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NewsTranscript
00:00 Well, welcome to the News Review Segment and let's get into the papers this
00:05 morning. Our guest is the NDC parliamentary candidate for South Tonga,
00:11 Maxwell Lukuto. Max, good morning and welcome. I am well. I'm only
00:21 imagining the time I'll come to Vota region to enjoy, you know, the
00:26 hospitality in the region as well, especially from your facility. Yeah, any time, any day, you are welcome. My facility is open till 24/7 and you are always welcome to enjoy the Vota region as you so wish. You know, Vota region is one of the very serene environments
00:42 we have and because of the distance from Accra and Tema, most residents from Accra would wish to just drive less than an hour and they are here. We have the serene Vota and especially my
00:53 constituency very welcoming. You have the Abulu. I don't know whether you have enjoyed Abulu and the Bofingulu and the Wama thousand. No, no, I haven't. But you like that. I mean, I've heard so much about Abulu. So, maybe when I come out, I'll try that one. I'll give you the Abulu and the Dodi.
01:13 I know Ethan Varus will welcome you to my constituency and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Okay. Alright. Let's see. I'll put this up from your busy schedule and come over. You'll be welcome. Thank you. I'll one day come there. I've enjoyed my Western region so much. So, I have to try the Vota region and see how it goes but I'll come around.
01:35 Alright. So, we have the daily graphic newspaper today. We have the daily guide and we have the business finder. Now, on the daily graphic, it says, Wasi writing papers begin with oral English exam for Ghana only. Okay. Now, super delegate
01:55 and transparent justify inclusion Saturday. It comes with a photograph of Professor Aaron Mike Okwe, former speaker of parliament. 2023 Ghana teacher prize launched and EU inject 120 million Euros into West Africa exports. Wow. This is good.
02:21 Okay. Now, the daily graphic newspaper, it says, I don't fear prison. That's a question says it comes with a beautiful photograph of mister James. That's a question and NDC MPs police agree on BOG protest. 75 for two slots in MPP super delegates. Okay. It comes to the photograph of
02:45 the DCG Saks eleven top officials. Oh, okay. And Duker opens workshop for small scale miners. That was on page nine of the daily guide newspaper. Uh on the business finder, it says, FDIs must be mutually
03:04 responsible. The business finder's boss tells captains of industry. We'll continue to take our airport safe to keep our airport safe and offer pleasant travel experience. Um it comes with a picture of MD of the Ghana Airport Company Limited. Madam Pamela
03:22 Saks, let's start with the daily graphic newspaper. Now, if we go to page three, it says, MPP Aspirant, justify inclusion Saturday. Uh the story says, the fears raised to decide who leads the new patriotic party in the twenty-two and four presidential
03:42 elections will be a home stretch as a ruling party host its super delegate conference on Saturday to reduce the ten aspirant to five. The suspense filled special electoral college will be a prelude to the crucial national conference
03:56 on November four, 2023, where the party's flag bearer for the twenty-twenty-four general election will be this selected. The national wide poll follows month of intensive campaign by the aspirant across the length
04:10 of the campaign to win the heart and mind of the delegates in whose hands their destiny lies. The candidates have been rallying the delegate where their capabilities not only to transform the Ghanaian economy and to pretend
04:22 over the country's development but also to lead the MPP to break the eight-year cycle of governance between the MPP and the NDC. Uh I'm sure you've been on the other side. Yeah, you're just praying that you get a
04:36 seat. Uh what are your expectations going into Saturday? First of all, let me use the opportunity to wish my candidates eh all the best in the forthcoming exams, especially eh students of my old
04:52 school which I was the national president of ah Sogasko eh so I wish them all the best in the Wasee exams. As for the MPP super delegates, confirm whatever it is, whether it's a beauty contest, whether it's a contest
05:08 of ideas, whether they are going to choose somebody who can break their eight or who has already broken themselves. We we are not too sure what they are going to do but whoever I met are the winner. We are solid on the
05:20 ground. We are waiting for them. And eh I I stand up to understand why eh the headline stated that seven are going to justify for a position of two. It presupposes that people feel
05:36 for a and baby Campo has
05:43 and you move the eh eh eh eh
05:51 dokta, you know, eh,
05:58 god and all of you.
06:02 So, I'm going to get to it's
06:06 interesting the way MPP can
06:08 come out with some of these
06:09 things but it starts to reason
06:10 that they know what they are
06:11 going to do and people have
06:12 already been described as
06:14 system candidates and they are
06:16 the candidates, the presidency
06:18 feels can continue with their
06:20 eh loot share government that
06:22 they have created. The
06:23 dispudency that we have eh
06:25 experienced as Ghanians over
06:27 all these seven years and so
06:29 counting. I wonder why they
06:31 have not yet got a place to
06:33 continue for them and we are
06:34 just waiting for them.
06:35 Wherever they bring, I'm not
06:36 sure. We are too bothered
06:38 about. We are just eh almost
06:41 finishing with our constituency
06:42 election so that we are solid
06:44 and to my day, the time in it
06:46 they become. Ghanians have seen
06:48 the level of depredation that
06:50 we have experienced over these
06:52 years and the way we are
06:54 sliding down the doldrums and
06:55 I'm not sure anybody would want
06:57 to listen to this mantra of
06:59 breaking the 18 day longer and
07:00 then they will ask whatever
07:01 they will do Saturday. I heard
07:03 some few of them running their
07:04 mouth on TV and all those other
07:06 things. We are just waiting for
07:07 them to break themselves and
07:09 then they'll come and meet us.
07:11 So, so for you, it's they are
07:14 they are eh I mean they are
07:16 what they are doing is much ado
07:18 about nothing because in the
07:20 end. I I I usually describe it
07:22 as a beauty contest. It's not
07:24 really our ideas because what
07:25 is that? What is a new thing
07:27 they they have to espouse that
07:29 they have to do. So, we we we
07:31 continue to see every every day
07:33 pocket dry and then we have
07:35 people suffering every day.
07:36 Salaries remain the same. Water
07:38 and electricity is just about
07:40 to be increased first September
07:42 and we continue to experience
07:43 the hardship and that the bank
07:45 of Ghana has gone down the
07:46 doldrums. They still want to
07:48 push things around or eh down
07:50 and truth as well and so for me
07:52 there's nothing new that they
07:53 will bring on. Which of them?
07:55 Jogati, Alanchimati, trade
07:56 ministry, eh Bavia, vice
07:58 president, eh, they are the
07:59 people who can just insult
08:00 anybody and everybody who rants
08:02 is more passive. There is no
08:03 tomorrow and today he wants to
08:05 be in the behave as a pope of
08:07 the Catholic Church. I don't
08:08 see any of them who is supposed
08:10 to be a threat to us as NDC.
08:12 Ghanaians have seen their work
08:14 and none of them can explicate
08:15 themselves from whatever
08:16 hardship we are experiencing
08:18 now. And so for me it's it's
08:20 much ado about nothing. It's
08:22 just that as a democratic party
08:24 as they claim they are they have
08:25 to present somebody and that's
08:26 what they are going to. But
08:27 for me they would have just
08:28 given up and say oh enough of
08:29 it. Come and take over and run
08:31 the show. Let's see how you you
08:33 you can bring back hope to
08:34 Ghanaians. The NDC is the only
08:37 party for now who Ghanaians are
08:39 looking up to to bring eh the
08:41 best we can experience in
08:43 government from 2025. So for
08:45 them it's the end of them eh we
08:47 just hope that they break
08:48 themselves and come and beat
08:49 them. So it's much ado about
08:50 nothing really. Alright eh let's
08:53 see how it goes eh whether in
08:55 the end it will be much ado
08:56 about nothing or something ado
08:58 about something. What what what
09:00 do you think yourself? Do you
09:01 think they are up to something?
09:02 No. Well. The cherry box. Do
09:05 you think as a Ghanaian not as
09:06 a journalist speaking to me now?
09:08 Do you think they have anything
09:09 to offer to us in 2025? Well
09:11 that question can best be
09:13 answered by our viewers. So
09:14 let's let's leave it to them and
09:16 see. That's okay sure. I'm sure
09:18 viewers would answer by
09:19 themselves. Exactly. Now if we
09:21 move to page thirteen it says
09:23 EU inject 120 million euros in
09:26 to West Africa export. The
09:28 story is written by Mark Lee in
09:29 Kofi. Says the European Union
09:31 has invested 120 million to
09:33 boost the competitiveness of
09:34 exports on international market
09:36 from Ghana and other West
09:38 African countries. In Ghana over
09:41 100 million cities has been
09:43 injected into three main value
09:45 chains namely cassava, mango,
09:48 and pineapple and cosmetics and
09:50 personal care product. The
09:51 investment in Ghana was to
09:52 improve their competitiveness of
09:54 Ghanaian exports on the global
09:55 market. The investment made in
09:57 the last three and a half years
09:58 was the EU's contribution
10:00 towards the West African
10:01 competitive competitiveness
10:03 program WACOMP, a partnership
10:05 initiative between ECOWAS and
10:07 EU. The program seeks to
10:08 strengthen the competitiveness
10:10 of West African product and to
10:12 enhance the integration of
10:13 ECOWAS countries into the
10:14 regional and international
10:15 trading system including the
10:17 African continental free trade
10:19 area after. This is good news
10:23 of course. Good news.
10:25 >> I'm told this has been
10:27 running for the past three
10:28 years. How do we ensure that
10:30 beyond it we are taking it a
10:33 step further beyond even their
10:35 support?
10:36 >> Yeah, of course. Those are
10:38 the things we need to look at.
10:40 Once we have this direct
10:42 investment, which angle do we
10:44 go in? We mentioned cassava,
10:46 pineapple, and something else.
10:48 These are things we can easily
10:50 produce in our land. But the
10:52 question is what policies do we
10:54 have around our GRIP and this
10:56 foreign direct investment? There
10:58 are a lot of things we can do
11:00 for ourselves. And then the
11:02 little we do will not be able to
11:04 send us as far as we wish to.
11:06 So when these things come, it
11:08 depends on policy direction. Do
11:10 we still divest some of these
11:12 funds into some other things and
11:14 then we don't concentrate on the
11:16 main reason why the EU have
11:18 come to invest? What other
11:20 policies do we have around
11:22 engaging especially the youth in
11:24 the agricultural business so we
11:26 can have a lot more? What are
11:28 our policies about equipment,
11:33 how we bring them in, whether we
11:35 send them to the real places,
11:37 whether our soil maps indicate
11:40 to us exactly where we can get a
11:42 lot out of these very crops or
11:45 products we wish to produce. How
11:48 are we driving this? How are we
11:50 encouraging those who want to go
11:52 to our GRIP to do? Are we
11:54 leaving them to their fate and
11:56 giving this money to cronies,
11:58 friends? We are not looking at
12:00 those who are in the farming but
12:02 we give the money to other
12:04 people to do other things. Some
12:06 of those are the things we need
12:08 to check. It should not be just
12:10 said that so much has been
12:12 brought, so much has been
12:14 invested. The question is are we
12:16 doing monitoring and evaluation?
12:18 How much benefits have we made
12:21 to the people? The EU government
12:23 that brings the thing. How well
12:25 are they monitoring to be sure
12:27 that the investment they have
12:29 brought has yielded the same
12:31 result they are looking for? For
12:33 me, it's good news. The more we
12:35 get these things, the more we
12:37 should encourage ourselves to be
12:39 prudent in the spending and make
12:41 sure that we don't just divert
12:43 these funds and come back home
12:45 with nothing. It should be good
12:47 news for us to engage our
12:49 farmers. Farming should be one
12:50 of the things we should be
12:52 engaging in. We have a lot of
12:54 land. We can engage in cassava
12:56 farming which I think is so good
12:58 around the area. I have not
13:00 heard about any injection of
13:02 such capital into this cassava
13:04 farming around our area. I
13:06 remember the cassava farm that
13:08 President Kufuo seriously
13:10 encouraged. What has come out of
13:12 that? Are we still encouraging
13:14 that as investment goes to those
13:16 exact areas? What are they
13:18 producing? Are we getting the
13:20 return? For some of us sitting
13:22 outside, those are the things we
13:24 need to be monitoring, watching
13:26 and making sure that the money
13:28 doesn't go elsewhere but gives
13:30 us the best result that we are
13:32 expecting. How do we ensure
13:34 that, I mean, farmers and SMEs
13:37 take advantage of some of these
13:39 opportunities? Because for me,
13:41 this is even the first time I'm
13:43 hearing this. Yeah, you see, so
13:45 sometimes we need to do -- I
13:47 keep talking about policy. You
13:49 don't do a lot of money to
13:51 people just like that. They
13:53 go and use for free and some of
13:55 that thing. If it's about
13:57 plowing a hundred acres of land
13:59 for somebody, get the tractor,
14:01 come to the field, inspect it,
14:03 make sure that it is plowed. If
14:05 it is about supply of seed, make
14:07 sure you supply the seed to the
14:09 person, have a monitoring system
14:11 and make sure that it was
14:13 planted. If it's about the
14:15 money, as much as possible, let's
14:17 reduce the doling out of cash to
14:19 this individual and make sure
14:21 that we supply them all the
14:23 things they need, monitor and
14:25 make sure that the right things
14:27 are done. For me, those are the
14:29 things we can put in place and
14:31 make sure that we don't continue
14:33 to give our money and come back
14:35 to count our loss any time, any
14:37 day. So once we monitor these
14:39 things very well and engage the
14:41 right people in doing these
14:43 things, it brings us a lot of
14:44 benefit. And I think that's
14:46 something that we can do.
14:48 >> I'm not sure if you can
14:50 answer that. I'm not sure if
14:52 you can answer that.
14:54 >> I can answer that.
14:56 >> I can answer that.
14:58 >> I can answer that.
15:00 >> I can answer that.
15:02 >> I can answer that.
15:04 >> I can answer that.
15:06 >> I can answer that.
15:08 >> I can answer that.
15:10 >> I can answer that.
15:12 >> I can answer that.
15:13 >> I can answer that.
15:15 >> I can answer that.
15:17 >> I can answer that.
15:19 >> I can answer that.
15:21 >> I can answer that.
15:23 >> I can answer that.
15:25 >> I can answer that.
15:27 >> I can answer that.
15:29 >> I can answer that.
15:31 >> I can answer that.
15:33 >> I can answer that.
15:35 >> I can answer that.
15:37 >> I can answer that.
15:39 >> I can answer that.
15:41 >> I can answer that.
15:43 >> I can answer that.
15:45 >> I can answer that.
15:47 >> I can answer that.
15:49 >> I can answer that.
15:51 >> I can answer that.
15:54 >> I think tie into that one is
15:59 the story on page 16 of the
16:02 daily graphic.
16:04 $24 million integrated rural
16:06 development project launched.
16:08 The minister of local government
16:10 decentralization and rural
16:12 development has launched the
16:14 second phase of the integrated
16:16 rural development project.
16:18 The project seeks to provide
16:20 critical infrastructure and
16:22 infrastructure for rural
16:24 communities.
16:25 The $24 million initiative
16:28 spanning 2022 to 2027 is a
16:30 partnership between the
16:31 government and the OPEC fund for
16:33 international development.
16:34 The sector minister launched the
16:36 initiative yesterday.
16:37 Aside from providing
16:38 infrastructure in the education
16:39 and health sectors, the project
16:41 also seeks to eradicate poverty
16:43 and ensure a sustainable
16:45 increase in the income level of
16:47 rural communities through the
16:48 provision of microcredit.
16:50 The project will provide
16:52 infrastructure, the provision of
16:54 credit to small scale and medium
16:56 enterprises, SMEs, outreach,
16:58 sensitization and capacity
17:00 building and management and
17:02 coordination.
17:03 Under the project, OFED will
17:05 provide a loan facility of $20
17:07 million while the government and
17:09 beneficiary district provide
17:11 $800,000 and $3.2 million
17:13 respectively.
17:14 The beneficiary district are
17:16 Tema west, the greater Akron
17:18 and North, Central, Offensive North, and Central Afron Plains all in the Asante region and Okare;
17:25 Ekiapim South and Ayin Swano in the Eastern region. Others are Asante North and Ewutu Senya
17:31 in the Central region, Esigado Keten in the Western region, Adaklu in the Volta region,
17:36 Karaga in the Northern region, Binduri in the Upper East region, and Senya West and Wenchi
17:41 in the Bono region. So, I mean once this is coming in you are still looking at, as you said,
17:48 how well this can be implemented. So, what sort of advice will you give in terms of how we can
17:53 better implement this project? Yes, like I told you last week, my father is a farmer. He ever
18:01 won the best, the district best farmer. And you see when some of these facilities come,
18:06 too much is wasted on workshops, on offices, on travels, on this. It's one of the things that
18:14 really benefits the farmer. Most of the offices responsible find cunning ways of spending this
18:21 thing so that what goes back to the farmers is very little. So, my point is that let us know
18:27 that this is supposed to benefit us on the ground. There's too much talking, there's too much
18:32 bureaucracy, there's so many workshops that are organized. At the end of the day, do not go
18:36 directly to affect the very purpose for which reason these monies have been released. On several
18:42 occasions we have heard, we have seen, we have experienced, we have known that monies have been
18:47 given out for policies and for very critical areas of our life, especially about green. But at the
18:54 end of the day, we don't get the results we need. Those who are giving the money are not really
18:59 farmers on the ground. They just come and write people's name and they go away. Can you imagine
19:05 that that district best farming policy that we have as a people even now has been politicized?
19:12 That even before they give you the best farmer, they would have to see whether you belong to a
19:16 particular party or not. Can you imagine that this is not done based on meritocracy and that
19:23 they just choose people in the way they are? So, for me, it is now we are still qualities in all
19:30 our dealing, especially when it comes to these critical areas of ours as a people. I agree,
19:35 I agree, I agree, which would be a very critical aspect of our thinking as a people, as Ghanaians.
19:41 We are not in the Sahara, we are not in the desert. We are in a place where we have a lot
19:46 of arable land that we can use this donor agency's funds to develop ourselves. Let us not continue
19:53 to think about doing all this money to ourselves and finding canyons of just spending the money.
19:58 So, is it your suggestion that the focus of this integrated rural development project should be
20:06 you know, towards developing agriculture? The farmers, yes, the farmers, the people at the
20:13 grassroots are targeting the poor. It should not be given to fatty apparatus. It should be given
20:17 to the people who need it so that we can eradicate poverty, which is our focus and our goal. That
20:23 should be our goal as people in governance. Nothing more, nothing else. It is not about how
20:29 much money we go and pile in our homes. Money should be brought for cleaning our gutter in one
20:34 person, we go and pile it in his house. Money is brought for free fertilizer. One person will take
20:39 the fertilizer and go and sell and make money and come back that he wants to be president. These
20:44 are the things we are talking about. Let the money go to the ground and affect the very people
20:49 whose lives the people outside saw and want to improve and has brought us this fund. That is
20:55 all I plead for us Ghanaians. Let's turn to the Daily Guide newspaper now and let me take you to
21:01 page six of the paper. It says ECG sacked 11 top officials. The story is written by I.F. Joe
21:07 Ewa Jr. from Kumasi. The electricity company of Ghana has sacked 11 top executives for allegedly
21:14 causing financial loss to the company. The Daily Guide has uncovered these top executives included
21:19 treasury executives, senior IT assistants, assistant accounting officer, artisans, and customer
21:27 service officers among other senior staff. A reliable source in the ECG who demanded anonymity
21:33 said they affected top executives, indulged in various illegal activities that adversely
21:40 affected the coffers of the ECG. Their offenses included tampering of falsification of records,
21:45 tampering of payment data, unauthorized payment and transfers and others which caused financial
21:51 loss to the ECG. Some of the sacked officials were also found culpable of vacating their post
21:56 without permission from their superiors or management of the ECG. The affected staff
22:02 were stationed in the various regions of the country until they were given their sack letters
22:07 which indicated that their services were no longer needed. As of August 2023, 11 top executives of
22:14 the ECG from various regions have been sacked by management for causing financial loss to the
22:19 company the source said. Okay, okay, okay, okay. So this is it. I mean I don't read anywhere in
22:28 the story that they've been taken to court. Should it end there by just with just their sacks?
22:33 It's interesting the way we behave in this country called Ghana. There are several things
22:39 that we suffer from and people are just asked to leave and that is all. Like you had our foreign
22:46 affairs minister going to run and make a media show if you know you have overstayed. If you've
22:53 been here for one year don't come back to office on Monday and that's all. And people would ask
22:58 are we serious as a people? Is that how best practices are supposed to be experienced in a
23:03 country in a setup? No. So this ECG office, they don't come to work, they have involved themselves
23:11 in this and that is all. And they've been sacked. Whether they've been taken to due process, whether
23:16 it's one of their policies in the company that wants this up and this is what we do, we are not
23:22 too sure about. But the real thing is the effect we are experiencing on the ground as people.
23:27 You know ECG is responsible for making sure that we are under their lines, also clear anytime,
23:35 any day. How often do they do these things? The last time on the road and highway and then ECG.
23:40 My guys in Kutama, you know Kutama is my village, they have to organize themselves under the
23:44 auspices of the assembly member to go and clear the roadside themselves. These are monies that
23:50 government has already budgeted for, for highway and for ECG to be clearing the sides of the road
23:56 and under our electricity lines. But at the end of the day you don't see these things happening.
24:00 But it's interesting to know that somebody sitting in the office who cooks and vouchers,
24:04 pays some goods company, they go back and share the money and their life goes on. These are the
24:09 kind of things we experience in the country as Ghana and then people just in the office,
24:14 he's been sacked. Not long, too long ago we heard that the, the act that their MD himself should be
24:20 fired. I don't know what has come out of that. So now maybe the MD wants to show that he's doing
24:24 something and he's going to relieve some people, whether through due process or just at his own
24:31 prisms and purposes, then he decides to lay off people. We are not too sure about that. I'm sure
24:36 that some of these things we should be serious about them, not just putting up show, but making
24:40 sure that people are sanctioned through due process and then other people learn a lesson
24:45 and take a cue from it and next time sit up and do what they have to do right for us to grow as a
24:50 country Ghana. All right. On the page nine of the same paper it says electricity tariff increases
24:59 by 4.22% in September 1. Now the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission will implement 4.22%
25:07 increase in electricity tariffs for all non-lifeline residential customers starting
25:12 September 1, 2023. A statement issued by the PRC and signed by Executive Secretary Dr. Ismail
25:18 Akar said a decision comes after a review of the third quarter of 2023 by the company to ensure
25:24 the real value of the cost of providing utility services is upheld. "The Commission, after
25:31 extensive deliberations and analysis, has approved a non-increment or change in end-user electricity
25:37 tariff for lifeline consumers or customers, industrial customers and non-residential
25:42 customers, hairdressing saloons, barbering shops, chop bars, tailoring and dressing making shops,
25:49 court stores and other small and medium-scale businesses effective September 1, 2023. The
25:54 Commission, however, approved a 4.22% increase across board in the average end-user electricity
26:01 tariff for non-lifeline residential customers," it said. Your thought on this?
26:08 Same thoughts you have. Why this time? Why under these excruciating economic conditions
26:17 has salaries been tampered with some ways and how? Or they think that as the usual magicians we are,
26:23 we should find a way of paying irrespective of whatever situation we are in. These are some of
26:27 the things that bring corruption in the offices because of course if my salary remains the same
26:32 you continue to increase electricity and water tariffs and you expect me to pay my school fees
26:37 and other things remain the same or even increase by the day and then my poor increases, inflation
26:43 increases, what you buy today, tomorrow, it will be times two, all time like 50% over and you expect
26:49 the person to remain the same. How would it happen? And so for me it's like leadership is not seeing
26:56 the kind of pressure that is on us as Ghanaians and they keep asking. Well, but Mr. Lukoto,
27:03 I mean the PURC's responsibility is to regulate, you know, the utilities and how they set their
27:11 tariffs. It is another person's job to look at how whether your salaries will be increased or not. So
27:17 are we being fair if we tie in what the PURC is doing to whether our salaries remain the same or
27:25 increased? Well, PURC is not always responsible for increasing our salaries but my question is
27:32 how do we pay? So PURC's business is not how I pay due but I'm saying that under normal circumstances
27:40 if some of these things are increased, government who has overstarred responsibility over even the
27:46 PURC and me should be thinking about how the ordinary Ghanaian is going to take it and how
27:51 his livelihood is going to be affected by these increases so that if there's something they can
27:57 do to poor workers they should also do to us. That's all my point. I would not fault PURC
28:02 for increasing these rates because of course they also have to be in business, not necessarily
28:07 making profit but making sure that they even break even or keep our lights on every time every day
28:13 or making sure that water runs through our taps. But at the end of the day it is the responsibility
28:17 of government to make sure that we are able to make due our responsibility of paying these bills.
28:23 So for me, yes, PURC has increased but what is government looking at? What is government trying
28:29 to do to ameliorate our suffering and also cause us to be able to march and then get these things
28:35 underway. For me that is the anger I'm looking at it from. I would not fault PURC for increasing it
28:40 not at all. It is our government making sure that salaries are increased to match these things and
28:47 so that people can live well as workers in the country. That's all I'm looking at.
28:53 Now, Duka Opin's workshop for small-scale miners. It says the first phase and this story is written
29:01 by Emmanuel Opoku from TACWA. Now the first phase of a pilot training workshop for district mining
29:06 committees and selected small-scale miners has been opened in TACWA in the western region.
29:10 The training program which will be carried out in mining communities across the country is a
29:15 significant step forward in Ghana's ongoing attempt to formalize the artisanal and small-scale mining
29:20 sector. Now opening the training section, Deputy Minister for Land and Natural Resources George
29:25 Mericuduka praised the World Bank Group for financial and technical assistance that allowed
29:31 the government to give capacity building training. Mr. Duka who is also the Member of Parliament for
29:36 TACWA stated that responsible mining is critical to the country's development. "Let us work together
29:42 to create an enabling environment where responsible mining practices can thrive. By formalizing the
29:48 sector we can mitigate the negative impact of illegal mining activities and create a more
29:54 sustainable and inclusive industry. Though through building the capacity as of the district mining
30:00 committees and Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners the government aims to ensure
30:05 that sustainable and best mining practices are upheld," he explained. Isn't this the way to go
30:14 train them on how to mine but after training what must we do to ensure that in fact all that we have
30:20 trained them on are being done? That is a good question you have asked. It's not just about the
30:26 training, this is not the first time we've heard about community mining being instituted. I think
30:32 as far back as 2021 or so we have continued to hear about these things and the major mining
30:38 towns TACWA, Hisbe, Bogatanga, Oda and I think Asankeragua and some other places. They are the
30:46 top five communities that this small-scale mining is very right. For me sometimes our politicians
30:55 come up with policies, very good ones of course, but you look back and the results you get sometimes
31:00 just tells you that this has been to make sure to the carers and to the media houses and to Ghanians.
31:09 At the end of the day or behind the scenes what happens, we all see the effect of it.
31:14 Has there been any improvement in the water bodies that we have that have been badly affected by this
31:20 calamity and other activities that go on in the river bodies? So in as much as we press the right
31:28 buttons we go back behind the scenes and do very worse things. These ministers or states we know
31:35 this disease in most of these districts we are aware are directly involved in some of these
31:40 calamity things. We are aware of Santihili, it is the students who have also given our land or
31:46 accomplices in this calamity business. For me these are good policies that are supported by
31:55 the westerners to put us on the right track. But whether it's only the good we are looking for,
32:00 we are not too sure. We are aware that this small-scale miners and the calamity produce
32:05 over 60% of the good that we get in Ghana. And so if that is that much that they produce,
32:11 are we sure we are pressing the right buttons on the ground to make sure that they are right?
32:14 So for me it's not just the show, it's not just the policy, it's not just for the camera,
32:21 but it should be such that the real effect is felt on the ground. Once our water bodies don't
32:26 get cleaned up by the day, it means that we are not doing anything. We are just having a talk show.
32:31 So until we see clarity, until the stability level in our waters begins to be better, we can't say
32:38 that we are getting anywhere close. This issue has been with us for so many years and we keep
32:44 dancing around it. People come to make sure and at the end of the day nothing really happens. Let
32:48 us make sure that the right effect that we are looking for, the result we are looking for,
32:54 we get it out of this policy. All right. Thank you very much, Maxwell Lukoto. He is the NDC
33:01 parliamentary candidate for South Toronto. And this segment was brought to us by Endpoint,
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33:40 to chronic disease. We will take a quick break. When we return, Muftahu and Nabila Abdulai will
33:47 be joining us with latest on the world of sports. Stay with us.
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