The selection of the City of Accra among five recipients of the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF) and the launch of the National Digital Academy (NDA) with a call on the youth to embrace digital opportunity to build their skills are some of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that the City of Accra has been selected among five recipients of the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF), an initiative that responds to the unmet needs of cities to support migrants, refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).
The fund will be used to study the situation of migrants working in the city’s informal economy and facilitate their access to financial inclusion, health care and child care.
The other beneficiary cities are Arua (Uganda), Beira (Mozambique), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Monrovia (Liberia).
This was announced at the International Migration Review Forum 2022 organised in New York, USA, last Wednesday.
They are to receive a total grant of $200,000 to implement projects that will address the needs of migrants and people affected by the climate crisis.
The selection was made by a committee of subject matter experts and practitioners who reviewed submissions and selected the beneficiary cities based on their anticipated impact, engagement with affected communities and commitment of city leadership. The fund was launched in 2021 at a UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) by Mayors Migration Council (MMC) and a C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40 Cities).
It was in partnership with the Robert Bosch Stiftung (RBSG) and the Inclusive Climate Action (ICA) Chapter of the GCF, which drives financial and technical resources to African cities.
The newspaper says that Trade promotion organisations (TPOs) have been urged to leverage digitilisation to boost trading across the world.
The organisations were also charged to work hard to increase trade flows to ensure sustainable growth and development.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Dr Afua Asabea Asare, who gave the advice said the world could not wait for the current overlapping global crises of war and COVID-19, and their attendant disequilibrium to simmer down before taking action.
Therefore, she said the current exposure of economies to the vagaries of the external environment must serve as a turning point in trading dynamics.
“We must get to a point where value chain actors in the region, through the power of demand and supply, can easily locate each other to strike business deals without the hustle of moving round and round,” she said during the second annual general meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Trade Promotion Organisation (ETPO) Network in Accra.
She said that digitilisation had been a positive outcome of the pandemic and so, members of the network should consider it as a fulcrum for deployment to boost trade.
She mentioned that GEPA has set up the IMPACT Hub as an example of physical information technology space that provides multiple support programmes to exporters.
“As leaders, we cannot continue to do the same things and expect different results. This network should pursue programs and projects that engender significant transformations in the lives of our people. It should be the conduit and the platform on which business partnerships and synergies are created and deployed,” she said.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has launched the National Digital Academy (NDA) with a call on the youth to embrace digital opportunity to build their skills.
An initiative of Smart Africa, a digital think tank, the NDA under the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA), being financed by the World Bank, is to train the youth with digital skills to address the skills gap in the sector.
The Academy would also build the capacity of senior government officials and policymakers with digital skills for effective decision making.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful who made the call in Accra yesterday, said digital technology had taken centre-stage in the current Fourth Industrial Revolution.
He said job avenues globally were tilting towards digital technology and it was, therefore, imperative for the youth to pursue skills become marketable on the job market.
For instance, she said it was estimated that about 230 million digital skills job would be created by 2030 and the youth needed to position themselves to take advantage of the job opportunities in the digital market.
The minister said the government was committed to promoting a digital economy to enhance transparency and efficiency in the delivery of public service.
She said the state would derive a lot of benefits from digitalisation and adoption of technology, and reduce the delay and inefficiency associated with accessing public service.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful commended the Smart Africa for the NDA to develop digital capacities in the digital industry in Africa.
The Chief Executive Officer of Smart Africa, Mr Lacina Kone said digital skills development was more than ever at the heart of Africa’s current and future socio-economic development in Africa, particularly Ghana.
He said Smart Africa decided to launch the NDA in Ghana in view of the commitment of government to promote a digital economy and the huge investment the state had made in the sector.
The newspaper says that Mr Benito Owusu Bio, the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, responsible for Lands and Forestry, has reaffirmed government’s resolve to protect the Achimota Forest.
“The Achimota Forest has not been sold; it is not for sale and will not be sold. It is intact,” he assured.
He added that the Forest itself had not been declassified but rather the peripherals which he said, the Owoo family was constitutionally entitled to as compensation.
According to the Deputy Minister, giving the monetary value of the parcel of land, government would had paid more in compensation to the custodial owners of the portions in EI 144.
“Government is also committed to ensuring that whatever happens to the peripheral potions of the land, did not affect the ecological integrity of the forest” he pointed out.
Speaking to the media during a tour of the forest, yesterday, the Deputy Minister explained that the media tour was specifically to show the general public the various activities currently ongoing in the forest to maintain the integrity and structure of it.
As part of efforts to maintain the forest, he said different species of trees including Melina trees had been planted to give a boarder to the forest reserve and protect it from intruders and also and make it much greener.
He continued, that aside the afforestation drive, there weremany other efforts government was embarking on to conserve the forest, which is contrary to the reports being circulated.
Mr Owusu-Bio also said moving forward, all prospective plans of government regarding the Achimota Forest will be handled with utmost transparency and integrity.
GIK/APA