Day: June 2, 2024

Ghana, through the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and national stakeholders in the food value chain, has adopted a Food Safety Master Plan to address food safety challenges and improve food control systems in the country.

The five-year Master Plan was developed by the FDA together with a constituted national food safety stakeholder committee with support from the African Union Commission to address gaps in the country’s food safety control systems.

This was developed based on a self-assessment of the food control system of the country to identify gaps and develop home-grown recommendations to improve the nation’s food sector.

Mr Roderick Daddey-Adjei, Deputy CEO of FDA in charge of Food Registration, said the plan showed the direction in which food safety and control systems should be pursued in the next five years with specific objectives and expected results.

‘It is also a practical document that would guide stakeholders on how to translate the plan into action with sections on implementation, including
details on activities to address strategic priorities, cost estimates, and roles of key players,’ he said.

Mr Daddey-Adjei said the plan would serve as a blueprint to guide stakeholders from time to time to ensure that foods produced and consumed were safe.

He added that they would be constituting a steering committee that would be championing the implementation and rollout of the plan in collaboration with all other relevant stakeholders.

Mr Daddey-Adjei said the major challenges with food safety identified were the lack of education and knowledge on the proper handling and safekeeping of foods.

He added that the FDA would be engaging in a routine sensitisation with food handlers, especially food vendors, on the right ways to keep and handle food.

Dr Rose Omari, National Consultant in the development of the plan, said there were weak legal and institutional frameworks challenges to food safety and control systems that needed to be addressed.

She said there were overlaps in institutional mandates and a
poorly coordinated institutional framework

Dr Omari, who is also Deputy Director, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (CSIR-STEPRI), therefore proposed that institutional mandates should be clearly defined and their coordination strengthened.

She said the plan had proposed a review of the Public Health Act to make room for the inclusion of a rapid alert system to bind institutions to respond quickly to food safety concerns.

‘The Public Health Act does not make provision for a rapid alert system and emergency preparedness and response. So we are proposing a revision of the Act to incorporate a rapid alert system and emergency preparedness and response,’ she said.

Dr Omari said food safety was everyone’s responsibility, adding that it was everyone’s role to ensure that food produced and consumed was safe and free from contamination.

Madam Winta Sintayehu, Senior Programme Officer, Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa, African Union Commissi
on, said Ghana’s master plan formed part of a continental African Food Safety Agenda they were enrolling in 12 African countries.

He said every year, millions of dollars were lost to food safety challenges, saying, this had become necessary for the Commission to support countries to build regulatory and infrastructural frameworks to address food challenges.

‘This would go a long way to achieve food safety and trade safe food across the continent and ensure the availability of safe and improved food for the citizenry,’ she added.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ghana’s Finance Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, has kicked against African governments investing significantly in foreign financial institutions using money earned from its most resource-rich sectors.

Rather, he called for the establishment of Regional Funds to draw financial resources for infrastructure development to propel intra-Africa trade, and help solve the recurring economic crisis on the continent.

The Minister, while indicating that the country had enough resources, bemoaned the rate at which many countries saved money in international financial institutions, depriving the continent of needed funds for development.

He was speaking with the media on the margins of the just ended 2024 African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual Meetings in Nairobi, Kenya.

‘Some of our African countries are holding our reserves in international banks; Ghana’s Petroleum Holding Funds are invested in US bonds, Nigeria is keeping their oil money in foreign accounts, but why?’ he quizzed.

‘We need to create regional Funds
, so that beyond the African Development Fund and what we get from the international financial world, we also pull resources to together to set up Regional Funds,’ he said.

The Regional Funds, he said, could be sector-specific, like having an African Fund for Energy Development, which would draw resources, including pension funds, to support direct investment in infrastructure.

That, Dr Amin Adam, said would significantly improve the weaknesses in infrastructure and connectivity and catapult the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

Reflecting on the state of trade on the continent, he stated that there was room to improve on intra-continental trade, which figures from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) implementation is estimated at 15 per cent of global trade.

In the energy sector, for example, he said those funds could be used to develop the energy pools by connecting the West, East and Central African power pools, to make power cheaper and available to peopl
e and businesses.

‘It doesn’t make sense when Ghana has 90 per cent access to electricity and the next-door neighbour has 30 per cent, Ghana’s Finance Minister said, and called for a swift change in that regard.

While indicating that there was the need to trade petroleum products within the continent, he asked, ‘how do trade in petroleum products if you don’t have the ports?’

He called on African governments to deepen collaborations to develop ports, roads, railway infrastructure, focused on interconnectedness, saying, ‘that’s how we can boost trade amongst ourselves.’

In 2007, the Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF) was launched in Accra, Ghana during a summit by the African Union to mobilise resources to finance the continent’s infrastructure development.

The latest on the PAIDF as cited on the website of the African Development Bank, only provides information on the nature of the Fund.

It states that the Fund would have a 15-year life, with investment period of eight years from the da
te of the launch, and a seven-year time horizon per investment to build, develop, and grow each investment before exit.

It noted that the regional investment would be in securities of companies that own, control, operate of manage infrastructure, and infrastructure-related assets, and may also participate in joint ventures with corporate and government partners.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Nchendzengang Tatah

The South West Development Authority, SOWEDA has mapped out other income streams to increase it’s activities and impact on the rural population as government subvention is on the decline.

The Board Chair, Herbert Apande Ediage disclosed at the end of the 50th Ordinary Session of Board of Directors May 31, 2024. The SOWEDA Management has been tasked to look for partners and other collaborators especially internationally who have development plans.

He further explained that, this is not only going to be a development move but an investment by SOWEDA to birth returns and help her meet other social responsibilities.

In 2023, despite alarming insecurity in the South West posing difficulty; SOWEDA distributed over 250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand) cocoa seedlings and trained South West farmers on climate smart activities and agricultural pollution. They also donated an ultramodern solar powered borehole to Missaka chiefdom in Tiko, and installed the first weather station in Bangem.

I
n his appraisal of the activity reports, the Board chair said, they ‘realised that Management executed the budget at a good rate. Resources were mobilized to the tune of about two billion, two hundred and sixty-six million. And of this, one billion, eight hundred and forty million were executed in terms of expenses.That gives an inscription rate of about 81%.’

Considering the insecurity plaguing the South West as the major challenge, the Board through it’s chairman congratulated the SOWEDA management. Not only for the level of project execution, but also for the quality of the documents they brought up.

Source: Cameroon News Agency