Kofi Ahovi

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement Program (ADVANCE) and Nestlé have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a partnership for a regular supply of high-quality agricultural commodities especially maize in Ghana. Under this new partnership, USAID ADVANCE and Nestlé Ghana will work together to build the capacity of farmers and aggregators in the three Northern regions to ensure farmers produce maize that meets Nestlé’s quality standards. The objective of this partnership is to increase the quality of the overall grains supply in Ghana, by training 113,000 farmers by 2018. USAID ADVANCE will train selected farmers and aggregators on agronomic, post-harvest protocols and good storage practices which have been developed by Nestlé to reduce the mycotoxins in upstream value chain. This event was attended by Emmanuel Dormon, Chief of Party for USAID-ADVANCE, Freda Duplan, Managing Di

By Edward Adjei FRIMPONG, Sunyani The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has advanced a process to introduce a single window system to incorporate every actor in the tourism industry on the ‘one-stop shop’ platform to boost promotion and marketing in order to enhance socio-economic returns from the industry. “The system will advertise every tourism actor still doing business in the dark. It will give vivid information about climatic conditions at the various destinations and traffic situations there as well as where to catch a bus or airline to these places,” Acting Chief Executive Office on GTA, Gideon Aryeequaye, said. The tourism single window system, he explained, will give the country a competitive edge over other tourism-oriented countries on the continent, adding, “we are starting this initiative immediately; the Authority has already given out the contract.” Mr. Aryeequaye was speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Sunyani. The meeting which formed part of his familiarization

Pop star Jessie J brought a piece of London glamour to the streets of Tokyo as she boarded a red London bus in the heart of downtown Tokyo to help British Airways bring a slice of eccentric British culture to the Japanese capital. The star - famous for songs including Price Tag – surprised locals by appearing as part of British Airways' London For Less campaign, which is highlighting the fantastic value foreign visitors can currently enjoy in England at the moment. British Airways pilots and crew took over Tokyo's streets to celebrate how international travellers into London can currently enjoy the city's most famous attractions for up to 45% cheaper than usual following the appreciation of the Yen. The airline - which operates 14 flights a week between Tokyo and London - flew Jessie in from Los Angeles in America to meet her Tokyo fans. The historic bus toured the city between 1pm-8pm offering free rides between Roppongi, Harajuku and Shibuya. Chart-topper Jessie,

Nestlé has today announced that the winner of the Creating Shared Value (CSV) Prize 2016 is Agro-Hub from Cameroon. Agro-Hub is an agricultural production and marketing agency based in the south-west of the country that is working to help small-scale farmers gain access to sustainable markets. It has built a small, integrated factory to transform cassava into starch and garri, a type of tapioca, and sells it to its network of consumers through its own fresh food store, Agro-Mart. “Agro-Hub has successfully linked smallholder cassava farmers to markets, providing them with opportunities to generate significant and sustainable income,” said Kais Marzouki, Market Head for Nestlé Central and West Africa. “We are proud that the winner of this year’s prize is from our region and will continue to enhance the livelihoods of Africans in Cameroon and beyond.” Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke presented the CHF 300,000 prize to Agro-Hub at the Creating Shared Value Global Forum 2016 in Abidjan,

Hundreds of thousands of young people in Africa will benefit from training to prepare them for work, while thousands will gain apprenticeships and traineeships at Nestlé, the company’s CEO Paul Bulcke has announced. “Under our Nestlé Global Youth Initiative, we will create more than 3,000 apprenticeships and traineeship opportunities in Africa by the end of 2018. We will provide readiness-for-work training for more than 300,000 young people over the same period,” Mr Bulcke said. The training will include career advice, CV workshops and interview guidance, and will take place at Nestlé sites, career fairs and in schools and colleges across the continent. “Nestlé will also build and strengthen strategic partnerships with organisations supporting youth development,” Mr Bulcke added.

By Kofi Ahovi Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism have called for political neutrality in the implementation of the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW) project to avoid political clashes in the country. According to them, the novelty project which aims among others things at reducing delays at the ports should be seen as a nation building reform effort that needs all hands on deck. The members of the committee made the call when they paid a working visit on the management and staff of the West Blue Consulting, the technical partners of the project in Accra over the weekend. The purpose of the visit was to abreast themselves with the operations of the company after its successful implementation of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Reporting System (PAARS). The PAARS is a modernized system that has been developed by the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) as part of the implementation of the GNSW project to enhance revenue mobilizat

By kofi ahovi The Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), a coalition of business associations and chambers has called for comprehensive reforms to improve business registration and application of permits and certificates in the country. According to PEF, if this is done it would reduce the delays and cost of business registrations and also reduce of goods and services in the country. The Chief Executive Officer of PEF, Nana Osei-Bonsu added: “If we are able to reduce the cost of doing business in the SMEs sector and reduce the delays as well we will cut inflation at least by 30% in the country”. He lamented that a study commissioned by PEF and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2011 revealed that there were 145 business licenses among the ministries, department and agencies as well as the metropolitan, municipal assembly and district assemblies in Ghana. Out of these, Nana Osei- Bonsu mentioned the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Environmental

By Kofi Ahovi Nestlé Ghana has officially inaugurated a new state- of the art Water Recycling Plant at its Tema Factory to mark World Environment Day. The event was held in Partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation. The CHF 1.5 million Ultra Filtration-Reverse Osmosis system is built alongside the current waste water treatment plant which was constructed in 2010 as part of the company’s commitments to help treat the water the factory discharges in an environmentally friendly manner. With the addition of the new recycling plant, Nestlé will improve the quality of waste water. The new plant will reuse 30% of waste water for non-core activities, reducing the total factory water consumption by 10%. Mrs. Freda Y. Duplan, Managing Director of Nestlé Ghana, explained that the initiative to invest in a Water Recycling Plant stems from the company’s 39 commitments to society: “As part of its commitments in the area of water, Nestlé commits to treat t