Category: General

The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) has climaxed the maiden Artisanal Training Programme for artisans in 43 centres across eight regions in Ghana. The eight regions where the training took place are northern, North East, Upper West, Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Ashanti and Eastern Regions. The Artisanal Training is an initiative designed to provide practical and hands-on digital entrepreneurship training to a diverse group of artisans such as dressmakers, coconut sellers, and hairdressers. Mrs. Eva Andoh-Poku, Deputy Administrator of GIFEC, said GIFEC was an agency of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization, with the core mandate to bridge the existing digital divide in the country and inclusive meaningful access. She said the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills training was for the unserved and underserved communities through initiatives such as the Girls in ICT Project and the Artisanal Training Programme. She said GIFEC had trained 11,000 girls in ba sic ICT and coding while 1,720 artisans acquired skills in the fundamentals of digital entrepreneurship and the basics of online platforms in navigating essential digital tools and applications. Mrs. Andoh-Poku said the artisanal training had come to stay and GIFEC was set to replicate the same in the remaining eight regions. Mr. George Yankyera, Kwahu West Municipal Director of Education, thanked GIFEC for equipping students with basic ICT skills and providing communities with ICT laboratories where students could visit after school to acquaint themselves with computers. Madam Esther Kissiwaa, trader at Nkawkaw and beneficiary of the Training, said the skills acquired would enable them (the beneficiaries) to reach a wide range of consumers through online platforms to expand their businesses. Source: Ghana News Agency

Justice Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu, the Director of the Judicial Training Institute of Ghana, has cautioned the public against attacks on journalists to address their misgivings. Justice Amadu, who is also a Supreme Court Judge of Ghana, said cautionary attacks and threats on journalists and the media were never an option and must not be encouraged in the country. He gave the caution during a three-day training workshop for 30 judges from Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone on 'Freedom of expression, artificial intelligence, and the rule of law' organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). He urged all persons who were affected by bad journalism to seek redress through the appropriate state organs and the formal court system. He said regrettably attacks on journalists were on the rise in contemporary times, with Ghana dropping from the 60th to the 62nd position on the 2023 Annual Global Press Freedom Assessment. Justice Amadu noted that Ghana's 1992 Constitutio n had done the needful by not only guaranteeing the freedom of expression of the media but also by having the state institutionalise a framework through the National Media Commission to consolidate and ventilate these rights for the media to safeguard infringements and impunities. He stated, however, that while the media continued to play such a pivotal role in national growth and development, the growing practice of yellow journalism continued to frustrate this progress. 'I have observed very distasteful, inciteful, hateful, and defamatory commentary and reportage churned out by some journalists or media houses targeted at private individuals, public persons, and the institutions they head,' he stated. The Supreme Court Judge added that all these incidents made a sad story of the risks and dangers Ghanaians were subjecting their beloved democracy to. Mr. Edmond Moukala, the Director of UNESCO, Accra Office, said the right to free expression was a human right and basic freedom enshrined in Article 19 of t he Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adding that it allowed all other basic rights to be freely exercised and protected. Mr. Moukala said many instances throughout history had shown that when freedom of expression started to collapse, other freedoms could suffer the same fate, an indication that the issue of freedom of expression and the safety of journalists was a very delicate area that demanded the attention of duty bearers, arbitration authorities, and the security services. According to him, judicial systems worldwide were confronted with a constantly changing communications environment as they must navigate between intersecting rights to privacy and the right to access information, as well as assess new challenges, like the application of standards that were originally for an off-line environment. Judges, he noted, played an essential role in ensuring a safe environment for journalists by bringing perpetrators of attacks to justice and by guaranteeing that international law was respected in nati onal decisions involving freedom of expression and the safety of journalists. He said that in line with UNESCO's global mandate to protect 'the free flow of ideas by word and image,' UNESCO acts worldwide to advance these fundamental freedoms; therefore, it was critical to build capacities among members of the judiciary to prevent indiscriminate actions against freedom of expression. He stated that to this end, UNESCO had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with regional courts to strengthen the protection of freedom of expression, press freedom, and the safety of journalists in Africa. Source: Ghana News Agency

Windhoek – Moses Matyayi, the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Windhoek, has confirmed the availability of adequate land in Windhoek to support low-cost housing projects. This initiative is part of a broader effort to formalize informal settlements within the nation's capital.

According to Namibian Press Agency (NAMPA), Matyayi's statement came during a ceremony for the handover of 58 houses in the Greenwell Matongo informal settlement. The Informal Settlement Upgrading Project (ISUP), launched in August 2020, is a collaborative effort between the Windhoek municipality, the National Housing Enterprise (NHE), and the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development. This project has enabled numerous low-income earners to acquire formal housing.

Matyayi highlighted the adequacy of existing land resources to substantially address the needs of residents in informal settlements. He emphasized the integrated approach of the project, which begins with land servicing followed by construction of housing. The initiative receives financial support from the Government through the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development.

The NHE, serving as the implementation agency for the ISUP, has developed 652 houses under the project at a cost of N.dollars 124 million. Toska Sem, the chairperson of the housing enterprise, reported that the cost of building and processing each unit was below N.dollars 200,000. Sem reaffirmed the NHE's commitment to providing quality, affordable housing for Namibians.

Further progress includes plans to launch a new project in Otjomuise, Windhoek, aiming to develop over 600 housing units at an estimated cost of N.dollars 150 million.

Minister of Family, Women, Children and the Elderly, Amel Belhaj Moussa, said that her department relies on the networking of regional coordinations to fight violence against women, particularly in light of the increase in this scourge and the high number of feminicides. During the first national conference of regional coordinations to combat violence against women, held in Tunis, as part of the global campaign of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, the minister underlined, on Thursday, that a professional standard has been put in place in favor of regional coordination, making it possible to prevent and anticipate cases of violence against women. She explained that the National Observatory of fighting violence against women will organize a campaign and training sessions for the benefit of these coordinations, which have more than 400 members in total, in order to fully understand and apply this standard. The minister declared that cases of violence have increased given that the National Ob servatory received 12,400 reports of acts of violence from January 2023 until last October, including 4,000 reports linked to legal consultations. Emergency departments and hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Health also issued more than 23,000 initial medical certificates (IMCs) between March 2022 and March 2023. She pointed out that this conference will make it possible to further organize the work of regional coordinations to combat violence against women. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Tunisia has managed to raise TND 1,214.8 million for the fourth tranche of the 2023 national bond issue, thus exceeding the amount initially set at TND 700 million, i.e. a response rate of 173%, Managing Director of Tunisie Clearing Maher Zouari told TAP on Thursday. The amounts subscribed between November 27 and December 5, 2023 have come from stock market intermediaries and banks, with subscription rates of 71% and 29%, respectively, he added. He pointed out that category B (a 7-year repayment period) raised 956.3 MD, accounting for 78.7% of the total amount of the fourth tranche of the national bond issue for 2023. Subscriptions for a 10-year term (category C) drew TND 255.8 million, or 21.1% of the total amount. The "A" category (reserved for subscriptions by individuals) raised TND 2.7 million, i.e. 0.2% of the total amount of the fourth tranche of the 2023 bond issue. The Treasury succeeded in raising TND 1.024 billion for the third tranche of the 2023 national bond issue, exceeding the amount ini tially set at TND 700 million, i.e. a response rate of 146%. In September 2023, Maher Zouari stated that 79% of this tranche had been raised by stock market intermediaries and 21% by banks. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse