The regional contests of the 2019 National Science and Maths Quiz (#NSMQ) have commenced in the Volta regional capital, Ho with Senior High schools from the Volta/Oti regions competing for spots at the national competition.
Day one of the 4-day competition on Monday saw keen contest among 15 schools in four groups, out of which four schools, including debutants, Adaklu SHS emerged victorious in their respective contests to book a spot each at the national contest in Accra.
Adaklu SHS secured a historic spot at the national competition with a narrow win over three other contenders, namely Wovenu, Sokode and Abutia SHTSs in the third contest of the day, which ended 23, 21, three and negative three points respectively.
Similarly, Vakpo SHS won the fourth contest of the day involving Nkonya, Dabala and Three-town SHSs to book its first ever appearance at the nationals.
In the second contest, Bishop Herman College subdue fellow contenders, Mafi-Kumase and Krachi SHTSs with wider margins to make its way to Accra with Zion College, which also beat off competition from Peki SHTS and Kpedze SHS in the first contest of the day.
The #NSMQ regional competitions continue on Tuesday till Thursday with four contests involving an average of 15 schools per day.
Produced by Primetime Productions Ltd with Support from the Ghana Education Service and the Conference of Heads of Assisted Schools (CHASS), the NSMQ has rekindled academic rivalry among second cycle institutions in the country in the past 25 years and counting.
It was moments of inspiration and memories as friends and families gathered at Peki Dzake in the South Dayi District of the Volta Region for a thanksgiving and memorial service at Tomb site of Ghanaian industrialist and microlending pioneer, Dr. Mrs. Esther Afua Ocloo (nee Nkulenu) who was a proud daughter of the land.
The solemn ceremony which had the widower, children, family, friends and traditional leaders in attendance, was also attended by workers of her company, the first food processing plant established some 77 years ago, Nkulenu Industries.
The Women advocate and co-founder of Women World Banking (WWB) International and WWB Ghana to financially empower women, who died in 2002, would have been 100 years on April 18, 2019.
Friends and family at the tomb site for the thanksgiving and memorial service
The service on Saturday formed part of activities lined up including memorial inaugural lecture, photo and other exhibitions by all stakeholders, announcement of launch of essay competition for senior high schools and thanksgiving and memorial service at Achimota, to mark her centenary celebrations under the theme, “Honouring a Legend of Her Time”.
In a sermon at the service, Assistant District Pastor, Madina EP Church, Rev. Jehoiada Godwin Amuzu called on the citizenry to honour the memory of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) Hall of Famer by living her legacies.
According to Rev. Amuzu, that would mean dedicating one’s life to be an inspiration to others, helping the cause of others and through the can-do spirit, give hope to the hopeless as had characterised Dr. Ocloo’s life on earth.
“The biggest homage you can pay to her is emulating her examples. Whatever you are doing, know that God is counting on you to be light. Wherever you are, you must shine.”
Widower, Mr. Ocloo about to lay a wreath on her tomb
Speaking in an interview with Voltaonlinegh.com, the widower, Stephen Ocloo described his late wife as a selfless and dedicated woman who was passionate about empowering women, contributing to the development of Ghanaian industries and promoting Ghana-made goods beyond the shores of Ghana.
Mr. Ocloo said that her dedication had won her several local, national and international awards including 1990 African Prize for Leadership.
He recounted how they met and got married saying, their bond developed when she was the President and he, the Secretary to the Federation of Ghana Industries (initially Ghana Manufacturers’ Association formed by her) which has now become AGI.
Daughter of the one-time Adviser to the Council of Women and Development, Vicentia Canacco spoke of the importance of celebrating her mother saying, “this celebration is to inspire many Ghanaians, women in particular that no matter what they are doing, small or big, they can succeed at something not only for themselves but most importantly, to help others succeed also.”
Mrs. Canacco said though their mother had challenges playing her role as mother because she had to check on the factory, go for meetings, visit the regions to take women through food processing, and carry out her national and international duties, they were inspired by her works and so, did what was expected of them as children.
A black Meteos player pulling through Gabonese opponents
By: Skef | Voltaonlinegh.com |
Ghana’s under-23 team, the Black Meteors have thrashed their opponents 4-0 at the Accra Sports Stadium in the ongoing U-23 African Cup of Nations qualifying matches for Olympic Games to be held later in Tokyo.
The game on Saturday saw a brace from Osman Bukari and a goal each from Kwabena Owusu and Bernard Tekpetey to ensure the Black Meteors secured a good advantage at home.
Coach Ibrahim Tanko and his charges will be travelling to Gabon on Sunday ahead of the return fixture in Libreville.
Ghana is chasing a first appearance at the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations.
A good result in Libreville will see them through to the next round of the qualifiers.
Similarly, the senior national team, the Blacks stars have also qualified and topped their Group after beating Kenya 1-0, thanks to a solitary strike from debutant Caleb Ekuban.
Ghana were pinned in the neck but for a late effort from the Trapzonspor forward. The game ended scoreless in the first half as the Stars missed numerous opportunities.
Blackstars and their Kenyan counterparts in action
Ekuban climbed off the bench to secure the late winner with 7minutes shy off full time.
The lone goal pushed the Black stars to top Group F with 9 points and qualifies with Kenya.
Godwin Edudzi Effah, New MCE for Keta. [(C)Photo Facebook]
By: KALD |Voltaonlinegh.com|
The Keta constituency organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Elikem Sewordor has mounted a strong defense for the new Municipal Chief Executive nominee for Keta, Mr. Godwin Edudzi Effah, following agitations from some party members against his nomination.
He described as untrue claims by the aggrieved party members that, the nominee was an ‘alien’ in the Keta municipality, hence does not deserve the MCE position.
Mr. Effah, an accountant with the Ghana Education Service was nominated by president Akufo-Addo on March 13 as a replace for the current MCE, Mr. Seth Yormewu, who has been moved to the newly inaugurated Anloga District Assembly (which was carved out of Keta Municipality) as its first DCE.
But even before members of the assembly decide the fate of the nominee, the aggrieved party members, made up of some polling station executives, elders and supporters are questioning the eligibility of Mr. Effah, who they claimed is an indigene of Anlo Constituency, where he was Financial Secretary of the party until the last Annual Delegates’ Conference in February, 2018.
The group which embarked on a demonstration last Friday to press home their demand, have since petitioned President Akufo-Addo through the Volta Regional minister to immediately replace the nominee with an indigene of Keta, else, they would lock him out of office if maintained.
However responding to the claims in a text interview with voltaonlinegh.com, Mr. Sewordor, the constituency organizer, said the group’s conduct was absurd, since the man in question is a card bearing member of the NPP in the Keta constituency, where who lives and votes at every election.
“Someone who was born and bred in Keta and live all his life there cannot metamorphose to be coming from Anloga. He is a member of the Keta constituency and votes here,” he stated, adding that, “the nominee is known party person who has been a financier of the women and youth wings of the party in the constituency.”
Mr. Sewordor indicated that, the aggrieved party members were rather acting out of disappointment as the nomination did not go in favour of their preferred candidate.
He however warned leadership of the party would not hesitate to sanction recalcitrant members who continue to bring the name of the party and the president into disrepute.
Volta Regional Chief Manager, Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Ing. Joseph A. Nkrumah has disclosed that the company established with the mandate of production and distribution of potable water to customers in urban areas of the country, is 54 years on, “still struggling to realise this dream.”
Ing. Nkrumah said the company has been faced with numerous challenges which pose “serious challenge if the country has to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6)” which is about clean water and sanitation by 2030.
He identified problems including “plant limited capacities, lack of proper maintenance, limited distribution network and inadequate funding for infrastructure” as worsening the situation.
According to him, the region including Oti Region has just “four surface conventional water supply plants” and “operates 13 systems” which are inadequate to supply clean water to every urban community stressing,a lot would have to be invested.
“If we look at the demand and supply gap, one would require more than 200 million US dollars to finance water supply projects in both regions. For instance, if you take Ho Municipality, our current water production is just 2.5 million gallons per day whilst the current demand is estimated at 13.5 million gallons per day, forcing us to ration supply in the municipality.”
“This situation is not limited to only Ho. With the exception of Kpando, we ration supply in all our areas of operation,” he added.
Ing. Nkrumah was addressing participants on Friday at a ceremony in Hohoe to mark this year’s World Water Day held on the theme, “Leaving no one behind”.
The Day which is observed around the world on March 22 every year, highlights the importance of freshwater and advocates for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
Excited GWCL ladies pose for the camera
The durbar was preceded by a tree planting exercise at GWCL head works at Hohoe where workers planted about 300 acacia seedlings along the banks of River Dayi (on which the Hohoe water supply plant is based) following an earlier dredging of the river as a means of sustaining the freshwater and ensuring enough raw water all year round.
Ing. Nkrumah said despite the current challenges, “there are plans far advanced at the engineering design stage to construct 3 treatment plants” in the region and appealed to customers such as assemblies, agencies, schools, and hospitals indebted to the company to the tune of Gh¢27.7 million to pay up.
River Dayi at GWCL head works, Hohoe
Mankrado of Gbi-Bla, Togbe Vule V in a speech, was grateful that the phenomenon of water pollution by activities of illegal miners was absent from his area.
Togbe Vule pledged on behalf of his people to grow the trees planted by the workers to protect the river and tasked GWCL to maximise their operations in order to reach every household with safe water saying, “water is life”.
Regional Trade Union Congress (TUC) Boss, Elvis Van-Lare called for attitudinal change among the citizenry (customers) and charged workers of GWCL to work hard to advance the company’s cause of making the dream of SDG 6 by 2030 attainable.
Construction work has commenced on a 2,000 capacity sports complex in the Hohoe Municipality as part of government’s agenda to develop sporting infrastructure across the country to support the unearthing of talents for the various sporting disciplines.
The project being executed by Wembley Sports Construction Company Limited, comprised of a standard artificial Astroturf football pitch, a multipurpose court for volley and basketball, children’s playground, changing rooms, washrooms, a conference facility, flood lights and 2000 capacity spectator stand.
The project design and scope
Mr. John Peter Amewu, Minister of Energy who performed the sod cutting ceremony on behalf of President Akufo-Addo on Friday, said the president was committed to the completion of the project, which first began under the erstwhile Kufour-led New Patriotic Party government but abandoned after change of government in January, 2009.
As a native of the area, the Minister assured the people of his personal commitment towards the development of the municipality and was optimistic the project would be completed within the 7-month schedule to promote sports development.
“This project first commenced in the 2006/7 in the erstwhile President John Agyekum Kufour’s administration but came to a stale because of change of government. His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo is determined that projects of this nature must be completed for the benefits of the citizens of this area. The municipality is a football-loving community, therefore the football capacity and capability of the people needs to be built,” he stated.
The sod-cutting ceremony was witnessed by host of residents, traditional and religious leaders as well as the Hohoe Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Teddy Ofori and the Regional Secretary of the governing NPP, Mr. Joseph Homenya.
DCE, Dickson Dzokpe in Smock Handing over Motor Bike to a Beneficiary
By Fred Asare and Fred Duodu ~ Voltaonlinegh.com ~
237 Persons with Disabilities in the Agotime Ziope District of the Volta Region have received support to engage in profit making ventures to enhance their livelihood.
The beneficiaries who amount to 37 percent of 669 total number of PWDS on the assembly’s disability album were drawn from various backgrounds and locations.
The support they got which the Assembly described as Start-up kits forms part of government’s initiative to make PWDs self-dependent by providing them with livelihood support financed with 3% of the District Assembly’s Common Fund (DACF) for the year. Those yet to benefit amount to 432.
The items were shared in two phases, the first face had 42 beneficiaries while the second phase which is worth about GHC120,000 had 195 beneficiaries.
Beneficiaries of PWDs Share of Common Fund in Agotime-Ziope District for 2018/2019
The beneficiaries, most of whom requested to go into petty trading got 5 double-decker freezers, 105 50 kg bags of beans, 110 105 kg bags of maize, 50 kg 102 bags of Gari, 25 kg 115 bags of rice, 115 25 litres of vegetable cooking oil and 115 cartons of soft drinks.
Two motorbikes were also presented, while some other beneficiaries received cash to cater for their medical needs.
The Agotime Ziope District Chief Executive (DCE), Dickson Dzokpe, entreated the beneficiaries to use the items for the intended purpose. He added the assembly has prioritised the wellbeing of persons with disability and committed to improving their living standards.
The Chairman of the Agotime Ziope District PWDs Association, Prosper Kporku, lauded government for the initiative and prayed that those who have not been served will be served as soon as the next tranche of Common Fund is received from government.
Ho-based artist, Hyfi is one of the best makers of good music from the Volta Region whose tunes are gradually gaining attention in the region.
Hyfi, born Mandy Wisdom Enyam, a nominee for the category of Male Vocalist of the Year at the just ended helloadipa Volta Music Awards 2019, started his musical career in high school while he nursed the dream of becoming a Computer Engineer.
Although he is new to the commercial music scene of the day, his singles have already caught the attention of many of the youth who enjoy listening to his music across the region and on university campuses.
Hyfi in one of his performances
In an interview with Voltaonlinegh showbiz, Hyfi admitted that it is very challenging to gain grounds in the music industry but he is determined to serve the society with his God-given talent; giving relief to every soul through good music.
“My dream is to become one of the greatest artists in few years to come and spread love across the world through music.”
The determined artist who started recording his music in less than 10 months, already has 6 songs and one video to his credit. To him, he intends to inspire the youth of Ghana through his music and also promote education among the youth especially those in the “ghetto”.
“I completed Kpedze Senior High School and currently, a student of University of Ghana, Legon, studying Computer Engineering. This will also contribute to my career and so I want every youth to also go to school, education is the key, you know,” he said.
Speaking on the Awards, Hyfi said although he could not walk home with the award “that encouraged me that the masses have recognised me and I will do more to their satisfaction.”
For his message on promoting music in Volta and Ghana, he said “the world should watch out for me because I have lot of fire coming up.”
The HipHop, AfroPop and HipLife artist of Insane fame has a fan group, HYFGANG who believe in his talents and hope that the world in the near future comes to appreciate his music.
By: Davis Nii Attuquaye Clottey | Voltaonlinegh.com |
With finalists for the girls division already known in the ongoing Volta Cricket U-12 Schools League, Methodist Basic School boys will decide their own fate in the last Group matches to be played on Saturday, March 23, 2019 at the Ho Sports Stadium.
Methodist, 3rd and tied on 4 points with Fiave EP (2nd) has a chance of cementing a final with already qualified Mawuli Basic, if they convincingly defeat Housing MA in the Group A as Anglican tops with 6 points.
Still in Group A, the girls will battle it out for a second spot position as both Housing and Methodist are tied on 4 points each, (2nd and 3rd respectively).
In Group B, it will be a clash of the Catholic schools, Dome RC coming up against Bankoe RC.
Both schools are bottom 2 in the group and will fight for supremacy, bragging rights and escape from bottom of the table.
Meanwhile, Mawuli in the penultimate group matches beat Bankoe RC in both divisions on Saturday, March 16.
In the girls division, Bankoe RC who chose to field first after winning the toss managed 25 runs for 3 wickets as Mawuli scored 63 runs, for no wicket in the first innings. Mawuli then won by 38 runs.
Bankoe RC in the boys game chose to bat first after winning toss and scored 53 runs for 6 after which Mawuli scored 54 runs for 2 wickets in 11.2 overs to win the match by 8 wickets.
Anglican girls failed to turn up, giving Methodist 2 points.
Anglican boys then angrily defeated Methodist in the match that still puts both sides in contention for the finals.
Methodist won toss and elected to field. Anglican remarkably scored 114 runs, for 3 wickets and limited Methodist to 25 runs, all out in 12.2 overs.
The 15 Over Single Round Robin League already has Ho Kpodzi and United MA preparing for the finals on March 30, after both exhibited 100% brilliance in their respective groups.
The U-12 league, sponsored by the Ghana Cricket Association (GCA) will see winners crowned with trophies.
The only regional league in Ghana is one of the ways the GCA intended to develop the skills of players, efficiency of coaches and organisational capacity of the entire Association.
Project Maji Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in collaboration with Global Giving has donated solar-powered mechanised borehole at a cost of 10,000 US dollars to the people of Tefle Kplorduwlor in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region to make potable water accessible to them.
Speaking at the event to commission the project, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Project Maji, Sunil Lalvani said Volta River Authority (VRA) had assisted them in getting a site in the community to establish the project funded by donations from about 100 individuals around the world to provide quality water for good health and also to empower women in rural communities.
Commissioning of the project at a short ceremony
Mr. Lalvani said the project would serve as a relief to school children who hitherto were traveling long hours and distances in search of water and urged residents to take the project like their own and make good use of it.
Project Maji established in 2015 had provided over 30,000 Ghanaians with safe drinking water using a new technology called Solar Water Kiosk. It has about 30 sites constructed nationwide to help address water challenges.
Ebenezer Charway who represented the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources said over the years, the Ministry has been collaborating with a lot of partners to deliver water to the people of Ghana due to the limited resources available in the country to provide water to the ever increasing population of the country.
Mr. Charway indicated that the task of water provision was very huge saying, one of the challenges the Ministry kept facing had to do with maintenance and urged the community members to ensure the project lasted.
The solar-powered mechanised borehole
District Chief Executive (DCE) for South Tongu, Emmanuel Louis Agama thanked Project Maji for the project which he believed would serve the interest of the people.
Mr. Agama called on the NGO to continue with its support in providing safe water to the people saying, communities in Tefle Traditional Area have been suffering for water for decades.
Togbe Nakakpo Dugbaza VIII, Paramount Chief of Tefle and interim President of the Tongu Council of Chiefs who chaired the ceremony advised residents to eschew litigation so that the donors could continue bringing such developmental projects to their door steps.
Assembly member for Kpotame Electoral Area, Mashack Ato Zottor was grateful the NGO and pledged on behalf of the community to ensure proper maintenance of the project.
