The 11th Kwahu Easter paragliding festival has kicked off in the Kwahu ridge on top of the Odwenanoma Mountain in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region.
A short colourful ceremony was held Friday morning to begin the four-day festival, which has over the years become the flagship Easter holiday programme in the country’s tourism sector.
An initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, this year’s event which is expected to attract between 5000 and 10, 000 people, took off amidst tight security in the wake of possible terrorism threat in the country.
A special team from the counter terrorism unit of the Ghana Police Service has been deployed to the towns within the ridge where activities of the Easter celebrations are concentrated.
security
Rescue mission from the 64 Military Battalion, Ghana Ambulance Service, the Ghana National Fire Service and the National Disaster Management and Organisation are also on the ground.
A total of 15 paragliders, including a 34-year old Ghanaian, Jonathan Quaye, are are expected to fly hundreds of holiday revellers from on top of the Odweanoma Mountain through the ridge to the Nkawkaw Stadium.
Eastern Regional Minister, Mavis Ama Frimpong who opened the event assured Ghanaians of government’s continuous investment in paragliding to boost the local economy of Kwahu.
She urged private investors to come on board the paragliding festival, which was the started by the late Jake Obetsebe-Lamptey during his tenure as the Minister for Tourism and Modernisation of the City.
By Yvonne Neequayee|tv3network.com|Ghana
Ghana’s Most Beautiful IX winner ESI has urged the youth, especially the teenage girls, to celebrate the Easter festive season with care and to remember the reason for such celebration.
Vera Oheneba Safoah, popularly known as Esi, believes the reason for Easter, which signifies the death of Christ for the sins of mankind, should be given a good reflection of good behaviour.
According to winner of TV3’s reality beauty pageant show, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is one important attribute of Christianity and must be given a deep thought .
In an interview with TV3’s Central Region correspondent Thomas Vincent Cann, on her message for the youth for the Easter festive season, Esi advised them especially the teenage girls not to make fun as the main reason for the season.
“I believe the reason for Easter is about the price Jesus paid for our sins and his resurrection as a victory for price paid for the sins,” she said.
“So all should not engage in acts that will end in any problem.”
She also cautioned teenagers to be careful not to engage themselves in any promiscuous life that is likely to result in teenage pregnancy.
“That’s what my foundation, the Pempamsie Foundation is really drumming into the ears of teenagers. Teenage pregnancy is a worrying social menace that we all can curb if we support the fight against it.”
Esi called on religious leaders especially those of the various churches to talk about the need to be very careful and not to be promiscuous this Easter season.
The three South African ex-police officers arrested for training the private security personnel of the New Patriotic Party are to be released on a GHC60,000-bail.
The three, whose acts were considered by the Bureau of National Investigations as a threat to national security, pleaded not guilty to five counts of conspiracy to commit crime, unlawful training and making false declaration when they made their first appearance in court Thursday afternoon.
They appeared in court with seven lawyers led by Elis Owusu-Fordjour, Samuel Ata Akyea and five others.
Each of them was admitted to a GHC20,000-bail with a surety, the Accra Circuit Court ruled after the Police prosecutors presented their case against the three – Major Ahmed Shaik Hazis (rtd), 54; Warrant Officer Denver Dwayhe, 33, and Captain Mlungiseli Jokani, 45.
The prosecution claims the three were training five people in military tactics at Agona Duakwa in the Central Region. According to the prosecution, their investigation has revealed “the accused persons filed disembarkation forms indicating that they were in Ghana to do business”
Police prosecutors led by DSP A.A. Anor told the court investigations are still ongoing and prayed the court for the three to be remanded to get to the bottom of the case but the defence team objected. The court having listened to the argument from both sides, granted the accused persons bail, Onua FM’s Court correspondent, Lydia Ezit reports
The Court said the bail is subject to “how speedy the prosecution will pursue the matter” and warned prosecutors it will be compelled to release the passport of the accuse to them should there be any delays, she added.
Arguments: Written by Lydia Ezit
Arguing for the accused persons to be granted bail, Mr. Owusu-Fordjour said it his clients were ready to avail themselves for the trial, noting “I supervised them on their charge statement, voluntarily willing to come to court at their free will”,
He contended that military training is a special exercise only conducted by the military which he said involves the use of how to fire Ak 47, assemble and dissemble, hence it cannot be the case that the people who walk on Aburi mountain and jog down or those who do push-ups are doing military training
We just cannot say that such people are doing military training, he said adding “my lord these gentlemen came on the ticket of the NPP, invited by the security officer to train the bodyguards of Nana Addo and his running mate and their spouses”. He said the leader of the accused persons, Chris Nazir was here in 2012 to train Akufo-Addo’s bodyguards.
Mr Owusu-Fordjour said the BNI and the police did not discover any illegal weapons on them upon their arrest.
“The facts presented here does not support the charges preferred on them,” he added, and prayed the court to grant them bail, especially so when the three ex-cops have denied the charges against them which are misdeamour.
“They are not harmful when granted bail. They will report to court for trial. If denied [bail] they will lose their source of income,” Mr Owusu-Fordjour said.
One of the Police prosecutors, Supt. Francis Baah said the security agencies should have been informed of the arrival of the three before their entry into the country.
He argued that the facts indicated they taught military tactics, which should be of great importance. He prayed the court to deny the bail request on the basis that the accused persons are staying in a hotel and have no fix abode which is a requirement of bail.
He thus prayed the court for 14 days to get to the bottom the case.
But responding, one of the lawyers for the accused, Mr Atta AKyea opposed the argument by the prosecutor, and queried: “When civilians are training, you call it military?”
By Stephen Kwabena Effah|tv3netwrok.com|Ghana
An international relations and security expert at the University of Cape Coast, Dr Kingsley Agyei, has shot down the relevance of ongoing discussions on whether the Ghanaian ISIS recruit is dead or not.
Speaking with 3FM news, he explained that the concern and focus of the country should not be on the death of the Ghanaian ISIS recruit but on the measures that government would put in place to forestall any terror attack.
Mohammed Nazir Nortei Alema joined the terror group as an adult at the age of 25, he noted, debating the truism of his death is not important at this critical moment.
According to Dr Agyei, the national focus should be on how to prevent the ISIS group from striking on us. “The question is what we can do to prevent ISIS”.
Mohammed Nazir Nortei Alema graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and joined the terrorist group ISIS in August 2015.
By Collins Essuman| 3FM | tv3network.com
Scientists at the University of Tokyo say napping for longer than 40 minutes increases the risk of high blood pressure and cholesterol, excess fat around the waist and high blood sugar – all risk factors for heart disease
Although indulging in a day time nap is the stuff of workday dreams, a team of scientists have warned allowing yourself the luxury could increase the risk of premature death.
Taking long naps, or being excessively tired during the day, is linked to a higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome, a new study today revealed.
The umbrella term covers a range of conditions, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, having excess fat around the waist, and high blood sugar – all of which raise a person’s risk of heart disease.
The findings, which were presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 65th annual scientific session today, show napping for 40 minutes of longer was tied to a steep increase in the risk of being diagnosed with metabolic syndrome.
Dr Tomohide Tamada, PhD diabetologist at the University of Tokyo, and lead author of the study, said: ‘Taking naps is widely prevalent around the world.
‘So, clarifying the relationship between naps and metabolic disease might offer a new strategy of treatment, especially as metabolic disease has been increasing steadily all over the world.’
Dr Tamada and his colleagues determined when it comes to taking a nap, the magic number is 40.
Anything longer than 40 minutes snooze time during the day, and the risk of metabolic syndrome dramatically increases.
The researchers arrived at their conclusions after evaluating data from 21 observational studies, involving 307,237 people.
Participants were asked questions relating to how tired they felt during the day, for example ‘do you have a problem with sleepiness during the day’.
And researchers also asked about naps, asking ‘do you take a daytime nap’, and ‘do you sleep during the day’.
They then compared a person’s answers with their medical history, of metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Their results showed a J-shaped relationship between the time spent napping and the risk of developing metabolic syndrome.
Those people who napped for less than 40 minutes did not show any increased risk for the conditions.
But, beyond 40 minutes the risk rose sharply.
Napping for 90 minutes increased metabolic syndrome risk by as much as 50 per cent, as did being excessively tired during the day, the researchers noted.
But, they were interested to see a slight dip or decrease in that risk among those people napping for less than 30 minutes.
Past research found napping for longer than an hour or being excessively tired during the day each corresponded to a 50 per cent increase in type-2 diabetes.
The study did not show a relationship between time spent napping and obesity, despite the close links between obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
An earlier study by Dr Yamada and colleagues, published in the June 2015 issue of Sleep, tied naps longer than an hour to an 82 per cent increase in cardiovascular disease and a 27 per cent increase in all cause death.
They also presented data at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in September 2015 that showed diabetes risk increased by 56 per cent if subjects were fatigued and by 46 per cent if they took naps longer than an hour.
Interestingly, all three studies showed a slight decrease in risk for their respective conditions when subjects napped for under half an hour, though Dr Yamada said more studies are needed to confirm this finding.
The National Sleep Foundation advocates naps of 20 and 30 minutes to improve alertness without leaving sleepers groggy afterward.
‘Sleep is an important component of our healthy lifestyle, as well as diet and exercise,’ Dr Yamada said.
‘Short naps might have a beneficial effect on our health, but we don’t yet know the strength of that effect or the mechanism by which it works.’
Still, the results demonstrate a need for more research on how people’s sleep habits influence metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease.
All told, one in three American adults do not get enough sleep, according to the US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention.
Dr Yamada said future research should aim to identify the potential cardiovascular benefits of short naps, as well as the mechanism by which long naps, daytime sleepiness and metabolic syndrome influence each other, and whether clinicians might eventually be able to use a patients’ nap habits as a predictor for other health problems.
Although this study included data from more than 300,000 participants, it may not be representative of the world population.
Data was also dependent on self-reporting nap times, as opposed to objectively measuring sleep time in a lab or with a sleep tracker.
Source Mail UK
Consultant anesthetic in charge of critical care at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Chris Owoo has made a passionate appeal to the general public to support the Intensive Care Unit financially.
He noted that running of the 12-bed facility which was recently renovated to serve as a one-stop Intensive Care Unit cannot be sustained without public support.
The facility is expected to be opened soon. At a recent media tour to the facility, Dr. Owoo disclosed that there are backlog of patients who are waiting to be attended to.
He therefore decried the fact that the available consumables cannot last for six months, which he said has necessitated the need for corporate assistance to sustain its operations.
He feared the facility may be compelled to close down again without the necessary support.
‘‘The longer we wait the more delicate these patients will become, we have a lot of backlog to clear and the earlier we do the better. That is why opening this facility is very dear to our hearts to avert preventable deaths.
“We are calling on all corporate bodies and the media to assist the hospital trust fund to help sustain the facility,’’ Dr. Owoo pleaded.
Persons who receive treatment at the intensive care unit are made to pay a discounted fee of 600 compared with the estimated cost of 3000 cedis.
Aside the limited number of consumables, inadequate number of trained nurses, surgeons and physicians are some of the challenges that are likely to affect the smooth running of the facility.
He further stated, ‘‘we will need 40 more trained nurses to assist the already available nurses to run the place. Even though our surgeons are also inadequate, Ghana has the highest number of neurosurgeons in the whole of West Africa’’.
The hospital has already opened its three surgical clinics of Urology, Neurosurgery and General surgery in anticipation of the reopening of the ICU by the end of the month.
3FM gathered that drilling of the nurses for the centre will start after the Easter break to try their hands on the new equipments before final opening to patients.
By Sarah Parku | 3FM | tv3network.com
Built in the 1930s the lighthouse on the Atlantic coast still stands strong, one of the relics of the British presence in Accra.
Jamestown is a deep-rooted and vibrant part of Accra. The intriguing town cluttered in shacks and homes embodies some of Ghana’s historic moments.
A school of thought believes that the town was named after King James I of Great Britain after he gave a royal charter to build James Fort Prison, others say it was named after James the son of Joseph Davidson, a slave master during the era of Gold Coast, the period of slave trade and colonization.
It is thrilling to drive through the noisy, busy town as you will come across fascinating historic architectures of old Ghana.
The Mantse-we, the chief’s palace, was built by the British and it still houses the current chief of James Town, Oblempong Nii Kojo Ababio V, Paramount Chief and President of the Ngleshie Alata Traditional Council.
The remains of Sea View Hotel, the first hotel built during the colonial era.
It was quite sad to see the Sea View Hotel demolished and rumoured to be replaced with a church building. Having nothing against Christianity the Sea View Hotel had it been well managed could have generated income and created jobs.
The James Fort Prison was originally built for the British colonialists. It was later turned into a prison after the abolition of slave trade.
Ghana’s first president Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah was imprisoned there for years.
The prison was abandoned in 2007 and currently serves as a tourist site.
The first port and harbour in Accra was at James Town and in 1960 it was moved to Tema.
The tunnel served as a passage for slaves from the James Fort to the slave ships.
A climb of the old lighthouse of James Town unveils an ecstatic view of the bubbling busy sight of a section of the city. James Town has a great tourism potential and when harnessed would create a strong impact on Ghana’s economy.
As I went to the town to take these photographs, a shabbily dressed man walked up to me and tried to stop me. He said I had to seek approval from the Chief’s palace. Strange as it sounded I did not decline. On our way to the palace he said he was a voluntary tour guide and would take me round for some small cedis.
Where are the appropriate authorities and what are they doing?
We’ve always bemoaned our educational curricular for being highly theoretical and less practical. James Town can easily serve as a practical history town.
Jamestown is truly a sleeping giant in tourism.
Photos and Story by Ayerkie Narnor | tv3network.com
Minister of Trade and Industry Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah has bemoaned the inability of many crop growers to get prompt payment after delivery, blaming the situation on the country’s current economic condition.
He said the inability of government to meet statutory payments and constantly recording budget deficits, among other challenges, are as a result of shortage of needed capital.
“Ghana for all kinds of reason is a capital-short country,” Dr Spio-Garbrah mentioned on TV3’s New Day on Thursday, March 24.
“That is why we are in an IMF programme and we have budget deficits and constraints in our budget and all ministries, departments and agencies are enduring a 50 per cent budget cuts.”
He was hosted by Martin Asiedu-Dartey on the recent tango between his ministry and cashew growers after his imposition of a two-month ban on exports.
The move, according to him, was to get 11 of the 12 cashew processing plants back in operation.
But farmers as well as lawmakers asked him to lift the ban, a situation he expressed unhappiness about especially given his position as a cashew farmer himself.
“It is only up to them. If they want to export the cashew and deprive their own families in the same Brong Ahafo Region…then that’s fine.”
He promised going back to the drawing board and involving cabinet and parliament in a broad consultation to see to the re-introduction of the directive as he blamed the backlash on inadequate education and sensitisation.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|tv3network.com|GhanaTwitter: @kwame_amoh
The Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Mr Haruna Idrrisu, has called for a marked paradigm shift from the use of “traditional classical economics in measuring standard of living based on per capita income” to the use of employment.
He advocated the need to focus on employment since “that is by far a better measure of living standards of a people”.
Sharing some thoughts on the subject in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra on Tuesday, he said employment focused on individual persons and their sustenance and therefore, “employment and job creation must be used at all times as a measure of how we are contributing to improving living standards in the country”.
Measurement debate
Generally, the standard of living measures people’s material welfare. For instance, according to Helen Clarke of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), equity, dignity, happiness, sustainability are all fundamental “to our lives but absent in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Progress needs to be defined and measured in a way which accounts for the broader picture of human development and its context,” she said.
Other economists have held the view that the baseline measure is real national output per head of population or real GDP per capita.
Meanwhile, just like Mr Iddrisu indicated, real income per capita is an inaccurate and insufficient indicator of living standards.
For many economists, there is a growing disconnect between GDP and well-being. As a result, some others argue that national income data can be used to make cross-country comparisons, adding that this requires converting GDP data into a common currency; making an adjustment to reflect differences in the cost of products in each country to produce data expressed as purchasing power parity standard; and the purchasing power parity (PPP) dollar takes into account the fact that it is cheaper to live in some countries than others.
Problems using national income statistics
A website on economic matters, tutor2U, indicates that official data on GDP understates the growth of real national income per capita over time due to the shadow economy and the value of unpaid work by volunteers and people caring for their family.
It said the “shadow economy” includes illegal activities such as drug production and distribution, prostitution, theft, fraud and concealed legal activities such as tax evasion on otherwise-legitimate business activities such as un-reported self-employment income.
It noted that often, official GDP data is inaccurate. For instance, it said many “countries in sub-Saharan Africa do not update their reporting often enough, and so their GDP numbers may miss large and fast-growing sectors, like cell phones.”
In 2014 according to the website, Nigeria became the largest economy in Africa (overtaking South Africa) after a fundamental reassessment of their GDP calculation, adding that “GDP data may become a target for political manipulation.”
Casual worker phenomenon
Subsequently, Mr Iddrisu announced a review of the casual worker phenomenon in Ghana.
According to him “many a Ghanaian worker had their rights abused and their entitlements denied on matters relating to health, safety and occupational environment not up to standards to support decent and productive work”.
He also expressed regret that the country was behind labour market information systems and the lack of a dedicated manpower needs of the country.
Mr Iddrisu said to address the problem regarding casual workers in the country, the ministry would soon compel all private employers to leave their staff employment data with the Labour Department, declaring the status of the casual worker.
“We will be interested in knowing when they were employed; their level of compensation – whether it meets the daily minimum wage requirements; their working environment and conditions and for how long they have been employed as casual workers.
Mr Iddrisu said “Defaulting companies will be sanctioned accordingly”.
Source: Daily Graphic
The GNPA Limited, formerly Ghana National Procurement Authority, has entered into a strategic alliance with an indigenous company to import 12,500 tonnes of sugar every month to help tame prices of the commodity in the local market.
A tonne of the commodity is estimated at US$450, bringing to US$67 million the annual value of the agreement between the supplier and the GNPA.
The imports are to be done under the free zone initiative, the Managing Director of GNPA, Mr Douglas Y. Kumasi, told the Daily Graphic.
Although a bulk of the sugar would be consumed in the country, Mr Kumasi said part of it was to be retailed in neighbouring countries, including Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Faso.
“We expect it to help drive down prices of sugar or at least stabilise the prices. We also expect the small foreign exchange we will generate from the sale in neighbouring countries to help our finances and the country in general,” he said in an interview.
Sugar prices
The MD declined to disclose the name of the private company involved, citing contractual clauses, but said the sugar would be sourced from Brazil.
“It should have even started in January but the company had some issues with the supplier. They are sorting them out and we understand it will be finalised soon for the first consignment to come before March ending,” he added.
Global price of sugar, which is a household and commercial commodity in the country, fell by 10 per cent in 2015 but is now estimated to rise by some 15 per cent this year as a result of a supply deficit.
The deficit is estimated at 1.4 million tonnes and has been blamed on expected poor harvests of sugar cane, the raw material, in major producing countries, including Brazil and India.
An increase in sugar prices in the country could impact negatively on most consumables, resulting in an uptick in inflation.
Thinking outside the box
The alliance between the GNPA and the private importer is one of the initiatives to help revive the company, which was established in 1976 as a strategic importer of essential commodities to help stabilise prices of those consumables in the local market.
After becoming a household name in the commodity import and retail business in the country in the 1990s, the GNPA’s fortunes nosedived, following a restructuring that cut off its source of funding in the early part of 2000.
The result was the accumulation of debt, which took a toll on the company’s finances and operations.
Although it has successfully cleared those debts, years of underfunding from the state has weakened its balance sheet, forcing GNPA to downsize and lay off some staff in the recent past.
To be able to remain relevant, the MD said the company had to do things differently.
“We are now trying to think outside the box because if you do not have a strong balance sheet, what do you do?” he asked.
“That is why we came out with this idea of strategic alliance, whereby private companies can bring their finances and we also come on board with our marketing expertise and credibility to still stay in business,” he said.
The imported sugar is expected to augment produce from the Komenda Sugar Factory, which is expected to produce 125 tonnes of the product when it starts production.
Sugar imports currently cost the country over US$300 million annually, an amount that could be saved if sugar cane production was encouraged to help feed local processors.
Source: Daily Graphic
The 11th Kwahu Easter paragliding festival has kicked off in the Kwahu ridge on top of the Odwenanoma Mountain in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region.
A total of 15 paragliders, including a 34-year old Ghanaian, Jonathan Quaye, are are expected to fly hundreds of holiday revellers from on top of the Odweanoma Mountain through the ridge to the Nkawkaw Stadium.
Eastern Regional Minister, Mavis Ama Frimpong who opened the event assured Ghanaians of government’s continuous investment in paragliding to boost the local economy of Kwahu.
She urged private investors to come on board the paragliding festival, which was the started by the late Jake Obetsebe-Lamptey during his tenure as the Minister for Tourism and Modernisation of the City.
By Yvonne Neequayee|tv3network.com|Ghana 
Ghana’s Most Beautiful IX winner ESI has urged the youth, especially the teenage girls, to celebrate the Easter festive season with care and to remember the reason for such celebration.
The three South African ex-police officers arrested for training the private security personnel of the New Patriotic Party are to be released on a GHC60,000-bail.
An international relations and security expert at the University of Cape Coast, Dr Kingsley Agyei, has shot down the relevance of ongoing discussions on whether the Ghanaian ISIS recruit is dead or not.
Scientists at the University of Tokyo say napping for longer than 40 minutes increases the risk of high blood pressure and cholesterol, excess fat around the waist and high blood sugar – all risk factors for heart disease
Consultant anesthetic in charge of critical care at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Chris Owoo has made a passionate appeal to the general public to support the Intensive Care Unit financially.
He noted that running of the 12-bed facility which was recently renovated to serve as a one-stop Intensive Care Unit cannot be sustained without public support.
Built in the 1930s the lighthouse on the Atlantic coast still stands strong, one of the relics of the British presence in Accra.
Jamestown is a deep-rooted and vibrant part of Accra. The intriguing town cluttered in shacks and homes embodies some of Ghana’s historic moments.
A school of thought believes that the town was named after King James I of Great Britain after he gave a royal charter to build James Fort Prison, others say it was named after James the son of Joseph Davidson, a slave master during the era of Gold Coast, the period of slave trade and colonization.
It is thrilling to drive through the noisy, busy town as you will come across fascinating historic architectures of old Ghana.
The Mantse-we, the chief’s palace, was built by the British and it still houses the current chief of James Town, Oblempong Nii Kojo Ababio V, Paramount Chief and President of the Ngleshie Alata Traditional Council.
The remains of Sea View Hotel, the first hotel built during the colonial era.
It was quite sad to see the Sea View Hotel demolished and rumoured to be replaced with a church building. Having nothing against Christianity the Sea View Hotel had it been well managed could have generated income and created jobs.
The James Fort Prison was originally built for the British colonialists. It was later turned into a prison after the abolition of slave trade.
Ghana’s first president Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah was imprisoned there for years.
The prison was abandoned in 2007 and currently serves as a tourist site.
The first port and harbour in Accra was at James Town and in 1960 it was moved to Tema.
The tunnel served as a passage for slaves from the James Fort to the slave ships.
A climb of the old lighthouse of James Town unveils an ecstatic view of the bubbling busy sight of a section of the city. James Town has a great tourism potential and when harnessed would create a strong impact on Ghana’s economy.
As I went to the town to take these photographs, a shabbily dressed man walked up to me and tried to stop me. He said I had to seek approval from the Chief’s palace. Strange as it sounded I did not decline. On our way to the palace he said he was a voluntary tour guide and would take me round for some small cedis.
Where are the appropriate authorities and what are they doing?
We’ve always bemoaned our educational curricular for being highly theoretical and less practical. James Town can easily serve as a practical history town.
Jamestown is truly a sleeping giant in tourism.
Photos and Story by Ayerkie Narnor | tv3network.com 
Minister of Trade and Industry Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah has bemoaned the inability of many crop growers to get prompt payment after delivery, blaming the situation on the country’s current economic condition.
The Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Mr Haruna Idrrisu, has called for a marked paradigm shift from the use of “traditional classical economics in measuring standard of living based on per capita income” to the use of employment.
He advocated the need to focus on employment since “that is by far a better measure of living standards of a people”.
Sharing some thoughts on the subject in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra on Tuesday, he said employment focused on individual persons and their sustenance and therefore, “employment and job creation must be used at all times as a measure of how we are contributing to improving living standards in the country”.
Measurement debate
Generally, the standard of living measures people’s material welfare. For instance, according to Helen Clarke of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), equity, dignity, happiness, sustainability are all fundamental “to our lives but absent in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Progress needs to be defined and measured in a way which accounts for the broader picture of human development and its context,” she said.
Other economists have held the view that the baseline measure is real national output per head of population or real GDP per capita.
Meanwhile, just like Mr Iddrisu indicated, real income per capita is an inaccurate and insufficient indicator of living standards.
For many economists, there is a growing disconnect between GDP and well-being. As a result, some others argue that national income data can be used to make cross-country comparisons, adding that this requires converting GDP data into a common currency; making an adjustment to reflect differences in the cost of products in each country to produce data expressed as purchasing power parity standard; and the purchasing power parity (PPP) dollar takes into account the fact that it is cheaper to live in some countries than others.
Problems using national income statistics
A website on economic matters, tutor2U, indicates that official data on GDP understates the growth of real national income per capita over time due to the shadow economy and the value of unpaid work by volunteers and people caring for their family.
It said the “shadow economy” includes illegal activities such as drug production and distribution, prostitution, theft, fraud and concealed legal activities such as tax evasion on otherwise-legitimate business activities such as un-reported self-employment income.
It noted that often, official GDP data is inaccurate. For instance, it said many “countries in sub-Saharan Africa do not update their reporting often enough, and so their GDP numbers may miss large and fast-growing sectors, like cell phones.”
In 2014 according to the website, Nigeria became the largest economy in Africa (overtaking South Africa) after a fundamental reassessment of their GDP calculation, adding that “GDP data may become a target for political manipulation.”
Casual worker phenomenon
Subsequently, Mr Iddrisu announced a review of the casual worker phenomenon in Ghana.
According to him “many a Ghanaian worker had their rights abused and their entitlements denied on matters relating to health, safety and occupational environment not up to standards to support decent and productive work”.
He also expressed regret that the country was behind labour market information systems and the lack of a dedicated manpower needs of the country.
Mr Iddrisu said to address the problem regarding casual workers in the country, the ministry would soon compel all private employers to leave their staff employment data with the Labour Department, declaring the status of the casual worker.
“We will be interested in knowing when they were employed; their level of compensation – whether it meets the daily minimum wage requirements; their working environment and conditions and for how long they have been employed as casual workers.
Mr Iddrisu said “Defaulting companies will be sanctioned accordingly”.
Source: Daily Graphic 
The GNPA Limited, formerly Ghana National Procurement Authority, has entered into a strategic alliance with an indigenous company to import 12,500 tonnes of sugar every month to help tame prices of the commodity in the local market.
A tonne of the commodity is estimated at US$450, bringing to US$67 million the annual value of the agreement between the supplier and the GNPA.
The imports are to be done under the free zone initiative, the Managing Director of GNPA, Mr Douglas Y. Kumasi, told the Daily Graphic.
Although a bulk of the sugar would be consumed in the country, Mr Kumasi said part of it was to be retailed in neighbouring countries, including Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Faso.
“We expect it to help drive down prices of sugar or at least stabilise the prices. We also expect the small foreign exchange we will generate from the sale in neighbouring countries to help our finances and the country in general,” he said in an interview.
Sugar prices
The MD declined to disclose the name of the private company involved, citing contractual clauses, but said the sugar would be sourced from Brazil.
“It should have even started in January but the company had some issues with the supplier. They are sorting them out and we understand it will be finalised soon for the first consignment to come before March ending,” he added.
Global price of sugar, which is a household and commercial commodity in the country, fell by 10 per cent in 2015 but is now estimated to rise by some 15 per cent this year as a result of a supply deficit.
The deficit is estimated at 1.4 million tonnes and has been blamed on expected poor harvests of sugar cane, the raw material, in major producing countries, including Brazil and India.
An increase in sugar prices in the country could impact negatively on most consumables, resulting in an uptick in inflation.
Thinking outside the box
The alliance between the GNPA and the private importer is one of the initiatives to help revive the company, which was established in 1976 as a strategic importer of essential commodities to help stabilise prices of those consumables in the local market.
After becoming a household name in the commodity import and retail business in the country in the 1990s, the GNPA’s fortunes nosedived, following a restructuring that cut off its source of funding in the early part of 2000.
The result was the accumulation of debt, which took a toll on the company’s finances and operations.
Although it has successfully cleared those debts, years of underfunding from the state has weakened its balance sheet, forcing GNPA to downsize and lay off some staff in the recent past.
To be able to remain relevant, the MD said the company had to do things differently.
“We are now trying to think outside the box because if you do not have a strong balance sheet, what do you do?” he asked.
“That is why we came out with this idea of strategic alliance, whereby private companies can bring their finances and we also come on board with our marketing expertise and credibility to still stay in business,” he said.
The imported sugar is expected to augment produce from the Komenda Sugar Factory, which is expected to produce 125 tonnes of the product when it starts production.
Sugar imports currently cost the country over US$300 million annually, an amount that could be saved if sugar cane production was encouraged to help feed local processors.
Source: Daily Graphic