Let all Forestry Agencies Obtain FLEGT License, Mr. Katako called on Forest Services Division

Mr.Katako addressing the participants

The head of programmes of Civic Response (CR), Mr. Albert Katako, has called on Forest Services Division to ensure that all forestry agencies in the country obtain the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) license.

According to him this would demolish the illegal logging of timber and would tighten the weak forest law to improve the governance of forest resources and enhance the management practices to sustain Ghana’s forest.

He made this appeal at the close out workshop of the Civil Society-led Independent Forest Monitoring in Ghana (CSIM-Ghana), a project implemented by CR in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nation and European Union (EU).

Dubbed on “Working towards a transparent, credible and acceptable FLEGT license,” the programme which aims at ensuring civil society actively monitor the issuance of a credible acceptable FLEGT license was organised in Accra on Wednesday.

Mr. Katako indicated that the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR) and the Forestry Commission led Ghana into a Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the EU to address the underlying governance challenges in the forest sector to better the regulation of timber trade in the nation.

He stated that illegal logging is a canker bedeviling the forest industry which over the years has retarded economic development adding that “forest governance reform will preserve the forest and ensure the legality of timber trade in Ghana.”

Mr. Magnus Grylle, forestry officer of FAO bemoaned that the weak law regarding the trade of timber has even made the buying of Ghana timber in Europe more legal than buying the timber in Ghana.

Speaking on the benefit of FLEGT-VPA, he opined that the agreement signed by the country would halt the illegal trade of timber and would ensure that culprits are punished for law violation.

“If anyone commits an illegality in the production of timber in Ghana, the person should not be allowed to sell his/her timber and timber products on the local market or export the timber to foreign countries, the person can be reported to the Timber Validation Department,” he said.

The Technical Director of MLNR, Mr. Musa Abu Juam, who threw more light on Timber Validation Department said the department is new under the forestry Commission, saying “the work of the department is to check that timber is produced in a way that complies with all the laws of Ghana to ensure that no illegality happens.”

He lauded CR for creating awareness of the FLEGT-VPA and advancing the rights of communities that depend on natural resources for their livelihood.

By Joyceline Natally Cudjoe

Buy Reading books for children, Ms. Agyekwena charges parent.

 Ms. Juliana Ivy Agyekwena right, the headteacher of Abeka at left and Mr. Odonkor at second left with one of the winners.

The Abeka Circuit 23 Supervisor of education, Ms. Juliana Ivy Agyekwena has called on parent to purchase reading books for their wards to help them build a rich network of words in their mind.

According to her, the brain and the reading skills of children would be fully developed, if they could lay hands on accurate reading materials wherever they found themselves.

“Many parents neglect the duty of providing their wards with adequate reading books that can enhance reading, writing and words formation skills of children thus making it difficult for them to comprehend vocabulary since they don’t have access to quality reading books,” she said.

She made this appeal at inter-schools reading competition organised by Ghana Education Service Circuit 23 Abeka in collaboration with Infinity 970 in Accra on Monday, dubbed on “Encouraging reading among children.”

The competition which aimed at enhancing reading and improving spelling of words saw pupils from 10 schools of Abeka (St. Thomas, Answarudeen, Rene Education, St. Lawrence, God’s grace International, Babess, Pretty Peep, Hallid Bun Walid, Antah and Abeka Roman Catholic School)  competing for a price.

The primary school winners of the competition were Ellen Babanawo from Abeka R/C Basic School, Eugenia Pokuah from God’s Grace International School and Christabel Onyina from Pretty Peep School.

Other winners from the Junior High School were Daniel Ofori from God’s Grace International School, Faustina Agyei from Pretty Peep School and Carlene Afriyie from Abeka R/C School.

The beneficiaries took home reading materials, confectionaries and the participated schools received certificate of participation.

Ms. Juliana Agyekwena who was also a judge at the competition, noted that the basic challenges the pupils faced during the reading were inability to stick to rules and regulations of reading.

“Some of the rules pertaining to reading weren’t there, they were lacking some of the skills especially the eye contact, punctuations, voice modulation. The judges were more passionate about the phonetics and many pupils couldn’t sail through the competition due to how they pronounced the words,” she noted.

For pupils to pronounce words correctly, she called on teachers and instructors to teach the pupils phonetics at their early stage adding that “teachers should also ensure pupils adhere to the early bed reading rule which GES passed in ensuring pupils of Accra metropolis embrace reading as a life style.”

Speaking on the need for pupils to read, the head teacher of Abeka R/C School, Ms. Augustina Abena Kuti indicated that the art of learning starts from reading which in turn fosters understanding and promotes social development as well as thinking abilities of pupil.

She advised pupils to attach seriousness to any reading materials they get hold of since it is a gate way in completing school with flying colours.

Mr. Victor Odonkor, the programme coordinator of infinity 970, charged head teachers, teachers and parent to see the reading at the competition as an eye opener for them to know where they have to help the pupils to excel in their reading.

He also pledged the organization's outfit support to promote reading among children in Ghana.

By JOYCELINE NATALLY CUDJOE

NABCO IS CREATING TENSION RATHER THAN EMPLOYMENT, APPLICANTS COMPLAINED!0

Applicants who danced at the Black Star Square

Applicants of the Nation Builders Corpse (NABCO) are highly brooding over the flagship initiative of the NPP government describing it as tension initiative rather than a social intervention to create employment for the youth.

During an encounter with the media, some of the applicants who have not been notified by the NABCO Secretariat bemoaned that the secretariat published on the NABCO portal that by 31st October all the 90,000 qualified applicants would receive their placement alert message as they were working in batches to place the applicants in their preferred module which to the applicants was to no avail.
They said, they have waited till second November and none of them has been notified adding that when they query their various coordinators on NABCO platforms they fail to give them feedback.

Adams Justice complained that their various WhatsApp administrators have blocked them on their whatsapp group to refrain them from voicing out their grievances.

“We have been blocked on LaDadeKotopon (LaDma) district whatsapp group so the admin is the only person who can talk on the platform and it hurts us that things have to turn out this way,” he complained.

The aggrieved trainees explained that the applicants who received their placements were under only three modules; Educate Ghana, Feed Ghana and Heal Ghana but the other four modules (Revenue Ghana, Civic Ghana, Digitise Ghana and Enterprise Ghana) have not received their placement during and after the deadline.

Speaking with some of the applicants who were given their placements, they also expressed worry that they don’t even know their fate and how the employment under Nabco was going to be.

According to some Northern Region applicants who received their placements at Tamale Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) opined that they were told to report to work on Thursday first November and when they reported the Ministry was not even aware of their coming.
Kofi Kyei a trainee who got Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) from his experience said all indications suggested to him that the programme would start in January.

Meanwhile the president, H.E Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo  led a passing out ceremony on October 17th at the Black Star square communicating to Ghanaians that his government has employed 100, 000 youth under the Nabco module to help curb the spate of unemployment in the country.

However from the interviews with the applicants they said they were even compelled to grace the occasion at the independence square with the mindset that they were going to receive their placement letters on that day.

Some even shed tears that they had to resign from their menial jobs to follow NABCO in order to get the employable skills that they wanted in their job field, expressing disappointment that they were merely used to initiate a political game rather than employment.

They however called on the media to intervene in order to reveal the truth on the ground to Ghanaians so that the president acts fast rather than leaving the secretariat to manipulate the NABCO system for their own personal gain.

According to the CEO, Dr. Ibrahim Anyars a total of 44366 trainees have been placed so far across the country. Out of this number, 29407 have been placed to Ghana Education Service, 1487 to GIFEC, 5813 to the Ministry of Health, 484 to the National Identification Authority, 78 to the Inter Ministerial Committee on illegal Mining and 439 have been posted to the NABCO offices across the country as Research and Training Corp.

Dr.Frimpong, Deputy NABCO Coordinator

Explaining the reason for the reduction, the Deputy NABCO Coordinator, Dr Kojo Frimpong speaking at 3FM’s Sunrise show adduced that some applicants were withdrawing from the programme because they had better opportunities while others were not comfortable with the districts they were posted to.

Report by Joyceline Natally Cudjoe.