People, Places, Events
GHANA
Devaluation Currency Rate
The Bank of Ghana has announced that foreign exchange transactions will now be conducted at the rate of thirty cedis to one dollar, thereby making the devaluation of the nation's currency official.This is an equivalent surcharge of 9.9 percent over the previous rate of C 2.75 to $ and takes immediate effect. The Bank's statement subsequently asked all authorised dealers to consider its earlier notice of April 26 concerning the addition of surcharges and bonuses as no longer operative.
PRICES GO UP IN GHANA
New prices have been announced for fuel. They are 35 cedis for a gallon of premium petrol, 30 cedis 50 pesewas for regular, 24 cedis for gas oil and 20 cedis for kerosine.A bottle of beer now sells at 35 cedis and at hotels and discotheques for 36 cedis. A mini size bottle sells at 20 cedis at bars and at hotels, 21 cedis. A bottle of mini stout sells at 25 cedis and 26 cedis in hotels.
Revised prices for cigarettes - State Express and Rothmans King Size are 50 cedis for a packet of super star and 2 cedis 50 pesewas for a stick. A packet of Embassy, Capstan, Pal Mall and Hollywood sell at 40 cedis while a stick of these brands cost 2 cedis.
NEW CMB CHIEF
Mr. Harry Dodoo, former Chairman of the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board has been assigned temporarily as the Chief Executive of the Board.Also, the government has accepted the recommendation of a committee on the restructuring of CMB and accordingly appointed an implementation and monitoring committee to expedite the implementation of the recommendations.
The Committee is under the chairmanship of Col. Mensah Wood commander of support services. The members are Harry Dodoo, Chairman of CMB, Kofi Nyame, Chartered Accountant, Kwasi Ahwoi of the National Cocoa evacuation Committee, Dr. Wireko of GIMPA, Flt.-Lt. Joseph Atiemo and Mr. Fifi-Hesse, Principal Secretary, PNDC Co-ordinating Secretary's office as member Secretary.
GET INVOLVED
The Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), Flt-Lt Rawlings has again asked all Ghanaians to put their shoulders to the wheel to get the revolution moving now that the process of change is being understood both within and outside the country. He was addressing the chiefs and people of Boso in the Eastern Region at a Durbar to mark their yam festival, where he also opened a health centre.Flt-Lt Rawlings noted that the animosity that was generated at the beginning of the revolution has also reduced. He observed that a lot of time has been wasted in dealing with human tension and conflict. But now that things are beginning to stabilize and authority is being harmonized, everyone must get himself involved.
On the provision of basic amenities, the PNDC Chairman emphasized that Government attention and assistance will now be focused on the rural areas, particularly where the people are prepared to assist themselves through communal activity, and he assured the people of Boso that something will be done about their appeal for electricity supply and an improvement in their water supply system.
Flt-Lt Rawlings said all that the PNDC is doing is to make independence more meaningful for all Ghanaians and to ensure more food to feed themselves instead of relying on imported food items for daily consumption and for the celebration of annual festivals.
The real essence of celebration during such festivals is that the people. must have something to show after harvesting their crops at the end of the farming season.
Flt-Lt Rawlings declared that unless Ghanaians learn the wisdom in producing before celebrating, the problems of the nation cannot be solved. He advised Ghanaians to make their culture more meaningful by adapting it to changing circumstances and keeping a balance between the best of both the old and the new.
GHANA-LIBYA TROOP EXCHANGE SUSPENDED
A Ghana Armed Forces press release announced by Accra Radio has stated that the Ghana-Libya Troops Exchange Programme scheduled to begin on October 10, has been postponed indefinitely. The Radio said a new date will be announced in due course.AFP had earlier reported that 120 Libyan soldiers had been due to arrive in Ghana on October 10 for jungle training. They were to have been stationed at Achiase in the Eastern Region. No reasons were given for the postponement.
NIGER: KOUNTCHE IDENTIFIES COUP MAKERS
President Seyni Kountche of Niger has revealed the identity and positions of the main authors of the coup attempt foiled in Niamey last week while he was still in Paris after attending the Franco-African summit in Vittel.According to him they are officers and civilians who had his total trust and who had close ties with him.
In a radio address President Kountche stated that the instigators of the coup attempt included Lt. Amadou Oumaro, alias Bonkano, of the Gendarmerie and his special security adviser, Lt Idrissa Adadou, a presidential guard charged with the President's personal security; Maj Amadou Seydou, the commander of the Niamey battalion of the Niger armed forces; and Lt Sidikou, an officer in the Gendarmerie.
He noted that the world would be composed of such betrayals.
President Kountche said that several instigators of the action were on the run, mainly Lt Amadou Oumaro, Lt Idrissa Amadou and Capt Hamar Bocar, head of the housing and equipment service.
Mahamane Sidikou, a civilian, former television director, and private secretary to the Prime Minister, had written three communiques to be read on the radio once the coup had succeeded, Kountche said. These were to announce the take over by a Niger people's defence council and the overthrow of the Supreme Military Council (CMS), which has been in power since April 1974.
He revealed that the events had caused only one death, a civilian motorcyclist who had not obeyed a summons by soldiers. Four soldiers had been injured, one by accident.
He also emphasized that investigations were underway to determine the real people behind this affair, and especially if any hidden hands could be found in this act of destablization.
NOUAKCHOTT
A former Mauritanian cabinet minister Mohamed Breideleil, and three other top government officials were on Tuesday convicted by a special court.Also convicted was a journalist, Tourad Ould Sidi, and the country's former director of higher education Memed Ould Ahmed.
The names of two top officials also convicted were not disclosed. All were accused of belonging to the pro-Iraqi Baath Party and were arrested in March last year.
ECOWAS TALKS END
The first ECOWAS symposium on the promotion of Intra-community trade has ended in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.A communique issued at the end of the symposium called on members to implement the community's trade liberalisation programme and create ECOWAS national committees to monitor the implementation of all decisions taken by ECOWAS heads of state and council of ministers.
The communique also stressed the importance of the creation of private commercial banks to promote commerce in the sub-region and the need for an "ECO Bank".
The communique said that the bank was to facilitate the operations of businessmen all over West Africa.
INTERNATIONAL COCOA AGREEMENT
Nigeria has said that she is prepared for active and effective participation in the projected re-negotiations of the 1980 International Cocoa Agreement.This pledge was made by the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed Liman, during talks in Lagos with the Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organisation, (ICCO) Dr. K.G. Erbynn.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Agriculture at the end of talks, Nigeria and ICCO accepted that for any worthwhile agreement to be attained, the Ivory Coast and the United States of America, the world's biggest cocoa producer and consumer respectively, as well as the non-sign atories of the last agreement, should be brought into ICCO next year.
CANADA TO OFFER MORE AID
The Canadian government is to increase its economic assistance in Ghana in various fields of development by three-fold in support of the PNDC programme for economic recovery.This was announced by the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana Mr. Frederic Livingstone when he paid a courtesy call on the PNDC chairman Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings at the castle, Osu.
He noted that the programme contained a lot of goodwill and efforts that must be supported to succeed.
Mr. Livingstone said he feels a great deal of satisfaction at the amount of field work done by the PNDC over the past year towards the resuscitation of the economy.
And to boost support for this move, the envoy disclosed among other things that feverish efforts are being made to fund Petro Canada International, a subsidiary of Petro Canada to carry out exploration of petroleum deposits in Ghana.
THE TWO WAYS: One is to suffer; the other is to become a professor of the fact that another suffered.
(Auden, Kierkegaard Anthology)
Gabon
OIL RESERVES FOUND
Gabon has discovered new oil reserves and exploitation is expected to begin without delay.The source did not say how large the reserves were but drilling indicated that oil was exploitable.
The discovery will inject new life into an industry already weak because of the depletion of existing reserves. Production had dropped by about 7 per cent each year, moving from 12 million metric tonnes in 1976 to 7.9 million tonnes last year.
The fall in production coupled with the drop in oil prices caused the government to introduce some austerity measures.
Oil constitutes 80 per cent of Gabon's exports and 65 per cent of its revenue.
Exploitation of the new wells will enable the government to stop the fall in its oil exports and increase production to more than nine million tonnes next year, the source said.
NIGERIA
MORE CONGRATULATE SHAGARI
President Canaan Banana and Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe have sent messages of congratulations to President Shehu Shagari on the occasion of Nigeria's independence anniversary celebration.In a message sent at the weekend, President Banana said that Zimbabwe would always value the friendship and support rendered to it by Nigeria since its independence and hoped that the mutual co-operation between the two countries could continue.
In his message, Mr. Mugabe said: "The government and people of Zimbabwe regard your victory as an assurance that the ties between our two governments and peoples will continue to expand".
He thanked President Shagari for the Federal Government's assistance to Zimbabwe in its various reconstruction programmes, the Harare correspondent reported.
OIL PRODUCTION
Nigeria's total crude oil production for the month of July 1983 was 52,918,545 barrels while the quantity of crude oil export was 40,764,591, according to the monthly oil report by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, (NNPC).The figures represent an average daily production of 1.7 million barrels, and an average export of 1.3 million barrels per day, the report said.
It added that the performance during the month showed an increase of 16 per cent in production and nine per cent export, compared to the figures recorded during the preceding month.
The posted prices for Nigerian crudes which remained constant during the month were 29.48 U.S. dollars per barrel for the high quality grade and 29.21 dollars per barrel for the medium grade while the corresponding official selling prices were 30 dollars and 28 dollars per barrel for the high and medium grades of crude respectively.
PEACE TALKS ON CHAD
Nigeria is prepared to initiate and host any talks aimed at resolving the conflict in Chad.This assurance was given by President Shehu Shagari of Nigeria while exchanging views with the adviser to the French President on African Affairs, Mr. Jean Christopher Mitterand, in Lagos.
The President said that the problem in Chad could be solved only if the Chadians were allowed to elect a government and leaders of their choice.
He said that this could only be possible if the leaders of the various factions in that country were brought together to discuss their problems.
Such a meeting, President Shagari said, should be organised under the auspices of the OAU adding that Nigeria had already put such proposals to all the parties concerned in the conflict.
OJUKWU LOSES SEAT
A three-man federal appeal court panel, headed by Justice John Phil Ebosie, has unanimously overturned the judgement of Nnewi high court which ruled that Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu won the Onitsha senatorial seat.The three justices in their separate judgements indicted the lower court for its ruling and picked holes in Chief Ojukwu's petition for failing to join Fedeco's (Federal Electoral Commission) returning officer as a defendant.
The panel said that the lower court erred "in not attaching due importance to the evidence of both the Nigerian security organization and the police agents" that they had seen no violent atmosphere as alleged in Onitsha North-East constituency whose results the lower court had cancelled.
The panel, however, held that the lower court had jurisdiction to hear Chief Ojukwu's petition against Fedeco's declaration of Dr Edwin On wudiwe as winner of the Onitsha senatorial election. The judges, Justice John Phil-Ebosie, Justice Olaide Olatawura and Justice Sani Aikawa, awarded 2,000 naira costs in favour of Dr Onwudiwe.
GRANT FOR INSTITUTE
The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, has been granted about two million US Dollars by Switzerland for the biological control of two major cassava pests in Africa.A statement from the Institute said that the Swiss grant would finance a continental project to control cassava mealybug and the cassava green spider mite.
According to the statement, the two pests cause a loss of about 1.8 billion dollars in cassava yield each year.
