Speaking at the Core Course program for Humanitarian Assistance for West Africa, the Deputy Director-General of NADMO in charge of Technical services and Reforms, Seji Saji Amedonu, said there should be a well mapped out plan on the collection and distribution of relief items.

[contextly_sidebar id=”7feHIpTTZf1fSZhEI6MSagQKO7BBnlqk”]He noted that the best step ECOWAS should take in the direction of disaster management is to have a standby emergency response team capable of responding to disasters on time.

“For ECOWAS to mitigate the impact of emergencies, ECOWAS should have all the database of all the humanitarian assistance capabilities of all members to know which member states to fall on for a particular support,” he said.

Several states in West Africa donated relief items to Sierra Leone following a mudslide that claimed several lives in that country in 2017.

The National Disaster Management Organisation [NADMO] in 2015, said it would help set up a National Disaster Management Fund and also improve on picking up early warning signals.

NADMO pushes for L.I. to improve disaster management

Meanwhile, NADMO says it is in the process of presenting a proposal to Parliament for a legislative instrument that will regulate the construction of buildings in the country, and make sure every institution has a disaster management plan.

According to NADMO, most buildings are structurally deficient, making them prone to disasters.

The National Disaster Management Organization [NADMO], says it is in the process of presenting a proposal to Parliament for a legislative instrument that will regulate the construction of buildings in the country, and make sure every institution has a disaster management plan.

According to NADMO, most buildings are structurally deficient, making them prone to disasters.

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By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Presidential Task-force meeting on a single currency for the West African sub-region, will be hosted in Ghana and chaired by President Akufo-Addo.

It will be held at the Accra International Conference Centre from Wednesday, February 21, 2018.

According to a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer for Accra Regional Police Command, Effia Tenge, there will be a temporary closure of the Osu Cemetary Traffic Light on the Castle Road to AU Circle, intermittent closure on the Independence Avenue through 37 interchanges to AU circle.

The Regional Police Command urged the general public to cooperate with the police for effective traffic management.

“The general public is urged to cooperate with the police to ensure effective traffic management.Any inconvenience that these arrangements would cause is deeply regretted ”

In attendance at the meeting will be the Presidents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, Alhassane Ouattara, President of the Republic of Niger, Issoufou Mahamadou, the Governors of Central Banks and foreign Ministers from the ECOWAS.

The Presidential Task-force meeting will be preceded by two meetings; the 6^th Technical Meeting of the Presidential Task Force and the 2^nd Ministerial Meeting of the Presidential Task Force.”

Representatives of the Ministries of Finance and Economy of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, Niger and Nigeria, Central Banks of ECOWAS Members State and the regional institutions involved in the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme (EMCP), namely the ECOWAS Commission, UEMOA Commission, West African Monetary Agency (WAMA), West African Monetary Institution (WAMI) BCEAO and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), will be in attendance for the Technical Meetings.

The meeting will provide a platform to deliberate on issues related to the ECOWAS single currency Programme and review strategies to accelerate the single currency by 2020.

The single Currency programme is in line with the vision of ECOWAS to transform the sub-region into an economic and monetary union.

“ECOWAS was founded with the aim the transforming the sub-region into an economic and monetary union. This led to the adoption of the Community Authority of the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme (EMCP) in July 1987,” the statement added.

The last ECOWAS single Currency Programme was held in Niamey, Niger in October 2017.

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By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Police arrested the 26 on Saturday after they converged on the Kawukudi Park in preparation for a mass protest without notifying police, in clear breach of the public order act.

[contextly_sidebar id=”oO9zTkS3ItbJt2uybDGUUg9FeFG6DdHr”]Some motorbikes were also impounded by police at the scene.

Togolese in Ghana in recent times, have organized such protests in solidarity with efforts back home by the opposition to have presidential term limits in place.

Ghana consulting with Togo

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, has said that the government is frantically engaging Togolese authorities over the heightened political situation in that country.

One of the criticisms from some protesters in Togo has been directed towards the perceived silence and inaction from the sub-region.

But Speaking to Citi News, Mrs. Ayorkor Botchway assured that “consultations are going on. We are talking [with them] because it is important.  We are a stakeholder. Anything that happens in Togo has an effect on us. Anything that happens in Ghana will have an effect on Togo.”

“…it is in our interest to make sure Togo is safe and Ghana is safe, and there is nothing negative going on in any of the two countries… The other ECOWAS countries are all engaged to ensure that everything is okay in our sister country in terms of their politics and adhering to their constitution,” the Minister said.

Togolese crisis

Togo’s opposition parties have been demanding a return to constitutional term limits for the Presidency, and also for President Faure Gnassingbe to step down.

Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005 after the death of his father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo for nearly 50 years.

The anti-Gnassingbe protests, that have seen hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets across the country, have resulted in over 15 people killed and scores injured.

Three new street marches have been announced for November 7, 8 and 9, despite the Togolese government’s ban on weekday protests.

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By: Duke Mensah Opoku &Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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France also called for an “immediate dialogue” between the two sides in its former colony, saying it was concerned about reports of civilian militia working alongside security forces.

At least 16 people have been killed and scores more injured in anti-government protests that have seen hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets across the country.

Three new marches have been announced for November 7,8 and 9, despite a government ban on weekday protests and recent clashes between gangs of youths, police and soldiers.

Ivory Coast’s president Alassane Ouattara said he and his counterparts from Nigeria, Niger and Ghana had met Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe to discuss the issue on Tuesday.

“We believe negotiations are needed … and that these negotiations must lead to constitutional modifications already embarked upon,” he told reporters in Niamey on Tuesday at a meeting of the West African bloc Ecowas.

A coalition of 14 opposition parties wants Gnassingbe to step down and a limit of two, five-year terms introduced for presidents.

They also want a two-round election process rather than current one.

Gnassingbe has won three elections since taking power in 2005 after the death of his father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo for nearly 50 years.

Last week in Lome and the second city of Sokode, violence flared as police and soldiers tried to prevent opposition supporters from protesting.

According to an AFP count, two teenagers and two soldiers who were lynched by angry crowds are among the 16 deaths since late August. More than 200 others have been injured.

Faced with rising unrest, Togo’s government has proposed reforms in a referendum.

But the opposition is unhappy that the limit on presidential terms would not be retroactive, allowing Gnassingbe to stand in 2020 and again in 2025.

There has been little comment in West Africa about the violence, although Benin’s President Patrice Talon is said to have met Gnassingbe in the last week to discuss the issue.

The Gambia’s foreign minister was also criticised after he was reported as having called for Faure to resign.

With Togo, The Gambia is the only other West African country not to have a limit on presidential terms of office.

Ouattara said the heads of state condemned all violence and said it was “important there is a climate of peace in Togo”.

“Demonstrations must be able to occur but peacefully,” he said, saying Ecowas would respond to violence with unspecified “rigorous measures”.

In Paris on Wednesday, French foreign ministry spokesperson Agnes Romatet-Espagne made similar comments and called on Togo’s government to “respect the right to protest”.

“Protests should be expressed in a peaceful manner,” she added.

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Source: AFP

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Speaking on Wednesday when the President of Benin, Patrice Athanase Talon paid a day’s working visit to Ghana, President Akufo-Addo said, “We should endeavour to establish direct flights between Accra and Cotonou to facilitate the movement of persons and goods. We should further try to establish direct shipping lines, linking Accra to Cotonou, to facilitate trade between us. We need to push for the Sealink Shipping Project, an ECOWAS initiative, to help link our two countries.”

“With West Africa’s population set to reach some 500 million people in 20 years time, there are immense opportunities to bring prosperity to our region with hard work, enterprise and creativity,” the President added as an indication of the prospects for the sub-region.

Revitalizing the PJCC

President Akufo-Addo, however bemoaned the fact that only one meeting of the Permanent Joint Commission of Co-operation (PJCC), has been held, despite the good relations that exist between the countries.

A preliminary Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in 2016, after Benin requested assistance in the exploitation and exploration of hydrocarbons, reactivating the Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation.

Other areas of cooperation, per the MoU, include fisheries, security, communication and education, among other sectors.

President Nana Akufo-Addo stressed that, there is the need to “reconvene another session of the PJCC, and I propose that we hold the next meeting in Cotonou as soon as possible.”

“Not only will the PJCC serve as a platform for enriching commercial relations between our countries, it will also facilitate the implementation of regional instruments such as the Common External Tariff of ECOWAS,” he said.

He also assured that, Ghana will continue to co-operate with Benin within other multilateral frameworks, such as the Volta Basin Authority, to promote and safeguard the equitable sharing of common water resources of the Authority.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He said the free movement of citizens within the sub-region required that citizens were able to get jobs and employment in any country in the sub-region depending on one’s educational qualification, skills, and job experience.

[contextly_sidebar id=”UDqFMMmiQ0DYy92W4WyBNecRaathZQd5″]Prof. Oquaye made the call in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of the Delocalised meeting for the Joint Committees on Education, Science and Technology, and the Committee on Information Technology of the ECOWAS Parliament in Accra.

The five-day conference is on the theme: “The status of harmonisation of Educational Systems and curricular in West Africa: With special reference on equivalence of Degrees, Diploma, Certificates and other qualifications.”

The meeting which is being hosted in Accra for the first time is being attended by the leadership and representatives of the ECOWAS Parliament.

Prof Oquaye also stated that due to variations in Certificates, Degrees and Diplomas especially between the Anglophone and Francophone blocs in the sub-region, there have been challenges of acceptance or otherwise of these qualifications from persons who move from one country to the other in the sub-region in search of jobs.

He said the issue of equivalence of diplomas, degrees and certificates and other qualifications across the sub-region was an important issue in regional economic and social integration.

“It is for this reason that I consider the subject for this delocalised meeting an important one” he said.

Prof Oquaye also observed that it was vital for ECOWAS to promote labour mobility through a harmonised system that recognised the equivalence of diplomas, degrees and certificates across the sub-region.

He said the overriding aim should be to provide relevant and functional educational systems that would train the requisite human resource to address the challenges of regional economic development and integration.

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Source: GNA

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Ghana’s Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo who made this revelation said his past encounters with some ECOWAS citizens prove this fact.

[contextly_sidebar id=”BT4m55d36rXdwCTnCxJmN8shSZClQU88″]“I was talking to the pharmacists in Kumasi over the weekend and I told them a true story. At the ECOWAS Finance Ministers’ meeting in 2003 in Abuja, a colleague Minister of Finance called her ADC to buy her a drug because she was coughing. And when she whispered I heard Ghana and I asked her did you say Ghana. She said yes I did, I told my ADC to buy me a made in Ghana cough mixture. That happened in Nigeria, Abuja.”

“And then the Liberian Minister of Finance also said that in Liberia if you want to avoid fake drugs then you buy made in Ghana products. So there is that confidence built on made in Ghana goods within ECOWAS a population of 350 million,” he said.

The Senior Minister was speaking at the 2017 Ghana Economic Forum on Monday when he made the remark.

The two day event which will end on Tuesday, August 8, 2017 is themed: “Building a Ghanaian owned economy, 60 years after independence.”

Mr. Maafo at the event highlighted four areas he said government was keen in developing to boost the Ghanaian economy.

These he said included improving Ghana’s micro-economic stability, massive infrastructure development, accelerated industrial development and agriculture transformation.

“These four thematic areas should be able to change the complete face of our economy and I’m sure with your support – captains of industry, the banks, we should be able to accomplish this as a cooperative effort for the sake of Ghana. Let us think about future generations. This generation should lay forever a foundation that will make Ghana a centre of industry in West Africa,” he urged.

He said Ghana could achieve the four strategies by domesticating its production and taking hold of other economies within the West African sub-region.

“What are we doing to domesticate that production? Our location even in West Africa is even central; all these should speak to us. Let us resolve to get the economy resolved once and for all. Let us remove this tag of irreversability on our head that Ghana will do well for some time and later we reverse to the bottom then we climb again to the top that cannot do. Once we set on motion and moving we should make it impossible for any government to reverse that motion. And that is why we are looking at the fiscal responsibility law, so you can’t come and run the deficit anyhow. There should be a law restricting you,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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He indicated that enormous opportunities exist in the sub-regional market, which they need to fully exploit to substantially increase their product lines.

Addressing an annual conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) in Kumasi, he asked that the Society collaborate with the government to devise ways to “capture” the market.

He added that this should be made an urgent priority and be seen as “a must-do crusade”.

“Harnessing opportunities in pharmacy for national economic development” is the theme chosen for the six-day meeting.

Mr. Osafo Maafo pointed out that the pharmaceutical industry holds tremendous potential for the nation’s economy and underlined the government’s unswerving determination to provide the needed support for its optimal performance.

He said it was for this reason that it had introduced a number of stimulus packages for the sector.

Among these is the exception of customs duties on all raw materials imported for local manufacturing of drugs.

The government was also in talks with key stakeholders to exempt value added tax (VAT) on manufactured pharmaceutical products.

Additionally, it had been discussing with ECOWAS member states to harmonize free movement of pharmaceutical products in the sub-region.

The Senior Minister encouraged the companies to focus on building the capacity to penetrate the international market.

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Source: GNA

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Speaking on Citi FM‘s Eyewitness News, Umaru Fofana, a Sierra Leone national, stressed that, integration efforts had to be “deliberately people-led”.

[contextly_sidebar id=”xCBmm8XfDR4zWJyxmURPLcZHjJ5Tp8ub”]The media and Civil Society Organisations in the West African countries don’t engage as much as they should, he also noted, as he intimated that, the lack of intra-regional trade, raises questions about whether the dreams of founders of the Economic Community of West African States are being realized.

He recounted how West Africa’s interest in The Gambia only perked up during the nation’s political crisis, when Yahya Jammeh refused to step down from office after losing the nation’s 2016 election.

But before that, Umaru Fofana reminded that, no one stood up for The Gambia’s citizens during Jammeh’s harsh 22-year dictatorship

Speaking of the leaders of West African countries, he said “they are all friends, and I think that is one thing affecting the growth of West Africa in this case because the relationships seem to be more between leaders than between people.”

Even in the Mano River Union, which comprises of  Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea,  Liberia and Sierra Leone, Umaru Fofana described that sub-regional body as “more of a friendship between the presidents and the people of those countries don’t bond well despite their cultural similarities.”

“So if Ghanaians and Sierra Leonians bonded as West Africans as opposed to their leaders bonding, that would bring about a lot of improvements in relations,” he noted.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson, contended that the Customs Amendment Bill approved by Parliament is aimed at getting the necessary legislative backing to remove the import duties on spare parts, is only fulfilling partially what was promised in the budget.

Parliament on Tuesday approved the Bill which seeks to give legal backing to the tax cuts on import duties, pending approval by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

[contextly_sidebar id=”TIqCzH7DY3HyrYCPSEy0kOc8LMhTYUw4″]According to Ato Forson, the new Bill only removes a section of the import tax, but other equally important levies such as import VAT and import NHIL, will still be in force after the approval.

The abolition of import duties on spare parts is one of the several tax cuts captured by the 2017 budget, and hyped by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to alleviate the burden on spare parts importers and Ghanaians as a whole.

But speaking to Citi News on Tuesday, Cassiel Ato Forson insisted that, the new  Bill is contrary to what was promised Ghanaians.

“From the onset when the budget was read, I made a point that this budget is very deceptive and the intent that the budget had communicated, the implementation will be different. And I’ve been proven right. Government has brought an amendment to the customs act contrary to what the budget signaled that they intend to do. They said that they intended to abolish and they used the word abolish. They said the intent is to abolish import duties on spare parts. Now the spare parts have all of a sudden become selected…and contrary to what they [NPP] are saying, it’s only about 60 percent of the spare parts that they are removing the taxes on. “

“The taxes they are removing are not the entire duties, but some import duties. When you say duty on spare parts, we have import duties which they have removed some of them, but import VAT and import NHIL is still staying. So my caution is that, our brothers and sisters in that industry should be aware that the duties that have been abolished today as a result of the passage of this bill waiting for the President to assent, we will not get blanket exemption but rather what we will get is that, only import duties will be exempted, but the Import VAT and import NHIL still stay and they are going to pay that. “

He also added that, Ghanaians should be mindful that the tax cuts are temporal, and would return in the year 2021 following some ECOWAS treaties which Ghana had signed.

“…This tax can only last up to 2020 and in 2021, no matter who is in government it is going to come back. I’m saying this because Ghanaians need to be educated on  that so that tomorrow when this tax comes back they would not say that government A has done this and government B is trying to do something else,” he added.

Meanwhile, a Deputy Minister for Finance, Kwaku Kwarteng, argued that government has conducted extensive consultations on the tax amendment; hence they are optimistic that it will bring relief to spare parts dealers.

“…I also would like to state that, what government is seeking to do with this measure is to remove its own contribution to the price buildup of spare parts in the country, with the objective that this will be translated to the benefit of businesses and the consumers of transportation services,” the Deputy Minister added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey & Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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