Month: March 2016

Second Deputy Majority Chief, Hon Ibrahim Ahmed has appealed to the Parliament to help save the cashew industry from collapse.

He wants Parliament to call on the Hon. Minister for Trade and Industry, Ekow Spio Garbrah to suspend with immediate effect a directive he has issued to stop the exportation of the commodity until June this year.

Dr. Ekow Spio Garbrah has directed that ‘hence forth all traders and processors are to note that they are allowed to purchase raw cashew nuts during the main harvesting season from January – June but Export of raw cashew is not permitted after May 31, 2016.’

According to him any raw cashew nuts that are brought to the ports or borders of Ghana for Export between 31st March and 31st May 2016 shall be confiscated to the State.

But Hon Ibrahim Ahmed says such directive is illegal and has the tendency to collapse the cashew industry.

Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin, says the defense put up by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) not to bailout depositors in the DKM Diamond Microfinance debacle is unacceptable because it was the central bank’s negligence that caused the whole saga.

Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Henry Kofi Wampah, Tuesday, told Parliament that the central bank has no bailout package for victims of DKM Diamond Microfinance Company fiasco because they did not invest wisely.

He further told the August House that although DKM’s 50% interest on deposits for two months was unsustainable, customers could have done better with their investment if they had conducted due diligence into the operations of the company.

“When you have a million Cedis and you place the funds in a very risky institution, you can only get what is guaranteed”.

“To be able to do due diligence and know where to place your funds is necessary. They (depositors) were expected to have to known better and invested wisely” he said when addressing the House over the circumstances that lead to the closure of DKM and whether it was possible to offer depositors a bailout package.

However, Bagbin, who doubles as the Majority Leader of the legislature, told Wampah that the central bank cannot escape blame in the DKM debacle, insisting that it was the BoG that rather shirked its oversight and regulatory responsibilities.

“In this scrutiny you are trying to extricate yourself from liability at all after you’ve been through some of the actions and in-actions of the bank itself. The levels of liabilities differ. So, when you say they should have known, they should have done due diligence; how are you going to do due when a license from the Bank of Ghana is authorizing that company to operate?”

“What kind of due diligence do you need to do again? And we have confidence in the Bank of Ghana. So, to create the impression that the Bank of Ghana cannot be held liable and you know it is a long process and you think that the process is one of legislation that when you file you are looking at ex-pates, the bills and to try to respond to the directive of the President, I beg to differ. It cannot be”.

“We believe strongly that in this matter, the Bank of Ghana is culpable. We believe strongly that the Bank should bailout depositors and that action should be taken expeditiously”, he noted.

Incumbent Member of Parliament for Manhyia North constituency, Collins Owusu Amankwah says the Regional Chairman of the party, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi per the constitution has no right to set up a committee to spearhead the impending primary set for March 13, 2016.

He fears such a committee advanced by the party ahead of Sunday’s primary will set the whole exercise in futility and bring confusion into the party when it’s allowed to operate.

“Per the constitution, the regional chairman has no power to set a committee to spearhead the elections. He goes about saying he’s neutral, and how can you be neutral if you can appoint your own body guard to be part of such critical committee.

“He wants to foment trouble in the constituency because he knows he setting up this committee in the first place is unconstitutional”

He told Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.3 FM the so-called committee is bogus and even populated by his own people.

The Ashanti regional leadership of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has scheduled Sunday March 13, for the Manhyia North parliamentary primary.

A committee has subsequently been constituted to spearhead the elections, according to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the party.

He said all outstanding issues have now been resolved for the polls to be held Sunday at Longford Hotel at Akate Farms.

“We sat down as a committee and agreed that we will vote on the 13th of March. The venue is Longford Hotel and the exercise starts at 8 am. Please everyone should come and vote. We want an incident-free exercise,” Chairman Wontumi said.

I’m not supporting anyone

“I have even heard rumors that I am supporting one of the candidates. I want to state on record that it is not true. My candidate is the one who will emerge winner. I have nothing to do with the challenges that confronted the party in Manhyia North,” he insisted.

Member of Parliament (MP), David Tetteh Asumeng, has announced that he will not seek for re-election when the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) opens nomination for re-run of the Shai-Osudoku parliamentary primary following the demise of William Ocloo.

Mr. Ocloo who was the parliamentary hopeful on the ticket of the NDC died on the spot in a car crash which occurred at Juaso in the Ashanti Region on Friday, March 4, 2016.

He had won the November 21, 2015 polls to become the NDC Parliamentary candidate after amassing 780 votes to beat three other candidates, including, David Tetteh Asumeng who polled 52 votes.

Dr. Kpessa Whyte and Adzakri Kwame Ebenezer who also contested in the primary polled 57 and 48 votes respectively.

But Mr. Asumeng contributing to the motion for the adoption of President Mahama’s State of the Nation Address, Tuesday, said he was saddened by the demise of Mr. Ocloo and has therefore decided not to contest for re-election when the party opens nomination.

“Mr. Speaker, I am saddened by the death of the NDC parliamentary candidate for Shai-Osudoku. I have therefore decided not to seek for re-election when the party opens nomination”, he noted.

Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, says he is now a happy person because the energy crisis that befell the country has come to end.

Contributing to the motion for the adoption of President John Mahama’s State of the Nation Address, Thursday, Mr. Iddrisu said he was much worried, especially when a cross section of the public started mimicking him with the promise he made some time ago on the floor of Parliament that when the NDC is voted into power, ‘adumdum adumdum begyai’, to wit the erratic power supply will cease.

However, he said with about 800MW installed capacity added to the national grid, the energy crisis is over and his pride now restored.

“Mr. Speaker, today I have my honour back that the President has lived his word and adumdum adumdum agyai (to with the frequent power outages is over)”, he noted.

He said he is very confident that even if the country will ever encounter any challenge in the next year or two, it will certainly not be that of energy to power industries and light households.

Deputy Minister for Education in charge of Tertiary, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa says Ghanaians should be proud of having Mr. John Dramani Mahama as President of the land.

President Mahama, he noted, has always backed his words with action,  an example of which he said was demonstrated on the floor of Parliament last Thursday during the first gentleman of the land’s delivery of the  State of the Nation Address.

Interacting with Nana Aba Anamoah on GH ONE TV’s current affairs program, State of Affairs, Wednesday, Ablakwa said what fascinates him about the President is the manner in which he narrates real life situation to his audience.

For example, in the case of Apim Shulamite, he said this was a young lady who after completing Junior High School, gained admission to a boarding Senior High School but because of lack of funds, her parents couldn’t afford to pay school fees.

Apim Shulamite who was seated at the public gallery and introduced to the lawmakers during the President’s State of the Nation Address, according to Ablakwa, is now a beneficiary of the progressively free education policy being rolled out by the first gentleman of the land across the country.

“She leaves in the Ekumfi District. Because they had no day school, she couldn’t go to school and was selling waakye and working in a chop bar”.

“Apim Shulamite is now a student of the newly built Prof. J. E. Atta-Mills Community Day School and is now the Assistant School Prefect of the School”.

This, he noted, is an evidence-based State of the Nation Address delivered by President Mahama.

Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, says he is now a happy person because the energy crisis that befell the country has come to end.

Contributing to the motion for the adoption of President John Mahama’s State of the Nation Address, Thursday, Mr. Iddrisu said he was much worried, especially when a cross section of the public started mimicking him with the promise he made some time ago on the floor of Parliament that when the NDC is voted into power, ‘adumdum adumdum begyai’, to wit the erratic power supply will cease.

However, he said with about 800MW installed capacity added to the national grid, the energy crisis is over and his pride now restored.

“Mr. Speaker, today I have my honour back that the President has lived his word and adumdum adumdum agyai (to with the frequent power outages is over)”, he noted.

He said he is very confident that even if the country will ever encounter any challenge in the next year or two, it will certainly not be that of energy to power industries and light households.

The Upper West Regional Minister, Alhaji Amidu Sulemana has described as a storm in a tea cup the hype about Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s ordering of some 500 furniture for a deprived basic school-Kperisi M.A. Primary School in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West region.

Alhaji Sulemana said the fuss about the situation is out of place, because it was already in the Assembly’s itinerary to supply furniture to the school.

He maintained that reports of the situation had been relayed to authorities and were making plans to fix the problem.

“The District Director of Education has been to that school and realised that a lot of the pieces of furniture were broken, so she made a report to the Assembly and the Assembly indicated that they were procuring a number of dual desk to distribute to their schools. So they were still in the process when the story broke out. But when the story broke, the Ministry of Education quickly reacted to provide the furniture and not because Bawumia went there,” Alhaji Sulemana disclosed on Kasapa 102.3 FM.

Pupils were reportedly lying on the bare classroom floor to write because they lacked furniture to sit on in the deprived school.

The Headmistress of the school had also complained the pupils were faced with various health problems as a result of the poor classroom situation. According to her, the school children don’t only get waist pains as a result but also catch flu which always land them in the hospital.

Following this report, the running mate of the biggest opposition party (NPP) Dr Mahamudu Bawumia while touring the region visited the Kperisi M.A. Primary School and made arrangement to extend support to the school by ordering for some 500 set of furniture to ease the plight of the school children.

But the GES Directorate in the wake of Bawumia’s visit hurriedly procured furniture to the school, after Dr. Bawumia intervened to relieve the sufferings of the school children.

Government alongside authorities of the school since the news broke have received backlash from the public for overlooking the poor conditions of the school in a long while, but could only respond to the dire situation when the opposition running mate made interventions.

Reacting to the issue on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.3 FM, the Regional Minister said the move to make swift intervention to the school could not be said to be one of political gimmick since the Assembly was in the process of supplying the furniture.

He however said the GES is in touch with the problem in other places and is in the process of supplying same across-board.