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Driving through the streets of Accra on an exhausting sunny Friday afternoon in the frustration of traffic hold-up, you would appreciate it when, opportunely, an eight-year old looking child approached your car with a basket full of refrigerated bottles of water, wouldn’t you? You would roll down your window, accept a bottle, and give him or her some money for that thoughtfulness. Except beyond that thoughtfulness, was that child’s means of survival – which you minimally contributed to by paying for that single bottle of water. What’s more, if this child should delay in finding some change for your money and the traffic light should turn green, as honest and just as he or she may be, this child will defencelessly run after your car – even if it takes them a lifetime – just to give you your change.

In the end, your thirst was quenched, and you were not shortchanged, but was that child’s livelihood really earned after that punishing long run? Will it ever be? 

There are a number of traumatizing and mortifying activities involving children that many of us have instigated or encouraged, actively or passively, without reflecting on the multifaceted implications and consequences it may have on these children apart from our personal gains. By so doing, we may have justified these activities for such children with agonizing life survival terms such as “hussling” or classified them under seeming child training or child upbringing labels, instead of calling it for what it really is – child labour. 

Defining Child Labour 

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), child labour is “work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and or work that interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, obliging them to leave school prematurely or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with long and heavy work.”

The ILO further specifies that not every work that children engage in would be considered as child labour, particularly when it involves their participation in work which neither affects their health or personal development nor their schooling. Work such as helping parents in the house, helping in family businesses or earning an allowance outside of school hours or during holidays, generally contribute to the skills, experience and productivity of these children in society when they eventually become adults. 

Moreover, given the varying country to country and sectorial considerations of what constitutes child labour, the concept is used according to those considerations. In view of this, certain demographics such as a child’s age, the type and longevity of the work, the conditions under which the work is performed and country-specific objectives  would be factored in before the classification is made. 

Notwithstanding, the ILO notes the worst forms of labour and hazardous labour children could be exposed to as seen below:

Credit : International Labour Organisation 

Credit : International Labour Organisation

Current global situation on Child Labour 

Two days ago, on 10 June, 2021, with the support of Alliance 8.7, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) published a new report with data from 2016 to 2020 on Global estimates, trends and the road forward on Child Labour.  

According to the new estimates, which used more than 100 household surveys comprising two thirds of the world’s population of children between 5 and 17 years, the findings of the report were considered alarming. The report revealed that child labour remains a persistent problem in the world today and globally, progress against child labour has stalled for the first time in two decades. It further suggested that, because of the rising poverty caused by the global pandemic, more children (a further 8.9  million)  are likely going to be engaged in child labour by the end of 2022, if there are no urgent mitigation measures. 

The results of the survey provide a basis for stakeholders and partners to practically review the international commitment to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 8.7 to end child labour by 2025. The report cautioned that if the will and resources to act promptly against the eradication of child labour are not mustered in a revolutionary manner, the timeline for ending child labour will consequently, be exceeded and stretched many years into the future.

Statistically, the latest global estimates indicate that, at the beginning of 2020, 160 million children, comprising 63 million girls and 97 million boys, were in child labour worldwide. This is accounted for as almost 1 in 10 of all children globally. 79 million children, which is nearly half of all those in child labour, were in hazardous work that directly endangers their health, safety and moral development.

In summary, the report uncovered the following demographics:

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Situation of children in Ghana

UNICEF indicates that child labour is significant and prevalent in Ghana, detailing similar demographics that was uncovered in the ILO and UNICEF global report. 

In Ghana, child labour is twice as common in rural areas, where among all children between 5 and 17 years, about 21 per cent are involved in child labour and 14 per cent are engaged in hazardous forms of labour. 

Additionally, in the setting of a poor household, most children are involved in the agriculture and fishing sectors. Typically, boys are more likely to be doing the manual work, which is considered as child labour, whereas the heavy domestic workload for girls such as childcare, is not considered so. 

On the other hand, UNICEF states that there are currently no concrete figures on the number of children affected by the worst forms of child labour in Ghana such as sale of children, child prostitution and trafficking; and children living and working on the streets. According to the agency, even though accurate numbers of human trafficking cases are not available as yet, it is believed that the large majority of all cases involve children, and are mainly girls.

Ghana’s Interventions against Child labour  

Like most of the countries affected, Ghana has a number of  humanitarian interventions (National Plan of Action supported by UNICEF) and laws and regulations that meet international standards, implemented in the fight to eradicate child labour. The 1992 Constitution, the Children’s Act (44), the Human Trafficking Act, the Labour Regulations Legislative Instrument (L.I), the Labour Act, the Human Trafficking Prohibitions L.I, the Criminal Offences Act and the Education Act safeguard the interest of all children in the country. Below are some important provisions to note:

Credit : US Department of Labour, Bureau of International Labour Affairs 

Conclusion

It is recognisable that on an international and national level, at least plans have been suggested for the road forward, and some underway for 2021’s International Year of the Elimination of Child Labour.  It is important then for individuals to scale this down on a societal, family and personal level. Whether you justify child labour as “hussling” or teaching children responsibility, you may have to consider the intensity, pain and danger of the activities children are being exposed to in the process. The conversation on the engagement of children in labour is one that should be encouraged in many Ghanaian households to draw the lines. The fight to end child labour is a fight for all. 

President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, June 8, 2021 cut tape to unveil some waste and disinfection trucks secured by Zoomlion Ghana, at a ceremony at the Independence Square. 

Following this development, several national newspapers have quoted conflicting figures on their front-page headlines causing social media uproar over the exact numbers of trucks the President unveiled.

The state publishing houses, including the Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times, who also covered the ceremony to commission the trucks also provided different figures in their front-page headlines.

While the Daily Graphic reported 126 trucks in its headline, with a breakdown of 101 waste management trucks and 25 disinfection trucks, the Ghanaian Times newspaper quoted 500 trucks in its publication.

The Daily Guide newspaper also reported the number of the waste trucks unveiled to be 101 whereas The Ghanaian Publisher reported 100 waste trucks with 400 more expected.

How Many Trucks Were Really Unveiled?

Listening to the speeches of the President and the Chief Executive of Jospong Group of Companies at the event, we identified where the confusion possibly started.

The President Akufo-Addo in his speech said 101 waste management trucks and 25 disinfection trucks were being unveiled. 

“The procurement of these 101 waste management trucks by Zoomlion Ghana Limited will augment the existing fleet of vehicles to improve waste collection and transportation in the country. These are the first batch of 500 trucks that are being procured to assist in the sector,” the President said. (5:20 – 5:49).

He added that “it is my pleasure to unveil the initial 101 new waste management trucks and 25 disinfection trucks.” 

In his speech, however, the Chief Executive of Jospong Group of Companies, operators of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Joseph Siaw Agyepong, mentioned the commissioning of 500 trucks. 

“Today we are here to commission and unveil 500 trucks…” he said (12: 53 – 13:00).

Further checks with other platforms showed that 101 waste management trucks and 25 disinfection trucks were unveiled.

The official website of the Presidency of Ghana, and according to a statement from the Communication Bureau, 101 waste management trucks and 25 disinfection trucks secured by Zoomlion Ghana Ltd were unveiled. 

“The trucks, according to President Akufo-Addo, are going to be used to cart waste from our business districts and communities to landfill sites and waste treatment facilities and help in the ongoing disinfection exercises of spaces and institutions that have been rolled out since the onset of COVID-19,” the communication indicated.

We also checked the President’s personal verified Facebook account which confirmed the earlier statement that 101 waste management trucks and 25 disinfection trucks secured by Zoomlion Ghana Limited were unveiled. It, however, indicated further that “these are the first batch of five hundred (500) trucks that are being procured to assist in the sanitation sector.” 

Meanwhile, the verified Twitter handle of the Ghana Presidency said the government had partnered Zoomlion Ltd “to reinforce our waste collection system with 500 new modern trucks.”

Also, checks on the verified Facebook account of Zoomlion Ghana Limited stated that “A first batch of 500 trucks have been commissioned to continue our efforts in tackling waste management in the country.”

For the record, both the websites of the Ministry of Sanitation & Water Resources and Zoomlion Ghana at the time of fact-checking this claim had not posted any information on the event which took place a day ago.

Conclusion

With all the available facts we can sufficiently conclude that the President commissioned 101 waste trucks and 25 disinfection trucks. This brings the total trucks to 126. These are the first batch of 500 trucks procured by Zoomlion Ghana Limited through its partnership with the government of Ghana.

The researcher produced this fact-check per the 2021 Kwame Karikari Fact-checking Fellowship in partnership with The Business and Financial Times Newspaper to facilitate the ethos of truth in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.

Like several infrastructure projects in Ghana, there is always the “we did it” fight among the two major political parties in Ghana, the National Democratic Congress (NDC)  and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The new Pokuase interchange yet to be launched somewhere at the end of July has not been left out of this “claim game”.

While members of the NDC insist that the project is part of former President John Dramani Mahama’s legacies, their counterparts in the NPP have also claimed it to be that of President Akufo-Addo’s. As a result of this, members of the two factions have been sharing different facts regarding the project on various media platforms.

The Pokuase interchange is Ghana’s first four-tier interchange.  Ever since the project took shape, there have been several claims on when it started, whose project it is, the amount of money involved and others.  To help settle the debate and put some clarity on issues raised, Dubawa Ghana in this report presents the facts surrounding the project.

How Did it All Begin?

The Government of Ghana signed  a loan agreement with the African Development Bank on the 17th of November, 2016, to provide 83 million US Dollars  for the construction of the Pokuase interchange. The total cost of the project was supposed to be 94 million US Dollars. The Government of Ghana was to provide 11 million dollars to supplement the loan.

The Pokuase Interchange was initially planned as a three-tier interchange under the John Dramani Mahama administration. The project comprised the construction of a five-kilometre Awoshie-Pokuase road, a three-tier interchange at Pokuase ACP Junction, a two-kilometre Accra-Nsawam Highway, a two-kilometre Kwabenya road and a 10-kilometre local roads.

The interchange was scheduled to commence  in the first quarter of the next year, that is, between January and March 2017. It was scheduled to be completed after 36 months. However, construction did not start until July 2018, more than a year after the Akufo-Addo led administration took over in 2017.

The project is being undertaken by Messrs China Zhongmei Engineering Company Limited and forms part of the Accra Urban Transport Projects.  The objective of the project is to  promote sustainable economic growth, enhanced inclusive urban development and reduced poverty as well as promote affordable transport services.

Redesigning into a 4-Tier Interchange

Almost a year after work began on the project, it was converted into a 4-tier interchange. According to a news report by the Ghanaian Times the contractor proposed to construct a 4-tier Stack Interchange after undertaking a value engineering assessment which was approved by the Ministry for Roads and Highways. 

The cost for the project was not affected by the new design. Additionally, the new design is to help improve the efficiency of the project and allow the free flow of vehicles.

On Wednesday, 25th of November, 2020, President Akufo-Addo Commissioned the first phase of the project.

Conclusion

Per facts above, the planning of the Pokuase interchange began in 2016. In fact, according to the data portal of the African Development Bank Group, the appraisal of the project was done in 2016. This indicates that preparations for construction of the interchange including the signing of the loan had been made during John Mahama administration. The execution of the project started under the Akufo-Addo administration. Although with the same loan agreement, the NPP government negotiated and changed the plan of the project from a 3-tier to a 4-tier interchange.

Claim: News reports claim Ghana is the second-largest producer of Cassava in Africa.

False. Ghana is the third-largest producer of cassava in Africa, not the second. 

Full Text:

According to news reports “Ghana is the second-largest producer of cassava in Africa.” The claim, published here and here, was earlier published on myjoyonline.com on the 22nd of May 2021 but has since been updated.

Source: myjoyonline.com

Source: Myjoyonline.com

According to the news reports, the claim was made at a conference on financial and technological support for processing cassava in Kumasi.

At the event, stakeholders resolved that it is time the country added value to cassava through agricultural industrialization in order to boost its production.

Verification

Cassava is a major crop in the farming systems of Ghana. According to the Global Cassava Processing Market Report 2019, the majority of the population of Africa, Latin America, and Asia depend on cassava for sustenance as it provides food as well as occupation to farmers and traders.

But what’s Ghana’s position in the production of cassava in Africa?

Since the source of the claim was not stated in the story, Dubawa reached out to the journalist who wrote the story published on myjoyonline.com. Our checks revealed that a freelance journalist, Mahmud Mohmmed-Nurudeen, was the reporter of the story. 

An email was sent to him to seek clarity on the claim. 

On WhatsApp, he sent the link to the original video of the news story on YouTube. Dubawa assessed the video and revealed that the claim was made by the Head of Trade in Services and Manufactures at the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Banda Abdallah Khalifah, during a conference on financial and technological support for processing cassava in Kumasi.  

“…Another interesting statistics that we would want to know, Ghana is one of the largest producers of cassava in the world, not even in Africa… in 2019, we produced about 22 million metric tonnes of cassava – 22 million metric tonnes. Thailand is the largest producer, followed by other countries. In Africa, Nigeria is the largest, Ghana is the second largest producer of cassava fresh cassava in Africa…,” Mr Khalifah said in the video (3:35-4:30).

In response to a phone call after seeking clarification Mr Khalifah revealed that “the claim was made using statistics of either 2017 or 2018.” 

But he confirmed that “currently, Ghana is the third-largest producer of Cassava in Africa with Nigeria being the first.”

Globally, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) most recent data, the ten largest cassava producing countries are Nigeria, Thailand, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Ghana, Angola, Vietnam, India, and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Deducing from the ten cassava producers in the world, in Africa, the five major cassava producing countries include Nigeria (42,592,025.35 mt), the Democratic Republic of Congo (22,018,779 mt), Ghana (12,113,237.42 mt), Angola (7,806,487.15 mt), and United Republic of Tanzania (5,507,582.62 mt).

According to the most recent data on Tridge, a global sourcing hub that puts together data and networks to make cross-border trade happen, Ghana is the third-largest producer of cassava in Africa.

The World Cassava Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights report in 2021 also revealed that the countries with the highest volumes of cassava production in 2020 were Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand, Ghana, Brazil, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, and Angola.

Conclusion

Ghana indeed is one of the largest cassava producers in Africa, but it is the third in Africa.

This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking. 

Claim: Social media users claim the Volivo Bridge in the Volta Region of Ghana is one of the legacies of former President John Dramani Mahama

Verdict: More context needed. The John Mahama-led administration signed the loan agreement but the Volivo Bridge construction commenced under the current government.

Full Text

There have been mixed reactions from Ghanaians over the yet to be completed Volivo Bridge in the Volta Region of Ghana with some commending the incumbent government but others seem unhappy with the move. 

Scores of communicators and activists from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) believe the yet to be completed Volivo Bridge project is one of the legacies of former president, John Dramani Mahama, which is inherited by the Akufo Addo led administration.

Some activists on Facebook have cited a November 2016 Facebook post by North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakawa, as evidence to the claim.

The text of the message reads “Congrats to all Ghanaian Farmers. In North Tongu, our farmers are particularly excited about the positive impact this week’s parliamentary approve to Volivo to Dorfor Adidome Bridge over the volta river will have on their Economic fortunes”

Image source:Yayra Koku(NDC ACTIVIST) on Facebook

The bridge upon completion will be an asphalted dual carriageway with ancillary facilities including bicycle lanes, pedestrian walkways, a mini rest stop and toll bridges. It will also be Ghana’s second longest.

The project, when completed, will complement the government’s effort to develop the Eastern Corridor road which is the shortest route connecting the Greater Accra, Volta, Northern and Upper East regions.

This claim has generated some debate on social media about whether or not the project belongs to the erstwhile government or it was started by the current government. Therefore, we decided to fact check and verify the claim.

Verification

On December 8, 2016, Ghana signed a $100-million (11,239 billion Yen) loan agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency  for the construction of a 540-metre long cable-stay steel bridge over the Volta River at Volivo and Dofor Adidome in the Volta Region of Ghana after the Parliament of Ghana had approved it.

Image source:Japan International Cooperation Agency website

The then Minister of Finance, Mr. Seth Terkper, signed the loan agreement on behalf of the country while Mr. Kaoru Yoshimura, Japan’s Ambassador to Ghana, signed for his country.

Image Source:Citinewsroom.com

Image Source:Citinewsroom.com

The loan then had an interest rate of 0.1 per cent for the construction and 0.01 per cent for the consulting services with repayment period of 40 years, including 10 years grace period.

Due to the 2016 elections which went in favor of the then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Mahama led government could not kick start the project.

Fast-forward in August 2019, the Akufo Addo led government announced that the Volivo Bridge  project will kickstart in 2020. This is after the erstwhile Mahama led administration had approved the loan agreement from the Japanese government for the project in December 2016.

Also, per our checks from the 2016 Green Book of the National Democratic Congress also dubbed Accounting to the People, there was no indication of the start or the completion of the said project.

Conclusion

The loan for the Volivo Bridge project was acquired by the John Mahama led NDC government but its construction was started by the Akufo Addo led NPP government. 

This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up roles in the profession the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking. 

Inaccurate information on social media has become a problemin many countries around the world. Researchers know a fair deal about “fake news” in the global North, but much less about what is happening in the global South, particularly in Africa. 

In African countries there is a fast-growing population of internet and mobile media users. They have the means to share information quickly and easily. But they can also spread disinformation and misinformation. According to the UNESCO Handbook for Journalism Education and Training, misinformation is information that is false, but believed to be true by the person sharing it. Disinformation is known to be false by the person sharing it.

Without more research in an African context, it is difficult for scholars and policy makers to come up with solutions to the specific problems of false information experienced on the continent.

A recent study found that social media users in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa were more likely to share false information online than their counterparts in the US. To overcome problems associated with misinformation and disinformation, it is crucial to understand why people do this. False and misleading information about the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, can be life-threatening. Political disinformation also endangers democracy on the continent.

Building on that study, our team recently explored why young African media users share information online. We found that users do spend some time thinking about whether the information is true. Their decision to share it (even if they know it’s untrue) depends on the topic and the type of message. We also found differences between countries which might be important when thinking about how to prevent the spread of false information. 

Reasons for sharing

In late 2019 and early 2020 we spoke to students in six African countries: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In total, we talked to 94 university students in focus groups. We showed them some hoaxes which circulated widely on social media at the time. Two of these hoaxes were related to health, and one was about local politics.

In all six countries, the most common motivation for sharing (mis)information, including health-related items and news about terrorism, political violence and scams, was mainly attributed to a sense of civic duty or moral obligation. In these cases, students felt compelled to alert friends and family “just in case” the information turned out to be true. Not doing so, in their view, could hurt their relationships.

Humour and the use of parody also influenced sharing of political (mis)information. This corroborates a previous study of African countries, but differs from studies in developed countries where social position and political orientation are more important factors. 

Political motivations have often been highlighted as a reason for sharing misinformation elsewhere. Our study revealed that these motivations play out differently across countries.

In Zimbabwe, for example, where press freedom is weak and authoritarianism is still a reality, the sharing of political (mis)information was presented as a courageous act. In South Africa and Ghana, both of which have a relatively vibrant media sector and a flawed democracy, students appeared to be the least motivated to share political news. 

A country’s political culture and media system seemed to be linked to the way users interacted with false political information.

Cues to spot false information

Not all social media users share false information. Some use cues to check whether what they are seeing online is reliable. This helps them decide whether to share content on social media. 

In all countries in our study, except for Zambia and Zimbabwe, students used cues to determine what content to share. But sometimes, these cues led them to share inaccurate information. For example, a blue check next to a Twitter username was taken as a sign that the account had been verified and that the story was potentially true. For some, this was enough to convince them to share a post. Some others would investigate further. 

Other cues mentioned included the number of followers, the lack of likes, comments, retweets and other metrics, the poor writing style, and the use of excessive punctuation. When a website’s layout looked “off”, when editing was poor, or when they had no recollection of the same story being published in mainstream news media, students would be reluctant to share it.

The recognition of these cues would seem to indicate that some university students are quite media literate. But being able to recognise a fake story did not always deter them from sharing it. 

A story’s shareability, even if it was known to be inaccurate, was dependent on the topic. Stories about health and food as well as posts or tweets about scams, safety and terrorism were often shared to “create awareness”. Kenyan students said they would share stories about terror-related incidents. And Nigerian participants said they would share news about anti-African xenophobic attacks in South Africa out of a sense of civic duty and “just in case” it could be of benefit to the receiver.

Not many students said they would share a political story. Most of the participants lacked interest in politics, making them less likely to react to the stimulus. Students who described themselves as politically aware and engaged said they would share the news story because it aligned with their political views, or because it would spark some debate.

What we recommend

One important finding was that young media consumers in African countries demonstrated significant agency as they relied on cues to evaluate information. Their practices could be viewed as media literacy skills, for instance seeking out additional sources and verifying claims found on social media.

This supports the need for media literacy to find its way into school curricula in African countries. It provides critical thinking skills to spot misleading information online. 

But media literacy is not the only solution. Older users are also susceptible to receiving and sharing false information, often without knowing the dangers of doing so. Many of the students in our study noted that, while they would not share the content, older family members would. 

Journalists, social media companies and governments should do their part to address this. For example big tech companies must scale up attempts to flag false information, educate people and use algorithms to control misinformation. These efforts need to be targeted at different demographic groups.

Different African countries will still need to come up with their own solutions because of contextual differences.

Claim: President of the World Bank has asked Ghana’s president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to stop borrowing and fix his country.

Verdict: While the president of the World Bank had asked the government to hold down on non-concessional borrowing, he did not ask the government to “fix the country.”

Full Text

A post shared by a popular Ghanaian blog, Ghana Celebrities,  has gone viral on different social media platforms. In the post, the president of the World Bank is reported to have told the government of Ghana to stop borrowing and fix her country. 

The post has generated so many comments and has been shared by one other popular Ghanaian blog, Aba_the_great1. At the time of going to press, the post had received 207 likes and seven comments.

Verification

At a recent virtual Media Roundtable discussion by the World Bank for some journalists in Western and Central Africa, the president of the World Bank, David Malpas, made some observations about Ghana’s current status.

His comment was a response to a question posed by a Ghanaian journalist, George Wiafe, who sought his view on Ghana’s debt stock.  Although Malpas had advised the government to hold down on borrowing as a result of future impacts, he did not wade into the #FixTheCountry campaign which has become a major topic in Ghana.

In the original news article regarding the issue by Myjoyonline.com, Mr Malpas was quoted as saying “holding down the non-concessional debt means higher interest rate debt because that burdens the further generations”, thus making the social media post misleading.

#FixIt Campaign and Misinformation in Ghana

Since the beginning of the #FixTheCountry, #FixTheCountryNow, #FixTheGhana campaign —a youth-led social media campaign in Ghana to demand accountability and development from political leaders— the tendency for social media users to share old photos and videos to pass them as new has become common, making the work of fact-checking organizations in Ghana very timely.

While Dubawa and other fact-checking organizations in Ghana are working to curb misinformation in this period as we do every day, it is important for social media users and media consumers to have knowledge of some digital tools that could be used to verify information that comes in the form of images and videos. Dubawa has therefore put together some basic tools and tips for fact-checking images and videos. Familiarity with the tools and tips will enhance the ability to mitigate the spread of misleading information such as the one in this fact check.

Claim: The Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah, says that the capital city has not recorded a case of Cholera in a long time

Verdict: True. Even though the Mayor had not given a specific timeline, between 2017 and January 2021, there has been no reported case of Cholera in Accra.

Full Story

On Wednesday, May 19, 2021, the Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Hon. Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah, said that the capital city had not recorded a single cholera case in a long time.

He was speaking at the launch of the Assembly’s Electoral Areas Sanitation Challenge.

His statement was captured in a report published on various online news websites such as citinewsroom.com and www.businessghana.com 

The initiative, according to the Assembly, was aimed at establishing “the status of environmental sanitation in electoral areas quarterly, creating a sanitation database for decision making, facilitating investment in sanitation, emphasising remedial measures, promoting local ownership of environmental sanitation issues, as well as incentivizing community initiatives on sanitation management.”

Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah touted the achievements of the Assembly with regards to sanitation, saying that it had led to a zero case of cholera over a long period.

“Today, we are confident in saying that Accra for a long time has not recorded a single cholera case, and that’s the impact of the interventions that we’ve put in place,” he said.

Verification

Although Hon. Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah did not give a specific timeline for the period he claimed that Accra has not recorded a case of Cholera, the reporter looked into the Cholera situation in Accra since 2017 – the year in which Mr. Sowah was first appointed.

The reporter referred to the Ghana Weekly Epidemiological Report (GWER), a publication of the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health.

The GWER publishes reports of public health interest and importance, thereby informing its readership of the developments in the health sector in Ghana.

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We examined a total of 120 reports and found no cases of Cholera recorded from Accra. However, cases of Cholera that were found in these reports were outside of Accra.

One of those cases was in Cape Coast (September 2017) and the other two were in Ketu South (October 2018).

In the other reports where no cases were found, it was indicated in the report that:

“During the week, there was no confirmed case of Cholera” 

The Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, said when asked about the last time a cholera case was recorded in Accra “that should be in 2015.”

Conclusion

The claim by the Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Hon. Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah, can be considered as true as Accra has not recorded a single case of Cholera, at least, since 2017.

This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking. 

Have you recently considered taking the COVID-19 vaccine? Are you worried you might be asked to test for the virus before vaccination? Or concerned that your neighbour who took the vaccine wasn’t tested?

This last question prompted a Twitter user with the name Godwin Boateng to tweet at Dubawa recently. Boateng would like to know why Covid-19 tests are not being conducted before vaccines are administered.

To answer his question, we set out to find information on the vaccine administration and why tests are not being run before the jabs.

Indeed, unlike other vaccinations for diseases such as Hepatitis B that may  require individuals to be tested for the disease before getting vaccinated, the COVID-19 inoculation is different. 

According to Dr Kasule Iddrisu Yakubu, a Medical Officer at Bolga Regional Hospital, “vaccines are for prevention, not treatment”, and it is on that basis that people who are tested and found to be infected with Hepatitis B are not vaccinated.

He also added that in some cases, like Hepatitis B, people may never be cured completely and thus taking the vaccine is of no use. He is, however, unsure why the same is not being done with the Covid-19 vaccinations.

Generally, information available online suggests that there is no need for COVID-19 tests to be run on people before being tested, especially if there are no symptoms showing signs of contraction.

Here is what we know.

• You do not need to be tested before getting the shot if you have no symptoms.

Dubawa reached out to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) for clarification on the issue. In an email response,  the CDC stated that,

“At this time, CDC is not recommending that anyone be tested for active or prior infection before getting vaccinated for COVID-19.” It did not, however, indicate to us why this is the case.

Health professionals, including Dr. Steve Feagins, MD Chief Clinical Officer, Mercy Health, and Dr Malik Marshall, a physician, practicing doctor and medical reporter, have also spoken on the matter and expressed similar views. 

“No, you don’t need to be tested beforehand unless you are having COVID-19 symptoms, in which case you should be. But even if you get a vaccine and you are infected with the coronavirus and you don’t have any symptoms, it’s fine, it’s not dangerous, go ahead and get vaccinated,” Dr. Mallik Marshall said in an interview with CBS Boston.

• Do not go for the shot if you have symptoms of the disease (sudden loss of smell and taste, muscle aches, fever, difficulty in breathing, a cough or fatigue).

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention,

“No. People with COVID-19 who have symptoms should wait to be vaccinated until they have recovered from their illness and have met the criteria for discontinuing isolation; those without symptoms should also wait until they meet the criteria before getting vaccinated. This guidance also applies to people who get COVID-19 before getting their second dose of vaccine.”

Another angle to why people with symptoms should refrain from going to the vaccination centers is that, according to an abcnews report, there is a risk of infecting other people. 

• If you had the disease and have recovered, you can still get vaccinated.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recovered COVID-19 patients should also get vaccinated. It is, however, recommended that such patients wait for up to 90 days if they were treated with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma before getting vaccinated.

WHO’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, also has said that it is recommended that people who have been previously infected with Covid-19 still take the vaccine jabs.

This is supported by some studies which suggest that waiting for up to three months after being infected with COVID-19 can be beneficial  to patients as there are chances the body will generate greater immune response to the virus.

A study, “SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Response in Persons with Past Natural Infection”, which examined Italian health care workers found that recovered patients are more likely to to have a higher antibody response if they waited up to three months after recovery before getting their first shot of the Pfizer vaccine.

Another study, “Antibody Responses in Seropositive Persons after a Single Dose of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine”, also found that people who previously had COVID-19 generated similar or stronger antibody response after a single dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine as compared to people who had never contracted the COVID-19 disease who had received two doses of the vaccines previously mentioned.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) has also stated that people who have been infected with the Covid-19 virus and recovered should also get vaccinated.

“Yes, you should be vaccinated regardless of whether you already had COVID-19. That’s because experts do not yet know how long you are protected from getting sick again after recovering from COVID-19. Even if you have already recovered from COVID-19, it is possible—although rare—that you could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 again.”

All-in-all, tests are not a must before getting the COVID-19 vaccination. However, it is important that the spread of the virus is mitigated by avoiding vaccination centers when one exhibits COVID-19 symptoms. 

Claim: Dzata Cement is under the one district one factory project being implemented by the government of Ghana. 

Verdict: The Managing Director of Dzata Cement, Nana Philip Archer, says Dzata Cement has no relation with the One District One Factory policy by the government of Ghana.

Full story

There have been positive feedback from Ghanaians on the creation of Ghana’s cement production factory, Dzata Cement. The factory founded by a Ghanaian, Ibrahim Mahama, has received several commendations from social media users, the Trade Minister Alan Kyeremanteng, and other government personnel including businessman and politician, Kennedy Agyapong. 

However, a viral message shared on WhatsApp and Facebook claims the newly established cement factory in Ghana, Dzata Cement, is under the One District One Factory initiative by President Akufo Addo.

The text of the message reads, “It is with utmost greatness to know that the country is being fixed. This is evident with the construction of the Dzata Cement Factory by Ibrahim Mahama under the one district one factory programme by the government. Great move to have a cement factory fully owned by Ghana for the first time. #heisfixingit”.

The one district one factory policy is a Government of Ghana policy. It is aimed at creating jobs for Ghanaians through the setting up of factories and industries which will in turn move the country towards greater industrialization.

These messages have generated several conversations as to whether the cement factory is under the one district one factory policy. So, we decided to verify the claim.

Verification

The government of Ghana has a website dedicated to the One district one factory policy. Dubawa surfed through the website to find out the list of factories the government has built, and those under construction.  

And since Dzata Cement is located in Tema on the Tema Harbour Road, we limited our search to factories built in Greater Accra, specifically Tema. In Greater Accra, we found out that there were 59 factories categorized under (operational, under construction, on hold and  at inception).

Limiting our scope to Tema, we found out there are only 10 factories under the policy. Out of the 10, six are operational, two are under construction, and two are at the inception stage.

However, Dzata Cement is not a part of the listed factories. 

Also, Managing Director of Dzata Cement, Nana Philip Archer in an interview with Dubawa, revealed that “Dzata Cement is not under the One District One Factory policy thus claims about that should be disregarded.”

He also revealed that the “friendly environment in Ghana gives room for everyone to operate a business and Ibrahim Mahama’s Dzata Cement is one of those businesses and that Dzata Cement is by no means related to the policy.”

Conclusion: 

It is untrue that the Dzata Cement factory is a part of the government’s One district One factory policy. 

This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking.