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160 students benefit from Newmont Akyem Development foundation
Janet Serwaa Setugah and her colleague operating a wielding machine at the AVTI 2
One hundred and sixty students of the Akyem Vocational and Technical Institute (AVTI) at New Abirem in the Eastern Region have benefitted from the Newmont Akyem Development Foundation (NAkDeF).
The aim was to provide the students with the necessary entrepreneurial skills that would make them self-sufficient and enable them to start their own businesses to employ others.
The training was oganised by Newmont Gold Corp Ghana in collaboration with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), an International enterprise, under its Akyem Skills Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (A-SEED) programme.
The programme was to improve the unemployment situation of about 600 youth in the Akyem mines host communities, of which 35 per cent were females.
The 160 youth underwent technical and vocational training in different courses, including welding and fabrication, masonry, plumbing and electricals.
The Community Development Manager and Executive Secretary of the NAkDeF, Mr Paul Apenu, told the media during a tour of the project that since the inception of the programme in 2022, about 256 students have so far been enrolled on the programme.
That, he said, would help to reduce the high unemployment rate in the area and the country as a whole. He revealed that a 35 per cent target has been allotted to females to encourage them to enrol on the vocational and technical training programme.
“We have strict standards in terms of ensuring equitable distribution between males and females. Our target is to get at least 35 per cent of female students within the communities to enrol.
He noted that the women were encouraged to acquire vocational and technical skills to be self-employed in areas perceived to be male-dominated.
Mr Apenu advised the women to overcome such perceptions and take advantage of the opportunity offered them to acquire such skills to enable them get meaningful source of income that would make them self-sufficient.
He also mentioned the establishment of the Pempamsie Co-operative Credit Union as another component of the A-SEED programme, revealing that it currently had 2,629 members and has mobilised about GH¢20 million as well as given loans totalling GH¢3,7 million in disbursement to 497 members of which GH¢2.8miilion was repaid.
Mr Apenu indicated that all those interventions under the programme were to reduce unemployment in their host communities to help reduce poverty.
A student studying welding and fabrication at the AVTI, Janet Serwaa Setugah, encouraged females to enrol at the institute, and said that although the males were more in taking up such courses, she felt encouraged to sign onto the course.
Ms Setugah said it was fun to learn and hoped that at the end of the course she would set up her own garage.
She encouraged other women to also come on board to change the narrative that the area was male-dominated.
From Ama Tekyiwaa Ampadu Agyeman, New Abirem
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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