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ECG outages: Paying for destroyed appliances through the ‘nostrils’

The ‘proper dumsor years’ are gone. And during those ‘debilitating years’, power outages ‘engineered’  by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), somersaulted straight to the ‘dogs’.

And the ‘dogs’ ‘ensnared’ by consistent darkness and restlessness, barked consistently, to apparently ‘scare’   ‘dumsor’ but ‘dumsor’ was not perturbed at all.

‘Dumsor’ kept on wreak horror and havoc on humans, homes, houses, schools, companies, factories and many other businesses in the Republic of Ghana.

Eventually, when ‘dumsor’ was ‘arrested’, it was unable to fulfill the ‘difficult’ bail conditions, so it was kept at the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison.

And occasionally, when ‘dumsor’ is provoked ‘by the powers that be’, ‘dumsor’ will break jail and rush into ‘selected towns and cities’ of the country , to continue its action on any ‘innocent’ thing that stands in its way; including expensive electrical appliances.

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And so it came to pass that, just recently, ‘dumsor’ escaped again from the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison and ‘rushed’ to the Ashanti Region, with ‘fury’.

And without any regard to His Majesty, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, ‘dumsor’ ‘nakedly’  ‘stormed’ the Manhyia Royal Palace and turned it upside-down; destroying all the expensive electrical appliances of the Great Asante King.

Apparently having ‘researched’ into ‘Ashanti war-history’, ‘dumsor’ first conquered the ‘vassal states’ of Ashanti before eventually ‘laying siege’  on Manhyia Royal Palace, thus, ‘attacking’ and ‘wrecking’ Otumfuo’s expensive electrical appliances with ‘venom’ and ‘vengeance’.

Indeed, Otumfuo has not been a happy man at all. He has expressed his dissatisfaction about the recent power outages in his kingdom.

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Speaking during a recent courtesy call on him  by the Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Asantehene announced that the intermittent power outages had destroyed his electrical appliances.

“I have been experiencing power outages recently. The light goes off and comes back without caution” , Otumfuo told the Energy Minister, stressing that, “all my appliances have been damaged because of the outages.”

Responding, Dr Prempeh attributed the recent power outages in the region to a fallen telecommunication mast that destroyed two towers belonging to the Ghana Grid Company earlier in November.

He, however, assured residents that the Energy Ministry was working hard to resolve the problem.

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Apart from the Ashanti Region, there have been power outages in some parts of the country, too. They included the Central and the Greater Accra regions. And the outages affected many companies and residential homes.

Reportedly, the effects of the ‘dumsor war’  on Ashanti , were remarkably ‘devastating’, as indigenes and residents in the region also complained loudly.

Akwasi Boadi, 45, a resident of Suame in the vicinity of Kumasi says: “It is not only the Asantehene whose electrical appliances are damaged by the ‘dumsor’ that hit the Ashanti Region.

“I, myself, and many others have lost a lot. All the sophisticated electrical equipment  I recently received from my brother based in Sweden, have been damaged by the ‘dumsor’.

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“And the ECG is not telling us anything. They keep on destroying our things without paying for them. And such things are very expensive to repair.”

Sixty-two-year-old Mercy Konadu and a resident of Asafo in Kumasi also says all the electrical appliances in her entire household are damaged by the ‘dumsor’.

According to Mercy Konadu: “I hear the ECG has compensated the Asantehene for the damage caused by the ‘dumsor’ to his properties.

“If that is true, then for once, they have been a very responsible institution in Ghana. Always, ECG allows ‘dumsor’ to destroy our things without paying for them.

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“People like us, who are nobodies, how can ECG or Ministry of Energy identify us, so as pay us compensation for the damage caused by ‘dumsor’ to our properties? “

Mercy Konadu says, ‘dumsor’ has been inflicting hardship on her household, “because anytime it happens, we have to pay through our nostrils to repair some of our gadgets, as we throw away the others, that cannot be repaired.”

Eugene Opoku Mensah is 52 years old. He is a resident of Bantama in Kumasi now. He says he has lived in Germany for over 20 years and during his stay there, no part of Germany experienced ‘dumsor’ for even one day.

“So, in Ghana, what are the real causes of ‘dumsor’ ?  And for God’s sake, for how long can this preventable situation be resolved once and for all?

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“And what pains me is that ‘dumsor’ destroys people’s properties and ECG and the Ministry of Energy pretend that they are deaf and dumb.”

Opoku Mensah asks:”And so, ECG and Ministry of Energy; if it is true that you have compensated the Asantehene, what should the others do to claim their compensation?”

Contact email/ WhatsApp of author: asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)

BY G. FRANK ASMAH

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Ghanaian migrant students in Finland as entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs generally create their own jobs

A few  months ago, I wrote about the increasing entrepre­neurship or self-employment within the Ghanaian diaspo­ra in Finland.

Today, I look specifically at international students turning into entrepreneurs or becoming self-employed. Someone may ask how and why Ghanaian/African mi­grant international students turn into entrepreneurs in Finland. That is, what makes international students who come to study in Finnish universities and other insti­tutions of higher education end up as entrepreneurs in Finland?

Research shows that gen­erally, migrants may start their own companies based on their entrepreneurial aspirations or out of neces­sity since they cannot find suitable jobs matching their education.

According to information, there are more international students from Ghana, Nige­ria, Kenya, and Tanzania. These countries are popular for international studies in Finland.

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A positive sign?

Migrant entrepreneurs generally create their own jobs and tend to employ other migrants if the busi­ness is successful, thus helping to reduce the unem­ployment burden in the host country.

As I previously wrote, there is increasing economic activities by some people in the Ghanaian migrant community in ventures such as hair salons or barbering shops, grocery shops, etc. in various places mostly within the Helsinki capital region (such as Espoo, Helsinki, and Vantaa).

This is important because it shows the positive side of migrant entrepreneurs in their quest to accomplish something positive for their own wellbeing in Finland and the good of the Finnish society.

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The role of Finnish educa­tional system

As we look at how and why (Ghanaian) internation­al students transition into entrepreneurship, we need to consider the role of the Finnish educational system. What privileges do inter­national students have and what bottlenecks do they face? We could examine this deeply later.

For now, we can say there is no doubt that the Finnish higher educational system plays a big role in moulding international students into realising their entrepre­neurial skills. The academic training offers migrants, including Ghanaian interna­tional students, who go into entrepreneurship an avenue to improve themselves and contribute to the Finnish economy.

IT education and online business

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One area that seems to help Ghanaian migrant entrepreneurs is education and competence in informa­tion technology. Finland has a top-notch education in the information technology (IT) sector. IT is studied as a major subject, but even students of other subjects are trained to be computer literate and have compe­tence in IT.

With that level of com­petence, many entrepre­neurs and potential ones even consider going into IT start-ups and entrepreneur­ship. I do not have much information about what the situation is but I would not be surprised to hear one day that some of them have actually taken off and are doing well. It could also be that some businesses are mostly operating online.

As I mentioned some time ago, following their educa­tion at the university and other institutions of higher learning, many Ghanaian migrants in Finland have acquired more expertise and resources (academically, economically, technically, technologically, etc.), and the IT sector looks very promising for venturing into entrepreneurship.

Other African migrants may currently be operating or have previously owned media (including videogra­phy) or newspaper/maga­zine outlets, particularly in the capital city of Helsinki.

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Opportunities for integra­tion

All this also shows the opportunity for entrepre­neurship or self-employment as a positive sign of integra­tion of Ghanaian migrants in Finland.

Their education and entrepreneurial skills could offer them opportunities to work on their own or team up with Finnish companies for business and investment prospects either in Ghana or in Finland.

As I keep pointing out, Finland encourages mi­grants’ participation in the planning of issues concern­ing the migrants themselves, as one of the efficient ways to improve their inclusion in the Finnish society.

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There is undoubtedly an enabling environment creat­ed within the Finnish busi­ness and entrepreneurship sector for people who are business-minded, including Ghanaian migrant students. Thank you!

GHANA MATTERS column appears fortnightly. Written in simple, layman’s terms, it concentrates on matters about Ghana and beyond. It focuses on everyday life issues relating to the so­cial, cultural, economic, religious, political, health, sports, youth, gender, etc. It strives to remind us all that Ghana comes first. The column also takes a candid look at the meanings and repercussions of our actions, especially those things we take for granted or even ignore. There are key Ghanaian values we should uphold rather than disregard with impunity. We should not overlook the obvious. We need to search for the hidden or deeply embedded values and try to project them.

Email: perpetual.cren­tsil@yahoo.com

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Let us never forget -Part 1

 There is a popular saying that forgive and forget. It is a good advice but there are certain events, which forgotten, can repeat themselves and create problems for us, as a country.

June has become a month of enor­mous significance in the life of this country called Ghana. About a month ago, we had cause to remember vic­tims of the June 3 disaster.

This is an event that will be re­membered not for joy but for sadness regarding the loss of lives and property and injuries sustained by the survivors.

The scar this sad event left on the psyche of the nation, will forever remind us of the need to prioritise safety in our environmental planning activities.

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About 46 years ago, on June 26, 1979 to be precise, some military men both active and retired, were executed by firing squad after being found guilty by courts which lacked transparency.

Again on June 30, 1982, another event concerning the murder of three Justices and a retired military officer occurred, as attested by the busts in front of the Supreme Court building.

The reason why it is important to re­visit these events is a certain narrative gaining momentum currently in the country, that we need a coup to bring some order and also help resolve our numerous socio-economic challenges.

I believe I have a responsibility as a senior citizen, to advise the Gen-Zs who have become enchanted by what Ibrahim Traore is doing in Burkina Faso.

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What we should realise is that each country has its own history and it serves as an important guide to future events. Again, you cannot pick one in­stance and make a hasty generalisation that a coup is the way to go.

Check the history of coups all over the world and you can only arrive at the conclusion that, the worst dem­ocratic rule is better than an admin­istration under a military junta. Our history of coups in this country has not been a pleasant story and gives cre­dence to this assertion and conclusion.

In this country, mayhem was visited on innocent civilians for no apparent reason. Women were stripped naked and paraded along the streets and in some cases were positioned and or­dered to spread their legs, for people to come and view their what mama gave them.

That was what came to be known in Ghana as ‘eye han, eye kanea’. People’s shops especially women, were taken over forcefully and their wares mostly cloth, auctioned to the public without recourse to any lawful pro­cess.

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People’s lives were destroyed over­night and others were tried in what can best be described as kangaroo courts and sentenced to prison.

All it took was for someone to put a false charge on you and your life will be in serious jeopardy. A lot of peo­ple had to flee this country for fear of their lives because of false accusations levelled against them.

Since when, did it become a crime in this country to go for a loan from a bank in this country or in the whole world for that matter?

One of the military personnel who were executed by firing squad, Maj. General Felli, his crime was that, he had contracted a loan of 50,000 Cedis to invest in Agriculture. How can a man be murdered for this reason?

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The stories that were told by people who were victims as well as witnesses at the hearings organised by the Na­tional Reconciliation Commission, were just heart wrenching. I vividly recall, a man collapsing in the witness box as he recounted how his vehicle was suddenly taken from him, while on his way to an appointment.

The next day, Chairman of the com­mission, announced that the man had passed on after he was rushed to the hospital.

NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATION­AL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNA­TIONAL AIRPORT’

By Laud Kissi-Mensah

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