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Ghanaians voted in an election seen as a close fight between President Nana Akufo-Addo and his longtime rival John Mahama, in a country long viewed a beacon of stability in a troubled region.
\t On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the West African nation in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in the capital, Conakry.
\t This was the third time that Conde matched-up against Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea's largest ethnic groups.
Doctors without Borders has returned to Guinea to battle the coronavirus.
“We have an epidemic that is much larger than that of Ebola but at the same time causes fewer deaths.
People who went into a centre like this one with Ebola had a 70 percent chance of dying, here it’s the opposite, we have a really low mortality rate”, said Arnaud Badinierm, Head of mission at MSF Guinea.
We have this Ebola experience which really helps us in the response to the COVID-19.
In Conakry, locals are worried about a steady rise in covid-19 cases.
[UN News] It will take a variety of different actors to confront and deal with the \"daunting challenges\" in the Sahel region, the head of UN peacekeeping told the Security Council on Monday.
The establishment of an Oversight Board to make rulings about content moderation on Facebook and Instagram indicates the company's determination to promote the rights of users and freedom of expression, Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei, a human rights lawyer and Programme Manager at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa has said.
The Ghanaian who has been appointed by Facebook to serve as a Board Member of the newly constituted body said the board was expected to provide an avenue for people to challenge Facebook's decisions on content moderation adding that its decisions would be transparent and binding.
The board is one of Facebook's high-profile efforts to respond to criticism over how it handles problematic content and transparency around its decision-making.
The 20 member board Ms Asare-Kyei said would review certain content decisions by Facebook and Instagram and make binding decisions based on respect for freedom of expression and human rights.
Ms Asare-Kyei joins two other Africans - Julie Owono, a digital rights advocate and Executive Director of Internet Sans Frontières from Cameroon and Maina Kiai, a human rights activist and Director of Human Rights Watch's Global Alliances and Partnerships programme from Kenya on the board.
Carnegie Mellon University historian Edda L. Fields Blacks 2008 book, Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora, opened a vast new area of diasporic study by linking the cultivation of rice in Africa to the rise of this crucially important food crop in Colonial South Carolina. What follows is a description of her work and the personal journey that led to that scholarly project.
I grew up in Miami, Florida immersed in Caribbean and Latin American culture with two Gullah-speaking paternal grandparents. My father’s nuclear family had moved to Miami from Green Pond, South Carolina when he was in elementary school. As a child, I remember being aware of the difference between my grandparents’ accents and the West Indian accents that were so familiar to me in southern Florida. Their speech was akin to West Indian immigrants, of which my mother’s family in particular and Miami in general had many.
When I was in grade school, our family began taking my grandmother to Green Pond every summer to visit our relations who still lived in Green Pond, Whitehall, and Over Swamp. My mother’s historical and genealogical research about my father’s family in preparation for and during our family summer vacations was my first inkling of Gullah as both a rich language and culture with its own peculiar history. It also ignited a thirst in me which could not be quenched in a summer vacation. More than anything, I wanted to speak Gullah, a language which my father understood but did not speak (at least not to my knowledge), and therefore could not pass down to me. As the first generation to be born and raised outside of the Low country, I did not want to be the link which broke the chain of transmission.
In hindsight, I chose to study rice farmers and to travel to West Africa’s Rice Coast region, so that I could live and work as my paternal great-grandparents had lived on plantations in Beaufort and Colleton counties, South Carolina. By the time that I began traveling to Sierra Leone and Guinea,
Some Senegalese mosques opened their doors on Friday after the government eased coronavirus restrictions, but others judged the rate of infection too high and stayed shut.
Senegalese President Macky Sall said this week that public prayers could resume in the West African country, provided that mosques obey social-distancing rules.
In the seaside capital Dakar on Friday, according to AFP journalists, thousands of worshippers flocked to Massalikul Jinaan mosque -- which is one of West Africa's largest and belongs to the powerful Mouride brotherhood.
Mosque spokesman Mor Daga Sylla told AFP that religious authorities had insisted the faithful wash their hands and keep one metre away from one another.
Major mosques in the capital, such as the Dakar Grand Mosque and Cheikh Oumar Foutiyou mosque, said this week that they would not open again, for example, citing health risks.
Bamako — As cotton price tumbles during pandemic, farmers worry the state support they rely on to grow food in a warming climate will dry up
For years, Mali's government has helped Yacouba Kone pay for the fertiliser he uses on his cotton crop - as long as he also devotes some of his land in the south to growing cereals.
In Mali, cotton and food are closely linked: To hold the country's spot as one of Africa's top cotton producers and keep its people fed, cotton farmers get state subsidies on the condition that they also cultivate crops like corn and millet.
But now Mali's food production is under threat as the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has sent the price of cotton plummeting, farmers warn, leaving them unable to afford key climate-smart inputs, even with government help.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the price of cotton - traditionally a high earner for farmers - has dropped from 275 West African francs (about $0.50) per kilo to 200 francs.
Ibrahima Coulibaly, president of the National Coordination of Peasant Organisations (CNOP), a non-profit advocacy group, warned that without government support, the pandemic could undo much of the progress Mali's farmers have made in adapting to climate change.
Gunmen have attacked a security post in northern Ivory Coast near the border with Burkina Faso, killing at least 10 soldiers and injuring six others, Ivory Coast’s army chief said Thursday.
Thursday’s early morning assault targeted an army and gendarmerie post in Kafolo in Sikolo prefecture, according to a statement by Armed Forces Chief Lassina Doumbia.
In May, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso launched joint operations along the border region.
Fighters affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have staged a growing number of attacks and gained more territory in the past year in Burkina Faso, displacing more than 750,000 people in that country’s north.
There have been growing concerns over the possible presence of Islamic militants in Ivory Coast.
May 19: govt to explain boom recoveries and address hot spot case management
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,918 (new cases = 183)
Total recoveries = 1,754 (new = 0)
Total deaths = 31 (new = 2)
Active cases = 4,137
\tFigures valid as of May 19, 2020
\t
\tNo new figures were released on Monday but the government through the Information Ministry will release new tallies at a press conference scheduled for later today.
May 17: 5,735 cases, prez fact-checked on testing ‘record’
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5735 (new cases = 97)
Total recoveries = 1,754 (new = 294)
Total deaths = 29 (new = 5)
Active cases = 3,952
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 16, 2020
\tGhana maintained her spot as West Africa’s most impacted after the Health Ministry released latest figures yesterday.
AFP Fact-check – Ghana’s leader falsely claims his country fronts COVID-19 testing
May 16: 5,530 cases, jumbo recoveries
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,638 (new cases = 108)
Total recoveries = 1,460 (new recoveries = 1086)
Total deaths = 24 (new deaths = 0)
Active cases = 4,150
\tGhana recorded a boost in recoveries with a record 1,086 discharges authorities reported early Saturday.
READ MORE – Uniting behind a people’s vaccine against COVID-19
May 14: 5,530 cases, 13 of 16 regions infected
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,530 (new cases = 122)
Total recoveries = 674 (new recoveries = 160)
Active cases = 4,832
\tThirteen of the 16 regions in the country have recorded cases of the disease.
Statistics as at close of day May 13, 2020
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,408 (new cases = 281)
Total recoveries = 514
Total deaths = 24
Active cases = 4,872
May 12: Cases hit 5,127; gold-rich Obuasi new hotspot
\tGhana’s case statistics passed the 5,000 mark after 427 new cases were recorded according to head of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Aboagye.
John F. Hicks is a diplomat and global educator who served as a United States Ambassador to the United Nations (UN). A native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, Hicks was born in 1949. Hicks holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Morehouse College, a diploma and master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C.
His career in international relations and diplomacy began in 1973 when he joined the United Internship Program with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This service propelled him through the ranks where he served in senior leadership positions in Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Zambia, and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. In 1989, Hicks was awarded the Agency’s Senior Foreign Service Presidential Meritorious Service Award.
Hicks received his first presidential appointment in 1993 as the Assistant Administrator for USAID’s Africa Bureau. In this capacity Hicks was responsible for distributing aid in addition to strategically managing United States humanitarian and economic development programs on behalf of Sub-Saharan Africa. Towards the end of his tenure with USAID, he became a member the Senior Foreign Service and was promoted to the rank of Career Minister.
In 1996 President Bill Clinton announced Hicks’s second appointment, as Ambassador to Eritrea. By 1997, Federal investigator Jacquelyn L. Williams-Bridgers had begun investigating Hicks on accusations of sexual misconduct. In September of 1997 Hicks resigned after a report by Williams-Bridgers concluded that he had engaged in sexual misconduct. Hicks was accused of sexual harassment against two secretaries in the U.S. Embassy in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. The women claimed he engaged in inappropriate physical contact and created a hostile work environment for them.
Originally, Hicks denied these accusations and prepared to defend himself in the upcoming hearings. He decided, however, to resign to spare his family embarrassment, and instead to pursue a career in the United
In 2002, the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations formally agreed to the creation of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a so-called 'hybrid court,' to bring justice and reconciliation to the country and region.
David Crane spoke with Tom Sheehy, a long-time staff member on the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives, addressing the Special Court, its lessons, relevancy for today, and the state of contemporary international justice.
I also had a quarterly meeting with all of the civil society organizations of Sierra Leone to discuss their perspectives on justice, the Special Court, and various related issues.
I felt in putting together my General Strategy that the Special Court for Sierra Leone was only one star in a galaxy of stars working together to bring peace to that war-torn land.
Greatest responsibility was the standard by which the Special Court for Sierra Leone was established.
African philosophy is philosophy produced by African people, philosophy that presents African worldviews, or philosophy that uses distinct African philosophical methods.[1] Although African philosophers may be found in the various academic fields of philosophy, such as metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy, and political philosophy, much of the modern African philosophy has been concerned with defining the ethnophilosophical parameters of African philosophy and identifying what differentiates it from other philosophical traditions.[1] One of the implicit assumptions of ethnophilosophy is that a specific culture can have a philosophy that is not applicable and accessible to all peoples and cultures in the world, however this concept is disputed by traditional philosophers.[2] Furthermore, in A Discourse on African Philosophy: A New Perspective on Ubuntu and Transitional Justice in South Africa, Christian B. N. Gade argues that the ethnophilosophical approach to African philosophy as a static group property is highly problematic. His research on ubuntu presents an alternative collective discourse on African philosophy (collective in the sense that it does not focus on any individual in particular) that takes differences, historical developments, and social contexts seriously.
Father of African Philosophy, Uzodinma Nwala, prior to his employment to teach at UNN, there was nothing called African Philosophy as course of study in any university. All we were taught as students were Western philosophy. Nothing like African philosophy existed anywhere. In fact, many years after the introduction of the courses, there still remained arguments among experts, whether there was really African Philosophy. He was awarded the Aime Cesiare award in 2013 at the University of Abuja. African Philosophy can be formally defined as a critical thinking by Africans on their experiences of reality. Nigerian born Philosopher K.C. Anyanwu defined African philosophy as that which concerns itself with the way in which African
The Pan-Africanist Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo
The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, is seeking a second term in the upcoming presidential election on Monday. Although often positively-viewed by many other Africans on the continent and abroad as a Pan-Africanist, his win is not guaranteed in his home country as he must succeed in convincing Ghanaians that he is still the same worthy candidate for whom the majority of the population voted four years prior. Early Days and Career Début
Born in 1944 in the capital, Accra to a family of the national political elite, Akufo-Addo saw his own father Edward Akufo-Addo become president in the late 1960s as a member of the \"Big Six\" i.e. the fathers of independence of the nation of Ghana. Educated in London, Akufo-Addo he worked as a lawyer in France and England — specialising in human rights before returning to Ghana where he eventually became involved with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 1992 when the country returned to democracy following decades of military rule.
His career path as a lawyer then as a member of parliament and minister garnered Akufo-Addo a strong anti-corruption reputation which resulted in high expectations for his presidency.
According to Kwesi Jonah, a researcher at the Ghana Institute for Democratic Governance, \"Everyone saw him as the one who would be able to put an end to corruption.\"
Accusations of mission obstruction by the special prosecutor — who resigned a month later, to oversee a corruption investigation initiative appointed by Akufo-Addo upon his election in December 2016, raised questions about the authenticity of his presidential brand amongst the Ghanian public.
Presidential Term Overview
Kwesi Jonah believes that the 76-year-old Ghanaian president was in a better position to win the election than he is today. President Akufo-Addo had promised to improve education accessibility- a sector which has seen success, and create job employment as a substantial percentage of Ghanian youth is without work.
An asset for the president, in a country where 18 to 35-year-olds represent more than half of the electorate.
He also pledged to diversify the Ghanian economy which has been dependent on primary resources (gold, cocoa and, more recently, oil), and to reduce taxes in the private sector to encourage investment.
Since his election in 2016, although President Akufo-Addo has managed to contain the increase in debt and inflation, more than half of voters believe that he has failed to improve their standard of living and create jobs — according to a survey conducted by Afrobarometer in 2019.
Economically, Ghana has taken a giant step forward in the last decade, but the country - just like most other countries, has been very much affected by the Covid-19 pandemic with its economic growth this year expected to fall to 1.5%, the lowest rate in 37 years.
Another Four Years as President?
Nevertheless, the President’s swift handling of the coronavirus crisis has been applauded both in Ghana and abroad. In particular, the
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday launched a GH¢1 billion COVID-19 Alleviation Business Support Programme to support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the business support programme, which is expected to reach 180 beneficiaries across the country will help minimise job losses in the wake of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aside the GH¢1billion facility for MSMEs, the President indicated that the government will make available a GH¢3 billion credit and stimulus package to help boost businesses.
This is why it is imperative that we support all efforts to ensure the success of the COVID-19 Alleviation Programme (CAP) Business Support Scheme to protect jobs and bring back the country's economy to life when the dust settles.
We urge all businesses to take advantage of the government's support programme and use the funds for the intended purposes to resuscitate their businesses and further enhance Ghana's economic growth.
Skywatchers along a narrow band from west Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, India and southern China will witness on Sunday the most dramatic \"ring of fire\" solar eclipse to shadow the Earth in years.
Annular eclipses occur when the Moon -- passing between Earth and the Sun -- is not quite close enough to our planet to completely obscure sunlight, leaving a thin ring of the solar disc visible.
Remarkably, the eclipse on Sunday arrives on the northern hemisphere's longest day of the year -- the summer solstice -- when Earth's north pole is tilted most directly towards the Sun.
The full eclipse will be visible somewhere on Earth during just under four hours, and one of the last places to see a partially hidden Sun is Taiwan before its path heads out into the Pacific.
A solar eclipse always occurs about two weeks before or after a lunar eclipse, when the Moon moves into Earth's shadow.
Officials from the UN, West Africa and the African Union (AU) have met an influential Muslim cleric behind demonstrations against Mali's beleaguered president, the coalition behind the protests said on Monday.
Tens of thousands of people joined a rally in Bamako last Friday to demand the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was re-elected in 2018 for a second five-year term.
The alliance which organised the protests said \"a delegation from the international community met Imam (Mahmoud) Dicko\" on Sunday.
Its members came from the UN's peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA; the AU; and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), a 15-nation bloc that includes Mali, it said in a statement.
MINUSMA spokesperson Olivier Salgado said the head of the peacekeeping mission, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, \"along with representatives from regional organisations, met certain organisers (of Friday's rally) but also with representatives of national authorities... to find ways of renewing dialogue.\"
Total confirmed cases = 6,269 (new cases = 173)
Total recoveries = 1,898 (new = 125)
Total deaths = 31
Active cases = 4,340
\tFigures valid as of May 21, 2020
May 20: Cases pass 6,000 mark, govt eyes COVID-Organics
\tGhana’s case count passed 6,000 mark reaching 6,096 on Tuesday according to tallies released by the Ghana Health Service.
Total confirmed cases = 6,069
Total recoveries = 1,773
Active cases = 4,292
April 14: 5,530 cases, 13 of 16 regions infected
As trucks stacked up for days, Rwanda and neighboring Tanzania worked out a deal that scrapped plans for relay drivers but mandated transferring cargo at the border, “except for trucks carrying perishable goods and petroleum products destined to Rwanda,” the Kigali government said in a news release Friday.
Kenya last week began mandatory COVID-19 testing for truckers, ordering that they undergo tests 48 hours before leaving the Port of Mombasa — a shipping hub in the country’s second-largest city — or before entering Kenya from elsewhere in East Africa.
But Wednesday, a day after Kenya announced the return of more than 180 foreigners to Tanzania because of positive COVID test results, a Tanzanian regional official accused the Nairobi government of faulty testing.
Zambia also had closed its border with Tanzania for several days last week after several truck drivers, immigration officers and sex workers tested positive for COVID, Reuters reported.
Several heads of state in the EAC bloc — including Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Salva Kiir of South Sudan — last week agreed to double testing of truckers.
Mali on Saturday pledged to investigate claims that the army killed dozens of civilians in its conflict-riven centre, as complaints about the military's conduct in the West African nation escalate.
Some 30 people were killed and a village burnt in the region, officials said, but it was unclear who was behind the latest violence.
Friday's attack targeted a Fulani village named Binedama in the volatile Mopti region, said Aly Barry, an official from Tabital Pulaaku, a Fulani association.
Two other local officials confirmed the attack to AFP, but gave a lower death toll of 26, adding that the village was torched and its chief killed.
Tabital Pulaaku, however, accused Malian soldiers of being responsible but AFP was unable to independently confirm this claim.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday warned that the potential impact of COVID -19 on food security in Africa is likely to exacerbate the already existing burden of malnutrition.
The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, in a press statement said the impact of the disease is expected to be greater among those grappling with food scarcity and malnutrition.
\"COVID-19 is unfolding in Africa against a backdrop of worrying levels of hunger and undernourishment, which could worsen as the virus threatens livelihoods and household economies,\" the statement said.
The WHO said COVID-19 is exacerbating food shortages, as food imports, transportation and agricultural production have all been hampered by a combination of lockdowns, travel restrictions and physical distancing measures.
\"Some countries have already announced measures to mitigate some of the risks of lockdowns on food supply, from in-kind distributions to this week's announcement by Heads of State of the East African Community of their intention to develop a mechanism for tracking and certification of cross-border truck drivers to ensure the safe delivery of essential goods,\" the statement highlighted.
A neighbor of Senegal and Guinea in West Africa, on the Atlantic coast, Guinea-Bissau is about half the size of South Carolina. The country is a low-lying coastal region of swamps, rain forests, and mangrove-covered wetlands, with about 25 islands off the coast. The Bijagos archipelago extends 30 mi (48 km) out to sea.
Republic.
The land now known as Guinea-Bissau was once the kingdom of Gabú, which was part of the larger Mali empire. After 1546 Gabú became more autonomous, and at least portions of the kingdom existed until 1867. The first European to encounter Guinea-Bissau was the Portuguese explorer Nuño Tristão in 1446; colonists in the Cape Verde islands obtained trading rights in the territory, and it became a center of the Portuguese slave trade. In 1879, the connection with the islands was broken.
The African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (another Portuguese colony) was founded in 1956, and guerrilla warfare by nationalists grew increasingly effective. By 1974 the rebels controlled most of the countryside, where they formed a government that was soon recognized by scores of countries. The military coup in Portugal in April 1974 brightened the prospects for freedom, and in August the Lisbon government signed an agreement granting independence to the province. The new republic took the name Guinea-Bissau.
In Nov. 1980, João Bernardo Vieira headed a military coup that deposed Luis Cabral, president since 1974. In his 19 years of rule, Vieira was criticized for crony capitalism and corruption and for failing to alleviate the poverty of Guinea-Bissau, one of the worlds poorest countries. Vieira also brought in troops from Senegal and the Republic of Guinea to help fight against an insurgency movement, a highly unpopular act. In May 1999 rebels deposed Vieira.
Following a period of military rule, Kumba Yalá, a former teacher and popular leader of Guinea-Bissaus independence movement, was elected president in 2000. In Sept. 2003 he was deposed in a military coup. Yalás
THE ruling Zanu PF has failed to deal with Zimbabwe’s multifaceted crisis as the socio-economic situation continues to deteriorate since 2018 elections, a survey has shown.
According to a report on citizens’ perceptions and expectations titled Dancing on the Same Spot by SIVIO Institute, an independent organisation focused on ensuring that citizens are at the centre of processes of economic-political-social and policy change, the socio-economic crisis has worsened with no prospects of a turnaround in the immediate future.
It noted that the opposition MDC Alliance has also failed to deliver on its promises in local authorities they run, but added that the opposition party has continuously shifted the blame on Zanu PF, accusing the governing party of interference.
We have been tracking how the promises made by Zanu PF during the elections have been converted into policy programmes,” the report read.
This government still has a lot of work to convince its own citizens and also the international community that they are actually about reforms and turning around the fortunes of the countries,” the report read.
Monrovia is the capital of Liberia as well as its largest city. It is located on Bushrod Island and Cape Mesurado along the Mesurado River. A 2008 census showed its population as 970,824.
Monrovia was founded on April 25, 1822 by members of the American Colonization Society (ACS), an organization created to return U.S.-born former slaves to Africa. ACS representatives first arrived on the Mesurado River in 1821. The original name of Monrovia was Christopolis. In 1824 it was renamed “Monrovia” after James Monroe, who was the American President at the time as well as a supporter of the American Colonization Society. The indigenous populations of the areas surrounding Monrovia felt that the city was built on stolen land and began attacking it as early as 1822. Those attacks continued sporadically until the mid-nineteenth century.
Monrovia’s first settlers were former Southern slaves. Not surprisingly the early architecture of the city was largely influenced by the style of the Southern antebellum buildings.
Monrovia grew slowly during the rest of the 19th Century. After the Civil War the American Colonization Society was taken over by emigrationists such as Edward Wilmot Blyden and Bishop Alexander Crummell. They urged post-Civil War African Americans to settle there and many of them did until World War I. These Americo-Liberians, both those in the initial wave of settlement in the 1822-1848 period (Liberia became independent that year), and those who came after the U.S. Civil War, politically and culturally dominated the city.
After World War II growing numbers of indigenous people from the interior of Liberia began migrating to the capital to exploit new job opportunities. Always present in the city back to its founding, by 1950 for the first time, they were the majority of the city’s residents.
In 1980 Sergeant Samuel Doe of the Liberian Army led a coup which toppled the existing government. For the first time in its history Liberia was controlled by indigenous people rather than Americo-Liberians. Doe
The country with the continent’s most developed economy also has its highest number of confirmed infections — more than 21,000, representing 20% of Africa’s total.
The lockdown that began March 27 in South Africa is increasing tensions in Soweto, said Dlamini, who closed her tourism business.
Five weeks into the lockdown, South Africa began a gradual easing on May 1, allowing selected mines, factories and businesses to reopen with up to 30% of employees.
South Africa is still a long way from full economic activity, and further easing will be determined by the spread of the disease and hospitalizations.
South Africa is rated as one of the world’s most unequal countries, and the president has said in his evening addresses to the nation that his response to the pandemic aims to build a more equitable country.
To reaffirm its status as the biggest cement producer in Africa, Dangote Cement has set the pace with the exportation of 27,800 metric tonnes of clinker to a neighbouring African country.
With this historic maiden voyage from its Export Terminal located in Apapa Port, Lagos weekend, Dangote has gradually made Nigeria, which until recently was one of the world’s largest bulk importers of cement, first self-sufficient in cement production, and now an exporter of cement clinker to other countries.
The exportation of clinker from the Dangote Cement Export Terminal will also place Nigeria as one of the leading clinker exporters in the world.
Speaking during the departure of the ship conveying clinker from the Export Terminal at the weekend, Group Executive Director, Dangote Group, Alhaji Sada Ladan-Baki said the increased exportation of clinker and cement to other African countries would not only place Dangote Cement among top clinker exporters in the world, but would also boost Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and reduce unemployment in the country.
Alhaji Sada recalled that only a few years ago, Nigeria was one of the world’s largest bulk importers of cement, saying that “Dangote has gradually made Nigeria self-sufficient in cement production as well as an exporter of clinker to other countries.
Early voting has begun in Ghana for essential workers ahead of national elections which comes up next week Monday December 7.
More than 100 security personnel, journalists and staff of the electoral commission who will be busy on election day are expected to vote according to the Electoral Commission.
The polls would hold in 275 constituencies and include ballots for the presidency and parliament.
President Nana Akufo-Addo is facing a re-election challenge from former president John Mahama in what is expected to be a tight contest.
During campaigns the two main presidential candidates promised to spend more if they win the election. Their campaign promises comes amid concerns over the west african country's economy and rising debt profile.
Ghana, a major producer of gold, oil and cocoa, suffered its first economic contraction in almost four decades this year, as a result of the covid 19 pandemic.
Opposition leader John Dramani Mahama, 61, in a campaign promise hinged on the tag ‘Operation rescue Ghana’ is trumpeting massive infrastructural development as a trump card in this year’s polls.
However, a recent survey by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) conducted between September 28 to October 16, 2020 shows that the incumbent President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo enjoys a slight advantage over him.
Around 17 million eligible voters are expected to exercise their franchise on December 7.
