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World leaders must share the responsibility of protecting young girls: Jeanette Kagame
First Lady of Rwanda, Mrs Jeanette Kagame has called on world leaders to share the responsibility of fighting all forms of violence against women and young girls.
According to her, if crisis of vulnerable people were globally shared, such occurrences would drastically reduce to make the world safer for women and children.
“In times where the world is already weakened by devastative occurrences, who gains when women and girls who make up more than half of the population of communities worldwide are disempowered and victimized?” she quizzed.
Mrs Kagame made the call at the Global Crisis plenary session of the just ended Women Deliver (WD) conference in Kigali, Rwanda.
She stated that in the event of disaster or other global disruptions, a person’s gender, origin, race, health status and financial strength would determine the extent of misfortune the individual experiences.
She therefore underscored the need for all persons with the power to effect change to ensure they do not pretend to bear no influence over who gets to suffer the least and who must endure the most.
“Are we really that apathetic to the fate of women and girls that we wish to consider gender equality to be solely a female issue as opposed to a moral human issue? We do not have the luxury of time considering our current pace.”
“We need to as a matter of urgency find the integrity and perhaps bravery to address core questions that loom over women’s fates and deploy the diverse range of resources available to us to design sustainable solutions,’ she added.
Referring to the World Bank report that estimates the loss in human capital wealth due to gender inequality to be at least $160.2 trillion or twice the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), she indicated that it would take much less to develop self-reliant systems for female empowerment and achieve gender equality at last.
The Global Fund, a worldwide movement to defeat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria to ensure a healthier and more equitable future for all, she said, had been a very strong partner to Rwanda and to non-profit organisations such as Imbuto Foundation which she chaired, adding that Rwanda had secured remarkable progress in the health status of communities in the country, leading to a reduction in rates of HIV infections.
Mrs Kagame also revealed that mother to child transmissions of HIV in Rwanda has been almost nonexistent for many years, “to all that fought to get us here we say thank you.”
Meanwhile some participants of the conference in separate interviews with the Ghanaian Times commended the organising team for the initiative and called for more actions to be taken to address all issues affecting women and young girls.
Evelyn Mukundihi from Uganda said “This has been a very valuable experience for me and I am hoping that we will all put into actions whatever we learned or talked about during the programme to achieve our aims of promoting gender parity and protecting women.
Shakira Nuhu, an adolescent girls protection advocate from Ghana urged young girls to become advocates for themselves and demand accountability from decision making leaders.
FROM RAISSA SAMBOU, KIGALI, RWANDA
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GEXIM deepens relations with US EXIM Bank
A management team of the Ghana Export – Import Bank (GEXIM) led by the Acting Chief Executive, Sylvester Mensah met with the leadership of the Export–Import Bank of the United States (US EXIM) on Wednesday April 23, 2025 in Washington DC, United States of America.
The Acting President and Chairman of US EXIM, Mr. James C. Cruse and Vice President, International Relations, Ms. Isabel Galdiz received the GEXIM delegation, which included Deputy CEO for Banking, Mr. Moses Klu Mensah and Head of International Cooperation, Mr. Jonathan Christopher Koney at the headquarters of US EXIM.
The meeting offered the GEXIM team the opportunity to share the strategic direction of the Bank in line with the resetting agenda of the President of the Republic, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama for the repositioning of the Ghanaian economy into an export-led one by providing the requisite investment to Ghanaian businesses.
Mr. James C. Cruse expressed US EXIM’s eagerness to deepen its existing relations with GEXIM and proposed the signing of a new Cooperative Framework Agreement following the expiration of a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2019 to utilize US EXIM’s medium term loan guarantees to procure machinery by GEXIM for qualified Ghanaian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
Mr.Sylvester Mensah thanked the Acting President and Chairman of US EXIM for hosting the GEXIM delegation and reaffirmed the Ghanaian government’s commitment to strengthening trade and investment between Ghana and its global partners for economic transformation of Ghana with GEXIM playing a pivotal role.
The two teams will be meeting on the sidelines of the 2025 US EXIM Annual Conference on 29th and April 30, 2025 to explore possible areas of collaboration and matching Ghanaian businesses to American companies. The meeting ended with an exchange of gifts.
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Many SOEs have been used as mere instruments for personal wealth accumulation –Pres.Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama has expressed concern over the misuse of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) for personal financial gain by individuals in leadership positions.
Speaking during a meeting with Chief Executives of specified entities under the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA) on Thursday, March 13, the President directly attributed the dire state of SOEs to their leadership, accusing chief executives, management teams, and governing boards of prioritising personal enrichment over organisational efficiency.
He pointed to bloated budgets, unjustified allowances, and unnecessary expenditures as factors draining public funds while SOEs continue to rely on government bailouts.
“Many SOEs have been used as mere instruments for personal wealth accumulation by appointees. The chief executives, management, and boards of these enterprises are responsible for this situation. Some SOEs have become perennial loss-makers, draining public funds with bloated budgets, unjustified allowances, and unnecessary expenditures while relying on government bailouts as if entitled to them. Many of these entities are at their lowest point in the entire history of the Fourth Republic,” he said.
President Mahama further noted that many SOEs have been plagued by inefficiencies, corruption, and mismanagement, leading to consistent financial losses. He cited the 2023 State Ownership Report by the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), which highlighted systemic inefficiencies and wasteful expenditures within these entities.
He therefore reaffirmed his commitment to reforming under-performing SOEs and ensuring they serve national interests.
He warned that loss-making SOEs will no longer be tolerated and will either be merged, privatised, or closed.
“I will assess you based on your performance. If you do not align with the pace of the reset agenda, you may be asked to step aside. If that adds to the horror movie, so be it,” he added.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
