Journalistic Works - News Articles, Features And More of P. ATOGEWE WEDAM

UE WILL MEET MDGs ON ROADS August 27, 2010 BY P. A WEDAM ISD-BOLGATANGA MUNICIPAL The Upper East regional minister, Mr. Mark Owen Woyongo has stated that government is poised to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the road sector. In this regard, a number of contracts have been awarded for various works on roads in the Upper East region. The regional minister was speaking during the regional hosting of the meet-the-press series held in Bolgatanga. In a presentation dubbed the state of the Upper East region, Mr. Woyongo noted that over the past 20 months that National Democratic Congress assumed power, it has commenced and completed spot improvement works on 79 kilometres of road and reshaped 184 kilometres of feeder roads. A further reshaping of 125 kilometres of road and surfacing of 14.4 kilometres is on-going. Also, bitumen surfacing of town roads in the Bolgatanga municipality has started and is expected to be completed by October this year. F

BEWARE OF FAKE SALARY STRUCTURES, FWSC August 24, 2010 BY P. A. WEDAM ISD-BOLGATANGA MUNICIPAL The Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission [FWSC], Mr. George Smith Graham has advised public sector workers to ignore some salary structures being circulated especially within the civil service adding that those documents in circulation do not represent the official Single Spine Salary Structure being formulated by the commission. He wondered why selfish people can circulate illegal documents alongside official documents just to misinform workers and to create the impression that the Single Spine Salary Structure is inferior to some existing salary structures. The chief executive officer was addressing public sector workers at an interface meeting in Bolgatanga in the Upper East region. A similar meeting was held previously in Tamale with public sector workers. These exercises form part of a week-long sensitisation tour being organised by the fair wag

BY P. A WEDAM ISD-BOLGATANGA MUNICIPAL August 17, 2010 A Deputy Director with the Chemical Control and Management Centre [CCMC] at the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], Mr. Joseph C. Edmund has advised farmers to always consider their health and safety first when buying agrochemicals for use on their farms. This, he said should supersede price considerations. The Deputy EPA Director gave the advice at a two day workshop held in Bolgatanga to equip agrochemical sellers and agric extension officers in the Upper East region with technical training on handling and application of agrochemicals. The EPA and the Ghana Environmental Management Project jointly organised the workshop. The workshop sought among other things to teach participants best practices in buying, transportation and application of agrochemicals such as pesticides. It also educated participants on steps to take in detecting fake agrochemicals that are often sold on the market to unsuspe

ENHANCING LOCAL GOVERNANCE, IBIS SHOWS THE WAY Aug. 19, 2010 BY P. A. WEDAM ISD-BOLGATANGA MUNICIPAL A two day stakeholders’ workshop on strengthening local governance has ended at Bolgatanga in the Upper East region with a call on beneficiaries of Ibis West Africa interventions, comprising mainly the district assemblies to promptly submit their annual action plans, budgets and other reports so as to allow for the donors to track the progress of assisted projects in the sub-districts. Ibis West Africa , a non-governmental organisation organised the workshop under its Public Participation in Local Governance [PPLG] programme. The Danish International Development Agency, DANIDA is the main financier of Ibis West Africa interventions. The PPLG creates a platform for direct engagements with policy makers and public office holders. The PPLG Programmes Director, Mr. Abdallah Abubakari who made the call disclosed that PPLG is to enhance citizens’ participation in the form

GHANA, BF DISCUSS JOINT TOMATO VENTURE August 10, 2010 BY P. A. WEDAM ISD-BOLGATANGA MUNICIPAL In the Upper East region, 72.7 per cent of tomato farmers cultivate the crop on two acres of land or less while as high as 91.8 per cent of them wish to add more than four acres to their present acreage. Also, only 5.2 per cent of tomato farmers buy seedlings from specialised agricultural input shops and 1.3 per cent buy from MOFA as against 92.2 per cent who buy their seedlings from the open market. These revelations were contained in a presentation made by the Coordinator of the Ghana Trade and Livelihoods Coalition [GTLC], Mr. Ibrahim Akalbila at a workshop in Bolgatanga aimed at setting up a joint tomato venture between Burkina Faso and Ghana. He said the findings came up in a survey the coalition carried out in the region in 2009. The survey also revealed that tomato ranked high in all communities as a major source of income and employment. The overall objective of the wo

August SHEA BUTTER FACTORY FOR KASSENA-NANKANA WEST August 05, 2010 BY P. A. WEDAM ISD-BOLGATANGA MUNICIPAL A shea butter and soap factory constructed at the cost of 360,000 Ghana Cedis has been inaugurated at Nakolo in the Kassena-Nankana West district of the Upper East region with a call on the Ministry of Food And Agriculture to research and come out with shea nut seedlings which have shorter gestation periods. The Chief Executive Officer of New Vision Consult [NVC], Mr. Clement Ayamga disclosed that in helping government to create jobs for the masses, his outfit collaborated with the National Youth Employment Programme [NYEP] to establish the shea butter and soap factory in the district. He said the availability of raw materials that is shea nuts and other factors informed the decision of citing the factory at Nakolo. Under the collaboration, the NYEP provided financial support, monitoring and evaluation while a Tamale-based shea nut company by name, SEKAF offered t