Category: General

OHAILOMBO: Hundreds of community members from Ohailombo and surrounding villages in the Oshikoto Region over the weekend joined Ohailombo headwoman, Dr Martha Namundjebo-Tilahun, in cultivating her fields in a gesture of gratitude for her assistance. The roughly 350 residents offered their help through a ceremony called 'Oshitemo', which was used in the past by village headmen to unite communities. The word 'Oshitemo' is derived from the hoe Aawambo people use for weeding. In return, the headwoman and business personality donated 150 bags of maize meal and 72 bottles of cooking oil to the community, many of whom were from the nearby villages of Ohailombo, Ohaiyanda, Okandjeke, Omawe, and Uulumbilo. They were led by Ohaiyanda village's headman, Johannes Shigwedha, who stated that they want to thank Namundjebo-Tilahun for the various ways in which she assisted them last year. 'We do not know how to thank her, so we used the traditional way to show appreciation for giving us animal feed last year that led us not to losing our animals to last year's drought,' said Shigwedha. In her remarks, Namunjebo-Tilahun said people give to those who extend a helping hand and she wanted to thank them in return, hence the donation of food items. Amidst the crowd was the governor of the Oshikoto Region, Penda Ya Ndakolo, who also acknowledged the gesture and thanked the community for coming to help her. Namundjebo-Tilahun also encouraged the residents to work together and help each other so they can produce enough mahangu for their own consumption. 'If we have needs, I want us to bring them here so we can figure out some solutions because we are one,' she said. Namundjebo-Tilahun last week also donated items worth N.dollars 100 000 to learners at Ponhofi Secondary School in the Ohangwena Region. These included school bags, bedding, mattresses, towels, and N.dollars 20 000 in cash. She pledged to provide a scholarship to the best performing learner at the school. Source: The Namibia Press Agency

The fourth Child Sanitation Diplomat has cautioned adults engaging in open defecation to stop the shameful practice to keep the environment clean and safe. 'Adults should desist from bad sanitary practices to help children embrace the habit of good sanitation within our communities,' Miss Adwoa Gyakoa Appiah-Kubi, the Child Sanitation Diplomat cautioned. Miss Appiah-Kubi, the current Child Sanitation Diplomat, and pupil from Efutu M/A basic school in the Cape Coast Metropolis, at the launch of her campaign to advocate for improved sanitation, expressed concern that 25 percent of all public basic schools 11 percent of all private basic schools lacked access to improved and hygienic toilets. She indicated that inadequate access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services was a major cause of many diseases and deaths around the world. In Ghana, while there was high access of 87.7 percent to basic drinking water, the same could not be said of basic sanitation which was only 25.3 percent with access to i mproved toilet facilities according to the Population and Housing Census 2021. In addition, more than five million people, representing 17.7 percent of households in Ghana defecate in the open such as beaches, bushes etc which translates into about 1,300 tonnes of faeces every day. The Child Sanitation Diplomat said she was committed to ending bad sanitation practices, promote greater prioritisation of sanitation by government and all stakeholders, especially citizens, and to foster national consciousness towards the fight against poor environmental sanitation in Ghana. Outlining her activities in her one-year sanitation project, she pledged to embark on peer sensitisation which include visits to schools in Ghana, produce short videos, messages campaign photography, T-shirts, and campaign posters/flyers to promote the cause. Also, she would engage the media basically, radio and television interviews and produce campaign documentary to be broadcast across the country. Components of her project to promote access to improved toilets in basic schools and healthcare facilities with hand washing facilities and changing rooms for girls is also on course. She noted that 11.7 percent of the population in the Central Region practiced open defecation and therefore advocated for accelerated and sustainable action to end open defecation in the country. Miss Kubi was poised to promote sustainable access to improved household toilet facilities and the practice of handwashing, encourage government and MMDAs to introduce innovative financing arrangements such as the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA SWP) and GASSLIP model which will ensure that every household owned an improved toilet. The project would be supported by the World Vision Ghana, Ministry of Sanitation, Water and Natural Resources, Zoomlion Foundation, Ghana Education Service, GAMA SWP, and Kings Hall Media Limited. She appealed to all relevant stakeholders especially parents to support children by inculcating good sanitatio n practices in them for national development. Source: Ghana News Agency

OTJIWARONGO: The Namibian Police Force (NamPol) has confirmed the identity of a man who died in a road crash south of Otjiwarongo Wednesday morning as Francois Seibeb. In an interview with Nampa, NamPol Crime Investigations Coordinator in the Otjozondjupa Region, Deputy Commissioner Edna Nawa, said Seibeb's vehicle collided head-on with a mini-truck belonging to a private courier service on the B1 road south of Otjiwarongo. Nawa said Seibeb, who was alone at the time of the incident, was traveling from the direction of Otjiwarongo towards Okahandja, while the truck was headed in the opposite direction. 'Approximately 10 kilometres south of Otjiwarongo, the two cars collided with severe impact, killing the sedan driver on the spot,' said Nawa. Preliminary police investigations indicate that the truck allegedly veered to the right side of the road, where the collision occurred. The 37-year-old male driver of the truck sustained slight injuries and was treated at the Otjiwarongo State Hospital. A culpable homicide docket has been opened against the truck's driver and police investigations continue. Source: The Namibia Press Agency

WINDHOEK: Swapo Party Youth Secretary (SPYL) Ephraim Nekongo has said the late Namibian President, Dr Hage Gottfried Geingob, who died at a Windhoek hospital on Sunday, was a champion for Namibian youth. 'The death of our former president has left us in the Swapo Party Youth League shattered. We were hoping the president would come back and continue his work. Some of these things are quite foreign to us, so they truly broke us. 'However, it gives us courage because he was a person who groomed us. He always told us that you young people must be ready at any given time to take over from us,' Nekongo said while remembering the late statesman in an interview with Nampa on Tuesday. In May 2022, President Geingob appointed Nekongo to the National Assembly to take over from former Public Enterprises Minister, Leon Jooste. The late president also elevated other young people to positions of power, including Emma Theofilus, the deputy minister of information and communication technology, as well as Marius Sheya, Ja mes Uerikua and Neville Andre Itope, who are the regional governors of Kunene, Otjozondjupa and Erongo respectively. 'Before and after independence, the president has been at the helm of grooming young people. When he was in Zambia, at the United Nations, and when he came back, he groomed many young people. So, the one thing that you cannot take away from the late president was working with young people. That is the legacy we will inherit from him,' said Nekongo. Nekongo's sentiments were echoed by Itope, who said Geingob was committed to empowering young people, especially since taking office in 2015, when that commitment was evident on the national stage. According to Itope, Geingob was a youth empowerment champion who offered opportunities for young people to build character, identify their purpose and shape their destinies in order to contribute to Namibia's progress. 'I am one of the youngest governors and this surely gives hope to many young people. The late President Geingob always believed in empo wering young people and exposing them to positions of leadership,' he added. The governor highlighted that Geingob's benevolence toward youths began early in his tenure as the head of the United Nations Institute for Namibia from 1975 to 1989, when he groomed numerous young Namibians for government positions before independence. 'He was very instrumental in having perfect technocrats for the government in young people... You will always hear that his office was full of young people who worked with him and today many of them are making impactful contributions to the country, both in the private and public sectors,' stated Itope, adding that the late statesman gracefully assumed the role of a father figure. 'He was a father who always had something to teach those around him. Whenever we spent time with him, he would not only engage in serious conversations, but it was always fun to be with him because he would make jokes and we would dance until late. We will always appreciate that about him.' Source: The Namibia Press Agency

The third session of the Regional Forum of Investment and Entrepreneurship, held Wednesday in Sousse, focused on providing funding and support to entrepreneurs. The event also shed light on the various investment opportunities the governorate of Sousse offers to investors in the fields of mechatronics, communication technologies, tourism, fishing as well as in the car components industry and the pharmaceutical industry. Taking the floor, Governor of Sousse, Nabil Ferjani, spoke of the legislation and incentive measures provided by the State to promote investment projects and encourage the establishment of international firms in the region. He recalled that the policies and guidelines adopted to stimulate investment are mainly based on activating the transition from a unilateral economy to an integrated economy focused on innovation in high value-added sectors. He underlined the importance of the social economic policy adopted in our Tunisia, particularly following the promulgation of Law No. 30 of 2020 re lated to the social and solidarity economy, and after the publication of Decree No. 15 of 2022 related to communitarian enterprises, based on collective entrepreneurship, social benefit and fair distribution of wealth. Efforts to promote investment in the region are supported by the Agency for the Promotion of Industry and Innovation (API), the Sousse Competitiveness Cluster, the Tunisian Solidarity Bank (BTS), and the Central Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIC) and The Agricultural Investment Promotion Agency (APIA). Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse The Vice President and the Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has outlined his ambitious plan to train about one million Ghanaian digital talents as part of his transformative Digital Ghana vision, if elected as President of Ghana. In his first public address following his election as NPP flagbearer in Accra on Wednesday, he said his vision was to build a Digital Ghana, which would apply technology to transform key sectors of the economy. He mentioned key sectors such as the agriculture, healthcare, education, manufacturing, and the financial sector for a prosperous digital economy, to make Ghana a digital hub and create jobs for the youth. To help realise this vision, the NPP flagbearer said he intended to build the digital talents Ghana needed for the global digital revolution, and revealed plans to train at least 200,000 youth every year on digital software skills. That, he said, would not only provide them jobs in Ghana, but also on the global market. 'I want to see Ghana b uild the digital talent we require for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This will mean providing digital and software skills to hundreds of thousands of youth,' Dr Bawumia said. ' In collaboration with the private sector, we will train at least 200,000 youth per year for the next five years. This, along with other policies, will create jobs for the youth, including school dropouts.' 'I also want to enhance the repositioning of the education system towards STEM, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and vocational skills to cope with the demands of the fourth Industrial Revolution and job creation.' ' In collaboration with the private sector, we will aim to train at least 1,000,000 software developers in five years (200,000 per year). As software developers. They will have job opportunities worldwide.' Dr. Bawumia said Ghana had capable manpower but were often derailed by pessimism and impossibility mindsets; adding that his government would champion the mindset of possibilities to bring out the best of every Ghanaian. 'I want to encourage Ghanaians to have a mindset of possibilities and not impossibilities,' he said. 'The challenges we must overcome as a country are too important to let our political differences derail us. There is a critical failure of mindset that manifests itself in the absence of core values, patriotism and principles within our society.' 'We need to invigorate the can do spirit of the Ghanaian to believe that we can even do better than the advanced countries if we put our minds to it.' He cited the example of students from Mamfe Girls and Prempeh College, who won international robotic competitions against their peers in the US, Germany and South Korea. ' We have to apply the same mindset of beating the world in robotics, singathons and cookathons to every sphere of activity. We must believe It is possible!' He said that must be inculcated in the children from school. ' This is why we are going to introduce a growth mindset curriculum to help students build critical skills such us prob lem solving, risk taking, opportunity spotting and design thinking,' Dr Bawumia added. In attendance at the Kofi Ohene Konadu Auditorium of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) were Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the First Lady, wife of the Vice President Hajia Samira Bawumia, former President John Agyekum Kufuor, former Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye, and Mrs Osei Frema-Opare, the Chief of Staff. The others are the National Chairman of the NPP, Mr Stephen Ayensu Ntim, Mr Justin Kodua Frempong, the General Secretary, former presidential aspirants of the party, ministers of State, members of Parliament, Party Executives, Council of Elders and the diplomatic community and party supporters. Source: Ghana News Agency