FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-WORKING FOR MONEY

There are various definitions of money and many schools of thought of how money can influence decisions taken by people and how these decisions also impact on society.

Some people believe that they need to work hard to get money and they do not believe they should allow other people to help them get the money they need because they do not trust any other person when it comes to money. Such people prefer to keep their money to themselves alone and they are always afraid to invest. They are afraid they will lose their hard-earned money if they invest it. They continue to work physically hard and keeping their earnings in their bank accounts seeking to get financially independent one day without any financial education and advice.

Stupendous money is made when we allow other people to work for us and when we get the money we in turn would find good creditable systems to invest in for greater returns.

 Business therefore continue to grow and expand and society benefits enormously. People get jobs to do, they become more responsible and children are loved and cared for and they also grow up being good, cultured and humane international citizens.

The truth of the matter is that no employee can be richer than his/her employer. Employees could become richer if only they turn their active or earned income into passive and or portfolio income.

Napoleon Hill in his book “Think and Grow Rich” wrote “One type is known as LEADERS, and the other as FOLLOWERS.” “Decide at the outset whether you intend to become a leader in your chosen calling, or remain a follower. The difference in compensation is vast.  The follower cannot reasonably expect the compensation to which a leader is entitled, although many followers make a mistake of expecting such pay” 

Employees should aspire to become employers one day and they should pave the way and allow younger generations to take over from them at where they are now so that they could go out and run their own businesses. Employees could be business owners whilst working for their current employers, meaning they can have other people also work for them. Employees could also set time frame at which they will resign to go and mind and run their own they businesses, that is become self-employed and gradually become big time business owners, but they must learn to be financial Literate and begin to trust other people whom they should delegate and give them authority to transact and execute business agenda for them, whilst they, the owners concentrate on other equally important demanding issues.

Nobody truly gets rich by working for himself/herself. You would be operating under capacity and cannot expand and serve larger society to get the needed results and money. You should learn Financial Literacy that would teach you how you should use other people’s time and other people’s money to run your businesses to be able to reach out to larger society and get the needed results.

When we are young and energetic, we could work for others to learn from them but we should aim to have our businesses that we should allow other people not known to us join us on board and help grow and expand our businesses. If we think we could be rich by working hard solely and also as employees throughout ourselves, we would be greatly deceiving our own inner beings. Many middle class people also try to portray themselves as rich but really they are in the middle in between the poor and the rich.  The wealthy or rich people don’t take loans from banks to buy personal cars and houses. The wealthy people do not need monthly pay cheques to make living a bit meaningful. The wealthy or rich in society can survive life without monthly pay for years. They do not depend on it at all. Can the poor and the middle class do that for even three months? It will be “wahala” at home yet these middle class people always think they are rich.

The wealthy or rich people do not necessarily have personal expenses. Financial Literacy would teach you all these and you would get to know that Financially Literacy is needed by everybody and should be learnt by all, young or old, poor or middle class.

Napoleon Hill in the same book “Think and Grow Rich” defined that “Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if it is organized into definite plans of action, and directed to a definite end.”

The middle class mostly are highly educated people with PHDs, MBAs, MPHILs, etc hence they are always tempted to think that because they are formally educationally rich they also think they are truly rich. Never! The current classroom, formal education does not let us think and create. We are conditioned to think like others, mean while we are unique different people with different creativity and style. Formal education is good but it should not be confused with Financial Education or Literacy. Financial Literacy which is really relevant to our daily lives was never known and even up to now is not meaningfully taught in schools even in the so-called advance countries. Financial Literacy Education encourages creativity. In fact, it’s all about creativity.  These middle class people who mostly work for others through out their working lives go on retirement if their children do not come to their aid, then the government must do that so they could survive life. Majority of them are perpetual dependants.

No wonder in many offices especially in Africa, people specialize in “pulling” down their brothers and sisters to occupy some positions thinking that is what would bring them financial freedom. It is so funny because the position that is being fought for has been created by someone, who owns the organization and you an employee (an outsider) who could be sacked any time you misbehave, you are fighting over a property that does not rightfully belong to you. You do not have a permanent stay over there, so why do fight with your colleagues over transient and temporary positions. If it’s yours it would be given to you ultimately and genuinely, else forget about it and start to build your own where you would not fight with anybody.         

The same Napoleon Hill also wrote “An educated man is the one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others”

Robert Kiyosaki of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame, wrote “Financial intelligence is not how much money you get but how much money you keep and for how many generations you keep it.”  

This educates and tells us that as we look for money should know we would have children, grand children, great-grandchildren or we should know we would have human beings whether related to us or not who will live after us. We should know we have a community, a village, a country, a world where our contribution will be needed even after we have died and left this world over hundred or thousand years. Do we really want to be remembered?   Life is lived once.

We all need money but we should use legal and genuine means to get the money we need.

Jamie McIntyre wrote in his book, “What I Didn’t Learn at School But wished I had” that anybody who says he/she does not like money is telling a lie, He says it is a denial”

If you truly want to be wealthy, then you need Financial Literacy Education and you need to learn to have businesses where you let other people work for you and pay them for their services.

When you work hard for money, you worship the money and you are mean with it but when your money works hard for you, it worships you and you are generous with it.

© 2010, Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo

Blog: www.g-xavierayeebo.blogspot.com

Email: gayeebo@gmail.com

GODWIN-XAVIER AYEEBO: FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-AUDITING

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FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-GIVING BACK TO SOCIETY

The ultimate aim of Financial Literacy is to educate people to give back to society.

Giving comes in various ways. One can give money, skills, time, things and others.

When we give to good ideas, they are turned into wonderful fruits for humanity to benefit. 

Giving is not only physically parting away with money but doing things that will sustain the longevity of life.   When entrepreneurs build houses for rent, when they build businesses for people to work with, when they build hotels and hostels for people to lodge in, when they build hospitals to care for the sick, when they build churches and other places of worship, when they build schools for people to learn new things they are in actual fact giving and they are the true philanthropists of modern times.

Some people spend their resources producing food stuffs and fruits for others to consume. They don’t just do that because of the money they would get when they sell their farm produce, but they are giving back to society. There are people who run transport businesses and similar ones and we all patronize at least one means of transport in way one or the other and those business people should be applauded especially if they are in Ghana, because the drivers are mostly not honest and straightforward but if the transport owners were to resent on the behaviour of many drivers, there would not be a single bus on our roads. Can’t we say they too are giving back to society? They really are.

People annually donate their own blood to save the lives of others. Many a time, the donors don’t know, would know and don’t even want to know the people who would be the recipients, friends or enemies? Yet they blissfully and gladly donate blood to help save lives.       

Investment products and similar products would be white elephants and nothing to buy if the true philanthropists were not to invest they money into these products before they get known to others.

All over the world, there have been generous people who have sponsored brilliant but poor students to become blessings to society. Generous people have sponsored exceptionally incredible ideas that have made the world the place to live in and they are still doing that willingly.

Orphans get ‘parents’ to cater for them and they really feel at home and they are loved and respected. Their new-found parents are real givers. If these givers were not there, orphans would have it very tough and they would curse the day they were born though they didn’t create themselves and didn’t decide to come to this world.

In advanced and civilized accountable democracies, people offer themselves to serve their countries. They give back to society in so many ways and their works are recognized.

Volunteerism has helped and moved some countries and societies to peaceful and free neighbuorhoods to live and enjoy life.

The security services we get from the police, the military and many others are great examples of human beings giving back to society. The risks involved yet they offer themselves to serve their colleague human beings.

In Financial Literacy, the lessons of risking taking and risk management are taught and when they have been learnt well and applied, we then become true and genuine givers and generous human beings.

There isn’t any being on who is useless. Everybody has something unique to give to the world and many are doing that in various ways.  I believe almost all living human beings are givers. Some are very mean with giving money, but they would give you their time. Others would never give time but support you financially. Some would give you food but not money or ideas and that’s how it works one person cannot give everything. In his book the ‘ART OF WAR’, Tsu Sun (translated by Thomas Cleary), wrote ‘the brave can fight, the careful can guard, the intelligent can communicate, no one is useless.’

Receivers must always be grateful because giving is voluntary and is a personal choice. There are some people who always want to receive and sometimes even determine how much they deserve to be given even when they have not contributed in any way to the fruition of what they want. Ungrateful receivers are like dried lakes. They are like the cursed fig tree.

Financial Literacy teaches us that the real definition of money is to give. Money that is kept in your bank account without being generously doing anything greater is useless and is not money. It’s a just bank account filled with figures that are not beneficial to society, unless it has been held with an aim to pass on to others, like your children who should be taught Financial Literacy to learn how to use the money in future to multiply for society to get its share.

You have everything to give back to society. Do not tell yourself that you have nothing to give. That would be ungratefulness to your creator and a complete sign of wickedness to society. You have some spare time, give it to others, ideas, skills and others. You have money give some small percentage to the brilliant but needy students in the schools in the country. You can donate some food items and cash to the hospitals in the country. You have unbelievable skills and ideas, share with others. You have many things to give, give them out.

In his book ‘Giving’, Bill Clinton, the former American President wrote ‘giving, how each of us can change the world’

Financial Literacy uses the lesson from the Bible that ‘Give and you shall receive’.

You don’t receive before you give, because you already have everything to give unless you don’t want to.

In Financial Literacy you are taught that in your pursuit for money in this world, the ultimate is to let society benefit from your money, your ideas, your skills, your time and all that you have.

© 2010, Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo

Blog: www.g-xavierayeebo.blogspot.com

Email: gayeebo@gmail.com

FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-RISKS & RETURNS

“When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?”

“Financial risk is often defined as the unexpected variability or volatility of returns and thus includes both potential worse-than-expected as well as better-than-expected returns”

“A financial return is the profit or loss you have on your investments, including income and change in value.” The return could be interest received, dividend received, rent received, royalty received, profit made or capital appreciated. These returns come as a result of some risk taken. The risks that are taken could later on bring joyful returns.

Some corn has to be sown, gets rotten in the ground before it germinates and later on yields food for consumption.

No risks, no returns. The higher the risks, the higher the returns and that is exactly what it is in investment. Those who dare and take higher risky ventures get higher returns.

In Financial Literacy, you learn that higher risks give higher returns, because you learn the different types of investments and their associated risk calculations and predictions.

Investing, they say is a game you learn to play. Nobody can learn it for you.

Life is beautiful. Life is joyful. Life is glorious. Life is sorrowful. Life is daring. Life is discipline. Life is boldness. Life is action. Life is faith. Life is not fear. Life is full of risks.

Wherever, you find yourself, however, you look at life, whatever, you think about life, it is not meant for those who fear it. Life is meant for those who confront and conquer it. Why life is both is joyful and sorrowful is natural, it is so since time immemorial. Life has always been two in one. It has two sides, good and bad.

Life is not all about money? Is life all about love? Love without money? Does it really work in the 21st century? What is life all about? Is life all about going to church? I wonder how Ghanaians would have been at churches if their churches were some dirty shrines. Money has helped built the modern temple for you to go there and sit comfortably. If our forefathers did not think about us and used money to build churches, where would we worship? This generation is not the generation that began building churches, mosques and other temples?

Financial Literacy uses the teachings of Jesus and agrees that you should give back abundantly to society and giving back to society is one main reason for which Financial Literacy is being taught.



Is life all about work and being in the office all day? How many work in this world for free?

Volunteerism is absolutely becoming extinct, because everybody wants to be paid money for even emptying his/her bladder.

Those, who pretend not to talk about money are truly the most selfish and self-centered people on earth, because they don’t think about any other person or thing apart from their immediate family.

They are the people, who actually forget they will have grand and great-grandchildren, they are the people, who never think about their community, they never think about their village, they never think about their country.

Financial literacy teaches us to use our brains genuinely to get money and let society benefit from it.

Can you live without life? Life is money and money is the revelation, the invention and discovery of where you find yourself now, how you think and what you do now. Money is the root reason for the modern office you work in now, the modern architectural house you live in now, the flashy car you drive, the aeroplanes flying over head, the bank that you have your pound sterling and dollar accounts with. Money is the revelation of your professorship, your doctorate degree, your degree and your whatever class you belong. Somebody might try to argue with me on this but let’s ask ourselves the following questions, how many cars would have be built each day, month, year if they were not bought. For charity? Who would have been an architect if his services were not paid for? Who would build airplanes if passengers wouldn’t use them? What is a bank if money is not transacted in it? Who and how many, on earth just want to acquire academic qualifications for their own sake? Returns are the monies and the monies are the charities given unto the world by the philanthropists. Pure and sustainable charities are the organizations and individuals, whose sources of income come from ventures that give them returns of money. Those who talk about money matters are the people who make the world the place to live in. Could you listening to your sweet, selective music? Sweet songs Sang by whom, would you have heard about them? The music philanthropists make it happen and they are truly financially intelligent moguls.

A return is joyful but is only one side of the coin. A risk is the sorrowful side which is needed to make life complete. Is it risky for two human beings who never knew each other, but one day get to know each and decides to marry and have joy? They decide to have returns, the good side of life. It is risky for human beings to be flying in the air, like birds but the good side of life; the returns are the evident results you know. It is risky for you to leave your children for some people called teachers to take care of them during the day time, teaching them certain things you wouldn’t teach them at home, but the returns, you know more than I do. Life is more joyful when it is made complete and pregnant with risks and returns.

Many people try to justify why life could be existed without the sorrowful side but their end result is regretful and self-centered.

Many people, especially the poor and the middle class in society do not want to invest their money into ventures that will give them good returns. They say “It’s risky”.

Yes, life is full of risks; you should learn to manage the risks. Learn to live with them. Learn to live with all the odds in life. You, I mean you in particular, you CANNOT change them. Don’t even attempt it!

Financial literacy teaches you how to take risks and manage them. You cannot afford to live life in the 21st century without being financially literate. If you try, your descendants you would brand you as someone, who never had a vision and someone, who was self-centered. You never thought about them. Why, if you don’t have ears, don’t you have eyes? Everything is available every where in this century. I’m blessed to be part of it.

Encourage and allow your children to attend financial literacy classes, so they prepare for the returns and risks of life. Let them understand all that they need to know about money for money is life. Life is worth living when the wisdom God has given us has been applied by all of us for the benefit of society.

You are being encouraged to take the risk by investing your money in the Treasury Bills, Shares, Mutual funds, Unit Trusts, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS). Invest your money in building businesses or companies. Build hotels and houses. Build office complexes, that you have been saying, it’s risky. Let some people you don’t know manage them for you. You don’t need to know them before, just own the systems they would need to work with. Go home and sleep. Big time businesses cannot be managed by the owners themselves alone.

Yes, it’s true you have to leave many if not all these at the care of some people you don’t even know in the first place, but the returns you as an individual gets and society at large benefits are more pronounced than the risks you took. It’s unbelievably phenomenal how those, who take risks and manage the risks, have impacted on the world and made life more meaningful. God can relax and be honoured.

I end with this quote: “The best use of life is to invest it in something which will outlast life.”

© 2010, Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo

www.g-xavierayeebo.blogspot.com

Email: gayeebo@gmail.com

THE OIL REVENUE

THE OIL REVENUE


It is great news that Ghana has been blessed with oil and it is a joy that it was found in the Western Region. The region that has vast area of natural forest for timber, the region that produces the largest cocoa for Ghana, the region that has bauxite, the region that has gold, the region with a whole year rainfall. What is it that Western Region doesn’t have?



In terms of infrastructural development the Western Region is probably the last in Ghana.



I am privileged to know all the ten regional capitals and some major towns and villages in this country but I believe I know the Western Region more than any other region in this country, even my own home region, Upper East. I started school in the Western region in the very early nineties and up to now things have never changed significantly in the western region. One does not understand why a region with all these natural and human resources, Osagyefo, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s own region has not been developed fully? Whose fault is it? The past central governments, the regional ministers, the district chief executives, the members of parliament, the local interested individuals and groups have all contributed to the Western Region’s current state. It maybe incomprehensible to know what the root cause is. I believe the political, socio-economical analysts know the causes.



Thank God, the time has come for the western region to experience unimaginable development and be adored. The western region should this time be extraordinarily developed. The past governments except (Nkrumah) have all been celebrating mediocrity and we do not want that in the development of the western region this time round.



Now that the oil has also been found in the same region I want to believe that after ten years, a decade the Western region will never be the same. The people in the Western Region should be the greatest beneficiaries of the oil revenue. They have been deprived of good potable drinking water, good education, good basic healthcare, good road infrastructure, good storage facilities for their farm produce, good price for the farm produce, good electricity and many others for far too long.



The oil revenue should be used for:

MEDICAL TOURISM- (No mediocrity here)



Modern medical facilities should be built in the Western region. Hospitals should be built so that they can be compared to those in South Africa, Europe, Asia, and the U.S.A. where our politicians and business moguls have been going to seek for medical treatment even when they get ‘headache’.



The hospitals and other medical facilities should be used for the health needs of all the workers of the various oil and gas companies to be in the region.



The medical professionals and staff to be working in these hospitals and medical facilities should be professionals who have acquired great exceptional skills, being Ghanaians first before foreigners, if Ghanaians do not have the expertise and refuse to acquire them, then they should be sidelined. No nepotism, no cronyism, no gender favouritism here, professionals and nothing else. Health matters are about lives and no experiments should be entertained.



The services would be provided to all Ghanaians and foreigners, but in categories or classes, hence the need for sought-after medical professionals and I know many Ghanaian medical professionals would perform creditably provided they are paid well.



Money accrued from the medical tourism could be used for the running of the hospitals and with time they will be autonomous and begin to fly without assistance, then the oil revenue could be rechanneled to another area too.



ROAD INSFRASTRUCTURE



Those who know the Western Region very well would bear with me that the road network there is very bad, the Accra Takoradi road should be made a motor way and there is no better time to build this road as such than now. Yes, it will cost some great money today but the future economic benefits out outweigh the present cost of constructing an Accra-Takoradi motorway. The current Accra Cape Coast, Takoradi road is too narrow and has become a dead trap, killing strong Ghanaian workforce, and depriving the country of its strong, intelligent, diligent and honest human resource.



First class roads should be built around the Western Region beginning from where the oil is found, Sekondi-Takoradi, the Nzima land, Fanti and Ahanta land, the Wasa land, the Sefwi land, the Brusa land and all other parts of the region.



A permanent, good road network would harness the great potential of the Western Region and greatly lessen the hardships of the people in that region, who have contributed heavily to the development of this country, so that they can move freely to do trading and attend to other pressing issues.



MODERN RAIL LINE SYSTEM



This is a country where the major means of transportation is by land amidst deadly road accidents. A modern rail line should be built connecting the West, North and East and south of Ghana to augment land transportation and to ease the heavy load on road transportation. A modern rail line would bring:

• Relief to the road being overused

• Competition in the transportation industry and the final consumer could make a choice and save some money for other needs

• The transportation of goods in bulk more than by land, foodstuff and other perishable farm produce would not rot at the farms

• Transportation of crude oil and other valuable goods between the north and south would be made easier





POTABLE DRINKING WATER



Even in Accra, we do not have clean water to drink, what a disgrace that after fifty years of independence, the capital city of a sovereign nation, Ghana, has no clean water for its residents. All past governments (except Nkrumah) should bow down their heads in shame. Why? What is the population of Accra? What is the population of London and other cosmopolitans? Yet, they have water in abundance. Ei, Ghana!



Clean potable drinking water for all communities in this country would:

• Enhance and elongate the life span of the Ghanaian human resource, the most valuable resource, even for God. Remember, we are like Him. ‘Where there is water, there is life’

• Ease the financial hardships on the Ghanaian, who has to spend so much for water year after year. When would things get better?

• Enable schoolchildren to go to school early and be able to concentrate, instead of waking up at dawn to search for some water that is not even clean and hygienic.

• Reduce water-born diseases and other related diseases, lives would be saved and harnessed

• Reduce government spending on importation and manufacturing of medicine to treat the citizens suffering from water-born diseases

• Ease the hospitals and all health centres of overcrowding and give the medical professionals some time to rest and get rejuvenated





EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION FOR EXCEPTIONAL STUDENTS



Each year students come out of the various tertiary institutions, some with genuine honours, overall best students, first class students, and all that one hears about them is that these exceptional students are left to their fate to fend for themselves in a country where, there is discrimination in employment and giving opportunities to people we know rather than people who are better to do the work.



The government should build a wonderful, exceptional, inviting and motivating and an unimaginable state-of- the-art institution of higher learning in any of the regions where by all students who get first class honours in any discipline would be examined and if passed, admitted to be supported and trained professionally to maximize their talents and brilliance for the development of mother, Ghana. One compulsory requirement would be entrance exams for all applicants because some might have fake first class honours; they would be separated from the genuine ones, who would be admitted into this institution for say two or three years and after completion be assigned some responsibilities in their respective fields. Once, one enters this institution, one is assured of an opportunity of one’s choice, since not every student wants to be an employee. Wow, I believe, more excellence would be exhibited and Ghana would get the best professional Accountants, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Journalists, Surveyors, Politicians, Marketers, Communication Experts, etc who would be at the helm of affairs to spearhead and direct this nation in their knowledgeable fields.



This institution would bring:

Pool of best brains assembled and ready to work together for a common good

• A fine platform for the government to choose best young experts to work for it in various fields, take, for instance, the government of Ghana tax agencies, how many Chartered Accountants, do they have? If the chartered accountants are working for private entities, yes, of course, they would work diligently for their employers to pay less tax by applying intelligent avoidable tax planning mechanisms. They would always outwit the government agencies which have little or no experts at all to counteract them. Eventually, who loses?

• Competition in learning among the youth, if they know that they have to get genuine first class honours to lessen their hustling and struggling to look for non-existent jobs they would learn hard and well without cheating, because if they cheat they would be caught when they apply into this institution, which would be of noble credibility

• Create revenue for the government, because, these students could be hired by some organizations at a higher fee and the government would get the lion’s share

• Institute awards and rewards, especially financial rewards for universities and polytechnics that produce the larger number of best students





All universities and polytechnics would be made to compile the list of first class honours candidates and pass the list to the institution where the candidates would be screened, examined and admitted.



The brilliant students have been neglected in this country for far too long, their exceptional talents and brains should be harnessed for better use. They should not be left to their own fate after the university or polytechnic.



INTERNET NETWORK FOR GHANA



The use of the internet in all homes in Ghana should be considered as part of a public utility that all houses in the urban areas should have access to the internet by 2025. Every government knows the importance of the internet; hence, its use should be encouraged by making it available through government or not government agencies to encourage its use. Mass internet connection of homes in this country cannot be carried out by private companies, the government should do it and when it finishes, it can sell a significant part to a private entity to run it. Let’s move faster as a nation and let’s make Ghana a small decent village to live in. Ghana cannot catch the rest of the world if it does utilize the internet technology fully. The benefits for internet use abound and need no elaboration.

The oil revenue would be generated year after year and remarkable long term projects should be embarked and finished by ruling governments or their successors of the various governments that will be only privileged to run this dear nation for the time allotted to them by Ghanaians.



A luxurious display of mediocrity and lack of vision by leaders of this country has billowed and blown over us for far too long and must be stopped.



God bless the Western Region, God bless Ghana.





©2010, Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo

Email: gayeebo@gmail.com

ROAD ACCIDENTS IN GHANA

ROAD ACCIDENTS IN GHANA


It has become too much a bad incidence to accept and what beats my mind is the lack of interest by all stakeholders to help curb this problem. Why should we have such a very high rate of road accidents and it’s like nobody, no organisation or authority is interested to bring help to this unacceptable incidence in this country to a very low rate?



My heart always bleeds whenever I hear of some road accidents in this country. Very few of very well meaning Ghanaians have tried in their little way to help curb this social canker by contributing in various ways; by writing articles and making very cogent suggestions but it seems the more individuals suggest best ways to curb road accidents in Ghana, the greater the level of road accidents increase.



Tv3 and Metro TV have all done well and are still doing very well by showing fresh road accidents scenes on their screens but I do not know whether the authorities in charge bother at all when they see these gory pictures. For me they are absolutely doing very little to curb road accidents in Ghana. All authorities in checking and controlling road accidents in Ghana, please, do something you never done before to forestall this canker forever. Why, don’t the big men and women in charge of these organisations ever had their relatives involved in road accidents before? Why are you not taking very strict and cogent measures to bring road accidents in Ghana t o a very low level?



Road accidents mostly happen as result of: Recklessness and carelessness by drivers; not respecting road safety regulations, jumping the red light, wrong overtaking especially on the highways, and in even the cities of Accra and Kumasi. Bigger truck drivers mostly do not give a dime whenever other road users need to access their fair share of the road they have also contributed in building. Lack of regular maintenance of the buses and local trotro. Most of these trotro buses, excuse me to say, are not even fit to be used to carry food stuffs, let alone human beings but they are being used each day to convey passengers from one end to another with impunity freely.



Speeding with unworkable speedometers. Most of the vehicles do have workable speedometers but when they get unto the road, they speed and speed without knowing what kilometres per hour the bus or vehicle is being travelled. What will be the result?



OVERLOADING .It has become normal and acceptable that buses that should take say five passengers on a row now takes six passengers instead. These are live at stations like Kumasi, Bolga, Bawku station at Krofroum in Kumasi, Kumasi Race course and many other stations in the country. These unauthorised activities have been going on for so many years. If they do not overload at the station then they will pick up passengers on the way and put the money into their pockets, yet when the vehicles breaks down, it is the bus owner who does the maintenance. Drivers of Kingdom Transport Services who used to travel to the northern part of Ghana used to pick up passengers at Techiman, Kintampo, and other spots. I remember very well that passengers used to quarrel a lot with these drivers. Some were even reported to their station masters. No wonder, they the drivers have collapsed the Kingdom Transport Services. The same drivers had collapsed Omnibus Transport Services, and the Tata Bus services. You see they seek for only their self interest.





POTHOLES. There are lot potholes on our roads that need maintenance but have been left to become death traps. Shoddy works by many contractors are the causes of these potholes, but still these potholes should be patched up professionally when they are noticed. Bad road construction, for instance there are some useless roundabouts on the Accra –Kumasi road just after Ejisu to Kumasi Metropolis. Big trucks and big buses have difficulty in negotiating these roundabouts. Something needs to be done about these roundabouts that were constructed four, five years or fewer years ago.



The Roads in Tema have become bad especially, the main community one road that starts from the Presbyterian Church round to Casino. This portion of the road in Tema needs massive repair works.



There are similar ones in the Accra Metropolis, Ako Adjei (Sankara) to Nkrumah circle, Independence Square straight to Teshie Nungua and back and many others. Accra Tema motorway now is crying for major repairs. All the bridges on the motorway are now death traps. Those who use the motorway daily know well what I am talking about here. One P.G.OFORI ANSONG wrote an in-depth analysis of the accidents on the Accra-Tema motorway which was published in the Daily Graphic, 22nd July 2008. I believe his write-up was a class for all who are concerned in fighting road accidents in this country. P.G.ANSONG, Ghana needs more of these analyses from you and other people who are concerned about the frequent road accidents in this country.







UNPROFESSIONAL MECHANICS: The manner and ways of unprofessional activities by mechanics who repair and maintain vehicles in this country leave much to be desired. Are these mechanics being governed by any formal training that is of any world standards anywhere in any country in the world? Who checks and certifies that they can and are allowed to work on people’s vehicles? You would be interested to know that if you take your car to a number of mechanics for a common problem, they are all likely to tell you a different story. It’s try and error, they practice. Others just need money even if they know very well they can’t handle the problem. We know the end result. Accidents!!!



The fixing of artificial seats in cargo cars that have been turned into passenger buses in Ghana is one major contributing factor. We all know the stories of the popular and notorious 207 in Ghana. It has claimed more lives than expected. Is anybody checking the activities of the mechanics or fitters as we call them in Ghana? Do they have the technical skills to fix and disassemble these buses and other vehicles? Do they have the needed tools for identifying and fixing any problem with these buses and other vehicles?



It is true that these mechanics at Suame Magazine in Kumasi, at Abossey Okai in Accra are doing their best, but their activities must be certified by a higher authority before they are allowed to practice fitting in Ghana. I do not know of any professional who does not have a certification but is able to practice without being punished. Accountants, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers and all others well recognised professionals have must get certification from higher authorities before they can practice. Why not the mechanic whose work is very important and helps builds the nation greatly and whose fixing and fitting of a vehicle could result in the death of other people who also contribute to the development of our dear nation be checked?



The activities of spare drivers and drivers’ mates should also be checked. They contribute greatly to road accidents in Ghana.



BAD POLICE OFFICERS: Yes, the work of the police is very key to the development of every nation and Ghana is no exception.



We have police officers on the roads daily to perform their duties dutifully and many are doing their best, however, there are some police officers who do not care whether, the driver has a valid licence, the vehicle is overloaded, the driver is tipsy, the driver obeys other road safety regulations. Only God becomes both our spiritual and physical police in these circumstances.



The consequences of road accidents are anti-developmental, and many other negative problems.



Orphans are left with nobody to cater for them; there is an increase in number of dependants on families and the government. Heath workers at accidents units at the various hospitals across, the country are over overstretched and exhausted. The biggest of all is the lost of the country’s energetic human resource through reckless road accidents. Funds that could have been channelled through developmental issues are diverted to cater for avoidable accident victims. Pain and grieve endured for ages by people whose relatives, friends or colleague human beings have been lost through road accidents. We know the effects very well. Very bad tastes.



The Driver licensing Authority, DVLA: DVLA should have two different colours of licence for commercial and private drivers. Commercial should be able to use the one used by private drivers but private cannot use the commercial driving licence. Offenders should be fined. We should all make it priority to help reduce road accidents in Ghana to very low level and be able to sustain it.



THE WAY FORWARD: Ghana needs a new organisation that should be legalised solely for road safety.



I would suggest a name like ROAD SAFETY AUTHORITY (RSA) .



This new public organisation will be in charge of the following among other things:



• The certification of activities of mechanics in Ghana.

• Checking the importation of spare parts into Ghana.

• Towing of accident vehicles from the various roads nationwide.

• Make sure no vehicle with passengers on board should buy fuel at a filling station. Drivers travelling long journeys who want to top up their tanks should park somewhere for passengers to get down before they get fuel at the nearby filling station, they can then continue their journey.

• The authority should have the legal backing to arrest recalcitrant drivers and arraign them before court. The police should leave this duty to this authority. It should be the sole responsibility of the authority to arrest ONLY drivers who violate road safety regulations.

• Ensure that big trucks and unlicensed vehicles should not move after 6PM

• Check the importation of every vehicle for road safety conditions.

• The placing of officers on the roads and at lorry stations to check overloading, wrong overtaking and high speed. The law should be made in such a way that officers should be changed every month from the particular station or road he or she was the previous month.

• Erect and maintain clear road signs on the various highways and urban roads in the country.

• Acquire ambulances for accident spots identified nationwide

• Support orphans of road accidents and other road accident victims.

•

• Many others added by colleague Ghanaians.



•

Source of Revenue for RSA (Road Safety Authority)

• Levy of ten Ghana pesewas (GHp10), that is one thousand old cedis only (1000.00) on all employees to be adjusted upwards as deemed fit. Employers should be made to pay this statutory deduction to the Road Safety Authority each month. Defaulters should be dealt with strictly.

• Fines from road traffic offenders

• Government to resource it, by budgeting for it.

• Small charges on all vehicles imported into Ghana.

• Others suggested by you.





Who should work at Road Safety Authority?

• This authority should be headed by a respectable pastor, priest or a Muslim.

• Leaders of this authority to appeal to drivers and other road users from time to time to remind them of the need to maintain road safety orders and to drive accident free.

• Employees should be people who would have volunteered to help curb road accidents in Ghana. This is a sacrificial job and people who want money more than the lives of their colleague human beings cannot work here.

• Many other suggestions by you.





My heart always bleeds whenever I hear of some road accidents anywhere in the country. Let’s make Ghana an accident free country.



© 2010, Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo

Email: gayeebo@gmail.com