OPERATORS in the telecommunications industry have asked the government not to introduce the proposed tax on phone talk time because it has the tendency to derail the national economy in the long term.
The operators dismissed assertions by the government that the imposition of the tax would increase national revenue to help offset the high unemployment rate under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).
They contended that the tax would rather inflict enormous distress on service providers, subscribers and the government.
“Increasing taxes on talk time will reduce the amount of communication related to economic activity in all sectors and, therefore, negatively impact on national development,” they said.
The operators — OneTouch, MTN, Tigo, Kasapa and Westel — made the call at a news conference in Accra yesterday following the government’s decision to impose the tax with effect from next year.
The proposed tax of Gp1 per minute talk time on mobile and fixed telephones, which was captured in the 2008 budget presented to Parliament on Thursday, November 15, 2007 by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, has generated intense public debate ever since.
According to the operators, the government did not consult them before announcing the proposed tax, adding that after a post-budget consultation with the government on the issue, they felt it appropriate to use the media platform to inform the public about the effects of the tax.
The Managing Director of Westel and Spokesperson for the operators, Ms Ursula Owusu, said the government might achieve its aim of increasing revenue with the imposition of the tax.
However, she pointed out, in the long term, revenue would dip because many mobile phone users would be discouraged from using the handset, while prospective users would also be deterred from owning mobile phones.
Ms Owusu said in view of the fact that majority of subscribers of all the networks had significant financial limitations, imposing such a tax “will disproportionately impact on the lower cost calls on all the networks”.
She said call prices in Ghana were among the lowest in Africa but the proposed tax on talk time could reverse that trend.
Ms Owusu said there was compelling evidence elsewhere to indicate that tax on talk time was not a profitable revenue option, in view of its negative impact on socio-economic development, and cited Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Tunisia as examples.
She said already there was a VAT/NHIL tax element on talk time, in addition to customs duties, regulatory fees, corporate tax and other tax commitments of operators in the industry, adding that any further tax imposed would impact negatively on the industry.
Ms Owusu said the telecommunications industry was the single largest taxpayer to the government and cautioned that “we should not kill the goose that lays the golden egg”.
She urged the government to reconsider its decision in order to ensure a “win-win-win” situation for operators, subscribers and the government itself, otherwise the result of the tax would lead to a “lose-lose-lose” situation.
Ms Owusu said much as the operators would want to push for the non-enforcement of the tax, they would not want the issue to be politicised.
Earlier, mobile phone dealers in the country had told the Daily Graphic that the frustrations and other corrupt practices at the points of entry into the country were responsible for the inability of the country to rake in the needed funds on mobile telephone handsets.
For well known importers such as Mobile Phone People and City Phones, who had been in the industry for 10 and six years, respectively, exporters could not be blamed for the loss of revenue from the handsets imported.
While lauding the government’s waiver of duties on imported handsets, they said challenges existed at import clearing points that needed its attention.
The General Manager of Mobile Phone People, Mr Percy Anaab Bukari, discounted claims in the 2008 Budget that importers and dealers in handsets evaded tax and sometimes under-invoiced.
He said inefficient processes and systems at the points of clearing imports into the country were the challenges that rather needed government’s attention.
His sentiments were similar to those expressed by the Executive Director of City Phones, Mr Philip Boyefio, who expressed frustration over some of the processes at the airport when clearing mobile telephones.
He said when the value of imported handsets exceeded about $2,000, an agency, BIVAC, had to value the handsets and the process to get that done was tedious, cumbersome and time-wasting.
Mr Boyefio said security and customs officials at the country's entry points most of the time helped themselves generously to imported goods, saying importers could not complain for fear that the clearing of their goods would be deliberately delayed.
He added that with the fast pace of technological development that saw new mobile phones being developed by the second, importers could not afford to let their goods delay at the entry points. They, therefore, kept quiet in the face of such abuse by those who had to collect taxes on behalf of the government.
Both importers said stolen and sub-standard handsets were likely to flood the market, while weak systems and processes at the country’s entry and tax collection points would persist.
Mr Bukari said the nature of the mobile telephone importation sector enabled the importation of handsets from all over the world, including Finland, where Nokia is produced, and Dubai.
Mr Mohammed Adam, who sells phones in a glass case in Accra, said he was not sure that the waiver of tax on imported mobile handsets would have any significant impact on the price of the handsets.
According to him, dealers like himself who sold in glass cases in the city had to pay between GH¢50 and GH¢60 yearly to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
He said with such taxes and the dealers’ need for a fair amount of profit, no significant decreases might be experienced by consumers in the prices of the handsets.
Mr Johnson Akey and other mobile phone dealers all agreed that the new policy would not benefit them, since it would enable anyone at all to import mobile phones onto the market. They said in the long run, they would be driven out of business.
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 5, 2007 WRITTEN BY KOFI YEBOAH AND CAROLINE BOATENG
Friday, December 14, 2007
'ROPAL IMPLEMENTATION DEPENDENT ON RESOURCES'
THE Representation of the People’s Amendment Law (ROPAL), which extends the right to vote in national elections to Ghanaian citizens abroad, will be enforced as soon as resources are made available for it.
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, told the Daily Graphic on Tuesday that if all the required resources were made available, they would be used immediately to start enforcement.
“If I finished tomorrow, I would use it the next day,” he said in response to whether the law would be used if all requirements for its implementation were met in six months’ time.
Dr Afari-Gyan said he was not perturbed by reports in the December 11, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic that the opposition had threatened to “resist with reasonable force any attempts to effect the implementation of the law in 2008”, stressing that he could not stop their right to resist.
He added, however, that ROPAL had been passed and it was now up to the EC to implement it.
“Until Parliament reverses itself in the passage of the law, we are implementors and will proceed towards implementation,” he said.
“But it takes money. As long as money is available, we will prepare,” he added.
Dr Afari-Gyan, however, gave the assurance that the EC would work assiduously to ensure that ROPAL was implemented with the consensus of all constituents in the country.
Already, officials of the EC have visited some countries abroad where the system is being practised and reports are being prepared on that.
According to the chairman, the ideas gathered by the officials from the working tour of the countries practising the law were going to be thoroughly studied and discussed throughout the consultations.
On the 2008 Budget allocation to the EC, Dr Afari-Gyan conceded that the EC had been given less than it asked for its operations but added that Parliament was handling the matter and so he would not comment further.
The December 3, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic reported that the EC needed an additional ¢70 billion to top up its budgetary allocation from the 2008 Budget.
The report also said the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jirapa, Mr Edward Salia, had asked the commission not to limit the revision of the voters’ register to only electoral areas but extend it to polling stations.
To those concerns, Dr Afari-Gyan said the revision exercise was not a “wholesale registration process” but just an updating of the register.
Moreover, there were important monetary considerations that led to the proposal to review the register at the electoral level.
He said with about 22,000 polling stations across the country, the EC would need a lot of money to hire people for the exercise and stressed that the huge funding and material obligation of the EC became less if the revision was limited to the electoral areas, which are about five thousand.
Dr Afari-Gyan said the timetable for the revision of the voters’ register and other activities of the commission would be announced in due course.
He pointed out that ROPAL imposed on the EC some pre-requisites, including that which required it to engage people outside to collect data and open offices.
Apart from that, he explained that all the consultative processes being engaged in presently before the implementation of the law were in preparation also for a legislative instrument that would be placed before Parliament.
“You cannot embark on such an exercise without the legal backing and laid down rules,” Dr Afari-Gyan pointed out.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY DECEMBER 13, 2007, PAGE 14
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, told the Daily Graphic on Tuesday that if all the required resources were made available, they would be used immediately to start enforcement.
“If I finished tomorrow, I would use it the next day,” he said in response to whether the law would be used if all requirements for its implementation were met in six months’ time.
Dr Afari-Gyan said he was not perturbed by reports in the December 11, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic that the opposition had threatened to “resist with reasonable force any attempts to effect the implementation of the law in 2008”, stressing that he could not stop their right to resist.
He added, however, that ROPAL had been passed and it was now up to the EC to implement it.
“Until Parliament reverses itself in the passage of the law, we are implementors and will proceed towards implementation,” he said.
“But it takes money. As long as money is available, we will prepare,” he added.
Dr Afari-Gyan, however, gave the assurance that the EC would work assiduously to ensure that ROPAL was implemented with the consensus of all constituents in the country.
Already, officials of the EC have visited some countries abroad where the system is being practised and reports are being prepared on that.
According to the chairman, the ideas gathered by the officials from the working tour of the countries practising the law were going to be thoroughly studied and discussed throughout the consultations.
On the 2008 Budget allocation to the EC, Dr Afari-Gyan conceded that the EC had been given less than it asked for its operations but added that Parliament was handling the matter and so he would not comment further.
The December 3, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic reported that the EC needed an additional ¢70 billion to top up its budgetary allocation from the 2008 Budget.
The report also said the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jirapa, Mr Edward Salia, had asked the commission not to limit the revision of the voters’ register to only electoral areas but extend it to polling stations.
To those concerns, Dr Afari-Gyan said the revision exercise was not a “wholesale registration process” but just an updating of the register.
Moreover, there were important monetary considerations that led to the proposal to review the register at the electoral level.
He said with about 22,000 polling stations across the country, the EC would need a lot of money to hire people for the exercise and stressed that the huge funding and material obligation of the EC became less if the revision was limited to the electoral areas, which are about five thousand.
Dr Afari-Gyan said the timetable for the revision of the voters’ register and other activities of the commission would be announced in due course.
He pointed out that ROPAL imposed on the EC some pre-requisites, including that which required it to engage people outside to collect data and open offices.
Apart from that, he explained that all the consultative processes being engaged in presently before the implementation of the law were in preparation also for a legislative instrument that would be placed before Parliament.
“You cannot embark on such an exercise without the legal backing and laid down rules,” Dr Afari-Gyan pointed out.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY DECEMBER 13, 2007, PAGE 14
CHOOSE LEADERS WHO WILL PROMOTE THE RULE OF LAW-ANNA
AS the country approaches an election year, Ghanaians have been cautioned to be wise and choose political leaders who will promote the rule of law and good governance.
The acting Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Anna Bossman, gave the caution during the presentation of the State of Human Rights Report of the country in Accra yesterday.
December 10 marks the United Nations Human Rights Day.
In Ghana, a week-long programme of activities, which included the launch of the Braille version of the CHRAJ Act and a Human Rights Manual for the Ghana Education Service (GES), ended yesterday with the presentation of the report.
On the theme, “Human Rights and Social Justice in Ghana @ 50: Have we come of Age?” the week-long programme was also used to review the country’s human rights performance.
Ms Bossman said Ghanaians had to be particularly wise, especially at a time when “we are daily bombarded by politicians on all sides promising the electorate the moon, the stars and a bit of cheese. It is important for us to weigh what the aspirants say and, more important, wise up to what they don’t say”.
To aspiring candidates, political parties and the electorate, Ms Bossman pointed out that meaningful achievement in development and poverty reduction was only possible if significant numbers of vulnerable persons in society met their basic social and economic needs.
She said the government’s commitment to development and poverty alleviation should not only be “measured merely on the basis of macro-economic indicators, physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, industries, etc but on the basis of the full realisation of the fundamental human rights of all in society”.
She added that such a society would be one in which a significant proportion of the vulnerable population enjoyed their right to food, basic primary health care, shelter and housing and the most basic forms of education.
While commending the country for the gains in the promotion of human rights, the observance of civil liberties and the decline of poverty from 52 per cent in 1992 to 28 per cent in 2006, Ms Bossman said there was still abject poverty, corruption, lack of access to justice, among other things.
“We have been found wanting in human rights and social justice in every sector,” she added.
Giving highlights of that, she said the commission’s monitoring of some agencies had revealed that with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), some poor communities could not afford the premium, while the scheme did not cater for some special needs of the disabled.
She said the scheme did not cover psychiatric patients at the Pantang Psychiatric Hospital. However, the treatment of patients at the Psychiatric Unit of the Volta Regional Hospital was free but where patients reported of other ailments, they had to be treated with drugs under the NHIS.
On education, Ms Bossman said the monitoring of some schools showed the lack of teaching and learning materials, poor lighting and ventilation of classrooms and inaccessible physical infrastructure by the disabled in some schools.
Monitoring at the Gambaga Witch Camp showed that 80 residents had been registered with the NHIS but on expiration of the premium it had not been renewed.
Moreover, there were claims of the payment of exorbitant “entrance fee” and “departure tax” imposed on alleged witches.
She said that called for further investigation and action.
Ms Bossman said no government could be truly democratic or claim to be promoting good governance if it failed to recognise the link between human rights and sustainable development, poverty eradication and corruption.
Reiterating the position of CHRAJ, she said, “The commission maintains that poverty eradication and economic growth are not just about per capita income, GDP rates, inflation, public consumption, the pursuance of macro-economic policies or accelerated private sector-led growth. Poverty reduction from a rights perspective entails working towards the full realisation of the fundamental human rights of all in society.”
Ms Bossman later launched the year-long campaign of the UN on the theme, “Dignity and justice for all of us”.
Mr Abraham Nunoo, who represented the UN Resident Co-ordinator, Mr Daouda Toure, and read the message of the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, said the year-long campaign was to promote the ideals of the Declaration of Human Rights.
He said the extraordinary vision and determination of the drafters of the Human Rights Declaration had produced a document that was widely translated and resorted to by most countries as the basis of their constitutions.
DAILY GRAPHIC, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2007
The acting Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Anna Bossman, gave the caution during the presentation of the State of Human Rights Report of the country in Accra yesterday.
December 10 marks the United Nations Human Rights Day.
In Ghana, a week-long programme of activities, which included the launch of the Braille version of the CHRAJ Act and a Human Rights Manual for the Ghana Education Service (GES), ended yesterday with the presentation of the report.
On the theme, “Human Rights and Social Justice in Ghana @ 50: Have we come of Age?” the week-long programme was also used to review the country’s human rights performance.
Ms Bossman said Ghanaians had to be particularly wise, especially at a time when “we are daily bombarded by politicians on all sides promising the electorate the moon, the stars and a bit of cheese. It is important for us to weigh what the aspirants say and, more important, wise up to what they don’t say”.
To aspiring candidates, political parties and the electorate, Ms Bossman pointed out that meaningful achievement in development and poverty reduction was only possible if significant numbers of vulnerable persons in society met their basic social and economic needs.
She said the government’s commitment to development and poverty alleviation should not only be “measured merely on the basis of macro-economic indicators, physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, industries, etc but on the basis of the full realisation of the fundamental human rights of all in society”.
She added that such a society would be one in which a significant proportion of the vulnerable population enjoyed their right to food, basic primary health care, shelter and housing and the most basic forms of education.
While commending the country for the gains in the promotion of human rights, the observance of civil liberties and the decline of poverty from 52 per cent in 1992 to 28 per cent in 2006, Ms Bossman said there was still abject poverty, corruption, lack of access to justice, among other things.
“We have been found wanting in human rights and social justice in every sector,” she added.
Giving highlights of that, she said the commission’s monitoring of some agencies had revealed that with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), some poor communities could not afford the premium, while the scheme did not cater for some special needs of the disabled.
She said the scheme did not cover psychiatric patients at the Pantang Psychiatric Hospital. However, the treatment of patients at the Psychiatric Unit of the Volta Regional Hospital was free but where patients reported of other ailments, they had to be treated with drugs under the NHIS.
On education, Ms Bossman said the monitoring of some schools showed the lack of teaching and learning materials, poor lighting and ventilation of classrooms and inaccessible physical infrastructure by the disabled in some schools.
Monitoring at the Gambaga Witch Camp showed that 80 residents had been registered with the NHIS but on expiration of the premium it had not been renewed.
Moreover, there were claims of the payment of exorbitant “entrance fee” and “departure tax” imposed on alleged witches.
She said that called for further investigation and action.
Ms Bossman said no government could be truly democratic or claim to be promoting good governance if it failed to recognise the link between human rights and sustainable development, poverty eradication and corruption.
Reiterating the position of CHRAJ, she said, “The commission maintains that poverty eradication and economic growth are not just about per capita income, GDP rates, inflation, public consumption, the pursuance of macro-economic policies or accelerated private sector-led growth. Poverty reduction from a rights perspective entails working towards the full realisation of the fundamental human rights of all in society.”
Ms Bossman later launched the year-long campaign of the UN on the theme, “Dignity and justice for all of us”.
Mr Abraham Nunoo, who represented the UN Resident Co-ordinator, Mr Daouda Toure, and read the message of the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, said the year-long campaign was to promote the ideals of the Declaration of Human Rights.
He said the extraordinary vision and determination of the drafters of the Human Rights Declaration had produced a document that was widely translated and resorted to by most countries as the basis of their constitutions.
DAILY GRAPHIC, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2007
MARKETS IN ACCRA NEED A FACELIFT
CONGESTION, filth, poor infrastructural development and planning are the characteristics of most markets in Accra and its suburbs.
In many respects the disorderliness of our markets mirrors the haphazard manner in which most infrastructural development and settlements are taking place in the country.
Markets are important places for socialising and commercial activities in Ghana, where all Ghanaians have a stake.
Traders spend all day there, while buyers also spend a great proportion of their time there, bargaining, purchasing, meeting and interacting with others.
The Madina market in the Ga East District and the Agbogboshie markets, in the Accra Metropolitan Area (AMA) are typical Ghanaian markets, where disorderliness, filth and general discomfort are exhibited.
Mr Frank Takie, the Director of The Consortium, experts in human settlement development, thinks the country has got it all wrong in the planning, siting and development of its markets.
District assemblies have the capacity at the local level to put in place an enabling environment for the easy acquisition of land for the development of markets.
Moreover, they are enjoined by the Local Government Act, 1993, (Act 462), to invest in markets, he says, and not shops as is the case currently.
Thus, by investing in markets, assemblies must concern themselves with providing convenient spaces with basic infrastructure such as sanitation facilities and modern butcheries.
District assemblies involve themselves in the building of shops, a venture that Mr Takie thinks must be left to private investors.
They disregard their core function of investing in functional markets.
Ideally markets must be designed and planned for, with space, adequate drains, collection points and parking lots and also planned to serve their purpose of facilitating commerce in a comfortable environment, he says.
“The way our markets operate are not right, their locations are wrong, space is inadequate and the engineering and planning of it is haphazard,” he said.
Apart from the physical development of the market, all markets in the country must be so located as to permit linkages and easy access by residents in the various environs, he said.
Supplies from the hinterland must be intercepted in markets built at the outskirts of cities for distribution to satellite markets within cities and at strategic areas for ease of access.
Markets built at the outskirts of the cities must be done with rest facilities for traders and farmers who bring their wares in bulk to the cities and sometimes have to stay for longer periods till they dispose of their goods.
From these markets at the outskirts, middlemen can buy directly from farmers and other traders and take them to sub-urban markets where others can then retail to small neighbourhood markets.
This concept is called the bulk breaking and allows for a decongestion of cities.
Close up, the Madina and Agbogbloshie markets have similar problems of poor infastructural facilities, inadequate space, poor sanitation and security.
All those who patronise these markets are conversant with challenges of parking, sanitation and congestion.
The car park at the Madina Market is now a trading area, metal containers, umbrellas and some wooden structures have been erected by traders to display wares.
Customers to the market have to park at the side of the main road in front of the market.
The chairman of the Madina Urban Council, Mr Yeboah Dadzie, said the lack of a central parking area for commercial drivers and the increasing number in people doing commerce had resulted in that.
However, the district assembly has completed a new market in Madina, behind the Presbyterian Boys Secondary School, and hawkers and street vendors with those selling at the car park are to be relocated there.
A commercial car park is also being built to relocate commercial vehicles and decongest the area, Mr Dadzie added.
Of all the markets in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the Accra Markets Limited, that manages the Kaneshie Market stands out as a model.
Established in 1975, the Kaneshie Market is a partnership venture of the AMA, the National Investment Bank (NIB) and the State Insurance Company (SIC).
It is managed by the Accra Markets Limited, with good infrastructure by Ghanaian standards.
The Kaneshie Market, unlike most markets is housed in a three storey building with washrooms on every floor.
It serves Kanaeshie, Adabraka, Mallam, Odorkor and its environs. However, it also has challenges.
According to the Deputy Managing Director of the Accra Markets Limited, Mr Edmund Kofi Duffour Addae, sanitation is the greatest challenge, because with no dump site in the area, all communities surrounding the market see the market as a dump site.
“Sixty to 70 per cent of the refuse we have here comes from outside,” he said.
To overcome the challenge, the administrators have contracted an additional waste collecting agency to help lift rubbish and make the environs of the market better.
Another challenge, according to Mr Addae, is the spill-over effect of the AMA decongestion exercise in the central business district, which has resulted in a number of displaced hawkers settling at the Kaneshie Market.
Mr Addae said they were trying to contain them in the market and not make them spill over onto the streets.
For now, the administrators of the market are embarking on advertising within the market, using speakers to sensitise people to the availability of goods and services within the Kaneshie Market, as the traders, who number about 10,000 complain of low patronage at the market.
The market has also seen a facelift recently with the rehabilitation of an area in front of the market for use as a customers’ car park.
Mr Addae said the second phase of the rehabilitation of the market would be the renovation of the area in front of the market used by commercial vehicles.
He said that would begin by the first quarter of next year.
Accra Markets Limited, in the medium to long term,there are were plans to set up a 12 tower boarding parking area.
Markets, experts say, are important and need careful thought and planning to make them functional.
The idea of satellite functional markets are of paramount importance now more than ever , in the light of population growth, congestion in cities and increasing numbers of hawker0s.
District assemblies must stick to their functions of providing the policy initiatives for functional markets and partner with entrepreneurs for the running of markets.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2007, PAGE 29
In many respects the disorderliness of our markets mirrors the haphazard manner in which most infrastructural development and settlements are taking place in the country.
Markets are important places for socialising and commercial activities in Ghana, where all Ghanaians have a stake.
Traders spend all day there, while buyers also spend a great proportion of their time there, bargaining, purchasing, meeting and interacting with others.
The Madina market in the Ga East District and the Agbogboshie markets, in the Accra Metropolitan Area (AMA) are typical Ghanaian markets, where disorderliness, filth and general discomfort are exhibited.
Mr Frank Takie, the Director of The Consortium, experts in human settlement development, thinks the country has got it all wrong in the planning, siting and development of its markets.
District assemblies have the capacity at the local level to put in place an enabling environment for the easy acquisition of land for the development of markets.
Moreover, they are enjoined by the Local Government Act, 1993, (Act 462), to invest in markets, he says, and not shops as is the case currently.
Thus, by investing in markets, assemblies must concern themselves with providing convenient spaces with basic infrastructure such as sanitation facilities and modern butcheries.
District assemblies involve themselves in the building of shops, a venture that Mr Takie thinks must be left to private investors.
They disregard their core function of investing in functional markets.
Ideally markets must be designed and planned for, with space, adequate drains, collection points and parking lots and also planned to serve their purpose of facilitating commerce in a comfortable environment, he says.
“The way our markets operate are not right, their locations are wrong, space is inadequate and the engineering and planning of it is haphazard,” he said.
Apart from the physical development of the market, all markets in the country must be so located as to permit linkages and easy access by residents in the various environs, he said.
Supplies from the hinterland must be intercepted in markets built at the outskirts of cities for distribution to satellite markets within cities and at strategic areas for ease of access.
Markets built at the outskirts of the cities must be done with rest facilities for traders and farmers who bring their wares in bulk to the cities and sometimes have to stay for longer periods till they dispose of their goods.
From these markets at the outskirts, middlemen can buy directly from farmers and other traders and take them to sub-urban markets where others can then retail to small neighbourhood markets.
This concept is called the bulk breaking and allows for a decongestion of cities.
Close up, the Madina and Agbogbloshie markets have similar problems of poor infastructural facilities, inadequate space, poor sanitation and security.
All those who patronise these markets are conversant with challenges of parking, sanitation and congestion.
The car park at the Madina Market is now a trading area, metal containers, umbrellas and some wooden structures have been erected by traders to display wares.
Customers to the market have to park at the side of the main road in front of the market.
The chairman of the Madina Urban Council, Mr Yeboah Dadzie, said the lack of a central parking area for commercial drivers and the increasing number in people doing commerce had resulted in that.
However, the district assembly has completed a new market in Madina, behind the Presbyterian Boys Secondary School, and hawkers and street vendors with those selling at the car park are to be relocated there.
A commercial car park is also being built to relocate commercial vehicles and decongest the area, Mr Dadzie added.
Of all the markets in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the Accra Markets Limited, that manages the Kaneshie Market stands out as a model.
Established in 1975, the Kaneshie Market is a partnership venture of the AMA, the National Investment Bank (NIB) and the State Insurance Company (SIC).
It is managed by the Accra Markets Limited, with good infrastructure by Ghanaian standards.
The Kaneshie Market, unlike most markets is housed in a three storey building with washrooms on every floor.
It serves Kanaeshie, Adabraka, Mallam, Odorkor and its environs. However, it also has challenges.
According to the Deputy Managing Director of the Accra Markets Limited, Mr Edmund Kofi Duffour Addae, sanitation is the greatest challenge, because with no dump site in the area, all communities surrounding the market see the market as a dump site.
“Sixty to 70 per cent of the refuse we have here comes from outside,” he said.
To overcome the challenge, the administrators have contracted an additional waste collecting agency to help lift rubbish and make the environs of the market better.
Another challenge, according to Mr Addae, is the spill-over effect of the AMA decongestion exercise in the central business district, which has resulted in a number of displaced hawkers settling at the Kaneshie Market.
Mr Addae said they were trying to contain them in the market and not make them spill over onto the streets.
For now, the administrators of the market are embarking on advertising within the market, using speakers to sensitise people to the availability of goods and services within the Kaneshie Market, as the traders, who number about 10,000 complain of low patronage at the market.
The market has also seen a facelift recently with the rehabilitation of an area in front of the market for use as a customers’ car park.
Mr Addae said the second phase of the rehabilitation of the market would be the renovation of the area in front of the market used by commercial vehicles.
He said that would begin by the first quarter of next year.
Accra Markets Limited, in the medium to long term,there are were plans to set up a 12 tower boarding parking area.
Markets, experts say, are important and need careful thought and planning to make them functional.
The idea of satellite functional markets are of paramount importance now more than ever , in the light of population growth, congestion in cities and increasing numbers of hawker0s.
District assemblies must stick to their functions of providing the policy initiatives for functional markets and partner with entrepreneurs for the running of markets.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2007, PAGE 29
SET UP C'SSION ON CRIME AND JUSTICE-ATTAFUAH
Prof. Kenneth Attafuah, a private legal practitioner and the Executive Director of the Justice and Human Rights Institute in Accra, has said the establishment of a Presidential Commission on Crime and Justice in the country is long overdue.
He said the establishment of the commission would help tackle the incidence of crime and mob action.
Speaking at the third annual Human Rights lectures in Accra, he listed some of the functions of the commission as investigations and reports on the trend, causes and ramifications of violent crime in the country.
The lectures were organised by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) on the theme: “50 Years of the Rule of Law in Ghana: Assessing Human Rights Protection”.
In his presentation on “Instant Justice, the Criminal Justice System and Human Rights in Ghana” Prof. Attafuah pointed out that the incidence of instant justice showed a general lack of public confidence in the country’s capacity to be “decent in punishing wrongdoing decisively” and in accordance with the rule of law.”
He said instant justice depicted the Ghanaian society to the rest of the world as “both primitive and barbaric” while announcing that our criminal justice system, that included the police, the courts and the prison service, were “fragile, incompetent and putrid”.
Analysing what instant justice is, he said the term was a misnomer as what happened when it occurred was the “imposition of instant injustice”.
Prof. Attafuah stressed that the phenomenon of mob justice, and sometimes police complicity in such acts, as well as the tagging of suspects as criminals, was contrary to the Ghanaian social ordering and criminal justice system that had as its basis in the presumption of innocence unless a suspect was proved guilty.
He warned that instant justice impinged on national security and engendered lives of the citizenry as its administration was not founded on facts proven through the regular judicial process.
“Virtually anyone can easily be ‘mistaken’ for a criminal and summarily punished,” he pointed out.
A lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana, Dr Raymond Atuguba, in his presentation on “Stamping out Rights: The impact of Police Brutality on Democracy and Good Governance”, emphasised the fact that police brutality covered a wide range of acts that could be relative.
He said the term “police brutality” focused on the police as perpetrators, leaving out the victims who suffered forceful and brutish acts that were sometimes fatal.
Dr Atuguba said police brutality was a reality and could not only be physical but verbal.
He said brute force sometimes meted out on the public or suspects could sometimes take the form of acts or inaction that impinged negatively on people.
Citing instances, he recounted how a five-month-old baby became ill after being forced to spend the night in a Kumasi jail with her parents and an aunt.
Dr Atuguba said the inculcation of human rights or human dignity in all Ghanaians was the first step in ending the use of brute force by the police on people and suspects.
He decried instances of gross human rights abuses in countries such as Rwanda and Burundi, saying that such abuses had been possible because human dignity, that distinguishes humans from beast, was stripped of individuals and groups by perpetrators before they committed heinous abuses.
From various perspectives, Dr Atuguba explained the causes and nature of police brutality, attributing it among other things to the outdated standing orders of the Police Service, and the penchant of the media, human rights activists and civil society organisations to blow an instance of the phenomenon out of proportion and keep quiet over the several others that happened and did not get public attention.
On what could be done, he proposed the constant scrutiny of the police by all, as the police were vested with the “state’s monopoly of power”.
He said that was necessary because all humans erred and the police were human but vested with the state’s power.
Intense and perpetual scrutiny, according to Dr Atuguba, would ensure they wielded the power vested in them responsibly.
The Regional Co-ordinator of the CHRI, Nana Oye Lithur, who spoke on accessibility of justice in Ghana, listed the lack of the knowledge of rights, costs, the physical accessibility to courts, and language barriers as some of the factors that limited access to the country’s justice system.
For instance, she said most Ghanaians did not thoroughly know their rights, while the right of appeal was only limited to two appeal courts that were situated in Accra.
She said people who wanted appeal then had to travel, sometimes long distances, to access this right, adding that a dearth of magistrates and lawyers in regional and district areas affected the right of access to justice in the country.
She asked for the decentralisation of the alternate dispute resolution programme, an improvement of court infrastructure and the introduction of compulsory community legal service by the GBA and the General Legal Council.
The Commissioner of CHRAJ, Ms Anna Bossman, whose speech was read on her behalf by Mr Samuel Bosompem, expressed appreciation that the country was making progress in building democracy while the public will for constitutional systems was strong.
She, however, stressed the need for more action considering the country’s chequered political progress.
She said although for the past 50 years there had been a sustained effort on the educational front, a lot more Ghanaians were wallowing in illiteracy.
Ms Bossman said education, however, was a major tool for accessing rights and consolidating democratic systems.
The Chairman of the International Advisory Committee of CHRI, Mr Sam Okudzeto, said no right could be handed to any Ghanaian on a silver platter.
“Each of us has to struggle for it,” he said.
Mr Okudzeto explained that although rights were guarded under the constitution, for it to be experienced and enjoyed needed work on the part of all.
The Vice-President of the GBA, Mr Benson Nutsupki, who chaired the function, said the GBA encourage lawyers to do at least three free services in a year as part of their social contribution to the consolidation of the rule of law in the country.
He said an area of concern for the GBA was also the state of the country’s cells and prisons and asked for advocacy and attention on that.
A student of the University of Ghana, Richard Salu, recounted how he had been arrested, brutalised and kept in cells at the Achimota Police Station for contradicting a police man in a trotro who told the passengers not to complain about increases in fares and fuel prices.
Master Salu said he was of the view that it was the right of the passengers to speak out and had told them that, hence his arrest and the subsequent assault on him by the policemen at the Achimota Police Station.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY DECEMBER 8, 2007, PAGE 16
He said the establishment of the commission would help tackle the incidence of crime and mob action.
Speaking at the third annual Human Rights lectures in Accra, he listed some of the functions of the commission as investigations and reports on the trend, causes and ramifications of violent crime in the country.
The lectures were organised by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) on the theme: “50 Years of the Rule of Law in Ghana: Assessing Human Rights Protection”.
In his presentation on “Instant Justice, the Criminal Justice System and Human Rights in Ghana” Prof. Attafuah pointed out that the incidence of instant justice showed a general lack of public confidence in the country’s capacity to be “decent in punishing wrongdoing decisively” and in accordance with the rule of law.”
He said instant justice depicted the Ghanaian society to the rest of the world as “both primitive and barbaric” while announcing that our criminal justice system, that included the police, the courts and the prison service, were “fragile, incompetent and putrid”.
Analysing what instant justice is, he said the term was a misnomer as what happened when it occurred was the “imposition of instant injustice”.
Prof. Attafuah stressed that the phenomenon of mob justice, and sometimes police complicity in such acts, as well as the tagging of suspects as criminals, was contrary to the Ghanaian social ordering and criminal justice system that had as its basis in the presumption of innocence unless a suspect was proved guilty.
He warned that instant justice impinged on national security and engendered lives of the citizenry as its administration was not founded on facts proven through the regular judicial process.
“Virtually anyone can easily be ‘mistaken’ for a criminal and summarily punished,” he pointed out.
A lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana, Dr Raymond Atuguba, in his presentation on “Stamping out Rights: The impact of Police Brutality on Democracy and Good Governance”, emphasised the fact that police brutality covered a wide range of acts that could be relative.
He said the term “police brutality” focused on the police as perpetrators, leaving out the victims who suffered forceful and brutish acts that were sometimes fatal.
Dr Atuguba said police brutality was a reality and could not only be physical but verbal.
He said brute force sometimes meted out on the public or suspects could sometimes take the form of acts or inaction that impinged negatively on people.
Citing instances, he recounted how a five-month-old baby became ill after being forced to spend the night in a Kumasi jail with her parents and an aunt.
Dr Atuguba said the inculcation of human rights or human dignity in all Ghanaians was the first step in ending the use of brute force by the police on people and suspects.
He decried instances of gross human rights abuses in countries such as Rwanda and Burundi, saying that such abuses had been possible because human dignity, that distinguishes humans from beast, was stripped of individuals and groups by perpetrators before they committed heinous abuses.
From various perspectives, Dr Atuguba explained the causes and nature of police brutality, attributing it among other things to the outdated standing orders of the Police Service, and the penchant of the media, human rights activists and civil society organisations to blow an instance of the phenomenon out of proportion and keep quiet over the several others that happened and did not get public attention.
On what could be done, he proposed the constant scrutiny of the police by all, as the police were vested with the “state’s monopoly of power”.
He said that was necessary because all humans erred and the police were human but vested with the state’s power.
Intense and perpetual scrutiny, according to Dr Atuguba, would ensure they wielded the power vested in them responsibly.
The Regional Co-ordinator of the CHRI, Nana Oye Lithur, who spoke on accessibility of justice in Ghana, listed the lack of the knowledge of rights, costs, the physical accessibility to courts, and language barriers as some of the factors that limited access to the country’s justice system.
For instance, she said most Ghanaians did not thoroughly know their rights, while the right of appeal was only limited to two appeal courts that were situated in Accra.
She said people who wanted appeal then had to travel, sometimes long distances, to access this right, adding that a dearth of magistrates and lawyers in regional and district areas affected the right of access to justice in the country.
She asked for the decentralisation of the alternate dispute resolution programme, an improvement of court infrastructure and the introduction of compulsory community legal service by the GBA and the General Legal Council.
The Commissioner of CHRAJ, Ms Anna Bossman, whose speech was read on her behalf by Mr Samuel Bosompem, expressed appreciation that the country was making progress in building democracy while the public will for constitutional systems was strong.
She, however, stressed the need for more action considering the country’s chequered political progress.
She said although for the past 50 years there had been a sustained effort on the educational front, a lot more Ghanaians were wallowing in illiteracy.
Ms Bossman said education, however, was a major tool for accessing rights and consolidating democratic systems.
The Chairman of the International Advisory Committee of CHRI, Mr Sam Okudzeto, said no right could be handed to any Ghanaian on a silver platter.
“Each of us has to struggle for it,” he said.
Mr Okudzeto explained that although rights were guarded under the constitution, for it to be experienced and enjoyed needed work on the part of all.
The Vice-President of the GBA, Mr Benson Nutsupki, who chaired the function, said the GBA encourage lawyers to do at least three free services in a year as part of their social contribution to the consolidation of the rule of law in the country.
He said an area of concern for the GBA was also the state of the country’s cells and prisons and asked for advocacy and attention on that.
A student of the University of Ghana, Richard Salu, recounted how he had been arrested, brutalised and kept in cells at the Achimota Police Station for contradicting a police man in a trotro who told the passengers not to complain about increases in fares and fuel prices.
Master Salu said he was of the view that it was the right of the passengers to speak out and had told them that, hence his arrest and the subsequent assault on him by the policemen at the Achimota Police Station.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY DECEMBER 8, 2007, PAGE 16
BRIALLE VERSION OF CHRAJ ACT LAUNCHED
Sixty-two years after its establishment, the Akropong School for the Blind had its first Braille Legislation that spells out their basic human rights, last Tuesday.
The Braille version of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Act 456, was launched and a thousand copies donated to the school at a ceremony that was also used to launch the Human Rights Week.
The launch of the Braille version, according to the Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, Mr Richard Quayson, was to “make it easier for the visually impaired to read and understand the provisions of the Act and to help equalise accessibility to human rights protection for a better tomorrow today”.
He said the launch of the human rights week and the Braille version of the CHRAJ Act had added some significance to the country’s celebration of 50 years of independence and championing African excellence.
Apart from that, the day coincided with the International Day of the Disabled.
Mr Quayson said the theme for the human rights week, “Human Rights and Social Justice in Ghana at 50: Have we come of Age?” was to take stock and ask if 50 years on, the country had gained maturity in human rights practice.
He pointed out that human rights had been affirmed by the human race as the most potent instrument for developing nations, ensuring the dignity and worth of the human person and promoting social progress, among other things.
Quoting the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, he said no development could be possible without security, no security could be enjoyed without development and neither could be enjoyed without the respect of human rights.
Mr Quayson expressed his appreciation to DANIDA for supporting CHRAJ in its work. A representative of DANIDA, Mr Lauge Bechshoeft, was present to join in the activities.
The Headmaster of the school, Mr John Stanley Annor, said attaining “quality of life” enshrined under Article 29 of the 1992 Constitution for persons living with disabilities required empowerment.
“But before they can be empowered they need the right to information. To get the right to information, one has to be literate enough. But to be literate, the visually impaired need to have Braille literacy,” he pointed out.
He, therefore, made an appeal that a Braille version of the new syllabi under the educational reform, textbooks and the 1992 Constitution be produced.
Mr Annor said the school also needed a Braille embosser, for copying Braille material for students, a photocopier with large print for students with low vision, Braille sheets and computers with speech software, among other things.
He also appealed to the Ministry of Health through the Minister of Education to restore the system where school nurses were attached to special schools to cater for the needs of people with disabilities.
He explained that since teaching went on concurrently with medical care, there was the urgent need for school nurses to handle the health conditions of the students.
Mr Annor also asked for decent accommodation to be built for teachers at the school as some lived as far as Accra and commuted to the school each day.
He said that would also enable them to provide a 24-hour special care and service to the visually impaired, who were easily prone to injuries.
The Minister of Education, Science and Sports (MOESS), Prof. Dominic Fobih, whose speech was read on his behalf by the Chief Director of the ministry, Mr Kwamina Acquah, called for concerted efforts from all Ghanaians to ensure the enjoyment of rights by all.
The District Chief Executive, Mr Adu Aboagye, who also represented the regional minister, said the District Assembly was collaborating with the school to produce a Braille version of the Disability Act.
CHRAJ also donated a mower to the school.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY DECEMBER 6, 2007, PAGE 47
The Braille version of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Act 456, was launched and a thousand copies donated to the school at a ceremony that was also used to launch the Human Rights Week.
The launch of the Braille version, according to the Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, Mr Richard Quayson, was to “make it easier for the visually impaired to read and understand the provisions of the Act and to help equalise accessibility to human rights protection for a better tomorrow today”.
He said the launch of the human rights week and the Braille version of the CHRAJ Act had added some significance to the country’s celebration of 50 years of independence and championing African excellence.
Apart from that, the day coincided with the International Day of the Disabled.
Mr Quayson said the theme for the human rights week, “Human Rights and Social Justice in Ghana at 50: Have we come of Age?” was to take stock and ask if 50 years on, the country had gained maturity in human rights practice.
He pointed out that human rights had been affirmed by the human race as the most potent instrument for developing nations, ensuring the dignity and worth of the human person and promoting social progress, among other things.
Quoting the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, he said no development could be possible without security, no security could be enjoyed without development and neither could be enjoyed without the respect of human rights.
Mr Quayson expressed his appreciation to DANIDA for supporting CHRAJ in its work. A representative of DANIDA, Mr Lauge Bechshoeft, was present to join in the activities.
The Headmaster of the school, Mr John Stanley Annor, said attaining “quality of life” enshrined under Article 29 of the 1992 Constitution for persons living with disabilities required empowerment.
“But before they can be empowered they need the right to information. To get the right to information, one has to be literate enough. But to be literate, the visually impaired need to have Braille literacy,” he pointed out.
He, therefore, made an appeal that a Braille version of the new syllabi under the educational reform, textbooks and the 1992 Constitution be produced.
Mr Annor said the school also needed a Braille embosser, for copying Braille material for students, a photocopier with large print for students with low vision, Braille sheets and computers with speech software, among other things.
He also appealed to the Ministry of Health through the Minister of Education to restore the system where school nurses were attached to special schools to cater for the needs of people with disabilities.
He explained that since teaching went on concurrently with medical care, there was the urgent need for school nurses to handle the health conditions of the students.
Mr Annor also asked for decent accommodation to be built for teachers at the school as some lived as far as Accra and commuted to the school each day.
He said that would also enable them to provide a 24-hour special care and service to the visually impaired, who were easily prone to injuries.
The Minister of Education, Science and Sports (MOESS), Prof. Dominic Fobih, whose speech was read on his behalf by the Chief Director of the ministry, Mr Kwamina Acquah, called for concerted efforts from all Ghanaians to ensure the enjoyment of rights by all.
The District Chief Executive, Mr Adu Aboagye, who also represented the regional minister, said the District Assembly was collaborating with the school to produce a Braille version of the Disability Act.
CHRAJ also donated a mower to the school.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY DECEMBER 6, 2007, PAGE 47
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