By Isabella Gyau Orhin
The Managing Director of Akuaba Limited, manufacturers of furniture, toys and educational equipments Dr. Akua Adu-sei Hebstein has called on the government and all well meaning Ghanaians to persuade women traders to sell or distribute locally manufactured goods.
She said the current situation where almost all women traders are into the distribution and sale of foreign products are not good for the economic growth of the country.
Dr. Hebstein was speaking at a one-day meeting in Accra organised by the Gender Unit of Third World Network, and Abantu for Development, both non-for profit advocacy organisations on Services Liberalisation of the World Trade Organisation and its impact on Ghanaian traders,.
“Local traders should get to know local manufacturers, that area yields so much profit,” she said, adding “if you have a market for me, you will probably not need that loan from the bank.”
She also said Ghanaian women are very good distributors and traders who can help boost local industry by marketing their products. She explained further that after the collapse of the Ghana Food Distribution Corporation (GFDC) Ghanaian women took over the distribution of foods across the country at no expense whatsoever to the government.
We run to China and many other places buying goods and looking for profit when we can make the same profit here by selling locally manufactured goods, she said.
She also placed the demise of local industries at the doorstep of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which she said brought a lot of problems to local industries thorough competition.
Dr. Hebstein said this is contrary to what happened in Asia where Ghanaian traders do business today.
“Asian countries did not develop on pure market basis,” she said, adding, “there were controls, they were assisted, it was not a growth that was not controlled.”
According to her a developing country like Ghana needs to put in place measures to protect its local industries as Asia did in the past.
Supporting Dr, Hebstein, a Journalist from The Point newspaper Leonard Akunor said some of the foreign products sold by Ghanaian women traders especially at Makola market area in Accra are expired and harmful to the health of their unsuspecting patrons.
Dr. Hebstein’s call come at a time when Ghana is feverishly dialoguing with one of its major trading partners, the European Union over the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which will introduce more competition and has the potential of affecting local industries.
The Minister for Finance and Economic Planning Kwadwo Baah Wiredu at a recent meeting on the EPAs in Accra said trade relations between African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the EU should be flexible to take account of the economic, social and environmental constraints of the ACP countries and their capacity to adapt to the new trading environment.
He also said the EPAs should be implemented at country level to identify the cost and mitigating factors.
In a speech read on his behalf at a Conference on Private Sector Development, Regional Integration and EPAs between West Africa and the EU, The Minister said the major concerns of Ghana over the EPAs in the short term is the expected loss of revenue accruing from customs and excise duties and support of development efforts including support to the private sector as a result of the abolition of customs barriers among member states.
“Another major concern is the establishment of the free trade areas between us and our partners to end the non-reciprocal trade regime currently in place and its impact in the short term on our domestic firms,” the Minister said.
He explained that given the lower competitive advantage of firms in the sub-region, it would lead to the folding up of most firms.
Baah-Wiredu therefore suggested the harmonization of customs policies to reduce the effect of revenue losses resulting from the removal of customs barriers.
He said in order to protect Ghana’s interest; there is the need to systematically review how Ghana can take advantage of the opportunities available in open economies that can speed up the county’s development.
The Deputy Minister For Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and Presidents Special Initiative (PSI) on his part said the nation is worried over the EPAs and Ghana’s inability to take advantage of market access in EU countries. “This has been our main source of worry and apprehension as we negotiate an EPA with The EU, under which we will also extend preferential treatment to substantial amount of EU exports,” he said.
According to him, history has taught the country that unless Ghana’s productive processes are radically transformed and its competitive supply capacity enhanced, “there is no way the country can benefit from the asymmetrical reciprocal preferential trade arrangement under the EPA.”
The Minister also said the capacity of the private sector to build competitiveness will depend on the extent of flexibilities of the EPA as well as the extent of liberalisation that would be undertaken.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Large govt size not too bad- Dr.Anaman
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
The Head of the Economics Centre and Director of Research of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Dr. Kwabena A. Anaman has said that , increasing government size in Ghana has led to increase economic growth over the years.
Speaking at a roundtable conference organized by the IEA in Accra last Tuesday Dr. Anaman said “The relationship between economic growth and government size is quadratic with increasing government size leading to increasing economic growth up to a certain point when increasing government size leads to decreased economic growth.”
The topic of his presentation was “Determinants of Economic Growth in Ghana,” which came out of a study to determine the factors influencing the long-run economic growth rate in Ghana using economic growth model based on available data from 1966 to 2000.
The study also included a summary description of economic structure of Ghana as it has evolved since independence to the year 2005.
Relative government size is measured as government spending over Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate by economists.
He said between 1957and 1965 which was the era of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s Administration, government spent 25.31 percent of GDP as compared to that of the period of political instability which is 17.22 percent (1966-1983) as well as that of the Rawlings era of 1984 to 2000 which is 18.01 percent with the present Kufuor era which is 20.43 spanning the periods 2001 to 2005.
“If you are looking for development, government has to be a bit big,” he said adding, “at some point when government gets too large, you have to scale back.”
He said the difference between President Kufuor’s government spending and that of Nkrumah is not too much but said today, President Kufuor is taking care of a population which is thrice the size of that of Nkrumah.
He also said data from 1966 to 2000 show that long run economic growth in Ghana is influenced by growth of exports and political stability but negatively influenced by world oil market price shocks.
Dr. Anaman further said Ghana’s average annual economic growth since 2001 has been 5.2 percent. Factors influencing this growth rate he said include prudent macro economic management such as relatively low inflation and exchange rate stability.
Again relatively high world commodity prices for major exports have helped but these he said have been bogged down by high world oil prices.
Ghana he said has also enjoyed good weather conditions such as good rains boosting its economic and energy situations.
Energy shocks he said have been a big set back to the country’s economic development.
“If the current power cuts continue, we cannot hit our anticipated six percent GDP growth rate,” he said.
Again he said the nation should be grateful to the eight year continuous high level of investment to GDP ratio from 1993 to 2000.
He said investment to GDP ratio at the time under former President Jerry Rawlings was always above 20 percent and averaged 22.7 percent.
This can be compared to 9.3 percent during the Nkrumah era and the period of instability.
Dr. Anaman also said Ghana has enjoyed a peaceful and orderly transfer of political power and stability and has had a high inflow of donor funds and foreign remittances.
“Both long run and short-run growth functions indicate a strong link between political and economic growth,” he said adding, “Therefore the democratic governance in Ghana should not only be deepened by broadened as well.”
In order to broaden democracy, Dr. Anaman said there should be financing of political parties to allow the emergence of viable third parties to break the duopoly of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“Let’s avoid the Pakistani syndrome in Ghana where the military inserts itself as the third force when the two main parties engage in high level quarreling,” he said.
Dr. Anaman also said there is the need to broaden the export base of Ghana away from the over dependence on Cocoa, timber and gold.
This is because in 2005 alone, non -traditional exports accounted for 17.43 percent of total exports.
Also, there should be government’s investment in labour intensive public works to accelerate economic growth and reduce high unemployment among the youth.
He said although government is currently using agriculture, tourism and Information Communication Technology (ICT) as main drivers of economic growth, there is the need to look at other drivers of economic growth such as the construction industry.
Dr. Anaman also said low labour productivity needs to be tackled through more resources for non-formal education with strong emphasis on basic literacy skills training among others.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Country Director in Ghana Mr. Arnold …………..said Ghana also needs to strengthen its investment climate through law enforcement of rules and ensure an independent judiciary.
He said although Ghana is doing very well in attracting investment other challenges such as difficulty in land acquisition remain.
An Economic Consultant Kwamena Essilfie Adjyae was of the view that Ghana needs an economic model with human capital development.
The Head of the Economics Centre and Director of Research of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Dr. Kwabena A. Anaman has said that , increasing government size in Ghana has led to increase economic growth over the years.
Speaking at a roundtable conference organized by the IEA in Accra last Tuesday Dr. Anaman said “The relationship between economic growth and government size is quadratic with increasing government size leading to increasing economic growth up to a certain point when increasing government size leads to decreased economic growth.”
The topic of his presentation was “Determinants of Economic Growth in Ghana,” which came out of a study to determine the factors influencing the long-run economic growth rate in Ghana using economic growth model based on available data from 1966 to 2000.
The study also included a summary description of economic structure of Ghana as it has evolved since independence to the year 2005.
Relative government size is measured as government spending over Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate by economists.
He said between 1957and 1965 which was the era of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s Administration, government spent 25.31 percent of GDP as compared to that of the period of political instability which is 17.22 percent (1966-1983) as well as that of the Rawlings era of 1984 to 2000 which is 18.01 percent with the present Kufuor era which is 20.43 spanning the periods 2001 to 2005.
“If you are looking for development, government has to be a bit big,” he said adding, “at some point when government gets too large, you have to scale back.”
He said the difference between President Kufuor’s government spending and that of Nkrumah is not too much but said today, President Kufuor is taking care of a population which is thrice the size of that of Nkrumah.
He also said data from 1966 to 2000 show that long run economic growth in Ghana is influenced by growth of exports and political stability but negatively influenced by world oil market price shocks.
Dr. Anaman further said Ghana’s average annual economic growth since 2001 has been 5.2 percent. Factors influencing this growth rate he said include prudent macro economic management such as relatively low inflation and exchange rate stability.
Again relatively high world commodity prices for major exports have helped but these he said have been bogged down by high world oil prices.
Ghana he said has also enjoyed good weather conditions such as good rains boosting its economic and energy situations.
Energy shocks he said have been a big set back to the country’s economic development.
“If the current power cuts continue, we cannot hit our anticipated six percent GDP growth rate,” he said.
Again he said the nation should be grateful to the eight year continuous high level of investment to GDP ratio from 1993 to 2000.
He said investment to GDP ratio at the time under former President Jerry Rawlings was always above 20 percent and averaged 22.7 percent.
This can be compared to 9.3 percent during the Nkrumah era and the period of instability.
Dr. Anaman also said Ghana has enjoyed a peaceful and orderly transfer of political power and stability and has had a high inflow of donor funds and foreign remittances.
“Both long run and short-run growth functions indicate a strong link between political and economic growth,” he said adding, “Therefore the democratic governance in Ghana should not only be deepened by broadened as well.”
In order to broaden democracy, Dr. Anaman said there should be financing of political parties to allow the emergence of viable third parties to break the duopoly of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“Let’s avoid the Pakistani syndrome in Ghana where the military inserts itself as the third force when the two main parties engage in high level quarreling,” he said.
Dr. Anaman also said there is the need to broaden the export base of Ghana away from the over dependence on Cocoa, timber and gold.
This is because in 2005 alone, non -traditional exports accounted for 17.43 percent of total exports.
Also, there should be government’s investment in labour intensive public works to accelerate economic growth and reduce high unemployment among the youth.
He said although government is currently using agriculture, tourism and Information Communication Technology (ICT) as main drivers of economic growth, there is the need to look at other drivers of economic growth such as the construction industry.
Dr. Anaman also said low labour productivity needs to be tackled through more resources for non-formal education with strong emphasis on basic literacy skills training among others.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Country Director in Ghana Mr. Arnold …………..said Ghana also needs to strengthen its investment climate through law enforcement of rules and ensure an independent judiciary.
He said although Ghana is doing very well in attracting investment other challenges such as difficulty in land acquisition remain.
An Economic Consultant Kwamena Essilfie Adjyae was of the view that Ghana needs an economic model with human capital development.
Women's pelves now goldmine-Dr. Taylor
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
A Medical Officer at the Eastern Regional Health Directorate, Dr. Joe Taylor has described the female pelvic as a ‘goldmine’ where quack healthcare providers are busily making huge sums of money through galamsey (illegal mining) or unsafe abortion.
Dr. Taylor, a Gynaecologist by profession, said some qualified doctors and male nurses are also involved in the business and are digging into the female pelvic.
She explained that, the practice of terminating pregnancy has become a lucrative business since women desperate to get rid of pregnancy are vulnerable and can easily be exploited.
Dr. Taylor was speaking at a meeting on reproductive health organized in Accra by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) based in Washington DC, USA.
He also alleged that some doctors are cashing in on the issue quietly and charging exorbitant fees since women cannot walk into public health institutions where charges are low and demand the termination of unwanted pregnancy.
“In fact it is the abortions that some of my colleagues are using to sustain their private clinics,” he said.
According to Dr. Taylor, what makes the situation serious is that termination of unwanted pregnancy sometimes takes place in unauthorized places such as doctors’ bedrooms, toilets, dining tables, and bathrooms which are risky for the patients.
He said unsafe abortion is a procedure for terminating unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards.
According to Dr. Taylor, there are doctors who perform abortions in their garages adding, we are talking to them to put a stop to such practices.
As a member of a committee that is coming out with a new protocol n Reproductive Health that will ensure that women can access safe abortion services in public health institutions, Dr. Taylor says the best precaution is to avoid unwanted pregnancy.
“Every procedure has risks, safe means it is done by skilled personnel and with that there is a lower chance of risks.”
Dr. Taylor said it is too risky to use abortion as a family planning method and women who undergo the procedure need to be counseled to avoid future occurrences.
He said if doctors were counseling women who consult them to procure abortion services, the number of women who seek abortion would have reduced considerably.
Such doctors he said do not provide their patients on post abortion care and contraceptive use.
According to Nana Oye Lithur, a legal expert abortion is legal in Ghana in certain cases and this is highlighted by the additional protocol to the African Charter which states that “State parties are to protect reproductive rights of women by authorizing medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest and where the pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or foetus.”
Although induced abortion is the oldest and common fertility control method, few societies have looked at the issue dispassionately; this is because experts say it bothers on morality.
Lithur also says it is time women are given the chance to choose whether they would want to keep a pregnancy or abort it under safe and affordable conditions.
The World Health Organization defines abortion as the termination of pregnancy before viability.
African women are said to experience the greatest risk of death from unsafe abortion.
Studies show that one in 150 African women die from unsafe abortion, as against one in 250 women, in Asia; one in 800 in Latin America and one in 3,700 from the Northern countries.
Again about 20 million abortion cases take place each year worldwide with 55,000 abortions on the average per day.
The Ghana Demographic and Health Survey of 1993 puts maternal mortality ratio in Ghana at 214 per 100,000 live births.
A study conducted by the then Chief Pathologist of Ghana’s premier teaching hospital Korle Bu, Prof. Agyeman Badu Akosa in 1998 indicate that 30 percent of maternal deaths are due to unsafe abortions.
According to Dr. Afua Hesse in the book “Abortion within Reproductive Health in
Ghana,” until 1985 abortion in Ghana was governed by the criminal code of 1960. (ACT 29).
Under the code anyone causing or attempting to cause an abortion, regardless of whether the woman was pregnanat could be fined or imprisoned for up to 10 years. Also a woman inducing her own abortion or undergoing an illegal abortion was subject to the same punishment.
Ghana enacted a new law on abortion in 1985 which made it a crime for any person to give any poison or other noxious substances to a woman or use any instruments or other means with the intent of causing an abortion.
According to the Law, a legal abortion must be performed by a registered medical practitioner with the consent of the pregnant woman.
The abortion must be performed in a government hospital or a private hospital or a clinic registered under the Private Hospitals and Maternity Homes act of 1958 or in a place approved for that purpose by the law.
According to Dr. Taylor, some women resort to abortion because they have no access family planning or as a result of contraceptive failure.
Others he said do it because the pregnancy was as a result of rape, sexual abuse economic and social reasons.
Those who have no means to procure at the doctors table resort to drinking concoctions and using all forms of crude methods to get rid of unwanted pregnancy.
In an interview with Ghana Television recently, Prof. Agyeman Badu Akosa now the Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said women should be given access to safe re[productive health services in the country.
The Code of Ethics for the GHS which defines the general moral principles and rules of behavior for all service personnel in the Ghana Health Service does not make room for quacks , forbids exploitation and expects doctors to operate within the law.
“All Service personnel shall be competent, dedicated, honest, client-focused and operate within the law of the land ,” it states adding, “All Health Professionals shall be registered and remain registered with their Professional Regulatory Bodies.”
A Medical Officer at the Eastern Regional Health Directorate, Dr. Joe Taylor has described the female pelvic as a ‘goldmine’ where quack healthcare providers are busily making huge sums of money through galamsey (illegal mining) or unsafe abortion.
Dr. Taylor, a Gynaecologist by profession, said some qualified doctors and male nurses are also involved in the business and are digging into the female pelvic.
She explained that, the practice of terminating pregnancy has become a lucrative business since women desperate to get rid of pregnancy are vulnerable and can easily be exploited.
Dr. Taylor was speaking at a meeting on reproductive health organized in Accra by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) based in Washington DC, USA.
He also alleged that some doctors are cashing in on the issue quietly and charging exorbitant fees since women cannot walk into public health institutions where charges are low and demand the termination of unwanted pregnancy.
“In fact it is the abortions that some of my colleagues are using to sustain their private clinics,” he said.
According to Dr. Taylor, what makes the situation serious is that termination of unwanted pregnancy sometimes takes place in unauthorized places such as doctors’ bedrooms, toilets, dining tables, and bathrooms which are risky for the patients.
He said unsafe abortion is a procedure for terminating unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards.
According to Dr. Taylor, there are doctors who perform abortions in their garages adding, we are talking to them to put a stop to such practices.
As a member of a committee that is coming out with a new protocol n Reproductive Health that will ensure that women can access safe abortion services in public health institutions, Dr. Taylor says the best precaution is to avoid unwanted pregnancy.
“Every procedure has risks, safe means it is done by skilled personnel and with that there is a lower chance of risks.”
Dr. Taylor said it is too risky to use abortion as a family planning method and women who undergo the procedure need to be counseled to avoid future occurrences.
He said if doctors were counseling women who consult them to procure abortion services, the number of women who seek abortion would have reduced considerably.
Such doctors he said do not provide their patients on post abortion care and contraceptive use.
According to Nana Oye Lithur, a legal expert abortion is legal in Ghana in certain cases and this is highlighted by the additional protocol to the African Charter which states that “State parties are to protect reproductive rights of women by authorizing medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest and where the pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or foetus.”
Although induced abortion is the oldest and common fertility control method, few societies have looked at the issue dispassionately; this is because experts say it bothers on morality.
Lithur also says it is time women are given the chance to choose whether they would want to keep a pregnancy or abort it under safe and affordable conditions.
The World Health Organization defines abortion as the termination of pregnancy before viability.
African women are said to experience the greatest risk of death from unsafe abortion.
Studies show that one in 150 African women die from unsafe abortion, as against one in 250 women, in Asia; one in 800 in Latin America and one in 3,700 from the Northern countries.
Again about 20 million abortion cases take place each year worldwide with 55,000 abortions on the average per day.
The Ghana Demographic and Health Survey of 1993 puts maternal mortality ratio in Ghana at 214 per 100,000 live births.
A study conducted by the then Chief Pathologist of Ghana’s premier teaching hospital Korle Bu, Prof. Agyeman Badu Akosa in 1998 indicate that 30 percent of maternal deaths are due to unsafe abortions.
According to Dr. Afua Hesse in the book “Abortion within Reproductive Health in
Ghana,” until 1985 abortion in Ghana was governed by the criminal code of 1960. (ACT 29).
Under the code anyone causing or attempting to cause an abortion, regardless of whether the woman was pregnanat could be fined or imprisoned for up to 10 years. Also a woman inducing her own abortion or undergoing an illegal abortion was subject to the same punishment.
Ghana enacted a new law on abortion in 1985 which made it a crime for any person to give any poison or other noxious substances to a woman or use any instruments or other means with the intent of causing an abortion.
According to the Law, a legal abortion must be performed by a registered medical practitioner with the consent of the pregnant woman.
The abortion must be performed in a government hospital or a private hospital or a clinic registered under the Private Hospitals and Maternity Homes act of 1958 or in a place approved for that purpose by the law.
According to Dr. Taylor, some women resort to abortion because they have no access family planning or as a result of contraceptive failure.
Others he said do it because the pregnancy was as a result of rape, sexual abuse economic and social reasons.
Those who have no means to procure at the doctors table resort to drinking concoctions and using all forms of crude methods to get rid of unwanted pregnancy.
In an interview with Ghana Television recently, Prof. Agyeman Badu Akosa now the Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said women should be given access to safe re[productive health services in the country.
The Code of Ethics for the GHS which defines the general moral principles and rules of behavior for all service personnel in the Ghana Health Service does not make room for quacks , forbids exploitation and expects doctors to operate within the law.
“All Service personnel shall be competent, dedicated, honest, client-focused and operate within the law of the land ,” it states adding, “All Health Professionals shall be registered and remain registered with their Professional Regulatory Bodies.”
High fees deter women from going to court
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
A human rights activist Nana Oye Lithur has said high cost of accessing justice is discouraging a lot of Ghanaian women from taking their cases to court.
. “The court fees are not affordable which makes it harder to gain access to justice,” she said.
Speaking at a one day meeting in Accra on Women and the Justice system in Ghana organized by the Journalists for Human Rights, Nana Oye Lithur said, depending on what needs to be done, court fees can range from 10,000 cedis for a writ of summons at a district court to millions of cedis.
She said after one initiates a court procedure,one needs to pay filing charges, pay bailiffs transport and pay the lawyer.
Sometimes she said one needs to put down between one to two million cedis before a lawyer takes up a case.
That is not all; each time the lawyer goes to court his or her transport must be paid by the complainant.
According to Lithur some lawyers charge between 200 to 300, 000 cedis as transport each time they go to court.
For instance Nana Oye explained that it costs as much as 400,000 cedis to file a divorce case, this is minus lawyers fees of 2, 000, 000, transport cost of 200, 000 cedis per court appearance and bailiffs cost of serving papers which is 100,000 cedis among others.
She said it is because of these problems that the Legal Aid Board and the International Federation of Women lawyers (FIDA) and other independent practitioners are offering services to vulnerable people who cannot afford to seek justice as a result of the high fees.
Added to the issue of cost is the frequent adjournment of cases in the present judicial system in Ghana.
She said since women are engaged in economic activities or are in employment, it is difficult for them to leave their work and attend the court hearings.
“How do they leave their work, and spend half their time in court?” she asked.
She said a study done by a Canadian organisation known as CUSO is a pointer to this fact.
For the cases they studied, there were 70 percent adjournments.
For 34 percent of the cases, the adjournments were at the instance of the prosecution.
In Tamale, it climbed to 54 percent with 30 percent attributable to the court.
Nana Oye Lithur also said sometimes it is difficult for women to enforce judgments they obtain in court especially in property settlement cases with their spouses and also maintenance of their children.
“This is because the men work in the informal sector and the women do not know their income to facilitate attachment by the court,” she said.
Nana Oye Lithur who is also the head of the African Office of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) said most of the cases women take to court bother on domestic violence with rape and threats topping the list.
“For children of whom girls are the most, the highest type of cases is defilement cases,” she said.
For instance from 2002 to 2006, 4468 cases of defilement were reported to the police. Also for the first quarter of 2006, also the total number of victims that reported cases to the Domestic Violence Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service was 239 females as against 45 males.
Lithur said most of he victims were aged between 13 and 18 years.
Again statistics from the Judicial Service shows that of the 2145 cases studied in the courts, 44 percent of these cases involved assault and 90 percent of offenders were males.
Other women also take cases concerning maintenance of children and custody related cases to court.
“Other cases women take to court include divorce, matrimonial cases and inheritance related cases,” she said adding “For divorce, it is likely the petitioner will be a woman.”
Nana Oye Lithur further said, another barrier women face as they seek justice in the law court is that of language and the adversarial system being practiced in the court system instead of conciliatory or mediatory system.
She said women are by nature are not adversarial or competitive and as such this practices at the court makes them uncomfortable.
Speaking at the meeting, a Human Rights Expert with the Journalists for Human Rights, a Canadian based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Nick Fobih asked journalists to verify human rights cases and give fair hearing to all sides of a case before publication.
A human rights activist Nana Oye Lithur has said high cost of accessing justice is discouraging a lot of Ghanaian women from taking their cases to court.
. “The court fees are not affordable which makes it harder to gain access to justice,” she said.
Speaking at a one day meeting in Accra on Women and the Justice system in Ghana organized by the Journalists for Human Rights, Nana Oye Lithur said, depending on what needs to be done, court fees can range from 10,000 cedis for a writ of summons at a district court to millions of cedis.
She said after one initiates a court procedure,one needs to pay filing charges, pay bailiffs transport and pay the lawyer.
Sometimes she said one needs to put down between one to two million cedis before a lawyer takes up a case.
That is not all; each time the lawyer goes to court his or her transport must be paid by the complainant.
According to Lithur some lawyers charge between 200 to 300, 000 cedis as transport each time they go to court.
For instance Nana Oye explained that it costs as much as 400,000 cedis to file a divorce case, this is minus lawyers fees of 2, 000, 000, transport cost of 200, 000 cedis per court appearance and bailiffs cost of serving papers which is 100,000 cedis among others.
She said it is because of these problems that the Legal Aid Board and the International Federation of Women lawyers (FIDA) and other independent practitioners are offering services to vulnerable people who cannot afford to seek justice as a result of the high fees.
Added to the issue of cost is the frequent adjournment of cases in the present judicial system in Ghana.
She said since women are engaged in economic activities or are in employment, it is difficult for them to leave their work and attend the court hearings.
“How do they leave their work, and spend half their time in court?” she asked.
She said a study done by a Canadian organisation known as CUSO is a pointer to this fact.
For the cases they studied, there were 70 percent adjournments.
For 34 percent of the cases, the adjournments were at the instance of the prosecution.
In Tamale, it climbed to 54 percent with 30 percent attributable to the court.
Nana Oye Lithur also said sometimes it is difficult for women to enforce judgments they obtain in court especially in property settlement cases with their spouses and also maintenance of their children.
“This is because the men work in the informal sector and the women do not know their income to facilitate attachment by the court,” she said.
Nana Oye Lithur who is also the head of the African Office of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) said most of the cases women take to court bother on domestic violence with rape and threats topping the list.
“For children of whom girls are the most, the highest type of cases is defilement cases,” she said.
For instance from 2002 to 2006, 4468 cases of defilement were reported to the police. Also for the first quarter of 2006, also the total number of victims that reported cases to the Domestic Violence Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service was 239 females as against 45 males.
Lithur said most of he victims were aged between 13 and 18 years.
Again statistics from the Judicial Service shows that of the 2145 cases studied in the courts, 44 percent of these cases involved assault and 90 percent of offenders were males.
Other women also take cases concerning maintenance of children and custody related cases to court.
“Other cases women take to court include divorce, matrimonial cases and inheritance related cases,” she said adding “For divorce, it is likely the petitioner will be a woman.”
Nana Oye Lithur further said, another barrier women face as they seek justice in the law court is that of language and the adversarial system being practiced in the court system instead of conciliatory or mediatory system.
She said women are by nature are not adversarial or competitive and as such this practices at the court makes them uncomfortable.
Speaking at the meeting, a Human Rights Expert with the Journalists for Human Rights, a Canadian based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Nick Fobih asked journalists to verify human rights cases and give fair hearing to all sides of a case before publication.
UN says media work is vital to poverty reduction
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
The UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana Mr. Daouda Toure has said the role of the media in eradicating poverty is vital to development.
Speaking at a conference on Media and Development in Accra last Monday Mr. Toure said the provision of information by the media to the people helps them to make a sense of their lives.
“Covering issues relevant to those living in poverty and those at the margins of society have been central in development organisations such as the UN for years,” he told the conference which was organized by the National Media Commission (NMC) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
He said in the year 2000, a poverty survey done in partnership with the government of Norway and UNDP revealed that people living in poverty wanted a voice or a say in decisions that affect them.
“This comes way ahead of money,” he said.
According to him, the extent to which the perspectives of those living in poverty are reflected in the media is becoming equally important.
Current development strategies he said are rooted in two central assumptions mainly ownership and accountability.
He said gone are the days when in development assistance when hundreds of donors, thousands of organisations and millions of people were involved in a multiplicity of sometimes small piecemeal development projects.
“A revolution is taking place in development assistance and development strategies,” he said.
Mr. Toure who is also The UNDP Resident Representative explained that global development efforts is now structured around meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which is a graduation from chronic poverty.
“Halving the number of people living in abject poverty by the target date of 2015 was a major milestone in development assistance,” he said adding, “Another milestone is the creation of methodologies and strategies to achieve these goals.”
This in the UN is reflected by the increased harmonization of activities and programmes with others, especially among UN agencies themselves under Country Programme Action Framework.
He also said development partners have committed themselves to work much more close together according to a set of frameworks developed by developing countries themselves.
He also said that the analysis of media treatment of issues be it the MDGs or Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategies (GPRS II) have repeatedly shown a poor level of coverage.
“Analysis suggests “lack of technical skills among journalists to report on economic development and issues specific to sectors such as health, education and agriculture,” he said.
Also he said there was lack of interaction between Non-governmental organizations, Civil Society organizations and the media.
If this occurs, the UN Resident coordinator said it might lead to enhanced media understanding and engagement.
Failure to address the external dimension of development, the partners’ performances, the hindrance linked to external markets, the potential role of Diaspora, and the promotion of Ghana as an investment climate and insufficient support for mature media are some of the lapses on the part of the Ghanaian media.
Mr. Toure also said one of the central conclusions of a report by the UN Commission for Africa says because so many conditions were imposed on development assistance , developing countries governments felt more accountable to western donors than they did to their own citizens, an issue the Commission and current development thinking and practice hope to change.
The Minister for Information and National Orientation Mr. Kwamena Bartels on his part said the some media houses are abusing the freedom of speech guaranteed under the constitution.
Some people he said are fond of using the Phone-In programmes of radio stations to heap personal insults on citizens.
He said it is important for Ghanaians and the conference to think about how to empower the National Media Commission to check these abuses without violating the constitution.
“How can we strengthen the NMC with sanctioned powers to sanction erring media practitioners without infringing the constitution?” he asked.
He said the government is prepared to expand the frontiers of free speech and this is evident in the abolition of the Criminal Libel law and the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act and the Whistle Blowers Bill.
The Chairman of the National Media Commission Mr. Paul Adu Gyamfi said media activity can lead to chaos in a society if not checked and as such their work demand scrutiny.
He said his expectation was how the NMC could be empowered to offer the best services to the benefit of society chaos.
The UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana Mr. Daouda Toure has said the role of the media in eradicating poverty is vital to development.
Speaking at a conference on Media and Development in Accra last Monday Mr. Toure said the provision of information by the media to the people helps them to make a sense of their lives.
“Covering issues relevant to those living in poverty and those at the margins of society have been central in development organisations such as the UN for years,” he told the conference which was organized by the National Media Commission (NMC) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
He said in the year 2000, a poverty survey done in partnership with the government of Norway and UNDP revealed that people living in poverty wanted a voice or a say in decisions that affect them.
“This comes way ahead of money,” he said.
According to him, the extent to which the perspectives of those living in poverty are reflected in the media is becoming equally important.
Current development strategies he said are rooted in two central assumptions mainly ownership and accountability.
He said gone are the days when in development assistance when hundreds of donors, thousands of organisations and millions of people were involved in a multiplicity of sometimes small piecemeal development projects.
“A revolution is taking place in development assistance and development strategies,” he said.
Mr. Toure who is also The UNDP Resident Representative explained that global development efforts is now structured around meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which is a graduation from chronic poverty.
“Halving the number of people living in abject poverty by the target date of 2015 was a major milestone in development assistance,” he said adding, “Another milestone is the creation of methodologies and strategies to achieve these goals.”
This in the UN is reflected by the increased harmonization of activities and programmes with others, especially among UN agencies themselves under Country Programme Action Framework.
He also said development partners have committed themselves to work much more close together according to a set of frameworks developed by developing countries themselves.
He also said that the analysis of media treatment of issues be it the MDGs or Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategies (GPRS II) have repeatedly shown a poor level of coverage.
“Analysis suggests “lack of technical skills among journalists to report on economic development and issues specific to sectors such as health, education and agriculture,” he said.
Also he said there was lack of interaction between Non-governmental organizations, Civil Society organizations and the media.
If this occurs, the UN Resident coordinator said it might lead to enhanced media understanding and engagement.
Failure to address the external dimension of development, the partners’ performances, the hindrance linked to external markets, the potential role of Diaspora, and the promotion of Ghana as an investment climate and insufficient support for mature media are some of the lapses on the part of the Ghanaian media.
Mr. Toure also said one of the central conclusions of a report by the UN Commission for Africa says because so many conditions were imposed on development assistance , developing countries governments felt more accountable to western donors than they did to their own citizens, an issue the Commission and current development thinking and practice hope to change.
The Minister for Information and National Orientation Mr. Kwamena Bartels on his part said the some media houses are abusing the freedom of speech guaranteed under the constitution.
Some people he said are fond of using the Phone-In programmes of radio stations to heap personal insults on citizens.
He said it is important for Ghanaians and the conference to think about how to empower the National Media Commission to check these abuses without violating the constitution.
“How can we strengthen the NMC with sanctioned powers to sanction erring media practitioners without infringing the constitution?” he asked.
He said the government is prepared to expand the frontiers of free speech and this is evident in the abolition of the Criminal Libel law and the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act and the Whistle Blowers Bill.
The Chairman of the National Media Commission Mr. Paul Adu Gyamfi said media activity can lead to chaos in a society if not checked and as such their work demand scrutiny.
He said his expectation was how the NMC could be empowered to offer the best services to the benefit of society chaos.
Music to the rescue of Africa's economic malaise
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
Music since time immemorial is acknowledged as an important facet of life without which human life will be miserable.
Philosophers and great writers like Shakespeare all dwelt on the joy and melody of music, then popularly touted as facilitator of love and romance and relationships.
Musicians in the olden days were regarded as entertainers. However in the second half of the last century musicians have gained a different level or status in society.
Music is regarded as a resource of economic growth which has propelled the economies of advanced countries into greater heights.
Despite its reputation for vibrant music scene and talented musicians, Africa has so far been unable to capitalize domestically on these natural resources. Economic experts say there is the need to develop the potential for economic growth in the African music industry and new methods to build on the industry’s resources.
It is believed that Music can be used to reduce poverty and improve economic situation in Africa where poverty where more than half of its 600 million people live on less than a dollar a day.
Areas that could be developed include sound technicians, back up musicians and also state of the art technology which could enable African musicians to be compensated
automatically and transparently for the use of their music on the internet.
For instance new technology from IBM has the potential to prevent access without payment and to deliver instant payments to musicians for the online sale and performance of their music.
At a workshop organized by the World Bank and the Policies Sciences Centre in 2001 in the US, Participants explored several alternative legal approaches to developing an intellectual property rights system appropriate to African needs and resources.
It also included the controversial issue of copyright in cyberspace and examined the model of the Nashville experience where a one time dirty poor town became a music industry powerhouse and notable contributor to regional economy.
An Economist Michael Finger says there seems to be little connection between developing the music industry in Africa and empowering developing countries at the World Trade Organisation.
Finger says several of the arguments o music and development that came out of the Uruguay round are based on the experiences of the advanced countries and often have little meaning in developing economies.
One example is the agreement on the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Finger says there is the need for a good intellectual property system tailored to the needs of the music industry in Africa.
In recent years, the World Bank has been developing its cultural industries loan program introduced since James D. Wolfensohn became its president. According to the World Bank’s Daily Online Newspaper Today, the Bank as at the year 2000, was lending between 265 million to 300 million dollars for cultural activities. This comprised of loans to help culture related tourism such as ecological and craft initiatives.
This focus on music by the World Bank is seen by critics as an attempt by the Bank to clean its image and tone down opposition form anti-globalisation protestors.
Wolfensohn is said to have used music and the arts industry to transform himself from a “hardnosed investment banker to the Rock star in the aid community,” The Music Agenda by the world banks is also considered as one of the Mission creeps suffered by the Bank that is loss of focus.
In Ghana, there is no doubt about the importance of the music industry to the development of the nation.
“Music in Ghana has always had various beneficial effects such as physical and spiritual healing, for the knowledge and histories embedded in musical griots, for the calendrical markings of events by musical performance and as work songs that could help coordinate muscle power in agricultural and fishing,” says Professor John Collins, a lecturer at the Music Department, University of Ghana.
Ghana’s Music Industry which started off well in the colonial days came to a standstill two decades ago. This was attributed to political problems such as a long period of curfew during the 1980s which killed nightlife and live band performances as well as economic problems faced by musicians.
However Prof. Collins say with the situation has improved with the influx of tourists into the country.
For instance between 1992 and 2002, the number of tourists visiting Ghana doubled and only in 2004 650,000 tourists visited the country bringing with them 800 million dollars.
By 2007, a million visitors are expected each year with 1.5 billion dollars.
“Ten percent of the foreign exchange spent here by tourists is connected with the entertainment sector which of course includes music,” Prof. Collins explains.
Again he says a growing component of the tourism industry is linked to what might be called World Music Tourists who are particularly attracted to Ghana’s wealth of local music including traditional and folkloric music. “Some tourists money finds its way into even the poorest layers of society in rural areas,” citing the Kakum village Bamboo band as an example.
Royalties for African sales music abroad was 220 million dollars in 1997.
Recent studies in UK shoes that Music improves mathematical ability, physical coordination and communication skills.
Music has the potential of developing Ghana’s economy. This is because there are many types of business that involve music. Local craftsmen make traditional instruments, Ghana’s estimated 100 or so recording studios employ technicians and session musicians, night clubs and hotels employ bands, workshops are needed to repair musical equipments and music cassettes and Compact Discs need to be manufactured, produced and distributed.
Prof. Collins also say There is also music journalism, the music component of radio and TV stations, background Music for films and the local video industry as well as music jingles for the advertising industry.
Music is also used therapeutically in both modern hospitals and in the traditional settings of drum dances associated with healing cults.
In addition to these, quite a number of Ghanaian bands travel outside the country each year with some catering for the fans of folkloric music, others satisfy the musical needs of the millions of Ghanaians in the Diaspora. These include musicians like Amakye Dede, Pat Thomas, Daddy Lumba . Some hitherto poor people have joined the high class soon after successful albums.
The music being performed by a top Ghanaian Musician popularly known as Obuor on the airwaves warning drivers about accidents is one of the ways in which music has contributed to the socio-economic development of the country. There have been several other campaign songs on health issues such as on infant vaccination, family planning, prevention of HIV/AIDS and malaria which are all song in local languages to educate nursing mothers and all on the dangers of diseases and what o do about them.
Prof. John Collins recalls song lyrics that provide a voice to the voiceless and marginalized social groups that are critical of corruption, the older generation, government mismanagement and unequal distribution o power and wealth.
“An old well-known example is the 1967 African Brothers hi life records of ‘Ebe te yie’ (Some sit well) which criticized the emergence of a nouveau riche in Ghana after independence.
. The President of the Musicians Association of Ghana (MUSIGHA) Alhaji Sidiku Buari have always called for the adequate support for the music industry.
According to him, in spite of the improvement in the quality of music, exploitation continues unabated especially in piracy.
Ghana has made efforts to develop its music industry with meetings with development partners such as the World Bank, UNESCO European Union, French Embassy, Goethe Institut, and many more without much success.
Experts have blamed divisions among musicians and lack of government support as some of the draw backs and a World Bank project to support them in Ghana is still in the womb of time due to a number o factors.
According to the Institute for Music and Development 50 percent of sales in African music are pirated. The institute says several African countries including Ghana have no adequate statistics on total value of revenue accruing from music publishing industries.
Today the Growth and Poverty Reduction strategy (GPRS II) regards music as one of the means to reduce poverty.
A German proverb sums up the importance of music to the world today. “Where you hear people singing, there settle down in peace, for evil people know no songs.”
Music since time immemorial is acknowledged as an important facet of life without which human life will be miserable.
Philosophers and great writers like Shakespeare all dwelt on the joy and melody of music, then popularly touted as facilitator of love and romance and relationships.
Musicians in the olden days were regarded as entertainers. However in the second half of the last century musicians have gained a different level or status in society.
Music is regarded as a resource of economic growth which has propelled the economies of advanced countries into greater heights.
Despite its reputation for vibrant music scene and talented musicians, Africa has so far been unable to capitalize domestically on these natural resources. Economic experts say there is the need to develop the potential for economic growth in the African music industry and new methods to build on the industry’s resources.
It is believed that Music can be used to reduce poverty and improve economic situation in Africa where poverty where more than half of its 600 million people live on less than a dollar a day.
Areas that could be developed include sound technicians, back up musicians and also state of the art technology which could enable African musicians to be compensated
automatically and transparently for the use of their music on the internet.
For instance new technology from IBM has the potential to prevent access without payment and to deliver instant payments to musicians for the online sale and performance of their music.
At a workshop organized by the World Bank and the Policies Sciences Centre in 2001 in the US, Participants explored several alternative legal approaches to developing an intellectual property rights system appropriate to African needs and resources.
It also included the controversial issue of copyright in cyberspace and examined the model of the Nashville experience where a one time dirty poor town became a music industry powerhouse and notable contributor to regional economy.
An Economist Michael Finger says there seems to be little connection between developing the music industry in Africa and empowering developing countries at the World Trade Organisation.
Finger says several of the arguments o music and development that came out of the Uruguay round are based on the experiences of the advanced countries and often have little meaning in developing economies.
One example is the agreement on the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Finger says there is the need for a good intellectual property system tailored to the needs of the music industry in Africa.
In recent years, the World Bank has been developing its cultural industries loan program introduced since James D. Wolfensohn became its president. According to the World Bank’s Daily Online Newspaper Today, the Bank as at the year 2000, was lending between 265 million to 300 million dollars for cultural activities. This comprised of loans to help culture related tourism such as ecological and craft initiatives.
This focus on music by the World Bank is seen by critics as an attempt by the Bank to clean its image and tone down opposition form anti-globalisation protestors.
Wolfensohn is said to have used music and the arts industry to transform himself from a “hardnosed investment banker to the Rock star in the aid community,” The Music Agenda by the world banks is also considered as one of the Mission creeps suffered by the Bank that is loss of focus.
In Ghana, there is no doubt about the importance of the music industry to the development of the nation.
“Music in Ghana has always had various beneficial effects such as physical and spiritual healing, for the knowledge and histories embedded in musical griots, for the calendrical markings of events by musical performance and as work songs that could help coordinate muscle power in agricultural and fishing,” says Professor John Collins, a lecturer at the Music Department, University of Ghana.
Ghana’s Music Industry which started off well in the colonial days came to a standstill two decades ago. This was attributed to political problems such as a long period of curfew during the 1980s which killed nightlife and live band performances as well as economic problems faced by musicians.
However Prof. Collins say with the situation has improved with the influx of tourists into the country.
For instance between 1992 and 2002, the number of tourists visiting Ghana doubled and only in 2004 650,000 tourists visited the country bringing with them 800 million dollars.
By 2007, a million visitors are expected each year with 1.5 billion dollars.
“Ten percent of the foreign exchange spent here by tourists is connected with the entertainment sector which of course includes music,” Prof. Collins explains.
Again he says a growing component of the tourism industry is linked to what might be called World Music Tourists who are particularly attracted to Ghana’s wealth of local music including traditional and folkloric music. “Some tourists money finds its way into even the poorest layers of society in rural areas,” citing the Kakum village Bamboo band as an example.
Royalties for African sales music abroad was 220 million dollars in 1997.
Recent studies in UK shoes that Music improves mathematical ability, physical coordination and communication skills.
Music has the potential of developing Ghana’s economy. This is because there are many types of business that involve music. Local craftsmen make traditional instruments, Ghana’s estimated 100 or so recording studios employ technicians and session musicians, night clubs and hotels employ bands, workshops are needed to repair musical equipments and music cassettes and Compact Discs need to be manufactured, produced and distributed.
Prof. Collins also say There is also music journalism, the music component of radio and TV stations, background Music for films and the local video industry as well as music jingles for the advertising industry.
Music is also used therapeutically in both modern hospitals and in the traditional settings of drum dances associated with healing cults.
In addition to these, quite a number of Ghanaian bands travel outside the country each year with some catering for the fans of folkloric music, others satisfy the musical needs of the millions of Ghanaians in the Diaspora. These include musicians like Amakye Dede, Pat Thomas, Daddy Lumba . Some hitherto poor people have joined the high class soon after successful albums.
The music being performed by a top Ghanaian Musician popularly known as Obuor on the airwaves warning drivers about accidents is one of the ways in which music has contributed to the socio-economic development of the country. There have been several other campaign songs on health issues such as on infant vaccination, family planning, prevention of HIV/AIDS and malaria which are all song in local languages to educate nursing mothers and all on the dangers of diseases and what o do about them.
Prof. John Collins recalls song lyrics that provide a voice to the voiceless and marginalized social groups that are critical of corruption, the older generation, government mismanagement and unequal distribution o power and wealth.
“An old well-known example is the 1967 African Brothers hi life records of ‘Ebe te yie’ (Some sit well) which criticized the emergence of a nouveau riche in Ghana after independence.
. The President of the Musicians Association of Ghana (MUSIGHA) Alhaji Sidiku Buari have always called for the adequate support for the music industry.
According to him, in spite of the improvement in the quality of music, exploitation continues unabated especially in piracy.
Ghana has made efforts to develop its music industry with meetings with development partners such as the World Bank, UNESCO European Union, French Embassy, Goethe Institut, and many more without much success.
Experts have blamed divisions among musicians and lack of government support as some of the draw backs and a World Bank project to support them in Ghana is still in the womb of time due to a number o factors.
According to the Institute for Music and Development 50 percent of sales in African music are pirated. The institute says several African countries including Ghana have no adequate statistics on total value of revenue accruing from music publishing industries.
Today the Growth and Poverty Reduction strategy (GPRS II) regards music as one of the means to reduce poverty.
A German proverb sums up the importance of music to the world today. “Where you hear people singing, there settle down in peace, for evil people know no songs.”
Microfinance and Poverty
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
An Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) William F. Steel has called for capacity building in the micro finance sector to increase credit to the poor especially those in poor rural communities.
“The rural poor lack business and financial skills and this leads to poor repayment of loans, loans taken as gifts and interest that do not cover costs,” he said.
Commercial Banks he also said do not know how to do business with low income self employed people and as such the poor depend on their own savings and loans from family members.
Thus training in the sector should include not only the Rural Micro Finance Institutions (RMFI) comprising the Apex bodies, specialized licensed bodies, grass roots micro finances schemes, and clients but also at the level of commercial banks so that they can both service and drive the system.
Speaking at the annual ISSER-Merchant Bank lectures series on the topic “Extending Financial Systems to the Poor: What strategies for Ghana?” Prof. Steel said Internationally, Micro Finance has moved through phases, from high cost, heavily subsidized operations reaching limited numbers to financially self-sufficient microfinance institutions reaching millions.
Micro Finance can be defined as small financial transitions sustainable available to the poor whether formal or informal.
Special microfinance methodologies he said can help overcome many of the constraints that have generally blocked the extension of formal financial services to the poor.
This he said is done through the use of traditional banking practices or methodologies.
These methods can be applied along with skill strengthening at all levels to develop pro-poor financial systems that make small financial transactions such as savings, loans, insurance , money transfer and leasing among others available to the poor.
Government he said can subsidise micro finance through provision of equipment for farmers such as irrigation machines or pumps.
“If the poor farmer interested in irrigation can get a pump to help him, that farmer can get himself out of poverty,” he said.
Ghana according to Prof. Steel has the advantage of a wide range of different types of rural and micro finance institutions serving different niches such as Rural and Community banks, Savings and Loans companies, Credit Unions, Financial NGOs, Susu collectors and groups as well as informal savings and credit associations.
“One advantage is that most of these bodies are based on local savings mobilisation,” he said adding, “Rural Microfinance Institutions depositors are growing at an average of 40 percent a year” especially between 2001 to 2004.”
He said the number of borrowers which is now about half a million has grown over 20 percent and the total Micro Finance loan portfolio has more than tripled in three years.
In spite of all these, Prof. Steel said the operating cost to provide and monitor these small transactions remain even higher in Ghana. He explained that this is higher than the average of 28 percent for loan portfolio in other African countries.
Many of Ghana’s micro finance institutions cannot stand on their feet without financial subsidies. Prof. Steel further said it is important for Ghana to integrate rural micro finance institutions and micro finance methodologies into the financial system to extend its out reach to rural areas, the poor and to clients of Small and Medium scale Enterprises.
While subsidies are limited, Prof. Steel said expanding micro credit to thousands of poor people requires sustainable Micro Finance institutions generating their own resources and accessing commercial funds.
Again he said Micro finance development must be complemented by other challenges to address related challenges, particularly agricultural finance and targeting the very poor.
Prof. Steel also said government-directed credit at restrictive interest rates has been counter productive over the years worldwide in addressing challenges of micro finance.
Supporting Prof. Steel, the Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning Prof. George Gyan Baffour said access to capital is a problem for several businesses particularly small ones.
“As we look for help, the difficult aspect is how to get help for he poor in he rural communities and informal sector who the banks say are not bankable.
The Director of ISSER Professor Ernest Aryeetey said despite the fact that there are several micro finance institutions the practice varies from one to the other.
It is against this background that methodologies suitable for Ghana are being sought, he said.
An Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) William F. Steel has called for capacity building in the micro finance sector to increase credit to the poor especially those in poor rural communities.
“The rural poor lack business and financial skills and this leads to poor repayment of loans, loans taken as gifts and interest that do not cover costs,” he said.
Commercial Banks he also said do not know how to do business with low income self employed people and as such the poor depend on their own savings and loans from family members.
Thus training in the sector should include not only the Rural Micro Finance Institutions (RMFI) comprising the Apex bodies, specialized licensed bodies, grass roots micro finances schemes, and clients but also at the level of commercial banks so that they can both service and drive the system.
Speaking at the annual ISSER-Merchant Bank lectures series on the topic “Extending Financial Systems to the Poor: What strategies for Ghana?” Prof. Steel said Internationally, Micro Finance has moved through phases, from high cost, heavily subsidized operations reaching limited numbers to financially self-sufficient microfinance institutions reaching millions.
Micro Finance can be defined as small financial transitions sustainable available to the poor whether formal or informal.
Special microfinance methodologies he said can help overcome many of the constraints that have generally blocked the extension of formal financial services to the poor.
This he said is done through the use of traditional banking practices or methodologies.
These methods can be applied along with skill strengthening at all levels to develop pro-poor financial systems that make small financial transactions such as savings, loans, insurance , money transfer and leasing among others available to the poor.
Government he said can subsidise micro finance through provision of equipment for farmers such as irrigation machines or pumps.
“If the poor farmer interested in irrigation can get a pump to help him, that farmer can get himself out of poverty,” he said.
Ghana according to Prof. Steel has the advantage of a wide range of different types of rural and micro finance institutions serving different niches such as Rural and Community banks, Savings and Loans companies, Credit Unions, Financial NGOs, Susu collectors and groups as well as informal savings and credit associations.
“One advantage is that most of these bodies are based on local savings mobilisation,” he said adding, “Rural Microfinance Institutions depositors are growing at an average of 40 percent a year” especially between 2001 to 2004.”
He said the number of borrowers which is now about half a million has grown over 20 percent and the total Micro Finance loan portfolio has more than tripled in three years.
In spite of all these, Prof. Steel said the operating cost to provide and monitor these small transactions remain even higher in Ghana. He explained that this is higher than the average of 28 percent for loan portfolio in other African countries.
Many of Ghana’s micro finance institutions cannot stand on their feet without financial subsidies. Prof. Steel further said it is important for Ghana to integrate rural micro finance institutions and micro finance methodologies into the financial system to extend its out reach to rural areas, the poor and to clients of Small and Medium scale Enterprises.
While subsidies are limited, Prof. Steel said expanding micro credit to thousands of poor people requires sustainable Micro Finance institutions generating their own resources and accessing commercial funds.
Again he said Micro finance development must be complemented by other challenges to address related challenges, particularly agricultural finance and targeting the very poor.
Prof. Steel also said government-directed credit at restrictive interest rates has been counter productive over the years worldwide in addressing challenges of micro finance.
Supporting Prof. Steel, the Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning Prof. George Gyan Baffour said access to capital is a problem for several businesses particularly small ones.
“As we look for help, the difficult aspect is how to get help for he poor in he rural communities and informal sector who the banks say are not bankable.
The Director of ISSER Professor Ernest Aryeetey said despite the fact that there are several micro finance institutions the practice varies from one to the other.
It is against this background that methodologies suitable for Ghana are being sought, he said.
Ghana’s agriculture and industrialisation
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
“Mr. Speaker, growth in the agricultural sector, the mainstay of the economy, is projected at 5.7 per cent indicating 0.9 percentage shortfall against the target of 6.6 per cent. The contributory sub-sectors to the underperformance are the Cocoa Production and Marketing; and the Forestry and logging sub-sectors.”
This confession came from the Minister of Finance, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu when he presented the 2007 budget to Parliament recently.
According to the Minister, the attainment of the objectives of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) is anchored on the Agricultural Sector showing a strong growth.
“In line with Government’s policy to create wealth and alleviate poverty, the Ministry is pursuing programmes and projects to transform the rural economy through the modernisation of agriculture,” he said.
The Minister further said the sectoral goal of the Ministry is to develop a progressive, dynamic and viable agricultural economy that will ensure food self sufficiency, food security; the production of raw materials for industry; and increased foreign exchange earnings through diversification of export crops.
Agriculture is regarded as Ghana's most important economic sector that employs about 54 percent of the countries workforce on a formal and informal basis. It also accounts for about 40 percent of GDP and 42 percent of export earnings.
Critics say although the first president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah attempted to use agricultural wealth as a springboard for the country's overall economic development and industrialisation, Ghanaian agricultural output has consistently fallen since the 1960s.
During the 1980s and the 1990s when Ghana Implemented the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) and the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) the woes of farmers were deepened with withdrawal of subsidies in the agricultural sector. Government’s support for agro-based industries was withdrawn and the industries were listed for divestiture.
In particular, industrial tree crops such as cocoa, coffee, and oil palm seedlings were singled out for assistance. Clearly, agricultural sectors that could not produce foreign exchange earnings such as rice production were assigned a lower priority under the ERP.
Since then, government through loans and grants from the World Bank has strived to improve upon agriculture as the mainstay of industrialization.
The Rome Declaration on World Food Security says poverty a major cause of food insecurity and sustainable progress in poverty eradication is critical to improve access to food.
The number of people without enough food to eat on a regular basis remains stubbornly high, at over 800 million and is not falling significantly. Over 60 percent of the world’s undernourished people live in Asia and a quarter in Africa.
The proportion of people who go hungry however is greater in Africa than in Asia.
The latest FAO report shows that there are 22 countries out of which 16 are in Africa.
To improve upon food security especially on rice production, to partly serve as the industrial base of the economy, Baah-Wiredu said the Inland Valley Rice Development Project extended credit to 905 farmers and also provided technical support in the areas of land and water management techniques in 17 project districts. It has also assisted 850 farmers with average holding of 0.4 hectares to plant 340 hectares of rice under the Nerica Rice Dissemination Project.
Again the Minister said the Irrigation Company of the Upper Region (ICOUR) facilitated the production of 200 tons of Paddy Rice seed, 1,800 tons of Rice Grains and also cropped 220 hectares of millet and 34 hectares of soyabeans at its Vea and Tono dam sites.
But not every one is convinced that things will work well for the rice sector especially.
According to the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) Trade Liberalisation has had serious implications on Ghana’s farmers and farm employees.
“WTO farm regulations are forcing many small scale farmers out of business,” the Union said.
According to the Union, low cost imports of rice have been flooding into the Ghanaian market and whether these come from competitive rice exporters or are dumped by heavily subsidized sources such as the United States, the impact threatens to destroy the livelihoods of thousands of farming families.
It is estimated that developing nations would benefit by about four billion dollars annually if subsidies in the developed world are halved.
“The strategy of producing in pursuit of food sufficiency has been subverted by an influx of cheap imported agricultural produce are destroying local production,” GAWU said.
“Mr. Speaker, growth in the agricultural sector, the mainstay of the economy, is projected at 5.7 per cent indicating 0.9 percentage shortfall against the target of 6.6 per cent. The contributory sub-sectors to the underperformance are the Cocoa Production and Marketing; and the Forestry and logging sub-sectors.”
This confession came from the Minister of Finance, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu when he presented the 2007 budget to Parliament recently.
According to the Minister, the attainment of the objectives of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) is anchored on the Agricultural Sector showing a strong growth.
“In line with Government’s policy to create wealth and alleviate poverty, the Ministry is pursuing programmes and projects to transform the rural economy through the modernisation of agriculture,” he said.
The Minister further said the sectoral goal of the Ministry is to develop a progressive, dynamic and viable agricultural economy that will ensure food self sufficiency, food security; the production of raw materials for industry; and increased foreign exchange earnings through diversification of export crops.
Agriculture is regarded as Ghana's most important economic sector that employs about 54 percent of the countries workforce on a formal and informal basis. It also accounts for about 40 percent of GDP and 42 percent of export earnings.
Critics say although the first president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah attempted to use agricultural wealth as a springboard for the country's overall economic development and industrialisation, Ghanaian agricultural output has consistently fallen since the 1960s.
During the 1980s and the 1990s when Ghana Implemented the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) and the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) the woes of farmers were deepened with withdrawal of subsidies in the agricultural sector. Government’s support for agro-based industries was withdrawn and the industries were listed for divestiture.
In particular, industrial tree crops such as cocoa, coffee, and oil palm seedlings were singled out for assistance. Clearly, agricultural sectors that could not produce foreign exchange earnings such as rice production were assigned a lower priority under the ERP.
Since then, government through loans and grants from the World Bank has strived to improve upon agriculture as the mainstay of industrialization.
The Rome Declaration on World Food Security says poverty a major cause of food insecurity and sustainable progress in poverty eradication is critical to improve access to food.
The number of people without enough food to eat on a regular basis remains stubbornly high, at over 800 million and is not falling significantly. Over 60 percent of the world’s undernourished people live in Asia and a quarter in Africa.
The proportion of people who go hungry however is greater in Africa than in Asia.
The latest FAO report shows that there are 22 countries out of which 16 are in Africa.
To improve upon food security especially on rice production, to partly serve as the industrial base of the economy, Baah-Wiredu said the Inland Valley Rice Development Project extended credit to 905 farmers and also provided technical support in the areas of land and water management techniques in 17 project districts. It has also assisted 850 farmers with average holding of 0.4 hectares to plant 340 hectares of rice under the Nerica Rice Dissemination Project.
Again the Minister said the Irrigation Company of the Upper Region (ICOUR) facilitated the production of 200 tons of Paddy Rice seed, 1,800 tons of Rice Grains and also cropped 220 hectares of millet and 34 hectares of soyabeans at its Vea and Tono dam sites.
But not every one is convinced that things will work well for the rice sector especially.
According to the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) Trade Liberalisation has had serious implications on Ghana’s farmers and farm employees.
“WTO farm regulations are forcing many small scale farmers out of business,” the Union said.
According to the Union, low cost imports of rice have been flooding into the Ghanaian market and whether these come from competitive rice exporters or are dumped by heavily subsidized sources such as the United States, the impact threatens to destroy the livelihoods of thousands of farming families.
It is estimated that developing nations would benefit by about four billion dollars annually if subsidies in the developed world are halved.
“The strategy of producing in pursuit of food sufficiency has been subverted by an influx of cheap imported agricultural produce are destroying local production,” GAWU said.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
The Woman behind Busy Internet-Estelle Sowah
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
It is a fine Monday morning, at the first floor of the Busy Internet Building at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Accra. A fair coloured woman with a low hair cut walks in, beaming with smiles as she enters.
She says hello to every one; workers, clients, and visitors. Wearing a popular Ghanaian white cloth from Ghana Textiles Prints (GTP); known in local Akan parlance as Akyekyedee akyi or the (back of a tortoise), sewn in a long dress form, her well-endowed African body curves draw the attention of everyone, both men and women.
Ah! Is she white or black? One first time visitor murmured to herself.
Well that is Estelle Akofio Sowah, the Managing Director of Busy Internet, the country’s biggest internet Café and business resource centre which celebrated its fifth year of existence in Ghana in November 2006.
Born some 34 years ago in Edinburgh Scotland, Estelle Sowah was six months old when she was brought to Ghana.“My father, a Ghanaian was studying in Scotland when he met my mother who is
from Scotland” she explains her Ghanaian and Scottish background.
In Ghana she was educated at the Ghana International School and pursued a Bachelors Degree in Economic sand Development in the United Kingdom. Six Months after completion Ms. Sowah returned to Ghana and landed a job with ProNet, a community based service delivery civil society organisation.
She later worked with La Palm Royal Beach Hotel before settling down with SIMNET, a South African ICT company working in Partnership with the Department of National Lotteries.
She joined Busy Internet when the company was about nine months old and the rest is the success story today. “I did not have much trouble getting the job,” she says.
“I joined Busy as the Program Manager and was offered the position of deputy and then Managing Director about 6 months after I joined,” she says.
Ms. Sowah who is married with two children, a boy and a girl is very proud of her unique features. Asked how she has been so successful heading Busy Internet, she mentions hard work, dedication, tact, diplomacy and veracity, focus and the fact that she is a woman as some of her driving forces.
“As a woman a lot of people expect you to fail and as such not much impediments are put in your way,” she says.
Being a woman to her is a talent. “You can use it to your advantage; sometimes the men get confuse with your beauty and you can get away with a lot of things,” she says with smiles.
“Open 24hours a day, 365 days a year, Busy Internet is a place where people come for different reasons,” says a recent World Bank Study. “Tourist come to check their emails; students to research an assignment; aspiring entrepreneurs to learn about their target market ; established business people to write , print and bind proposals,” says the study.
It operates a big hall with 100 high speed flat screen computers, fully serviced executive office suites, high tech training and conference facilities and a 24hour digital documentation centre.
Other facilities include Busy ISP; a customer focused Internet Service Provider with a suite of Internet solutions for small businesses and large corporate organizations. “These include our flexible pay as you go dialup, wireless radio, and Vsat solutions. With a 24 hour technical support and monitoring crew in place, our customers enjoy a hassle free service,” Ms. Sowah explains.
Established in 2001, Busy Internet is the largest privately owned and operated centre of digital entrepreneurship in Africa with a mission to provide both commercial services as well as social and economic development. It has been featured as a promising hybrid model for Africa.
The company is located in a 14,00square foot piece of land which formerly housed the defunct gas bottling factory in the heart of the city and it is owned by Busy Internet International and two Ghanaian investments companies, Fidelity Capital Partners, Data Bank and Softribe.
Through a grant from the World Bank’s Infodev Incubator Programme, Busy internet launched an important programme to select and assist start-up companies with business plans to incubate them within Busy Internet’s premises for a period of 18 months.
The first of its kind in West Africa Ms. Sowah explains that the small incubation programme is designed to increase the chances of survival of young companies’ by providing them with a good opportunity to grow in a supportive and nurturing environment as well as promote economic growth by fostering private sector development.
Companies benefiting from the programme have access to professional advice in areas such as marketing, business development, financing as well as best practice standards.
Although she had no formal training in ICT, she says she is learning very fast since ICT is all about customer care, communication and meeting the needs of your clients.
She describes the art of combining family life with occupying a high position like hers as “tough but possible.”
“Being pregnant and running such a facility is no easy task,” she says.
“A few days after having my daughter, my laptop was on, and I was holding meetings at home with my managers among others,” she recalls. “Now that my daughter is one year old, my life is fully mine again,” she says. She said though she could spend more time with them, she is very happy now.
On the issue of blending marriage and work, Ms. Sowah says though she is not a feminist, but believes women must be allowed the freedom to work.”
When you have a career, which was part of your life before you got married, you have to continue, she believes. “For me Marriage is like two parallel lines, so long as the two of you are going the same direction, each partner must be able to manage with every situation.”
On future prospects of Busy Internet, Ms. Sowah says the ICT sector has changed drastically over the past two years.
“With Ghana Telecom Rolling out Internet services and the Mobile phone companies also coming in, we need to be more strategic to stay in business,” she says.
It is a fine Monday morning, at the first floor of the Busy Internet Building at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Accra. A fair coloured woman with a low hair cut walks in, beaming with smiles as she enters.
She says hello to every one; workers, clients, and visitors. Wearing a popular Ghanaian white cloth from Ghana Textiles Prints (GTP); known in local Akan parlance as Akyekyedee akyi or the (back of a tortoise), sewn in a long dress form, her well-endowed African body curves draw the attention of everyone, both men and women.
Ah! Is she white or black? One first time visitor murmured to herself.
Well that is Estelle Akofio Sowah, the Managing Director of Busy Internet, the country’s biggest internet Café and business resource centre which celebrated its fifth year of existence in Ghana in November 2006.
Born some 34 years ago in Edinburgh Scotland, Estelle Sowah was six months old when she was brought to Ghana.“My father, a Ghanaian was studying in Scotland when he met my mother who is
from Scotland” she explains her Ghanaian and Scottish background.
In Ghana she was educated at the Ghana International School and pursued a Bachelors Degree in Economic sand Development in the United Kingdom. Six Months after completion Ms. Sowah returned to Ghana and landed a job with ProNet, a community based service delivery civil society organisation.
She later worked with La Palm Royal Beach Hotel before settling down with SIMNET, a South African ICT company working in Partnership with the Department of National Lotteries.
She joined Busy Internet when the company was about nine months old and the rest is the success story today. “I did not have much trouble getting the job,” she says.
“I joined Busy as the Program Manager and was offered the position of deputy and then Managing Director about 6 months after I joined,” she says.
Ms. Sowah who is married with two children, a boy and a girl is very proud of her unique features. Asked how she has been so successful heading Busy Internet, she mentions hard work, dedication, tact, diplomacy and veracity, focus and the fact that she is a woman as some of her driving forces.
“As a woman a lot of people expect you to fail and as such not much impediments are put in your way,” she says.
Being a woman to her is a talent. “You can use it to your advantage; sometimes the men get confuse with your beauty and you can get away with a lot of things,” she says with smiles.
“Open 24hours a day, 365 days a year, Busy Internet is a place where people come for different reasons,” says a recent World Bank Study. “Tourist come to check their emails; students to research an assignment; aspiring entrepreneurs to learn about their target market ; established business people to write , print and bind proposals,” says the study.
It operates a big hall with 100 high speed flat screen computers, fully serviced executive office suites, high tech training and conference facilities and a 24hour digital documentation centre.
Other facilities include Busy ISP; a customer focused Internet Service Provider with a suite of Internet solutions for small businesses and large corporate organizations. “These include our flexible pay as you go dialup, wireless radio, and Vsat solutions. With a 24 hour technical support and monitoring crew in place, our customers enjoy a hassle free service,” Ms. Sowah explains.
Established in 2001, Busy Internet is the largest privately owned and operated centre of digital entrepreneurship in Africa with a mission to provide both commercial services as well as social and economic development. It has been featured as a promising hybrid model for Africa.
The company is located in a 14,00square foot piece of land which formerly housed the defunct gas bottling factory in the heart of the city and it is owned by Busy Internet International and two Ghanaian investments companies, Fidelity Capital Partners, Data Bank and Softribe.
Through a grant from the World Bank’s Infodev Incubator Programme, Busy internet launched an important programme to select and assist start-up companies with business plans to incubate them within Busy Internet’s premises for a period of 18 months.
The first of its kind in West Africa Ms. Sowah explains that the small incubation programme is designed to increase the chances of survival of young companies’ by providing them with a good opportunity to grow in a supportive and nurturing environment as well as promote economic growth by fostering private sector development.
Companies benefiting from the programme have access to professional advice in areas such as marketing, business development, financing as well as best practice standards.
Although she had no formal training in ICT, she says she is learning very fast since ICT is all about customer care, communication and meeting the needs of your clients.
She describes the art of combining family life with occupying a high position like hers as “tough but possible.”
“Being pregnant and running such a facility is no easy task,” she says.
“A few days after having my daughter, my laptop was on, and I was holding meetings at home with my managers among others,” she recalls. “Now that my daughter is one year old, my life is fully mine again,” she says. She said though she could spend more time with them, she is very happy now.
On the issue of blending marriage and work, Ms. Sowah says though she is not a feminist, but believes women must be allowed the freedom to work.”
When you have a career, which was part of your life before you got married, you have to continue, she believes. “For me Marriage is like two parallel lines, so long as the two of you are going the same direction, each partner must be able to manage with every situation.”
On future prospects of Busy Internet, Ms. Sowah says the ICT sector has changed drastically over the past two years.
“With Ghana Telecom Rolling out Internet services and the Mobile phone companies also coming in, we need to be more strategic to stay in business,” she says.
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