Kofi Ahovi

... Secures 7.5m euros to promote e-zwich By Kofi AHOVI The Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlements System (GhIPSS) is in talks with its Nigerian counterpart Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc to implement an interbank payment and settlement system between the two countries, BusinessWeek has gathered. The system, when operational, would afford citizens of both countries irrespective of their locations within the two countries to conveniently transact business using their respective electronic payment cards on any bank’s Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) or point of sales (POS) devices. Speaking to the Chief Executive Officer of GhIPSS, Fredrick France, he said the move is intended to significantly improve the payment challenges faced by citizens of these countries when they are outside their country of origin. He explained, “Irrespective of the payment card that a Ghanaian has, he can go to Nigeria and do any transaction as conveniently as if he were in Ghana and same goe...

The Accra Diplomatic Club (ADC), a club to assist in the integration of diplomats in Ghana, has been launched at a reception sponsored by Club Gold last week. Its creation is an initiative of a group of diplomats from missions of various countries, in partnership with accraexpat.com, the website of Ghana’s expatriate community. This initiative will bring more interaction between the members of the large diplomatic community in Ghana as well as with the diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, at a time when Ghana and its capital have become a reference. “The Accra Diplomatic Club will bring to Accra, a Millennium City, a new set of activities and recognition that matches those of major international cities,” the release stated. Some objectives of the ADC are to provide a privileged meeting venue by which a sense of common professional identity and collegiality may be developed and ties/links between the missions and the diplomats be strengthened; maintain ...

Jet lag is a perennial problem for travellers crossing time zones, but by following some simple tips there are ways to kiss goodnight the worst effects of flight-induced insomnia. According to Paul Dhami, British Airways’ Country Manager, Ghana, understanding what causes jet lag is a good place to start. Deep in your brain is a circadian clock (circ = about and diem = day), a 24-hour master clock that synchronises all the internal systems – the sleep/ wake cycle, levels of alertness, mood and digestion – so they all function smoothly. Jet lag occurs when the body clock is disrupted by crossing a number of time zones, which puts the body into new patterns of activity more quickly than your internal clock can adjust. The symptoms can include fatigue, disorientation, changes to appetite and digestion and typically an inability to sleep. Paul Dhami said that while it is relatively harmless, jet lag can ruin the first few days of a holiday and play havoc with a hectic business schedule. Fou...

Ghanaian bankers have been educated on the uses and the potential usage of the extended national electronic platform, which will complement the existing one and will enable a lot more transactions and switching to be done. Ghana has had the national payment platform, christened e-zwich, since 2007 but there are new installations underway to enhance its capability, and help the payment landscape and create new businesses within the financial sector. It is this development that prompted the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS) to invite all the banks and walk them through the project and expose them to the new product offerings they could have in the coming months. The two-day workshop was attended by the Information Technology, Business Development and the Operations units of the various banks. With the new switch fully installed, all the automated teller machine (ATMs) will accept any of the existing ATM cards, allowing customers to undertake ATM transactions on any m...

...As share to be pegged at GH¢28 By Fred SARPONG Kosmos Energy, one of the Jubilee partners, has announced that it will list on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) before the end of this year to raise between US$50 and US$60 million to fund its oil development operations in the country. At a media briefing in Accra last week, the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Brian Maxted, said the decision to list was a demonstration of the company's commitment to stay in Ghana and also help to develop the country. "Kosmos is here to stay for the long time and as part of our long-term commitments to our operations in Ghana, we will be listing on the GSE before the end of this year to give Ghanaians the opportunity to be part owners of our company," Maxted said. Kosmos Energy has raised nearly US$600 million in a successful Initial Public Offer on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The shares finished their first day of trading at US$18.24, or 1.3 percent above the IPO price, on t...

British Airways customers flying through Terminal 5 at Heathrow are now benefiting from even more space and improved facilities, following the opening of a new £340 million third part of the terminal. The new satellite terminal, known as “T5 C”, provides additional capacity and will help to make sure that customers have an even smoother start or end to their journeys. More than 70 million customers on over 500,000 flights have used Terminal 5 since it opened in March 2008 and the facility has helped British Airways to achieve record levels of punctuality, baggage performance and the airline’s highest ever customer satisfaction scores. With the opening of T5 C, an extra three million customers each year will be able to walk directly on or off their aircraft by using a covered “air bridge” linked to the terminal building, rather than having to use a bus. The new satellite terminal has 12 boarding gates, of which eight are triple bridges designed to cater for the new 12 strong fleet of Ai...

SIC Insurance Company Limited has introduced two new concepts for the promotion of its brands and services. The concepts, “Our people promise” and “At your door step”, are meant to regularly keep customers satisfied at all times. The “Our people promise” consists of five main pillars which are respect, trust, professionalism, relationship and sense of urgency. Launching the concepts, the managing director of SIC, Benjamin Acolatse, promised that the company will adhere to these pillars in all its endeavours in order to continue to promote high standards of operation in the insurance industry. “These values are meant to promote high standards in our operations, therefore we will not change them but adhere to them all times,” he stated. He explained that the introduction of “At your step” is aimed at bringing insurance products and services to the door step of its clients to ensure that the company eliminates all the barriers and frustrations that they may go through to access insurance ...

By Jeorge Wilson KINGSON Parliament has approved a Euro 40million loan agreement between Ghana and Agence Francaise de Development of France (AFD) to support the Ghana Urban Management Pilot Project (GUMPP). The GUMPP to be elaborated, managed and implemented by each selected Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembly (MMDA) is meant to improve living conditions in some selected cities while reinforcing their capacities for service delivery and accountability by designing a strategic, realistic and practical urban management project for each city. The terms and conditions of the agreement include €500,000 grant amount, one percent interest rate per annum, 10 years grace period, 20 years repayment period and a maturity period of 30 years. Activities to be carried out under the facility include the construction of markets, roads, landfills sites and abattoirs, in addition to improving urban planning, street naming, property valuation and revenue mobilization through the introduct...

...As May inflation falls to 8.90% By Fred SARPONG Ghana’s inflation rate has dropped consistently for the third time in 2011, reaching 8.90% in May 2011 rekindling hopes that the Mills administration will meet its average inflation target of 8.8% as well as end-period inflation target of 8.5% for this year. However, industry players, including Bank of Ghana (BoG) have indicated that inflation the pattern for 2011 is expected to go downwards, predicting 9.0% for end of year inflation for 2011. If inflation continues to decline at the rate which it has, on average since the beginning of the year, government would also achieve, and indeed exceed, its end-period inflation target of 8.5% for 2011. However, a continued decline is far from certain, while food inflation which is already the driving force behind the on-going decline in inflation can be expected to fall even faster during the second half of the year, following the main food harvest. But supply and demand factors are likely to...