Nkrumah’s independence attainment was just first step to his great dream Commander Valdes

     Commander Jorge Risquet Valdes, Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, says the attainment of independence in the eyes of late Dr Kwame Nkrumah was only the beginning of the first step of his great dream.

     He said his great cause was to achieve independence and unity for the whole African Continent.

     Commander Valdes was speaking on the topic: “The Contribution of Dr Kwame Nkrumah to the struggle against imperialism” at a symposium to mark the 103 birthday of the late first President of Ghana in Accra on Friday.

     The event jointly organised by the Socialist Forum of Ghana and the Ministry of Information, was on the theme: “Nkrumah Never Dies”.

     He said it would be pretentious to recount the impact of that decade of struggle by Dr Nkrumah, the fighting hero, strong, intelligent, with the burning desire to sensitise, motivate, mobilise and assemble the masses towards the achievement of total independence.

     He said the struggle for unity of the newly liberated nations and the assistance given to countries that were still fighting for independence was a permanent feature of Dr Nkrumah.

     Commander Valdes said over the thirty-year of Ghana-Cuba cooperation about 900 Cubans had served in Ghana, particularly in the health sector. Currently there are 200 of compatriots working in Ghana.

     “During the same period about 1200 Ghanaians students have been offered Cuban scholarships to study at the secondary and tertiary levels in various field,” he noted.

     He said under the current economic conditions in Ghana and Cuba, there were collaborations which were of mutual beneficial to both countries.

     President John Mahama, who was represented by Ms Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, called on the youth to learn from the values of Dr Nkrumah, which were strategic thinking, strong organisation and confidence to improve on their lives for national development.

     He said if not for the visionary leadership of Dr Nkrumah the country would not have gotten the Akosombo Dam and some other state institutions which transformed the economy of the country.

     President Mahama noted that Dr Nkrumah believed in the idea of giving the youth the opportunity to contribute to the development of the country, hence the expansion of education to empower them.

     Mr Kwesi Pratt, Member of the Socialist Forum said what the public expected from politicians was nothing but conditions that would improve on their lives.

     He said politicians ought to listen to the electorate for their concerns to be addressed, since they were the same people who voted them into power.  

Expert sounds warning on current ITU proposals on Internet

     Current proposals from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) member states on Internet development could slow economic progress; raise costs on users who can least afford them and limit internet access in developing countries. 

     Analyzing the proposals, which were from member states in Africa and the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO), Dr. Rohan Samarajiva, former Sri Lankan Telecommunication regulator, said they could artificially raise the cost of network interconnection, content delivery, and quality of service, and that these costs would ultimately be passed along to those least able to afford them or would result in exclusion from the Internet economy.

     These were contained in a press statement issued by Dr Samarajiva on Friday and copied to the Ghana News Agency together with the full report of his analysis of the proposals.  

  

     In his critique titled: “A Giant Step Backward or the Way Forward? An Analysis of Some Proposals before the WCIT,” he said, when approved they would open a door for the creation of a top-down, inflexible international regulatory regime for the Internet, much in conflict with the current framework that has enabled growth in access, innovation, entrepreneurship and economic activity.

     The proposals are to be discussed and voted on at the upcoming World Congress on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) in Dubai this December.

     The ETNO proposal, Dr Samarajiva said would give increased regulatory oversight to the ITU, a step that was unnecessary and counterproductive to Internet growth worldwide. 

     For example, he said, the contribution suggests the “sending party network pays rule,” which would force content providers to pay local telecom operators for the delivery of user-requested data, be implemented by the ITU body as opposed to commercial agreements.

     This he said, suggested a government-sanctioned leveraging tool that operators could use to extract high sums from content providers with no room for negotiation, which could result in the “balkanization” of the Internet, where the majority of multimedia applications are available only to wealthy countries. 

    The proposals also examined the Africa Region, which aimed to expand ITR definitions beyond traditional telephone regulations to encompass the larger ecosystem of the digital economy.

    Again the proposals report was to reverse the liberalized policies currently in place that have delivered affordable and increased connectivity to some of the world’s most remote peoples and places.

    The statement said internet growth in Ghana, for example, follows the trajectory of many developing countries in Africa and Southeast Asia, noting that 2010 to 2011, the ITU reported that Internet penetration in Ghana nearly doubled, increasing from 5.2 percent to 10 percent.
 
    “Policies that reformed government-owned operators, promoted market entry and competition, and established regulatory mechanisms have resulted in a huge increase in telecom access in the developing world, and a regulatory overhaul that reverses this trend is backward-looking,” it added.
 
    The proposal would also look at the expansion of ITR jurisdiction from land-line telephony to encompass the entire Internet ecosystem, the Africa Region proposal supports price regulations, quality of service standards, inter carrier compensation and international financial support for universal service. 

    This dramatic expansion of authority according to the statement would open the door to the regulation of content and speech on the Internet by seeking a greater role for the ITU in setting standards, imposing routing regulations over international traffic, resolving disputes between international operators, imposing obligations on governments in the areas of privacy, security and fraud.

Ghana commences pilot rebate project scheme

     Government through the Energy Commission, has commenced a pilot project dubbed: “Promoting Energy Efficient Appliance and Transformation of Refrigerating Appliance Market in Ghana” to improve the energy efficiency of appliance.

     The project will provide funds to finance the rebates for the purchase of 50,000 new energy efficient refrigerators, after the old operational refrigerator appliance have been surrendered at participating retail shops.

     The project is to establish an energy labelling system, setting and implementing a Minimum Energy Performance Standards and pushing efficiency levels beyond the mandatory standard through a consumer rebate, turn-in and incentive programme.

     Professor Thomas Akabzaa, Chief Director at the Ministry of Energy, who launched the project in Accra on Wednesday, said government had allocated GH¢ 3.00 million for three years to be disbursed in trenches of GH¢1 million per year to run the rebate scheme.

     He said a study conducted in 2006 revealed that refrigerating appliance in Ghana consumed on the average 1,200 kilo watts hour per unit per annum.

     “It is estimated that there are about two million inefficient refrigerating appliances in use throughout the country and the economic cost of the inefficient refrigerators in operation is not only quite enormous in monetary terms but also environmentally unfriendly,” he noted.

     He announced that a refrigerator test facility would be installed by 2013 at the Ghana Standards Authority Laboratories to ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements. 

     He said customers could turn-in their old refrigerator appliance at Somovision and Appliance masters retail shops for the rebate exercise while a participating bank was also there to provide consumer loans to assist customers who could still not afford to top up to buy the brand new energy efficient refrigerators.

     He commended the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environmental Facility for supporting the implementation of the project with an amount of 2 million dollars over the period of three years.

     Mr Eric Antwi Adjei, Coordinator for the project, said the project would strengthen the regulatory and institutional framework, develop monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, and provide training to appliance professionals.

     He said domestic refrigeration appliances would be the first end-use devices to be tackled, with a specific focus to address ozone depleting substances contained in the current stock of equipment.

     He noted that the pilot bases, which had started in Accra and Tema this month was expected to end on 31^st December this year.

     “The project has been designed to erase some of the most significant barriers above and allow a faster transformation process for the market for refrigeration appliances in Ghana,” he added. 

      Mr Kamil Kamaluddeen, UNDP Country Director, called for the creation and sustainability of partnership for effective implementation of the project.

      He said: “If all these and other actors will be able to join and sustain their efforts in an effective and transparent partnership, the rebate scheme will benefit the entire nation.”

      He commended the Energy Commission in its lead in the implementation of the project for an energy efficient appliance market in Ghana.