Day: May 30, 2023

Accra, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has officially declared his intention to contest the flagbearer position of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) after picking up the presidential nomination form of the Party in Accra, on Tuesday.

Mr Fred Oware, a Senior Advisor to Dr Bawumia, picked up the nomination form on behalf of the Vice President at the Party’s headquarters at Asylum Down after paying the GHS50,000 nomination fee.

He was accompanied by Mr Sammy Awuku, a former Youth and National Organiser of the NPP and other leading members of the Party as well as some supporters of the Vice President.

Dr Bawumia is one of seven aspirants who have so far picked up the nomination forms to contest in the Party’s presidential primaries slated for November 4, this year.

Already, Mr Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko, a former Energy Minister, Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyapong, a former General Secretary of the NPP, Mr Francis Addai-Nimo, a former Member of Parliament for Mampong, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, an Economist cum corporate executive and Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, have all picked up the nomination form to contest the Party’s flag bearer slot.

Also, Mr Kwadwo Poku, an Energy Expert, has picked up nomination form to contest the presidential candidate slot.

Addressing the media, on Tuesday, Mr Poku said tackling youth unemployment and improving local governance would be high on his agenda should he get the nod to lead the NPP as the flag bearer and ultimately, President of Ghana come 2024.

Meanwhile, Mr Evans Nimako, Director of Elections of the NPP, said the leadership of the Party was, so far, impressed with progress of the exercise.

He indicated that the Party considered the election of a flag bearer as a ‘serious business because we are electing our presidential candidate who is going to be the president of Ghana come January 7, 2025.’

Mr Nimako assured flag bearer hopefuls of the Party’s commitment to create a transparent, levelled-playing field for the election for all prospective candidates.

‘We expect them (flag bearer hopefuls) to conduct a campaign that is civil, that is within the rules and regulations,’ he said.

The NPP, on Friday, May 26, opened nominations for the election of its presidential candidate for the 2024 general election.

The exercise is expected to end on June 24, 2023.

The one-month exercise kick-starts the processes for the final leg of the party’s internal elections to elect a presidential candidate for the NPP slated for Saturday, November 4, 2023, to contest on the ticket of the Party in the 2024 general election.

Party bigwigs, including Mr Alan Kyerematen, former Trade Minister and Mr Kennedy Agyepong, MP for Assin Central, who have all made their intentions to contest for the Party’s flagbearer slot are expected to pick up their nomination forms in the coming days.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, A five-day capacity building workshop on Air Quality Management Plan is ongoing for over 30 environmental health officers, planning officers and transport officers drawn from Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Accra.

It is being supported by Clean Air Fund and facilitated by Dr Sarah Rees, Deputy Executive Officer, Planning – South Coast Air Quality Management District, Los Angeles, USA.

The workshop is the second of training series under the Breathe Accra Project being led by Professor Kofi Amegah of the University of Cape Coast, to fix low-cost sensors to monitor air quality in Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA).

Thirteen MMDAs have signed on to the project including the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.

Madam Selina Amoah, the Acting Director, Environmental Quality Unit of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made a presentation on the Agency’s air mandate and its Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP).

She said the overall objective of the AQMP was to ensure that the ambient particulate matter in the Greater Accra Region (GAR) complied with the ‘Ghana Standard (GS 1236:19.’

‘The plan has outlined actions to address air pollution and various stakeholders and their roles in the implementation of the actions. The plan is supposed to be revised after evaluating the effectiveness of the measures and information updated to capture emerging issues,’ she stated.

Madam Amoah said the next steps to be taken were to expand air quality monitoring network, collect data on household air pollution in the GAR, conduct comprehensive emission inventory (mobile, point, area and biogenic sources) and finalise draft regulations to enforce the standards.

She said major contributors to air pollution from anthropogenic sources in Accra included transport, industry and human settlement (opening burning of electronic/solid waste, use of wood fuels in cooking, among others.)

‘Air pollution from natural sources are harmattan and sea salt.’

The Acting Director indicated that the MMDAs are expected to create awareness on air quality issues, enforce existing bye-laws and enactment of new ones to address specific issues relating to air quality, and stop burning at waste management sites.

They are to establish and implement improvement measures to reduce emissions from small and dispersed sources that contribute to air quality for example, grassing or paving unpaved surfaces, paving untarred roads, promoting the use of improve fuels and cookstoves for commercial activities (cooking, and fish smoking).

Others are to promote planting of tress/vegetation, identify and dedicate resources to data generation, especially at the hotspots (open burning, animal skin singeing, among others), collaborate with other stakeholders to address air quality issues, develop plan and dedicate resources to implement roles in AQMP, and collaborate with EPA and other relevant bodies to establish air quality monitoring networks in the country.

Mr Amegah said the Breathe Accra Project was to accelerate air quality improvements in Accra to protect public health and help inspire greater action on air pollution in other African countries.

Its objectives are to ensure openly accessible hyperlocal air quality data in GAMA, while fostering local capacity for monitoring and managing air quality and mounting surveillance for air pollution-related diseases in the metropolis.

‘In spite of Accra City having AQMP, which was developed in 2018, the authorities were slow in addressing air quality challenges because of lack of reliable data on air pollution levels due to limited air quality monitoring capacity,’ he stated.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Angolan ecologist, João Serôdio, explained Monday in Luanda that Angola is geographically in an intermediate position, with little possibility of being affected by climate change, comparing to other countries.

The university professor also made this statement to the press at the seminar on Education for Climate Action, with the aim of transforming individuals and communities.

According to him, climate changes have always existed, millions of years ago, and are always conditioned by several factors, so living beings have to adapt against these changes.

To João Serôdio, the Angola’s climatic reality is different from that of Europe, where there is flooding of cities and terrible droughts, as in South Africa.

According to the ecologist, probably between 2040 and 2060 there will be a very severe drought in Southern Africa, and in Benguela in particular, which will force the populations of the south to emigrate to the north or to the Congo.

“I am very concerned about the productivity capacity of Cuando Cubango, with the large foreign investments, knowing that probably in 10 or 15 years there will be a great drought in that region”, he expressed.

João Serôdio slammed the way in which wood is exploited in the country, as it could cause a severe drought.

Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)

Angolan government approved Tuesday the construction-oriented project during the 4th Ordinary Session of the Economic Commission of the Cabinet Council chaired by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.

In its press note, released at the end of the Session, the Commission states that this is a five-year project – 2023-2027 – designed for the national citizens.

The documents adds that the project represents a mechanism for the execution of public policies in the field of land management and housing construction, aimed to ensure people’s decent living standards.

The Executive intends to promote the distribution of four (4) million of plot of lands by 2050, with the view to reducing the housing deficit.

The measure will help create conditions for construction of a housing model of a social nature, with easy, quick and low-cost implementation and application.

The intention is also to appeal to commercial banks to consider the use of legal land tenure titles to obtain financing and stop the proliferation of informal settlements.

The 4th Session also approved the Employment Fund of Angola (FUNEA), aimed to guarantee the financial resources necessary for the promotion of public and private initiatives that will allow the insertion of newly trained and

unemployed people into the labour market.

Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)