Day: May 20, 2023

Mr Irchad Razaaly, the European Union (EU) Ambassador to Ghana, has inspected some mango farms that have benefited from the EU funded West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP).

The tour, which sought to assess the impact of interventions under the programme, formed part of activities to mark the EU Week Celebrations in Accra.

The Ambassador was accompanied by a delegation that included Dr Charles Kwame Sackey, Chief Technical Advisor for WACOMP-Ghana at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), an implementing agency of the programme.

The delegation visited Hendy Farms, Akorley packhouse as well as mango nursey located at Dodowa.

Speaking in an interview, Mr Razaaly said he was impressed with the impact of the project and that the visit was very insightful from a consumer perspective.

He said the project was looking to help more Ghanaian farmers meet certification and have access to EU market adding that, ‘mangoes are already in the European market, and I will be delighted to see more of Ghanaian mangoes in the EU market.’

Hendy Farms, which has a mango plantation and a processing unit for dry mango, has been supported with E-Marketing to E-Commerce training, branding, and marketing programmes, product packaging as well as Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) product registration and certification process.

The farm has also benefited from Sub-Contracting Matching Scheme, Direct one-on-one coaching, Trade Fairs and shows.

Akorley packhouse also received WACOMP support through harvest and post-harvest management training and documentary on mango harvesting.

Cotton Web link, which is a greenhouse nursery, has benefited from a Sub-Contracting Matching Scheme, training on nursery management, private extension training of youth and capacity building on good mango agronomic practices.

Dr Sackey said WACOMP implementation in Ghana was in line with the government’s industrial agenda.

He disclosed that so far, about 30,000 people, with women making up about 52 per cent of beneficiaries, had been trained in various capacities to enhance good agricultural practices, good certification process and decent work among others.

WACOMP is a partnership initiative between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and EU, which has a bearing on regional economic integration and highlights commitment to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and West Africa.

It has an overall objective of strengthening the trade competitiveness of West Africa and to enhance the ECOWAS countries’ integration into the regional and international trading system, including the newly established African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

This is to be achieved through an enhanced level of production, value addition, and export capacities of the private sector in line with regional and national industrial, Small and Medium Enterprises support strategies.

WACOMP is funded through a EURO 120 million contribution from the Regional Indicative Programme (RIP) for West Africa (2014 – 2020) under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) of the European Union.

In Ghana, the EU is contributing a total of pound 6.2 million EURO with pound 150,000 from UNIDO, totalling pound 6.35 million of donor fund to the programme that seeks to enhance value-addition, engineer low carbon sustainable production and processing with the aim of increasing access to regional and international markets.

WACOMP Ghana, launched in March 2019 and expected to end 2024, embraces the vision of the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III) and is also aligned to UNIDO’s mandate of fostering Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID).

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation (NADeF), the corporate social responsibility arm of Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, Ahafo South Mine, has spent GHS13,471,847 on 19 projects to improve infrastructural and social amenities in its host communities.

The projects, undertaken in 2022, were spreads across the company’s five host mining communities in the Asutifi North District of the Ahafo Region.

Fifteen of these projects were completed at a cost of GHS7,511,932.66, while four others, valued at GHS5,739,898.72, are at various stages of completion.

This was in the Foundation’s 2022 Annual Report, a copy of which was made available to the Ghana News Agency at Kenyasi in the Asutifi North District.

The Foundation received a total of GHS25,497,915 from the company for the year, while its total expenditure on community projects was GHS13,471,847, the report said.

The projects cut across the construction of palaces, educational facilities, water supply and community recreational facilities and installation of generator sets.

Source: Ghana News Agency

An Accra High Court will on June 1, 2023, decide whether to grant bail to Gregory Afoko accused of murdering Mr Adams Mahama, a former Upper East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party.

This is after the applicant made an application for bail to face the retrial of the case after he was declared not guilty by four out of the seven jurors.

Mr Stephen Sowah Charway, Defense Counsel for Afoko, making the submission, said: ‘We have before you an application for bail pending trial. I move in terms of the motion paper and supporting affidavits.

‘ The basis of our application is quite simple that in the intervening period since the applicant was arrested on May 21, 2018, to date, we have had two full trials.

‘The first trial lasted for about three years and it was aborted just as the parties were to address the court before summary,’ he stated.

‘The second trial also lasted for a little over three years- 2019-2023. This second trial went the full length after the State produced 16 witnesses and after the jury examined the evidence presented by the State. The trial ended with four members of the jury making a determination that the applicant was not guilty and three members thought otherwise so retrial has been ordered as the law states,’ the Counsel noted.

He said before the concluding stage in the second trial, there was an application for bail, which was granted, but for some mysterious reasons, though all the bail conditions were executed, the applicant was not released.

Then there was a decision later where the bail was rescinded and the applicant had been on remand for eight years with two full trials spanning a period of about six years, he stated.

‘It is our respectful submission that the continuous detention of the applicant is unfair, is without any justification and is unconscionable. It is the trite principle of law that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty.’

He said: ‘Just as it is his constitutional right to fair trial, constitutional right to be tried within a reasonable trial, there is also a constitutional right to bail of an accused person clearly stated in Article 14(4) of the 1992 Constitution.’

While in detention, the applicant had not behaved in any rebellious way or whatsoever, the lawyer said.

He said Afoko, the applicant had no previous conviction before his arrest as his guilt had not been proven.

Just as the applicant met all the bail conditions in 2019, he was prepared to meet all the bail conditions, Mr Charway added.

‘He is willing to avail himself as a citizen of the Land for the retrial as ordered by the court.’

However, Madam Esi Dorm Fiadzo, the State Prosecutor objecting to the bail application, said ‘we are opposed to the application and rely on our affidavit in opposition and all the averment therein.’

Though the applicant was granted bail sometime in 2019 as counsel stated, he was not able to fulfil all his bail conditions, she said.

‘My Lady, all through counsel’s submission he kept on saying that the applicant had been detained unlawfully and this is unfair, unconstitutional and unconscionable. We want to set the record straight that even though the constitution guarantees personal liberty, the same constitution has spelt out situations where that liberty can be curtailed and one of them is detention pending trial.’

‘The State called 16 witnesses and tendered several exhibits but unfortunately it was hung jury so my Lady as it stands now he is presumed to be innocent but he is not a free man until a jury comes out to acquit him. He is currently in lawful custody.’

Afoko and Asangi Asangke were accused of pouring acid on the late Adams resulting in his death.

After trial, the jury found Asangi guilty and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Some 377 tertiary students and 33 apprentices benefitted from the Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation’s scholarship, last year, as part of a programme aimed at developing the human capital in the company’s five host mining communities.

The scholarship, totaling GHS1,762,350.00, forms part of the corporate social responsibility of Newmont Ghana Gold Limited (NGGL) Ahafo Mine in the Asutifi North District of the Ahafo Region.

The support falls under Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation’s (NADeF) Economic Empowerment and Human Resource Development thematic areas.

The 2022 Annual Report of NADeF, a copy of which was made available to the Ghana News Agency at Kenyasi, the Asutifi North District capital, said the beneficiaries comprised 210 males and 200 females.

They were selected from Wamahinso, 36, Gyedu, 51, Ntotroso, 90, Kenyasi Number One, 121, and Kenyasi Number Two, 112.

Liebherr Ghana Limited/NADeF Excellence Scholarship Award for the ninth time continued to support the human resource development of the Ahafo South Mine host communities with GHS20,000.00 annually, the report said.

The recipients include Samuel Afriyie from Kenyasi Number Two, a second-year geological engineering student at the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, and Emmanuel Oteng, from Wamahinso, a second-year renewable energy engineering student at the University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani campus.

NADeF, in partnership with the African Underground Mining Services, a subsidiary company of NGGL Ahafo Mine, for the second time, offered GHS63,000.00 to 14 beneficiaries.

This is under the Community Excellence Scholarship/Apprenticeship Award and the beneficiaries comprise two tertiary students and 12 apprentices in five host mining communities.

Source: Ghana News Agency