BA Minister Visits Daily Guide

As part of measures to establish rapport with the media, the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, on Thursday toured some media houses in the regional capital, Sunyani to interact with staff of the various media houses.

In an interaction with staff of Western Publications Limited, publishers of DAILY GUIDE, News One, Business Guide and Guide Young Blazers, the Minister assured the workers that his outfit would welcome every media house in the region.
“Regional Coordinating Council programmes are not limited to any media house,” he added.
The Minister disclosed that he would visit the media houses regularly to interact with staff to encourage them to give off their best for the country.
Mr. Aidoo, who was accompanied on the tour by his Deputy, Justice Samuel Adjei, PRO, Augusta Offeibea Tettey and other officials of the RCC, said he would forward the demands of the paper for adverts to the Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MDAs) in the region.
The Minister spoke highly of the late Mark Sam Essien, former Western Regional Editor of DAILY GUIDE, stating that he would really miss him.
He encouraged the staff to work with government to develop the country.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Bureau Chief of DAILY GUIDE, Fred Tettey Amoako, congratulated the Minister for interacting with the media in the region.
He mentioned that though the paper was doing well in the country, it faces challenges such as the lack of adverts from government agencies.
According to him, adverts help the paper to grow and pleaded with the Minister to encourage district assemblies in the region to channel some of their adverts to the paper and not only the state-owned newspapers.
 From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

Sunyani Businesses Bemoan Tariff Increases

Some business people in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional capital, have expressed worry over the recent increases in tariffs by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC).

They noted that businesses have recorded some losses lately, stressing that the increment would worsen their plight.
CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE gathered that some companies in the municipality are planning to lay-off some workers following the tariff hikes on Wednesday.
Hairdressers, barbers, fashion designers and others who use electricity and water daily, announced plans to increase their fees in order to effectively pay their bills.
They complained bitterly when CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE visited their establishments to find out how they would cope under the current circumstances.
The new tariffs take effect from Tuesday, October 1.
At Sista’s Place, a prominent beauty saloon, the Manager, Salina Enyan said she would sack some of the workers in order to break even.
She indicated that “I know the chemical shops where we buy our products will increase their fees so the only option is for me to increase mine,” she added.
The Manager of Furniture Works, Joshua Afedi Annor, also said due to their energy consumption, they would also increase their fees.
He also pleaded with government to have mercy on the poor Ghanaian and reduce the tariffs.
A worker at Likers Supermarket in Sunyani said his outfit would take the necessary measures to make profits.
The General Manager of Storm Fm, a radio station in Sunyani, Francis Owusu Ansah, said his outfit would not increase their advert rates because they can’t team up with government to burden the ordinary Ghanaian.
He said the company would have to adjust in order not to register losses.
 From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

Robbers Attack DAILY GUIDE Reporter

Residents of Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Central Region are currently living in fear as result of several robbery attacks in the area.

Over the weekend two separate robbery attacks were recorded on the Ayanfuri-Dunkwa Road.
Commuters were robbed of their monies and belongings at gunpoint.
In one of the robbery incidents, which occurred at Adwinpanaye and Kwamiprakrom on the Ayanfuri-Dunkwa road around 7pm on Saturday, the robbers, numbering about five and said to be of Fulani extraction, subjected passengers to severe beatings after taking their possessions.
A reporter of DAILY GUIDE in the Brong Ahafo Region, Vivianna Mensah, who was on board one of the vehicles during the attack, escaped with bruises on most part of her body after she and other passengers were subjected to beatings by the robbers.
Narrating her ordeal to the paper, Ms. Mensah said she travelled to the area to attend her grandmother’s funeral and was returning from Ayanfuri to Dunkwa around 7pm on Saturday in a taxi cab.
Upon reaching a sharp curve, they saw a parked taxi cab and realized that the road had been blocked with logs.
According to her, within seconds, the robbers, who wielded guns, came from the bush and ordered the passengers to surrender their monies, mobile phones among others, which they obliged.
She said the robbers then dragged them from the taxi to the floor hitting them while pointing guns at them.
She said they warned them not to raise their heads.
In the course of the attack, which lasted for about an hour, two vehicles emerged and the passengers were also robbed of their belongings.
She said the police later came to the scene shooting after the robbers had already fled into the bush.
She lost her Galaxy tap, GH¢1,200, wallet containing her ID cards and ATM card, among others.
Meanwhile, the military personnel at a base at Ayanfuri have managed to arrest two of the suspects. The suspects were arrested the following day at the scene of the incident.
FROM Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako, Sunyani

‘Control Child Bearing’

The Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Education, Dr Adjei Hinneh, has admonished parents to adopt proper birth control mechanisms in order to reduce the pressure on educational infrastructure that is recorded every year, due to the high enrollment in schools.

According to him, admission in 2010 for kindergarten at ‘my first day at school’ which was 89,000 increased to 93,000 in 2011 and went up again in 2012 to 98,000.
He related the increase to parents’ failure to practise family planning.
He also advised parents to do their best by providing their wards with little things like slate, crayon and other things that would encourage them to stay at school.
Dr Hinneh was speaking at this year’s ‘my first day at school’ ceremony and commissioning of six-unit classroom block at Nyamaah School in Sunyani which was heavily attended by parents and traditional leaders.
He urged the teachers to lead exemplary life which could be emulated by the pupils.
The Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, Kwasi Oppong Ababio, in his welcome address applauded parents who have chosen to enrol their children in school and urged them to fully play their roles to make the children successful in their various schools.
He said the Sunyani Municipal Assembly recognises education as the key to development. He added that the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) through the Assembly had implemented over 250 development projects since 2009 in the Sunyani Municipality with the educational sector taking a chunk of them.
The MCE promised that the Assembly would continue to work hard to improve academic standards in the municipality through the construction of more school infrastructure and provision of furniture and logistics.
Mr Ababio revealed that the six-unit classroom block which cost GH¢ 199, 719.50 is a promise he made to the queen mother of Sunyani on her 40^th anniversary.
The building which was named after the queen mother, he said, is an appreciation for the invaluable role she has played towards the development of the municipality.
He called on the queen mother to continue to support them especially on gender mainstreaming.
The headmistress of Nyamaah School, Mercy Baah Nuakoh, said the management intends to divide the school into “A” and “B” due to high enrolment and therefore appealed to the assembly to construct more classroom blocks for them.
She said new admissions into the school, especially at the kindergarten level was steadily progressing and appealed to parents to collaborate with teachers to ensure that they always attend Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meetings.
The queen mother of Sunyani Traditional Area, Nana Yaa Nyamaah II, thanked the Municipal Assembly for the honour done her. She pleaded with parents to stop buying funeral cloth and invest in their children’s education.
 From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

4 Years SHS Is Better Than 3 Years

The Brong Ahafo Regional Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Dabie, has called on those who matter in the educational system to reconsider going back to the four-year system of education at the senior high school level.

 He pleaded with the government and everyone involved in education in the country to put aside political differences and consider the four-year system of education again to help push education forward in the country.
According to him, the recent WASSCE results have shown that the four-year education is the best. He said since infrastructure is already in place, the government should reconsider and go back to the four-year system introduced by the erstwhile Kufour government to produce matured graduate.
Mr Dabie who was interacting with the media in Sunyani on education expressed worry over the way education is being politicized in the country and called on Ghanaians to think of the future of the country when meddling with education.
He further mentioned that, the NDC in their manifesto mentioned that they would build ten additional teachers’ training colleges in the country was quick to ask that since this has not materialized, he is wondering where the teachers from the training colleges would teach after coming out of school.
“The three years will bring redundancy in the schools because there will not be classes for teachers to teach,” he added.
He pleaded with the teachers to give their best when teaching so as not to produce half-baked graduates who he claimed speak and write only Pidgin English.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister for Education who is also the Member of Parliament for Techiman North, Alex Kyeremeh has denied allegations in the public that the four-year students who wrote the WASSCE with the three-year students did better.  He noted that, the three-year students performed equally better than the four year students.
Mr Kyeremeh called on Ghanaians to have faith in the educational system because the government has put in place measures to improve the educational system.
 From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

‘Lower Interest Rate On Loans’

The National President of Ghana Association of Business Education Teachers (GABET), Gordon Osei Marfo, has appealed to micro-finance institutions in the country to lower their interest rates on loans so that their customers may not eventually become poorer than they were.
He also commended them for their vital role in the country’s development and said a visit to some micro-finance institutions showed that many applicants especially parents queued up for loans to pay their wards’ school fees and also inject some of the money into their businesses.
Mr. Marfo, who was speaking at the 21^st Conference of GABET in Sunyani, further called on the Central Bank to put in place mechanisms for detecting unregistered micro-financial institutions and getting them either to regularize their operations or shut down.
“This in my opinion will help eliminate or at least reduce fraud on unsuspecting public,” he added.
The GABET President expressed worry over the refusal of public nursing training schools to admit business students who seek admission at their institutions and commended some private nursing schools for going all out to admit their students.
Mr. Marfo, who is also the assistant headmaster of Twene Amanfo Senior High Technical Institute (TASTECH) in Sunyani, called on his colleagues to encourage their students to read cost accounting, as students who intend reading accountancy, auditing, taxation, financial management and other related business programmes should have knowledge in cost accounting.
Speaking on judgment debts, the President of GABET expressed worry over the many judgment debts and admonished the government to prosecute offenders after ordering them to pay the money.
“Additionally government officials who through omission or commission or negligence bring about such debts should be brought to book,” he opined.
The guest speaker at the GABET five-day conference and workshop under the theme “The Growth of microfinance industry and its impact on the economy”, Dr. Yaw Gyimah-Larbi, Assistant Director, Banking Supervision Department, said the theme for the conference was timely considering the fact that most stakeholders in the microfinance industry seemed to have been taken by surprise with the recent proliferation of microfinance institutions all over the country.
“The role of microfinance institutions in ensuring credit availability to the economically poor people and small entrepreneurs is critical in the sustainability of growth in the poor and emerging economies such as ours,” he added.
He said due to the influx of the microfinance institutions in the country, the Bank of Ghana would be publishing licensed micro-finance institutions in the dailies soon and advised people to go on their website and check the licensed ones before dealing with them.
He also mentioned that the Bank of Ghana intends to constantly monitor and review the business environment and enact laws or issue out relevant guidelines that would ensure stakeholder satisfaction thereby enabling the micro finance sector to remain vibrant and sustainable.
From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

GIBA Denies Meeting Gbevlo

Executive Secretary of Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), Gerald Ankrah,  has denied media reports that the National Security has met GIBA members to deliberate on how they will operate on the day of the Supreme Court verdict.

According to him, the group together with the National Media Commission (NMC) and National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) are on regional tour organising workshops for their members on how they can help maintain peace before and after the Supreme Court verdict.
Mr. Ankrah, who sounded surprised, said none of the members of GIBA had informed the association of any meeting with the national security. “We haven’t received any invitation from the national security for any meeting” he added.
He denied the reports on Ark FM in Sunyani and said it was unconstitutional for the national security to tell radio stations not to pick phone calls or have panel discussions after the Supreme Court verdict.
Mr. Ankrah said the Association had already organised workshops in the Eastern, Ashanti, Greater Accra, and the Northern regions.
He noted that the next stop would be in the Central and Western regions. He also promised that the association would train all its members in the country before the Supreme Court verdict.
From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani