Ab TV GH

Author: Bright Apeku

  • Let’s save fisheries industry from collapse

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    On the average, Ghana imports about $300 million worth of seafood and fish products annually.

    But the question that begs for answer is, why will the country import so much seafood and fish products when it has been blessed with a coastline spanning hundreds of kilometres, unlike some countries which are landlocked?

    Apart from that, a vast expanse of the Volta River, the largest river basin in sub-saharan Africa, which passes through six West African countries, is also shared by the Volta, Eastern and Northern regions of Ghana and provides some of our fish needs.

    Other big rivers are found in most of the regions of the country and offer a vocation to communities bordering those water bodies, as well as provide fish and other produce of aquaculture for indigenes and other people.

    In spite of all these, the fisheries sector is saddled with major challenges and, if care is not taken, it could lead to a total collapse of the whole industry.

    The pointers are in the massive importation of seafood and fish products from other countries because the current supply is inadequate to meet local demand.

    Not too long ago, the country could boast of the State Fishing Corporation, Mankoadze Fisheries, among others, which had big fishing vessels and trawlers and huge cold stores which ensured that there was enough fish and marine products to go round all-year round.

    The fisheries sector was also booming, with our fishermen landing big catches, fisher folks engaging in brisk business and those in the value chain finding worthy vocations.

    Now wholly Ghanaian-owned companies, such as Mankoadze Fisheries, are no more and gradually the local industry is going into oblivion, with fishermen ruing their low catches, despite the introduction of a closed season of fishing and the creation of a Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development to see to the growth of the sector.

    While we laud the government for its efforts to sustain the fisheries sector through the supply of premix fuel and the construction of landing beaches, the challenges inherent in the sector need more robust actions and policies to ensure that our fisheries industry is not made to die prematurely.

    It is becoming obvious that we are gradually ceding our fisheries sector to foreigners, especially when it comes to trawling and being in charge of the business.

    Sadly, we see that, as has been the case with farming, where we are still using rudimentary implements, such as hoes and machetes, instead of mechanising our agriculture, when it comes to fishing too, we still depend on our canoes, as we have done for many decades.

    In view of that, we have had to give leadership in the business to Chinese and Korean fishers, while we are content to play second fiddle to them.

    We need an immediate radical policy change to equip our local fishermen with the requisite training at the Ghana Maritime University, which used to be the case years ago, so that they become abreast of modern, efficient and sustainable methods of fishing.

    We also need the banks to go to the rescue of our fishermen, so that they are able to upgrade the fishing gear.

    Competitive fishing is no longer just canoe and paddles or outboard motors, as we are practising here.

    In fact, we need to practise scientific fishing so that we can sustainably fish our waters that nature has generously bequeathed to us and be able to even export products to countries in the sub-region.  

    This is why it is also important that Ghana sees to the full implementation of its Fisheries Co-Management Policy that was introduced in 2020 to ensure that all stakeholders along the fisheries value-chain contribute and put their shoulders to the wheel to ensure the growth of the sector.

    While we commend the government for introducing various interventions such as the closed season, we further urge the government not to relent on its efforts to punish individuals who flout fisheries laws as prescribed in the Fisheries Act.

  • FDA must crack the whip

    There is a common saying — we are what we eat. Food safety is paramount in the development of any country.

    That is why the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) was set up to ensure that the food we eat does not harm us.

    Recently, the FDA raised a health alert on the drying of flour on the pavements of roads.

    The flour, the main ingredient for ‘tuo zaafi’, a popular food in Ghana, is often dried along pavements of highways.

    This is often done at the mercy and vagaries of the weather, the dust generated by passers-by who use such pavement and other contaminants.

    Such flour is also exposed to animals and rodents that walk in and out, leaving in their trail, pathogens that eventually end up in the system of the consumers.

    The FDA explained that its surveillance team, as part of its monitoring, observed the practice and had to direct the millers and those who prepare the food to stop the practice.

    They were also made to immediately remove the flour from the pavement, especially along the Kanda Highway in Accra.

    It is a fact that this practice has existed not only in the urban areas, but even in the rural areas where food items are dried in the most unhygienic manner.

    At least, the Daily Graphic is happy that the FDA is taking steps to right those wrongs because it is better late than never.

    We share the concerns of the FDA against the practice because of the obvious health consequences it has on the final consumers of the product of the flour.

    We, however, wish to draw the attention of the FDA to the fact that the pavements are not used to dry only flour, but other food items.

    It is a common sight, particularly along highways, to see flour, cassava, pepper, maize, among others, spread on plastic mats and other materials in the open.

    It is a good step taken by the FDA to issue the instruction for the flour to be taken off the pavement but it went further to engage with the market women and millers.

    From the engagement, it was obvious that they are oblivious of the potential health hazards associated with the practice.

    After all, this is an age-old practice that they had  inherited.

    We commend the FDA for going further to engage other stakeholders such as the local authorities, including the assembly members and the law enforcement agencies, to work with the market women and millers to ensure compliance.  

    The Daily Graphic agrees with the FDA that food safety measures require collective efforts and we all ought to join in the fight to avoid any future outbreak of food-borne diseases.

    The FDA is not present everywhere.

    It is therefore our responsibility to alert the authority.

     We must all, as a nation, go beyond the ‘tuo zaafi’ flour to the canned food we buy in shops and supermarkets.

    The FDA, on countless occasions, has advised the public to check the expiry dates, particularly of food items.

    It has also appealed to the public to report issues of food-related illnesses.

    Last year, it was at the Mallam Atta Market that the FDA busted market women mixing palm oil with dangerous chemicals

    Early this year, it was Yellow Sisi Waakye and recently, the authority had the unpleasant duty of suspending the production and distribution of Anointed Family Water and Rena Aqua Sachet Water. 

    The surveillance unit of the authority is doing well and needs the support of all.

    Let us all help the authority to ensure that we are eating healthy food at all times.

    Truly, our collective effort is needed to ensure that we have a nation with healthy and productive people to spur growth and development.

     For, a healthy nation is a wealthy nation.

  • Ghana Prisons Service commercialising projects laudable idea

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    The Ghana Prisons Service has earnestly started implementing its goal of repositioning itself to reflect the current needs of the country.

    The announcement by its management at the annual Regional Commanders conference in Accra last Thursday that apart from its core mandate of ensuring safe custody and welfare of prisoners to maintain public safety, it had also taken concrete steps to become a major contributor to the nation’s food basket is pleasing.

    The service has also conceived the idea of commercialising and retooling all its workshops and taking agriculture to the next level.

    It is, among other activities, securing funding for its mechanised agriculture to contribute significantly to the food basket of the nation (Daily Graphic, Friday, April 14, 2023.)

    The Daily Graphic is urging the service to sustain those goals and vision, so that other government agencies will emulate the example.

    There have been many calls on metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), as well as other public institutions, to find innovative ways of getting internally generated funds (IGFs), as the prisons service wants to do.

    When that is meticulously carried out, it will enhance the service’s viability and contribution to the economy, since it is becoming clear that the government alone cannot continue to do everything.

    The global economy is gradually shrinking as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, both of which have implications for nations such as Ghana.

    According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook, the baseline forecast for growth was to fall from 3.4 per cent in 2022 to 2.8 per cent in 2023, before settling at 3.0 per cent in 2024.

    Advanced economies are expected to see an especially pronounced growth slowdown, from 2.7 per cent in 2022 to 1.3 per cent in 2023.

    In a possible alternative scenario, with further financial sector stress, global growth was expected to decline from about 2.5 per cent in 2023, with advanced economy growth falling below one per cent, the IMF World Economic Outlook further indicated.

    These projections have implications for the country and the earlier public institutions started becoming innovative, the better it would be for the institutions and the citizenry.

    It is for this reason that the paper thinks the decision by the prisons service to chart a new course to become more viable and contribute to enhancing food security in the country must be applauded.

    The commercialisation of agriculture will ultimately help supplement the food intake of the inmates and make the service stand on its feet to be able to meet its needs without waiting on the government for support.

    The service, apart from its legal mandates set out by the 1992 Constitution and other statutory provisions, has a vision and mission to build a world-class service to attain sustainable public safety through excellence in corrections management and to undertake the safe custody, humane treatment, reformation, rehabilitation and re-integration of inmates to make them responsible, productive and law-abiding citizens to ensure public safety.

    It is gratifying to note that the service is taking deliberate steps to modernise its operations to make it financially viable.

    It is worthy to note that other goals set out by the service to reposition itself to contribute more meaningfully to the nation’s development are modernisation of its management practices and administrative structures, modernisation of staff recruitment, manpower planning and development, as well as work practices, and modernisation of the physical structures and operational equipment.

    The paper hopes that the bold step by the service will not be a nine day’s wonder, for, as the saying goes: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”

    The prisons service has taken the first step and sustained efforts must be made to achieve the targets.

  • Decriminalising suicide – New dawn for mental health

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    Last Tuesday, Ghana took a significant step and joined the group of countries that have decriminalised suicide attempt.

    Until Parliament’s amendment of sections of the Criminal Offences Act on suicide, Ghana was among the 20 countries which still punished people for attempted suicide.

    The repeal of the act followed a Private Member’s Bill, sponsored by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asante Akim Central, Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, who is also the Chairman of the Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Committee of Parliament, and the Ranking Member on the committee and MP for Akatsi South, Bernard Ahiafor.

    Suicide remains a major public health problem worldwide and the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than 700,000 people worldwide die due to suicide every year.

    Also, for every suicide, there are many more people who attempt it.

    In the past, the act was considered a criminal offence to serve as a deterrent to people from trying to take their lives.

    History also reveals that the major religions of the world have classified suicide as a sin or being against the tenets of the religions.

    Therefore, most countries with a dominant religion have incorporated this moral stance into their initially unwritten and subsequently written laws.

    It is instructive to note that statistics available show that criminalising suicide has not achieved its objective and advocates have always maintained that attempted suicide is a public health issue and not an offence, for which reason the survivor should be considered a patient and provided with treatment and not sent to prison.

    According to statistics from Ghana’s Mental Health Authority (MHA), in 2018, the number of people who attempted suicide was 797.

    That rose to 880 in 2019 and 902 in 2021, while the number who died by suicide went up from 69 in 2020 to 86 in 2021.

    There are many cases that are not reported because of stigma and fear of community backlash and legal repercussions.  

    On the contrary, a WHO report and data show that the legal status on suicide around the world in the last 50 years has changed significantly.

    The WHO report (2014) shows that decriminalisation has had some positive effects in countries, including a decline in suicide rates after its decriminalisation, as people with such tendencies have been able to access medical help.

    Thus at the World Health Assembly in 2019, all health ministers agreed that decriminalising suicide was an effective way to reduce deaths by suicide when they approved the WHO Mental Health Action Plan for 2021-2030.

    This is why the Daily Graphic welcomes the bold decision by Parliament to amend the Criminal Offences Act after years of advocacy by the major stakeholders, especially mental health professionals in Ghana.

    With attempted suicide no longer a criminal offence, it is the expectation that people who are battling mental health conditions will be encouraged to seek the right medical help and also receive the necessary support from close relations and friends.

    More so, it will help reduce the stigma, as suicide survivors and their families eventually become victims of stigmatisation, and with the right interventions and help, the country can achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2015-2030.

    The Daily Graphic commends the Psychiatric Association of Ghana (PAG) for its relentless effort at leading a sustained campaign for suicide to be decriminalised and, indeed, all other stakeholders who supported the campaign.

    With the new dawn here, the Daily Graphic would also like to call on the health authorities to provide an efficient health delivery system for mental health and make it more accessible to encourage people to seek the required help they need.