Ghana

Ghana’s E-Cedi: What You Need To Know About Ghana’s Digital Currency (E-CEDI)

By Paa Kwesi Eshun

The Bank of Ghana (BOG) will pilot the digital Cedi currency also known as the E-CEDI this month.

This was announced by the First Deputy Governor, Dr. Maxwell Opoku Afare, when he addressed the media on Monday, July 12, 2021.

In June 2021, the governor of the BOG, Dr. Ernest Addison, disclosed that the digital currency (E-Cedi) is in the advanced stages and will go through three phases – design, implementation, and piloting – before it goes into circulation.

The design phase, which involves the design of the digital money, is completed. The Central Bank is moving to the implementation and the piloting stage where a few people would be able to use the digital cedi on their mobile applications and other apps that are currently running.

Ghana’s Central Bank partnered with a U.S. company called EMTECH, a fintech startup dedicated to central banks for a digital transformation journey that will establish a template that other regulators and stakeholders can embrace for a robust banking sector. The partnership will leverage EMTECH’s software to test innovative solutions, including blockchain. The approach will bring on board new products and services as well as bridge the gap between the banked and unbanked.

The project is also designed to speed up the time to market for the Bank of Ghana’s CBDC.

What is a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)?

The Central bank’s digital currency is the digital form of a country’s fiat currency.  The BOG will issue electronic tokens whose value will be backed by the full faith and credit of the government and will replace the minting coins or the paper notes.

The supply of the digital currency will be wholly determined and controlled by the central government.

Can Ghanaians use the E-Cedi in other countries?

Dr. Maxwell Opoku Afare says that as part of the preparations for the launch of the digital currency, there would be coordination between the Bank of Ghana and other central banks across the world, to enable Ghanaians to use e-cedi for international transactions as well.

Is the E-Cedi Volatile?

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are characterised by a number of factors, including a lack of proper central bank regulation, that leads to its volatility. 

Click here to continue reading  

Recent fact-checks 

• Unpacking GIPC’s Claims on Ghana’s Performance in Foreign Direct Investments for 2019 and 2020

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mr Yofi Grant, at the official launch of its investment summit dubbed “Spark Up” on August 3, 2021, made some false claims regarding the country’s foreign direct investments in 2019 and 202.

He said that Ghana is the second country in Africa, following Egypt, to receive the highest foreign direct investment in 2020. He also claimed Ghana recorded 2.7 billion in FDI in 2020, and that the country recorded 1.9 billion in 2019. All of these were found to be false. 

• Does water from Bongo have special sex-drive-stimulating properties

The District Chief Executive of Bongo District, Peter Ayinibisa, claimed that the water his constituents drink makes them very fertile and sexually active, the reason for the high rise of teenage pregnancy in Bongo. However,  we found no evidence to back up this claim. The water being drunk in Bongo has not been tested for aphrodisiac-inducing minerals or chemicals. 

• Misleading claim about Ghanaians being ranked among top visitors of Pornhub

According to a number of local news portals, Ghana is among the top visitors of pornhub.com, a pornography website. Yet, this claim is not only false but also misleading as the chart on which the claim is premised only refers to visitors of just one category of videos on the websites.

More Fact-Checks Here

1. Is Ghana’s “198 years old” Amodzie the oldest woman in the world?
2. The “Kissing Priest”, Anglican Church Celibacy Rule and Matters Arising
3. False: Rent Control Department Office not locked by landlord for rent arrears
4. False! Burnt laptop is not that of yet-to-be distributed “teachers’ laptops”
5. Viral photo purported to be a destroyed asphalt road in Ghana, false
6. False: Sticking garlic into your nostrils will not unclog sinuses
7. Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme: Its introduction and implementation process
8. Photo of newborn babies sleeping on plastic chairs not from Ghana
9. Fact-checking Dr Sean Brooks’ viral vaccine video
10. Nestle-Ghana and Melcom are not giving out cash or prizes to random customers after filling a survey. It is a scam!!!

Explainers and Media Literacy Articles 

1. Delivery tracker and Green Book: Here is what you need to know
2. Pegasus: All you need to know about spyware that could erode your phone privacy despite encryption
3. English language speakers have a higher tendency of spreading Covid-19 – Research
4. Gifting or dumping? Germany’s gift of 1.5 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to Ghana
5. New Delta Variant of COVID-19: Facts, Symptoms and What We Know so Far

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Germany in March 2021 suspended the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, owing to incidents of blood clotting in people below age 60. This decision came about after the country’s medicine regulator, The Paul Ehrlich Institute, found 31 cases of a rare type of blood clot in people vaccinated with the vaccine.

Fast forward to August 2021, five months after this suspension, the German government is set to give the Ghanaian government 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

This, according to the Director of Communication at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, is as a result of discussions between The President, Akufo-Addo and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, following Germany’s offer to Africa of up to 70 million COVID-19 vaccine  doses.

Does Germany’s suspension of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have any play in their release of 70 million doses to Africa, of which 1.5 million is coming to Ghana?

Well, some social media users seem to think so.

Following the announcement of Ghana’s gift of 1.5 million doses of the vaccine, some social media users have questioned the intent behind the gesture with posts like the one below being seen online. 

A March 12, 2021 report by Aljazeera has listed countries that have stopped using the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, listing Germany among the countries cited. The report, which states that over a dozen countries, mostly located in Europe, have held-off the use of the vaccine in states that Germany did the same as a precautionary measure while investigations were carried out of the cases involving the blood clots.

In May, 2021, however, Germany opened up AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for all adults. This was after the suspension, which disallowed adults below 60-years from taking the shots, was lifted, indicating its safety for use. This decision was arrived at between the German federal and state officials as they concluded that the shot had far higher benefits than risks.

WHO’s take on Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine

The World Health Organisation has issued interim recommendations for the use of the vaccine with directives for use by health workers at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus and older people, including those aged 65 and above. 

In the guidance document, updated July 30, 2021, this vaccine is intended for use by people 18 years and above, regardless of a very rare  syndrome of blood clotting combined with low platelet counts with the majority of such cases having been recorded in the United Kingdom and The European Union countries.

In general, the WHO considers the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine safe for use after it underwent SAGE consideration and the European Medicines Agency review. 

Claim: A Twitter User by name Mahama2024 says the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS) was started by Late President Rawlings and the NDC

The NHIS was introduced by the Late former President, Jerry John Rawlings

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The Ghanaian political system is faced with the ‘who started what’ syndrome where political parties play blame games and tease one another with achievements during their tenure. 

One such accomplishment to come under the radar is the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

On February 2, 2016, the National Women Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Anita De-Soso, stated that the ‘National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is not the brainchild of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). She said that the idea was conceived by the Catholic Church, and the late former President Jerry John Rawlings decided to pilot the concept in Dodowa and northern parts of Ghana.

A year later, the current speaker of parliament and then Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli North constituency in the Upper West region, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, claimed during a discussion on Accra-based Class FM on June 8, 2017 that the NHIS was introduced by Late President Jerry John Rawlings. 

Fast forward to 2021, what seemed to be a revelation some four years ago has been raised by Mahama2024, a Twitter user who also shares the same claim.

This claim has been retweeted by several users. One other user had the caption:

“Assuming power they tried stealing it for themselves by running it as a mutual (district-based) scheme instead of the ‘national’ as proposed and piloted by the NDC.

The Mills/Mahama government reverted it to the ‘National Health insurance scheme’.

Shameless elephants.”

Verification

What was the norm before the introduction of NHIS?

According to a working paper titled Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme in the Context of the Health MDGs – An Empirical Evaluation Using Propensity Score Matching, Ghanaian citizens enjoyed free medical services after independence in 1957 but economic and health infrastructural challenges in the early 1980s led to the introduction of a ‘cash and carry’ system as part of conditions of the Structural Adjustment programme, also referred to as the user fee policy, the ‘cash and carry’ system meant that patients or clients had to make direct payment at health facilities when they accessed health care.

Attempts were made during the period to introduce some form of health insurance to address some of the challenges of the ‘cash and carry’ system. For instance, according to research by Terence Darko in 1999, the government of Ghana, in partnership with the Ghana Health Care Company, piloted a tax-funded health insurance scheme with the aim of using revenue from taxes to pay for medical bills but not a single person was registered.

Other health insurance schemes without state backing, however, operated successfully. This included NGO-initiated community-based health insurance schemes (CBHIS), implemented by different actors including the St Theresa’s Catholic Mission Hospital at Nkoranza, the bilateral donors DANIDA (the Danish International Development Agency), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), faith-based organisations, and other NGOs were said to be working successfully.

When was the NHIS Act passed?

The Parliament of Ghana passed the National Health Insurance Act in 2003 to outline plans for a healthcare system that would provide universal coverage to all Ghanaians and bring an end to the ‘cash and carry’ system.

The scheme was passed into law during the John Kufuor administration to secure financial risk protection against the cost of healthcare services for all in Ghana.

Currently, a new law, Act 852 has replaced Act  650 which was passed in 2003 to consolidate the NHIS, remove administrative bottlenecks, introduce transparency, reduce opportunities for corruption and gaming of the system, and make for more effective governance of the schemes.

When was the scheme introduced?

According to a research titled Kwame Nkrumah, vision and tragedy, the scheme, inaugurated in 2003, is the successor to the attempt by Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, to provide free universal healthcare [Until the enactment of the new NHIS Act, 2012 (Act 852) that established the NHIA, the scheme operated semi-autonomously district-wide (public) mutual health insurance schemes (DMHIS)]. 

Which government implemented the scheme?

According to a Capacity Development Consult (CDC) research findings, when the NPP government assumed power in 2001, they had no clear road map on the structure and funding of the health insurance policy in their election manifesto and therefore provided a broad range of healthcare services to Ghanaians through district mutual and private health insurance schemes. 

A Ministerial Task Force, upon inauguration by the government in the first quarter of 2001, advised the Ministry of Health (MoH) on the development of a national health insurance scheme, and how the ministry will regulate and mobilize extra resources to support the scheme. 

The Task Force later presented the draft policy to the government for further stakeholder consultations at both national and local government levels. After reviewing the concerns and proposals raised in various stakeholder consultation forums, the Task Force updated the zero draft.

According to a research titled politics of accountability in Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme, conducted by Capacity Development Consult(CDC) in June 2016, the proposal proved contentious, as did other aspects of the basic structures of the scheme. Nonetheless, by the last quarter of 2003, the NHIS Act (Act 650) was passed into law. 

Jennifer Singleton’s research paper titled Negotiating Change: An Analysis of the Origins of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Act indicates the NHIS implementation began in 2004 before the presidential and parliamentary elections that same year. 

Another research work titled ‘The state of enrollment on the National Health Insurance Scheme in rural Ghana after eight years of implementation’ conducted by the International journal for equity in health on December 31 2019 states that, before the implementation process began, the Kuffour government piloted what they termed as the District and Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (DMHIS) across all Districts in the ten regions.  

The second phase of implementation according to Terence Darko’s research findings states that the NDC upon winning the 2008 elections set up a legislative process by the NHIA that culminated in the review of Act 650, which was duly superseded by Act 852 in 2012.

Another research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit reveals that the NHIS is also funded through individual annual premium payments; a value-added tax (VAT) levy contribution from those in the formal sector. 

New additions onto the NHIS

The National Health Insurance Scheme currently covers over 546 medicines from all district and regional hospitals across the country. The Authority has a total of 166 district offices & five registration centres. These centres report to the Membership and Regional Operations Directorate through the regional offices and are headed by managers. Registration of members and renewal of membership of the scheme is done at the district offices.

The Authority has also introduced new Biometric Cards which contain basic biographic information as well as biometric data of the subscriber. The card is valid for five years subject to yearly membership renewals. The card is now more electronic than physical due to the biometric nature of the data which is embedded in the memory of the card.

The benefits package includes outpatient and inpatient services and review, eye care, emergencies, oral health, and maternity care.

With the introduction of digitization and technology, subscribers can renew their membership using shortcodes on all telecommunication networks.

Conclusion

By the findings above, Dubawa concluded that the NHIS was introduced by late President Jerry John Rawlings of the NDC, but implemented by the NPP government led by former President John Agyekum Kuffour.

Claim: District Chief Executive of the Bongo District, Peter Ayinbisa, claims the water his constituents drink makes them more fertile and sexually active, a reason for the astronomical surge in teenage pregnancy cases in the area.

False. The water being drunk in Bongo has not been put under any tests to see if it contains any particular aphrodisiac-inducing minerals or chemicals. 

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It is possibly unlikely for anyone to think that the water they drink can whet or inflame their appetite for sex. However, a story published by myjoyonline.com and mynewsgh.com reports the District Chief Executive of the Bongo District in Ghana’s Upper East Region, Peter Ayinbisa, attributing the high teenage pregnancy rate in the Bongo area to the community’s libido-boosting drinking water. Ayinbisa said his source of information was a nurse whose name he did not disclose. 

“The water we drink makes us highly potent and makes us, the men, sexually active,” he is reported to have said.

He added that the water does “wonders” to the men and women in the district, thereby leading to an increase in teenage pregnancies; although he admits he has not independently verified the truth of the matter.

“Somebody told me [the] story that the water we drink makes us [men] sexually active and makes the women highly potent. I don’t know the science of it but a female nurse told me it’s true,” he told Bolgatanga-based Dreamz FM.

The audio, together with the publications, has since received viral and distinct reactions. A Facebook post by this user.

Verification

Water and Sexual drive

A number of studies have linked the intake of water to the effectiveness of one’s sex life. As the MedicalNewsToday puts it, “a person’s hydration levels can affect their erectile function.” It adds that dehydration can cause poor blood flow in the body, including an improper function of the male reproductive organ.

Similarly, the American Academy of Family Physicians found that depression and anxiety, which are all closely linked to lower water intake, affects sexual performance. A regular intake of about 8 to 12 glasses of water daily is therefore recommended in order to enhance one’s sexual drive and stimulation.

A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2011 also found that young people may suffer from poor sex life due to problems with their cognitive performance and mood, as a result of dehydration. 

Does the Bongo drinking water contain libido-boosting chemicals?

Residents of Bongo and its environs drink from mechanised boreholes, the District Chief Executive, Peter Ayinbisa, told Dubawa.

He said the boreholes, after being drilled, are inspected and tested by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to ensure the safety of the water for human consumption and use. The GWCL confirmed this as true.

“They don’t drink water from the taps, they get water from mechanised boreholes. We are trying to connect Bongo to our water distribution system…A new treatment plant has been built in the area and is completed. It will soon be commissioned by President Nana Akufo-Addo,” Stanley Martey, the Communications Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited, told Dubawa.

The GWCL also says it has identified harmful chemicals in the Bongo water. The chemicals negatively affect the growth of people, but do not enhance sex drive or potency as the DCE claimed.

According to Stanley Martey, the Communications Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited, “that’s how come we know [the water] contains fluoride which is not too good for their teeth.”

Fluoride can also affect the bones, and lead to improper functioning of the brain of adults, with children at higher risk, as well as other health problems including skin problems.

“The Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) has also improvised something that takes the fluoride out but we [GWCL] can’t confirm or deny the DCE’s claim since we don’t have any scientific bases for that,” Martey added.

Mr Martey, however, acknowledged that water, in general, has its own properties and is good for the growth of the human body, yet, cannot single out the sex potency aspect [as is being projected by the DCE].

Are there contrary views?

A Medical Anthropologist and Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof. Kojo Sena, has described the claim as unfounded and lacking merit. He indicated that drinking any ‘natural’ water cannot trigger one’s sex drive or potency.

“I read the news on social media yesterday and laughed. Though I’m not a medical doctor, I know there is no connection between water and people’s sex drive,” he said. “If the elders and authorities in Bongo cannot control the menace (teenage pregnancy), they shouldn’t blame it on water.”

A medical doctor who doubles as the Chief Executive Officer of Tantra Community Clinic, Dr Senyo Misroame, has equally underscored that water can only cause a metabolic change in individuals when polluted with chemicals or organic substances.

“Water is supposed to be tasteless, odourless and without any chemical elements. If water is polluted by some chemicals or organic agents, it doesn’t become water in its natural sense; they can cause a metabolic change in bodies,” he told Dubawa.

“You don’t expect water in its natural sense to cause any change in body physiology. It will be difficult for me as a scientist to believe what the [Bongo DCE] said until we put some scientific test into it,” he added.

Meanwhile, the DCE, Peter Ayinbisa, has admitted to Dubawa that he has no research or information to support what he said.

“It is not a fact; a nurse told me. We all know there are obvious causes of teenage pregnancy [but] the kind of water people drink can’t be one,” he said in an interview with Dubawa.

“I was just citing an example to raise the ego [or attention] of our listeners. I never said I had done research or study on it,” he said.

However, he stressed that there is no traditional belief that drinking the water in Bongo leads to pregnancy. 

Conclusion

There is no evidence to support the claim that the water being consumed in Bongo is extraordinary in its sexual enhancing and potency enhancing abilities. 

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. 

Ghana is among the top visitors of pornography website, pornhub.com, according to local media reports.

The chart that is being circulated to back the claim does not entirely represent the top visitors of the website.

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Several online portals have published a story saying that Ghana is one of the top visitors of pornhub.com, a popular pornography website.

Websites that have published the said story include modernghana.com, ashesgyamera.com, thepostghana.com and headquartersgh.blogspot.com

They use a chart released by the pornography website as the basis for the story.

Verification

The chart used in the stories can indeed be found on the Pornhub website. 

It was published on March 8, 2019, in a post titled “Big Beautiful Women.”

However, as indicated on the chart, it only reflects the search that is made for a particular kind of content on the website. It is this category of content that has been classified as ‘Big Beautiful Women.’

Big Beautiful Women (BBW) is just one of the numerous categories of pornography that is available on the website.

“Worldwide, the popularity of BBW searches (as a proportion of all searches) decreased slightly over the last 2 years. That’s not to say that Big Beautiful Women aren’t as popular as ever, but as Pornhub’s traffic has grown in certain parts of the world, other genres make up a larger portion of total searches (for example, Hentai’s popularity in Japan),” part of the report on BBW searches on the website says.

Which countries are leading by traffic to the website?

Unlike the website’s 2019 report, in Pornhub’s 2020 Tech Review, the report about Ghana did not categorically mention the countries that were leading in traffic.

However, it can be deduced from the electronic devices that were used in accessing the website and the countries from which those devices were used. 

The countries captured in the ‘traffic by device’ chart of 2020 are very similar to the top 20 countries by traffic in the 2019 review report of the pornography website.

It may be interesting to note that the only country in Africa that has made it to the group of top visitors to pornhub, in recent times, is South Africa.

South Africa was captured in the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Review Report of Pornhub as among its top 20 countries by traffic.

Conclusion

Ghana has not been ranked among the top visitors of pornography website, Pornhub. The chart that is being used to back this claim only refers to visitors to just one category of videos on the website.

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. 

Claim: A photo shows newborn babies sleeping in plastic chairs in Ghanaian health facility – Twitter user

The photo is dated and shows babies from the Kawempe National Hospital in Uganda, not a hospital in Ghana.

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As part of the #fixthecountry posts on Twitter, a user, @AmistyTV posted a photo showing some newborn babies lying on plastic chairs.

“This is Ghana for us. So the leaders why. #FixTheCountry,” the caption reads.

Some users, in commenting on the tweet, have expressed their disappointment at the government for the situation.

Verification

The photo in the post was subjected to TinEye Reverse Image Search and findings indicate it is from Uganda.

A health story published by Newvision.co.ug in 2019 reported the photo was of newborn babies at the neonatal care unit at Kawempe National Hospital. The babies were later moved to Mulago specialized women and neonatal hospital according to the Ugandan Ministry of Health. The story was also reported by The Observer.ug and many other Ugandan media organisations. 

This same image was recirculated on social media in 2019 as having occurred in Nigeria and again in 2020 when it was said to have happened at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Nairobi.

Dubawa Nigeria in 2019 and Pesacheck in 2020  have debunked claims around this photo in their respective countries.

Conclusion

The photo was taken at the Kawempe National Hospital in Uganda in 2019 and not in Ghana.

Claim: Ghana is home to the oldest woman on earth, according to Captain Smart, the host of Onua TV’s Maakye show.

Captain Smart’s claim of having interviewed the oldest person on earth cannot be regarded as factual due to the absence of adequate documentary proof or scientific test to confirm the age of the woman.

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A viral video from a live telecast of Onua TV’s Morning Show on August 16, 2021, streamed on Onua TV’s Facebook account, claimed a 198-year old Ghanaian woman, who gave her name as Amodzie, is the oldest woman in the world.

The host of ‘Maakye’, Captain Smart, said, while introducing his guest, that the Ghanaian is the oldest woman in the world, after asserting that similar records provided by the “Guinness Book of Records,” now Guinness World Records (GWR), were untrue. 

Amodzie, during the interview, referred to her knowledge of the birth of the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, as a confirmation of her age, in the absence of any documentary proof.

According to her, she witnessed the time the late Dr. Nkrumah’s mother was pregnant with him, as well as knew of his birth in 1901. 

To further prove her age, she said she had divorced twice and was in her third marriage at the time of Nkrumah’s birth. 

In addition, she said some educated people around the time indicated her age to her while she was growing. 

She is revealed to have birthed seven children, of which three have passed on. The youngest of her children is currently 88 years old, according to Captain Smart.

Verification

Her ‘vivid recollection’ of events that took place at the time leading to the late Dr. Nkrumah’s birth as well as becoming the first President made the claim quite interesting to verify.

However, the absence of any documentary proof to confirm her age made the claim about her age quite debatable.

Granted that the claim is true, this means that Amodzie was born circa 1823. If so, with the youngest child alleged to be 88 years this year, it will mean that she gave birth to her at the age of 110 years, in 1933. 

At what age can a woman not have a baby?

In 2019 the Washington Post reported Mangayamma Yaramati as the oldest person to birth a child, at the age of 74 years.

The development revived several controversies around geriatric pregnancies because the twins she had were conceived through in-vitro fertilization. This was because, at 74 years, she had experienced menopause, according to the Washington Post.

Healthline Media says a higher proportion of women reach menopause, the stopping of the menstrual cycle (for a year or longer), somewhere between their late 40s and early 50s, with an average age of around 51 years old. 

It also notes that women who give birth at older ages between 55 and 70 could possibly conceive through hormone therapy and in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

Ghanaian context

A specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr. Senyo M.K. Misroame, explained in a telephone interview that the history of an older person conceiving and giving birth is traced to the Bible. 

But, he added that no scientific data is available to prove this occurrence.   

Dr. Misroame, who is also the CEO of Tantra Community Clinic and Fertility Centre, Acheampong Specialist Clinic, at Labone, said the oldest person he has seen getting pregnant at one of his facilities was at age 52 years.

However, he added, “currently, there is no data to support claims that a person has gotten pregnant at such an advanced age beyond 70 years and above what I have come across.”

According to him, scientific research undertaken locally put the average ages for menopause of Ghanaian women, especially southerners, between 42 and 52 years.

“So, most women will fall into that bracket,” and outliers who will have their menopause pretty early, after 40 years. And added that after menopause women are not able to conceive naturally. 

Advanced technologies that have come to aid women to conceive at older ages are recent inventions and did not exist at the time, with regards to the claim under review.”

Based on these, he concluded that it is almost impossible physiologically while no data also exists to support such a claim at the moment. 

World’s oldest person

According to the Guinness World Records, the oldest person living (female) is Kane Tanaka, from Fukuoka in Japan. She was born on January 2, 1903.  

At the time her age was verified, on February 12, 2020, she was 117 years and 41 days. This means she is currently (as of August 18) 118 years and 7 months and 24 days.

How credible is this claim?

The Guinness World Records remains one of the common platforms to verify such unique claims. As noted by Wikipedia, “it is a reference book published annually, listing world records both of human achievements and other extremes of the natural world.”

Criteria for determining a record title

Each record title in the Guinness World Records is scrutinised and meets some specific requirements including measurability (can the claim be measured objectively? what is the unit of measurement?), and verifiability (can it be proven and will there be accurate evidence available to prove it?). 

It is only when a claim meets the above conditions and some others that Guinness World Records is able to approve its accuracy. 

Human life expectancy

Definition – According to the World Health Organisation,  “the average number of years that a newborn could expect to live if he or she were to pass through life exposed to the sex- and age-specific death rates prevailing at the time of his or her birth, for a specific year, in a given country, territory, or geographic area.”

According to research by the University of Washington, the number of people who live past the age of 100 has been on the rise for decades, up to nearly half a million people worldwide.

It, however, asserted that there are “far fewer “supercentenarians,” people who live to age 110 or even longer,” while noting that the oldest living person, Jeanne Calment of France, was 122 when she died in 1997. 

The research went further to confirm the world’s current oldest person as the 118-year-old Kane Tanaka of Japan.

Conclusion

Given the limited data on the life expectancy of Ghanaians in the 20th century, as a means to thoroughly verify the claim, in addition to the absence of any documentary proof by the claimant, it would be inconclusive to say Amodzie is the oldest person in the world.   

Infrastructural or development delivery tracker does not have a direct meaning in the dictionary but as the term suggests, the tracker keeps tabs on status of delivery of government infrastructural and development projects. 

The tracker website is said to aid in ensuring transparency and accountability in the governance system. 

The term was first announced on August 18, 2020 by the Vice President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, during the electioneering campaign in 2020.

Before the introduction of the tracker website, the erstwhile National Democratic Congress(NDC) government in its bid to keep records of their projects and achievements introduced the ‘GreenBook.’

Similarities and differences between the Green Book and Delivery Tracker 

Unlike the Delivery tracker website and App, the GreenBook as the name implies had all its infrastructural and other development projects stipulated in a book with its soft copy in PDF. 

While the Tracker is a living portal subject to change and updates, the GreenBook was a written document at the end of a four year term. 

The book was also presented in two parts,with the first part giving a broad overview of Government’s performance and the second part providing pictorial proof of work done at the district level.

However, both websites are similar in content format. Both Tracker and GreenBook are to keep records of projects and promises made during campaigns which have been delivered. They both address infrastructure data by sectors, regions and districts.

In a nutshell, the two projects were to track the political parties’ achievements in government, make themselves accountable to the people and to enable them draft informed campaign messages. In view of this, the NDC themed the Green Book as accounting to the people, changing lives,transforming Ghana.

Concerns raised on both projects 

Ghanaians have subjected both initiatives to strict proof as they pointed out invisible projects published as either completed or ongoing.

Some opposition party activists held press conferences calling out projects published on the tracker website as invisible. Section of the minority also termed it as ‘ghost’ projects. 

The tracker website was taken down after the Vice President admitted errors in the infrastructural achievements published on the website but has since been restored.

There were instances where the President, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, teasingly described claims by the Mahama administration that it undertook unprecedented infrastructural development, as a mere fantasy that was contained in the Green Book of the NDC.

African countries with delivery tracker website 

Google search engine shows no results of African countries with such initiative. The only tracker synonymous to all is the COVID-19 tracker which makes Vice President Bawumia’s claim that Ghana is the first to initiate such a project likely to be true.

“As we know, Ghana is the only country in Africa that has implemented this publicly accessible delivery tracker for its infrastructure projects. No other country has done so,” the Vice President had said.

Claim: A Twitter user claims an image of a damaged section of an asphalt road is from Ghana.

Findings reveal the photo was taken in Thailand, not Ghana.

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A Twitter user has attributed a damaged section of an asphalt road to be that of a road constructed in Ghana.

The photo captioned “Water has carried the road away #fixthecountry” was published on August 4, 2021, a day before a protest dubbed #FixTheCountry to pile pressure on the government to address Ghana’s numerous challenges, including youth unemployment, poor infrastructure, and high cost of living.

The claim has been posted by the same Twitter user @Opresii several times this year. It has amassed over 3,000 likes, 500 retweets, and over 60 quote tweets.

However, it has been used by a Facebook user where it was said to be a road at Abia State in Nigeria.

Verification

We conducted a google reverse image search and found out that the photo was first found posted online on 30^th August 2019 and is associated with Thailand.

This is corroborated in a news report by Workpoint Today which is a news agency in Thailand. According to the news report, the photo was first posted by a Facebook user Prince of Wales after villagers in Chanuman District, Amnat Charoen Province, called on authorities to repair the paved road surface that slipped out into a sheet after the flood subsided.

The photo posted on Facebook gave us a clearer view of the picture, revealing a number plate, as seen in the photo, which is a clear indication that the image was not taken in Ghana. 

More evidently, Thailand’s Anti-Corruption Organization reported on the road case with the same images and text.

Affiliate fact-checking organizations including Dubawa Nigeria have verified the photo and affirmed the destroyed road is in Chanuman District in Thailand.

The report described the photo as false and asserts that the photo is of a dilapidated road from Chanuman District in Thailand.

Furthermore, a report by AFP fact check on the photo demonstrated this more clearly by using natural features and objects seen in the image to find the location of the road.

Using Google Maps Street View, pictures of the exact location in Thailand were uncovered, showing images from 2015, before the road’s construction and more recent images showing the road after reconstruction.

Conclusion

The dilapidated road claimed to be in Ghana is false and misleading. It is a road in Chanuman District in Thailand. Other fact check organizations have verified the photo and concluded that it is a road from Thailand. 

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. 

Claim: A “teachers’ laptop” exploded after a teacher tried installing windows 10, according to a social media user.

The Ghana Education Service has not started distributing the “teachers laptops.”

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A social media user claims that one of the laptops given to teachers in Ghana caught fire after a teacher tried installing  windows 10. Attached to the post is an image of a burnt laptop. The claim which has since gone viral has raised some  concerns.

Some concerned Facebook users took to their walls to advise persons to stay away from misleading reports.

“When evil is at work. How can some people propagate deep lies like that? Please disregard this post in case you see it.

The laptops for teachers have not been shared yet and so which laptop did the so-called teacher try to install Windows 10 huh? Oh daabi da! The laptops to be shared soon are of good quality.  Be assured Teachers!,” one of the reactions to the post reads.

About the ‘teachers laptops’

On 23rd September 2020, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) appealed to the government at a Stakeholders Forum to provide each teacher with a laptop and modem to ensure innovative means of teaching and to enhance virtual learning during this COVID period.

In February this year, the government of Ghana through the Ghana Education Service announced plans to secure laptops for all teachers in the country after consulting with teacher unions. The project is dubbed ‘One teacher One Laptop (1T1L).

In a letter signed by the Deputy Director General of Ghana Education Service, Mr Anthony Boateng, on July 28, 2021, the service announced the distribution of the laptops to begin with teachers in Senior High Schools(SHS).

This announcement was met with mixed reactions. While some welcomed the initiative, others questioned  the basis for the distribution and procurement.

Verification 

According to the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service(GES), Ms Cassandra Ampofo Twum, the laptops have not been distributed yet.

Further, using Tineye image search, it was revealed that the image has featured on over four different websites to represent tech failure articles. 

Some of these websites trace their source to bored panda, a Lithuanian website that publishes articles about lightweight and inoffensive topics.

Daily mail UK sourcing the image to Bored panda stated,

“………collated in a Bored Panda picture gallery, including a computer mouse overrun by ants after the owner surprisingly cleaned it with lemonade, and a laptop that had been completely burnt.”

The user has since clarified not apologized for posting such information, adding that it was for sarcastic purposes with no malice attached. 

A screenshot of an article which he claims informed his decision to post the burnt laptop was also attached to the clarification post.

Conclusion

With the facts available to Dubawa, we conclude that the burnt laptop and information attached is false and misleading.