TAMALE READY FOR NAFAC (PAGE 15, NOV 20, 2010)

THE stage is set for the hosting of this year’s National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC) in Tamale and the Centre for National Culture (CNC) regional office in the metropolis has been given a facelift.
The main auditorium of the centre that will host exhibitions of various arts from the 10 participatory regions has also been refurbished.
At the time of filing this report, finishing touches were being put to preparations at the Jubilee Park close to the CNC where the grand opening and durbar of chiefs will be held today.
Even though some residents claim there has not been adequate publicity on the event, others have expressed their eagerness to savour the rich traditional and cultural displays that will be showcased during the one-week festival.
Majority of residents Daily Graphic interacted with displayed a lot of enthusiasm over the fact that Tamale has been chosen to host the event again. The first time it was successfully hosted in the metropolis was in 1978.
They assured people who would patronise the NAFAC activities that they would not only enjoy themselves but would also taste the trademark hospitality of residents.
“You know the North is the cradle of culture and tradition and with Tamale hosting such a festival, I cannot just wait to observe how the proceedings would go to let the outside world know the rich cultural diversity we are blessed with in this country,” a tailor, Afah Iddi stated.
Some dealers in smocks have also expressed high expectations of patronage of their wares since NAFAC is a traditional event. “ The wearing of smock has now become very popular even outside the shores of Ghana; our problem is with the publicity because if it was done well, then we would expect to do brisk business particularly with our guests from the south,” a dealer, Abdulai Tanko indicated.
The Police have also expressed their readiness to provide adequate security for all. They have therefore appealed to the people to cooperate with them during the festivities.
According to the deputy Northern regional director of the CNC, Mr Abubakar Iddris Saeed, members of the participatory regions were to arrive in Tamale yesterday, adding that adequate accommodation had been secured for them.
The programme lined up for the week’s event include a durbar of chiefs, opening of regional centres, traditional performances from participating regions, food bazaar, exhibition of national collections, beauty pageant and awards nite.
Mr Saeed, however, raised concerns over the delay in the release of funds for the event which he said had hindered their preparations.
The deputy director has, meanwhile, expressed appreciation to the various paramountcies in the Northern Region for the interest and support extended to the NAFAC committee so far.
“We hope that more support will be offered us by the chiefs and people to ensure a total success of the programme,” he added.

ACCELERATE SADA IMPLEMENTATION (BACK PAGE, NOV 13, 2010)

Participants in a public forum on the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) in Tamale have appealed to the government to facilitate the speedy implementation of the initiative to help realise its objectives of improving the lot of the people in beneficiary communities.
“We commend the government for ensuring that the initiative has moved from a political slogan into an act of law. We hope the talks would, therefore, now give way to action so that we the beneficiaries will feel the needed impact”, Iddrisu Alhassan, a participant, indicated.
The day’s public sensitisation forum had the theme: “Making SADA work for all.” It was organised by SEND-Ghana, in collaboration with the Northern Development Forum (NDF), all civil society organisations, and funded by Oxfam-GB and Christian Aid-UK.
Other participants who spoke to the Daily Graphic in an interview also entreated all stakeholders to ensure that this new initiative did not fail. They also called for the fair distribution of projects under the SADA to all beneficiary regions and districts.
The Northern Regional Minister, Mr Moses Mabengba, assured the people that the government meant business by introducing the initiative and added, “this is the difference between well-intended plans for the people and mere political gimmicks.”
He, therefore, said the initiative was a demonstration of the government’s resolve to bridge the socio-economic gap between the savanna regions of northern Ghana and the rest of the country.
A development consultant and policy adviser to the Vice-President on SADA, Dr Sule Gariba, observed that the slow growth in the northern savanna areas was delaying the nation’s achievement of the MDGs.
He further noted that the prevailing climate change was worsening the plight of the people since it was responsible for the perennial flooding and drought in the north.
The Chairman of the NDF, Dr Hakeem Wemah, said the emerging oil and gas potentials in the country would not make much impact if the skills of the youth were not developed to take advantage of the discovery in that sector .
A representative of an advocacy group, Savanna Women Empowerment Group of Ghana, Mrs Helen Koranteng, underscored the need for women to be actively involved in the decision-making processes of the SADA.
The Country Director of SEND-Ghana, Mr Samuel Zan Akologo, said the organisation, which was established in 1998, now operated in six regions and 42 districts in the country.
According to the director, his outfit was into forging strong partnerships with state and non-state actors that were marked by mutual accountability, transparency and effective communication, to provide a conducive atmosphere for innovative development programmes.

MINISTER LAUNCHES $20M BUSAC FUND (BACK PAGE, NOV 13, 2010)

THE second phase of the Business Advocacy Challenge Fund (BUSAC II) has been launched in Tamale with the release of a $20 million assistance package to boost the operations of businesses over the next five years.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hannah Tetteh, who inaugurated the fund, also unveiled a new office for the management of the fund.
The new office is to serve as an information centre and also offer support to business groups located in the northern part of the country.
The fund, among other things, seeks to build the capacities of beneficiaries by identifying, analysing and researching into challenges that constrain their operations, growth and profitability.
The first phase of the initiative, which began in 2004, ended in February 2010, with 362 business associations, media and labour unions in the country benefiting from a $7.9 million grant.
The fund, which has been increased to $20 million under Phase II, will cover a five-year period.
The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Union and the DFID are supporting the programme.
“BUSAC Phase II will continue to be a demand-driven challenge fund that will be directed towards special themes which would otherwise be neglected, to the disadvantage of the majority of the business community,” the minister said.
She, therefore, advised would-be beneficiaries to effectively conduct research into issues affecting their operations to improve the capacities of their respective businesses.
The BUSAC Fund Manager, Dr Dale Rachmeler, indicated the enormous impact the fund had made in the lives and businesses of beneficiaries since its establishment in 2004.
“Ghana has demonstrated, over the past five years, that it has all the ingredients to create and maintain the all- important open environment crucial for growth,” he stated.
The Head of Delegation of the European Union, Ambassador Claude Maerten, observed that the private sector was the engine of growth and it was for that reason that the EU was committed to the success of the programme to create job opportunities and wealth.
The Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Mr San Nasabu Asabigi, said the Northern Region had great potential in agriculture and other natural resources that could be tapped to improve the well-being of the people.
He expressed the hope that the inauguration of the BUSAC II Fund would serve as a catalyst to accelerate the competitiveness, growth and development of the private sector, particularly in the north.

GRATIS TRAINS MORE TECHNICAL APPRENTICES IN NR (PAGE 35, NOV 17, 2010)

THE Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS) has surely come a long way since its establishment in 1987 in the Northern Region. The main focus of GRATIS has been in the development, promotion and dissemination of appropriate technologies and skills for the growth of industries, particularly micro and medium-scale enterprises.
According to the Manager of GRATIS-Tamale, Mr Haruna Seini, his outfit had over the years focused their attention mainly on manufacturing and technology-based training to reflect on the growing needs of the industry and human resource in the metropolis and the northern region at large.
He explained that following the peculiar challenges of the people in the area, the GRATIS had often concentrated attention on the manufacture of processing equipment for groundnuts, cassava, shea butter, rice, cereals and grain extractors.
Others are oven and bread making equipment and gas stove. The rest include; bullock ploughs and carts for donkeys .
Mr Seini further mentioned environment, sanitation and educational equipment such as solid waste containers, garbage push trucks, high level water tank stands, maternity beds and infusion stands as some of their handiwork. Others are lecture hall chairs, metal tables and concrete culvert moulds.
He said “All the above mentioned equipment we have manufactured can be found at various parts of the region where the rural people are using them not only to add value to farm produce, but also serve as means of income generation,” he stated.
The manager further said GRATIS was involved in the empowerment of the youth with the requisite technical, vocational and entrepreneurial skills for self-employment.
“The three-year technical apprenticeship training programmes in welding and fabrication are held at the GRATIS centre where training for self-employment is based on both theory and hands-on training on practical jobs. This is coupled with an industrial attachment, entrepreneurial skills training and a competence-based examination,” Mr Seini stated.
Among beneficiaries of the training exercises are university and polytechnic engineering students, who upon completion of their various courses, want to acquire practical knowledge in their respective fields of study.
“In all, we have trained over 400 technical apprentices who are contributing immensely to the economy, most of them are either self-employed or are working in the manufacturing sectors of the economy,” Mr Seini stated.
He said, “In line with GRATIS commitment to disseminate and promote technology, we also train communities in the proper processing of quality shea butter, edible oil, gari and rice, among others”.
According to him, women were also trained in bee-keeping, weaving, batik tie, all of which were aimed at equipping them with income- generating skills.
A beneficiary, Amina Alhassan, who is a mother, had this to say, “My colleagues and I are very grateful to GRATIS for believing in our abilities and proving us with the requisite training in batik tie and dye: It has not only helped me in supporting my two kids in their schooling, but has also afforded me the opportunity to cater for my petty needs”.

NANA KONADU WILL NOT RUN — Rawlings (PAGE 12, NOV 15, 2010)

Former President, Flt Lt. Rawlings has re-affirmed that he is not interested in ruling the nation again neither is his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.
“Rawlings is not interested in the Professor’s seat neither is my wife. I have held that seat for 18 years during which we worked very hard in transforming this country.”
He explained that he was only calling for fairness and justice in the affairs of the nation and that, “we will be living in the world of self denial if we do not face the reality.”
The former President explained that his constant criticisms of the Mill’s administration was not borne out of malice neither was it about washing the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party’s dirty linen in public but as truths that needed to be told to guide the ruling government to perfection in fulfilling its better Ghana mantra.
He was speaking at the funeral of the late Northern Regional chairman of the NDC, Alhaji Sumani Zakari in Tamale at the weekend.
He indicated that even though the final funeral rite of the deceased was next week Sunday, he decided to call on the family earlier because he was likely not to be in the country at that time.
He made a cash donation of GH¢1000 and five bags of maize to the family.
The former President had earlier paid courtesy calls on some chiefs and opinion leaders in the Tamale metropolis since his arrival in the area last Friday.
He had also visited the flood victims at Buipe in the Central Gonja district on his way to Tamale to console them and to learn at first hand the level of destruction caused by the floods.
The late chairman died on November 8th at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital at the age of 75 after a protracted illness. He has since been buried in Tamale according to Islamic custom.
Flt Lt. Rawlings described the late chairman as a man of courage who had contributed immensely to the socio-political development of the northern region and the nation and that even though Alhaji Zakaria was not perfect; he did his best for mother Ghana.
The former President advised the family of the deceased to remain steadfast and not to allow themselves to be divided over the properties of their husband and father.
He equally admonished the party executive in the region, particularly the vice chairman of the NDC, Sofo Azorka to endeavour to consult the party elders before arriving at decisions and urged them to ensure unity at all times until a successor was duly elected.
According to Flt Lt. Rawlings, his private advises to the government to institute in depth investigations into alleged corrupt practices by the Kufuor administration, electoral frauds in the 2004 and 2008 general elections and the prosecutions of both private and security personnel among other issues have all not been heeded to for which reasons he sometimes had to go public.
He contended that President Mills’ failure to institute investigations into what he called electoral frauds by the NPP means, “you are telling the world that the NPP is as strong as you are when they are indeed weak.”
Flt Lt. Rawlings described the prevailing economic hardships in the country as legacies of former President Kufuor’s corrupt and misrule regime.
He also chastised a section of the media for what he termed as misinformation and the distortion of vital information and stressed that he had always stood for the truth and fairness which he said were his principles.
Touching on the Ya-Na and Alhaji Issah Mobilla’s murder cases which are all on trial in the law court, Mr Rawlings called for their speedy adjudication and further investigations into those cases to ensure unity since “there can never be unity without justice.”
He described those behind the murder of the Dagbon Overlord as professional killers and alleged that the Wuaku Commission’s sittings and subsequent report were only a cover-up.
“And when I am calling for justice for the Ya-Na it is not because he is an Andani or Abudu because I do not know one from the other since I have worked with both of them,” the former President said and that he would have done same if it was an Abudu chief or the common man on the street.
According to him, if justice was not instituted in those matters, “their capacities to kill and kill again would happen if they get the chance again,” he indicated.

BE PROACTIVE IN REPORTING CHILD ABUSE (PAGE 35, NOV 4, 2010)

THE Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has exhorted the public to be proactive in reporting the abuse of children to the commission.
It has also warned that parents who encouraged their children to migrate to engage in menial jobs would be dealt with drastically.
According to the commission, it would soon come out with a comprehensive strategy for the protection of the girl-child to education and therefore, urged parents and guardians to place special importance on the schooling of their children and wards.
A Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, Mr Richard Quayson, who was speaking at a public forum for some Muslim women in the Tamale Metropolis, stressed that the commission attached seriousness to the right to education of the girl-child “and would therefore do everything necessary to ensure that their rights are not violated”.
He mentioned the special attributes women have in their role model roles in society to include their ability to understand the needs of children and their patience and willingness to listen and address the concerns of children.
“The growth of the family rest on women and therefore the day that women would fail in their duty to protect the family would mark the genesis for the decline of the entire society,” he added.
Mr Quayson further stated that women had a special place in society and could exert tremendous influence in the education of children, including the girl-child.
He said the law guarantees the right to property of all persons irrespective of race and gender and described as unlawful where some widows were thrown out of their marital homes upon the death of their husbands.
The Northern Regional Director of the CHRAJ, Mr Stephen Azantilow urged women to assert themselves, and to champion the course of development at their respective communities for the betterment of society.
A similar forum was held for congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana in the metropolis.

STEPS TO INCREASE MAIZE, LEGUME PRODUCTION (PAGE 22, OCT 23, 2010)

AGRICULTURE in Ghana accounts for about 55 per cent of employment and nearly 40 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 
Soil degradation is, however, considered a major setback to ensuring food security in the country.
About 70 per cent of the soil in northern Ghana and the eastern part of the Brong Ahafo Region around Atebubu is considered as degraded and infertile. This is evidenced in the poor yields of crops particularly cereals.
The most degraded areas are the north-eastern part of the Upper East Region from Navrongo-Bolgatanga to Bawku-Zuarungu and to further east.
Indeed, about 10 per cent of the land mass of sub-Saharan African is considered severely degraded with an additional 10 per cent showing signs of rapid degradation.
It has also been established that 39 per cent of the continent and 65 per cent of agricultural land are affected by desertification and the subsequent lost of land fertility thus affecting the livelihoods of over 60 million people in the continent.
According to a senior soil scientist with the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) at Nyankpala in the Northern Region, Dr Mathias Fosu, the institute had developed many technologies to help farmers improve on soil health.
The technologies include fallow management where some locally adapted leguminous crops such as crotalaria, mucuna and calopogonium have been identified and used as cover crops to increase organic matter and soil nutrients.
Crop rotation systems that increase legumes in the crop system to fix atmospheric nitrogen and improve soil fertility and inter-cropping that allow for targeted fertilisation of cereals within the crop system.
He mentioned other methods as the combination of minimum tillage and the use of plant residues and herbicide to reduce erosion, building of the capacity of farmers in soil and water management and on the selection and appropriate use of mineral and organic fertilisers within an integrated soil management system.
Dr Fosu also explained that his outfit carried out soil tests for farmers and practise it with them on their fields by applying appropriate fertiliser recommendations.
He stated that “good soil quality is the most important link in the agricultural value chain and since most soils, especially in northern Ghana that is considered the bread basket of the country are known to be poor, ensuring good soil quality is key to agricultural production”.
Dr Fosu further claimed that “the work at SARI has been shown to improve yields as crop rotation and inter-cropping has increased cereal yields between 15 and 60 per cent over the monocrop systems”.
A farmer, Mr Afah Tahiru Wumbei of Gbalahigu in the Tolon/Kumbungu District in the Northern Region, said “my colleagues and I have benefited tremendously through the use of these new technologies from SARI as we continue to record increase yields in maize and rice production”.
On the safe usage of fertiliser, Dr Fosu observed that in Ghana and Africa, fertiliser is not the major threat but rather, the practice of cropping without fertiliser referred to as nutrient mining.
The soil scientist, however, stated that farmers were constantly educated on the best practices in fertiliser handling and application.
Dr Fosu acknowledged the importance of partnership to improve on the agricultural sector.
He mentioned funding for technological generation, collaborative research, knowledge sharing, training skills development and exchange of information as some of the areas that could impact positively on the work of SARI.
“The policy changes or shifts needed for SARI to grow include increase in government’s support in the areas of research, capacity building, innovative financing of agriculture and good access to market by farmers,” Dr Fosu said.
Other measures include, increase access and subsidising of fertiliser and credit availability to farmers.
Indeed the problems and solutions in agriculture are not unique to Ghana. The endemic poverty in farming communities in Africa limits the use of improved technologies and inputs in the sector as many governments in Africa often pay lip service to the sector.
The African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) is showing the way in driving change across the agricultural value chain and supporting Africa’s agricultural development through the mobilisation of support from African leaders.
It involves the mapping out of strategies for increase in fertiliser supply, promoting investments and policy support to increase farmers’ incomes and combining public and private sector expertise in the accelerated growth of the sector.
It was, therefore, very refreshing when in April, this year, a $1.54 million project aimed at increasing maize-legume production through up scaling of proven integrated soil fertility for the three northern regions was inaugurated in Tamale.
The three-year project is being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), an international organisation that seeks to transform small holder agriculture into a highly productive, efficient, sustainable and competitive system while protecting the environment.
The Director-General of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-Ghana), Dr Abdulai Salifu, sums it up when he said, “Any strategy that seeks to turn around the general soil infertility constraint northern Ghana into a resource must be welcome news for our agricultural policy makers and farmers.”