MAY 13

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DAILY
HERITAGE, MONDAY, MAY 13, 2019 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
Ahead of Nungua Kplejoo festival
Gborbu Wulomo performs
‘Dudor mli nu woo’ rites
BY MUNTALLA INUSAH
muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com
THE FILLING of pot with sacred
water at Nungua, which opens doors for
other activities towards the celebration
of the Nungua festival dubbed ‘Dudor
mli nu woo’ has been performed.
The sacred rite, performed last
Sunday, was led by a young girl who is a
virgin, with the Gborbu Wulomo, Wor-
Lumor Konor Borketey Laweh Tsuru
XXXIII, commissioning her to lead the
rites to the place where the pot was
filled. She carried the sacred pot on her
head.
The pot filling exercise lasted an
hour on Sunday morning, having started
from the traditional home and ended at
the Gborbu Koo Naa, the sacred forest
at Nungua.
The leadership of the area, however,
called on all persons who have
connection to the Ga Dangme state to
support the festival.
Apart from the Gborbu Wulomo, the
event was attended by the Osu Wulomo
and other traditional leaders from all the
Ga Dangme clans.
In a related development, a new
•Dr Thomas Mensah
priestess was initiated as custom
demands.
The sacred rite,
performed last
Sunday, was led by a
young girl who is a
virgin, with the
Gborbu Wulomo,
Wor-Lumor Konor
Borketey Laweh
Tsuru XXXIII,
commissioning her
to lead the rites to
the place where the
pot was filled. She
carried the sacred
pot on her head.
•A young girl rerurning from the ancestral place with the filled pot
EC’s request for time to
implement ROPAA granted
BY MUNTALLA INUSAH
muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com
THE ELECTORAL
Commission's (EC’s)
request for an extension
of time to implement
the Peoples
Representation Act
(ROPAA) has been granted by the
Human Rights Division of the Accra
High Court.
The court, presided over by Justice
Nicholas Abodakpi, said the
leadership of the EC had changed
over the course of time and so it
would be important the EC was
allowed time as requested.
The court said the EC had done
nothing to show they had disobeyed
orders that were previously made
even though orders in the earlier
judgement had not been complied
with.
A cost of GH¢8, 000 has been
THE PRESIDENT of the National
Reuse and Recyclers Association
(NARRA), Eric Pappoe, has
disclosed that the absence of any tax
incentive on the importation of
equipment and machinery used in
the waste collection and recycling
industry in Ghana is a major barrier
to the development of a viable waste
collection, reuse and recycling
business.
Speaking at a workshop for the
introduction of appropriate fiscal
policy interventions to stimulate
sustained growth in the recycling
sector of the national economy, he
said the high tariffs on such
equipment and machinery was
making the cost of doing business in
this recycling industry very expensive
and unattractive to investors as
industry actors were unable to invest
in the required machinery and
technology.
At the workshop held under the
auspices of the Business Sector
Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund
Phase III, alongside the EU, USAID
and DANIDA, he added that certain
import tariffs on recycling equipment
and machinery had become a major
awarded to the respondent against the
EC for failing to comply with the
earlier orders.
Background
On Monday, April 3, lawyers of
the Commission, led by Justine
Amenuvor, while moving the motion
for the extension of time among
other things, argued that the
processes to implement the court
orders were negatively affected by the
removal of the previous EC boss and
her deputies.
He, however, prayed the court to
grant the Commission time to
implement the court orders, whose
implementation was to start on
January 1, 2018 and run till
December 31 the same year.
But lawyer Samson Lardy
Anyenini for the applicants, who are
Ghanaians living abroad, told the
court that application by the EC was
belated and failed to respect the court
judgement and orders.
obstacle towards the growth and
development of the recycling
industry in Ghana with the situation
further complicated by the
bureaucracy involved in applying for
According to him, the new
Commission was properly constituted
by the President as far back as July 1,
2018, which time was six month
before the expiration of the court
orders.
He added that from July last year
till now made it nine months and
therefore the EC’s claims that it did
not have enough time should not be
tolerated by the court.
Lawyer Anyenini argued that ever
since the new Commission was
constituted, it had gone ahead to
create six new regions through a
referendum.
He said the Commission had again
announced plans for another
referendum, a clear demonstration
that the Commission was not
interested in complying with the
court orders.
Counsel argued that if the court
was minded to consider the strange
application, it must order the
Commission to comply with the
tax exemption in a process that is
heavily influenced by cronyism and
political considerations.
“Feasibility study on plastic waste
by the Centre for Scientific and
court judgement and its orders within
three months.
He added that a clear roadmap
with a compelling action plan be
demanded from the Commission
should the court decide to grant its
application.
Counsel, while concluding his
reply, said claims that the
Commission was affected by the
removal of the previous EC boss for
which reason they could not comply
with the court orders should be
rejected and commit the EC and its
Commissioners for contempt of
court.
But the court, in its ruling, said
even though the EC did not show the
quantum of work it had done with
regard to implementing the ROPAA,
it admitted the Commission had over
the last 30 years have changed
leadership.
The court subsequently granted
the application.
Govt must support recycling sector — NARRA
BY RAMSON ACQUAH-HAYFORD
•Eric Pappoe, President of NARRA
Industrial Research (CSIR) in 2015
indicated that GH¢1,200,000 could
be generated in the country every a
month, if plastics alone go through
various stages towards recycling. The
stages include collection, sorting and
sale as raw material plastic waste
recycling firms. More importantly
each of these stages will generate
thousands of employment for people
engaged in the plastic waste value
chain,” he said.
“Naturally, this should attract
various forms of investments into
the plastic recycling business in
Ghana. However, current taxes and
administrative levies are a major
disincentive to recycling firms and
would be investors industry. The
effect of this current fiscal regime
for plastic recycling in Ghana,
coupled with other relevant costs of
doing business in the country
combine to deny the Ghanaian
economy of the enormous benefits
that could be derived from a thriving
plastic waste recycling industry in the
country, he added.
He cautioned government and the
public not to blame plastic
manufacturers for the inevitable
floods if nothing is done to desilt
open drains and intensify the
national campaign against dumping
On Monday, April 3,
lawyers of the
Commission, led by
Justine Amenuvor,
while moving the
motion for the
extension of time
among other things,
argued that the
processes to
implement the court
orders were negatively
affected by the
removal of the
previous EC boss and
her deputies.
of waste in public.
“If, as a country, introduce
appropriate fiscal policy incentives
for the recycling industry and back it
with adequate investment of
resources in changing our bad
littering habits through the
implementation of properly planned
and executed behaviour change
communication strategies, we can go
ahead and ban plastics and we shall
still be bedeviled with our perennial
flood problems,” he said.
“It is important for government
to take a critical look at its tax
incentives on not only the plastic
waste but also general waste recycling
in Ghana as a mechanism to
promote investment machinery
needed by the waste collection,
reuse and recycling industry to help
achieve government's vison of
industrializing Ghana under the One-
District-One-Factory (1D1F) policy
as well as enhance the economic
value of waste in general to serve as
a disincentive against public littering
and boost the waste recycling
industry as a viable means of curbing
the waste menace confronting the
country and turn it around to create
jobs for our teeming unemployed
youth,” he added.
Stop reading political
meanings into
projects — Odike
FROM ENOCK AKONNOR, KUMASI
FORMER FLAGBEARER for
United Progressive Party (UPP),
Mr Akwasi Addai Odike, has
described as immaterial the
reading of political meanings into
the just-ended sod-cutting
ceremony for the commencement
of phase II of the construction
and redevelopment of the
Kumasi Central Market.
The outspoken former
presidential candidate chastised
politicians who are claiming credit
over the construction of the
multi-purpose terminal for not
doing any good concerning the
economic development of
Kumasi.
Speaking on a Kumasi-based
radio station, Nhyira FM 104.5,
the businessman-turned-politician
advised members of both New
Patriotic (NPP) and National
Democratic Congress (NDC) to
consider the economic benefits
the project would bring to
Asanteman and Ghana as a whole
and desist from attaching political
sentiments to it.
"All investment benefits that
will be tapped from the utilization
of the facility will favour the
whole of Ghana and not NPP or
NDC," he stressed.
Mr. Odike, however, called on
authorities of Kumasi
Metropolitan Authority to ensure
an effective implementation of
the assembly's bye-laws in their
attempt to regulate the conduct of
traders in the utilization of the
•Mr Akwasi Addai Odike, former
flag bearer of UPP
facility.
On Thursday, May 2, 2019,
the sod was cut for the
commencement of phase II of
the construction and
redevelopment of the Kumasi
Central Market and the provision
of associated infrastructure.
The €248 million
redevelopment project will be
completed within 48 months, and
will have 6,500 leasable
commercial spaces; 5,400 closed
stores; 800 kiosks; 50 restaurants;
210 fishmonger and butcher
stores; 40 livestock stores; and
1,800 square metres of
community facilities. Additionally,
the project will provide other
essential facilities such as a waste
treatment plant, a police station, a
fire station, post offices, and an
amphitheatre.
The €248 million
redevelopment project
will be completed
within 48 months, and
will have 6,500
leasable commercial
spaces; 5,400 closed
stores; 800 kiosks; 50
restaurants; 210
fishmonger and
butcher stores; 40
livestock stores; and
1,800 square metres
of community
facilities.