He noted the meetings were not only fruitful, but Ghana has a lot of leads to follow up on to boost the financial and energy sectors in particular.

[contextly_sidebar id=”f6e97YTZqtmc445C1uepFNsB7pkdCjvi”]Briefing the media after the meetings, Oppong – Nkrumah denied rumours that the Bretton Woods Institutions were against the Energy Bond.

“It isn’t true that the IMF was against our Energy Bond,” he pointed out, adding “There is a lot of investor appetite to take up the bond, which when successfully issued, will lead to permanently solving some of the challenges in the energy sector.”

He was hopeful the 10 billion Cedi Energy Bond will be listed successfully to offset the energy sector debt, which contributed significantly to the challenges of some banks in the country. The bond, which will be auctioned in tranches, will start with a first tranche of six billion cedis, Mr.Oppong-Nkrumah stressed.

Ghana’s delegation, which was led by Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo, also met potential investors in an attempt to tickle their interest in the Ghanaian economy .

According to Oppong – Nkrumah, a lot of investors have “shown immense interest” in the government’s flagship programme – One District, One Factory, stating that the Trade Ministry and the Secretariat in charge of the policy are collaborating to win the hearts of investors.

“We also made some inroads in the financial sector, and the Finance Minister will follow up on them. We also met with officials of the IMF about the extended Credit Facility Programme and the next review. They were impressed with us and the progress we have made so far. Officials of the IMF are expected in the country for the fifth review on Wednesday so that we can access the next $90 million left to carry out developments,” the Ofoase – Ayirebi legislator added.

He further stated that, Ghana’s team also used the opportunity to update officials of the Millennium Challenge Account on the progress made with the ECG private sector participation program.

He promised that the team will follow up on every issue which came up at the meetings to ensure that President Akufo-Addo’s vision for the country is achieved.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The scholarship will supplement government’s newly launched Free Senior High School Education programme being enjoyed by the current first-year students in public second cycle institutions.

The Education and Skills Development Programme committee in the constituency received over 1000 applications, but 200 students from SHS Forms 2 and 3, Teacher and Nursing Training Colleges, Polytechnics and Universities sailed through the process to benefit from the scheme.

Mr. Oppong-Nkrumah advised the beneficiaries to live above reproach and stay focused to justify why they merited the scholarship.

“Through this initiative we hope to keep about 200 students every year in school starting from this year. To you who are beneficiaries don’t let me down, don’t let your parents down and don’t let the people of Ofoase-Ayirebi down,” Mr. Oppong-Nkrumah emphasised.

Mr. Oppong-Nkrumah expressed his gratitude to the District Assembly for its support in developing the constituency.

He noted that the collaboration between the local assembly and his office has also culminated in the provision of a mechanized borehole system with four tanks and a solar panel for residents of Akyem Akokoaso in the Ofoase-Ayirebi constituency.

“We are also in the process of facilitating the provision of over 3,000 electricity meters for many residents who were not captured in the first phase. 27 other communities will also receive electricity in the Electricity Extension Programme that will soon commence in the district,” the MP promised.

DCE hails Oppong- Nkrumah for his efforts

The District Chief Executive of the area,Paul Asamoah, hailed the MP for his dedication and fulfillment of his campaign promises, adding that the scholarship scheme “has taken away immense pressure” from him.

He assured the constituents the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government will deliver on its promises such as One Constituency One Million Dollars initiative, and One District One Factory Project.

Mr. Asamoah appealed to the government to help put up a hospital in the district since there is no major health facility to take care of emergencies.

“A district of 140,000 has no doctor. This is heart-wrenching. We are appealing to the government through the Ministry of Local Government to help us,” the DCE stressed.

Parents of beneficiaries express joy at the initiative

Parents of beneficiaries could not hide their joy, heaped praises on the MP for the timely intervention.

A parent said “I have been thinking of how to pay my son’s admission fees. I thank the MP for this gesture. It is very timely”.

Another parent explained that “ Most of us have been considering going for loans to enable us pay our children’s’ fees. The scholarship is a relief on my finances and that of several other households.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Speaking on the authority of the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, who was the co-chairman of the Transition team, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah asserted that “there was not even a conversation of this kind to purchase new vehicles or to even request for new vehicles.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”azBWFMVp2E5vdEeLU5QXibEGBtxN9NSP”]A former Presidential staffer in the Mahama administration, Dr. Clement Apaak, had disclosed that his government ordered some 43 new vehicles a few days before leaving office, upon the request of the incoming Akufo-Addo administration.

Dr. Apaak also noted that, the Mahama administration agreed to the request by Nana Akufo-Addo’s side because they felt that the security of the incoming president was of importance.

But speaking to the claims on the Citi Breakfast Show,  Mr. Oppong Nkrumah recalled that, “in all the transition meetings that we attended and in all the matters that we discussed, I had never heard of this matter.”

He noted further that “the minutest of requests” are put on paper, so Mr. Apaak was free to substantiate his allegations, with respect to the order of the cars.

“The first step when somebody makes a claim like this will be to ask him whether or not he can back this verbal claim he is making… with some sort some proof that indeed shows that this request was made before we escalate it to this level of conversation.”

Aside from this, in the Deputy Minister’s view, it would have been an oddity for his side of the transition team to insist on the previous government buying the vehicles because, “you would want to then come in and even make your own choices, even for security reasons, etc.”

Potential judgment debt

Documents sighted by Citi News revealed that the contract for the new cars for the Presidency was awarded by the Mahama government on the 3rd of January, 2017, to Amalgamated Security Services LTD.

However, the contract is in limbo following the recent moratorium placed on the purchase of new vehicles by President Akufo-Addo.

Checks by Citi News reveal that the said vehicles have already been purchased and are currently in Dubai and there are fears government could pay a judgement debt if it cancels the contract.

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

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In a statement from Mr. Mahama’s office, the former Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, duly informed the new administration that the former president will keep the facility following discussions by the Joint Transition team.

The statement also argued that, the sixth Parliament, before its dissolution, also approved that Mr. Mahama maintains the house as part of his retirement package.

But the spokesperson to Akufo-Addo’s side of the transition team, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah in a Citi News interview, said there’s no approval yet for the former president to keep the house.

“The former president has made a request, that request will be decided on and a decision will be communicated. As I speak to you, a decision is yet to be communicated on it. Mr. Omane Boamah’s statement is that they in the previous administration took a decision and communicated that decision. Obviously that cannot be the case.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”Va8XleNZdMOvTItCdtlT3KlBH5XTLWj7″]“As per their own letter, it is a request; because they expressed a wish that this is what they would like. That needs to be decided on and communicated. We don’t need to create a farce about this; lets just take it easy, let the decision be made and communicated. All I can say is that, the request has been made, President Akufo-Addo and his team will take a decision and that decision will be communicated,” he added.

Request letter

A letter signed by former Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, dated December 19, 2016, requested that the NPP allows Mr. Mahama to take the current bungalow he occupies as part of his retirement package.

“Reference our (Osafo-Marfo/Debrah) discussion of 19^th December, 2016 on the above-stated subject, we wish to indicate that H.E. President John Dramani Mahama would like to have bungalow No. 3, Prestige Link, Cantonments, Accra and its adjoining facilities as his official retirement home.”

“H.E. also wishes to have Bungalow No.6, 3^rd Avenue, Ridge, Accra as his office. We count on your usual cooperation in this matter,” the letter added.

Don’t give Mahama bungalow

Mahama’s request came on the back of recommendations made by the Prof. Dora Francisca Edu- Buandoh committee tasked to review emoluments of Article 71 office holders including the former president’s retirement package.

The committee recommended that the former president should not be given a house in Accra and another location of his choice outside the capital as has been the norm but instead Mahama should rather receive “40 percent of [his] salary to be paid monthly.”

This was a deviation from the Chinery-Hesse Committee Report (2001-2005) which said; former Presidents should receive “one fully furnished residence in the national capital and one out-of-capital residence at a location of the former President’s choice; all of which should not revert to the state in the event of the demise of the former President.”

The committee’s report sighted by citifmonline.com also recommended that John Mahama should retire on a salary of GH¢22,809, up from the non-taxable salary of GH¢15,972 previously approved for presidents.

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

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Although details of the report have not been disclosed yet, spokesperson for the team, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told the media, it covered issues on national security and the economy.

“The interim report that we have for the president-elect essentially cover the basic bits of information we have received currently and most importantly some national security briefings between himself and his representative on the team responsible for national security, Mr.Albert Kan Dapaah. But the detailed interim report is what you just saw us meeting about which will be submitted to him before the inauguration day,” he added.

More hand over notes presented
Government’s side of the transition team few weeks ago presented all but one of the hand over notes to the incoming administration as required by the Presidential Transition Act 2012 (Act 845).

Yaw Osafo Marfo, acknowledged receipt of the notes at a press briefing, with the exception of notes on the office of government machinery.

By the provisions of the Presidential Transition Act, the transition team was to make comprehensive arrangements to regulate the transfer of political power following a Presidential election.

The law provides for the establishment of three specific committees; the inauguration sub-committee, the government machinery sub-committee and the presidency sub-committee and any other committees the transition team considers relevant for the performance of its functions.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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She describes the end as a “beautiful passing on” but says his death and burial came as a relief to her after his long health struggles.

“There were times I was telling the doctors I think enough is enough,” Maki Mandela says in an exclusive interview with CNN from her home in Johannesburg.

“As doctors they had their duty to try everything up to the last moment, but for me as a daughter it was excruciating watching that.”

The former South African President, who led his country out of decades of apartheid after being imprisoned 27 years, died in December at age 95.

For a year before his death, her father was on dialysis for kidney failure and a ventilator to help him breathe. He was fed intravenously through tubes into his stomach, and his arms and hands grew swollen due to the intravenous antibiotics and other medications he was receiving.

Bedridden and incontinent, the Nobel Peace Prize winner had no quality of life, his daughter says.

Recently writing in favor of assisted dying, former Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu questioned the treatment of Nelson Mandela in his final months, saying it was “disgraceful.” In an editorial for Britain’s The Observer, Tutu singled out South African President Jacob Zuma and other politicians who took photos with a clearly confused and ill Mandela and called it an “affront to his dignity.”

Maki Mandela says she constantly questioned her father’s team of state medical doctors about why his life was being prolonged.

“I said, ‘Guys, when do we accept that we have reached the end and we can’t play God?’ ”

But she says she accepted the doctors’ decisions and knows they were bound to “try everything.”

She says she couldn’t fault the care and dedication of the team of medics and nurses who looked after her father 24 hours a day. “They treated him with dignity and respect,” she says.

Throughout his long illness, his heart remained strong, perhaps not surprising for a man who dedicated his life to the struggle against apartheid and helped to lead his nation to democracy.

“When the heart started giving, it was a matter of days,” Maki Mandela says.

The anti-apartheid icon was buried on his farm in Qunu, a remote rural area in the Eastern Cape where he grew up.

“That whole place is a quarry. We had to dynamite the place for us to create his burial place,” Maki Mandela says, adding that her father chose the location.

In keeping with traditions of his Xhosa tribe, Nelson Mandela was laid to rest on a reed mat on the floor of the grave, as if he had gone to sleep like his ancestors did in generations past. The architecture of the grave is such that his coffin is not covered with soil, which is considered bad luck.

Maki Mandela says she and most family members have not been to visit his grave recently but hope to do so soon.

“People are starting to say, make requests, ‘Can we visit the grave?’ ” she says.

She says it’s too early now but expects the family will open the area to visitors and tourists in a year or so.

Plans are in place for a visitors’ center and memorial garden, where tourists will be able to walk around the grave and see it from a viewing point.

And in homage to Nelson Mandela’s royal lineage and his monumental legacy, his family has given the grave site the nickname of “The Big House.”

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Source: CNN

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“I would say he was aware of – about all these things, maybe until about two years back,” she said in her first television interview after emerging from six months of mourning.

“But I decided to save him, to protect him, from getting involved and knowing in depth what was going on, because he was such a sensitive person.”

Amanpour had asked Machel whether Mandela knew about his country’s “struggle,” such as the “growing inequality” and “oppression against women.”

“How aware,” she asked, “was he that the dream still needed a huge amount of work in order to make it really come true?”

“He wouldn’t be able to act on those issues,” Machel said. “And I felt, why to keep him with a heavy heart where he is not able to make a difference to change the situation?”

Both she and the rest of her family made a conscious effort to shield him.

“Madiba also trusted, you know, people he was working with; he trusted even the leadership of this country. So many times he would say, ‘You know mum, I’ve done what I was able to do, and let other young people, other leaders, to carry on.’”

“It’s in the hand of everyone; it’s not one single person.”

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Source: CNN

The post ‘I decided to save him,’ Graça Machel says of Mandela’s last two years appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.