Tourist Board to train operators on Customer Care Service
Bolgatanga (U/E), Feb 13, GNA- The Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) is to embark on a Customer Care Service Training Programmes for operators in the hospitality industry throughout the country.
This would enable the hospitality industry to be prepared for the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Nation as well as the hosting of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) 2008 and the Africa Union Summit in Ghana. The Executive Director of GTB, Mr. Martin Mireku, announced this on Monday at a forum held in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. The forum attracted about 50 participants drawn from the hospitality industry in the Region.
Mr. Mireku explained that the training programme would help enhance, sharpen and equip operators on how to render better and satisfactory services to customers.
He said operators stand the chance of gaining a lot of experience when they take the training seriously, since it would help them render satisfactory services to the customers and win their confidence to patronize their services more frequently.
"Customers would not patronize your services if you are not able to satisfy them and win their confidence. It is through the training that you can acquire the techniques", the Director stated.
He cautioned that without the training, the GTB would cease awarding operational licenses to any operator in the industry and appealed to the management of such businesses to ensure that they register all their staff for the exercise to avoid any embarrassment.
Mr. Mireku said the GTB was doing everything possible to ensure the promotion of the hospitality industry and announced that a legislative instrument had been passed exempting licensed companies in the hospitality industry from paying VAT and import duties. He charged tourism operators in the region to get themselves well organized, saying it was only when they came together that they could fight for their rights.
Participants at the forum appealed to the Government to consider involving the hospitality sector in the National Youth Employment Programme.
The participants appealed to the GTB to set up a hospitality training school in the region to equip interested people with the expertise required in the industry.
Participants expressed worry about the lack of car rental services in the region and said most tourists who visit the region would need cars to visit tourist sites.
The Executive Director assured them that he would liase with car rental companies based in Accra to provide such facilities in the region.
| Northern Region is short of doctors
Tamale, Feb 13, GNA- The Northern Region has only 30 doctors instead of the required 58 to be able to effectively attend to the health needs of the people.
With the exception of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, which has 12 doctors, the other 17 district hospitals have only one doctor each. Dr. Elias Sory, Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service disclosed this at the Annual Review Conference of the Northern Region Health Service in Tamale on Tuesday.
He pointed out that for the past two years, not a single doctor had been posted to the region adding: "The number of nurses graduating from the nurses training institutions is also woefully inadequate to fill the various vacancies in the hospitals".
He called for a new training and distribution policy on health professionals, saying: "We have started something but not enough to match the existing gap and the increasing population. We must train not only for the public sector but for all sectors of the economy". Dr. Sory suggested that the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi and the University of Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale could run courses for the training of medical assistants.
"We have the capacity to train enough medical personnel. The government and policy-makers should be bold to take measures to produce them", he said.
Dr Sory said the problem of accommodation was another factor preventing health personnel from accepting postings to the districts and appealed to the District Assemblies to provide decent accommodation to them to make their stay in the areas a bit comfortable.
The Regional Director expressed regret about the resurgence of preventable diseases such as measles and yaws and urged health workers to intensify their surveillance and monitoring roles to help stem their spread.
Dr. Sory expressed concern about delays in the release of funds by both the government and donors to the health sector to ensure timely delivery of services to the people.
He said: "Urgent steps must be taken to ensure uninterrupted fund flow. For us in the Northern Region, when funds come, they come too late to enable us to deliver health care services in our overseas areas".
Dr. Kyei-Fareid, Deputy Director of Health in charge of Public Health, said the Northern Region accounted for 90 per cent of guinea worm cases in the country adding that 2,429 cases were reported last year.
He said this year alone, 973 cases of the disease had already been reported in the region, noting that it was surprising these cases were coming from the urban areas where the people were aware of and knew what to do to prevent the infection.
He called on the district assemblies to enact a byelaw to make it an offence for people who had the disease to enter water sources to infect them.
Dr. Kyei-Fareid said many women lose their lives due to delays in decision-taking or inadequate facilities in the hospitals during childbirth.
He said last year alone, 91 maternal deaths were recorded in the region.
Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister in a speech read for him, said the incidence of guinea worm in the region was a matter of grave concern and urged the district assemblies to put in place interventions to help eradicate the disease.
He also called on the health administration to team up with the assemblies to improve sanitation in the communities, saying this would reduce the cost of managing malaria through the use of insecticides, treated bed-nets and drugs.
Alhaji Idris expressed satisfaction that the coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the region was improving steadily with the Yendi District recording the highest coverage of 47.6 per cent.
He said East Mamprusi District followed with 42.7 per cent while Gushegu/Karaga District recorded the lowest coverage of 9.7 per cent. The Regional Minister urged stakeholders in the scheme to provide the necessary support to enhance the coverage. 13 Feb 07Source:
GNA
| Don't Vote For Botwe, Osafo Maafo, Apraku ...
... ¢10m "gift" to influence vote
Kumasi (Chronicle) - Many thought His Excellency, President J. A. Kufuor could stay glued to the public neutrality he had demonstrated so far in the race for the presidential ticket of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP). But that seeming neutrality was compromised last Friday when the President told Constituency Executives of the party in the Ashanti Region not to vote for any of those aspirants who he had dismissed as ministers of state.
The former Ministers, who perhaps might be affected by the ‘presidential order’ are Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo, Former Finance Minister and later, Education Science and Sports Minister and the MP for Akim-Oda; Mr. Dan Kwaku Botwe, former Minister of Information and two-term General Secretary of the party; Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, former Minister of Regional Integration and NEPAD and MP for Offinso-North, and Capt. Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey (Rtd), former Deputy Minister of Interior and MP for Berekum.
President Kufuor gave the advice to the delegates at a top secret meeting to coach delegates in the Ashanti Region ahead of the ruling NPP’s delegates’ congress slated for the latter part of this year to elect a flagbearer of the party for the 2008 polls.
The meeting, which was held at the residency of the Ashanti Regional Minister, amidst tight security at about 11:30 a.m., featured ten representatives from each of the 39 Constituencies in the Region. The media and non-delegates of the party were barred from taking part in that meeting, which lasted for almost two hours, even though some party members protested against the move.
Before the meeting could come to a close, the President’s secret plan of spinning for and against some aspirants of the NPP for the flagbearership slot was flying in the air. At the meeting, The Chronicle gathered that each constituency was rewarded with ¢10 million as a gift from the President of the Republic after being told to vote in a certain direction, an action political analysts consider to be a replica of Ex-President Rawlings’ behaviour when he was in power.
Sources said President Kufuor charged the delegates not to vote for any aspirants who were part of his government but were booted out.
According to him, this is because, they could not earn his trust after being given ministerial positions, since they only used those positions to their own advantage instead of seeking the welfare of Ghana as a whole.
In the view of President Kufuor, those ex-ministers of State – even though qualify to occupy the presidency – should not be allowed to become as such. The President, who did not engage in name-dropping and chose to cast insinuations, allegedly stated that those presidential aspirants were only interested in their self advancement, contrary to what they preach to delegates of the party throughout the country.
He therefore warned and directed the 390 delegates to give their votes to someone who will pay heed to advice and let him (Kufuor) have his peace of mind after retirement on January 7, 2009.
Obviously, some NPP members who were denied access to the meeting grounds, are now fuming with rage. They believe the action has damning implications on the unity of the party ahead of the national delegates’ congress to elect a presidential candidate for the NPP
Former Ashanti Regional Secretary, Mr. Patrick Acheampong, complained in a fit of anger when he spoke to the morning-show host of Nkosuo Radio, Mr. Fred Asamoah yesterday. He also confirmed this paper’s story about the meeting during the interview, including the monetary enticement of the President; his directive not to vote for a section of the aspirants of the NPP and a stern warning not to disobey him.
Ex-First Vice Chairman of the party in Ashanti, Mr. Kwame Adjei, also corroborated the story but indicated his unwillingness to discuss details of the meeting on air.
He confirmed also that non-delegates of the party and journalists who trooped there to cover proceedings were all prevented from taking part in the President’s secret meeting.
The Chronicle intelligence gathered from the Central and Western regions reports that the President met party executives and DCEs and had a fireside chat with them behind closed doors.
Analysts see the potential of grave consequences for the party as such an adversarial stance taken by the President against some aspirants can create deep-seated factionalism within the party. Chronicle
Source:
Chronicle
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