STIGMA HOLDS BACK MENTAL HEALTH IN GHANA
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

In 1982, Bernard Akumiah, together with his older brother, built a two-in-one apartment on a plot of land they bought with profits they had made from a business they started.

“My brother brought the capital and I the knowledge and expertise for the business,” says Bernard, 56, and now a user of the psychotropic drugs.

Things started going wrong just a few months after they moved into their new building at Dansoman.

“My brother would go and drink and then come and insult me and mistreat me in front of his friends and people that I am older than,” he says.

Bernard says that his brother’s behavior towards him depressed him.

“It all started when I began to hear sounds like that of what the mosquitoes make in my apartment,” says Bernard. “When I slept I felt like someone was testing my hearing impulse to see if I was alive, so I couldn’t sleep. I would open my eyes and also notice that the light in my room was being regulated, they would dim and brighten, but there was no one in my room.”
He was also hearing some unusual voices, people speaking to him in a language he couldn’t understand.

Fear, Bernard says, was his number one symptom. “If I am in a vehicle and I happen to sit by the door it feels like the door will open and I will fall out of the moving vehicle.”

He notes that he started perceiving everybody was after his life. “As we are sitting down here I would begin to think you are planning to kill me,” he says.

After living with the situation for about six months, he was taken to the psychiatric hospital for treatment.

“At first I didn’t understand myself. I would usually lose my memory, but now I can remember a few things with the medicine I am taking.”

Bernard says he has been to the hospital a couple of times after his admission for review and with the help of his doctors medications; he was able to regain self-consciousness.
“All I do now is to take my medicine at night to enable me sleep,” he says.

Stigmatization

Bernard is now a volunteer at the Mental Health Society of Ghana (MEHSOG), and helps represent the needs and interests of people with mental illnesses. He is still discriminated against.
He says people’s attitudes towards him haven’t changed.

“At first I had a lot of family support, they would even bring me food so I didn’t eat the food prepared at the hospital but when I was discharged, there was something like discrimination.”
He says some of his friends and family would avoid seeing him even though he was not violent.
“When they have grouped and I am coming and they see me they will disperse so when I also see that I do not go near them,” he says.

Bernard says the stigma he encountered from his friends and some family members didn’t help with his recovery.

But with the care and love shown him by his church members and some faithful friends, he was able to endure and undergo a successful treatment period.

Dr. Akwasi Osei, director of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, says stigmatization of mentally ill people and their caregivers is quite high.

“There is stigmatization about the condition, stigmatization around the person with the condition and stigma is attached to the people who work in the area of mental illness,” Dr. Osei says.

“We don’t have enough mental health personnel all over the country, because of this discrimination people don’t want to enter the field. You need to be really interested in mental health to practice it in Ghana,” he says.

Dr. Osei attributes stigmatization of mentally ill persons to the fear of the unknown.
“People don’t know exactly what mental illness is and what causes it, and if you don’t know what is causing it then they have reason to fear it,” he says, “People assume a person with mental illness is dangerous.”

He says that because people are credulous beings and want to believe something that they don’t know, they turn to associate superstition with mental illness which further sinks in the attitude of stigma.

This, Dr. Osei says, hinders the treatment of the illness as people with that condition would not want to come out openly and seek treatment because of stigma.

Even after patients have been discharged they often don’t come for review because of the stigma.
But the stigma is not as high as it once was, says Dr. Osei. “If it were to be ten years ago and people saw you entering this place, they will assume you have mental illness but that is not the case now.”

He says there is the need for proper systems to be put in place to educate the public about the illness in order to further reduce the stigma and enhance support for mental patients.

Mental Health System in Ghana

There are three mental health facilities in the country that are only located in the southern regions. “Up north, where the bulk of the patients come from, we don’t have any mental health facility,” says Dr. Osei.

The facilities are institutionally based and, according to Dr. Osei, receive insufficient funding from government, the sole financier of the mental healthcare in the country. “Our system for mental healthcare is quite poor,” he says.

The government spends one per cent of its budget on mental health care. Dr. Osei says it should be increased to at least seven per cent.

“Mental health takes about nine per cent of the burden of disease in the country so why should it have only one per cent of the budget?” he asks.

The current situation coupled with lack of practicing psychiatrists, which number 12 in Ghana, and the refusal of family members to come for their relatives after they have been discharged, has over burdened the healthcare system.

The Accra psychiatric hospital used to have 1,200 patients with only 500 beds. That number has been reduced to 800 patients through the hospital’s program to return treated patients back home.

A nurse, who wants to remain anonymous, says that the hospital has a new 72 hour ward where new patients are kept and assessed before making a decision on whether that patient should be admitted or discharged.

Dr. Osei says that although the government bares the cost for the purchase of the medicines, it is expensive, and supplies remain limited. Risperidone Conste, which is taken every two weeks by the patients, costs GH¢150.

“There are no rapid results when it comes to treating mental illness,” says Dr. Osei. “Treatment can take years so when you don’t get rapid results people don’t feel too encouraged and so take their relatives to prayer camps where they are sometimes chained and their human rights abused.”

Dr. Osei also express concern over the remuneration of the workers in the psychiatric hospital taking into consideration the threat of attack they face in their line of duty. “You ask yourself, ‘Do I want to spend the rest of my life in this facility? No, I would rather go to a place that is more homely,” he says.

Eric, a health assistant at one of the wards at the Accra psychiatric hospital, says he was once attacked by one of the patients when he was on duty.

“I was going to the urinal when I realized one of the patients was behind me, when I turned I saw his hands in the air like he wanted to slap me so I dodged and with the help of some other patients, we took him to came and assisted me to take him to circulation and stabilized him.”
He says he was lucky not to have been injured but some other workers who are not fortunate get wounded by attacks from patients. “Working here is dangerous, sometimes you get wounded and if you are not careful things will not be the same for you.”

The health assistant adds that the workers are always on their guard because of the unsuspected that might occur.

“You must be very careful when you are working here,” Eric says.

Mental Health Bill and the Future

Ghana is yet to pass the Mental Health Bill which is part of the group of health bills currently before Parliament.

The Mental Health Bill was first put before Parliament in 2006. It has gone through its first and second readings and is now at the consideration stage.

Sulemana B.B Bening, Principal Health Planner at the Ministry of Health is confident the mental health bill will soon be passed into law.

“For the mental health bill, I can stick out my neck that before the end of the first quarter of the year, the president will assign his signature to it,” Sulemana says.

Humphrey Kofie, executive secretary of MEHSOG, also says the health committee of parliament has assured the society the bill will be passed by the end of March 2012.

Dr. Osei believes it is a major stride for mental health care.

He believes that with the passage of the bill, the current situation of mental health care will be reversed.

“Healthcare will be community oriented instead of institutionalized, a mental health board and a trust to collect funds for mental healthcare will be established, it will also provide the enforcement power to end rights abuse of mental patients and a department for public education to further reduce stigma and train as well as monitor traditional healers will be established,” he notes.

Dr. Osei adds that the problem of funding will also be solved once the bill is passed.
“The moment the bill is read, the ministry will make an amendment to create the mental health fund and when this is done, most of the problem will be solved” Sulemana says.
He notes that after the bill is passed it will move to the legislative committee who will work alongside key stakeholders and experts in the field to develop alongside with experts to develop the Legislative Instrument.

However, Humphrey believes if the law is passed without a legislative instrument to enforce it, it might end up like the disability law, which has not been enforced for six years for lack of an LI to implement it.

“The future is the legislative instrument,” he says.

Five years of false hope?
Disabled still struggle after 2006 law
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

In 2006, there was hope for the disabled. A new law had been passed guaranteeing free education and training, accessibility to public places and accessible transportation.

However, five years after the passage of the law, disabled persons still cannot access all public places. They cannot get on a vehicle. And they are still discriminated against.

“The challenge we face is that of people thinking or feeling or believing that people with disability do not deserve to live, or to exist,” says Max Vardon, executive secretary of the National Council on Persons with Disability (NCPD).

The Persons with Disability Act (PDA) was supposed to make it possible for the disabled to fully enjoy the rights enshrined in Article 29 of the 1992 Constitution of the republic of Ghana.
It further called for the creation of disability desks at employment centers nationwide, as well as the creation of the NCPD, which is supposed to oversee the implementation of some national programs for disabled people.

However, some stakeholders have yet to implement the provisions, while others are moving at a snail’s pace.

Issues such as discrimination, making public buildings disability friendly, education, and employment, and funding are still pending clarifications and changes.
Discrimination

Section 4 (1) of the act states: “A person shall not discriminate against, exploit or subject a person with disability to abusive or degrading treatment.”
Section 2 of Article 4 of the act also states that employers shall not discriminate against a prospective employee on grounds of disability, unless the disability is relevant to the employment.

Nonetheless, George Amoah, who became physically challenged after suffering a spinal injury in an accident, believes a subtle discrimination still exists against persons with disabilities.
“Persons with disabilities are still discriminated against and categorized in a certain way,” says Amoah. “To a large degree, that’s the mindset of corporate Ghana.”

Amoah also pointed out that employers sometimes turn away qualified disabled persons.

“They don’t have to put it in a rude manner,” he says. “You can see for yourself that you can’t come.”

Discrimination can also happen outside corporate boardrooms. Emmanuel Joseph, paralyzed at age 22, lies on cardboard in Accra’s business district. He begs for alms from passersby.
Joseph lives with his brother but takes care of himself through begging. He starts his business of begging, which earns him approximately GH¢5 per day, from seven in the morning. He goes until sunset.
“Sometimes I get insulted,” he says. “Sometimes people also beat me.”

Mawutor Ablo, deputy director of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, however, says there is an ongoing sensitization program to educate the public on the rights of persons with disabilities.

Accessibility to Buildings

Amoah, now an employee at a major bank, says even though he can access his present workplace, his previous place of work was not accessible.

“I had to be carried up the stairs by people, and that was risky for me because you can slip and fall.”

He says a lot of companies cannot afford the investment of making their workplaces accessible.
“You apply for a job, show up and you see it’s all staircases, no lifts. You can’t access the place.”

Isaac Tuggun, another physically challenged person who works as an Advocacy and Monitoring and Evaluation officer of the Ghana Federation of the Disabled (GFD) believes government’s slow pace in addressing issues pertaining to persons with disabilities has contributed to non-implementation of the provisions by stakeholders.

“We are still way behind so far as the implementation of the provisions is concerned,” says Tuggun.

He says the legislative instrument first drafted in 2010, which would give impetus to the implementation of some of the provisions of the Act, is still not ready.

He observes that not all provisions even require the legislative instrument.
“The 10-year moratorium for buildings to become accessible, as well as new ones, does not require the legislative instrument,” says Tuggun.

He notes that new structures are coming up, springing up here and there, with steep stairs and open gutters.

“Are we going to sit down and wait until the last day of the tenth year?” he asks.
Ablo agrees with the accessibility provision of the act.

“Certainly the law makes provisions that all public buildings should be made accessible to persons with disabilities in 10 years (from 2006),” he says.

He says the NCPD secretariat has actually taken that issue on board.

“They’re having discussion with key stakeholders, trying to sensitize them to make buildings accessible,” he says, adding that the ministry has taken the lead. “You can see that we have put up a disability ramp.”

Ablo is however unsure about other government ministries. The Ministry of Social Welfare is the only ministry in Accra Central with a ramp.

“They are all aware of the law. Attention is being drawn to that. But you also have to look at feasibility and whether there is space, I think in time you will see this issue addressed.”

Employment

The Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare has the responsibility of securing employment for persons with disability through the Public Employment Centre.

The act further explains that if the name of a person with disability remains on the job search list for more than two years, the ministry shall give the person appropriate training, provide that person with necessary working tools and assist the person to access loan capital to start a business.

Amoah, who got his present job as a result of an employment fair organized by a non-governmental organization, says his colleagues do not have the same opportunity.

“They don’t at all,” he says.

He notes the lack of jobs poses a difficult challenge.

“They have to depend on family. Some will have to find some menial jobs, and a few of them you see begging. Most of them do jobs that they are way above, but they have to survive.”

Ablo, on the other hand, says government is responsive to disabled job hunters. He says the department of social welfare has worked to train disabled people in vocations.

He says district officers also try to identify disabled people for the community based rehabilitation program.

“They identify some economic action at the various communities in terms of local resources, and then they train some disabled people with local resources so they can sell things in the market and make a living.”

He adds that government has also made provisions for private organizations who recruit people with disabilities.

“They will have some tax based incentives.”

Employers will get a rebate of one per cent of their taxable income for each disabled person they hire.

Education

It is mandatory for parents or guardians of children with disabilities to send them to school, according to the act. If a parent does not send such a child to school, he or she is guilty of a criminal offence.

The government has also agreed to provide free education for persons with disabilities and to establish special schools if such persons are unable to enroll in the formal schools.

In his view, Amoah wants government to be more proactive and create opportunities.

“With education, it has to start right from scratch,” he says. “If the person does not have skills, then they can’t participate in mainstream economic activity.”

Ablo stresses government has made provisions for free education for persons with disability, but Tuggun questions the level at which education is free for persons with disabilities.

“If it’s just the basic level, we are all entitled. So what level is a person with disabilities going to enjoy?”

Fund Allocation for Persons with Disability

In 1993, the Government of Ghana started the District Assembly’s Common Fund (DACF) as part of Ghana’s decentralization agenda.

Government in 2005 pledged two per cent of the DACF for persons with disabilities.
The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, and the administrator of the DACF are the duty-bearers.

The two per cent was to be used in areas including advocacy and awareness-raising on the rights and responsibilities of the disabled, strengthening disabled people through organizational development, training of employable skills and apprenticeship.

Other areas include income generating activities, some educational support for children, students and trainees with disability and provision of technical aids, assistive devices, equipment and registration of NHIS.

Tuggun says the allocation was an intervention to mitigate the suffering of persons with disabilities.

He however says most Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembles (MMDA) have refused to allocate the money on grounds that there are no guidelines for its disbursement.

The act’s provisions established the NCPD, and, in 2010, it helped draft guidelines to improve the DACF situation. The guidelines entailed the setting up of account by the MMDA’s for the two per cent allocation.

But a year later, only two-thirds have set up the account. According to documents obtained by Daily Guide, the minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Honorable Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, in a letter dated September 14, 2011, addressed to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), urged all assemblies to implement the provisions in the guidelines and asked for strict compliance with the various sub-headings.

Vardon says the council is aware of the non compliance by the MMDA’s but attributes their indifference to their lack of interest in disability issues.

“The bottom line is that they are not really interested in disability,” he says.

Daily Guide visited the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to find out the cause of the delays. The PRO refused to process the interview request because it was not delivered in an envelope. He then complained that Daily Guide had not shown up to an unrelated programme some days earlier. When Daily Guide said it would be forced to publish his refusal to process the interview request, he and a colleague began shouting.

Vardon adds that according to the World Health Organization, almost 15 per cent of Ghana’s population is with a disability. He says the two per cent of the fund isn’t enough to address the issues experienced by such a large portion of the population.

He says the council is doing its best to raise the visibility of the issue, but until they have representatives in all the 170 MMDAs there is little they can do to make the assemblies comply with the directives of the local government.

Tuggun says the GFD knows that, as of the third quarter of 2010, there was GH$85,350 in an AMA account. He figures the full 2010 allotment will reach GH¢100,000.

“What we plan to do is make sure this money will be properly utilized, so it will change the lives of persons with disability.”

The AMA says it is working toward assembling the required committee to disburse the funds according to guidelines.

Daniel Dzagbatey, chairperson for the committee set up in Tema to oversee the disbursement of the funds, says the community had received its yearly allocation for the three quarters and has distributed according to the guidelines.

“The amount we have received for the three quarters for the year 2010 is GH¢49,578.42.”
He says the money for the first two quarters was distributed to the 18 physically challenged persons and the deaf.

“We gave each GH¢500 to start up a business or open a shop which was in view of poverty alleviation.”

Blind people have also applied, and the committee is now deliberating on how to disburse funds to them according to the guidelines.

Waiting for Justice Life in and After Remand

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

In 2002, Edward Coffie was arrested for car robbery. He was sent to the police headquarters in Accra for interrogation, after which he was taken to the law court for prosecution.

After the prosecution officer presented the case, the judge moved to adjourn, giving Coffie a warrant to stay in remand for two weeks.

Two weeks elapsed, but Coffie did not return to court. He ended up staying in prison for nine years without going to trial.

“The prison officers only told me the police will be coming for me, but they never did,” Coffie says.

A portrait of remand
The 2009 Ghana Prisons Service report showed that out of 39,454 prisoners across the country, 3,709 were on remand, with an average of about 4,000 in daily remand lock-up.

The report also indicated stealing as the most frequent offence, with nearly 4,000 cases, followed by ‘other’ offenses, with over 1,000 cases. Unlawful entry accounted for about 500 cases, and robbery comprised 450 cases.

Furthermore, the account revealed tuberculosis (TB) as the highest cause of death in the prisons, accounting for 30 per cent of deaths, followed by HIV/AIDS, comprising over 13 per cent.

Apart from the above challenges, these suspected criminals on remand may be kept in a separate area demarcated with barbed wires, as was the case in Nsawam, where Coffie was held.

They are not granted the liberty to engage in rehabilitation or reformation activities, and their living condition is nothing to write home about.
“I was not included in the things the real prisoners do,” says Solomon Attoh, who was also in remand at Nsawam for 8 years. He was released May 12th 2011. “I didn’t do anything. I just sat at one place.”

Coffie experienced similar segregation.
“I was not given either a prison attire or uniform,” he says. “The prison officers said I was not a convict, so the clothes I took to the prison was what I wore there.”

Isidore Tufuor, a lawyer and supervisor of the non-governmental Access to Justice programme, which helps remand prisoners access courts, says the problem is one that has bedeviled the prison service.

“A room originally built for about 20 people is now carrying two times the number, sometimes even more,” he says. “One of the things you see when you visit the remand prison is the prisoners degenerating physically, rashes all over, skin diseases. It’s a perennial thing.”

Alhassan Yahyah Seini is the director of Ghana’s Legal Aid Scheme.
“There is a certain discrimination against those who are presumed innocent in the prisons,” he says.

He attributes this to the refusal of prison officers to release remand prisoners when their warrant expires. Convicts, meanwhile, do not stay a day longer than the period given by the courts.

“But a remand prisoner will be kept even though his warrant has elapsed,” he continues. “When it comes to a remand person, he has to justify why he should be released, even though he has no warrant covering him.”

The cause of delay
Although the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana makes provision for arrested persons to have access to lawyers, remand prisoner are often denied this right.
“The people do not have access to lawyers, so quiet often they stay beyond what they should stay,” Seini states.

He further explains that the court has the mandate to convict as well as warrant a person into remand.

“With our crowded courts, if it gets late in the day without all the cases being called, the rest of the cases are left with out a date being fixed,” he says. “So the prosecutors carry their files and go, and that ends the matter.”
The court therefore loses the records, thereby giving no chance for that person to be brought back to court.

These are just a few of the flashpoints of a larger problem.
“It’s attributable to all the stakeholders,” says Tufuor, whose organization has discharged 400 remand prisoners since 2009.

“When it comes to arresting people, they are very swift, but conducting investigation and presenting the person before court for trial, the problem comes up. Test delays and vehicles are not available, so they cannot prosecute. So the person stays in remand.”

Furthermore, evidence is not sent to the attorney general’s department, so the state can’t decide whether or not to prosecute.

“You go to the judges, and they also cannot prosecute if the evidence has not come to the floor.”

In its quest to ensure members are law abiding, society shows public outburst if prison officers dare release somebody who the public thinks is a criminal and who the judge released because the prosecution is not ready.

The issue of legal aid
The Legal Aid Scheme is a body mandated by an act of parliament to provide free legal assistance to those who cannot afford the services of a lawyer.

The system caters for two categories of people: those who find themselves protecting the constitution, and those who need to protect their legal rights but are not capable of assessing legal assistance because of cost.

Legal assistance is therefore the right of every citizen of Ghana, yet its accessibility is a problem.

The scheme employs 14 lawyers nationwide. Both Accra and Kumasi have three. Ho, Sunyani and Tamale have two each. There’s one in both Koforidua and Cape Coast.
As a result of the activities of legal aid, a lot of lapsed warrant has been corrected, says Seini.

“Some who had to be released were released, either on bail or just discharged,” he adds. “The percentage of remand people has fallen form figures from the prisons.”
Albeit, the scheme director says the cases that are handled by the lawyers keep increasing significantly over the years.

“In 2008, 6,212 cases were handled by the legal aid scheme across the country; it has since seen an increase by 400 in 2009 and 1000 in 2010.”
As the number of cases increase, the burden on lawyers also raises, and this poses a challenge to the effectiveness of the scheme.

The government introduced the Justice For All programme to decongest the country’s prisons of the large numbers of remand prisoners.

According to a document from the attorney general’s department, in 2009 and 2010 special courts were held to consider the cases of prisoners with expired warrants.

“On 29 July and 1 August 2011, special courts again sat in Nsawan and dealt with 245 cases. Out of these, 71 were discharged, 75 granted bill, and nine convicted. The remaining 90 applications were refused / withdrawn or adjourned to a later date,” the document states.

Remaining Challenges

“It all depends on budget allocations,” says Tufour. “Funds, funds, all the time.”
He believes government priority plays a roll in the lack of equipment the police service needs for swift investigations.

“It takes minutes for somebody to be arrested at the airport with cocaine, but for the prisoner, it takes years. So it is all about priorities.”

The attorney general’s department of the Ministry of Justice is also not properly resourced.

Hans Emmanuel Adde, legal services coordinator of NGO Projects Abroad, thinks the attorney general’s department has become a transient quarters for lawyers.

“They are not being treated as professionals. So a single criminal case passes through half a dozen newly qualified solicitors before it appears on a court list.”
The Legal Aid Scheme also faces shortcomings in the discharge of it’s duties.

“The basic challenge is lack of lawyers,” says Seini. “We have over 1,000 people in prison without warrant and just a few lawyers.”

Government says it will pay legal aid lawyers 20 per cent of the Bar’s standard rate. But the money is not easy to come by. The non-payment of regular fees frustrates the lawyers, as some decide to do it gratis or abort the case altogether.

“We try to employ some lawyers, but certainly the conditions under which lawyers work as public servants is not the thing that many lawyers will want to take.”

The Department of Social Welfare, which oversees some of Ghana’s social security policies, like Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty programme.

When ex-convicts come out from prison, there is no social security policy to help them start life afresh and fit back into the society.

“The social department is not working,” says Tufour. “If you are in prison, and you come out, you have to cope somehow. For those who cannot cope and have not got any friends or any family members, will have to survive through the committing of crimes.”

Attoh has no social support, so he has to earn a living by helping his aunt in her food business.

“My greatest problem now that I am out is a job,” he laments. “I don’t have a job. All I want is to wake up and have a place to go and work to earn some money.”
Although he is coping with the difficulties of a free world, he is tempted to go back into the activities that took him to remand.

“What I am going through now is very difficult and I think that if I don’t restrain myself and contain my hunger, I will go back to those activities that took me to Nsawan.”

The way forward

Seeing the need to fill in the gap and reintegrate these suspected criminals back into society, at least one non-governmental organizations has taken the mantle and started a school of restoration for ex-convicts.

These newcomers in the world they left for years are taken through teachings that will heal their wounded hearts and reconcile them back into society and with their families.

Fraser Ayee Alias Kawawa, an ex-convict released in 2009 after being in prison for robbery and terrorism since 1988, was initially on death row and ultimately pardoned and released. He was in prison when he heard a message that changed his life during a donation by Royal House Chapel.

The church after the visit decided to organize a school of restoration for ex-convicts, and Ayee was among the first batch of students.

“Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah taught us about forgiveness, responsibility and how to reconcile with our society and family. He bought bicycles for us, the first 10 students, and also gave us GH¢10 from Monday to Friday and clothing in exchange for labor.”

Ayee, now a graduate from the school, has found inner peace and has readjusted back into his society, but others who do not have the same opportunity as Ayee will have to ‘survive’ somehow.

“All we want the government to do is to give us work to do,” Attoh pleads. “If we are given jobs, we will not have any problem and the country will be more peaceful.”

Tafi-Atome Hosts Tourism Day

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
THE TAFI-ATOME community in the Hohoe municipality of the Volta region will on September 27 mark World Tourism Day to commemorate the symbiotic relationship between tourism and culture. The day set aside by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), is aimed at highlighting ways by which tourism could be used as a vehicle to promote peaceful co-existence and mutual trust among people with diverse cultural/ethnic backgrounds and orientations. This year’s celebration is under the theme “Tourism: Linking Cultures.” Prince Boakye-Boateng, Director of Public Relations at the Tourism Ministry said in a statement that regional celebrations will be held nationwide with the national event taking place at the Tafi-Atome Monkey Sanctuary in the Hohoe municipality. Outlining highlights of the event, Boakye-Boateng said they “include a tour of tourist attraction sites with the Kpando/Hohoe circuit on Saturday, September 24. The celebration will be climaxed by a grand durbar at Tafi-Atome on Tuesday, September 27, 2011.” He added that a traditional Gastronomy (food fair), arts and crafts exhibition and cultural performance will also be held to showcase the unique cultural heritage of Ghana. Minister of Tourism, Akua Sena Dansua also in the statement called on corporate Ghana and individuals to support the event. “We invite Ghanaians, especially policy makers, stakeholders in the industry and potential investors to take time off their work schedules to take part in the celebration so as to appreciate the potential benefit of the sector and national economy.” She said the tourism sector contributed GH¢1.8 billion to the national economy, an equivalent of 6.2% of the Gross Domestic Product for the previous year, and if given the needed attention and capital injection, “tourism can become the number one and most sustainable foreign exchange earner for the country.”

AMA Extends Deadline • To Ban Truck Pushing

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri THE ACCRA Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has extended the deadline for banning push trucks in the metropolis from September 15 to September 30, 2011. The change in date comes as a result of a request made by executives of the Trucks Pushers and Truck and Scrap Dealers Associations to the AMA during a meeting in Accra. Lawyer Yaw Twumasi Ankrah, legal officer of the assembly, announcing the new date to the truck pushers, said even though the AMA has granted their request by extending the date, it would be the last. “We were going to enforce it from yesterday, but your executives came to us and pleaded for extension of time.” Lawyer Ankrah therefore noted that the enforcement date will start from 1st October, 2011. This he said was to reduce the reports of accidents caused by push trucks. He further announced the registration and issuance of number plates for the trucks. “The AMA will absorb the cost of the number plates but you will pay the business operating tax of GH¢1 per month,” lawyer Ankrah noted. Furthermore, he indicated that the truck pushers had till the end of September 2011 to finish registration as the assembly had so far registered 500 trucks. Reiterating the earlier plans of the AMA, Lawyer Ankrah said the trucks will be allowed to operate in markets areas but not on major streets and ceremonial roads. “Liberation Circle Roads, Nima High way, Oxford Street, Osu, Roman Ridge Round About, through Roman Catholic Cathedral, Trade Union Congress (TUC) to Old Parliament House are also included,” he said. The legal officer of the assembly observed that any truck pusher who fails to abide by the new rules will be cautioned and then fined if the offence is repeated.

Caption: Nii Armah Ashitey with the members of the Greater Accra House of Chiefs in a group photo.

Postal & Courier Services Membership Increase

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri THE GHANA Post and Private Courier operators recorded an increase in their membership with the registration of seven new private courier firms. The Postal & Courier Services Regulatory Commission, which made this known, said the registration of the new members brings to 70 the number of registered postal & courier firms in the country. Osabarima Ansah Sasraku III, chairman of the board of commissioners, disclosed this at the 4th annual stakeholders’ forum held for postal & courier operators under the theme: “Empowering the Postal & Courier Operator for Efficient Service Delivery” in Accra. In his remarks, the chairman said the increase in the number of registered operators was as a result of vigorous exercise by the commission to ensure that illegal operators were weeded out. Osabarima Ansah Sasraku III outlining the progress of the commission said a new brochure on the processes of acquiring operating licence by prospective postal and courier firms will soon be made available to operators. He also stated that the commission was in the process of launching an aggressive public education and awareness programme. This is to ensure that the existence and functions of the commission were well known to business people. “That campaign will also be used to educate consumers about their rights and obligations.” The board chairman said once the postal system remained the only cost-effective and easily accessible means of communication particularly for people in rural areas, consumers demanded fast and efficient deliveries and therefore any failure on the part of operator could be detrimental to the interest of consumers. He, however, noted that the commission will impose stiffer sanctions against any person, individual or institution that operated a courier business in any country without licence. “We will continue to engage the police to clamp down all illegal operators as such activities do not only constitute punishable offence under the Act 649; they also deprive the state of substantial revenue.” Emmanuel Arthur, Public Relations & Customer Affairs Manager of the commission, said the commission, as part of its efforts towards efficient postal and courier regulation, will organise a consumers’ fora in a year to solicit views from customers. He said members of the service would from next year pay a fine of GH¢100 if they failed to renew their licences without any official notice to the commission. He added that the commission was therefore working assiduously with government to ensure that the country had a vibrant and efficient postal service.

Caption: The chairman of the board of commissioners in a group photograph