Ashanti Today

President Akufo-Addo recently visited the Ashanti region on a five-day working tour. In the following report, yours truly, Ashanti Today , brings to you, a recap of the activities the President undertook during the period. Upon assumption of office, President Akufo-Addo told Ghanaians that, every year, he would be undertaking working tours of all the administrative regions of the country to be abreast of happenings on the ground instead of waiting for his functionaries to give him reports. Since the start of this year’s regional tours, Ashanti is the seventh he paid this presidential visit. It is significant to note, that of all the six regions he had toured earlier, it is only the Ashanti region that the President spent five days.   Day One In line with tradition and courtesy, President Akufo-Addo could not have begun the working tour without first calling on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, the overlord of Asanteman to inform him and his subjects of his presen...

The opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, will hold its Regional Congresses across the country to elect new Regional Executives to manage the party in the next four years.  The elections, which will be held concurrently, was originally scheduled for the middle of this month but had to be postponed by the national Functional Executives for certain reasons. Already, the party has held Youth and Women congresses to elect the Regional Women Organizers as well as Youth Organizers and their Deputies in line with the Constitution of the party.  In the Ashanti regional congress scheduled to take place at Kumawu in the Sekyere Kumawu district, the challenge for the Chairmanship is seen to be a two-horse race between the incumbent Regional Vice Chairman, Augustus Andrews Nana Akwasi and the former Regional Secretary, Joseph Yamin, who also served as Deputy Youth and Sports and Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister during former President John Mahama’s administration. ...

The Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, has expressed worry and displeasure about how some community ICT centres have been run down and the apathy of some District Assemblies towards maintaining state and public property.  Mrs. Ekuful expressed the sentiment during her tour of Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications, GIFEC, funded projects in some parts of the Ashanti region. The Communications Minister’s tour of the region saw her inspecting community ICT Centres at Kodie in the Afigya Kwabre district, Namong in the Offinso South Municipality and Nsuta, Kwamang and Beposo in the Sekyere Central district.  At the Namong Community ICT Centre, the facility was in a dilapidated condition, as all the desktop computers in the lab and air conditioners were not functioning, while the teaching materials such as projectors and writing boards and furnishing were missing.  Also, part of the land on which the ICT centre is situated had been encr...

The Ghana Cocoa Board has indicated that it might be compelled to negotiate with cocoa farmers for a possible reduction in the producer prices of the beans should the downward trend of the world market prices of the commodity continue.  This point  would only be reached if the world market price declines to one thousand 500  Dollars. However, farmers would not be worse off should the situation become unavoidable considering the prospects of very high crop yield as a result of the hand pollination pilot project. Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Mr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo gave the hint at Chirano in the Bibiani-Ahwiaso-Bekwai Municipality of the Western region. Government’s pilot project on hand pollination in parts of the cocoa growing districts in the country is giving a very prospect of unimaginable cocoa yields judging from evidence gathered from some of the participating farms.  Hand  Pollination is a man-induced cross pollination of...

Ghana and La Cote d’Ivoire have jointly launched a project to destroy and refurbish large tracks of unproductive cocoa farms in both countries with the ultimate medium to long term objective of increasing the production and quality of the beans as well as incomes of the farmers.  The African Development Bank is to fund the project with $1.2bn. The joint launch of the project, to be funded by the Africa Development Bank, has taken place at Pillar 34 in Ghana’s Bia West district of the Western region by the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Mr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo and the Managing Director of the Conseil du Cofe-Cacao of La Cote d’Ivoire, Mr. Kone Brahima. The Joint Project Ghana and La Coted’Ivoire, together, produce about 60 per cent of the total global cocoa with La Cote d’Ivoire as the world leader. However, the production of this much sought after commodity in these two West African neighbouring countriesis being undermined seriously by certain factors, aside...

As part of efforts to block loopholes in revenue generation, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, KMA, in collaboration with Fidelity Bank, has launched an integrated revenue management and collection system also called the Point-Of-Sales device.  The device will capture details of all traders within the Metropolis such as their names, mobile phone numbers and Date of Birth. The use of the device will begin to operate from Wednesday 22 nd of this month, starting at the Kumasi Central Market.  Launching the device at the Kumasi Central Market, the Metro Chief Executive, Osei Assibey-Antwi, said the use of the device will enhance proper revenue collection by ensuring all revenue collected is accounted for, and also ensure better record keeping.  Again, it will ensure enough money is sourced to maintain the markets and manage challenges in the various markets such as fire outbreaks, floods, insanitary conditions and insecurity.  Mr. Assibey-Antwi warned ...

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, has urged the Muslims and Zongo communities to take advantage of government’s free second cycle education programme and the double track system to ensure that their school going aged children attain at least senior high education.  The Regional Minister was addressing muslims at their Eid-ul Adha prayers at Asawase. Hundreds of orthodox muslims from Kumasi and the Asokore Mampong municipality converged on the Central Mosque at Asawase for their Eid ul-Adha open air prayers.  There was an enhanced security arrangement made up of Police and Military personnel within the vicinity of the Central Mosque following recent agitations among the Zongo youth as a result of the shooting to death of seven persons by the Police in the region. Unlike in previous occasions, the Regional Police Commander or his Deputy was absent for an unexplained reason but believed to be due to the recent disagreements between the Police and the Zon...

Your's truly, ASHANTI TODAY, will bring you a 'blow-by-blow' report on President Akufo Addo's five-day working tour of the Ashanti region this week. Stay connected for a neutral and objective information on the tour. THANKS

A petition has been serve to the Chancellor Otumfuo Osei tutu of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology by the Students, alumni and associates of the University Hall, popularly called Katanga Hall.  The agitations are resulting out of University’s management to convert both the University Hall and the Katanga Hall from all male into a mixed-gender halls. The management has explained earlier in a Press statement that the decision is increase intake of female students on campus as well as address the security risks the female students are exposed to living off- campus.  However some interest groups including current and former residents of the two Halls of resident have not taken kindly to the change in the statuses of the Unity and Katanga Halls leading to agitations and street protests.  Already, some of the students have filed a suit at a Kumasi High Court with the aim of stopping the University’s management from going ahead with their conve...

A total of 472 thousand, 730 junior high school graduates are expected to be enrolled into the second cycle system as the 2 nd batch of beneficiaries of the government’s flagship Free Senior High education. The enrollment figure is 30 point-seven per cent more than the first year’s number of 361 thousand, 771.  The Minister for Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, made this known an address read for him at the opening of the 56 th Annual National Conference of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools, CHASS, in Kumasi.  The Education Minister said, the double track system is being introduced when schools re-open next month for the new academic year, to cater for the excess enrollment numbers with high prospects of success despite challenges that could come along with its implementation.  CHASS Formed in 1962 as the umbrella body for all heads of secondary schools in Ghana, the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools, CHASS, contin...

The Ghana Science Association has held its 16 th Biennial Workshop in Kumasi on the theme, “Combating Pests Through Climate Smart Agriculture”.  Climate Smart Agriculture refers to as agriculture that sustainably increases productivity, enhances crop resilience to drought, pests and diseases, and promotes national food security and development goals.  The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto in an address for him, at the function, said planning efforts are urgently needed to target and implement agricultural adaptation and mitigation options in line with government strategies, such as the national climate change action plans. In line with this, government has put in place the National Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Security Action Plan.  He said the Action Plan defines implementation programmes in the respective agro-ecological zones and in the various district. What remains crucial now is the allocation of resources to effectively...

The Veterinary Services Division of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ghana Poultry Project have developed and released a national harmonized Protocol for vaccination in poultry towards effective risk management and optimization of production in the local poultry production.  At a forum in the Oforikrom Municipality of the Ashanti region to sensitize poultry farmers to the relevance of the Protocol to disease management on their farms, a Veterinary Surgeon and Vice Chairman of the Veterinary Council, Dr. Jonathan Amakye-Anim, described the harmonized vaccination protocol as a monumental achievement towards the fight against the Gumboro and New Castle diseases plaguing the industry.  Poultry production in Ghana has over the years been plagued by mostly viral and bacterial infections that cause disease outbreaks. The commonest of such diseases have been the Newcastle, Gumboro, Fowl pox and recently, the Avian Flu which when break out on a poultry farm usuall...

The Asantehene. Otumfuo Osei Tutu, has described implementation of the free second cycle education policy as the "most epoch-making decisions in the entire history of Ghana to offer every Ghanaian child the opportunity to obtain education through the senior high school entirely free."  According to him, without any doubt, the policy is "the bravest decisions taken by any government in the country’s history with life-changing ramifications for all Ghanaian families for now and decades into the future." Addressing heads of public senior high schools at their 56 th Annual Conference in Kumasi on the theme: “The Free Senior High Policy; The Role of Stakeholders", Otumfuo Osei Tutu noted that the policy was not implemented out of the blue considering that fact that, there were several attempts by governments in the pre-and post-independence to introduce similar programmes while the 1992 Constitution has also made room for such a policy.  The Asantehene sa...