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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
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
