Daily Heritage October 2

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News
DAILY HERITAGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2017
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
Gays in Tarkwa
seek members
from churches
BY KWADWO ANIM
A GROUP of homosexuals in the
Tarkwa Kwabedu Electoral Area in
the Western Region shocked
residents when they brazenly
handed over letters to churches in
the area asking for their help to
raise more members.
The gay group, said to be made
up of junior high school pupils
aged 14-17 with their leader being a
25-year-old young man, wrote to
the various churches, including the
Seventh-Day Adventist Church,
asking the pastor to announce the
formation of their association
during their church service to
ensure that more people join the
group.
Assembly member for the area,
Mr Paa Kwesi Ephraim, who
disclosed that he was personally
served a copy of the letter, said he
was nearly assaulted by the
homosexuals after he scolded one
of them.
“The group wrote to me
personally asking for my help to
give them publicity so they can
increase their number. I read the
letter which had a list of the
members with their house addresses
by each name. While looking
through the list, I spotted the name
of one young orphan whom I
regularly support. I invited him and
advised him just like a father will do
to a son. He thanked me and left.
“Unknowingly, he went and
informed the other members and
they stormed my house with
cudgels to attack me, claiming I was
working against their interest.
Luckily for me I’d gone for a
church meeting and so my life was
spared. They vandalised my house
and left. They later went to my
wife’s store and vandalised it as
well,” he told ‘Kasapa News’.
The incident has since been
reported to the police in the area
who have picked up some of the
gay members, while investigations
continue into the issue.
Mr Ephraim vowed to stop the
practice which has got most of
members of the gay group
distracted from their school work.
The gay group, said to be
made up of Junior High
School pupils between the
ages of 14-17 with their
leader being a 25-year-old
young man, wrote to the
various churches including
the Seventh-Day Adventist
church asking the pastor to
announce the formation of
their association during their
church service to ensure
that more people join the
group.
Tilapia farmers appeal
for feed factory
BY KOJO ANSAH
TILAPIA FARMERS in
the Asuogyaman District
of the Eastern Region
want the government to
establish a tilapia feed
factory and a fish
processing plant as the district’s share
of the One -District-One Factory
policy.
The tilapia farmers say they believe
the tilapia feed factory will boost
aquaculture business, which is the main
economic venture in the district due to
the presence of the Volta Lake.
It is estimated that the Asuogyaman
District produces about 60% of tilapia
consumed in the country but the
current exorbitant price of tilapia feed
is crippling the already capital-intensive
business.
The youth in the area say they
believe if tilapia feeds are produced
locally in the community, the price of
the fish would be affordable.
They said the provision of a cold
BY ALBERT FUTUKPOR
THE NATIONAL Agricultural
College Students’ Union (ACSU)
has called on the government to
increase its support to agricultural
schools to operate school farms
amongst others to practically
prepare their students for the job
market.
Mr Chimbur Samson Sanika,
President of ACSU, who made the
call, said the government needed to
support graduates of agricultural
schools to establish their own farms
as part of efforts to create jobs.
He was speaking at a forum for
agricultural students as part of the
Food and Agric Show 2017
(FAGRO) in Tamale to discuss the
challenges agricultural students face
•Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and Agriculture
as well as build and develop
their leadership skills.
FAGRO 2017, which opened
in Tamale last Tuesday, seeks to,
among other things, connect
players in the agribusiness sector
in a bid to expand their projects
for increased food production and
job creation.
The week-long event, which
ended on Saturday, also featured
exhibition of agro inputs,
implements and services, as well
as business-to-business meetings,
institutional seminars, business
plan training camp for
agribusinesses, leadership seminar
for women in agriculture, farmer
stakeholder engagements and
mentorship programme.
The event, organised by the
FAGRO Secretariat, was on the
theme: ‘Creating Jobs in
store would help remedy the storage
challenges currently facing the
business in the district so that they
would store their stock for sale over
a long period.
Ghana is the biggest producer of
tilapia in sub-Saharan Africa;
however, there is still deficit in the
supply chain considering the high
demand in the country.
Fisheries Alliance estimates that
the country consumes over 950,000
metric tons of fish annually and that
it imported $135 million worth of
fish in 2016 to meet the demand.
The aquaculture sector, it is
estimated, provides over 50,000.00
jobs for the youth in Ghana.
However, despite the availability
of the Volta Lake for aquaculture
activities, the youth in the
Asuogyaman District are still
struggling to get jobs due to the lack
of funding to tap the opportunities
in aquaculture to earn a living.
The minimum capital for a
commercial tilapia farm is GH¢
10,000.00, which most of the youth
Govt asked to support agric schools
The week-long event,
which ended on
Saturday, also featured
exhibition of agro inputs,
implements and
services, as well as
business-to-business
meetings, institutional
seminars, business plan
training camp for
agribusinesses,
leadership seminar for
women in agriculture,
farmer stakeholder
engagements and
mentorship programme.
Agriculture: Northern Region in
Focus.’
Master Sanika, who is a student
of Damongo Agricultural College,
said ACSU had identified that
“there is a gap between industrial
demands and training giving to
agricultural students” making it
difficult for graduates to secure
jobs because they were not
practically oriented in the areas of
industrial demands.”
He said the situation made
agricultural students feel neglected,
adding that the government
policies did not properly cater for
agricultural schools, hence the
need to support agricultural
schools and graduates to establish
their own farms to help in
practical exercises and job
creation.
Mr Senyo Kpelly, Chief
cannot afford.
Assembly member for Senchi
Electoral Area, Mr Issah Lawah, told
the DAILY HERITAGE that due
to financial challenges, the youth are
not able to venture into the business.
He said the National Youth Authority
(NYA) is providing little support to some
of the youth in aquaculture. He, however,
appealed for more government support.
Meanwhile, officials of the NYA in the
Asuogyaman District say they are hopeful
the implementation of the ‘Youth in
Aquaculture’ project, which provides
training on tilapia farms, technical, financial
and business management support to the
youth, would help reduce unemployment.
The Asuogyaman District Youth Leader
of NYA, Mr Luyusa Akili Mohammed,
told the paper that about 25 youth had
benefitted from the programme.
Meanwhile, some students from
Columbia, as part of an exchange
programme with NYA, visited the tilapia
farm at Senchi during a tour of the region
to understudy the cultural dynamics in
the region.
Executive Officer of Savannah and
Sahel Commodities Limited, who was
part of the panel to mentor
agricultural students during the
forum, advised that training offered
by schools must be market-driven to
address the requirements of
consumers.
Mr Kpelly suggested that the
syllabi of training schools be aligned
towards industrial requirements such
that training schools would be at the
forefront in creating solutions but
not the current situation where
industry tried to create its own
solutions.
He called for a long-term national
agenda to come out with pragmatic
solutions by ensuring good training
for students to adequately respond
to the needs of industry. GNA
•Atta Akyea, Minister of Works and Housing
GWCL begins
electronic
billing system
THE MANAGEMENT of
Ghana Water Company Limited
(GWCL) has announced that
the transition from paper to
electronic billing, which started
in June 2016, has been
replicated in the Greater Accra;
Central; Western and Ashanti
Regions to ensure that all
customers in the
aforementioned regions are
properly registered unto the
electronic billing system and
receive e-bills.
According to the GWCL,
customers who have not
received their paper or
electronic bills (SMS and/or
Email) in the last six months or
more or whose cell phone
numbers/emails and
geographical locations have not
been captured by GWCL
officers since the data
collection exercise began are
kindly being requested by
management to, as a matter of
urgency, visit the nearest
GWCL office to report or call
GWCL Call Centre to report.
“Customers can as well send
their complaint via WhatsApp,
including Google locations of
their homes or properties, to
the Call Centre numbers to
enable easy identification of
their properties.
“In June 2016, the Ghana
Water Company Limited
informed customers that it was
changing from paper bills to
electronic ones where
customers would receive their
bills on their cell phones via
text messages and/or emails.
The process is ongoing and
very soon, a full transition with
a cut-off date for abolishing
paper bill would be announced.
“Management of GWCL is
grateful for the support it has
enjoyed over the period since it
announced the transition in
June 2016. GWCL is always at
your service to provide you
with the best of service. Help
GWCL to service you better,”
Mr Stanley Martey, Head,
Public Relations/
Communications, GWCL noted
in a release copied to the
DAILY HERITAGE.