Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, the Energy Minister, has asserted that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) continues to be the greatest option for Ghanaians as compared to the opposition National Democratic Congress, despite the country’s economic challenges.
He pointed to the depreciation of the Ghana cedis against the Dollar as one of the problems government had been faced with but was quick to add that it would have been worse if any other political party was in charge of the Ghanaian economy at this time.
Speaking to members of the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON), in the Ashanti Region at a conference in Kumasi, NAPO as he is popularly called said the cedi which dropped to an all-time lowest in history would have hit Ghs48 to a dollar if the National Democratic Congress(NDC) was in power.
“The worse in NPP is far better than the best in NDC. Some of you are motivated to serve NPP, know that you are motivated to serve the best. It is only NPP that can make Ghana better. No matter the circumstances that you are in, just imagine if it was NDC it would have been times three. If NDC was in government the dollar that could have gotten to 16 would have gotten to 48,” he said.
He admonished the young patriots to keep faith with the party and government amidst the prevailing challenges and eschew in-fighting, animosity and acrimony as such tendencies could potentially affect the ability of the party to break the 8.
“No TESCON member should have a divided mind about 2024. It is better to be the garden boy of the ruling party than to be the landlord of the opposition party,” he added.
The vice-chair of the Ada National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kenneth Kabu Kano, is under criticism from social media users because of a statement he made ahead of the NDC National polls.
The vice-chair brashly stated that he will step down from his position as vice-chair of the party should Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo lose the election.
“Ok I will put it on the line, I said he will win the chairmanship position (Ofosu-Ampofo), I said if he doesn’t win, I will resign as the vice chairman of the Ada constituency,” he said.
After the NDC national elections on Saturday, December 17, 2022, however, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, a.k.a. General mosquito, defeated Ofosu-Ampofo, by a wide margin to lead the party ahead of the 2024 general elections.
Following the results of the elections, some social media users are now demanding for Kabu Kano to step down, arguing that he must leave the position immediately in order to redeem his integrity.
Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, at the National Congress held on Saturday, December 17, 2022, secured 65.17% of the total vote cast to win the election.
His closest competitor, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo polled just 33.81% of the total vote cast.
According to the Electoral Commission, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah garnered 5,569 while the incumbent Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo managed 2,892 votes
The Chairman of the National Executive Committee, Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy, Harrison Abutiate, says the unstable Ghanaian currency and delayed payments to pharmacies, particularly by government facilities, are crippling the pharmaceutical industry.
He said members of the Chamber had extended credits to local distributors, clinics, hospitals and other health facilities but the delay in payment was worrying.
Other factors exacerbating their plight are the high-interest rates and increased benchmark values.
Mr Abutiate said this at the India-Ghana Pharma Business Summit, dubbed; “Managing the Economic Challenges in Pharma Business in Ghana,” which brought together the value-chain industry players to discuss areas of collaboration in both countries.
“The current developments had eroded our finances and business survival….and with the other challenges, the situation does not help in production, planning and pricing of medicines in Ghana,” he said.
Mr Abutiate said the situation necessitated the Chamber’s decision to return to the ‘Cash & Carry’ method recently.
He said action should be expedited on the Dawa Industrial Zone project, a 150-acre land to be developed into a Pharma park, where the production of various pharmaceutical products would be undertaken by various entities under a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).
Mr Micheal Okyere Baafi, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, said the Government took keen interest in the operations of the pharmaceutical industry and was developing a policy to attract investments into the business.
It had already given out US$ 415 million as loans through Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs).
“We are only doing about 30 percent of the whole demand of the Pharmaceutical businesses in Ghana, and summits like this can spur collaboration and investments to bridge the gap,” he said.
Mr Sugandh Rajaram, the Indian High Commissioner to Ghana, said Indian businesses were ready for opportunities to partner with their Ghanaian counterparts to explore the pharma trade.
Export from India to Ghana in 2022 was about US$ 200 million, he said.
Mr Rajaram said it was time the local pharmaceutical companies worked with Indian businesses to ensure value addition.
Chief Executive Officer of Korle Bu Hospital, Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomaa, has lauded the insurance industry for voluntarily giving 2,015 units of blood to the National Blood Bank in 2022.
He made the commendation when Commissioner of Insurance Dr. Justice Yaw Ofori called on management and staff of the teaching hospital last week.
Dr. Justice Yaw Ofori led his team of insurance practitioners to the Child Health Unit of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to give thanks and close the 2022 blood donation year. He urged other corporate organisations to emulate the gesture of the insurance industry and donate voluntary to the blood bank.
According to the Commissioner, the insurance sector voluntarily offered to donate blood to the needy in August 2021; that year the industry donated 822 units to the blood bank, and after three months in 2022 the voluntary donation had risen to 2,015 units nationally.
The CEO of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital also urged the National Health Insurance Scheme to absorb trauma cases into its ambit. He assured insurers that the hospital is also making in-house arrangements to solicit for blood donors in the near future. He revealed that so far the insurance industry has donated the highest ever in Ghana within a space of three months.
In a related development, the insurance industry also donated equipment to the maternity ward.
Prior to the general election in 2024, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, the general secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has given a stern warning to the New Patriotic party.
Fifi Kwetey admonished the NPP government to manage the country carefully to avoid economic difficulties that would cause immeasurable pain for Ghanaians.
He asserts that the NDC would unseat the NPP administration in the general election of 2024, thus they should exercise care in managing the economy to prevent it from worsening.
In addition, he stated that the new leadership will join forces to work together to recapture power in 2024 in an interview with GhanaWeb after winning the election for General Secretary.
“To the NPP all I can say is that, work hard to make sure you do not destroy our county worse, I mean much more than they have done, I mean what we’ve seen has been a moral calamity, what we are seeing has been a complete collapse of morality and therefore we pray that they do not do that, that is my hope, they have been a complete disaster, don’t make it worse and more difficult for the NDC to be able to come and do too much difficulty for the sake of Ghana and for the sake of the younger generation, don’t make it worse,” he said.
Fifi Fiavi Kwetey won the General Secretary race of the National Democratic Congress, replacing Asiedu Nketiah who won the National Chairman contest.
At the National Congress held on Saturday, December 17, 2022, Fifi Kwetey polled the highest number of votes to confirm his status as the new CEO of the NDC.
He got 4,543 of total vote cast to win the race.
Fifi Kwetey took to social media to announce his victory, indicating that he has been called by fellow candidate Dr. Peter Otokunor to be congratulated.
Ex-President John Dramani Mahama has taken a swipe at the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo after he admonished African leaders to stop begging the West.
President Nana Addo urged the leaders to earn global respect and change poor perceptions about the African continent stressing “if we stop being beggars and spend African money inside the continent, Africa will not need to ask for respect from anyone, we will get the respect we deserve. If we make it prosperous as it should be, respect will follow”.
He made the remarks during the opening of the US-Africa Leaders‘ Summit in Washington DC.
“Africans are more resilient outside the continent than inside. We must bear in mind that to the outside world, [there’s] nothing like Nigeria, Ghana or Kenya, we are simply Africans. Our destiny as people depends on each other,” he added.
Delivering a speech at the NDC delegates conference, Mr. John Mahama mocked the President for preaching virtue but practicing vice.
“Our dear country, Ghana, that has been a poster boy of democracy, good governance and economic progress stands on the brink of bankruptcy and economic ruin. Yet, we have a President who enjoys sprouting the rhetoric of self-suspect and restrain from begging western nations for support and yet he has spent the last several weeks on the telephone with western leaders asking them to beg the IMF to grant Ghana the recently announced staff-level agreement for an extended credit facility. Our dear nation has never been so put to shame and come close to being a beggar nation as we are today”, he stated.
He further said “this NPP government has done the worst to erode the belief of Ghanaians in our democracy. Many Ghanaians see their situation as hopeless and are willing to take the hazards of dying in the Mediterranean sea or electrocution on a high tension transmission line in Kasoa”.
Mr. Mahama however urged Ghanaians not to lose hope.
“…countrymen and women, let us not despair; they say the darkest hour is before the dawn and they also say, in every adversity, we find opportunity and Bob Marley also say when one door is closed, another is opened. Ghana shall rise to a new dawn!”
Transfers and lack of funding have been identified as some of the barriers affecting effective execution of planned institutional activities of the National Labour Migration Technical Working Group (NLMTWG).
Currently most donors are shifting their support packages towards displacement as the result of the Russia-Ukraine war whiles the domestic budget cut for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are also making it difficult for the institutions to execute their action plans for the year.
This came to light at the fourth quarter meeting of the group, attended mainly by Directors of stakeholder institutions in the migration sector, including the Ministries of Employment and Labour Relations, Foreign Affairs and The Interior, and their affiliate departments and agencies.
The two-day meeting was funded by the Migration for Development and Equality (MIDEQ) project undertaken by the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana, Legon and attended by 46 representatives of stakeholder institutions.
The meeting is to initiate process of developing the Annual Labour Migration Institutional Work Plan to advance the course of implementation of the National Migration Policy in 2023.
It will also reinforce the collective efforts from the NLMTWG to support the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations execute the National Labour Migration Policy.
Professor Joseph Teye, a Co-Director of MIDEQ Project, said the MIDEQ Project was funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)/ Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
He said: “The project is thought to be the world largest migration project and made up of 100 institutions, and the project is being done in 12 countries”.
“When we said 100 institutions it means it include some of the organisations that are not necessarily contacting the research but are part if the research. So all the UN agencies that deals with migration are part if the project,” he explained.
Prof. Teye said the MIDEQ project explores South-South migration in six corridors that links migrants countries of origin and destination.
The corridors are Burkina Faso-Cote d’Ivoire; China-Ghana; Egypt-Jordan; Ethiopia-South Africa; Haiti-Brazil, and Nepal-Malaysia. The CMS is doing China-Ghana corridor.
He said they were focusing on global south because “ if you look at migration movement about 60 per cent of movements are happening within the global south and yet, most of what we hear about migration is about migration is talking about south-north migration”.
He said findings would be used to deal with policy in the south-south migration in general, so maybe we can also build on what we got from China to Ghana and Ghana to China to make policies for Ghana and Nigeria.
“We will share our findings with you to see how you can incorporate some of them into the National Labour Market Policy,” he added.
Mr Ernest Berko, Deputy Director, PPME, said the technical working group was a mechanism in place to ensure all relevant agencies draw activity out of the implementation plans of the policy and also implement them themselves.
“We meet every quarter to look at how far we have gone with the implementation and how to support each other to address the challenges that we have.
Today’s meeting is fruitful because we are able to report on work done so far and identified some challenges and what can be done to address them.
He said: “Going forward, we’re just going to look for activities that we could not implement this year and also come out with some mitigating strategies for the challenges identified, and then how we can reposition themselves to ensure that the challenges they faced do not repeat next year so that we will achieve the objective of the policy,” he added.
Prof. Mary Boatemaa Setrana, the Director of CMS, said as part of their mandate was capacity building workshops and also host MIDEQ project with other researchers with CMS on it.
She expressed the hope that as they share their findings, they would see how to integrate south-south migration issues in the policy.
She noted that most of the discussions in policy circles did not focus on south-south migration as they always think about Europe.
“We are hoping that through this discussion of developing the work plan we can integrate some of the ideas.
“Though we sharing issues like migrants’ protection and migrants’ access, they are same everywhere and so hope that as we share, it is not only our corridor but they reflect on other corridors and we can use all the findings and what we learn from it to also plan our 2023 Labour Migration work plan,” she said.
Mr Dennis Benneh Diawus, a Planning Officer at PPME and the rapporteur for the group, said some of the activities were beyond the purse of the institutions and advised them to look at the low hanging fruits and go for achievable plans within the year.
The National Migration Policy was passed by Parliament in 2016 but has not been implemented ever since.
Parts of the capital Accra have experienced another earth tremor six days after two mild tremors struck some areas in the region.
People took to social media to post about the incident, with most asking other users for confirmation if they felt it too because they were a bit sceptical and doubtful an earth tremor will occur a few days after a confirmed shake.
Of particular mention is persons residing in Kasoa, most of whom say they felt a shake around 7:30 pm on Saturday, December 17.
When the first two tremors struck on Monday, December 12, 2022, the Ghana Geological Survey Authority confirmed the incident and assured the public that investigations would be launched to ascertain the magnitude and epicentre of the shake, but that is yet to happen and Ghanaians are reported experiencing a third occurrence in less than a week
Another earth tremor just a minute ago, tell me it’s a lie coz maybe I felt it alone #EarthTremor#earthquake
Some may not be surprised at this current shake after the Principal Seismologist at the Ghana Geological Survey Authority (GGSA), Nicholas Opoku warned residents of Accra to be prepared for more earth tremors in the future after the December 12 tremor.
Mr. Opoku said the country has been recording some occasional shakes except that their magnitude wasn’t high enough to be felt.
“This is not a new thing. We have been experiencing this from time to time…even the most recent ones were in 2018, 2019, and 2020. What we have been saying all this while is that Accra and its environs are situated in the earthquake-prone zones so from time to time, we will be experiencing these minor earthquakes until such a time that a major one will occur.”
Mr. Opoku said there was a “shake that occurred on December 16 at about 5:45 am and a major one occurred at 6:03 am at a 2.7 magnitude.”
As part of efforts to give hope to Ghanaians in these trying times, the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL) used its Annual Thanksgiving Service (2022) to reach out to lost souls, and win them for Christ.
As a directive from the Executive Chairman of JGC, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, staff members of JGC and ZGL, on Thursday, December 8, 2022, marched on the streets to speak to people about the unfailing love of Jesus Christ.
The evangelism programme, which began from the group’s premises through to the School Junction end of the main Ashley Botwe-Nmai-Dzorn in Accra, saw the participants interact with people on the streets, homes, and in vehicles about the saving grace of Christ. Many who received the good news were excited about the fact that Christ is the centre of the JGC and ZGL.
Speaking in an interview with the media on the essence of the programme, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of JGC, Mrs. Sophia Kudjordji, said the outreach was meant to remind Ghanaians that all hope was not lost.
She said the only way to be joyful in life was to surrender one’s life to Christ and experience peace as well. Just as cleanliness is next to Godliness, she admonished Ghanaians to ensure that their environment was treated with respect.
For her part, the Communications and Corporate Affairs Director of ZGL, Mrs. Emma Adwoa Appiaa Osei-Duah, entreated the citizenry to take advantage of the free bins initiative currently ongoing, stressing, however, that they may soon be required to pay for it.
She again urged the public to eschew the practice of dropping trashes around, and rather adopt the attitude of putting them into dustbins.
Earlier, the Mission Director of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Emmanuel Agyeman Bekoe, stated that the Lord deserves to be celebrated for what He has done and who He is. He explained that celebrating God for His greatness was very vital, especially in the light of His mighty works.
Sharing the word of God with a gathering of staff members and heads of departments of JGC and ZGL, Apostle Agyeman Bekoe underscored the importance of celebrating the Lord always.
According to him, God ought to be worshipped for all His deeds. He further explained that offering thanksgiving to God means sounding trumpets and other musical instruments. While in the Old Testament, thanking the Lord means singing and marching to the glory of the Lord, praying and singing are characteristics of the New Testament era, he averred.
Tracts and placards bearing inscriptions – such as Are you ready for His coming?; Jesus still saves; Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Light; Jesus, your Shepherd is looking for you – were on display, with the aim of reconnecting lost souls back to their Maker.
Gospel Musician Akesse Brempong, who was the Guest Artiste, graced the celebration with his melodic ministrations, as well as the Present King Choir. There were amazing displays from various departments within the Jospong Group and Zoomlion.
According to Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), the Fiscal Responsibility Advisory Council is not powerful enough to serve as “a domestic substitute” for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), preventing Ghana from turning to the Bretton Woods organization for a bailout.
The President, in the exercise of his constitutional powers (Article 58), on 28 December 2018 (Ghana Gazette No. 173), established two major Councils that will offer independent advice on fiscal responsibility and ensure the stability of the entire financial system (across all the sub-sectors, from banking through pensions & fund/asset management to insurance etc.) respectively.
They are the Fiscal Responsibility Advisory Council (Fiscal Council) and the Financial Stability Advisory Council (Financial Stability Council).
Both Councils are made up of 7 members each, the latter’s members being institutional representatives.
The term of the members of each Council shall lapse with the term of the President under whom s/he is appointed unless s/he resigns or is otherwise terminated/terminates before then.
Among its many functions, the FSC, which brings together all the different regulatory agencies in the financial services sector, will “identify and evaluate the threats, vulnerabilities, and risks to the stability of the financial sector,” ensuring, especially, that we receive early-warning of cross-industry exposures that pose systemic risks and deploy appropriate measures in managing them.
The FC also has, as one of its functions, a mandate to “develop and recommend to the President fiscal responsibility policies for the maintenance of prudent and sustainable levels of public debt, ensuring that the fiscal balance is maintained at a sustainable level, and the management of fiscal risks in a prudent manner, to achieve efficiency, effectiveness and value for money in public expenditure.”
The members of the Fiscal Council as of the time it was first established include Dr. Paul Acquah, Mr. Abdallah Ali-Nakyea, Prof. Eugenia Amporfu, Dr. Nii Noi Ashong, Prof. Augustine Fosu, Dr. Robert Osei, and Dr. Nii Kwaku Sowa.
The institutional representatives of the Financial Stability Council as of the time it was first established include Dr. Ernest Addison (BoG), Elsie Addo Awadzi (BoG), Charles Adu Boahen (who was recently fired by the President, represented the Ministry of Finance), Justice Yaw Ofori (NIC), Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh (SEC), Hayford Atta Krufi (NPRA), and Ignatius Wilson (DPC).
Speaking at a roundtable organised by the Citizen’s Coalition in Accra on “Interrogating Ghana’s 2023 budget and Economic Policy as a pathway to Economic recovery”, Prof Prempeh said a stronger Fiscal Council could do Ghana a lot of good.
“Part of what I think has gotten us to this problem is that when we started off the Eurobond thing, it was good”, he observed, adding: “But I think that given the nature of our politics and our governance, it should have been very clear to us that we need a domestic IMF substitute”.
“That is, if IMF is not there, you need, yourself, to put in certain guard rails and certain institutional frameworks so that you will be more fiscally responsible and not have to go back to the IMF,” he said.
“We have an IMF substitute on paper called the Fiscal Council and even the one that was on paper was really not that strong. If you want to go to the IMF and you are still not fiscally disciplined, it won’t work,” he said.
At the same event, Prof Prempeh said the National Cathedral is not a sensible project to undertake in the midst of an economic crisis.
In his view, the government could use the site for the project, for a more sensible venture.
“When you are in a crisis, you can do exceptional things, I don’t see anything in the budget to suggest that this is a crisis and that this is being done as an emergency measure,” Professor Prempeh said.
“This is not the time for vanity projects but we have preserved a vanity project in the form of the cathedral. I was expecting that this being a crisis period, we will reflect on that decision and say: ‘even if this is sensible to do at all’ – and I do not think so – that it will not be the appropriate period or we will change the idea to something else”.
“There is a lot that we can still do with that site which can make sense”.
“So, generally it is a missed opportunity in terms of seeing this as a crisis moment and seeing it as a moment to reset the button”, Prof Prempeh noted.
“I think we have not quite done that”, he stressed.
“It looks to me that it is purely an emergency thing targeted at the IMF to approve a loan, as opposed to something that is going deep into the structure and our governance,” Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh admonished in his assessment.
Prof Prempeh is in good company with pressure group OccupyGhana which recently recommended that the government suspend all public expenditure on the National Cathedral considering that the country is going through an economic crisis.
“Whatever arguments there might have been to support spending now-non-existent money on the proposed National Cathedral, have been eroded by the dire straits that the nation faces”, the group said in a statement.
“Our current situation makes the continued commitment in the budget to spend GHS80m on the cathedral, look like a vanity project”, it noted.
OG said: “We lose nothing by suspending expenditure on that project until the economy recovers”.
The National Cathedral was a personal promise made to God by then-presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo if he won the 2016 election.
Read OccupyGhana’s full statement below:
Our ref: OG/2022/054
OCCUPYGHANA PRESS STATEMENT
Accra, 7 December 2022
GHANA’S CURRENT ECONOMIC SITUATION – OUR FURTHER THOUGHTS AND PROPOSALS
OccupyGhana has noted, with considerable concern, the Finance Minister’s announcements on restructuring portfolio investments.
While IMF support depends on the proposed ‘haircuts,’ they are extremely painful to the many Ghanaians who have participated in these investments.
Simply, under this government’s watch, Ghana has become broke under circumstances that were avoidable and are inexcusable and unpardonable.
As we stated in our press release dated 28 October 2022 (Our ref: OG/2022/050) and titled GHANA’S CURRENT ECONOMIC SITUATION – OUR THOUGHTS AND PROPOSALS, the nation would not be in this situation but for the government’s failed, risky economic strategy that borrowed heavily from the international market to fund expenditure, pay maturing debt, support the cedi and possibly control the effect of the depreciation on inflation.
This risky strategy effectively relied on good fortune and extremely astute economic management, both of which failed.
Thus, although the government would seek to blame the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war for this disaster, it cannot evade or avoid the fact that our debt was unsustainable even before these external factors kicked in and compounded an already precarious situation.
TWO BROAD COMMENTS
We have two broad comments on the announcements that request Ghanaians to forego legitimately earned funds to help the government out of the disaster it has created.
First, we consider the finance minister’s announcements as nothing more than an offer from the government to institutional portfolio investors to accept new terms that vary the terms under which the latter acquired the government’s securities.
We think that the government has no power under the law and the Constitution to unilaterally impose fresh terms on portfolio investors; negotiation and the mutual consent of all parties will be required.
Second, notwithstanding the claims that individual investors are insulated from the proposed ‘haircuts,’ the millions of Ghanaians whose funds (pension or otherwise) have been invested by institutional fund managers in government securities, will be the ultimate losers in this new offer.
That is because those fund managers will simply pass the cuts on to their clients and customers.
There is simply no way to understate the terrible consequences that this state of affairs has caused and will cause to Ghanaians.
That is why we believe that any offer to the citizens, who are already hit with the multiple effects of inflation and cedi depreciation, to essentially bail the government out of its self-afflicted disaster, must come with an acceptance of failures and a firm commitment to do better.
TEN RECOMMENDATIONS
We, therefore, recommend 10 things that the government may act upon.
First, reduce the number of government appointees by at least fifty per cent.
This may be achieved by consolidating several ministries and slashing the number of political appointees (ministerial and otherwise), such as all deputies and the like, and entrusting public servant-technocrats with the responsibility of supporting substantive heads.
This will send a powerful message in these tough and painful times that the government is serious about its commitment to doing better while requesting sacrifices from the general public.
Second, let the president pay income taxes, too.
We should remove the tax exemption granted to the president under article 68(5) of the Constitution.
While the actual savings from this might not be much, it is hugely significant and relevantly symbolic.
The president must lead by example.
When he pays his taxes, then he can demand that the rest of us pay taxes too.
Third, it is time to rationalise the so-called ‘article 71 benefits.’
Ghana needs to end the three-decade-old grand conspiracy among the political class that milks Ghana under the false argument that article 71 authorises so-called ‘ex gratia payments.’
We must eradicate the multiple claims of ex gratia; the multiple claims over different administrative/government terms do not make sense and are difficult to sustain.
We must also immediately end the false scheme by which successive governments deliberately delay the setting up of the emoluments committee till the end of their terms, so that salaries and emoluments are agreed upon and calculated literally at the ‘midnight’ of the outgoing government, considered and adopted in secrecy to precious little debate, and then applied retrospectively.
Ghanaians only get to find out the huge pay-outs to the executive and legislators after the fact.
We demand that the committees are established at the start of each government so that we know what and how much the political actors are entitled to when they assume office.
The current government must establish the committees NOW.
Fourth, revise all tax exemptions, especially those granted to incomes and gains from portfolio investments.
The government must, as a matter of urgency, amend section 7(1)(p) to (v) of the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896) to remove all or some of the exemptions on incomes and gains from portfolio investments.
These are not normal times, and we propose imposing a specific, time-bound withholding income tax regime on such earnings.
Ghana may consider re-granting the exemptions when we have recovered.
Fifth, intensify and institutionalise GRA’s invigilation activities.
In addition, the legal sanctions for under-reporting and tax evasion must be drastically applied.
Sixth, explain the source of funding of the proposed Financial Stability Fund (FSF).
Extreme transparency of the proposed programme and its implementation is required.
If the government is broke and requires an IMF bailout, where will the monies for the FSF come from?
Seventh, pursue the Auditor-General’s disallowances and surcharges.
The government must show some seriousness in pursuing those the Auditor-General has found to have caused loss to Ghana.
To the best of our knowledge, the government is doing nothing to enforce the Auditor-General’s disallowances and surcharges.
The president issued a terribly belated instruction to heads of institutions to provide to him the names of all persons identified to have caused losses to the state in the Auditor-General’s reports.
The president’s deadline has come and gone with no communication or indication on whether the names were indeed supplied to the president, and what the president is going to do with them.
Eighth, end galamsey.
The government has to address the galamsey menace as a matter of urgency, as our natural resources are plundered and the ecosystem destroyed.
The much-publicised Kumasi meetings do not appear to have borne fruit.
We have written to the president, at least, 9 times in the past six weeks, in addition to several other previous statements on this, challenging the government to properly regulate artisanal mining in a way that benefits the nation.
They have all been ignored.
Our current efforts will come to nothing if this canker is allowed to overcome any future economic recovery.
Ninth, slash all non-critical government expenditures. Implement a ruthless focus on prioritising government projects and expenditures, and ensure a strict relationship to GDP growth going forward.
And, the government must provide monthly reports on how much money all announced cost-saving measures have delivered.
We specifically recommend the suspension of all fees and allowances paid to persons appointed by the government to serve on various boards.
We also recommend suspending all expenditures on the proposed National Cathedral.
Whatever arguments there might have been to support spending now-non-existent money on the proposed National Cathedral, have been eroded by the dire straits that the nation faces.
Our current situation makes the continued commitment in the budget to spend GHS80M on the cathedral, look like a vanity project.
We lose nothing by suspending expenditure on that project until the economy recovers.
Tenth, rationalise the president’s flagship programmes.
This includes the Free SHS scheme.
Every Ghanaian who can pay fees should pay.
Limit the scheme to only those who can prove that they are not capable of paying fees.
In conclusion, a government that is pleading with Ghanaians to bail it out of a self-afflicted disaster, must ‘bear fruits worthy of repentance.’
The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) has discounted claims that a liquid substance that was said to have leaked from one of its pipelines located in the Eastern region was diesel oil.
This comes after a viral video shared on social media showed residents living in the Atimpoku area siphoning the substance after the pipeline located at BOST’s ‘Maame Water’ depot was reportedly damaged.
BOST in a statement issued on December 18 however clarified that the reported liquid was a sludge consisting of water, dirt and fuel residue which was spilled following a pressure testing undertaken on a refurbished pipeline.
“The pipeline had been decommissioned from 2015 due to vandalism of the line by unknown assailants. This resulted in BOST resorting to the use of Bulk Road Vehicles, popularly known as tankers in the haulage of petroleum Products from the Tema to the Akosombo Depot for onward transmission using river badges to the Buipe Depot in northern Ghana.”
“Repair works on the pipeline commenced a year ago and was expected to be completed by the third quarter of the year 2022. Due to the impact of the construction of the Railway Line from Tema to Mpakadan in the Volta region, the line had to be re-routed which affected the completion time,” it explained.
BOST further noted that it commissioned the installation of a leak and intrusion detection system on the line for the safety and security of its operations after it was recommissioned.
“For a proper assessment of the degree of damage at the commencement of the repair works, water was pumped up the line to help with the full detection of all leakages for repairs.”
“After the repair works, the company carried out a pressure testing of the line to be sure all the leakages detected have been rectified. It is this pressure testing which resulted in the pushout of a sludge in the Maame Water area which is being reported in the media. The sludge is a combination of water, dirt and fuel residue formed in the pipeline which was pushed out in the pressure testing,” BOST explained.
It also emphasized that the tanks at the Maame Water depot have been empty over the last couple of years adding that BOST had not pumped products up the pipeline since the repair works are yet to be fully completed for a hand-over and recommissioning.
“The exposed content of the line due to the testing has been foamed by the BOST Team with support from the Ghana National Fire Service and works are underway to ensure a clean-up of the area of the spillage,” the statement added.
The company also assured that has been zero environmental impact as the spilled slop was contained within the drains in the area which happened to be choked.
“There was no spillage into the waterbodies around the area including the Volta Lake. The spills in the drains have been recovered with the support of the BOST team which has been on site since morning,” it noted.
The oil storage and transportation company however assured the public that the situation is under control adding that there are no financial cost implications of the said spillage since same was carried out to check the integrity of the repaired pipeline.
It was a successful year for Black businesswomen in the United States, as several saw their wealth significantly increase through new deals, acquisitions, and business expansion.
Emma Grede, for example, experienced a significant rise in her net worth. With a current fortune of $360 million, Grede derives her net worth from ventures such as Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand Skims and size-inclusive fashion brand Good American, which she co-founded with Khloe Kardashian in 2016.
However, not all Black businesswomen in the United States had such fortunate this year. Some, like cosmetics billionaire Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty, saw their net worth drop due to rising interest rates, the uneven reopening of the pandemic, and market uncertainty caused by the war in Europe.
Despite these challenges, many Black businesswomen in the United States were able to achieve success and increase their wealth, showcasing their hard work, determination, and resilience.
It is important to recognize and celebrate these achievements, as they inspire and encourage other women of color to pursue their entrepreneurial goals.
According to data from Forbes, here is how these businesswomen rank.
1. Oprah Winfrey
Net worth: $2.5 billion
Source: Media
Oprah Winfrey, the talk show host turned media mogul, has a net worth of $2.5 billion, making her the wealthiest Black woman in America, according to Forbes.
Oprah has transformed her hit talk show, which aired for 25 years, into a media and business empire. To preserve and grow her fortune over time, the leading media mogul has reinvested profits from her show, as well as profits from films like “The Color Purple,” “Beloved,” and “Selma,” into key assets and entities in the media industry.
This year, Oprah faced some setbacks, including a decrease in her net worth from $2.6 billion at the start of the year.
Despite these challenges, Oprah’s media empire continues to thrive, thanks to her shrewd business acumen and her determination to succeed.
She recently earned $6.6 million from the sale of her Montecito estate in California, which she had purchased for $10.5 million just a year ago.
2. Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty
Net worth: $1.4 billion
Source: Music and Cosmetics
Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty is a successful musician and entrepreneur with a net worth of $1.4 billion. She is the second-richest Black woman in the United States. However, her net worth has declined by $300 million since the beginning of the year, going from $1.7 billion to $1.4 billion.
Fenty’s main source of wealth is her cosmetics company, Fenty Beauty, which she launched in collaboration with LVMH Mot Hennessy Louis Vuitton in 2017.
The company sells makeup and skincare products on Sephora shelves and online to more than 150 countries, and is expected to bring in over $550 million in revenue in 2020.
In addition to Fenty Beauty, Rihanna has recently filed two applications for Fenty Hair with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, indicating her plans to launch a haircare line under the Fenty brand.
The Fenty Hair collection will include a range of accessories such as hairbands, bows, clips, ribbons, scrunchies, wigs, curlers, pins, brushes, and combs, further expanding the Fenty brand’s presence in the fashion and cosmetics industries.
3. Sheila Johnson
Net worth: $780 million
Source: CableTV
Sheila Johnson is a successful American businesswoman and co-founder of the cable TV channel BET, or Black Entertainment Network.
According to Forbes, she is one of the richest Black women in the United States. Johnson was the first African-American woman to achieve a net worth of at least $1 billion, but her fortune has decreased to $780 million in recent years.
However, data from Forbes shows that her net worth has increased by more than $30 million in the current year, going from $750 million at the beginning of the year to $780 million as of now.
4. Janice Bryant Howroyd
Net worth: $630 million
Source: Workforce Solutions
Janice Bryant Howroyd is a leading businesswoman and one of the richest Black women in the world, with a net worth of $630 million. She founded ActOne in 1978 with just $1,500, including a $900 loan from her mother, and a fax machine and phone. Today, the agency has more than 17,000 clients and 2,600 employees in 19 countries.
In 2019, Howroyd released her second book, “Acting Up,” in which she shared her advice for conquering the business world. Her net worth has increased significantly from $285 million in 2020 to its present value of $630 million.
In addition to her successful agency, Howroyd also owns several dozen properties, including commercial rental properties and personal residences.
5. Beyonce Knowles
Net worth: $450 million
Source: Music, Fashion
Beyonce Knowles is a highly successful musician and one of the wealthiest women in the world, with a net worth of $450 million, according to Forbes.
In addition to her music career, Beyoncé has also had multiple clothing lines, including her activewear line, Ivy Park, which has a partnership with Adidas.
In November 2022, Beyonce received nine new Grammy nominations, bringing her lifetime total to 88 and tying the record for the most nominations in Grammy history. She shares this record with her husband, further solidifying her place as a dominant force in the music industry.
6. Emma Grede
Net worth: $360 million
Source: Fashion
Emma Grede is the founder and CEO of Good American, a premium apparel label in the United States that promotes a healthy body ideal with a full and inclusive size range.
She co-founded the company with Khloé Kardashian in 2016, and it has since become one of the most successful apparel launches in history, with sales reaching upwards of one million dollars on the first day.
Grede was raised in East London by a single mother and began working a paper route at the age of 12, saving her earnings to buy fashion magazines. She later founded fashion and entertainment marketing agency ITB Worldwide in 2008 and became the first Black woman to serve as an investor on the popular ABC series Shark Tank.
7. Serena Williams
Net worth: $260 million
Source: Tennis, Investments
Serena Williams, one of the most successful and wealthy Black women in America, has a net worth of $260 million. Williams is also widely regarded as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, having earned over $94 million in career prize money.
However, Williams’ success extends beyond her achievements on the tennis court. She has also made smart investments through her firm, Serena Ventures, which has invested in over 60 startups.
In March 2022, Serena Ventures raised an initial fund of $111 million. Recently, Williams launched a new company called Will Perform as part of her efforts to enter the booming sports recovery industry. This industry includes both large and small-scale stakeholders, such as wellness centers, sports recovery spas, and gyms.
Since appearing on Forbes’ annual list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women in 2019, Williams’ net worth has increased by $20 million, from $240 million at the start of the year to $260 million at present.
According to Mr. Seth Terkper, a former finance minister, who was speaking to the media on Saturday as he arrived at the Accra Sports Stadium for the 10th National Delegates Congress of the National Democratic Congress, the announcement of the Staff-Level Agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund has helped the Cedi’s performance against the US dollar (NDC).
“The Government must expedite action on its domestic and external debt restructuring Programme to sustain the gains, he said.
The government announced Tuesday, December 13, 2022, that it had reached a Staff-Level Agreement on a three-year US$3 billion Extended Credit Facility (ECF), with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to support the country’s economic policies and reforms.
The agreement was reached after a visit by the IMF team led by Mr Stéphane Roudet, Mission Chief for Ghana, from December 1 to 13, 2022, to discuss with the Ghanaian authorities IMF support for their policy and reform plans.
The loan support programme is aimed at restoring Ghana’s macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, protect the vulnerable, preserve financial stability, and lay the foundation for strong and inclusive recovery and growth.
However, the staff-level agreement is subject to IMF Management and Executive Board approval and receipt of the necessary financing assurances by Ghana’s partners and creditors.
The member of parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak, has requested that Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta be transparent about the exact cost of implementing the Free SHS policy.
He thus wants Mr Ofori-Atta to report to Ghanaians the same figure he gave to the IMF as the cost of the Free Senior High School policy.
Mr. Ofori-Atta has stated that FSHS policy and other social intervention policies of the government will not be affected by the Staff-Level Agreement agreed on with the International Monetary Fund.
Addressing the media in Accra on December 13, 2022, the Finance Minister indicated that various education programmes including the FSHS will not be cancelled as part of the IMF support programme.
The Minister further stated that the government will be embarking on a review of the FSHS for efficiency.
However, the Finance Minister has been accused of giving different figures regarding the actual amount spent on the flagship programme from 2017 to 2021.
In view of this, the Builsa South lawmaker is requesting Mr. Ofori-Atta to begin his so-called review by discussing the actual figures he mentioned to the IMF.
“Start the review by telling us what figure you (Ken Ofori-Atta) reported to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as cost of implementing Free Senior High School (FSHS) from 2017-2021.
“Is it the 7.62B you reported in the 2021 Mid-Year budget or the 5.3B he reported in the 2022 Mid-Year budget or both?” the MP queried in a tweet on December 14, 2022.
Different Figures Reported As Cost of Free SHS In 5 Years To Parliament And Matters Arising
As it is already known publicly, the NDC in Parliament has filed a motion, sponsored by Hon. Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka and 128 of us – to pass a vote of censure on the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta; in accordance with Article 82 of the 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana.
This historic motion, slated to be moved on Thursday, November 10th, 2022, is composed of seven specific charges levelled against Ken Ofori-Atta. Thus, the purpose of this article, is to provide a specific example of conduct by the Finance Minister which is deliberately dishonest and disrespectful to Parliament, for which sanctions, are justified. I will illuminate my case with figures Mr. Ofori-Atta presented to Parliament in 2021 and 2022 as total cost of funding Free SHS in five years, from 2017-2021. The difference between the cost in five years, reported as GH¢7.62 billion in the 2021 Mid-Year Review Budget and the reported cost for same period, GH¢5.3 billion in the 2022 Mid-Year Review Budget is GH¢2.32 billion. This is and remains problematic. I provide details below.
On Wednesday July 21, 2021, Ken Ofori-Atta, in response to a question as to whether government had taken a loan to fund the implementation of the Free SHS policy I asked, said the following in answer: “Mr Speaker, government has taken no loan to specifically finance the Free SHS policy. The Free SHS has since its inception been financed from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) and from the Government of Ghana (GoG) funding sources. Over the five years, a total amount of GH¢7.62 billion has been allocated to implement the Free SHS programme. Out of this amount, GH¢4.18 billion was sourced from GoG, representing 54.76 percent, while the balance of GH¢ 3.44 billion representing 45.24 percent, came from ABFA.” This answer is captured in the Parliamentary Debates, Official Report, on Wednesday 21st July 2021, Fourth Series Vol.113 No.32, column 040-041.
A few days later, Ken Ofori-Atta presented the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana, to Parliament on Thursday, 29th July, 2021. He repeated what he said in response to my Parliamentary question. In paragraph 284 on pages 49-50, he said: “Mr. Speaker, the Free SHS School Policy has since its inception been financed from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) and Government of Ghana (GoG) funding sources. Over the five years, a total amount of GH¢7.62 billion has been allocated to implement the Free SHS Programme. Out of this amount, GH¢4.18 billion was sourced from GoG, representing 54.76 percent, while the balance of GH¢3.44 billion, representing 45.24 percent, came from ABFA.”
Given, that he repeated the response to my question in the Mid-Year Review Budget of 2021; that “GH¢7.62 billion had been spent to implement the Free SHS programme,” and a further breakdown of “GH¢4.18 billion (54.76%) from GOG sources and GH¢3.44 billion (45.24%) from ABFA,” it came as a shock that he strangely reported GH¢5.3 billion as the total investment made to implement the same Free SHS for the same period, from 2017-2021, in the 2022 Mid-Year Review Budget.
For the avoidance of doubt, Ken Ofori-Atta presented the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana to Parliament on Monday, 25th July, 2022. In paragraph 466 on page 90 of the official statement, Ken Ofori-Atta is quoted as follows: “Mr. Speaker, we have invested in the future of our children through the Free SHS where GH¢5.3 billion has been spent to enable 1,261,495 student have access to secondary education.”
The suddenly less and unexplained cost of funding the Free SHS policy was also verbally stated by Ken Ofori-Atta, during his 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review Speech on Monday, 25th July, 2022. The video recording of his speech captures him vocalise the following, under Free SHS Programme. In paragraph 60 on page 17, Ken Ofori-Atta said: “Mr. Speaker, we have placed human capital development at the core of our national transformation efforts since 2017. We have invested GH¢5.3 billion to enable 1,261,495 Ghanaian children access secondary education under the Free SHS programme at the end of 2021 to improve access to education.”
This unexplained reporting of a far less cost of implementing the Free SHS programme in five years as captured in official Parliamentary records, and documents made available by Ken Ofori-Atta himself to Parliament, offends Parliament in every way, shape and form. How can the Minister report GH¢7.62 billion as the total cost of Free SHS in five years, provide a breakdown in nominal (GH¢4.18 billion GOG and GH¢3.44 billion ABFA) and in percentage terms (54.76% GOG and 45.24% ABFA) in reply to my question, repeat same in the 2021 Mid-Year Review Budget, suddenly, without explanation, report a generic GH¢5.3 billion as the cost incurred in implementing the same Free SHS programme in five years in the 2022 Mid-Year Review Budget Statement and as contained in his 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review speech?
Reporting vastly different figures of GH¢7.62 billion and GH¢5.3 billion as cost of the same programme, Free SHS, for the same period, 2017-2021, a difference of GH¢2.32 billion to Parliament, is questionable. If the earlier figures reported in 2021 were in error, the proper thing to do was to withdraw the GH¢7.62 billion reported, explain what occasioned the error, apologise and seek leave of Parliament to amend to the correct figure, since records of the house already captured GH¢7.62 billion a year earlier as cost of Free SHS in five years. This was not, and still has not been done. So, as it stands, Parliamentary records have both GH¢7.62 billion and GH¢5.3 billion as the cost of Free SHS from 2017 to 2021. This can not be allowed to go unchallenged.
Though I have filed questions to the Minister of Finance seeking an explanation to this questionable and contradictory reported cost of Free SHS in five years, it is necessary to share this specific example with Ghanaians to further justify why Ken Ofori-Atta must be censured. Like the other infractions we have presented as charges against Ken Ofori-Atta, it is certain that the different figures, GH¢7.62 billion and GH¢5.3 billion respectively, were deliberate, to deceive Parliament and to conceal the truth. This and other such deliberate dishonesty in reporting to the people through Parliament must attract the most severe sanctions. Indeed, Ken Must Go!
Dr. Clement Abas Apaak
M.P, Builsa South and Deputy Ranking Member On Education Committee of Parliament
As part of his effort to engage his stakeholders, Prof. Otchere Addai-Mensah, the acting CEO of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), made a courtesy visit to Hon. Sam Pyne, the head of the Kumasi Metro.
The visit was to enable him formally introduce himself as the new CEO of the sole tertiary health facility in the Ashanti Region.
In his remarks, Prof. Addai-Mensah said KATH occupies a unique position in the healthcare delivery system of the country as it is saddled with the burden of treating tertiary healthcare referral needs of about 13 regions in Ghana.
He said with such an arduous responsibility, the hospital will require the support and assistance of all stakeholders to enable it effectively meet the expectations of the public.
“Unlike the Greater Accra Region which can boast of several specialist and referral facilities like Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the Police Hospital, the 37 Military Hospital and University of Ghana Medical Center among others, the same cannot be said of the Ashanti region.
“KATH as a sole tertiary facility serving virtually the same population as Greater Accra will, therefore, require the maximum assistance of all stakeholders including the KMA in order to enhance its capacity to meet the growing specialist healthcare needs of the 13 regions out of the 16regions in the country” he emphasized.
Hon. Sam Pyne expressed confidence in the ability of the new CEO to turn around the fortunes of the hospital. He said KATH was a highly sensitive institution, but he was hopeful that given the caliber of Prof. Addai-Mensah, the hospital will witness a turnaround during his tenure of office. He pledged the readiness of KMA to support the management of the hospital in its drive to improve the operations of the hospital.
Prof.Addai-Mensah was accompanied on the visit by some members of his management team.
The remarks made by President Akufo-Addo against the Wagner group in neighboring Burkina Faso will be investigated by parliament, according to Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu.
“I have information that our Ranking Member of Foreign Affairs, and members on the Foreign Affairs Committee will ask for details briefly to parliament on this reckless, irresponsible, unprofessional statement by the President of our Republic. If he cannot provide us with food, he should not let them bring guns on us as a country,” the Minority Leader said in an address at the NDC’s 10th Delegates Congress ongoing at the Accra Sports Stadium.
He further accused the President of creating foreign policy crisis for Ghana.
“He’s simply failed momentarily to have impulse control and to ensure balance between foreign policy and the security of our state when he openly condemned Burkina Faso and mentioned the Wagner group of Russia.
Burkina Faso summoned the Ghanaian ambassador on Friday morning for “explanations” after Ghana’s president alleged that Burkina Faso had hired the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Burkina Faso’s foreign ministry said.
Speaking to reporters alongside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, Akufo-Addo also alleged that Burkina Faso had offered Wagner a mine as payment.
In a statement issued after the meeting with the ambassador, Burkina Faso’s foreign ministry said it had “expressed disapproval” about the statements made by the Ghanaian president.
“Ghana could have undertaken exchanges with the Burkinabe authorities on the security issue in order to have the right information,” it said.
However, it did not confirm or deny the allegations. In a separate message to Reuters, the foreign ministry spokesperson said, without elaborating: “In any case, Burkina has not called on Wagner”.
Burkina Faso also recalled its ambassador from Ghana for a meeting, the spokesperson said.
Burkinabe authorities have not commented publicly on whether or not they are working with Wagner, a mercenary group that was hired in neighbouring Mali to help fight Islamist militants.
Meanwhile, Security Analyst, Adib Saani has questioned the propriety of the comments made by Ghana’s Leader, Akufo-Addo on the Wagner Group.
Commenting on the fallout from the development, Adib Saani said since independence, Ghana has maintained a non-aligned posture in the global political chess games between the East and the West thus “Our decision not to take sides has helped us gain respect and favor from both sides of the divide.”
He opined “But it’s absolutely demeaning for the President, flanked by his ministers, to sit infront of a Secretary of State to report on Wagner, a group that has not in any way neither threatened to invade Ghana, nor has it done anything that poses any threat to the security of Ghana.”
Saani who is also Head of the Jatikay Centre for Human Security and Peace Building maintained that Burkina Faso is a sovereign country and can decide to call on whoever to help it fight any threat to their nation.
“When Ghana hosted the Americans through the defence cooperation agreement, no country in the sub-region complained. So why does our President make such a mockery of us by going to report on an issue that has nothing to do with us hence, bring us international disrepute,” he questioned.
Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, a candidate for the General Secretary position of the National Democratic has disclosed that he has received congratulatory message from Dr Peter Boamah Otokunor.
Fifi Kwetey in a social media post said that he received a call from Dr Otokunor who wished him well in his new position.
The former Ketu South MP acknowledged the gesture from Dr Otokunor and indicated his readiness to work with him.
“Peter Boamah Otokunor called me a few minutes ago to congratulate me. Very gracious of him. I had earlier told him yesterday that I was proud of his competitive campaigning and I repeated the same this morning. I reassured him of my complete readiness to work closely with him to make our party greater and stronger.”
Though the results are yet to be declared officially by the Electoral Commission, Fifi Kwetey is believed to have won all sixteen regions of the country.
It is expected that Fifi Kwetey will be declared the winner, beating off competition from Dr Otokunor and Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah.
However, he said, the government must provide facts and figures to support the emerging trends in order to assist people make informed decisions.
“The signs are looking good but let us support it with fact,” he told journalists at the Accra Sports Stadium where the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is having its delegates conference on Saturday December 17.
He further told the government to accept blame when things are not going well with the economy and not just blame them on global factors.
“When it so going bad it is global situation but when it is going well it is the government,” he said.
His comments come on the back of positive signs seen with the strength of the Cedi against the Dollar.
The local currency has over the past few days, especially since the start of December 2022, been gaining strength against the major trading currencies particularly, the Dollar.
Per the Bank of Ghana (BoG) rate, the Cedi, as of Thursday December 15, was buying at GHS7.9975 to a Dollar and and selling at GHS8.0056 to a Dollar.
The Ghana Mine Workers’ Union (GWMU) has stated that for the sake of the nation, the government must enhance its stake in the mining sector and forcibly renegotiate current and upcoming contracts.
That, the Union said would help the country to retain greater value of the industry for the benefit of the country and its citizens.
The General Secretary of the GMWU of Trades Union Congress Ghana, Abdul-Moomin, made the call at the two-day National Executive Committee Meeting held in Accra and ended on Friday, expressed worry about the foreign domination of the mining sector and the paltry value the country retains from the sector.
“After over 100 years of mining, Ghana’s mining industry continues to be dominated and controlled by foreign interest with over 99 percent of mining companies being foreign, owning 90 percent of the shares with government left with a paltry 10 percent carrying interest. Without a doubt, the Government of Ghana has since the 80s shied away from the mining sector instead of confronting this sorry narrative of our over-dependence and reliance on a foreign-dominated sector,” he said.
He said after the Structural Adjustment Programme in the 1980s, the government left the mining sector in the control of foreign companies.
Mr Gbana said with the lessons the country had learnt over the years after extricating itself from mining, the government could enter into mining to improve its stake in the sector.
“I believe in running our own mines and/or increasing our stake in these mining companies by forcefully renegotiating existing contracts as well as future contracts in order to create and retain greater value for the citizens of this country,” he said.
Mr Gbana observed that the government over the years had chosen the ‘lazy man’s’ approach of over-relying on a “tax-royalty” fiscal regime, where the only source of its revenue depended on revenue generated from mining companies/activities in the country through taxes and royalties levied on revenue generated from production.
“In fact, on dividend payment, the least said about it the better as the so-called 10 percent government carrying interests only exists on the books as many of these companies scarcely declared any dividends and in a few instances where some do, government’s share has been a minute fraction.
Considering the generous fiscal giveaways (including excessive repatriation of mining revenues by multinational businesses, signing of stability and development agreements, which continues to deny Ghana its fair share of revenue under this so-called tax-royalty fiscal regime, we believe that the time has come for this narrative to change and ought to change quite swiftly, “ he stated.
The GMWU Secretary General added “To change however would require a change in the ownership structure of mineral assets thereby shifting from the aged-long comfort zone of over-dependence and reliance on a tax-royalty regime to active participation and control of production by negotiating/renegotiating a much greater stake in these mining companies in order to create and retain the needed value for the people of Ghana.”
The General Secretary of the Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG), Kwesi Pratt, Jnr, who was the guest speaker, said it was worrying that Ghana, the sixth largest gold producer in the world was wallowing in.
The political atmosphere in the largest opposition party in Ghana, the National Democratic Congress, is charged as the party is set to hold its national executive elections.
The race for the party’s National Chairman position, which is being contested by the current National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, and outgoing General Secretary, Asiedu Nketiah, has become particularly tense, with leading members of the party declaring their support for their preferred candidates.
The 3rd National Vice Chairman of the party, Alhaji Said Sinare, is one of the people who has declared his support for Ofosu-Ampofo.
This is after Alhaji Sinare abandoned his chairmanship ambitions.
In a viral video sighted by GhanaWeb, Alhaji Sinare could be seen leading a group of NDC supporters to sing songs of praises of Ofosu Ampofo.
“Winner eh he hee winner, winner eh he hee winner, Ampofo ego win ooo, winner. Ampofo ego winner again oo, winner.
“The boys are zuzu, the girls are zaza, NDC is good for evermore more,” the group is heard chanting.
The party’s national elections are slated for Saturday, December 17, 2022.
Candidates will be contesting for various positions, including the National Chairman, National Vice-Chairmen, General Secretary, Deputy General Secretary, National Organiser, Deputy National Organiser, and the National Treasurer and Deputy National Treasurer.
Others are the National Communications Officer and Deputy, as well as the National Zongo Caucus Coordinator.
The current National Chairman of the party, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, is expected to face stiff competition from the outgoing General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, for the chairmanship position.
Director of Legal Affairs for the New Patriotic Party, Gary Nimako, has called on former president John Dramani Mahama to, as a matter of urgency, render an apology to Ghanaians on the 2020 election petition.
The outspoken lawyer asserts that the former presidential candidate for the NDC’s 2020 general election wasted state resources on an election petition without facts.
Gary Nimako added that Mahama and the NDC caucus knew they had no evidence but accused the court of being biased against them during the election petition.
“Post-election case, there have been comments here and there that the judges have been biased against them. When, indeed, you know from day one that you have no evidence at all.
“With this revelation having come out to the public domain, I think Ghanaians deserve an apology from the NDC. Especially from former President Mahama to apologise to Ghanaians and the court because if they knew from day one that in fact, they had no evidence at all…Yet they managed to go to court with the hope that they could get Jean Mensa to mount the witness box and cross-examine her.
“They really misled Ghanaians and their supporters, and the way they treated the court. They have to eat the humble pie and apologise,” he told Ernest Kojo Manu on Joy FM’s Top Story on Wednesday.
Lawyer Nimako’s demand follows a leaked tape in which the general secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, revealed that the party did not have enough evidence to contest the 2020 general election results.
In the said tape, Asiedu Nketiah is heard telling party supporters why the director of IT failed to electronically compile the documentation the party required to challenge the results of the presidential election.
The NDC filed an election petition after the 2020 general election accusing the Electoral Commission of stealing the election results for the NPP.
They alleged that NPP won the polls through vote padding, arithmetic and computational errors.
However, the Supreme Court gave the final verdict in favour of President Akufo-Addo and ruled that the NDC had no basis for the petition.
The current National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the opposition party, Joshua Akamba, has urged party delegates to support national executives who are running for re-election.
According to him, the election of George Opare Addo and Dr. Hannah Bissiw as National Youth Organiser and National Women Organiser, respectively, are indications that the delegates appreciate the work done by the current executives prior to the 2020 general elections.
Joshua Akamba explained that his sterling performance as the National Organizer has helped the NDC attain equal seats in parliament with the majority, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He added that with his help, the party has been able to shore up the electoral deficit in the country.
This, he added, was also because he personally bought pickup trucks for regional organizers of the party, as well as lobbying for motorcycles for all 275 constituency organisers to enable them to campaign for the party.
Speaking in an interview with Kumasi-based Oyerepa TV, Joshua Akamba said that a vote against him would be an injustice to the party.
“The delegates won’t make that mistake.
“The delegates are discerning, and they believe in experience. Now, Opare Addo has won. Hanna Bissiw has won. Elorm, who is an old person, has won, so it should tell you that people want us to win power for us to salvage this country, and they won’t make the mistake of changing us.
“The delegates know that the strategies of the party gave us equal numbers in parliament. The devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know. That is exactly what I am telling the people—that I am the devil they know and I am better than the angel they don’t know,” he told host Kwesi Parker-Wilson of the Oyerepa Breakfast Show.
Joshua Akamba further stated that the work of a national organizer is not on Facebook or WhatsApp, arguing that his contenders who have taken their campaign and work to social media lack appreciation for the work they are vying for.
He assured the delegates that he would continue to work assiduously to ensure victory for the party in 2024.
The government has been asked to establish agricultural laboratories in rural areas so that smallholder farmers can access services for soil testing.
Professor Osei-Agyeman Yeboah, Lecturer at the North Carolina Agriculture and Technical University, who made the call, said the move would help improve farming and smallholder farmers’ access to recommendations on the best crops for their soil and the best local fertilizer recipes for good harvests.
He gave the advice during USDA-NIFA Projects outreach event for farmers at Sanpebga in the Kumbungu District to showcase the best technologies to increase productivity, food security, and nutritional health benefits in the Northern Region.
It was organized by CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute and supported by North Carolina Agriculture and Technical University and the University of Maryland East Shore.
It was on feed harvesting, silage preparation, good livestock husbandry practices, commentary feeding, crop residue management, and compost preparation, and was conducted at the farm level to create awareness of integrated soil fertility management strategies, compost preparation, farm residue recycling, intercropping and improved varieties.
Professor Yeboah, who is also the Project Leader for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Project, said, “Soil is a critical part of thriving agriculture, which provides the necessary nutrients for crop growth. However, not all soils are suitable for growing crops.”
He said regular soil testing could help improve soil health, which was typically inaccessible and too expensive for smallholder farmers.
He stated that mostly the small farmers had limited access to correct information to remedy deficiencies leading to incorrect or insufficient agro-input use that adversely affected soil health, productivity, and local ecosystems.
To address littering and other related sanitation issues in the city, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has started the “Street Sweepers” initiative.
The initiative which is being supported by sports betting company BetPawa and headline sponsor of the Ghana Premier League would see the deployment of 200 personnel to sweep four major ceremonial streets namely; John Evans Atta Mills High Street, Asafoatse Nettey Road, Kinbu Gardens through Octagon to Kinbu Gardens, and Circle to Kaneshie 1st Light.
The sweepers who will be working in two shifts of 12 hours, from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day would be supported by officers of the Public Health Department of AMA to enforce the sanitation bye-laws.
Speaking at the launch at the forecourt of the AMA on Wednesday, December 14, the Chief Executive of AMA, Elizabeth Sackey, said the initiative was not a duplication of “Operation Clean Your Frontage” which was launched by the Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, in June 2020 to encourage people to take responsibility for keeping their properties clean, especially their frontages but to complement it.
She assured that the sweepers would be motivated whilst calling on all stakeholders especially the hawkers and traders to police their immediate environs to support this exercise.
She disclosed that the City of Accra generates over 1,800 tonnes of waste daily, adding that to address the problem, over 300 sanitary offenders had been successfully prosecuted from January to date.
“The City of Accra alone generates waste of over 1,800 tonnes daily, the highest in the country so far. Unfortunately, most of these wastes are not properly disposed of thereby creating serious health issues for the citizens… To address this, over 300 sanitary offenders, from January to date, have been successfully prosecuted and heavy fines placed on them to serve as a deterrent to others, ” she said.
She said plans were far advanced to establish a sanitation court within the AMA’s jurisdiction to deal with issues of sanitation and related offences.
She also noted that the Assembly was undertaking other initiatives to improve sanitation within the city citing a Source Separation and Compost Project aimed at diverting 50 per cent of municipal solid waste from the landfill in line with the Accra Climate Action Plan, a Zero Waste Street Project, distribution of special poly bags to street hawkers and traders to control littering within the Central Business District (CBD) among others.
“In the coming year some of the informal waste workers and migrants will be enrolled on to the NHIS and provided with protective clothing under the Assembly’s collaboration with the Mayor’s Migration Council,” she said.
She also used the opportunity to call on stakeholders to come on board to scale up the initiative and urged other sister Assemblies to join hands with AMA to make Greater Accra the cleanest in Africa as envisioned by His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo.
Head of PR and Sponsorship at betPawa, Nii Armah Ashong-Katai, noted that their collaboration with AMA was to achieve the company’s mission of empowering people by providing opportunities to change their lives.
“There is no simpler or more powerful way to change millions of lives for the better than by improving sanitation,” he said.
BetPawa contributed 200 coats, 100 raincoats, and 100 waste bins to the launch of Sweepers on the Street.
Present at the launch were representatives of religious bodies, the Ghana Tourism Authority, the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, security agencies, Heads of Department and Staff of AMA, Market queen mothers, and a team from the South Korean Environment Ministry.
On December 19, the son of Chinese galamsey kingpin En Huang, Aisha Huang, will make his second appearance in court.
The Criminal Division of the Accra High Court had remanded Huang Lei, the son of Aisha Huang, to the Nsawam Medium security prison.
He is standing trial together with another Chinese national, Huang Haihua for remaining in Ghana after the expiration of permits, possession of ammunition without lawful authority and possession of forged official documents.
Their lawyer Frank Kumakoh, had accused the prosecution of levelling charges unsustainable by the facts available.
He said he will be presenting a formal bail application before the Court for consideration.
Counsel also informed the court that the accused persons would change their plea on the immigration charges at the next sitting.
But the prosecution led by Hilda Craig on their first appearance on November 24, prayed the Court to commit the accused persons to the Nsawam Medium security prison while the case proceeded.
Justice Lydia Osei Marfo upon hearing the arguments remanded Huang Lei and Huang Haihua into the Nsawam prisons.
The Court also directed the Ghana Prison service to produce the accused persons to the Court on the appointed dates for their trial.
The court also ordered both the prosecution and defence to file all relevant documents for the trial.
The case which was originally adjourned to December 13, 2022, for case management has now been deferred to December 19.
Two persons have been shot to death while many others have suffered injuries of varying degrees following a confrontation between certain members of the Dzekle Royal Family and the stool father of the Battor Traditional region in the North Tongu District.
The shooting incident happened after the destoolment of the paramount chief of the Battor Traditional area.
The Paramount Chief of the Battor Traditional Area in the Volta Region, Togbe Patamia Dzekley VII, was destooled on November 27, 2022, by the stool father, Zikpitor Korsi Hottor, after it was alleged that the paramount chief had breached customs and traditions of the Battor Traditional Area.
But during a gathering to process for the firing of musketry in the Battor township ahead of a festival, supporters of the destooled paramount chief clashed with some supporters of the stool father resulting in two deaths and several persons being injured.
A resident, Charles Hottor, speaking to Citi News said the police must beef up security in Battor.
“If the police were on the street of Battor, I don’t think that lives would have been lost. They would have calmed them. They would have actually stopped people from shooting and killing each other.”
Captain Smart of Onua TV literally sacked former Member of Parliament for Kumbugu, Ras Mubarak from his show after nearly two minutes of a verbal altercation.
A video of the incident making rounds on social media captures Ras Mubarak complaining to Captain Smart over what he deemed to be noise and interference from a makeup artist in the studio.
Ras Mubarak sought to bring Captain Smart’s attention to what he estimated to be snide remarks from the lady in question expecting that she will be silenced to allow him make his point.
Interestingly, however, Captain Smart objected to Ras Mubarak’s call, questioning why he will pay attention to the staff instead of focusing on the show.
Ras Mubarak clarified that the said negative comments from the lady were putting him off balance and affecting his flow of thought.
Captain Smart, instead slammed Ras Mubarak for not ‘respecting’ the seat he occupied. According to Captain Smart, if Ras Mubarak respected the program, he would have ignored the lady’s remark and continued with his submission.
Dismayed by Captain Smart’s angry posture, Ras Mubarak then continued his protest of the state of affairs and insisted something be done about the lady’s conduct.
Captain Smart, at a point appeared to have yelled, at him and questioned why he was still in the seat if he was unhappy with the attitude of the lady.
The exchanges continued and Captain Smart eventually ordered Ras Mubarak to leave the set and called for a break.
The police have reportedly detained a 21-year-old woman who is accused of dumping her three-month-old infant at Beahu in the Ahanta West Municipality of the Western Region.
Ama Tawiah allegedly abandoned the three months old baby boy on a footpath near a bush in the farming community of Beahu about two days ago.
It was gathered that the mother, who does not hail from the farming community after committing the alleged crime boarded a car and left the area.
According to sources, later in the same day, some women who were going to the bush to look for some firewood found the baby wrapped in a cloth crying in the scorching sun, and quickly went and rescued him.
The case was subsequently reported to the police and the little baby was later handed over to the Department of Social Welfare.
The Social Welfare Department made announcements at some radio stations about the baby and the need for the mother to report to the outfit.
According to reports, the 21-year-old Ama Tawiah later reported herself and wanted to claim her baby.
DGN learned that the woman confessed to abandoning the baby and explained that it was because the father refused to accept the pregnancy and her inability to take care of the baby.
She has been detained by the police as investigation to determine whether Ama Tawiah is truly the mother of the baby commences.
AU Farouk, a representative of the main opposition NDC from the Northern Region, has passed on.
The popular serial caller to most radio and television morning shows across the country is said to have collapsed at the University of Ghana where most delegates have been lodging for the Congress.
His mortal remains have since been taken back to Tamale for burial.
NDC’s 10th National Congress
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) will today, Saturday, December 17, 2022 elect national executives for the party.
The party is moving at least 9,000 delegates to the Accra Sports Stadium from various constituencies to partake in the congress.
The key race to watch in the NDC polls is the national chairmanship position between the incumbent Chair, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the incumbent General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, and former Member of Parliament, Nii Armah Ashiety, and Samuel Yaw Adusei.
Incumbent Chairman, Ofosu Ampofo will be facing a formidable challenge from General Secretary, Asiedu Nketiah in a high-stakes election. The two frontrunners are poised to put forth a fierce battle to secure a win after working hard for the party.
Meanwhile, an amount of GH₵1,083,000 was generated through the party’s fundraising appeal to finance the 10th national congress scheduled for today December 17, 2022 at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Below is the list of candidates vying for various positions:
CHAIRMAN
SAMUEL YAW ADUSEI
JOHNSON ASEIDU NKETIA
SAMUEL OFOSU AMPOFO
NII ARMAH ASHIETEY
ELVIS AFRIYIE ANKRAH
FIFI FIAVI KWETEY
DR. PETER BOAMAH OTOKUNOR
DEPUTY GENERAL SECRETARY
FRANCIS LANME GURIBE
CATHERINE DEYNU
BARBARA SERWAA ASAMOAH
GBANDE FOYO MUSTAPHA
KWAME ZU
BRADI PAUL OPATA
EVANS AMOO
NATIONAL ORGANIZER
JOSHUA HAMIDU AKAMBA
HENRY OSEI AKOTO
MAHDI MOHAMMED GIBRILL
SIDII ABUBAKARI
SOLOMON YAW NKANSAH
CHIEF HAMILTON BINEY NIXON
JOSEPH YAMMIN
DEPUTY NATIONAL ORGANIZER
KOBBY BARLON
HABIB MOHAMMED TAHIRU
ELIKEM ERIC KEVIN KWAME KOTOKO
ALHAJI YAW KUNDOW
COMMUNICATION OFFICER
SAMMY GYAMFI
DEPUTY COMMUNICATION OFFICER
GODWIN AKO GUNN
ADONGO ATULE JACOB
MALIK BASINTALE
KWAKU BOAHEN ANTHONY
MOHAMMED NAZIRU
ZONGO CAUCUS CO-ORDINATOR-
ABASS ZULKARNAIN KAMBARI
HON. ALHAJI BABANLAMIE ABU SADAT
MAMAH MOHAMMED COLE YOUNGER
ABDUL-AZIZ MOHAMMED
YAKUBU MAHMUD MUDI
NEC MEMBERS
EPHRAIM NII TAN SACKEY
PEREZ FERNANDEZ ARMAH LARYEA
ISSAHAKU ISSAH ADEL
REV. IRENE SENA AGBLEKE
ABDULLAH FARRAKHAN ISHAQ
MALIK ADAMA
VICTORIA KUMA-MINTAH
EMMANUEL EWOENAM YAO ADZOME-DZOKANDA
CECILIA N. ASAGA
EBENEZER EFFAH HACKMAN
NAJAWA ALHAJI ISSAH
STEPHEN LADZEDO
ANITA ANNAN
RANSFORD CHATMAN VANNI-AMOAH
THOMAS AYISI KUMAH
WONDER VICTOR KUTOR
MOHAMMED MAMUDU
ARABA TAGOE
FAMOUS KWESI KUADUGAH
The vice president, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has lauded the enormous, cooperative advancements made under the umbrella of the UK-Ghana Business Council (UKGBC) since its founding in 2018.
Speaking at the 7th session of the Council at the Jubilee House, Accra, Dr Bawumia expressed delight that six years down the line, his vision for the Council – to reduce trade barriers and enhance cooperation between the Governments of Ghana and the United Kingdom – had led to the funding of major infrastructure projects across the country through UK Export Financing.
“I have been so impressed with the accomplishments that have been made over the last six years under the UKGBC. If you look at the projects, in the area of infrastructure for instance, they have been quite significant. The Kumasi International Airport easily comes to mind; the Tamale Airport as well.
“You have the Eastern Regional Hospital which is ongoing, [reconstruction and modernization of the 44-Year old] Maternity and Children’s Block at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. You have Aqua Africa Limited which is supplying critical water to 16 towns across the country; Obetsebi Lamptey Interchange Phase II, Kejetia Market Phase II, equipping of the Bekwai Hospital, and the Tema-Aflao highway, which is really key and many more.
“I think there has been significant progress made under the UK-Ghana Business Council, its setting up makes a lot of sense, and I’m glad that we are continuing in the same spirit of cooperation and partnership between the UK and Ghana. There is a solid record of accomplishment thus far,” he stated.
“I would like to thank the UK Government for the support it continues to offer Ghana and the cooperation that we are seeing from the private sector, the investments that are taking place here, and look forward to working together especially as we chart new ground in the area of climate change,” he added.
Accompanied by Baroness Kate Hoey, UK Trade Envoy to Ghana, and Ms Harriet Thompson, UK High Commissioner to Ghana, Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell, UK Minister of State for Development and Africa acknowledged the important role the UKGBC has played in deepening relations between the two countries, and pledged his country’s commitment to even deeper cooperation.
“I know from my Ministerial colleagues including Penny Mordaunt and Vickie Ford who chaired the last session in London in May, just what a central role the UK Ghana Business Council has played in deepening our bilateral relationship, increasing trade and investment, building partnerships, creating jobs, supporting sustainable growth and building mutual, shared prosperity.
“By focusing on a set of priority sectors, UKGBC has helped us target the areas that we can collectively make the biggest difference. I am delighted that today we will be able to hear about progress across those sectors, in particular in the auto and energy sectors; I had a chance this morning to visit the auto sector to see for myself what is going on,” he emphasized.
Africa’s billionaires saw their wealth increase significantly in 2021, similar to the previous year, despite the long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on business activities and the operations of companies and financial assets controlled by these ultra-wealthy individuals during the year.
According to Forbes, 18 of these individuals had a net worth of $84.9 billion at the end of 2021, which is 15-percent or $4.7 billion more than their combined net worth of $73.8 billion at the end of 2020.
Billionaires such as Aliko Dangote and Abdul Samad Rabiu have seen their wealth increase by more than $1 billion since the beginning of the year, while Natie Kirsh, Johann Rupert, and Mohammed Al Amoudi have seen their wealth decrease by more than $200 million.
This is how they stand as at January 25, 2022.
#1 Aliko Dangote
Net worth: $20.4 billion
Nationality: Nigerian
For the eleventh year in a row, Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote remains the continent’s richest man, with a net worth of $20.4 billion derived from his stake in Dangote Cement Plc, Africa’s largest cement manufacturer.
So far in 2021, the billionaire’s net worth has increased by more than $1.3 billion due to an increase in the share price of his flagship company, Dangote Cement Plc, as investors react to news of the leading cement maker’s planned share buy back program.
#2 Johann Rupert
Net worth: $11.4 billion
Nationality: South African
Johann Rupert, South Africa’s richest man, ranks as the continent’s second-richest man with a net worth of $11.4 billion. The billionaire saw his wealth rise by $3.88 billion in 2021 as shares in his Luxury goods holding company, Richemont, increased by more than 60-percent during the year.
His net worth has dropped by $565 million since the beginning of the year as investors profit from Richemont shares.
#3 Nicky Oppenheimer
Net worth: $8.18 billion
Nationality: South African
Nicky Oppenheimer, who formerly ran diamond mining firm DeBeers before selling it to mining firm Anglo-American a decade ago, has a net worth of $8.18 billion, making him the third-richest man in Africa and the second-richest man in South Africa.
The majority of his fortune is held in private equity investments in Africa, Asia, the United States, and Europe through London-based Stockdale Street and Johannesburg-based Tana Africa Capital.
His net worth has increased by $225 million since the beginning of the year, owing to the revaluation of his private equity investments.
#4 Natie Kirsh
Net worth: $7.68 billion
Nationality: Emaswati
Nathan “Natie” Kirsh of Swaziland is the fourth-richest man in Africa, with a fortune of $7.68 billion at the time of writing. Kirsh made his fortune through his ownership of Kirsh Group, a closely held conglomerate that owns a majority stake in the food supply company Jetro Holdings.
So far in 2021, Kirsh’s net worth has dropped by more than $595 million, or 7.2 percent, as a result of a drop in the valuation of his private equity investments.
#5 Abdul Samad Rabiu
Net worth: $7.5 billion
Nationality: Nigerian
With a net worth of $7.5 billion, Abdul Samad Rabiu, the founder of one of Africa’s fastest growing manufacturing conglomerates, BUA Group, ranks as the fifth-richest man in Africa and the second-richest man in Nigeria.
The majority of the billionaire’s wealth comes from his 97 percent stake in his cement company, BUA Cement Plc, while the recent increase in his net worth to $7.5 billion was driven by the recent listing of his consolidated food business, BUA Foods.
#6 Mike Adenuga
Net worth: $6.7 billion
Nationality: Nigerian
Mike Adenuga, the founder of Nigerian telecom company Globacom Limited and majority owner of Nigeria’s pioneer petroleum marketer, Conoil Plc ranks as the third-richest man in Nigeria and the sixth richest on the continent of Africa.
As of press time, January 25, his wealth is valued at $6.7 billion thanks to the valuation of his interest in Globacom Limited, Nigeria’s third-largest telecom service provider.
#7 Mohammed Al Amoudi
Net worth: $6.45 billion
Nationality: Ethiopian
Mohammed Al Amoudi is the richest man in Ethiopia and the seventh-richest man in Africa, with a net worth of $6.45 billion.
The majority of the Ethiopian billionaire’s wealth is derived from his industrial assets in Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Morocco, as well as his stake in Svenska Petroleum Exploration, Preem, Sweden’s largest oil refiner, and a 67 percent stake in Samir, Morocco’s sole oil refiner.
#8 Nassef Sawiris
Net worth: $6.29 billion
Nationality: Egyptian
Egypt’s richest man and a scion of Egypt’s richest family Nassef Sawiris ranks as the eighth-richest man in Africa with a wealth of $6.29 billion at the time of drafting this report.
The majority of the Sawiris’ $6.29 billion fortune stems from his stake in Dutch fertilizer producer OCI N.V. and his 3.72 percent stake in German sportswear manufacturer Adidas.
#9 Issad Rebrab
Net worth: $5.1 billion
Nationality: Algerian
Issad Rebrab, the founder and CEO of Cevital and Algeria’s richest man, is the ninth-richest man in Africa, with a fortune of $5.1 billion derived from his business interest in Cevital Group.
Cevital Group is Algeria’s largest privately held company, and it owns one of the world’s largest sugar refineries, capable of producing 2 million tonnes of refined sugar per year.
#10 Naguib Sawiris
Net worth: $3.4 billion
Nationality: Egyptian
With a fortune of $3.4 billion, Naguib Sawiris, the elder brother of Egypt’s richest man, Nassef Sawiris, is the second-richest man in Egypt and the tenth-richest man in Africa.
The billionaire amassed his fortune after selling Orascom Telecom to Russian telecom firm VimpelCom (now Veon) in a multibillion-dollar transaction in 2011. He is currently a shareholder in Orascom TMT Investments and Ora Developers, a real estate developer.
The Officers and men dressed in anti-riot security gear were heavily equipped with modern riot control gadgets including batons, shields, riot vehicles, ambulances and other intelligence equipment.
They are to provide security for the congress at the Accra Sports Stadium as the party elects its national executives for the next four years.
Over 9,000 delegates take turns to cast their votes for the preferred candidates for the various positions.
With the National Women and Youth Organizers elections out of the way and Sammy Gyamfi’s National Communications Officer as the only contender, there are still nine positions up for grabs with over 62 candidates vying for those slots.
As with elections of this nature, some positions have been earmarked as the most keenly contested owing to the persons involved; this includes the national chairmanship race, General Secretary, National Organiser among others.
Even before the ballot has been cast at the 10th Delegates of the National Democratic Congress(NDC), there already seems to be some signs of intimidation as is evident in most elections of the nature.
The opposition party will on Saturday December 17, 2022 hold its conference at the Accra Sports Stadium and will have over 9000 delegates take turns to cast their votes for the preferred candidates for the various positions.
Ahead of the event, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah who is aspiring to contest the General Secretary position of the party has shared an image of the what seems to be a dead pigeon which he says was thrown into his compound on Saturday morning.
In a post shared via his WhatsApp status, he alleged that persons seeking to contest him were responsible for throwing the dead pigeons into the compound of his home.
“The stupid idiots who think they have lost think they can shake us. Woke up and felt like going outside immediately before the children woke up and saw 2 pigeons tied and what the necks cut and thrown into the compound,” he wrote.
In another separate message on the development, the NDC Director of Elections wrote; “This is what the stupid idiots who’ve lost threw into the compound o, can you imagine? Into God’s house, hahaha their defeat is sure in Jesus name and they shall receive death by the wrath of God.
Suspected armed robbers have shot and killed a 40-year-old physically challenged farmer at Branam, a farming community in the Wenchi Municipality of the Bono Region.
The body of the deceased, Yaw Takwa, has been deposited at the Wenchi Methodist Hospital for preservation and autopsy.
During a visit to the area on Friday, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) learned the sad incident happened on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, around 1100 hours.
The shooting and subsequent death have created fear and panic among residents, mostly farmers.
The incident happened between the Branam and Subinso stretch of the Wenchi-Bamboi highway when the robbers stormed and robbed market women on their way to the Subinso market.
Speaking in an interview with the GNA, Mr. Benjamin Ander, the Unit Committee Chairman of the Branam Electoral Area said a police patrol team had information about the robbery, rushed to the scene, and exchanged bullets with the robbers.
At the time, the deceased and his wife were working on their farm when they heard gunshots, so he left the farm to ascertain the cause of the gunshot.
“His wife waited for him at the farm and when she realized the deceased had kept long, she followed up and discovered him lying in a pool of blood, a few meters away,” Mr. Ander stated.
He expressed worry that armed robberies were common on that particular stretch, especially on Wednesdays, being market days at Subinso, and appealed to the Police to beef up and intensify security patrols on the highway.
The Finance Ministry is planning to resolve a 16-Month unpaid wage for the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, according to Kwame Anyimadu Antwi, chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs.
“But Mr. Speaker, all our reports et al are physically ready for laying. What the minority leader says is good that he has his ears on the ground, because at the committee level, we invited the minister for finance and he was represented by no mean person, by the chief Director and we have resolved the issue. Mr. Speaker, Hon Haruna will agree with me, that once the issue he is talking about is already cooperating in the report, he must not be in a rush to actually talk about it when we have not made the report,” he said.
The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu revealed that the Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng had not been paid for 16 months.
He said he is baffled by this development and demanded answers from the government. This followed concerns over the allocation for the Office of the Special Prosecutor in the 2023 Budget which had been deemed as woefully inadequate.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu raised the concern ahead of the presentation of the Annual Budget estimates report of the Office of Special Prosecutor for the year 2023 by the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament.
“Office of Special Prosecutor, you put that man there you haven’t determined his condition of service. He hasn’t been paid. Some appointments have been done which raise questions as to whether the board was aware or not. We have to probe further the happenings at the Special Prosecutor. He hasn’t been paid for 16 months, and you are coming to me for a report. Meanwhile, no report has been laid here,” Mr. Iddrisu said.
Aspiring National Democratic Congress (NDC) National Organizer Mahdi Jibril argues that the best person for the job is someone who is well versed in the scientific approach to work and the data of electoral processes.
He believes there is no link between being the national organiser of the party and being physically fit.
“Being a national organizer has nothing to do with physique. People are of the notion that if you want to be a national organiser, you need to be well-built but they forget the position of the organizer is not about carrying timber and logs at the office. It is about the scientific approach to the work and the data. You are working with the voter register and the party register, and if you don’t understand the dynamics of this, then you will lose the election,” Mahdi Jibril exclusively told Boama Darko Isaac on Accra-based Original TV.
“You must be a credible organizer who can be trusted by all and is knowledgeable about electoral issues.”
Being the current deputy organizer of the party, he asserts that an organizer must be able to protect the ballot after voting and not only focus on getting people to turn up to vote. “The organizer must have electoral and research understanding, being abreast of electoral dynamics as well.”
Having shown direction and dedication in his capacity as a deputy national Organiser, Mahdi Jibril believes the party is deficient in organization and pledges to resolve that, leading the NDC to achieve victory in election 2024.
The Government of Burkina Faso has reportedly recalled its ambassador to Ghana over President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s accusations that the country is hiring Russian mercenaries.
According to security analyst Adib Saani, who disclosed this to GhanaWeb, the Burkinabe government has also summoned Ghana’s ambassador to Burkina Faso to answer questions about President Akufo Addo‘s comments.
BBC Journalist Lalla Sy, who confirmed the move by the Burkinabe government, said that Burkina’s ambassador to Ghana was recalled for consultation over President Akufo-Addo’s accusations.
Lalla Sy, in a report on the BBC website, on December 16, 2022, said that Ghana’s ambassador to Burkina Faso was summoned for a meeting on Friday morning over the allegations Akufo-Addo made.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on the US government to help deal with the threat of Russian mercenaries on Ghana’s border with Burkina Faso.
According to the president, Ghana’s security apparatus has noticed the activities of these Russian mercenaries along its borders in the north who have been contracted by the Burkinabe government.
Addressing officials of the US government, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, at a meeting in Washington, Akufo-Addo said that the Burkinabe government had contracted these mercenaries to help them fight Islamic militants in their country and is paying them by giving them a mining concession.
“I think that beyond everything, there is a matter that I want to urge upon you. Today, Russian mercenaries are on our northern border. Burkina Faso has now entered into an arrangement to go along with Mali in employing the Wagner forces there.
“I believe a mine in southern Burkina has been allocated to them as a form of payment for their services. Prime minister of Burkina Faso in the last 10 days has been in Moscow. And to have them operating on our northern border is particularly distressing for us in Ghana,” he said.
The sixteen months’ salary owing to Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng, according to anti-corruption activist Vitus Azeem, poses a significant corruption risk.
The Minority in Parliament alleged that per documents available to them, the Special Prosecutor has not drawn a salary since he was sworn into office on August 5, 2021.
Speaking to Starr News, Vitus Azeem said this is a corruption risk that has to be addressed with the utmost urgency.
“I’m not surprised but it’s very unfortunate, what will be the reason? You appoint somebody and give the person an appointment letter and fix the person’s salary and for sixteen months you are not paying the person and you expect the person to be going to work. Is it that the salary has not been determined or there’s no money to pay? It is unfortunate but I’m not surprised because this is not the first time it is happening. We even have ministers coming out and saying we have not been paid, why it is so, I don’t understand. How do you expect the person to survive?
He added: “It is a corruption risk because if I don’t have money to spend and I have to pay my child’s school fees and then somebody comes to offer me money in the morning, I would be tempted to take it. So if the government is serious about the fight against corruption then it needs to do something about that practice.”
The Transport Ministry has asked commuters to anticipate lower transportation costs on Monday.
The announcement comes after a significant reduction in fuel prices.
Diesel is likely to be sold at GH¢15 per litre in the next pricing window on Friday, December 16, 2022, while the price of petrol is expected to drop further.
Deputy Transport Minister, Hassan Tampuli, in an interview with Citi News, said his outfit is negotiating for a margin that will be fair to both passengers and transport operators.
“We understand that the fares will definitely come down. It is the margin of reduction that we are still negotiating. We are waiting for the next pricing window on Friday [December 16, 2022].
“So when the new prices are announced, we will see the clearest picture and we will see the percentage margin for the reduction of fares. We do not have the full picture until the window opens on Friday. Hopefully, by Monday, the general public should see a reduction in transport fares”.
On his part, the General Secretary of the Ghana Private Road and Transport Union (GPRTU), Godfred Abulbire, assured the citizenry that some downward adjustments to transport fares will be announced soon.
“Once the fuel prices have come down, the fares will be reduced. The reduction is obvious. Fare increment is not in the interest of anybody.
“Today, what we have discussed is to arrive at the margin for reduction that the general public and operators will equally be satisfied with. So on, Monday, we will conclude on the actual margin,” Mr Abulbire assured.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on the US government to help deal with the threat of Russian mercenaries on Ghana’s border with Burkina Faso.
According to the president, Ghana’s security apparatus has noticed the activities of these Russian mercenaries along its borders in the north who have been contracted by the Burkinabe government.
Addressing officials of the US government, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, at a meeting in Washington, Akufo-Addo said that the Burkinabe government had contracted these mercenaries to help them fight Islamic militants in their country and is paying them by giving them a mining concession.
“I think that beyond everything, there is a matter that I want to urge upon you. Today, Russian mercenaries are on our northern border. Burkina Faso has now entered into an arrangement to go along with Mali in employing the Wagner forces there.
“I believe a mine in southern Burkina has been allocated to them as a form of payment for their services. Prime minister of Burkina Faso in the last 10 days has been in Moscow. And to have them operating on our northern border is particularly distressing for us in Ghana,” he said.
Akufo-Addo also stated that Ghana was against Russia’s occupation of Ukraine and the use of African countries as training grounds for foreign powers, particularly Russia.
“Apart from not accepting the idea of great powers once again making Africa their theater of operation, we have a particular position that you know about over the Ukraine war, where we have been very, very vocal and up front about condemning the invasion of Ukraine by Russia,” he said.
The National Communications Director for the opposition National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi, has denied being the owner of a multi-million dollar property in East Legon Hills.
Sammy Gyamfi was recently in the news for reportedly acquiring a fleet of cars and building the said mansion in the plush East Legon Hills area.
Some of his critics have questioned his source of income following the report.
But speaking in an interview on Onua TV, Sammy Gyamfi denied the reports.
“I am not the owner of any of those houses…” Mr Gyamfi said in an interview on Accra-based Onua TV on Wednesday morning (Dec. 14, 2022).
On the issue of him owning a fleet of cars, Sammy Gyamfi said he only owns a single Toyota Land Cruiser V8, which was gifted to him by an admirer of former President John Dramani Mahama.
The national communications officer said whiles has been a benefactor of many benevolent persons, he has never been a thief.
George Opare Addo, the NDC’s re-elected National Youth Organiser, has been quoted as criticizing Sammy Gyamfi over the alleged mansion.
Opare Addo, who was calling out Sammy Gyamfi for openly campaigning for his competitor in the party’s recently held youth elections, questioned his revenue source.
Meanwhile, former President John Dramani Mahama has called for a truce between the two party officials, who have been engaged in a series of media spats.
The Deputy National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edem Agbana, has stated that there is no way the General Secretary of the party, Asiedu Nketiah, will apologise for speaking the truth.
Reacting to the recently leaked audio of the General Secretary, the young NDC executive member said that there is nothing new in what was said there.
He insisted that everything General Mosquito said in that audio is public knowledge and that even ahead of the 2020 election petition at the Supreme Court, it was made clear that the NDC did not have collated results to present in the court.
“What exactly was in the audio that was a top secret? When he was going to court, he was asked where his results were and he said he did not them available and that he was there to contest the results as declared by the Electoral Commission, and so if he comes to say we did not have collated results, what is so secretive about it?
“Everybody knows that we were not carrying our collated results and so he (Asiedu Nketiah) is working with the truth, and we know that our party members are seeing the things that are going on and they know that General loves to speak the truth and it can never affect our chances,” he said.
Speaking to the morning show host on Kumasi-based Oyerepa TV, Kwesi Parker-Wilson, ahead of the NDC’s national delegates congress, scheduled for Saturday, December 17, 2022, Edem Agbana said that being the typical truthful person he is, Asiedu Nketiah will never apologise.
He added that it is for this reason that he believes the delegates of the party will give their vote to him at the congress.
“In fact, if that audio has done anything, it has rather come to boost the morale of the NDC people to believe that General is someone who, even when things were so terrible, he sacrificed himself, went forward to go and testify; because of the NDC.
“Apologise for what? For speaking the truth? What should General apologise for; for speaking the truth? It is public knowledge and General will not apologise for speaking the truth,” he stated.
Asiedu Nketiah has indicated his intention to challenge the incumbent National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, for his position, after declaring that he will no longer contest for the General Secretary slot.
General Mosquito has been the NDC’s General Secretary for the last 17 years.
The Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons says government should be worried about the wild swings in the Exchange Rate.
“Volatility of this type is a sign of fever not recovery,” Simons tweeted on Thursday.
There is some jubilation on the streets as the Ghana Cedi surges against the dollar.
Bright Simons maintained “The people deserve this happiness after the stress of recent months.”
He also observed that the most intriguing thing about this trend, if it continues, is that “speculation becomes super-risky (if you sell, you will struggle to buy). This reduces turnover & suppress liquidity further reinforcing the trend.”
Interbank exchange rates announced by the central bank on Friday, October 16, 2022 saw the Ghana cedi continuing its steady appreciation on the forex market, selling at less than GH¢10 to the dollar.
The Central Bank is making earnest efforts to stem the local currency’s year-long spiral, with a range of measures including a crackdown on unlicensed black market sellers on the streets of Accra among others.
There were reports in the media space that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) is purported to have indicated that Pension Funds that are invested in Government Bonds may be affected by Ghana’s Debt Restructuring Programme.
The Ministry in its response earlier refuted the possible use of pension funds in the debt restructuring process.
However, on December 6, 2022, the Minister for Finance launched what it called ‘Ghana’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DEP)’. The Ministry admitted that Ghana’s Domestic Debt is unsustainable and the government may not be able to fully service its debt based on the existing agreement with bondholders. Hence the Debt Exchange Program (DEP) aimed to renegotiate the bond coupon rates and maturity periods.
Due to the possible negative impact the DEP would have on the adequacy of workers’ retirement income security (benefits levels), over 24 Worker Unions and Associations have opposed the inclusion of Pension Funds in the Debt Restructuring Program.
It would also seem the government and the MoF have not conducted any stress testing (as best practices require) to fully evaluate and appreciate the depth of injury the involvement of pension funds would inflict on the pension system and ultimately the socio-economic wellbeing of Ghanaian workers and retirees.
What is Debt Restructuring and Haircut?
A significant portion of Pension Fund Assets (workers’ contributions) is invested in government bonds under fairly agreed terms regarding coupon rates and maturity periods. The government is now in a financial crisis and seeks help from the IMF. The IMF says, as a precondition for a loan, go and restructure your debt profile (bring down your debt level). The government (not usually though) then tells Pension Fund Managers that she is in financial trouble and would not be able to pay the full value of their investments on the due dates and the interest rates, as was earlier agreed. She, therefore, intends to renegotiate new terms with existing bondholders essentially to reduce the debt (coupon rates) and extend maturity periods (haircut).
Policymakers sometimes need to be guided (using science and proper review of the literature) to improve the quality of public policies and their implications. The Team at the Africa Centre for Retirement Research (ACRR), therefore, finds it prudent and timely to contribute to the debate on the proposed involvement of social security assets (pension fund managers holding government bonds) in Ghana’s Domestic Debt Restructuring strategy as follows;
Firstly, workers under the current 3-Tier pension system are already facing significant investment risk. The required action is for the government to put in measures to control the investment risk borne by workers. One of the key findings of ACRR’s recent impact evaluation of the 3-Tier pension system revealed that about 81% of workers who retired in 2020 under the new pension system recorded Lump Sum shortfalls. Similarly, 61% of retirees in 2021 recorded shortfalls.
The shortfalls are attributed to low investment income and are rated to be persistent, widespread, and significant, and the social and economic impact on the retiring population is dire.
Secondly, the potential inclusion of pension funds in the debt exchange programme would reduce workers’ retirement benefits significantly. Under the 3-Tier pension system, the private Corporate Trustees and Fund Managers are responsible for paying Lump Sum benefits to workers upon retirement or invalidity or death. The value of the benefits at the point of retirement is the accumulated balance which comprises workers’ contributions and the investment interest. The quantum of the benefits is therefore directly linked with the investment performance of the scheme. If the Fund Manager records poor investment outcomes or losses, the same will reflect in the workers’ Tier2 and Tier3 statements and ultimately will result in low retirement income for workers, and vice versa. Workers’ retirement benefits under the SSNIT Scheme may not be affected as a result of the DEP (because benefits are determined by a formula) but it would affect SSNIT’s ability to pay benefits in the near future (which is a major concern). According to the DEP, as proposed by the MoF, there will be no interest payments in 2023, a 5% coupon payment in 2024 and, a10% coupon payment in 2025 and after. Fund Managers (provided this proposal is accepted and implemented) will simply transfer the new terms to the contributor – low-interest income and possibly could introduce inefficient benefit administration practices.
Thirdly, any form of involvement of pension assets in the DEP would certainly impose significant economic and financial disruptions to the pension system and ultimately, the socioeconomic wellbeing of the retiring population. Considering the quantum of pension funds invested in government bonds and other securities, nearly 80% of pension assets, estimated at 26 billion may be affected by the proposed haircut policy, and this could have serious implications for the overall Social Security Policy agenda.
Fourthly, the IMF Policy Paper ‘Issues in Restructuring of Sovereign Domestic Debt’, published in November 2021, have cautioned nations on the possible spillover effects of involving pension funds in the debt restructuring process. The IMF Debt Restructuring Framework indicates that spillover effects potentially could persist for many years and have dire economic implications on the social security policy targets and ultimately the wellbeing of citizens.
The IMF framework encourages clean, transparent, and thorough engagement with debtors and all stakeholders in the process.
Conclusion
It is important to note that Ghana is far from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals target in social protection. It is therefore critical that the government in its attempt to navigate out of the current economically challenging times will recognize the fragile nature of the 3-Tier pension system. The Ministry of Finance, as best practices require, in collaboration with all stakeholders and debtors needs to consider conducting a stress test to reveal the possible implications of including pension funds in the program.
In the meantime, we project that the adverse impact of including pension funds in the DEP will be immediate, Social Security might not be able to serve its purpose of alleviating old-age poverty because the spillover effect will be massive and the healing process will take longer. The level of impact on the retirement income security of citizens and the damage to the pension system may require a possible pension reform along the way to fix the disruption. To forestall undesirable early post-retirement mortality among the pensioner population, Worker Unions, Civil Society Organizations, etc. are encouraged to dialogue with the government with the main goal of excluding pension funds from the perimeter.
Chartered Economist Emmanuel Amoah Darkwa says it is too early for Ghanaians to be jubilating, over the recent appreciation of the Ghana cedi against the dollar and other major currencies.
The local currency is currently selling for just under 12 to one US dollar and the rate may even improve before the end of the day.
The cedi gained ground against the pound and the euro. It is currently trading at 15.10 and 12.50 to the other two major foreign currencies.
Several individuals, including appointees of government, are jubilating over the trend.
But Mr. Amoah Darkwa says we need not rush in jubilating since the trend could soon change.
The Chartered Economist explained on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm that the cedi would only be stable if the government implemented measures such as reducing the excessive importation of basic commodities.
”It is too early to jubilate. We have to wait and monitor. These are factors that are sometimes external.”
He said “the demand for the dollar has reduced whereas crude oil has is reducing and these are some the external factors but domestically, the Bank of Ghana introduced a policy that it would not support the importation of rice and other commodities we can produce in Ghana. In addition, the demand for the dollar to import has decreased. The regulatory side against the black market is on track.”
Mr. Enoch Okomfo Okonah, an economic analyst, has stated that securing a deal with the International Monetary Fund might not be the best solution to tackle the structural challenges confronting the nation.
Instead, he underlined the need for government to prioritise import substitution, saying that remained the surest and realistic intervention to address the country’s fiscal challenges to stabilise the economy.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, Mr Okonah, the Chief Executive Officer of DUMAT Africa, a policy think-tank said, “that notwithstanding our deal with the IMF may be protracted due to initial resistance from the labour unions”.
This could delay the final approval by the Executive Board of the IMF, a situation which could have dire consequences on the nation, and subsequently dwindle investor confidence too.
DUMAT Africa focuses on economic policy, governance, labour, and related issues.
Mr. Okonah indicated the nation’s economic challenges required a collective and concerted approach to tackle and called for divergent views from the business community, academia, and government critics.
Victor Smith, a former aide to late president Jerry John Rawlings has disclosed his willingness to repair the broken relationship between himself, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and the late president’s children.
Victor Smith laments that despite being close to them at the early stages of their lives, he is not on talking terms with any of Rawlings’ children including Dr Zanetor Agyemang Rawlings, the Member of Parliament for Korle Klottey.
He disclosed to Captain Smart on Onua TV that whiles he made up with JJ Rawlings before his demise, he still has a broken relationship with Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.
The former diplomat detailed what led to a complete breakdown in his relationship with the Rawlings family.
According to him, it was due to a lie someone told the family about him and he reckons Nana Konadu passed on the information to her children who also grew up with such a mindset of him.
He recounted how an investor, who later turned out to be a fraud, reached out to him about supporting the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
In the course of his interaction with the person, a request was made from the person that he (Victor Smith) make some payment to him (the alleged investor) to facilitate the process of getting the money but he (Victor Smith) realized it was a fraudulent scheme and said no.
Victor Smith claims the alleged fraudster travelled to Ghana and made some allegations against him to the Rawlings family and that led to the collapse in his relationship with the family.
“I still will like to be her friend. We still don’t talk at all. Even the children none of them wants to know me including Zanetor. Maybe an allegation was made against me on an issue. President Rawlings himself commented on it in Wa.
“Someone wanted to bring some money to him and the party but I told the person to give the money to Atta Mills. The whole story was not true. I wanted help for the party and I was talking to the person but that person turned out to be con person and he tried to extort money from me.
“I told him I don’t do that and he went behind me to tell Mrs Rawlings that I’m hinting that Rawlings will misuse the money and he got angry with it. That is when they planned to get rid of me. We meet at gatherings and exchange pleasantries, that’s all,” he said.
Victor Smith, however, disclosed that he made up with JJ Rawlings and said his side of the story before he died. He is looking for the same opportunity to speak to Nana Konadu and the children to bury the hatchet once and for all.
Victor Smith also opined he is not sure Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings would like to return to the National Democratic Congress.
Illegal mining, known commonly as ‘Galamsey‘ has been a major challenge facing Ghana with its dire effects on the country’s environment.
The serious threat posed by this phenomenon to Ghana’s environment including water bodies has compelled the government of Ghana to initiate a fight against it.
While a section of the population are blatantly against galamsey and have vehemently expressed their dissent to the development, quite a few individuals seem to be on the fence with respect to the menace.
A young man by name Kobby has narrated how his life ‘got better’ through galamsey as well as losing his best friend in the process.
According to him, he was working as a vulcaniser but the money he was earning from it was inadequate to cater for his basic needs. He then decided to venture into the galamsey business.
On his first day at the mining site, he realised the work was not easy but he had no option than to persevere through it.
He learnt on the job, the various types of galamsey including ‘bowhewe’ which literally means ‘dig and search’ in the Akan language, which is the one that involved excavators degrading the land.
“I did a couple of it but I mostly do the ‘bowhehwe’, the excavator one. I followed a friend but it didn’t work because it was dangerous for me and it was mostly owned by wicked Chinese with less money”, he said.
He revealed that on his first day, he earned only GH¢30 but was assured by some of his colleagues that his remuneration would increase with time and that encouraged him to put much effort into his work.
The highest amount of money he has earned from the business was GH¢1000 a day, which he said he saved it to further his education.
He also added that the galamsey business was a “dangerous” one that comes with a lot of problems including drowning and loss of lives especially those who engaged in underground mining as on some occasions, the top of the soil can break and cover your back.
Explaining how risky the underground mining was, Kobby recounted how he lost his best friend through it.
“He was my best friend. used to go underground with him. A very hardworking guy. We went underground for gold. I took the lead. When I got back, I was waiting for him at the entrance of the pit not knowing the soil collapsed n covered the middle way of the pit. I couldn’t find him afterwards. That was when I realized that my friend had lost his life” Kobby painfully recounted.
Kobby said that was when he advised himself to stay away from such a job and went into different ventures.
He pleaded with people having the intention of engaging in galamsey to stay away because it destroys the nature of the land and the loss of lives is terrible.
Parliament has approved GH₵618.2 million for the Ministry of Railways Development to run its programmes and activities for the year 2023.
The Ministry’s budgetary allocation for the financial year has seen a significant increase over the 2022 figure of GHS530.6 million, showing a 16.5 per cent increase.
Within the year under review, a total amount of GHS475.3 million was released with GHS419.96 million expended by the Ministry as at September 2022.
As regards the programmes and outlook for 2023, the Ministry in 2023 would continue to develop local human resources and technical capacity for the maintenance of the railway system.
This would be done by organising workshops and equipping the youth through practical hands-on training to create jobs and wealth to support the growth of the economy.
In 2023, the construction of the 22km Kojokrom-Manso section of the Western Railway Line and the 97.97km of the Tema-Mpakadan Line are expected to be completed and operationalised, being the first standard gauge railway line in Ghana.
Mr John-Peter Amewu, the Minister of Railways Development in moving the Motion on Wednesday, said the Ministry was working very hard to stop the encroachment on railway lands.
He noted that in the short to medium term, there was the possibility of linking the Western Railway Line, which was 35 to 40 per cent complete, to the Boankra Inland Port.
The Eastern Line, had, however, seen no improvement.
“On the completion of the Western Line, there is the possibility that we may move on through the Port of Takoradi to the Boankra Inland Port,” Mr Amewu said.
“So, that is what we are doing while looking to the long term of completing the Eastern Railway Line.”
Mr Kennedy Nyarko Osei, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Roads and Transport, who seconded the Motion, said the Committee noted the challenges of the Ministry with encroachment on lands earmarked for railway projects.
He said those challenges had financial implications since the Government had to compensate those encroachers when projects were being undertaken to get the right of way on its own land, which delayed the work.
Mr Osei, who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Akyem Swedru, said the Committee was concerned about the Ministry’s ability to take the necessary steps to protect all earmarked lands and properties from encroachment.
The Committee was informed about illegal mining (galamsey) activities, which were causing damage to railway infrastructure resulting in huge financial losses.
Mr Osei said the Ministry would require an estimated two million dollars to reclaim lands destroyed as a result of illegal mining activities.
He urged the Ministry to collaborate with the National Security and Lands and Natural Resources ministries, through Operation Halt, to curb the activities of galamsey operators.
Touching on the Boankra Integrated Logistics Terminal, the Chairman said there was the need for a railway line from Boankra to be extended to the Tema Port to facilitate the transportation of heavy goods to the inland Port.
Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority Leader in Parliament, said Ghana must prioritise its railway development and ensure that adequate resources were allocated towards achieving that to improve the general transportation of persons and goods.
He suggested that with the annual amount that Parliament approves every year, the House should take a position and allocate $200 million for the next five years for anyone who would want to come and build the railway system.
Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh, the NPP Majority Chief Whip and MP for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, said it was time for massive investment in the railway sector to make it more vibrant.
Mr Governs Kwame Agbodza, the Deputy Ranking Member on the Roads and Transport Committee, and MP for Adaklu, urged the ruling NPP Government to give credit to the opposition NDC for initiating some development projects while it was in office, such as the Tema-Npakanda Railway Line.
