-Fosu said on the African continent, Ghana stood out as one of the touch bear¬ers of digitalisation, saying the government had invested a lot of resources in digitalising the economy.
The Executive Director of IIPGH, David Gowu, said the TJF was started in 2021 to link job seekers to companies looking for new talents.
He said this year’s fair attract¬ed more than 2000 participants and 60 ICT companies, which was a massive improvement on last year’s programme.
Mr Gowu said this year’s fair had created about 500 job openings which had been posted on the IIPGH’s website, adding about 125 participants last year got jobs through the TJF.
The Graphic reports that in line with the government’s efforts to build and support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to meet the global export market, the management of Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited (GTFCL) is set to host the 27th edition of the Ghana International Trade Fair (GITF) 2023.
The Fair, which is scheduled from 1st to 7th March 2023 at the West Hills Mall, is an annual exhibition organised by Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The theme for this year’s exhibition is: “Strengthening SMEs: A key to economic recovery.”
According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Trade Fair Company, Dr. Agnes Adu, building and supporting small and medium-scale businesses to become competitive on the global export market is crucial in the country’s journey to economic recovery.
“Our core mandate, which is to facilitate trade and industry through the organisation of fairs and exhibitions on behalf of the Ghana government, affords us the opportunity to create the platform for SMEs to build capacity for export through collaborative programs with other state agencies, private organisations, NGOs and other stakeholders in trade facilitation,” she explained.
We have planned this year’s exhibition to support SMEs through various seminars and programmes tailored towards: capacity building, access to funding, access to local and international markets, as well as B2 B engagements with foreign business participants.
The Fair is expected to see 500 businesses from Ghana and several other countries in Africa and beyond with a potential market population of 250 million.
The newspaper says that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, says his outfit will only sell oil to Oil Marketing Company (OMC) with more than 45 outlets under the Gold for Oil Programme.
According to him, the ultimate aim of the government in introducing the program is to ensure that fuel is affordable.
Dr Hamid opined that for the impact of the G4O programme to be felt by consumers across the country, government has decided on the top 25 OMCs that distributed petrol and diesel in 2022 with not less than 45 retail outlets nationwide.
Speaking to the media, he revealed that he had a number of calls asking him why the first consignment of the oil could not reflect in prices at the pumps.
“Now what happened was that of course the 40,000 metric tons is not enough to cause a significant change in the prices. But even so, one of the highest buyers in the gold for oil product in the first consignment was Goil.
Goil’s prices were brought down to about 70 pesewas. Other OMC’s that also bought some consignment of gold for oil gave us a reduction of about 10-20 pesewas that is still not significant though,” he stated.
“So, this time, NPA’s gold for oil team which is led by the deputy chief executive Fred Okudzeto, Sheila Addo, the policy coordinator and there is Abass Tashiti, they’ve come up with a brilliant idea with this second consignment of gold for oil that has come. We are going to sell to OMC’s with not less than 45 outlets. There are 150 oil marketing companies. If you are selling to all the 150 companies you will not realize the impact,” he concluded.
GIK/APA