Ashanti Today

Sustenance of the government’s flagship programme of Planting for Food and Jobs in the Ashanti region is being threatened by the low recovery rate from participating farmers after the first year of implementation.  Current statistics from the Regional Directorate of Agric indicate that only 220 thousand Ghana Cedis out of the total of two million Ghana Cedis due for recovery from the beneficiary farmers in the region has been recouped so far.  The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Simon Osei Mensah made this known in Kumasi. The PF & J Government introduced the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative during the major farming season of 2017 as its flagship programme in the agricultural sector.  Two hundred thousand farmers nationwide were targeted to participate in the first year with the figure reviewed upward to 500 thousand this year. In the Ashanti region, out of the projected over 20 thousand, about 12 thousand farmers actually participated in the programme in 2017

The Ashanti Regional Security Council, REGSEC, has constituted and inaugurated a five-member Committee to independently investigate the killing of seven men in the Amansie West district by the Police recently.  A statement signed and issued to the media in Kumasi yesterday by the Regional Chairman, Simon Osei- Mensah, who is also Chairman of the REGSEC, said the Committee has representations from the Christian and Muslim communities, the Bureau of National Investigations, BNI, the Regional Coordinating Council, RCC with a Justice of the Superior Court as its Chairman.  The statement said the Committee has one month to complete its work and submit the Report to the Regional Minister. It noted that the Committee’s mandate is to investigate to unravel circumstances of the shooting to death of the seven persons about two weeks ago.  It would be recalled that about two weeks ago, Police in the Ashanti region announced the shooting to death of seven men near Manso Nkwanta in th

The Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council, RCC, has observed with grave concern in recent times, the increasing trend of trading and hawking at unauthorized locations in the region.  The situation is not only creating chaotic scenes and piles of refuse at such places, but also endangering the lives of the traders, hawkers and members of the general public.  A statement signed and issued by the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, who doubles as Chairman of the RCC, has subsequently directed that, with immediate effect, no trading or hawking activities will be allowed in and around roundabouts, footbridges and road intersections across the region.  The Statement therefore asked all such traders and hawkers to   relocate to designated markets located within the region and warned that anyone who flouts the directive would have himself or herself to blame for the consequences.  It expressed the hope that all would comply with the decision and avoid any confrontat

The first ever international conference on Geography and Development to be hosted in Ghana has been held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KNUST in Kumasi with focus on ‘Climate Change and Sustainable Development’.  The Conference,  attended by mainly academics from Africa and coordinated by the Department of Geography and Rural Development of the KNUST, was a platform for the participants to assess the efforts, gains and challenges of the climate change phenomenon on selected countries relative to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs. The event comes on the heels of the Conferences of Parties, COP 22 in Marrakesh and COP 22 in Bonn, Germany.  During the three-day forum, there were presentations on ‘Evidence of climate change from statistical analysis of temperature and rainfall data of Kaduna State in Nigeria’, ‘Plant wealth and their sustainable utilization under changing climatic conditions; The case of Thal desert, Pakistan’, ‘Assessing the

    A survey conducted in the Ashanti region has revealed that many cocoa farmers are at risk of contracting short to long term complicated health challenges due to poor handling of agro chemicals.  The survey showed that many of these farmers risk suffering from such illnesses as skin and eye itching, blood cancer, organ damage, low sperm count in men and menstrual disorder in women.  It was established that multiple factors including difficulty in access to extension services and personal protective gear as well as non-adherence to precautionary measures are responsible for the situation.  It was observed through the survey that the centralized Community Spraying Taskforce are poorly resourced with working and personal protective tools to meet the needs of all the cocoa farmers within their operational areas while government’s chemical and fertilizer support reach the farmers either in insufficient quantities or late.  The farmers also do not take enough precautionary m

The Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission is expected to officially announce a ban on all hunting activities across the country any time soon.  The ban, which has become an annual national event, spans August and December and aims at protecting the wildlife from poaching by hunters.  The Manager of the Kumasi Zoo, Dr. Meyir Ziekah, who gave the hint in an interview with Ashanti Today in the Ashanti region, explained that, the Closed Season has become very important to the Forestry Commission as a result of the near extinction of certain animal species from the country.  Dr. Ziekah noted also that research findings have revealed that most of the animals in the wild take seed or give birth between August and December. However, poachers are not able to identify such animals or properly differentiate between protected and endangered species.  According to the Zoological Manager, during the hunting Closed Season, the only animal species that could be poached legall

A five-year old girl, named only as Elorm, has been killed by an over speeding vehicle at Ninting near Mampong in the Ashanti region.  The KG Two girl, was knocked into the bush along the road and died instantly by the vehicle which was said to be over taking another vehicle.  The Head of the Ninting Royal Family, Nana Adu Asare, who made this known to Ashanti Today , noted that the girl was returning from Church at about 7.15 pm on Sunday when she met her untimely death.  It was a by-stander who saw the incident and blew the alarm for concerned residents to rush to the scene only to find her lifeless body in the bush along the road.  The body has since been deposited at the Mampong Government Hospital mortuary while the Mampong Police have taken over the case for investigation.  Meanwhile, Nana Adu Asare has appealed to the Ghana Highway Authority to replace the rumble strips with speed humps in the Ninting township to effectively check speeding motorists. 

Some irate youth at Asawase in the Asokore Mampong Municipality in the Ashanti region today, Friday, July 20, prevented the Police,  led by the Inspector General, Mr. David Asante Apeatu  from interacting with the community members at the Central Mosque.  The police however brought in an amour car and reinforcement to disperse the crowd. The riot is the result of a simmering tension among the Zongo youth in reaction to what they claim to be the Police’ deliberate targeting of members of the Muslims community in the region for killing in the police’ crime combat in recent months.  The immediate cause is the shooting to death of seven youngmen by the Ashanti police at Poano in the Amansie West district in what the Police claim to be a shootout with suspected armed robbers.  However, the youth at Asawase have challenged claims saying that three of those killed were not armed robbers but members of the Asawase community whose characters they can vouch for.  They youth ar

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has enrolled 751 alleged witches unto the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, LEAP, to enable them to earn some income to live decent lives. The beneficiaries were selected from the witches’ camps at 'Gambaga, Kukuo, Nabuli, Kpatinga, Leli-Daberi and Ngnan-Yendi.'  Addressing the National House of Chiefs in Kumasi, the sector Minister, Otiko Afisa Djaba, noted that the Ministry has successfully conducted three LEAP programmes this year, covering a total of 213 thousand and 44 households nationwide.  She condemned the inhumane treatment older women are subjected to in certain areas in the country on the excuse that such women are witches. T ouching on other social protection initiatives started by her Ministry, Madam Afisa Djaba disclosed that a five-year Strategic Plan to completely eradicate the phenomenon of head porterage commonly known as ‘kayaye’ from the country saying that a mapping up exercise is

Residents of Besease near Asante Mampong, particularly children are exposed to real threats of deaths from electrocution should the electricity company of Ghana fail to act swiftly to attend to the main power distribution lines that are just inches overhead the community’s refuse dump. Similarly, the community could experience an outbreak of communicable diseases like cholera anytime soon if the heap of refuse dump is not removed.  Besease is predominantly a farming community located about seven kilometres from Mampong, capital of the Mampong Municipality of Ashanti. It has a population of about one thousand people and shares boundary with Kyirimfaso.     The residents are faced with two serious situations that could result in deaths especially women and children who mostly dispose of garbage at the refuse dump located right in the centre of the town. The first and imminent danger to life is the main electricity supply cables that run just inches above of the refuse dum