He said this was necessary due to the globally increasing trend of eye conditions such as diabetic retinopathy and myopia, which could result in dire consequences.

Dr. Ninkpe, who was addressing the 2017 Annual General Meeting of the Association in Ho, said a recent survey, showed that refractive errors, cataracts, and glaucoma obstructed the sights of some 200,000 Ghanaians, although 79 per cent of such complications were avoidable.

He said available eyeglasses in the country were capable of correcting defects for only 44 per cent, and said it was important for government functionaries to investigate the causes of failing eyesight, and place special emphasis on eye care, as the world “enters a new era of blindness and visual impairment”.

Dr. Ninkpe called for a resourced Health Service with increased activity in hard-to-reach areas, towards providing quality and affordable eye care services to the less privileged.

He said though there were over 300 trained optometrists and 500 optometric nurses in the country, uneven distribution of personnel had led to sparse coverage of quality eye care.

Dr. Ninkpe said the Volta region, for example, has eye centres in only 13 out of 25 districts, and said, “a nation that allows its people to go blind is in itself a blind nation.”

Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, encouraged Optometrists to continue to serve with love and form an Optometric Council to promote quality eye care services.

–

Source: GNA

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It also came out that 207, 000 people, representing 0.74 of the population, had totally gone blind.

The study identified cataract, glaucoma, posterior segment diseases, cornea opacity and refractive error as the principal causes of blindness and visual impairment in the country.

It further indicated that 89 per cent of low vision cases were due to avoidable causes while rural residents and the poor stood a greater risk of blindness due to low access and affordability of eye care services.

Significance

The survey was aimed at providing a national representative data on blindness and visual impairment and its actual prevalence rate to enhance eye care delivery services in Ghana.

It was conducted in 2015 under a Public-Private Partnership arrangement between the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the Standard Chartered Bank, the Swiss Red Cross, Operation and Eyesight Universal, an eye care company.

It was also to quantify avoidable causes of visual impairment, blindness and identify the challenges in eye care service delivery.

The study became necessary due to the enormity of the problem of visual impairment in the face of lack of adequate data for effective national interventions on eye care services.

Recommendations

The study recommended a national strategy to make eye care universally affordable and accessible.

It suggested that the national eye health policy should be re-focused on addressing glaucoma, retinal diseases, cataract and refractive error.

The study underscored the need for further studies to address cataract surgery coverage; barrier to the uptake of eyeglasses; association between pterygium, dry eyes and cooking with solid fuel, trachoma and pit latrines; glaucoma; posterior segment diseases (diabetic retinopathy) and childhood blindness.

Remarks

Launching the report in Accra last Tuesday, the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, said the findings would serve as a basis for designing future interventions and setting up monitoring indicators to track performance.

“It will as well help to consolidate the joint efforts of policy makers, partners and eye health professionals working towards the attainment of integrated, accessible, sustainable, and equitable and quality eye health for all,” he said.

Dr Nsiah-Asare said globally identified public health issues had far-reaching socio-economic consequences and that blindness and visual impairment were associated to poverty.

He said the Ghana Eye Health Programme was committed to working towards the reduction of avoidable blindness and visual impairment in the country.

The Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank, Ms Mansa Nettey, said the bank was carrying out a number of initiatives to support national interventions to ensure a population with good eyesight with access to quality eye care services.

–

Source: Graphic.com.gh

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The maiden award held at Sefwi Wiaso in the Western region was presented to him by Kog Kriationz Network, an Accra based Non-Governmental Organization that seeks to eliminate avoidable blindness in Ghana.

With the few eye care professionals taking care of the eye needs of the over 28 million Ghanaians, Kog Kriationz Network is happy to celebrate the good works of some few professionals, Partners and Donors of eye care delivery in Ghana annually of which Mr Alex Tenkorang is a major stakeholder hence the need to recognize his immense contribution towards saving the sight of a great number vulnerable people in society.

Presenting the award, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kog Kriationz Network, Mr. Eric Owusu Gyimah commended the CEO of Oheneba Kasempa Enterprise for the passion he has for the less privileged especially with issues regarding sight.

He lamented that even though this happens to be the maiden Ghana eye care awards, his NGO will continue to recognize and honor Eye Care Professionals, Partners and Donors annually.

Mr. Alex Tenkorang expressed his gratitude to Kog Kriationz Network for the recognition and pledged his fullest support for their project to ensure that avoidable blindness is eliminated.

Meanwhile, Awards in various categories were given to some individuals and organization that have helped in diverse ways especially with regards to eye health delivery.

These include Dr. James Addy, the head of Eye Care unit of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Seth Wanye, the Northern Regional ophthalmologist of the Ghana Health Service, Mrs Bernice Amoah Danso, an ophthalmic nurse of the Nyinahin Government Hospital, Eye Foundation of America, the Western Regional Minister, Dr Kwaku Afriyie and Sefwi Manhene, Katakyie Kwasi Bumagama II.

–

By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Research Coordinator of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Dr Joseph Tuffour, said although the decision to abandon the chase for the remaining US$1.5 billion was a mark of assertiveness, it could also have some diplomatic implications.

Finance Minister Seth Terkper announced during the presentation of the mid-year review and supplementary estimates to Parliament on July 16, that the government would not draw the remaining US$1.5 billion tranche of a US$3 billion loan agreed with China in 2011 due to disagreements over the terms of the deal.

The loan, split into two equal tranches and approved by Parliament in 2011, was intended to finance infrastructure projects including the development of the oil and gas sector.

Mr Terkper said tranche B, which includes funding for the construction of a gas processing plant, would be fully disbursed.

The cancellation of the loan comes as Ghana is struggling to restore stability to its economy, hit by rising inflation and a widening budget deficit.

But Dr Tuffour said though the decision was a bold one, it might affect future negotiations with the Asian tiger.

“This can have diplomatic implications if the situation is not managed well both within Ghana and the Ghana mission in China,” Dr Tuffour said.

The UPSA research coordinator, however, said the decision to abandon the chase for the remaining loan was also an indication that the government was listening to public concerns.

A Chartered Economist, Mr John Gatsi, told the Graphic Business in an interview that the capping of the loan lower than expected would only spark a diplomatic row if the commercial loan agreement would only inure to China.

Mr Gatsi has therefore discounted any fear of a diplomatic row due to the cancellation of the remaining loan.

The remaining loan will not come

Ghana’s chances of accessing the CDB loan facility remains elusive, according to a financial analyst, even though the government has indicated the amount would soon be slashed from US$3 billion to US$1.5 billion.

Mr Sydney Caseley-Hayford told Accra-based Joy FM that he doubts the loan would come although the Finance Ministry intends to access only the second tranche of what the country should have received more than two years ago.

He adds that the reasons given by the ministry for accessing only US$1.5 billion instead of the initial US$3 billion are sketchy – a sign that accessing the revised amount of a loan facility that was signed in 2011 will still be a wild goose chase.

He said “at this stage we don’t even know the reasons for the other $1.5 billion being dropped except that he [Seth Terkper] says that because of the temporary challenges that we have been through, we cannot access the previous US$3 billion”.

Breakdown of Master Facility Agreement

As of June this year, only two out of the 12 projects anticipated under the facility had been financed by CDB, three years after the Master Facility Agreement (MFA) and other finance documents had been signed.

Giving a breakdown of the Chinese loan disbursed so far, Mr Terkper said US$800 million had been released for the Western Corridor Gas Infrastructure Project (WCGIP) and US$150 million for the ICT enhanced Surveillance Project for the Western Corridor Oil and Gas enclave.

The facility was to be disbursed under two tranches: A and B, of US$1,500 million each. The projects that are currently underway are the tranche B facility projects.

New condition

According to Mr Terkper, “CDB has introduced a new condition precedent to the effectiveness of the subsidiary agreement for the two additional projects”.

The CDB wants a “side agreement to amend some of the terms of the MFA, the Five Party Agreement and the Account Agreement”, he said.

According to the minister, officials of CDB want the loan facility to be recognised as an oil-backed transaction, contrary to the agreed position between CDB and the government of Ghana (GoG) during the initiation of the transaction.

“Cabinet in June 2014 approved GoG’s capping of the facility at US$1,500 million to accommodate three additional projects. It also authorised the submission of the Side Agreement to Parliament for approval.”

Credit: Graphic Online

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According to him it is obvious government was going to miss the budget target. ‘’Government’s mid-year review of the budget was expected;…Two months into the budget [2014 budget] life we knew that those targets were not realistic; government wasn’t going to achieve those targets. Is as though one could say that they were dead on arrival,’’ he noted.

He explained that the government’s inflation target of 9.5 percent amongst others could not be achieved, ‘’by the middle of the year because  the variants had exceeded the lower band’’.

Speaking on the Citi FM’s News Analysis Programme, The Big Issues, Mr. Bokpin said the mid-year review of the budget was expected.

He cautioned the Finance Ministry and government to set realistic targets and projections. ‘’It doesn’t send a good signal to the corporate and foreign investors that government will set a target and by the middle of the year the variants have exceeded the lower band of that target,’’ he added.

Finance Minsiter, Seth Terkper on Wednesday presented a review of the 2014 budget to Parliament where he also outlined a new supplementary budget to the house for approval.

But Mr. Bokpin said even the supplementary budget presented was one-sided, ‘’it is one-sided, it’s basically expenditure,’’ he opined.

‘’The Supplementary budget, the review and all of that is expected, but they are not actuals; we must have clear strategy to translate this budget into actuals, otherwise next year we will still be here and even the revise target we may miss it,’’ he said.

The Finance Minister asked parliament to approve a GH¢3,196,855,671 supplementary budget estimate in conformity with Article 179(8) of the Constitution for the rest of the year.

Government has reviewed its overall real GDP growth (including oil) target from 8% to 7.1%.

The non-oil real GDP growth has been revised from 7.4 percent to 6.6 percent.

As part of the review of a number of macro-economic targets, inflation rate target for the year has been reviewed to 13.0±2 percent from 9.5 ±2 percent.

The overall budget deficit target has been revised from 8.5 percent of GDP to 8.8 percent and Gross International Reserves of not less than 3 months of import cover of goods and services.

By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This follows his presentation to Parliament of a mid-year review of the budget statement and economic policy of government for consideration and adoption.

Government has reviewed its overall real GDP growth (including oil) target from 8% to 7.1%.

The non-oil real GDP growth has been revised from 7.4 percent to 6.6 percent.

As part of the review of a number of macro-economic targets, inflation rate target for the year has been reviewed to 13.0±2 percent from 9.5 ±2 percent.

The overall budget deficit target has been revised from 8.5 percent of GDP to 8.8 percent and Gross International Reserves of not less than 3 months of import cover of goods and services.

According to Mr. Terpker ,” developments in both the global and domestic economic environment have necessitated the revision of the macroeconomic framework and assumptions underlying the 2014 Budget that was presented to this august House in November, 2013. The current energy challenge, rising inflation and interest rates, as well as exchange rate depreciation posed a strong downside risk to the achievement of the growth target for the year”.

The 2014 revenue and expenditure estimates have also been revised to reflect the revisions made to the macroeconomic framework.

Total revenue and grants for the 2014 fiscal year have been revised upwards from GH¢26,056.5 million to GH¢26,230.3 million, equivalent to 22.9 percent of GDP.

The revised revenue and grants for the year represents an increase of 34.7 percent over the outturn for 2013.

“Total non-oil tax revenue have been revised downwards by GH¢948.0 million to GH¢18,712.3 million, equivalent to 16.3 percent of GDP.

The revised non-oil tax revenue for the year represents an increase of 38.1percent over the outturn for 2013” , Mr.Terpker stated.

Due to the exchange rate depreciation, oil revenue have been revised upwards by GH¢707.1 million to GH¢2,416.5 million and grants have been revised upwards from GH¢1,130.7 million to GH¢1,390.8 million.

The estimate for total expenditure and arrears clearance have been revised upwards by GH¢1,331.1 million from GH¢35,027.3 million to GH¢36,358.3 million (31.7 percent of GDP) mainly on account of higher wages and salaries, interest payments, foreign-financed capital expenditures and subsidies.

Wages and Salaries have been revised upwards from GH¢8,967.8 million to GH¢9,218.9 million as a result of the COLA that was approved for public sector employees.

On account of higher interest rates and the depreciation of the cedi, interest payments have been revised upwards from GH¢6,178.6 million to GH¢7,884.7 million.

Due to the exchange rate depreciation, foreign-financed capital expenditure has been revised upwards from GH¢4,525.8 million to GH¢4,748.7 million.

“Mr. Speaker, as a result of the slower-than-expected implementation of utility and petroleum price adjustments, the provision made for subsidies in the 2014 budget have been revised upwards from  GH¢50.0 million to GH¢618.8 million” , he affirmed.

Based on the revisions made to the estimates for VAT revenue and total tax revenue in general, transfers to the National Health Insurance Fund, the Ghana Education Trust Fund and the District Assemblies Common Fund are estimated to be lower than earlier projected by GH¢21.8 million, GH¢27.4 million and GH¢54.0 million, respectively.

By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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It is unclear when government initiated this process since last week the IMF  revealed that it had not received any request for a bailout request from Ghana.

The Director of IMF’s Communication Department Gerry Rice, last week told reporters that the Ghanaian authorities have not requested a new program from the IMF.

But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Finance Minister stated that Ghana is currently working to be eligible for  an IMF bailout.

“Under Article 6 and Article 4 of the IMF mandate ,every member country that signs onto programme whether big or small has to submit a report to the IMF to look into the state of the economy,” he said

He further noted that a consolidated document has been presented to Parliament and the IMF too as part of the process.

“Since we have discussed these measures with them, what we did was to present a consolidated document which was presented to Parliament to the IMF boss to clarify what we are doing, ” he said

In a related development, Mr. Terkper responded to critics of the government’s National Economic Forum saying the forum has become necessary considering the country’s middle-income status.

Government will be holding a National Economic Forum to discuss the state of the economy and also define new policies to grow the economy.

Critics have described the 3-day forum which will be held in Akosombo as a waste of time and money. The opposition New Patriotic Party has also said it will boycott the forum because government has already submitted its plans for the economy to the IMF.

But Mr. Terpker said “we have already discussed with IMF what we want to do, so the people coming tomorrow are just coming to endorse what we have already agreed to do.”

The Ghanaian economy is currently undergoing some challenges with the depreciation of the cedi against all major trading currencies.

Some have said government’s failure to halt the depreciation of the cedi has led to increase in the cost of living thus burdening Ghanaians even more.

Ghanaians have been experiencing load-shedding, water shortages and increase in utility tariffs and fuel prices.

By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Communications Director of the NDC in the Central Region, Allotey Jacobs has been advocating for Mr. Tekper’s dismissal because he has shown all indications he is incapable of managing the affairs of his Ministry.

Speaking to Citi News, the president of the UCF of Kroboland, Kwame Awuley Mensah said: “We don’t expect someone like Allotey Jacobs and Bature who hold certain positions in the NDC party just to come out and then attack a personality who is also helping to solve the problems of the nation.”

The group in an earlier press statement recalled that “on Tuesday, March 28, and Wednesday, March 29, 2014, Adom FM, Citi FM and Peace FM aired news items attributed to Mr Allotey-Jacobs and Alhaji Bature, for having called on the President to sack the Finance Minister, with the excuse that he was not capable of handling the Ghanaian economy. The same news item appeared in the Daily Guide newspaper on Friday, May 2, 2014.”

Not too long ago, President Mahama himself came out publicly to admit to Ghanaians that pressure was mounting on him to sack the Finance Minister.

Kwame Awuley Mensah also described the Minister as “an industrious son of the Kroboland, and we won’t watch them drag his name into the mad.”

According to Mr. Mensah, the group also finds it inappropriate the description given the finance Minister saying, “our main concern is that at least, if anything at all, they can contact the economic team, have audience with them and talk about it nicely rather than going to the radio stations to chastise the minister to the extent of calling him Judas in the NDC party.”

He urged those who have made such utterances to apologize to the Minister especially, “Allotey Jacobs and Bature to first render an apology to Seth Terkper and the economic team should call him to book.”

According to him, the two men “should find out about the policy; why certain things are going on so that in future if they want to go to radio stations and other things to talk about an issue that will go a long way to determine the economic future of this country. At least they should know how to go about it, get the facts before they go to talk.”

By: Magdalene Larnyoh/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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