Author: Akumaa GhanaMPs

The Minority New Patriotic Party in Parliament is accusing the ruling government of running down the country’s agricultural sector.

Spokesperson for Agric sector, Dr Afriyie Akoto at a press conference in Parliament on Monday said the crippling performance in agriculture is yet another story of a government that has failed to honour its campaign promise to the people.

According to him, the NDC in its manifesto promised to modernise the sector and to ensure that the standard of living for farmers are improved greatly.

But that promise, he noted, has been broken, with the situation getting even worse.

“By the measure of annual growth performance, Ghana’s agriculture has been grinding to a virtual halt since the 2007 farming season. From negative 1.7% in drought-hit 2007, agricultural growth recovered strongly to 7.4% in 2008, 7.2% in 2009 and then slowed to 5.3% in 2010. Growth hit the bottom of 0.8% in 2011, then stayed down at 1.3% in 2012,” he said.

Dr Akoto blamed the policy options of the NDC government which include taxes on agriculture inputs, limited budgetary allocation to the agric sector etc. as contributing chiefly to the stagnation of the country’s agriculture sector.

He said the worsening performance in agriculture has deleterious effect on the mass of Ghanaians.

“There are far reaching implications of such a poor growth performance for both the economy and the citizenry. Consider the fact that the agricultural sector continues to provide the greatest employment opportunities for majority of our workforce; provides a substantial part of our foreign exchange earnings; and the fact that the poorest in our society are found among the 4.5 million farmers and fisher folks who reside in the rural areas.

The drastic slowdown of agricultural growth means rising unemployment, increasing malnutrition and deepening poverty especially, in
the rural areas with the consequent acceleration of migration of kayayei and other deprived persons to the urban centres with all the related social dislocation we are already witnessing,” he pointed out.

He named the fishing industry, cocoa sector and meat production as the worst affected sectors in agriculture and called for a more pragmatic solution to the problem.

Myjoyonline.com

The Member of Parliament for Bunkpurugu constituency in the Northern region, Boar Namlit Solomon has moved to the aid of the Bunkpurugu health centre to support and resuscitate it to better run ambulance services in the district.

Reportedly most locals who have had their relations caught up in emergency situations at the facility normally find it difficult to even afford ambulance services that could swiftly dispatch emergencies elsewhere in nearby areas like the Baptist Medical centre in the East Mamprusi district.

In the wake of this situation, the MP has donated seed money worth GHS 1000 to assist the facility to effectively run the ambulance services in the district.

Speaking to Ghanamps.gov.gh, Mr Namlit Solomon indicated that the funding is intended to help cater for services of the poor who might not be capable of providing urgent finances to afford ambulance if the need be in emergencies.

In addition, the MP has donated motor-bike, laptop computer and furniture for pregnant women who turn up for ante-natal at the centre.

He said the district needed a more responsive healthcare system that will promptly respond to the challenging health issues, as well as help offer quality healthcare services to residents, hence the decision to support the Bunkpurugu health centre.

Jonathan Jeffrey Adjei/Ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Adenta, Nii Ashie Moore has donated food items to seventeen sub-Chiefs in the Adenta constituency to support them as they prepare to celebrate their Homowo festival.

The items worth several hundreds of cedis include bags of maize, cartons of fish and bottles of schnapps.

The Homowo festival which means ‘hooting at hunger’ in the Ga language is celebrated annually by the people of the Ga state.

Presenting the items, Hon. Ashie Moore stated that his kind gesture is in appreciation of the chiefs’ prayer and support which ensured a peaceful election culminating in the victory of President Mahama.

He urged the chiefs to caution the youth in the area to desist from engaging in violent acts after the Supreme Court gives its verdict on the election petition case.

Hon. Ashie Moore urged the chiefs to eschew any acts that will bring division among them but emphasized the need for them to remain united and forge ahead in unity to ensure that the Adenta constituency develops further, since the chiefs are partners in the development process.

The Chief of Ashalaja Nii Kofi Adjei, who received the items on behalf of his other colleagues, expressed their gratitude to the MP for his benevolence.

He pleaded with Hon. Ashie Moore to help provide the people in Ashaley Botwe and its environs with a health centre to address the health concerns and also help improve the water situation in the area.

The MP assured them of his commitment to support in addressing their concerns.

Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh

Mr Benjamin Kpodo, Member of Parliament for Ho Central, on Thursday presented assorted items worth hundreds of cedis to Ho Zongo.

The items include bags of rice, cartons of cooking oil, crates of minerals, bottled water and an amount of GH¢200 to mark this year’s Ramadan celebration.

He expressed his condolence to the community on the death of Alhaji Hamza Danjumah, Volta Regional Chief Imam, and urged them to remain peaceful.

Alhaji Danjumah reportedly died last week after a short illness.

Alhaji Seidu Hamani, an Elder in the community, gave the assurance that the residents would conduct themselves responsibly after the verdict of the Supreme Court on the 2012 election petition.

Mr Delali Kasu, Ho Central Constituency Deputy Propaganda Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, said peace is the prerequisite for accelerated development and called on young people in the Zongo communities to co-exist peacefully.

GNA

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Defense and Interior says it is unhappy with delays by the Ghana National Fire Service to submit a comprehensive report on fire outbreaks in the country.

Chairman of the Committee, George Arthur is worried that the Fire Service has delayed in submitting a report on fires across the country.

2,201 fires have been recorded across the country in the first quarter of this year alone, with the Greater Accra coming in second to the Bono Ahafo region which recorded the highest fires in the country and the Ashanti region having the third highest.

But according to Mr. George Arthur, the Fire Service has attributed the delay to its inability to establish the causes of the fires.

Speaking to Joy News after the committee met with heads of the various security agencies in Accra, Mr. Arthur said “the report is long overdue” and urged the Fire Service to “do their best to submit a comprehensive report” on fire outbreaks in the country.

He said this will enable them propose and adopt a detailed plan to curb their occurrence.

“The security of the nation is our concern; the report will let the committee know if the Fire Service has performed their functions effectively, whether the outbreak was the cause of negligence of somebody or whether it is an arson or whatever. That is the reason why the Committee wants the report,” he elucidated.

Meanwhile, the committee has approved a bill proposed to turn the National Disaster Management Organization from an organization into a service.

This will empower the Service to among others, demolish unauthorised structures, particularly those on water ways.

In a bid to ensure quality education in her constituency, Member of Parliament for Ledzokuku, Benita Sena Okity Duah has organized an on-going vacation classes for Junior High School students in her constituency.

While some JHS students in other areas have resorted to spending their vacation time wondering about aimlessly, the students of the public schools in the constituency have been made to spend their vacation time acquiring more knowledge and preparing themselves ahead of the impending term.

Speaking to Ghanamps.gov.gh, Hon. Sena Okity Duah stated that the issue of providing quality education to her constituents is very dear to her heart and that was her motivation for organizing the vacation classes which she started last year at time she was not an MP for the area.

She said the classes organized previously impacted positively on the performance of the students who sat for last year’s BECE as they recorded wonderful results and she is encouraged by that to sustain the classes.

Hon. Okity Duah noted that she knows the benefit of vacation classes having had the opportunity of experiencing it at her infancy and so decided to organize the classes and pay the teachers for their services.

Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh

Two communities within the Bunkpurugu constituency are on the radar of the Member of Parliament for the area, Boar Namlit Solomon to support them acquire major health infrastructure in their domain that will offer primary healthcare services for inhabitants.

This is to curtail the long distances residents from the remote villages and communities endure before accessing a health facility in the urban areas and towns, in cases where there are no health post nearby.

Hon. Namlit Solomon in an interview with Ghanamps.gov.gh has indicated that as part of measures to boost the health system, he would embark on the establishment of Community Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) at both Kinkangu and Gbankoni respectively.

For Kinkangu community, he said plans were afoot to begin the project soon scheduled to be fully implemented by the end of November this year, whiles the other earmarked for Gbankoni will take place in the year 2014.

The CHPS strategy is a community based approach which seeks to provide health services through partnerships with the health programmes, community leaders and social groups.

It was launched against the realisation that more than 70% of all Ghanaians lived over 8 kilometres from the nearest health care provider (Phillips J. 2002), a problem made worse by inadequate road and transport facilities. Thus accessibility to basic health care services was the key factor that influenced the initiation of the CHPS concept in Ghana.

Jonathan Jeffrey Adjei/Ghanamps.gov.gh

Member of Parliament for Assin North in the Central Region, Samuel Ambre has donated two lawn mowers to Gyaase Senior High School and Assin State College both in his constituency.

The machines are expected to lessen the burden on the students who do the weeding of the overgrown compounds of the two institutions by themselves.

Speaking to Ghanamps.gov.gh, Hon. Samuel Ambre stated that his donation to the schools was in response to an appeal the institutions made to him to enable the students keep the compounds cleared off weeds since both schools which are new does not have labourers to weed the compounds.

He noted that the mowers which cost GHC4, 000 has to a large extent come as a great relieve for the students as they would now have enough time to study not worrying about the task of weeding.

Hon. Samuel Ambre stated he remained committed to ensuring the promotion of quality education in his area, adding that he would do everything within his capacity to ensure his vision is achieved.

Meanwhile, he also donated several bags of rice worth hundreds of Ghana Cedis to the Moslem community in his constituency as they held the annual Eid Ul Fitr celebration on Thursday August 8.

Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh