ental school

Dental school (Educ)
Story: Jasmine Afari-Mintah

Training dental surgeons for the country -UG DS apeals to govt for support

THE (UGDS) is in dire need of educational infrastructure to train more dental surgeons for the country.
Ten years after its inception, the UGDS can only train about 20 dental  surgeons annually and still depends on the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) for its basic science training.
The UGDS has therefore appealed to the government to provide the school with the necessary equipment to enable the school to train more dental surgeons to meet the increasing demand for dental surgeons in the country.
Speaking at the launch of the 10th anniversary of the school, the Provost of the UGDS, Dr Grace Parkins, said the celebration was on the anniversary of the first locally trained dental surgeons of the country.
Under the UGMS, the UGDS was built in 1992 at Korle-Bu with funding from the government. Equipment was obtained from overseas.
The pioneer class of five students graduated in 1997 after completing their basic sciences and clinical training in 1992 and 1993 respectively.
Dr Parkins observed that the UGDS could only admit between 10 to 20 students annually whereas in the past, most students were sent outside the country to pursue clinical dentistry because they had few teaching staff here and inadequate infrastructure.
She said the country had only trained 81 local dental surgeons since its inception.
The Chief Executive of the KAMA Group Ghana Limited, Dr Michael Agyekum Addo, said although dental problems are regarded as among life’s most unpleasant experiences, they are not considered as lethal by Ghanaians.
As a result, he said, the development of milk teeth in children, their loss, replacement and subsequent loss in geriatrics require the services of a dentist, and added that most accident cases call for dental support.
“Some children may need braces to correct dental formula; others may need actual maxilofacial surgery to enhance their beauty because as we get older, one cannot do away with ‘spare parts’ from the dentist,” he remarked.
Dr Addo noted that the public needed dentists to educate them on the importance of oral health in relation to the transmission of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B and other diseases as a result of the lack of knowledge on oral health.
He appealed to industries to collaborate with the school to help expand the current facilities and encouraged industries to play an advocacy role to help marshal resources to support the UGDS to stand on its feet.
He donated one dental chair with a pledge to support the school to train about 50 dental surgeons annually.

last day for registration

Story: Jasmine Afari-Mintah
ABOUT 10,000 people have registered without their pictures taken for the upcoming general elections at some registration centres in the Accra metropolis.
As at 8:00 am of the last day for the registration, when the Daily Graphic visited some centres thousands had thronged the various centres to queue for registration.
Centres visited included the Nunqua Traditional Authority, Nunqua Grace Academy, James Town City Engineers, Teshie 11 and 12 JHS and the Chorkor Mamprobi electoral Areas.
Four of these centres lacked adequate logistics such as films and printing papers and had longer queues than expected of a last day.
This, according to some registration officials, accounted for the lack of pictures and also contributed to the slow pace at which registration at these centres took place.
According to the registration officer at the Nunqua Traditional Authority, Mr Jacob Affotey, they had registered about five thousand people for the past five days without their pictures taken.
He said films at both centres in the Krowor electoral areas got finished and they notified the district electoral officer to that effect but were told to register without pictures.
There were three categories of queues at his centre – those who were giving number cards and, therefore, kept vigil at the centre; those who have just turned 18—20 and the last category was made up of those who were 20 and above and had their cards missing.
At the Teshie 11 and 12 JHS, there was only one registrar, a shader and a laminator who was helping in the registration because no pictures were taken, which the registration officer, Mr Fracis Ayim, said was woefully inadequate.
He said they had registered about 3000 people without pictures as at 11:30am this morning and thousands were seen in two long ques waiting for their turn.
The James Town City Engineers registration centre had no problem with logistics, as the District Electoral Officer, Nana Oduro Numapau said they had been given adequate films and registration forms.
“ We made the pregnant women and those with babies come first and as you see the registration is progressing withouot any hindrance,” he added.
He, however, gave the assurance that adequate security was being maintained till the close of the day, adding that the police who were assigned to the various centres were doing a good job.
At the Chorkor and Manprobi electoral areas however, few people were seen queued and this repoter was told a similar story by the registration officer that they had run out of films and printing papers for the past four days.
It was observed that  most of the prospective voters had come to the centres as early as 4.30 am to avoid long queues but ended up in that situation as some people already there had secured places for their friends and relatives who came to cross the queue.
Most of the registration officers expressed satisfaction on how the exercise was moving but said much as they tried to register the people the number kept swelling.

Enforce Trokosi law – Odeneho Ababio

Story: Jasmine Afari-Mintah

The President of the National House of Chiefs, Odeneho Gyapong Ababio II, has called for the enforcement of the law that makes it illegal to practise Trokosi in the country.
He has, therefore, urged security agencies in the country to strictly enforce the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act 1998 (Act 554) that abolishes the cultural practice.
Odeneho Ababio II made the appeal at a national  dissemination workshop on findings on the practice of “Trokosi” in Accra.
The Parliament of Ghana in 1998 enacted the Children’s Act 1998, Act 560/LI 1705 and the Criminal Code Amendment Act 1998 Act 554 (CCAA) to make ritual servitude a criminal offence.
But after 10 years, the practice still persists in some parts of the country.
An estimated 278 women remain subjects directly under the “Trokosi” system in  the practising communities, about 53 per cent of whom are still kept in captivity in the Ketu District where most of the shrines are located.
The North Tongu District accounts for 20.5 per cent, with the South Tongu, Akatsi and the Dangme West and East districts recording smaller figures.
“Trokosi” is a traditional practice where young virgin girls are confined to shrines as reparation to deities for wrongs purported to have been committed by a member of the victim’s family.
Odeneho Ababio described its practise as an abuse of human rights and called on concerned citizens to rise up against it.
Prof. Sosthenes K. Kufogbe, a senior lecturer at the Department of Geography and Resource Development of the University of Ghana, who presented his research findings, said the offences for incarceration ranged from trivial issues such as stealing tubers of cassava and the use of abusive language to more grievous ones like murder.
He said the CCAA needed to be reviewed to prevent child rights violations, adding that its promulgation pushed the practice of Trokosi underground.
Prof. Kufogbe said the concept of Trokosi had not changed within the practising communities.
As a result, he said “it is difficult for some sections of the society to see it as a human rights violation, since they see it as a quick way of maintaining social justice in comparison to the formal judicial system”.
The acting Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Ms Anna Bossman, in a speech read on her behalf said the practice was a barrier to the attainment of the dreams of its victims and that they were reduced to labourers in the practising communities.
She noted that children under such practices were inadequately catered for.
The Deputy Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Mr Daniel Dugan, noted that it was important to intensify the campaign to completely eradicate Trokosi from the Ghanaian society.
He said the government was doing all it could but added that the battle against cultural practices was not easy.
“When a society decides to protect wrongdoers, it becomes very difficult for the law to get at them,” he remarked.
Mr Dugan questioned the system where there was no law to protect whistleblowers from perpetrators of crime.
The workshop was attended by various participants including traditional leaders, officials of district assemblies and other stakeholders.

50 Receive training in motor traffic law

Story: Jasmine Afari-Mintah
FIFTY officers of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service have received training in traffic law enforcement to improve road safety in the country.
The training, organised by Toptech Drive Consult (TTDC), sought to deepen the skills of MTTU officials on traffic laws and road safety offences.
It was also aimed at educating the police on safety measures on the road and some common causes of motor accidents.
At the opening of the training in Accra, the Commander of the MTTU, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Daniel J. Avorga, said the effectiveness and efficiency of the police in the performance of their duties were undermined by the lack of training, motivation and modern equipment.
“The dynamics of the world today require an astute policeman with the requisite knowledge and expertise to match the challenges of the modern world,” he added.
He said Ghanaians had a role to play in ensuring that roads were safe, either as  individuals or organisations, noting that the unit would not entertain drivers who disregarded driving regulations and created problems on the roads.
ACP Avorga observed that it took vigorous enforcement of the law by the police to achieve compliance, since the mere enactment of laws was not enough to deter road traffic offenders.
He said the budget of the Police Service was not enough to organise periodic training for personnel and urged individuals and organisation to support the service.
He said the Police Training School would soon be ready to train police officials, as well as some civilians, on road safety measures to save lives on the roads.
The Executive Director of TTDC, Mr Cecil Ebow Garbrah, said road safety was an issue of national interest.
He said the need to use enforcement, along with educational and environmental strategies, must be the country’s primary goal in order to save lives and property.
Mr Garbrah commended the MTTU officers for their selfless services and called on them to uplift the image of the profession.
“Be firm as far as your duty is concerned,” he emphasised.
He said the use of selective enforcement strategies which were designed to target high risk road user behaviour and traffic accident locations was cost effective, saying that Ghanaians must change their altitudes to improve road safety.
He said his office would organise the training every year to develop training programmes to sharpen the skills of the police.
He donated a computer with an installed road safety software to the MTTU, with a pledge to give two vehicles to the unit to train more personnel on road safety.
Miss Ghana 2008, Ms Mawuse Appea, said she desired to work with stakeholders in the transport industry to reduce road accidents in the country.
She appealed to the MTTU officials to arrest all drivers who flouted road regulations and put them before the law courts.

IPMC lends helping hand to police

Story: Jasmine Afari-Mintah
IPMC lends helping hand to police
THE Ghana Police Service (GPS) yesterday received computers and books worth GH¢12,400 from IPMC, an information technology education provider in the country.
The items included five computers and 200 pieces of books on mental, physical and spiritual health.
The Managing Director of IPMC, Mr Gurdip Hari, who presented the items, said the donation was IPMC’s contribution to government effort in combating crime in the country.
Mr Hari disclosed that his company was setting up a computer laboratory centre at the National Police Training Institute to enhance the knowledge of the police force.
He  said the donation was to assure the police that IPMC and the entire Ghanaian community appreciated their efforts at maintaining peace in the country.
Mr Hari said IPMC had trained over 50,000 people in IT since it began operations in the country over a decade ago.
This, he observed, had created a significant number of jobs for the youth in the country, as well as boosted the country’s IT industry.
He further said that it was important that organisations with sound financial background played a major role in the uplift of the community in which they operated.
He noted that the number of computer programmers in the country fell short of demands and that would require an intensive training in that area to prepare programmers to meet the increasing demand for their services in the country, as well as abroad.
Receiving the items on behalf of the Police Service, the Commissioner of Police in charge of Technical Service, Mr Kofi Duku Arthur, said the computers would help them discharge their duties with professionalism.
He said it was refreshing and motivating to know that the people whom the police were serving appreciated their efforts.
He promised that the Police Service would continue to carry out their duties as required, and described the donation as a timely support to the Police Service and also a sign of collaboration between the two entities.

CEDAW

Story: Jasmine Afari-Mintah
THREE Combined Reports on the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) were launched in Accra on Wednesday.
The 3rd, 4th and 5th reports which cover the period 1993 to 2003  highlight progress made in achieving gender equality, as well as challenges and efforts being made by the government towards the realisation of women’s empowerment.
The first section of the reports provides an update on Ghana’s socio-economic and political environment.
It also discuses the position and status of women in Ghana since the submission of the first and second reports in 1991 and 1992 respectively.
The reports further evaluates what was achieved with regards to the implementation of the “ Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies for Promoting the Advancement of Women”, and “ The Platform For Action” adopted after the Beijing Conference.
The Minister for Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC), Hajia Alima Mahama, said the country was moving forward in its quest for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
She said giant strides had been taken by the country in fulfilment of its national, regional and international commitment adding that Ghana demonstrated its commitment and political will by not only signing the convention, but also through the implementation of various strategies with the view of empowering women.
She observed that the government and the people of Ghana had demonstrated their commitment to the tenets of the convention by ensuring that the Constitution and other policies and legislation were consistent with CEDAW.
“ A lot has happened since then. Greater awareness has been created in the country for dealing with gender issues and societal perception and concept for women and girls and development is changing,” she added.
She said sections of the 1992 Constitution, which guaranteed the fundamental human rights of every Ghanaian irrespective of race, place of origin, gender and freedom from discrimination, were in conformity with provisions of CEDAW.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Agnes Chigabatia, said the physical and socio-economic development of women had proven to be a critical tool for sustainable development, ensuring world peace and the advancement of democracy.
She said it was also an essential tool to achieving transparency and accountability in the governance of every nation.
She said, although there had been a minimal increase in the number of women in decision-making at the district level, ministries, department and agencies there was still the need to increase women’s participation in decision-making since they  formed about 52 per cent of the country’s population.
The Director of MOWAC, Mrs Marian Tackie, who gave an overview of the status of women in the country, stressed the need to identify issues affecting the development of women and fight it out to bring out the needed change.
The Director in charge of Drafting Division of the Attorney General’s Department (AG), Mrs Estella Appiah, who launched the reports on behalf of the AG, urged women not to be intimidated by the negative issues affecting them but try and aspire to greater heights in all their endeavours that they found themselves, since women throughout the world had contributed meaningfully to the development of their societies.

Form partnerships to enhance dev’t

Story: Jasmine Afari-Mintah

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, has called on professional bodies in West Africa to form partnerships to enhance the development of the sub-region.
Mr Baah-Wiredu was speaking at the opening of the first International Conference of the Association of Accountancy Bodies in West Africa (ABWA) in Accra yesterday.
The two-day conference, which was on the theme, ”Joint Venture Partnering and Strategic Alliance for Regional Development”, considered issues on effective management of cross border trading, opportunities and challenges of regional integration of professional accountant practice, global food crisis and its impact on the West African sub-region, emerging capital markets in Africa and the strengthening of African corporate governance.
The ABWA conference, which aimed to bring together accountancy bodies under one umbrella and provide a platform for discussing issues affecting the global accountancy profession, had participants from 14-member countries in attendance.
He said African countries needed to come together to transfer skills and to deploy equity for the development of sub-regional economies.
Mr Baah-Wiredu  observed that as countries merged and formed alliances, they became bigger, stronger and more efficient to influence their world, saying that if African countries did not seek helpers and allies, they would be isolated and weak.
“West Africa cannot make any significant progressive in its march towards development if we do not come together,” he added.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said the theme was appropriate, and that it was time for Africans to make use of their talents to speed up the progress and development of their country.
He said the government had launched an initiative to regulate operations of business entrepreneurship in the country.
The President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana, Mrs Cecilia Nyann, said African countries needed to trade with one another in order to combat the global food crisis.
She added that West Africa had the expertise and the capital market to create good joint ventures and strategic alliances for the purpose of development and growth.
Mrs Nyann commended Nigeria for taking bold steps to operate companies in other African countries and urged other countries to create wealth within the continent.
According to her, the conference would offer opportunities to network and strengthen the links between Africans, as well as consider the formation of joint partnerships among themselves.
The Vice-President of ABWA, Dr Richard U. Uche, said his outfit would provide a forum for the professional development of member bodies through seminars, symposia, conferences and exchange of ideas.
He said ABWA was accepted as an authoritative body in accountancy and financial matters through the recognition of its members’ highest standards of competence.
A Principal Consultant of the National African Peer Review Mechanism, Mr Samuel Cudjoe, said Africa was taking steps towards the introduction of a modern system of professional services, citing accounting and auditing functions as the heart of a market-based economy.
Speaking on the topic: “Redefining and Strengthening African Corporate Governance: The Role of Professionals”, he said enterprise governance in the past had been at the forefront of enterprises and sought to broaden and deepen governance.
Mr Cudjoe noted that it was the responsibility of accountants countrywide to ensure that there was good management in the public sector.

CSIR

Story: Jasmine Afari-Mintah
A Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and President’s Special Initiatives, Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has urged entrepreneurs to craft effective strategies to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
He said many businesses in the country had failed in the past due to the inability of entrepreneurs to come up with effective strategies to exploit business concepts.
Mr Agyemang-Manu gave the advice in Accra at a meeting of the ECOWAS chapter of the Pan-African Competitiveness Forum (PACF).
The PACF is a new continent-wide competence and action centre that offers innovation based on competitive approaches to sub-regional economic development.
It also seeks to train entrepreneurs to learn new ideas, foster new partnerships and identify business opportunities to enhance the competitiveness of SMEs in the ECOWAS sub-region.
The deputy minister said over 90 per cent of economic activities in the sub-regions were carried out by SMEs, noting that that was a manifestation of the pivotal roles SMEs played in economic development.
“SMEs occupy a unique position in economic development and no country desirous of pursuing sustainable development can do so without a comprehensive programme for SME development,” he added.
The Director-General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dr A. B. Salifu, said governments in developing countries had recognised the significant role of SMEs.
He observed that the potential for the future development of micro SMEs was seen both in terms of the development of the sector itself and in its contribution to national growth and development.
Dr Salifu said bilateral and regional trade agreements continued to open up trade between major markets and partners in the developing world, saying that those countries needed to ensure that they had a critical mass of domestic enterprises to penetrate the global market.
He called on governments to identify the micro SME sector and link it with a better understanding of the scale and scope of the enterprises sector and its role in national development.
The Director of the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the CSIR, Dr George Essergbey, said the socio-economic survival of every nation was predicated on its capacity to compete in the global economy, noting, however, that trading in goods and services depended on the competitiveness of the various countries that wished to trade.
Participants at the PACF meeting were drawn mainly from Nigeria and other West African countries.

Educate Ghanaians to understand

Story: Jasmine Afari-Mintah

A Retired diplomat, Mr K. B Asante, has stressed the need for Ghanaians to be adequately educated to understand the electoral process.
This, he explained, would serve the interests of Ghanaians and make them knowledgeable about democratic governance and leadership to improve democracy.
Mr Asante gave the advice in Accra at the launch of Unitas, a non governmental organisation that seeks to facilitate sustained development in the society.
He said it behoved electors to monitor the way and manner in which elections were conducted by all partners to ensure that their civic rights were not abused.
Mr Asante advised the electorate not to allow politicians to use them for their own political interests, saying that it was important for Ghanaians to be careful and check the motive of politicians before having anything to do with them.
“ Otherwise their ambition to assume leadership roles in future would be jeopardised by the very politicians who appeared to be helping them,” he added.
He urged the country to be guided by the feasibility and viability of programmes and policies of the various political parties and cast their votes based on informed choices, adding that “This is necessary because this country must be ruled by capable, transparent and credible persons, if our future is to be secure”.
The Executive Director of Unitas, Mrs Victoria Awua-Mensah, said the key issues of democracy lay in the principles that the legitimacy of power, making decisions about people’s lives and the society, was made by the electors.
She said without citizens participating in free and fair elections, the principle of popular control over government could not be realised and challenged stakeholders in the electoral process to ensure that majority of the citizens participated peacefully during and after elections.
The Deputy General Secretary in charge of Operations of the National Democratic Congress, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, said Ghana had advanced in multi-party democracy and gone beyond the situation that called for power sharing after elections and “cannot afford to use this backward system of power-sharing” to promote democratic rule.
He appealed to all Ghanaians to also endorse the call to totally reject the phenomenon of power-sharing that he said was gradually creeping into Africa. “We have a responsibility to avert such a situation,” he said.
A minute silence was observed in honour of the late Minister of Finance, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu.

New fire fighting system introduced

Jasmine Afari-Mintah
A New fire fighting system, Compressed Air Foam (CAF), has been approved by the Ghana Standards Boards and the Ghana National Fire Service to curb uncontrollable fires in the country.
The CAF, which delivers a powerful foam capacity for a variety of emergency response situations, is designed for the protection of flammable liquids.
At the demonstration of CAF in Accra, the Accra Regional Fire Officer, Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) Kofi Attobrah, said CAF was powered by compressed air that was used and disposed of properly.
He said CAF was durable, had rust-resistant fittings and painted with powder coat finish that was designed for mobility.
It also had a special chemical that transformed into a vapour-blanketing foam to provide extinguishing abilities.
“ Its special chemical balance, US-FC-FS superior foaming ability, allows fire-fighters to protect exposures for extended periods or lay down fire breaks in wild land fire situation,” he added.
ACFO Attobrah said practical applications had been demonstrated in a number of discharge devices to determine that US-FC-FS was a biodegradable, non-toxic and non-corrosive chemical that was not harmful to the environment.
He advised that due to the limited resources of fire departments, it was important for every company to have a rapid response method of preventing fire outbreaks in order to help the fire service in their quest to prevent fire outbreak.
The Chief Executive of Fire Solutions, authorised distributors of CAF, Mr Joseph Kumi, said the product would have a positive impact and create a safe working environment for companies.
He said CAF was produced after three years of extensive research by two fire fighters in the United States of America (USA).
He noted that the Federal National Institute of Standard and Technologies in the USA had determined that class A and B foam, which were a major component of CAF, increased the efficiency of water and starved the blazing fire of oxygen, preventing it from spreading.
“ The special chemical balance reduces the surface tension of water, greatly increasing the penetrating and wetting abilities of water, thus making your water supply five times more effective than untreated water,” he said.
Mr Kumi said CAF was being used in the USA by Fire Departments, Federal Government, the Military, the Police, the USA Forest Service, Federal Bureau of Investigations and the State Department.
As a result, he recommended it for fire stations, mining companies, manufacturing plants, oil refineries, shipping harbours, restaurants, market places and forest industries.
Industries that were present at CAF’s demonstration included Kasapreko, GIHOC, Fan Milk, KPMG and Coca Cola Botling Company.