Our forex bureau rates are provided by Afriswap Bureau De Change in Osu, Accra.
On the Interbank forex rates from the Bank of Ghana on, October 11, 2022, the Ghana Cedi is trading against the dollar at a buying price of 9.6427 and a selling price of 9.6523.
As compared to yesterday’s trading of a buying price of 9.6327 and a selling price of 9.6423. At a forex bureau in Accra, the dollar is being bought at a rate of 10.92 and sold at a rate of 11.09.
Against the Pound Sterling, the Cedi is trading at a buying price of 10.6465 and a selling price of 10.6581 as compared to yesterday’s trading of a buying price of 10.6971 and a selling price of 10.7097.
At a forex bureau in Accra, the pound sterling is being bought at a rate of 11.90 and sold at a rate of 12.20.
The Euro is trading at a buying price of 9.3489 and a selling price of 9.3582 as compared to yesterday’s trading of a buying price of 9.4148 and a selling price of 9.4251.
At a forex bureau in Accra, Euro is being bought at a rate of 10.45 and sold at a rate of 10.70.
The South African Rand is trading at a buying price of 0.5318 and a selling price of 0.5321 compared to yesterday’s trading of a buying price of 0.5326 and a selling price of 0.5329.
At a forex bureau in Accra, South African Rand is being bought at a rate of 0.45 and sold at a rate of 0.80.
The Bible Society of Ghana has launched a new revised Akuapem–Twi Bible at Akropong Grace Presbyterian Church in the Eastern Region with a call on Christians to study the Bible in their mother tongue, so as to
apply it daily.
A retired Minister of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev. Charles Ahwireng who made the call further charged Christians to see the Bible as a true spiritual book of God.
The Akuapems are the second group of people to have the Bible translated.
He urged everyone to seek Christ in all their endeavors and always worship God in truth and diligence.
The General Secretary of the Bible Society of Ghana, BSG, Rev. Dr. Enoch Aryee-Atta urged Ghanaians, especially Christians to patronize the work of the society and participate in their programmes in order to increase awareness of the activities of the society.
Rev. Dr. Aryee-Atta further advised Christians to procure the newly translated version of the Akuapem Twi Bible.
According to him, the Bible Society of Ghana has successfully translated the Bible into nine major Ghanaian Languages namely, Asante Twi, Akuapem Twi, Ga, Mfantse, Ewe, Dagbani, Dangme, Nzema and Esahie- Sefwi.
The Bible Society of Ghana set out to revise all three Akan languages, looking out for general issues such as language, grammar and syntax.
Some of the new features include Genesis which has now been revised to Gyenesis or ‘Mfitiase’ Awurade now AWURADE in block letters, Deuteronomy now Mmara no Ntimu, among others.
Plans are well ahead to get more African journalists to partake in an advance training on human trafficking and its related issues in Africa and the world at large.
The training which would be funded by the European Union and organized by Expertise France seeks to broaden the knowledge of African journalists in the fight against human trafficking.
This was disclosed by the Project Manager of Expertise France in Ghana, Serge Akpaloo, at a training workshop for 20 selected journalists from Ghana and Nigeria.
Mr Serge Akpaloo noted that the project was important to have journalists lead the fight against human trafficking, hence more journalists from other African countries would be trained in the coming months with funding from the European Union (EU).
Project Manager of Expertise France in Ghana, Serge Akpaloo
He said, journalists from Togo, Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire would be the next to have the advance training in human trafficking and its related issues adding that this will help journalists in Africa to have a united front against the menace.
Mr Akpaloo hopes that with the just ended training, journalists would be able to do more compelling reports on human trafficking and help in the fight against the menace as journalists are in the process of forming a regional network across Africa to help them have a collaborative effort in fighting the canker.
“This project was able to happen with help from the European Union for the first ever advance training for journalists from Ghana and Nigeria and we hope that the journalists will go back and focus on reports on human trafficking,“ Mr Serge Akpaloo said.
He noted that it is the hope of Expertise France to have journalist networks on human trafficking working assiduously and collaboratively to help eradicate the menace
Mr Akpaloo also noted that some selected journalists would also be mentored to have provide more adequate and compelling stories on human trafficking.
The facilitator, an international media consultant, Charles Autheman who took the participants through the training noted that there is an increase in human trafficking globally and it is often related to labour exploitation or commercial sex exploitation.
He noted that the training was aimed at helping journalists with previous experience on human trafficking to expand their knowledge on the issues on human trafficking and its related issues so as to help eradicate the menace.
Mr. Autheman said reporting on human trafficking is complex and quite a sensitive topic to work on as it involves working with sources and organized crime, thus the need for journalists to be well equipped to work on the topic effectively to educate the public.
Participants from both countries were excited about the training and pledged to do more compelling stories on the issue.
Expertise France is the French public agency for the design and implementation of international technical cooperation projects. Mandated by partner countries and donors, Expertise France recruits specific experts for each project in order to mobilize know-hows tailored for each mission.
Call it inter-political marriage and you will not be far from right. Families are bound together by blood, adoption or marriage.
Inter and intra-tribal marriages in Ghana are very common. Intra-political marriages are also common but inter-political marriages are somewhat rare in Ghana.
Usually, public exchanges on politics often get very heated and followers of the political parties seem not to see eye to eye but behind the public sphere, after the radio and TV arguments, politicians in and of themselves are good friends who wine and dine together.
Over the weekend, two young love birds whose families are ‘politically opposed’ tied the knot in a private ceremony in Accra.
The two, Kwaw Blay, the son of the former New Patriotic Party, NPP, National Chairman, Freddie Blay married Jasmine, who is also niece to Betty Mould Iddrisu, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
The ceremony was attended by members of both families. In some photos shared on social media, the families appeared excited about the young couple.
Mother of the groom, Gina Blay, who is also Ghana’s Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, in a tweet, shared photos of the two families with smiles and wrote “and they shall become One! Kwaw & Jasmine Blay.”
This is not the first there has been an inter-political marriage in the country. In April 2021, Chief Biney, Deputy National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress, NDC, married his sweetheart, Afia Akoto the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the MASLOC.
Biney is quoted to have stated that he is in a political position to serve for a number of years and then leave for others to come and take over but he is in his marriage forever and therefore will always go home to his wife.
“OB anyday I will go home. Now if you become a President don’t you have a period you serve? You should think, people should be wise and let’s understand that at the end of the day, the power we look for is to serve and when you serve your people within a period you’ll not be there,” he said on Accra-based Asempa FM.
According to Mr. Clifford Braimah, the Managing Director of Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), around 50% of the company’s treated water is lost as a result of the impact of illegal mining operations, often known as galamsey.
“Under normal circumstances, we should discard 5% of every 100 litres of treated water.
But in some circumstances, we throw out up to 50% of the water due to the excessive amount of turbidity, he explained.
According to the MD of GWCL, the situation has led to rationing water in some communities – adding that the toll of galamsey on their operations is devastating.
The company, Mr. Braimah added, now spends a huge sum of money on almost all its plants to treat water for consumption owing to illegal mining activities.
Also, he noted, the causes of pollution have resulted in a drastic reduction of water supplyvolume.
Mr. Braimah was speaking in an interview at the backdrop of a tour the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, made to the Ashanti Region, and said the only place that has clean water to treat is Kpone.
This, he said, is because the Volta River has still not been disturbed that much; and also the fact that the water undergoes various stages of segmentation before reaching Kpone.
He said owing to galamsey activities which have caused significant pollution of water-bodies, the machines used for treatment are periodically stopped and maintained more regularly than before. This is causing shutdowns to become more frequent, he added.
“Anytime you shut down your plant it means the people are not getting water, and so the causes are multiple. We cannot continue to operate this way, or else we will all have a challenge in this country,” he said.
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah – addressing an open forum at a stop at Bedabour in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region, expressed worry about the state of water-bodies in Ghana.
She noted that this development has rendered many water-bodies unusable, with aquatic life becoming rare in water-bodies across the country.
The minister reminded residents of the Bedabour community that chemicals used in mining, such as mercury and cyanide are deadly – and can cause problems for women and their unborn babies.
She rallied the community to help government overcome the galamsey menace while calling for a collaborative effort to help arrest and prosecute illegal miners.
Associate Professor at the University of Ghana Business School, Professor Lord Mensah, says Ghana’s exchange rateshave never been properly managed.
According to him, the government has been managing it with loans and bonds from international donors thus following Ghana’s inability to return to the Eurobond market to raise money as a result of several downgrades by international rating agencies, it has caused a major shortfall in dollar reserves and the economic crisis ongoing.
He noted that the reliance on loans and bonds came at the expense of the country’s drive to become a net exporter and the creation of a heavily industrialized economy.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said, “Our exchange rates have never been managed. We’ve been managing it with loans and clearly everything shows on the grounds. We have sacrificed our export drive policies; we have sacrificed our production which will reduce some importation for just loans in managing our exchange rate.
“The reason why we can see the dollar moving without control is our absence on the Eurobond market. For the past few years, it is only this year that the government found it difficult to go on the Eurobond market.
He continued, “All other loans are coming in; the Cocoa syndicated loans are coming in, we could get loans from Afreximbank and all those but the problem we are having is access to the Eurobond market. And access to the Eurobond market in the sense that most of our debt which are foreign we have to service them using foreign currency.”
He explained that now with the path to the Eurobond blocked for Ghana, the government is struggling to raise dollars to service interest payments, support importations as well as finance other local projects.
“And the Eurobond anytime we go there, if you look at the prospectus clearly it tells you that we borrow to defray existing debt and then we borrow extra to bring some in-house to grow the economy. So effectively it has been the case that every year we have access to the Eurobond market to service our interest payments and so therefore the Cocoa syndicated loans and all other loans comes in to give us some buffer to meet the local demand of the dollar.
“So now that the Eurobond market has been frozen on us it has turned out to be difficult to meet this demand of interest payment and at the same time the local traders and all those transactions that goes on in the environment,” he said.
A video shared by blogger, Kobby Kyei, in which students of St Paul’s Senior High School and Minor Seminary in the Volta Region are purportedly sharing one fish during dining.
The video which has since gone viral on social media, particularly Twitter has had people express horror at the feeding situation in schools.
In the said video, a student with the ladle is seen carefully dividing the fish in what looks like palm nut soup into several pieces to shared to other students seated around the table who had been served rice.
“This is not healthy,” Kobby Kyei wrote while tagging the Ghana Education Service on Twitter.
It will be recalled that from May this year, some Senior High Schools reported food shortages while threatening to close down if nothing was done about the situation.
The regional Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) in the Northern, Eastern, Central and Volta regions were worst affected by the crisis and demanded that either students are made to feed themselves or the schools shut down.
However, government intervened and had supplies delivered to the various schools to avert their closure.
The situation seems to have resurrected in some schools in the Volta region as letters shared by Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr. Clement Apaak, shows a request by school heads for supplies.
Headmistress of Avatime Senior High School, Rebecca Mawusi Veny, wrote to the Volta Regional Director of Education to request for permission for the students to begin feeding themselves as the school was running out of stocks.
“This unfortunate situation has been reported to the regional Buffer Stock Company and other officers that matter, but the situation has remained the same.
“Director and Board of Directors, please I seek permission for my students to buy their own food come next week if nothing is done about the food situation,” part of the letter dated September 29 read.
Similarly, the headmaster of Alavanyo Senior High Technical, Rev Samuel Pius Elewokor, wrote to the Volta Regional Free SHS Secretariat for urgent supply as they have resorted to feeding their students twice daily.
“We hope our request would be given a quick response because we currently feed the students with only breakfast and supper, and this can take us to Friday 30th September 2022,”part of the letter read
Watch video below
St Paul’s Senior High School and Minor Seminary at Hatsukorpe(Ketu South) SPACO.
The absence of processing to add value to Ghana’s growing exports of cashew nuts to India has alarmed the Ghana India Trade Advisory Chamber (GITAC).
Dominic Oduro-Antwi, president of the Chamber, told the B&FT that despite the fact that cashews make up about 80% of India’s imports from Ghana, there aren’t any cashew processing facilities there, thus the value of the product is wasted.
Vietnam and India are Ghana’s two main cashew market destinations, with export values of $533 million and $445 million, respectively.
Indeed, the country’s untapped cashew in shell trade potential is estimated at over US$660million.
Trade in cashew, he said, has become one of the main demands from Ghana to India – more than most traditional commodities such as gold. However, processing these raw materials is done in the importing countries… which devalues the product.
“When you export raw, the price is cheaper; but it’s not the same when premium is added,” he indicated.
Data from the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) indicate that the country exported about US$340.7million of raw cashew in shell to seven countries across the globe in 2020 alone.
With India being the second-largest export destination for cashew nuts in shell from Ghana (41.41 percent in 2020), Vietnam was the main destination for Ghanaian exports of cashew nuts in shell; representing more than half (58.34 percent) of all cashew in shell exported to the world in 2020.
But Mr. Oduro argued that a concerted effort must be made by both the public and private sectors to add premium before exporting.
“We must begin to change the narrative from raw cashew to processed cashew. The opportunities are present to rake in huge sums if only we prioritise value addition as an agenda,” he noted.
This, the Chamber said, illustrates the need for Ghanaian traders to increase trade to India in other sectors including vegetables, fruit among others.
Apart from cashew and gold, Ghana has been recording increasing trade in Shea and cocoa with India. Major imports from India into the country include spices and agricultural machinery, among others.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF)and the World Bank have warned of a possible global recession at the start of the annual meeting of the two bodies in Washington on Monday.
Growth was slowing in the industrialized countries of Europe, World Bank President David Malpass said.
Referring to the dollar’s recent rise, he said currency devaluation posed a problem for low-income countries, where the debt burden was growing.
“The rise in interest rates was an additional burden for these countries, and inflation remained a major problem for all, but particularly for the poor,” Malpass said.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva noted slowing economies in all three of the world’s major economic zones. She pointed to increased energy prices as a problem for the eurozone and to outbreaks of the coronavirus pandemic in China as a persistent cause of supply chain problems.
While the labour market in the United States remained strong, jobs growth was slowing in response to interest rate increases imposed by the Federal Reserve.
On Tuesday, the IMF is to present its latest forecasts for the global economy. Georgieva has announced that the growth prediction will be reduced again.
She pointed to factors such as the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and climatic disasters on all continents as creating problematic situations.
For the first time since 2019, the meeting is taking place in a single location, with gatherings over recent years being in hybrid format.
The meeting brings together finance ministers and representatives of banking and development aid, as well as central bankers.
At the beginning of their annual meetings on Monday in Washington, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank issued a warning about a potential global recession.
According to World Bank President David Malpass, economic growth in Europe’s industrialized nations is decreasing.
He said currency depreciation was a concern for low-income countries, where the debt burden was expanding, in reference to the dollar’s recent climb.
According to Malpass, the increase in interest rates added to the strain on these nations, and inflation continued to be a serious issue for everyone, but especially the poor.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva noted slowing economies in all three of the world’s major economic zones. She pointed to increased energy prices as a problem for the eurozone and to outbreaks of the coronavirus pandemic in China as a persistent cause of supply chain problems.
While the labour market in the United States remained strong, jobs growth was slowing in response to interest rate increases imposed by the Federal Reserve.
On Tuesday, the IMF is to present its latest forecasts for the global economy. Georgieva has announced that the growth prediction will be reduced again.
She pointed to factors such as the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and climatic disasters on all continents as creating problematic situations.
For the first time since 2019, the meeting is taking place in a single location, with gatherings over recent years being in hybrid format.
The meeting brings together finance ministers and representatives of banking and development aid, as well as central bankers.
Yaw Osafo-Maafo, a senior presidential advisor, has disclosed that the government flagship Free Senior High School, Free SHS, programme will remain untouched amid talks with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, for a financial rescue programme.
He disclosed at an event in Accra on Monday, October 10, that the programme and social interventions in the education sector, in general, will not be impacted by ongoing negotiations.
He dismissed calls for the IMF to demand cuts to the Free SHS expenditure admitting, however, that calls for a relook at the programme’s implementation were in the right direction.
“If there is any sector that we should not touch the expenditure, that sector is education. Because we are protecting the potential use of our resources in a very efficient and effective manner.
“So, if you touch education, you are undermining your own development paradigm. So, that is not the area to go when you decide to cut expenditure,” he stressed.
On the Free SHS policy, he pointed out how political opponents “fan their support base by pointing out the amount of money the government will save if the Free SHS is abolished.
“People have written and I have read in the papers arguing that one of the first things IMF should look at as they admit us into the IMF programme is to cut the Free SHS. Let me tell you here and now, we are negotiating with the IMF and Free SHS will not be touched, we cannot touch it,” he stressed.
He pointed out further that the IMF as an institution was pro-poor adding that free High School education was a social intervention that is being enjoyed across the Western world.
“The IMF itself as an institution is pro-poor, the IMF itself believes in education so how can IMF ask you to cut Free SHS? Don’t you have Free SHS in America, don’t you have Free SHS in Germany, don’t you have it in Europe?
“Most of the developed world has Free High School, so we are taking the right path towards development and I can assure you that the IMF will not touch the Free SHS,” he stated.
On the issue of calls for a review of the programme, he said: “Let us meet to discuss the overall implementation with the view to improving efficiency and effectiveness and we may realign certain things, but cutting it is out of the question.”
He argued that the economy can support flagship programmes currently in place, “the challenges being faced are short-term and we cannot afford to sacrifice our common vision due to short-term economic pressures,” he added.
The Free SHS programme has become topical in recent times with the government seeking a programme with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, amid an economic downturn.
Calls for a review of the programme have heightened whiles fears of the IMF calling for a scrapping or massive review of the programme have also come up.
Government insists that Free SHS will remain untouched in its current form, allying with any fears and or critique.
The Free SHS policy is one of the main policies of the government of Ghana, which started in September 2017.
“Every child in Ghana who qualifies for, and is placed in a public Senior High School for his secondary education will have his/her fees absorbed by the government,” the Free SHS secretariat said on its website.
Businesses have been worried about the country’s credit condition for a while, especially the pricing and availability difficulties.
As an illustration, the Bank of Ghana’s policy rate, which determines the rate at which it lends to commercial banks, is 24.5 percent.
In contrast, the typical interest rate on loans is higher than 30%.
He also stated that the recent downgrades of the country’s creditworthiness to junk status by Fitch, Moody’s, and Standard & Poor’s will not help the tightening credit position.
“Continuous rating downgrades will translate to unaffordable debt costs, deteriorating asset values (such as retirement, other savings and property) and reduction in disposable income for many, as well as high cost of funding for the country when there is inherent core inflation and deterrence of foreign investment coming into the country.
“This will translate to expensive borrowing for businesses.” he told the B&FT.
The downgrades reflect not only Ghana’s rising public sector debt of 68 percent to GDP at July ending, but also the possibility that government will no longer be able to raise money from the international capital market in the near future.
The prospects of not being able to tap into the international market, Dr. Ankrah explains, leaves government with no option other than to compete with the private sector for already scarce funds from the domestic market.
“Businesses should be prepared for every eventuality, and aware of the risks from overextension, when borrowing in an environment conducive to rising rates. With an increase in interest rates, businesses with company existing loans can have higher interest payments, less disposable income and bigger overheads. In some cases, the business may end up paying off the interest only rather than the loan itself,” he added.
Higher interest rates, he said, can impact small businesses’ cash flow and their ability to borrow, reinvest and even hire workers.
Typically, these economic downgrades cut sovereign bond value as collateral in central bank funding operations and drive interest rates high. Sovereign bond values are grossly discounted, at the same time escalating the cost of interest repayment instalments and ultimately contributing to a rise in the cost of debt.
A wave of corporate downgrades also follows because of the sovereign ceiling concept – a country’s rating generally dictates the highest rating assigned to companies within its borders.
Meanwhile, on how these negative ratings could impact the economy, Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta acknowledged the difficulties faced by the country in raising money from the international capital market due to the downgrades.
“Returning to the International capital market is going to take a bit of time. It will take about two or three years to work on our ratings. The recent downgrade is very unfortunate,” he said.
Way forward
Government is currently engaging the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a bailout programme, which Dr. Ankrah believes could offer a temporary reprieve.
To him, an effective strategy would be for government to seek more homegrown solutions such as an aggressive export drive and extreme prudence regarding expenditure, while seeking innovative sources and new streams of income.
“Government will have to bite the bullet and cut down expenditure, even consider retrenchment. But the number-one culprit is ‘free education’. This has to be reviewed. Expenditure on large urban projects should be postponed. Emphasis should be on opening up goods and raw material producing areas with good roads, rail etc.,” he advocated.
Dr. Ankrah, who is a fellow of Chartered Institute of Economists-Ghana, further stated that reliance on increased taxes is not the way to go, as it only tightening an already tough business environment.
According to Joyce Bawah Mogtari, a close adviser to former president John Dramani Mahama,President Nana Akufo-Addo may be eying funds from the global climate action fund since he is pretending to reinvigorate the campaign against unlawful small-scale mining (galamsey).
The assistant claimed that President Akufo-Addo has never been interested in the fight against the scourge on the October 10 episode of Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana.
She asserted that more will be done to fight galamsey if the president leaves office while also implying that President Akufo-Addo has shielded party leaders who have been mentioned in numerous reports.
“If he leaves the scene now, I can bet you a lot more will be done to stem galamsey,” Bawah Mogtari said.
The former deputy Transport Minister added that President Akufo-Addo should have resigned over his failed fight after he placed his presidency on the line to combat galamsey.
“President Akufo-Addo has no intention. He never intended. It was never part of his plan. I am almost certain that maybe there is some climate funds available that he wants to collect so he has to make an effort and pretend that he is fighting galamsey. That’s all it is. Oh yes. It is a mere huff and puff.
“He means absolutely nothing. We were supposed to put our jobs on the line…in fact, he should have been resigning by now. At least tell us that I am a very proud man, that I have failed in my fight against galamsey; in any case I have failed in the other things I promised to do so let me go home and rest. But of course his Vice President is the same. Let’s stop paying lip service to the realities on the ground,” she said.
“This is a serious existential threat that we all are grappling with. I think that pretending to fight it is even a lot worse. You should just do nothing then so at least we know you are doing nothing,” Bawah Mogtari added.
Background
President Akufo-Addo met with the National House of Chiefs on October 5 to seek their renewed support in dealing with the galamsey menace.
In an address, the president expressed concerns over galamsey activities which he admitted has been a lost battle over the years.
The president said he paid an electoral price for his fight as he lost votes and, in some cases, NPP MPs in the 7th Parliament lost their reelection bid in mining communities.
He stated that the fight against illegal mining can only be won with the support of chiefs as well as depoliticizing the fight.
“It can only succeed if it is a truly national battle that no one seeks to exploit for political gain, as we saw in the last election. The progress of our country depends on all of us, all citizens of Ghana, all Fellow Ghanaians, pulling together to defeat this existential threat to our future,” President Akufo-Addo said.
Ghana has over the last few years been waging war on the activities of illegal miners, however, it is widely believed that the fight has not yielded the desired results.
The discolored nature of water bodies as well as general environmental degradation has been used as a testament to the failed fight.
Anti-corruption crusader, Vitus Azeem, has advised Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, to distance himself from investigations on Charles Bissue’s alleged involvement in illegal small-scale mining activities (galamsey).
According to him, this will be in the best interest of the case after it emerged that Kissi Agyebeng was one of the lawyers for Anas’ Tiger Eye P.I – the agency which did the ‘galamsey fraud’ documentary which captured Charles Bissue receiving bribes when he served as secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
Speaking to Accra-based Starr FM, Vitus Azeem said Kissi Agyebeng can cede the investigations to his deputies in order to avoid or reduce the conflict-of-interest situation he now finds himself.
“There is an issue there but then again you can say Kissi Agyebeng is not the Office of Special Prosecutor. He is the Special Prosecutor but he works with people. There is a deputy Special Prosecutor and other people, so what he can do is not to take up the matter himself personally but the office should be able to take up the matter,” he said.
“It is a risk that he might be tempted to be biased or tempted to influence the investigation in a certain direction but once his attention has been drawn to it, that should make him to distance himself from the main investigation of the matter and leave it to his subordinates to do the work.
“One thing about conflict of interest is, when you are aware of it you take steps to avoid it or minimize it such that it does not influence or affect whatever decisions that are going to be taken in connection with the matter.
“I believe that the best thing is for him to come and open up and say no he is not going to be part of the investigation, he should stay away because of this relationship,” Vitus Azeem added.
Kissi Agyebeng in a statement under his hand said the Office of the Special Prosecutor has launched investigations into suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in galamsey related matters.
According to him, the investigation targets some officials at the Lands and Ministry as well as the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.
“The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has commenced an investigation into suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in respect of illegal small-scale mining. The investigation targets some officials of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Forestry Commission.
“It also targets the activities and expenditure of the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), especially in respect of the seizure and management of excavators, machinery, road vehicles, and gold nuggets,” part of the statement issued on October 10 read.
According to the OSP, the investigation also targets some individuals and private companies including the secretary of the IMCIM, Charles Bissue and Akonta Mining Company Limited belonging to the New Patriotic Party’s Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako alias Wontumi.
“The investigation includes the active and ongoing inquiry into allegations of use of public office for profit against Charles Bissue, during his tenure as Secretary to the IMCIM, arising from an investigative documentary titled; ‘Galamsey Fraud Part I’, published by Tiger Eye P.I.
“The investigation further targets the activities of Akonta Mining Limited and other companies; nationals of foreign countries allegedly involved in illegal mining; and allegations of corruption and corruption-related offences against some Municipal and District Chief Executives and political party officials,” the statement said.
Charles Bissue who was caught on tape receiving a bribe in the exposé has consistently denied wrongdoing.
Speaking to Accra-based Citi FM in 2021, Charles Bissue said he was set up by members of the Tiger Eye P.I
He insists the money he was caught on video receiving was a donation from Chairman Wontumi to the party.
“There was nothing like corruption. Somebody manufactured it because he wanted to go into illegal mining, which I stopped,” he said.
He was cleared of all charges of corruption by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service in 2019 but Anas Aremeyaw Anas says the report was a “white-washing antic with no credibility” and had no input from Tiger Eye PI during the investigation.
Following rigorous investigations, the CID came to the conclusion in a final report that Mr. Bissue did not violate the IMCIM’s established protocols in order to favour ORR Resource Enterprise, the organisation at the centre of the incident.
Ghana has been waging war on the activities of illegal miners, however, it is widely believed that the fight has not yielded the desired results.
The discoloured nature of water bodies as well as general environmental degradation has been used as a testament to the failed fight.
Ranking Member on Parliament’s Trades Committee, Murtala Mohammed, says the Bank of Ghana (BoG) cannot be blamed for the harsh economic situation the country is plagued with.
According to him, the Akufo-Addo administration must be blamed for the current crisis.
He explained that even though some policy measures by the Bank of Ghana have heightened an already dire situation, it should not be forgotten that the Central Bank is not entirely independent of the Executive arm of government, thus the current administration has a hand in decisions taken there.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said “I’ve listened to my good friends there and they all seem to be blaming the Bank of Ghana, it is the government who should be blamed; the President, the Vice President and the Minister for Finance for abysmally, disastrously managing this economy. They are those who should be blamed.
“So I’m not surprised that they’re saying that when they go to the Bank of Ghana, the Bank of Ghana blames the Ministry of Finance; they go to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Finance blames the Bank of Ghana. It will be the height of naivety to assume that the Bank of Ghana is absolutely independent of the executive. All the economic policy decisions for which reason we’re in the mess for which we are is occasioned by the policies of this government.”
He was reacting to comments by the Ghana Union of Traders’ Association President, Dr. Jospeh Obeng, who had blamed the Bank of Ghana for failing to find a viable solution to the worsening inflation situation.
According to him, the Bank of Ghana’s resort to hike monetary policies has merely served banks and not the general public who have instead been hit hard.
He added that the monetary policy hikes have rather contributed to the inflation situation rather than reduced it.
However, Murtala Mohammed believes, the policy decisions of the government is what is to be blamed.
He noted that the government has failed to control the country’s penchant for relying on importation of goods, some of which could be produced in large quantities locally.
He said the failure of the government to enforce the strict importation restrictions that the erstwhile Mahama administrationhad left behind has driven imports at an all-time high and thus putting even more pressure on the cedi.
“We are spending over 2billion dollars annually importing [rice and poultry products] into this country. Just in 2016 we were spending about 500million dollars importing same. So if you’re spending over 2billion dollars on the importation of rice and poultry products within a year, what it simply means is that every year you need to look around to get the over 2billion dollars to import those products into your country.
“You don’t buy them with cedis. Now if you’re taking 2 billion dollars every year, it certainly will exert pressure on your domestic currency and that is the problem. Look why is it that in 2014 we were able to reduce the importation of rice into this country by 40% and there was a surge in production of local rice by 60%? It was as a result of a visionary policy decision.
“So we at the Ministry of Trade, the GUTA people know, recently I heard them lamenting over decisions taken by this government in which they were not involved. He knows that when we were in government, I was the Deputy Minister for Trade, we had an open-door policy for them. And they could call me …as late as 1am and we’ll talk.
“There was no single policy decision we took at the Ministry of Trade that involved trade that we didn’t involve them, not even a single one. But policy decisions have been taken, formulated without them. Why are we not where we are?” he said.
He has thus suggested that the government revisits some of its policy interventions to stall the further depreciation of the cedi.
The regions with the highest percentage of girls ever in union are North East with 13 percent, Savannah with 10.9 percent and Northern with 10.6 percent all with rates more than twice the national average of 4 percent.
The service also noted that despite free and compulsory universal basic education, almost a quarter of a million girls aged 6 to 14 years have never attended school at all.
Three out of every 10 of these girls are in the Northern Region which has the highest number of girls who have never attended school (73,516) followed by the Savannah (27,930) and North East (22,857) regions.
“These three regions also have the highest percent of girls currently not attending school (never attended or attended in the past) with Savannah leading all regions with 40.2% followed by the North East Region(29.3%) and the Northern Region (28.5%).”
The national figure is 7.8 percent which represents 285,271 girls aged 6 to 14 years that are not attending school.
Three out of every four girls aged 6 to 14 years not attending school are living in rural areas.
Further, 99,150 girls under 15 years are engaged in economic activity with half of them out of school.
“Half (49.9%) of girls engaged in economic activity are in the Northern (22,647), Oti (17,694), and North East (9,153) regions which have the highest share of girls in economic activity,” the service noted.
This data was released to mark the International Day of the Girl.
The aim of IDG is to highlight challenges preventing young girls from reaching their full potential such as early marriage, and lack of access to educational and other opportunities.
According to Elizabeth Rossiello, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AZA Finance, the country would be at the forefront of the Fourth Industrial and digital financial revolutions on the continent because of the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) proactive, forward-thinking stance and initiatives.
The Ghana Interbank Settlement (GIS) system, Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS), the Payment Systems and Services Act in 2019, the establishment of a dedicated FinTech and Innovation Office the following year, and the introduction of a regulatory sandbox have all been introduced by the regulator over the past 20 years.
These, in addition to the relative ease of doing business, clarity of the regulatory regime in addition to the rapidly-expanding pool of local talent, she argues, will ensure the country attracts critical investment and serves as a blueprint for its peers.
“In all my recent interactions, I have had to mention how great it is to see how active the regulator is. Here in Ghana, we are seeing licences being processed in a reasonable time without sacrificing due diligence,” she said at the conclusion of a recent working visit to the country.
She added that inasmuch as some FinTechs are apprehensive over interactions with regulators, the future of digital finance demands regulated entities; ones that adhere to standard Anti-Money Laundering/Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) protocols.
“Although some FinTechs struggle with the concept and application of regulation in some way, I believe it is the path forward; because without regulatory oversight, many institutions would not want to work with you. As innovative as we come, we need to have that to offer a standard of certainty and security,” she added.
Mrs. Rossiello – who co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Council on Blockchain and sits on the Global Advisory Board of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution – agrees with other international bodies such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) that, with adequate funding, the local talent can compete with their peers from other regions.
“One of the most exciting things for me is the abundance of local tech talent; and I believe if the digital drive is sustained and there is adequate investment in developing this talent, it will be tremendous.”
The IFC estimated that between 2020 and 2030 Ghana could have business-to-business and business-to-government opportunities reaching about 18 million people who require digital skills, with revenue potential in excess of US$4billion.
Sector Efficiency
Offering thoughts on the growing partnership between banks and FinTechs, the AZA Finance CEO said she expects continued collaborations which lead to more efficient and streamlined offerings. “I foresee a streamlining of banking operations, with banks getting smaller headcount wise; and banks will, perhaps, focus more on corporate lending while the FinTechs participate more in consumer offerings.”
Senior presidential advisor Yaw Osafo-Maafo revealed that the government’s flagship Free Senior High School, or Free SHS, program will continue unaffected while negotiations for a financial rescue plan are underway with the International Monetary Fund, or IMF.
The programs and social interventions in the school sector in general won’t be influenced by ongoing discussions, he revealed during a gathering in Accra on Monday, October 10.
He rejected requests for the IMF to make changes to the Free SHS budget, while he did acknowledge that requests for a review of the program’s implementation were warranted.
“If there is any sector that we should not touch the expenditure, that sector is education. Because we are protecting the potential use of our resources in a very efficient and effective manner.
“So, if you touch education, you are undermining your own development paradigm. So, that is not the area to go when you decide to cut expenditure,” he stressed.
“People have written and I have read in the papers arguing that one of the first things IMF should look at as they admit us into the IMF programme is to cut the Free SHS. Let me tell you here and now, we are negotiating with the IMF and Free SHS will not be touched, we cannot touch it,” he stressed.
He pointed out further that the IMF as an institution was pro-poor adding that free High School education was a social intervention that is being enjoyed across the Western world.
“The IMF itself as an institution is pro-poor, the IMF itself believes in education so how can IMF ask you to cut Free SHS? Don’t you have Free SHS in America, don’t you have Free SHS in Germany, don’t you have it in Europe?
“Most of the developed world has Free High School, so we are taking the right path towards development and I can assure you that the IMF will not touch the Free SHS,” he stated.
On the issue of calls for a review of the programme, he said: “Let us meet to discuss the overall implementation with the view to improving efficiency and effectiveness and we may realign certain things, but cutting it is out of the question.”
He argued that the economy can support flagship programmes currently in place, “the challenges being faced are short-term and we cannot afford to sacrifice our common vision due to short-term economic pressures,” he added.
The Free SHS programme has become topical in recent times with the government seeking a programme with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, amid an economic downturn.
Calls for a review of the programme have heightened whiles fears of the IMF calling for a scrapping or massive review of the programme have also come up.
Government insists that Free SHS will remain untouched in its current form, allying with any fears and or critique.
The Free SHS policy is one of the main policies of the government of Ghana, which started in September 2017.
“Every child in Ghana who qualifies for, and is placed in a public Senior High School for his secondary education will have his/her fees absorbed by the government,” the Free SHS secretariat said on its website.
A chief in the Western Region has alleged that the regional minister, a Member of Parliament and a Municipal Chief Executive in in his jurisdiction are into illegal small-scale mining, galamsey.
Nana Nyonwah Panyin IV, the Dompim-Pepesa chief told the media on Monday, October 10, 2022; that he had incontrovertible evidence to implicate the trio.
He has subsequently dared the trio to sue him over the allegations he has made stressing that already he had become the subject of threat following his resolve to root out galamsey from his jurisdiction.
“I know not of any company but I know of the very people who are behind the operations of ‘galamsey’ in my area. First and foremost the Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah is involved.
“The MP for the area, Tarkwa Nsuaem, Honorable George Mireku-Duker is also involved and the MCE, Benjamin Kessie is also involved. I have told you I am not going to disclose my arsenals to you.”
He did not state the exact nature of their involvement in galamsey, which has become an issue of national concern with increasing pressure on government to curb its growing spread.
“They said they were going to sue, so let them sue. I’ll let out my arsenals at the right time,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, the MP who also doubles as deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources has denied involvement in the illegal activity.
“The situation keeps getting worse, and my heart is bleeding,” the chief said when asked how he feels about the galamsey scourge.
Galamsey has become topical in recent months with the resurgence of news on its continued negative impact on the environment.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at a recent meeting with the National House of Chiefs and selected Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, MMDCEs, restated his resolve to root out the canker.
The issue has also been given impetus following the rearrest last month of a notorious galamsey kingpin in the person of Aisha Huang.
The Chinese national who had as at 2018 been repatriated from Ghana after the state discontinued a criminal trial against her for galamsey, reentered the country on the blind side of the authorities.
Ghanaian actor, Prince David Osei has shared a lengthy post on social media threatening a demonstration on the Akufo-Addo-led government after it was reported Ghana is number one among countries with the highest food prices in Sub-Saharan Africa since January 2022.
Expressing himself on Instagram on October 10, 2022, the actor mentioned that he has noticed that the president and his subordinates have made it their agenda to inflict pain on citizens.
“Mr President! With all due respect Mr President, why are you sleeping on Ghanaians… This is not acceptable Mr President? We deserve better, we know there are global crises and hardships. Yes, we know!
“But it looks like you and your ministers are determined to inflict untoward hardship on the citizenry. I decided to give you and your government the benefit of the doubt, I reckon I was wrong!” he said.
He added that the youth in the country are suffering and if things don’t change by December he was going to mobilise them to demonstrate.
“The Youth of this nation are not smiling, it pours, but we are still sweating. If things don’t change by December, we will mobilise the youth of this country and hit the street irrespective of party affiliations, whether NPP, NDC, CQQ, PNC whatever, it doesn’t matter now, we are all in this together.
“God bless our motherland ???????? We want to see improvement in our livelihoods. If you have to sack some people do it without fear or favour because your legacy is on the line, Sir!! @nakufoaddo,” he added.
His post comes after the World Bank’s October 2022 Africa Pulse Report revealed that food prices in Ghana have been on the rise since January 2022 by 122%.
The report noted that Ghana has experienced very rapid food price increases this year, breaching the “inflation ceiling of the central bank target bands for all countries with an explicit nominal anchor.”
Tracey Osei has celebrated her husband’s on his birthday with a beautiful message and some photogenic images of him in seven slides.
In an Instagram post eulogising Kennedy Osei, Tracey praised her husband while adding that she is proud to call him hers.
“I celebrate you today and every day my love! Being by your side has been such a breath of fresh air! Your hard work, commitment and love is admirable.
“May God bless the work of your hands and increase you immeasurably! Thank you for the all the love and care you give. Blessed to call you mine,” she wished.
The several pictures she shared captured her husband in breath-taking poses by himself and others which captured them together by the beach.
The famous Kency couple became a household name when they held a plush wedding that echoed in every corner of the country.
Shatta Wale‘s former manager, Bullgod has made it clear that he wasn’t impressed with the answer the musician gave the host of Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana, Paul Adom Otchere when the broadcaster questioned why the famous musician does not have a record label despite his popularity and years experience in the industry.
According to the talent manager, he was surprised to see Shatta stammer and struggle in finding the right words to explain why he still hasn’t bagged a record deal.
“I didn’t know Shatta Wale stammered until he was asked by Paul Adom Otchere why he wasn’t on a label. Bra Charles, I know you are listening to us. You no dey stammer but as they asked the question… You should have seen him. You know what am saying,” Bullgod stated in the Pidgin language on Hitz FM.
He again detailed how a record label can help push the craft of top Ghanaian artists such as Sarkodie, Stonebwoy and Shatta Wale who have gained prominence in the country.
“Won’t we be happy that all our musicians are there as Burna Boy kill like 1 million people, Stonebowy kill it, Shatta, everybody, we want that. It brings some joy,” said Bullgod.
Shatta on October 6 expressed his frustration over the fact that Ghanaian artistes are not being signed to international record labels.
He sighted rapper Black Sherif as the only Ghanaian act who has bagged a label that helps in the distribution and marketing of his songs.
“No that’s why I am saying… No, no, not that no label that even… not that no label doesn’t even want to meet Shatta Wale or something…What I am saying is, it’s not me. Many artistes in Ghana don’t have labels,” were the words of Shatta.
At the National Theatre on October 8, 2022, Ghanaian-Nigerian comedienne, Jacinta Ocansey, marvelled her audience with exceptional delivery of rib-cracking jokes that had them laughing out loud.
After picking up her mic, the talented comedienne left no stone unturned as she hosted the maiden edition of her comedy show, ‘One Night Stand’.
She was clad in a short shiny gold dress she matched with a pair of sneakers when she served non-stop laughs.
Some of her comedy skits involved her singing songs while listing names of popular people and poking fun at them.
The funny act had her backup vocalists chanting “Don’t worry” whenever she said things that stood out about these public figures.
Performing her “Don’t worry” skit, Jacinta asked Nana Tornado who was in the crowd, how his best friend, Asibolanga, was doing, which got the audience on the floor.
Back-to-back with her delivery, Jacinta told another joke on why black men need to be worshipped.
Moving from one region to the other, she first mentioned that Ga men need to be worshipped for two months while Ashanti men, for six months and Northern men, for a lifetime because of the size of their manhood.
She furthermore mentioned that she wasn’t talking out of experience but hearsay, which had many of the people in the crowd shout, “You are lying” and then proceeded to laugh at the jokes.
Aside from Jacinta’s hilarious gags, Foster Romanus, OB Amponsah, Clemento Suarez, Buchi, Gordons, and Senator also thrilled the audience with rib-cracking jokes.
The auditorium was full as comedy lovers thronged the venue for the event. For those who shared their experiences with GhanaWeb TV, it was a moment to relish.
The single mother of one made this known while reacting to Nkechi Blessing’s sweet message to her boyfriend.
Blessing had taken to her Instagram page to show off a new man, months after parting ways with politician, Opeyemi Falegan.
Nkechi appreciated her boo for coming into her life when she needed a friend.
Nkechi wrote: “I was going to type a long caption, but I rather say dem to you. Thank you for coming into my life when I needed a friend … In just few months you have managed to change few things about me, I am in for a long ride of teachings with you babe, sometimes I wonder if you are really your age. Cus bruh your maturity swept me off my feet, the best communicator I have ever met. Love you for life, Gee”.
Tonto however revealed that she is hiding her newfound love due to bad experiences.
“Congratulations my baby girl, I dey hide my own like aids make Dem no use me shine again. I love your confidence. If I hear pim … I love your confidence. If I hear pim, I’ll arrest you when I become DG lmaoo”.
Speaking with GhanaWeb’s Doreen Abanema Abayaa on Vogue, the actor referenced that people used him in a way that made him decide that he needed to work for himself.
“I used to have a Christian show, but I am no longer on it. I am no more on it. I am no more on anything TV presenting because I had to focus on myself.
“A lot of people were taking so much away from me. I said, no, let me put this energy into my new stuff,” he said.
He also added that he was paid little for the work he did while working as a presenter, so he advised himself to venture into a business of his own.
“In terms of creativity, so much was taken away from me. I don’t even want to go into that because we were doing more work at the end of the day and the money was little.
“So, if it’s like that, let me just focus on myself and the money will come into my pocket,” he added.
Jeffrey Nortey joined the long list of celebrities who attended Jacinta’s One-Night Stand event at the National Theatre on October 8, 2022.
The dancehall artiste, while claiming that he is Blakk Rasta’s senior, said he should desist from throwing dirt on his name.
Blakk Rasta has, on various platforms, chastised Shatta for what he describes as being a bad example to the Ghanaian youth.
He has constantly spoken against Shatta’s display of wealth on social media, which he believes has no positive impact on his fans.
That’s not all; he has also severally tagged the dancehall artiste as a lousy drug addict.
But Shatta, in a bid to tackle Blakk Rasta, claims the ‘Barack Obama’ hitmaker cannot rub shoulders with him in terms of music.
While stressing that they are not co-equals, the SM boss stated that Blakk Rasta was still busily searching for a job when he (Shatta) released his first ‘Bandana’ album.
“You see someone like Black Rasta? I don’t know what his problem is. Whatever I am saying here now is even hurting him. As I am saying here that I’ve got money, its paining him. He goes to platforms to insult me. Telling me I behave stupidly and stuff. Blakk Rasta, I am your senior. I broke out in this industry before you. In music I am his senior. My song Bandana came out when Blakk Rasta was 38 years and looking for a job,” he stated on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana.
A viral video showing a baby crowd surfing to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson during the Black Adam press tour has sparked confusion online.
“People do cry and they hand me things,” the actor wrote on Instagram alongside the clip, while reflecting on the “electric, fun and emotional” tour in support of Black Adam. “I was NOT surprised to be handed this beautiful little baby. … Her father caught my attention because he had tears in his eyes when he held her up high and gestured for me to hold her. I honestly thought he was holding a toy doll he wanted tme to have as a gift.”
In the clip, Johnson can be seen with a huge smile on his face. “This beautiful, seren, present and trusting angel is Luciana,” he added. “One day, I bet she’ll inspire all those around her. And whatever this moment meant for her emotional father – means it meant something special for me too.”
When the video circulated on social media, it was generally met with bewilderment by many. One tweet featuring the video has garnered over 10 million views, and was simply accompanied by the caption, “The baby has no idea what’s happening.”
Others compared the clip to a particularly intense scene from Darren Aronofsky’s 2017 movie Mother!, while some questioned why someone was willing to let their newborn child crowd surf.
The moment comes not long after Johnson confirmed that his political aspirations are no more. In a recent CBS Sunday Morning appearance, the former wrestling star said that running for president is “off the table” for him. “I will say this because it requires a B-side to this. I love our country and everyone in it,” he said. “I also love being a daddy. And that’s the most important thing to me is being a daddy, number one, especially during this time, this critical time in my daughters’ lives.”
One of the people eulogised at her program was veteran actress, Adwoa Smart,who decided to thrill the audience with an interesting story of her first visit to America before she was awarded a citation of honour.
According to her, on her most memorable visit to the United States of America, she arrived at the John F Kennedy Air terminal where she saw certain individuals being pushed in a wheelchair.
Adwoa Smart disclosed that she assumed these were sick individuals but didn’t realize that the airport staff had requested one for herself as well.
“Before I went to Oklahoma, I went through New York. When I got to JFK, I realised that it was a much bigger airport. To my surprise, I saw people sitting in wheelchairs and assumed they were sick people.
“Not knowing after a little walk at the airport, they had ordered me a wheelchair as well and they were going to push me the same way,” she said.
The actress made fun of the fact that if not for the wheelchair, she was certainly missing her flight due to her stature.
“Because of how big the airport was, they got one to help me move easily to make my next flight. They knew if I had walked from one gate to the other and then to the final gate, the plane would have left me,” she laughed.
In the wake of recounting her entertaining story, the veteran actress was honoured with a praiseworthy citation for her commitment to the film and comedy industry in Ghana.
The Premier League title race is almost a quarter of the way through, with Arsenal the surprise early leaders in a season that faces the unprecedented disruption of a six-week shutdown due to the staging of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in November and December.
At the other end of the scale, Liverpool are languishing in 10th position, 14 points behind Arsenal, and on the brink of a crisis if they lose for the third time this season, at home to City on Sunday.
Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur are well-placed in third position, while Chelsea and United are both in touch with the top four despite displaying inconsistency under new managers and having played a game fewer than the teams above them due to the postponements following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Pep Guardiola’s City remain the favourites to end the season as champions, but can Arsenal go all the way? Will Liverpool recover or miss out on the top four altogether?
It’s still early, but how will it shape up for the Big Six in the months ahead?
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, more (U.S.)
ARSENAL
How it started
Having missed out on Champions League qualification following a late-season collapse, including a 3-0 defeat at Tottenham, Arsenal invested almost £120 million in new signings this summer including Manchester City pair Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko. The target was a top-four finish for the first time since 2015-16.
How it’s going
Arsenal are flying under Arteta, with the only dropped points so far coming in a 3-1 defeat at Manchester United in September. The signings of Zinchenko, Jesus and Fabio Vieira have added proven quality and experience to the squad, while the form of William Saliba at centre-back has prompted comparisons of the French defender to Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk. Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli have all taken their game to a new level this season. With the home match against Man City on Oct. 19 postponed in order to play the rearranged Europa League clash with PSV Eindhoven a day later, Arsenal have a comfortable run of fixtures until they visit Chelsea on Nov. 6, so they could reach the pre-World Cup shutdown on Nov. 12 with top spot still in their grasp.
How will it end?
Arsenal are riding a wave of confidence and momentum right now, so the World Cup is likely to be a huge inconvenience for Arteta’s squad. With such a lengthy shutdown, can the Gunners pick up from where they left off when the season resumes on Dec. 26?
But while Arsenal’s inexperience in a title race could count against them, especially with City hunting them down, Leicester proved in 2015-16 that an outsider can go all the way if they are fortunate with injuries and the top players maintain their form. An Arsenal title still seems a long shot, but a top-four finish should be achieved and, if City slip up, Arteta’s team could take advantage if the World Cup doesn’t prove too damaging to their collective focus.
play1:28Nicol: There is no flaw in Manchester City’s team
Steve Nicol feels nobody in the league can compete with Manchester City after their 4-0 win vs. Southampton.
MANCHESTER CITY
How it started
City won the race to sign Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund and also bolstered Pep Guardiola’s squad with the additions of Kalvin Phillips, Julian Alvarez and Manuel Akanji. The departures of Raheem Sterling (to Chelsea), Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko (both Arsenal) and Fernandinho (Athletico Paranaense) diminished the experience levels at the Etihad, but City re-shaped their squad from a position of strength.
How it’s going
It is only Arsenal’s incredible start that is keeping City off top spot, with the champions still unbeaten with seven wins and two draws from nine games so far. Haaland is on course to smash a series of goal-scoring records having already delivered 20 goals in 13 games in a City shirt and the Norway forward has unquestionably ended the club’s search for a long-term successor to Sergio Aguero as the team’s prolific centre-forward.
Guardiola can count on incredible depth in his squad and City look to be miles ahead of the rest. Their 6-3 derby win against Manchester United recently was a warning to the rest that City can blow any rival away if they are even close to their best. Next up is a trip to Anfield to face struggling Liverpool and the outcome of that game — a fixture that has defined the Premier League in recent years — will tell us just how strong City are. They could do to Liverpool what they did to United and, if that happens, it is hard to see anyone stopping City.
How will it end?
City will lose many of their best players on World Cup duty and Guardiola could see the majority of them going all the way to the final four and spend over a month in Qatar as a consequence, so his players will be mentally and physically drained after the tournament.
That could mean the difference between success and failure in the title race, but the bad news for the rest is that Haaland will get the chance to rest up and come back refreshed after the shutdown with Norway failing to qualify for Qatar. City have such strength in depth that, even if the squad are tired after the World Cup, they will still have enough to win most games in second gear, so they remain the title favourites.
play1:35Is Conte getting enough out of Kane and Son?
Steve Nicol praises Harry Kane but wonders if the striker sometimes wishes he played for a more openly attacking team.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
How it started
Antonio Conte demanded a summer of squad strengthening and the club delivered, with Spurs spending over £150m new players, including Richarlison (£52m), Cristian Romero (£45m) and the free-transfer arrival of Ivan Perisic from Inter Milan. Having beaten Arsenal to Champions League qualification with a late-season surge, Spurs have used the return to Europe’s elite competition as an opportunity to take the team to a new level and Conte’s team went into the season regarded by many as the most likely to challenge City and Liverpool at the top of the table.
How it’s going
Arsenal’s impressive start, and their 3-1 win against Conte’s team in the North London derby earlier this month, has overshadowed Tottenham’s progress so far this season, but Spurs are going well and sit just four points behind the Gunners in third position.
There remains an over-reliance on Harry Kane, who has scored eight of Tottenham’s 20 league goals so far this season, and a worry for Conte should be his team’s failure to win any of the biggest tests his players have faced. Spurs came away with a draw in London derbies away to Chelsea and West Ham United before losing at Arsenal — all tough games, but if Spurs are to challenge for the title, they have to win when they pressure is on.
Games against Man United and Liverpool before the World Cup shutdown, as well as a potentially difficult clash with sixth-placed Newcastle United, will be the kind of tests that Spurs must come through successfully if they are to avoid a battle for a top-four finish.
How will it end?
As ever, Tottenham’s hopes rely on Kane. The England captain has carried the team so far this season and he has done that consistently now for over five years. But the 29-year-old will be the focal point of England’s World Cup bid in Qatar, so Conte will be desperate for Gareth Southgate’s team to exit the competition as early as possible so that he can get his talisman back to club duties. If Kane can stay fit and in form, Spurs will finish in the top four. But without him, Spurs just aren’t the same team.
play1:13Why Pulisic will be a ‘happy camper’ after Chelsea win
Steve Nicol feels Christian Pulisic and the Chelsea squad have a skip in their step under new manager Graham Potter.
CHELSEA
How it started
A summer of upheaval at Stamford Bridge saw a Todd Boehly-led consortium buy out previous owner Roman Abramovich before a huge spending spree led to more than £250m being invested in new signings. Raheem Sterling, Wesley Fofana, Kalidou Koulibaly and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were the most high-profile new arrivals, with Romelu Lukaku (to Inter Milan on loan) and Timo Werner (RB Leipzig) following free agents Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid), Andreas Christensen and Marcos Alonso (both Barcelona) out of the club.
How it’s going
Champions League-winning coach Thomas Tuchel was fired by Boehly after three defeats in seven games at the start of the season, and less than a week after the former Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain boss was allowed to sign Aubameyang. Graham Potter has since been hired from Brighton & Hove Albion to oversee the team and has delivered three wins in four games in charge so far. Despite their inconsistent start under Tuchel, Chelsea have steadied under Potter and sit in fourth place, with last week’s 3-0 win against AC Milan boosting the team’s prospects in Champions League Group E.
Goals could be a problem in the weeks ahead, though, with Sterling (3) and Kai Havertz (2) the only players with more than one Premier League goal so far this season. Home games against Man United (Oct. 22) and Arsenal (Nov. 6) will give a better indication as to the progress made by Potter and Chelsea’s prospects for the season ahead.
How will it end?
Chelsea are a team in a state of flux right now with a raft of new signings attempting to settle in under a manager who didn’t sign any of them. Potter has avoided the negativity of a poor start and remains undefeated, but he needs to maintain that form to avoid the club lurching back towards crisis. Chelsea look like a club and team that is still searching for its new identity, so Potter needs to bring stability and ensure it lasts.
play1:23Dawson: People wrong to doubt Cristiano Ronaldo
Rob Dawson talks about Cristiano Ronaldo after the Manchester United striker scores his 700th career club goal.
MANCHESTER UNITED
How it started
No club does crisis and calamity better, or worse, than Manchester United, so it was perhaps no surprise that the team went into the new season under new coach Erik Ten Hag in the midst of a shambolic transfer window. Although another late spending spree resulted in the squad being bolstered by the signings of Casemiro and Antony following earlier deals for Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martinez and Christian Eriksen, United missed out on top target Frenkie de Jong and shocked fans by targeting former Stoke forward Marko Arnautovic.
All of the above was played out to the backdrop of growing supporter unrest towards United’s owners, the Glazer family, with protests before and during most games.
How it’s going
Two defeats in the first two games, including a 4-0 humiliation at Brentford, left United bottom of the table and with Ten Hag facing up to an even bigger challenge than he imagined when leaving Ajax for Old Trafford in the summer. But Ten Hag has made some big calls, including dropping captain Harry Maguire and continually starting games without Cristiano Ronaldo, and positive results have followed. Since the nightmare start, United have won five out of six leagues games, although the one defeat in that run was a 6-3 hammering at Manchester City.
United are a long way from being the finished article under Ten Hag, but the new coach has instilled discipline, improved the squad with his signings and for the first time in years, the players appear to be energised by a manager with a clear plan.
All United need now is a world-class centre-forward, a commanding midfielder and a world-class goalkeeper — how long it takes to get them will define when, or if, they challenge for major honours again.
How will it end?
Having recorded their worst-ever Premier League campaign last season, finishing in sixth position 13 points adrift of the top four, simply getting back into the Champions League was the target at the start of the season and Ten Hag is on course to achieve that.
United aren’t there yet — they are still outside the top four — but there is a sense of direction at Old Trafford now and victories against Liverpool and Arsenal this season highlighted the quality within the squad when it is used correctly and sent out with a clear tactical plan. It is still a team plagued by inconsistency and a lack of quality beyond Ten Hag’s first XI, so there will be bumps in the road ahead. But a top-four finish is within United’s capabilities.
play1:02Nicol: Liverpool were all over the place
Steve Nicol criticises Liverpool’s defence after their 3-2 defeat against Arsenal.
LIVERPOOL
How it started
Liverpool beat Manchester United to the club record £75m signing of Darwin Nunez in June with the Benfica forward regarded as the long-term replacement for Sadio Mane, who moved to Bayern Munich in the summer. But despite an obvious need for a new midfielder, Liverpool failed to make a signing in that area until a deadline day loan move for Juventus and Brazil’s Arthur Melo, who is now facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines with injury.
Liverpool took their eye off the ball during the summer and, having come close to the Quadruple last season, are now struggling to keep their season afloat.
How it’s going
Rewind to the 3-1 Community Shield win against Manchester City on July 30 and all looked promising for Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool dominated that game against the champions and Nunez looked a star in the making during a goal-scoring debut.
But little has gone right for Liverpool, or Nunez, since. Sunday’s defeat at Arsenal left Liverpool in mid-table with just two wins from eight games so far. Klopp said after the loss at the Emirates that his team aren’t title contenders. Injuries have hit Liverpool hard, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz the latest to head to the treatment room during the Arsenal defeat, but there has also been an alarming drop in form by the likes of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Diogo Jota.
While the World Cup could be a problem for their rivals, it may just offer Liverpool a crucial chance to press the reset button and focus on a surge in the second half of the season.
How will it end?
With the title realistically already out of their reach, Liverpool must refocus their objectives and the priority now has to be a top four finish to secure Champions League qualification. They are already six points behind fourth place Chelsea and face in-form Man City at Anfield this weekend, so Liverpool need to get back to winning ways quickly.
There is a real danger that the top four could disappear over the horizon before the World Cup, leaving Liverpool needing to win the Champions League in Istanbul at the end of the season to get back into the competition. That happened in 2005, but it would be a high-risk strategy to bank on that happening again.
ASR Bamako is not a free-scoring team but they were able to put three past Accra Hearts of Oak on Saturday.
Last season in all competitions they managed to score 2 to 3 goals in not more than three matches. This goal-shy club was able to beat the Phobians by three goals in one match. Bamako’s back four are very solid and tough in tackling. The way Hearts of Oak conceded the three goals should give any Phobian a sleepless night.
The mistakes committed by the MTN FA Cup holders were very basic and the technical team will see all the mistakes during their review of the encounter.
Bamako was not so extraordinary for Hearts of Oak to concede such goals on a big stage. Hearts of Oak currently are having a bad run on the continent. The Phobians conceded 6-0 away at WAC, 4-0 at JS Sauora, and now 3-0 at ASR Bamako. The total score is 13 goals conceded in their last three games in Africa.
The most shocking aspect is also the lack of goals in the Hearts of Oak team currently which will make the plan to score four in the second leg very difficult.
Hearts of Oak have overturned big scores before but this current setup is not like the squads that came back from first-leg defeats to progress.
One reminder ahead of the second leg is that the ASR Bamako team is a well-drilled side, especially the back four.
Ghana’s representatives in Africa this season Asante Kotoko (CAF Champions League) and Hearts of Oak (Confederations Cup) have all failed to deliver. Some pundits have urged the GFA to quickly meet all the clubs to find a lasting solution to the poor performance in Africa.
According to him, whenever the topic comes up, he recalls the tough times he had after he was dropped for the two tournaments although he had played key roles in the qualifies.
“Not going to the World Cup, 2006, 2010 for me is still a tough moment me when I think about it or when I start talking about it,” Laryea Kingston told Radio Gold Talk Sports in an interview.
The former Black Stars attacking midfielder added, “Because in 2006, I played every game, every qualifier, every friendly game, every game throughout the 2006 qualification, I was part of it but I couldn’t make it.
“In 2010, it was the same, I played every single game so last game to go to the World Cup, I was asked to go home.”
Since retiring, Laryea Kingston has studied to become a coach. He has started very well and is being tipped for a successful coaching career.
Dancehall singer, Shatta Wale has emphatically stated that most Ghanaian radio stations don’t play his music despite producing hit songs adding that he is not a favourite of people regarded as industry players.
For this reason coupled with the media’s failure to publish positive stories about his brand, Shatta, has declared that he can never get along with Ghana’s music industry.
Speaking in an interview on Good Evening Ghana with Paul Adom Otchere, the famous Dancehall musician posited that the industry has also failed to honour or celebrate his achievements which include recording a song with American singer, Beyonce.
The man who prides himself on being among the wealthiest entertainers in Ghana listed some of his many support to the less privileged in the society which according to him, is done in silence.
“The money I have is to my size. At least I am looking after kids. I have this back-to-school project that when I go to villages, I give people exercise books and stuff…but you see those things, the media won’t come, I won’t even call them because I am doing it for God. I want to help somebody too because God has helped me.
“I can’t get along with the industry if they don’t change. Me I can’t, me I can’t ever get along with Ghana music industry. You see the money I have, none of them has it even as of now. I am telling you the fact…the money I have around me they don’t even have it so I don’t want to deal with them. Musicians have been poor in Ghana, we’ve seen many,” said Shatta in his October 6 interview on Metro TV.
Also, the ‘On God’ singer named the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mark Okraku-Mantey, as one of his worst enemies adding that the politician has been sabotaging his career and growth in the local music industry.
According to him, Mark has attempted to end his career for no reason.
“Do you know when Mark Okraku-Mantey started blocking me? Started saying that I won’t make it, I won’t get anywhere in my life?”.
He also alleged that: “Mark Okraku-Manteyis the problem of this whole music thing, they are deciding. When he was Programmes Manager at Hitz FM, he said on the radio that because they were calling Shatta Wale for an interview and Shatta Wale didn’t come, so, they decided to create their own hero which was Stonebwoy.”
The Bono & Ahafo Top 4 tournament has continued today with another exciting contest.
This afternoon, Ghana Premier League giants, Aduana Stars locked horns with Berekum Chelsea.
At the end of the contest staged at the Nana Agyemang Badu II Park, both teams finished the game elated with the outcome of the exercise although the Blues suffered a defeat.
A strong display by Aduana Stars saw the team defeat Berekum Chelsea 2-1 at the end of the 90 minutes.
The game was supposed to be played on Sunday but was rained off due to heavy rains.
More games in the mini-tournament will be played as the week progresses.
Celestine, who grew up with 12 other tenants on the same compound in Abeka, while living with her parents and 14 siblings in a chamber and hall detailing her compound house experience on the ‘Grass to Grace’ edition of ‘Just Being Us’ with MzGee on Akwaaba Magic said she almost fainted after a neighbour locked her up in shared compound toilet on a hot afternoon for hours.
“There were very mean adults in that compound house, I remember, one parent, the father of one of the tenants locking me in the toilet because you know we have to have our turn, the person said I had stayed there for too long and it not like today’s toilet,” the Agbebolo singer disclosed.
“The guy locked me in there one hot afternoon and someone else came two hours later to open the door. When I came out I was almost fainting, I was sweating,” Celestine Donkor noted.
According to the mother of 3 girls, the experience influenced her decision to never raise her children in a compound house.
“I want to protect my kids from wicked people like that, so the environment is very important to me. It was one of the things I looked out for when I decided to marry. I didn’t want a compound house, because it was one of the requirements. I wanted my kids to grow and be nurtured in love,” she added.
Black Stars captain, Andre Ayew says the team is not aiming at seeking revenge against Uruguay but to go all out for all the points against the South American side.
The Black Stars face the ‘La Celeste’ in their Group H game on 2nd December 2022.
Ghana have the opportunity to make amends after Uruguay inflicted pain on Ghanaians during the 2010 FIFA World Cup where Ghana was eliminated on penalties by the Sky Blue team during the quarterfinal game.
With less than two months to the start of the 22nd edition of the Mundial, Ayew does not see it as prudent and rather wants his teammates to fight for points.
“As a team leader, I don’t believe we should view this game as revenge. Instead, we must be smart enough to recognize that it is a match we need points from,” he said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
“We just want to win against Uruguay after everything that has been said in the media. As a player, if you go into a game with the intent of retaliation, you can make a lot of mistakes and be hyper.”
“We just need to stay calm, follow the plan and try to win the game, or do whatever we can to advance to the next stage,” he added.
Ghana will open their campaign against Portugal in the opener on 24th November before facing South Korea four days later.
Camidoh has revealed he will still make submissions on fellow artiste, Shatta Wale if need be.
A few months ago, Camidoh rendered an apology to Shatta Wale after his comments claiming the latter’s demeanour gives the showbiz fraternity a bad image went viral.
In the ‘Grass to Grace’ edition of ‘Just Being Us’ on Akwaaba Magic, Camidoh explained to MzGee that rendering an apology to Shatta Walewas the right thing to do.
“I apologised with regards to the fact that I was trying to talk about people’s behavior or ways of dealing with issues in the industry which I wasn’t a fan of and I mentioned his name,” the Sugarcane singer said.
He added “In my apology, I said that I could have made my statements without mentioning his name or pointing fingers at anybody because that is wrong. My culture does not allow me to run down others.”
But, when MzGee asked Camidohif he has shied away from commenting on Shatta Waleafter the previous, the Sugarcane hit maker, retorted “I’ll always comment about him if the opportunity pops up. I am not going deliberately just comment about anybody but if I am being asked about someone and I think I have knowledge on, definitely I will share my knowledge and Shatta is no exception.”
After counting his losses at AFRIMA ‘21 last year, DJ Tárico is back – bigger, better – earning two nominations at this year’s edition for “Best African DJ” and “Best Artist in Southern Africa”, right in time for news of his upcoming song, ‘Abre O Canal’ with Angolan legend, Yuri Da Cunha.
The Journey
It’s hard to imagine 2021 without the Mozambican DJ’s contributions to the Amapianosphere and his unprecedented run without Geobek Records’ George Beke, his anchor. In 2020, the two together with Nelson Tivane and Preck, brought the continent a sound for the ages, delivering a true masterpiece that tapped the energy of Africa’s still-reigning Grammy champ, Burna Boy for its remix. The result, ‘Yaba Buluku Remix’ sent the world into a frenzy, earning DJ Tárico and the Boyz big streaming numbers, awards, and several nominations.
2021 to date – The era of more collaborations
But to George Beke and the award-winning Mozambican-born Tárico Caifaz Samuel Simbine popularly known as DJ Tarico, a driving force in African music and the Amapiano revolution, being a one-hit wonder was not up for deliberation. The show had to go on and so it did. Since then, things have only gotten better for DJ Tarico who.
Since ‘Yaba Buluku’, there has been an onslaught of cross-country collaborations courtesy of Geobek Records to branch out DJ Tárico’s discography of hits (and that of the Yaba Buluku Boyz alike) into not just one but five: ‘Number One’ (with DJ Consequence) [2021], ‘No Where’ (with Iyanya) [2021], ‘Tell Somebody’ (with Yemi Alade) [2021], ‘Hold You’ (with Töme) [2022] and ‘Patek’ (with Mr. Eazi & Joey B) [2022] and the soon-to-arrive, ‘Abre O Canal’ with Angolan legend, Yuri Da Cunha. All these have seemingly given DJ Tárico a renewed impetus, procuring him two nominations ahead of AFRIMA ‘22 and kindling the premise of his next chapter.
The Next Chapter – ‘Abre O Canal’
Coming to fans on October 14, the Portuguese-rendered song (which translates to “Open the Doors/Channels”) is a statement of what is to come from DJ Tárico. It is bespoke of a new chapter for the Mozambican-DJ-turned-African star and will be bursting with yet another feel-good Amapiano rhythm for the dance floor, endorsed by the vocals of one of Angola’s most revered, Yuri Da Cunha!
Former Ghana international, Baffour Gyan has called on his junior brother, Asamoah Gyan to work more on himself if he is keen about returning to action.
The former Sunderland star is currently without a club after leaving Legon Cities at the end of the 2020/2021 season.
Gyan, 37, in an interview with Kumasi-based Wontumi FM disclosed reiterated his desire to return to action.
“At the moment, my main target is to return to the field and enjoy myself. I am not so keen about a return to the Black Stars but if I am still playing and the opportunity comes, I will accept to play” he told Wontumi FM.
But Baffour Gyan who believes the former Sunderland star is not ready to play active football at the moment has called on him to work more on himself.
“He knows much about football and you can’t just get out from your house to go to the field to play football. If you decide to play when you are not ready the game will teach you a lesson, for me, he is not ready and he need to work more on himself” he said when asked about Asamoah Gyan’s quest to return to the field.
Asamoah, 37, has scored a record 51 goals for Ghana in 109 appearances, which is also a record.
He is the African player with the most World Cup goals, scoring six times in three tournaments.
Award-winning rapper, Amerado on Monday morning announced that he will not change the date for the release of his maiden album titled GINA despite several calls to postpone plans due to the ‘chocked’ system.
According to Amerado, some persons have urged him to cancel plans although he has communicated October 25 as the release date. They believe that projects from his colleagues will steal the shine from his maiden studio album.
Reacting to the calls in a post on Instagram, Amerado declared that there is no need to postpone his album adding that there is space for everyone to shine in the local industry.
He wrote: “Some say, “Change the date” and I say why can’t we all win? Yes my “God Is Never Asleep (GINA)”. E go over them.”
The Phobians in the last three away games played in the CAF inter-club competitions have failed to record a win, conceding 13 goals in the process.
Over the weekend, Hearts of Oka travelled to Mali to honour the first leg match of the tie in the second preliminary round of the CAF Confederation Cup.
At the end of the 90 minutes, the opponent, AS Real Bamako cruised past the Ghana Premier League giants with a big 3-0 victory.
Speaking to Joy Sports, Ishmael Addo has opened up on the recent woes of his former club.
According to him, it has become painful to watch Hearts of Oak competing in Africa.
“It’s painful to watch Hearts of Oak play in Africa these days,” Ishmael Addo said.
After the defeat to AS Real Bamako, Hearts of Oak are back in Ghana to prepare for the second-leg encounter scheduled to be played on Sunday, October 16.
Sheila Acheampong knows the power and the extent an endorsement from her father, legendary Highlife musician, Nana Acheampong and sister, Gyakiecan have on her career but she wishes to build her brand all by herself.
The daughter of the Highlife musician in an interview on GhanaWeb TV with Paula Amma Broni explained why she is currently not chasing an endorsement from either her father or Gyakie who is currently winning big with her songs.
“It would be amazing to have that but then…let me think about this question well, I don’t want to commit a blunder. With the Abedi Peles’, Dede Ayew tried his best to make people know him for who he is…his dad groomed him but he rose to fame with his own works.
“I’d love it (endorsement) but I would want to build it myself. I already have the foundation so I want to work on the building. Let them support me and the endorsement can follow…I want something like that,” she disclosed.
The ‘Like That’ singer who featured rapper Strongman on her latest single added that she writes all her songs.
According to Sheila, it will be an honour to have the great music composer, Nana Acheampong write songs for her.
“I would be very very happy if my dad was like Sheila, this song, look at it. I would be like Owoahene wrote this song for me and I am singing it to you. That would be the introduction,” the singer told GhanaWeb.
Sheila maintained that she is not under any form of pressure to fit in the shoes of her father. She said: “I wear size 39 and so I won’t let size 40 or 45 pressure me (laughs). We are blessed differently, if I am supposed to be here, I will not rush or feel pressured to be at the top…If am supposed to be there, God will definitely take me there.”
It Will Be An Honour For My Father, Nana Acheampong To Write A Song For Me – Sheila
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) acknowledged that the central bank’s ongoing financing of the deficit was harming the economy but insisted that it was the best option at the time.
Dr. Ernest Addison, the governor of the BoG, told the media last week that while the bank knew the decision was also “sub-optimal,” it felt it was vital to keep the government machinery operating.
In Accra, Dr. Addison asserted that only the central bank could step in to assist avert a crisis at a time when the government was unable to obtain financing from the external market and local auctions were also experiencing shortages.
Addressing the bank’s regular Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) press conferences in Accra, Dr Addison said it was also necessary to reduce capital outflows which had the tendency of worsening the cedi depreciation.
Dr Addison, however, said the committee was hopeful that the situation would change soon.
He,however, did not state the size of BoG’s exposure to the government through the deficit financing.
Policy rate
At the press conference, Dr Addison announced the increment of the policy rate from 22 to 24.5 per cent.
He said the central bank raised the benchmark rate for interest rates by 250 basis points (bps) to help contain price pressures and slowdown the pace of the cedi depreciation.
The hike is the second highest in the year, coming after a 300bps increment in August which was also meant to ease inflation and slowdown the pace at which the cedi loses its value.
Inflation peaked at 33.9 per cent in September while the cedi lost about 37.5 per cent of its value to the United States (US) dollar as of September.
Expenditure pressures
Dr Addison said the implementation of the budget was largely under control although revenues continued to lag behind target.
He said while expenditure had been broadly on target, revenue performance had been below expectations, complicating the fiscal policy implementation.
“Financing of the budget so far has predominantly been from the banking sector, with the central bank absorbing a larger share.
“Persistent uncovered auctions and portfolio reversals by non-resident investors continue to pose risks to financing of the budget, resulting in monetisation of the budget deficit by the central bank.
“The MPC recognises the fact that the current condition is sub-optimal and will be interim until agreements are reached on an International Monetary Fund (IMF)-supported programme,” Dr Addison said.
He added that the committee assessed that the engagement with the IMF had been positive and an early conclusion of the programme discussions would help re-anchor stability.
“Inflation remains elevated and the balance of risks are on the upside.
“Although the forecasts are for monthly inflation to continue to slow down, the risks are on the upside, emanating largely from pass-through effects of the currency depreciation, the recent upward adjustment in utility tariffs, and the rising inflation expectations,” Dr Addison said.
He reassured the public that the MPC, which he chairs, remained committed to re-anchoring inflation expectations and returning to a disinflation path.
“Under the circumstances, the MPC decided to increase the Monetary Policy Rate by 250 basis points to 24.5 per cent,” he said.
Cedi depreciation
The governor said the outlook for the local currency had improved, as a result of the inflow of foreign exchange in recent times.
He mentioned the recent disbursement of the US$750 million loan from Afrexim Bank, the signing of the syndicated cocoa loan of US$1.13 billion last week and the agreement with gold and oil companies to purchase the repatriated foreign exchange earnings.
He said the repatriated foreign exchange earnings were estimated at about US$83.9 million so far and would complement the cocoa and Afrexim Bank loans to help stabilise the exchange rate.
He said the country’s gross international reserves suffered a decline.
He said the reserves fell to US$6.6 billion, equivalent to 2.9 months of import cover for goods and services in September 2022.
That, he said compared with the December 2021 position of US$9.7 billion, equivalent to 4.3 months of import cover.
He said the net reserves, which excluded encumbered assets and petroleum funds, was estimated at US$2.7 billion as of September 2022.
The Malian champions defeated the Phobians by a three-goal margin, taking a big advantage before the second leg at the Accra Sports Stadium on October 16, 2022.
Speaking ahead of the return encounter on Sunday, the former CEO of the rainbow boys was of the opinion that the reigning FA Cup holders can overturn the score line to progress to the next stage of the competition.
” Hopefully I will be at the stadium to support the club on Sunday God willing, we can overturn the results, it’s possible so let’s see how it goes on Sunday.” he told Hot FM as monitored by Footballghana.com.
” I believe the board of directors have some old and knowledgeable football administrators like Dr Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe, Alhaji Akanbi and Hon Vincent Sowah Odotei and am sure they will advise the board chairman on what to do to help the club overturn this results”
When the bank was established in July of this year, the payout began.
Kwamina Duker, the bank’s chief executive officer, who made the announcement, said the DBG would distribute another GH1 billion in medium- to long-term capital to help local industries over the course of the following six to twelve months.
He said this in an interview with the media on the sidelines of a capacity-building workshop for SMEs.
“To date we have lent about GH¢245 million and I think there were two reasons for that — to flush out the pipes and make sure that our initial systems are working.
“And in terms of what is in our pipeline, we will probably have three or four times of that — about GH¢1 billion, which we hope to disburse in the next six to 12 months,” Mr Duker said.
DBG
The DBG, with a seed capital of $750 million from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the government of Germany, the European Investment Bank and the government of Ghana, was established to become the key financier of SMEs in the country.
The overarching objective of setting up the DBG was to make long-term funding available to the private sector and develop the ecosystem for market access, technology and innovation.
The workshop
The workshop was organised in partnership with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) and it was aimed at boosting the competitiveness of the private sector..
It was held on the theme: “Empowering SMEs with key strategies for resilience and business sustainability”.
Participants were taken through the five pillars of the Ghana Integrated Financial Ecosystem (GIFE) digital platform, namely: the SME financial empowerment platform and marketplace, financial trade corridor, digital financing, reputational building and equity growth.
Signing of MoU
As part of efforts to build the capacity of SMEs in the country, the DBG, together with the GSE and the AGI, signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support SMEs in the country.
The tripartite agreement was signed among the three institutions during the capacity-building workshop.
The Deputy CEO of the DBG, Michael Mensah-Baah, said the agreement formed part of the bank’s mandate to build the capacity of banks and entrepreneurs through financial innovation and other advisory services.
He said the bank’s primary objective was to ensure that SMEs were in a better position to receive and use funds from participating financial institutions (PFIs).
“A critical role of the DBG, therefore, is to provide long-term funding for banks to engage in partnerships with institutions such as the AGI and the GSE to ensure the empowerment of the private sector for growth,” he said.
Supporting SMEs
The Deputy CEO of the GSE, Abena Amoah, said the exchange was also committed to supporting SMEs in the country.
She used the opportunity to urge SMEs to use the Ghana Alternative Market (GAX) to raise capital to finance their businesses.
That, she said, would help them grow and expand.
Pension funds
The President of the AGI, Dr Humphrey Ayim-Darke, for his part, said the AGI was engaging the government to increase the threshold of pension funds allowed to be invested into the private sector.
He said the private sector needed more patience and long-term capital such as pension funds to grow and expand.
Currently, he said, pension funds channelled into the private sector by the various trustees of Tier Two and Tier Three pension schemes were “a meagre five per cent”.
Dr Ayim-Darke expressed the hope that the AGI would be able to convince the government to increase the percentage of pension funds it channelled into the private sector from the current five per cent to an appreciable level.
“The government has been very careful on how much of pension funds goes into high-risk sectors; and in the private sector, as much as there is high risk, there are also high returns.
“However, most of the pension firms prefer safe investments, such as going into government instruments. But we need a bit of pension funds to expand the private sector and manufacturing,” he said.
Rapper Black Sherif has been crowned the Nachin Naa of Tamale by traditional rulers in the Northern Region for his exploits in the field of music.
The new ‘Youth Chief’ of Tamale is currently on a tour in the region as part of promotions for his maiden album ‘The Villain I Never Was’ released on October 6.
The solemn coronation ceremony held in honour of the rapper at the Dakpema Palace witnessed Blacko being adorned in a rich Northen smock and matching headwear fit for royalty.
Black Sherif, born Mohammed Ismail Sharrif expressed his appreciation to the people of Tamale and also pledged his support.
The chieftaincy title was bestowed on the 20-year-old rapper on Monday, October 10, 2022.
Meanwhile, the rapper’s 14-track album has already topped charts and received positive feedback from music lovers, coupled with massive endorsements from some big names in the local music industry.
GCB Bank PLC has updated its offerings to keep up with cutting-edge banking trends, notably in terms of technology.
It claimed that the bank would also satisfy the needs of some consumers who lacked a passion for technology but preferred the analog method of banking.
Kofi Adomakoh, the bank’s managing director (MD), made such statement in an effort to dispel the misconception that the bank is an outdated institution that is out of touch with contemporary ideas about how to make banking more accessible.
He said that when he led his team to the bank’s head office in Accra to interact with staff and customers as part of this year’s Customer Service Week celebration.
Describing the bank as old but experienced in the sector, he said “Many people may know GCB of old but the modern GCB is very technologically driven through our banking applications and electronic banking.
“Those who still prefer going through the analogue way will still be catered for, particularly because we find GCB in every region across Ghana.”
Customer Service Week
As part of the celebration, customers received souvenirs and branded chocolates from the bank.
Mr Adomakoh explained that as a bank, it was time to dedicate itself, reconsider and review how customers were treated.
“It is also a time where we take stock of what has gone on over the past years to consider how to position the bank to serve our customers better.
“Customers are the reason why we are here, we need to make sure their needs are well identified and met,” he said.
A Healthcare Assistant Nurse, Abigail Mary Akpaloo, who has been a customer of the bank since 1979, explained that she was still committed to the bank because it had branches in every part of the country.
However, she called on the bank to improve its services, especially its Automated Teller Machines (ATM).
The COVID-19 epidemic has exposed people who have not made proper plans for their financial independence, along with the Russia/Ukraine crisis which has disrupted supply chains globally.
The nation’s current economic difficulties, which have been manifested by high inflation, rising interest rates, and a declining currency, also raise questions about how financially resilient people are.
The current financial sector clean-up, which was intended to stabilize a faltering industry, really made things worse because many innocent people suffered as a result of mistakes made by a cause they did not start.
Many have lost huge investments and some have even died as they could not withstand the loss of lifetime investments.
The development, coupled with the present economic challenges, has dampened the spirits of the investor community and it will only take concrete efforts to convince them.
To help increase awareness and encourage people to invest, the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has joined over 80 stock exchanges across the world to ring the bell for financial literacy and investor education to be intensified.
This will see the GSE, together with the Central Securities Depository (CSD), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and market players, educate the public and investors on the investment opportunities available to them and also raise awareness of the importance of investor education and protection.
At an event to mark the occasion, the Deputy Managing Director of the GSE, Abena Amoah, said financial literacy had become more important than ever to help investors navigate the challenges and uncertainties surrounding investment options.
She said the theme for the World Investor Week, ‘Building investor resilience’, was very relevant, considering the current economic challenges confronting the world and the uncertainties in the investor space.
“The GSE is very proud to host and celebrate this week together with our regulator and partners, market players, business associations and the general public,” she stated.
Key strategic pillar
Ms Amoah said financial literacy and market information dissemination were part of the GSE’s key strategic pillars as it sought to transform the capital market.
She said the GSE had undertaken some interventions over the last two years to create awareness of investment.
Ms Amoah said some of the interventions included the Money Education TV series, investor education tours across tertiary and secondary schools in the country, workshops for the pension industry and financial journalists, business associations’ engagements among others.
“The GSE’s digitalisation agenda which is also embedded in our financial literacy plans is on track,” she stated.
Key to building resilience
Giving the keynote address, the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, said, “Five years ago, we witnessed clean-up activities within the financial sector and that also had some impact on people’s income. We have also had a period of investors chasing returns and through that, they exposed themselves and ended up losing their monies, coupled with an upsurge in fraudulent schemes.
“It is, therefore, important for us to bring out the education, and that is why the Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy programme is so important to get people to understand the dynamics of creating wealth and making sure that you attain the resilience that will help you in difficult times.”
Commitment to financial literacy
In his closing remarks, the Managing Director of GSE, Ekow Afedzie, said the exchange was committed to financial literacy and it had been so since it was first established.
He said although the Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy advocacy had been going on for the past six years globally, this was the first time the GSE was taking part.
He gave an assurance that going forward, the GSE would continue to participate in the global event each year.
“As an exchange, we will continue to do it because it will have a great impact on the development of the capital market. Without investments, there is no way the country can develop and without savings, there is no way people can invest.
“Financial literacy is, therefore, very important at this time, especially at a time when investors are having challenges and don’t know what to do,” he stated.
In an interview with CitiNews, the tax analyst said, “E-levy as it stands, I would say it has failed and it’s got to the point where the government has to review it, probably reduction in rates if it’s not to be abolished. The government needs to look at reducing the rates to make it less attractive for people not to pay.
“But as it stands, if you spend about GH¢5000 and you’re going to pay maybe an E-Levy of close to GH¢100, surely the person would rather spend time and go to the bank to do physical transactions and you also need to look at what impact this is having on the broader economy,” he added.
He opined that Ghana’s problems could only be solved if the country has substantial domestic revenue.
Dr Ampaabeng listed property tax as a means the country can depend on to rake in more money to stabilize the wobbling economy.
“What will solve Ghana’s problem is having substantial domestic revenue. We need a revenue base that will guarantee every year in and year out. IMF is going to be a one-off package to support the economy but post-IMF what happens? And that is why we keep slipping back. The country is not generating enough and it is time for us to do a proper system audit, and look at which areas can we really generate revenue. Property tax is one,” the tax analyst stated.
It would be recalled that government, in March this year, imposed a 1.5% charge on all electronic transfers above GH¢100.
Meanwhile, the charging entities for the E-Levy are telecommunications companies, commercial banks, special deposit-taking institutions and Payment Service Providers (PSPs).
Mobile Money (MoMo) transaction since the introduction of the tax policy has witnessed a decline in business, MoMo Association has said.
As of September this year, data from the GRA showed that about GH¢328 million has been collected as E-Levy.
Government’s target for E-Levy by end of 2022 is GH¢600 million.
