Persons in the Ho Municipality
of the Volta Region who fail to wear nose masks in public places will be made
to pay a spot fine of GH¢20.
This comes after the Ho Municipal Assembly passed a by-law to
that effect.
The Volta Regional Minister Dr Archibald Letsa in a Citi
News interview said the Regional Security Council has
instituted a task force at the various assemblies to oversee the implementation
of the directive.
“The Ho Municipality passed a by-law to institute a fine of a
minimum of GH¢20 for those who will not comply with the directive of wearing a
face mask. We are in the regional capital and we know what is going on. There
is a lot of enforcement in the Ho township.”
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 11th
address made the wearing of face masks mandatory.
He pointed out the Police and law enforcement agencies will
enforce this directive through an Executive Instrument.
“With the doctors and scientists telling us that the virus is
transmitted from human contact, through talking, singing, coughing and
sneezing, which results in sending droplets of the virus from one person to
another, residents of these four regions, and, indeed, all Ghanaians, must
remember that the wearing of masks is now mandatory.”
“Leaving our homes without a face mask or face covering on is
an offence. The Police have been instructed to enforce this directive, which is
the subject of an Executive Instrument,” the President said in his address to
the nation on Sunday.”
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensah has
justified the Commission’s decision to compile a new voter’s register.
Addressing a forum in Accra organized by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Ghana,
the EC Chairperson indicated that the compilation of a new voters’ register is
motivated by the Commission’s desire to ensure a credible general election.
“A bloat in our register could have dire consequences for any election
and as a people, we should go to an election with a mindset that it has to be
credible. We should leave no room for manipulation and I believe that that is
the essence of a biometric register.”
“It is our desire that we leave no room for manipulation at the polling
stations because, under the current situation, any manipulation could have dire
consequences for our election in the sense that it could change the outcome of
an election and these are some of the reasons that informed our decision to
compile a new register.”
Various civil society organisations and the National Democratic Congress
(NDC) have criticised the EC over the intended compilation.
The EC is however bent on carrying on with the move regardless of the
agitations.
EC
faces opposition
The NDC is currently challenging the EC in court on the exclusion of the
old voters’ ID.
The EC presented the Public Election (Amendment) Regulation, 2020 (C.I.
126) to Parliament to amend C.I. 91 in order to change the current
identification requirements.
On June 9, Parliament subsequently voted to
allow the EC to use the Ghana Card and Passports as the
only forms of identification for persons registering to vote after relevant
Constitutional Instrument had matured.
The party fears this amendment will lead to many Ghanaians being
disenfranchised.
The opposition party’s case will be settled on June 23 ahead of the
compilation of the register on June 30.
EC’s
justification
The EC submitted its legal justification for the amendment and described
the old voter ID as “fruit from a poisoned tree” and a breach of Article 42 of
the constitution, which defines who is qualified to register to vote.
The EC cited the court’s judgement in the Abu Ramadan case, where it
indicated that the use of the National Health Insurance Card to register a
voter is inconsistent with Article 42 of the constitution and therefore void.
In line with the
judgement in the Abu Ramadan case,
over 56,000 names registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)
cards were deleted.
The Minister for Health, Kwaku
Agyeman Manu is recovering in hospital after testing positive for COVID-19.
Information available to Citi News indicates that the Minister
has been receiving treatment at the University of Ghana Medical Centre in Accra
over the past week.
Multiple sources in the medical team at the hospital who
confirmed the information to Citi News say the Dormaa Central MP was
admitted to the hospital on Tuesday and is “in a stable condition”.
Citi
News checks at the Health Ministry has corroborated the
story as information there suggests Mr. Agyeman Manu has taken “a few days off
from work” and has not reported to work all week.
The UGMC currently has 4 patients on admission at the ICU
with several others in the main wards of the hospital’s COVID-19 wing.
The Health Minister who announced Ghana’s first COVID-19 case
in a night broadcast in March this year would be the first high profile
government official to have confirmed positive for the novel Coronavirus.
He is known for urging the public to be cautious of the virus
during his regular appearances at the bi-weekly press briefings on COVID-19 by
the Information Ministry which has been conspicuously put on hold for a while.
The information is coming at a time the leader of government
business in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah has lamented how MPs, Parliamentary
Service staff and journalists who tested positive for the virus have refused to
self-isolate.
Although no names have been mentioned, Mr. Mensah Bonsu’s
lamentations suggest more than one person in the House of Legislature has
tested positive and this could include MPs.
Meanwhile, the Mayor of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly
in the Western Region, Anthony K.K. Sam, has passed away due to an illness
close associates have disclosed as COVID-19.
A source at the UGMC in Accra where the MCE died told Citi
News his Coronavirus case was compounded by a failure of the lung.
The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensa Bonsu
has justified the decision of the Electoral Commission to compile a new voters’
register for the 2020 polls.
His comments follow the approval and maturity of the Public Elections
Amendment Regulations (C.I 126).
“The Electoral Commission is the custodian of their own document and they
are telling us that the Charlotte Osei-led Commission who were charged with that
responsibility could not do that and they have inherited a more or less
contaminated system,” he said on Eyewitness News.
Mr. Mensa Bonsu also attributed the seeming division in the House over new
requirements for the compilation of a new voters’ register to partisanship.
Parliamenthad
to vote on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, to
allow the Electoral Commission (EC) to use the Ghana Card and Passports as the
only forms of identification for persons registering to vote.
The vote occurred after the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye,
granted a request from the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu for a division.
The legislators voted in a 102 to 96 decision in favour of the amendment
of the Constitutional Instrument.
The Majority Leader felt the House was unable to reach a consensus on the
new requirements because some members of Parliament had politicized issues
surrounding the amendment of the Constitutional Instrument (C.I) empowering the
EC to organise elections in the country.
“One expects that especially at the level of committee business, there
will be less partisanship. Unfortunately, in this particular matter that was
referred to the Subsidiary Legislation Committee, partisan politics have
already been taken. The Subsidiary Legislation Committee has been polarised and
indeed there was a line drawn on party lines. We have had to contend with it
and deal with the substance.”
The Subsidiary Legislation Committee, which considered the amendment,
could not arrive at a consensus as to whether the exclusion of a driver’s
license and the existing voter ID from the amendment was constitutional.
But according to its report, it recommended by majority decision the
passing of the amendment.
Per the Constitutional Instrument that was first put before Parliament, “a
person who applies for registration as a voter shall provide as evidence of
identification one of the following: a passport, a national identification
card, or one voter registration identification guarantee form as set out in
Form one of the schedule that has been completed and signed by two registered
voters.”
The Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga, had attempted getting the House to
reject the amendment through a motion thatwas rejected by the Speaker of
Parliament.
The National Identification Authority will also begin issuing the
remaining printed Ghana Cards on June 10.
This has led to concerns from observers and political stakeholders who
claim that a significant number of Ghanaians will be disenfranchised because
the National Identification Authority is yet to complete its registration
exercise.
Minority MPs and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have also accused
the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) of conniving with the EC and the NIA to
rig the 2020 elections.
A 28-year-old cocoa farmer at Mile 5 in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem
Municipality has allegedly butchered his wife to death.
The deceased, Regina Efe Incoom, 25, whose arms and hands were chopped off
passed on at the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital.
The body has since been deposited at the same hospital’s morgue for
preservation and autopsy.
Superintendent of Police Jonas Agbevam, Nsuaem District Police Commander,
confirmed the incident to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the suspect, Eric
Arhin was married to the victim for eight years with two children.
He said the couple were natives of Gomoa Tarkwa in the Central Region and
had lived in Mile 5 for five years.
According to the District Commander, the victim who was a cocoa farmer had
been working tirelessly for years to take care of the home while the suspect
looked unconcerned.
He said the victim became fed up with the husband’s behaviour and decided
to seek for divorce so they could go their separate ways.
On Wednesday, June 3, 2020, at about 0900 hours, the victim packed her
personal belongings and the suspect became provoked and went for his machete
while they were in their cocoa farm and inflicted multiple cuts on her after
which he fled from the scene.
Superintendent Agbevam said upon receiving the information, he gathered
some officers and men but while proceeding to the crime scene they met a
helpful witness transporting the victim in a tricycle to the hospital for
treatment.
The police then rushed her to the Dixcove hospital for treatment but the
medical officers on duty referred her to the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital,
adding that, “We later sent the arms and hands that were cut off from the body
to the hospital”.
He has, therefore, appealed to the general public to assist the police to
apprehend the suspect.
Prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus
(COVID-19), the question about who is leading the Digital Transformation (DT)
in an organization has usually been a tussle between the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) / Chief Information Officer
(CIO) as ICT gurus argue for or against any of
the C-level leaders.
However, current trend has indicated
that there is another C-level personnel that is now leading the rapid DT
evolution for most organizations across multiple sectors and industry and that
C-Level personnel is COVID-19.
The pandemic has revealed so much about
the exact positions some organizations are on the DT journey and I have listened
to the various levels of responses.
While some organizations (ICT,
Education, Sports, Music/Entertainment, Food, Religious groups, Transportation,
Non/For Profit) could easily switch and pivot into this new reality seamlessly
(simply because they had invested in the required technologies, people and processes),
others struggled and are still struggling.
WHAT
IS DT?
While trying to look for a simple
definition of DT, I stumbled on a graphic on Institute of ICT Professionals, Ghana, portal and with permission, I am adopting the definition and graphic.
Simply put, DT is the outcome of IT-enabled (ICT-enabled) change that is aligned with achieving business objectives and driven a well-planned strategy.
Just
last week, another friend/boss of mine Mr.
Taopheek Babayeju (CEO,
iCentraConsulting) also did a webinar on this topic and he defined DT
as “the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify
existing — business processes, culture, and
customer experiences to meet changing business and market
requirements”.
He further said, “Digital transformation begins and
ends with how you think about, and engage with, customers”.
Finally, “Digital Transformation is about
re-imagining your business in the Digital
Age”.
WHY DT?
This question is now a no-brainer and has been
answered by COVID-19. With the resultant effects of social (to me it is more
physical) distancing and the need for contactless
solutionsrequired for
business continuity, organizations are not wasting time to be convinced about
DT.
Prior to this, an ICT expert/strategist will have to
go through some or all the points below as they try to convince business
leaders:
Technological Evolution (New
Growth Curve)
Competitive Landscape
(Innovate or Die)
New Venture Creation
Improve Customer Experience
Increase Business
Productivity and Efficiency
Culture Change
Not anymore!! Any organization that does not see the
need for DT now, should not be in business.
How to achieve DT?
The transformation journey must be customized to the
organization in question. However, below is a generic high-level building
blocks I found very interesting made by ionology.
I know DT has become one of the latest
technology lingos and in focus now, however there is a need to be clear about
what DT is not. (Check Figure 2)
For an organization, as you speed up
your DT journey, please do it with the guidance of ICT strategists and experts
(David and Taopheek come highly recommended).
For an employee, you need to be on that
journey too and on a faster track than your organization. To be ready for DT,
you need to develop digital skills that will make you relevant in the new norm.
In the short-term, the new norm is WFH (Work From Home) and some organizations have decided to
continue WFH till end of 2020. You must plunge into it heads-on, it is never
too late to learn new things and adapt your working pattern.
I will talk about the future of work (#futureofwork) in another article. However, do note that DT is on warp speed.
Author:Oluseyi Olaolu LALA MBA, PMP
Fixed/Mobile Broadband/Enterprise Solutions Expert | Project
Manager |Leadership and
Personal Development Enthusiast
