Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, Finance Minister, has called for the support of Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, the King of Akyem Abuakwa, Eastern Region, for continued effort in ensuring environmental sustainability in Ghana. The Minister made this call when he visited the Okyehene on Wednesday evening for his blessings and counsel for the new role he assumed about a week ago, following President Akufo-Addo's ministerial reshuffle. 'You [Amoatia Ofori Panin] have done so much for this country since your ascension to the throne, especially, your leadership in the fight against illegal mining and have become a champion of environmental sustainability, not just in Ghana but across the world,' he said. 'Through this, you've provided advocacy for the development of education along the lines of environmental sustainability,' Dr Amin Adam said. He said he found it necessary to seek for the Okyehene's support in the country's quest for environmental sustainability due to his personal advocacy in that regard. Among others, the country has instituted the Green Ghana campaign to restore lost forest cover in addition to having Task Forces to halt the degradation of lands and water bodies through illegal mining (galamsey) and other human activities. Those efforts were to culminate into ensuring environmental sustainability and a friendly climate ecosystem for human and animal habitation. To entrench the path for continued success, the Minister announced the resumption of disbursement of funding for the establishment of the University for Environment and Sustainable by the Exim Korea Bank. That, he said, would be pivotal in ensuring a quick progress of the project to enable Ghanaians to study environmental sciences and sustainable development for human existence. Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, who welcomed the Finance Minister and his entourage from Accra, heightened the essence of education in the pursuit of environmental sustainability and national development. He, therefore, asked the minister to ensure continued support for the implementation of the government's Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme. 'Learning will provide an escape from poverty, and all that is put together, we begin to train our young people, allow them to acquire skills and upgrade themselves, and in doing so, change the material standard of living of themselves and their parents,' he said. 'Our country will not go anywhere and will not be a great nation unless we make sure that every child [born in Ghana] will have a desk to write on, a good teacher to learn from,' he noted. The Okyehene expressed confidence on the path the country had taken to educate its citizens, saying, 'I believe that we're going places with this arrangement [Free SHS programme], and we're not about to collapse what all of you started.' Source: Ghana News Agency Kisumu City has announced plans to install 2, 500 CCTV cameras to enhance surveillance and contain runaway crime. A geospatial plan for the project has identified locations for the installation which also targets to track transport mobility in the lakeside city. City Manager Abala Wanga said currently, the city which is the third largest in the country has no CCTV cameras and heavily relied on those installed on private buildings by the business community. This, he said, was not effective in monitoring activities in the city whose population has grown tenfold. The cameras, to be mounted in the city, estates, and strategic points in rural areas, shall be interfaced with street lights to ensure clear monitoring from one point to another. 'We want when somebody has committed a crime on a street in the CBD for example, he is monitored to his destination,' he said. This, he added, shall also apply to motor vehicles, public service vehicles boda boda, and tuk tuks to ensure the city remained safe. He said al l boda boda operators were going to be registered with the two-wheelers fitted with GPS devices to track their movement. The initiative, to be rolled out under the urban resilience mass transport initiative through the World Bank-funded Kisumu Urban Project (KUP), was in response to a spike in the number of criminal activities associated with the operators, he said. 'Anywhere there is a crime or robbery incident you will always find a boda boda person there. That is why we want them registered with GPIS so that we can monitor them through the system and the CCTV cameras,' he said. Wanga disclosed that the city management has issued new directives rerouting public transport adding that the CCTV cameras would help to track non-compliant operators. Under the new directive, vehicles coming from Busia and Bondo will take a detour at the Paramount area and come to Mamba before heading to the main bus park through Ondiek Road while town service vehicles will drop passengers at Patel roundabout and will not be al lowed to the CBD, he said. 'Vehicles coming through Mombasa road will drop passengers at the interchange to ensure that the highway remains clear for transiting vehicles,' Wanga stipulated. All bus companies have been allocated space at the new Mowlen stage and will not be allowed to have offices within the CBD, he added. 'I am asking all the bus operators to comply with this directive failure to which their vehicles shall be clumped starting tomorrow,' he said. Illegal bus parks at petrol stations, Kisumu Boys, Kisumu Girls, Aga Khan, and Kamas areas have been outlawed, he warned. Source: Kenya News Agency
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