Kofi Ahovi

By Fred Sarpong More Ghanaians are using mobile phones in the country. The number of registered mobile lines now stands above the population of the country. According to the National Communications Authority (NCA), the regulator of the telecom industry, the number of mobile lines in Ghana is 27.51 million at the end of August, this year. This indicates that mobile voice telephone subscribers in Ghana have seen a growth of 1.25%, as compare to the August 2012 figure of 24.44 million. The country’s population stands at 25.9 million. The telecom companies which contributed to this increase were Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN), Vodafone, Tigo, Airtel, Glo and Expresso, Expresso is the only CDMA network in Ghana. MTN Ghana has consistently maintained the number one position as the market leader in the mobile telecom industry. Its subscriber lines went up to 12.74 million, representing percentage growth rate of 1.16%. Vodafone Ghana, which recently rebranded it logo, subscribe

Iberia has donned its most festive attire to unveil its new image, with even more prominent role for the colour red, and highlighting the values underpinning the new, more dynamic Iberia, focusing as never before on satisfying the customer, a company in which talent and drive are in evidence everywhere you look. Iberia’s new image both symbolises and contributes its own momentum to the transformation plan, aimed at reshaping the company into a strong, modern, competitive and trend-setting airline. The launch of the new logo and livery is timed to coincide with the first fruits of these efforts. Indeed, it was made possible by the steps that have been taken to give Iberia a competitive cost structure. At a presentation Iberia CEO Luis Gallego noted that “it’s not just a matter of changing the company logo, but of bringing the new image to every corner of Iberia, so the change will be perceived in all our products and the service we provide to our customers.” The planning of a

Ghana’s external debt has increased by 306% between 2006 and 2012 to reach US$8,835.6 million as at the end of 2012. A Policy Research Assistant Domestic Debt at AFRODAD, Nyasha Munditi, said some reasons for the increase in the external debt include government issuing a US$750 million 10-year-Eurobond on the international market in 2007. She said new loans of about US$2.8 billion to fund sectoral priorities in health, agriculture, rural development, roads, communication and housing for public sector employees also led to the current external debt. Madam Munditi made this known at a validation workshop on Ghana’s Public Loan Contraction and Management in Accra on last week. Giving an overview of “Ghana’s Public Debt” she stated that in addition to the external debt, domestic debt also increased from 15.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2006 to 25.4% in 2012; and this was issued mainly to finance budget deficits and to develop the domestic debt market. Using the Internati

Editorial The Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, is noted to have said that the downgrading of Ghana from ‘B+’ to ‘B’ by Fitch, an international rating agency, is very harsh and totally uncalled for. He said the agency did not take into consideration major economic interventions that the government was undertaking within the short to medium term. The agency has also downgraded Ghana’s sovereign from B+ with negative outlook to ‘B’ with stable outlook. The rating had been on a negative outlook since February, 2013, when Fitch took the decision to review Ghana’s credit quality in the light of issues that arose in 2012, which were analysed in the government’s 2013 budget. To most, the agency did not take many things into consideration before downgrading the country as the economy has indeed registered some modest growth within the short term. The country is implementing various restructuring programmes which included the periodic adjustment of petroleum and utility prices to bring s

By: Fred Sarpong Ghana’s Energy and Petroleum Minister, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has accepted the invitation to be part of the key personalities who have been selected as discussants of the 5th National Food Agric show to be held this week at the Efua Sutherland Park. The Minister expressed interest in joining the discussants looking at the recent states of agriculture impact to the country’s economy and more importantly with the involvement of topic such as whether ‘Oil and Gas replacing the contribution of Agriculture to Ghana’s gross domestic product (GDP)? His intention to join FAGRO 2013 show is to assure the farming communities in Ghana the importance of Agriculture and how Ghana cannot progress without agriculture. Despite agriculture contribution to the GDP is falling, the Minister believes agricultural is the backbone to Ghana’s economy and there is no way oil and gas can overtake agriculture. Other topics will include ‘creating the right investment environment for Ghana

Ebenezer SABUTEY Government of Ghana has securedUS$180 million loan from the United States Exim Bank for the supply and installation of equipment for the rehabilitation of water supply systems across the country. The project is expected to improve the efficiency of urban water delivery in all the ten regions of the country and due diligence of the systems has been conducted for supply and installation to begin next year. This was revealed by the Minister for Water Resources Works and Housing Collins Dauda in Accra, when he took his turn at the Meet the Press series to address the nation on some challenges facing the sector. He said the continuous use of old and obsolete equipment by the Ghana Water Company Limited, GWCL hampers the efficient delivery of potable water to the people of Ghana, citing the water treatment plant at Yendi and Kpong which were built in 1953 and 1965 respectively as a case study. Again, according to the Minister, population growth has made it difficult