Kofi Ahovi

Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited, has on Wednesday, July 29, 2020, held its 2019 Annual General Meeting on the backdrop of being awarded Africa’s Best Bank for Transformation at the prestigious Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2020 that recognized the top financial institutions in banking and capital markets globally. Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited was lauded for building a robust and resilient bank with strong returns, a feat that has been achieved through a strategic, deliberate and consistent transformation agenda that commenced in 2015. Commenting on the award, Chief Executive, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited, Mansa Nettey, said, “We are elated by this recognition Following the Bank’s reorganisation five years ago and subsequent announcement of our refreshed strategic priorities in 2019, we have made tremendous progress on our journey from turnaround to transformation, prioritising returns and investment into key areas of the bank’s operations and putting our clien...

  The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of New Juaben South, Isaac Appaw-Gyasi, has appealed to the citizenry to support the central government's efforts in fighting the novel coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). So far the Akufo-Addo government has been very proactive in our nation's battle against the coronavirus epidemic," he opined. Appaw-Gyasi made the call while addressing journalists on the sideline of a disinfection and fumigation exercise carried out on Thursday by Tebel Ghana Limited in partnership with Zoomlion Ghana Limited in markets in the Eastern Region. The exercise, which is the second phase of the national disinfection, fumigation and cleaning in markets, lorry stations, public toilets and other public places, is a collaboration between the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited. According to him, the central government's initiative to have markets and other public spaces disinfected against the virus wa...

Allianz Motors has launched the new Land Rover defender 110. According to Allianz, this is the most capable Land Rover ever made, and is now available in sub-Sahara Africa. Not only is the new version driven by a passion and respect for the original, it also inherits the previous model’s naming convention. Available now in 110 guise, which gives a historic nod to the 110-inch wheelbase of the previous generation, the Defender 110 body style offers customers a choice of five, six or 5+2 seating configurations and a load space ranging from 1,075 litres behind the second row, to 2,380 litres with seats folded. The 110 line-up includes a flagship 3.0-litre straight six-cylinder P400 featuring efficient Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle technology with outputs of 294kW and 550Nm. Alternatively, customers can choose between two 2.0-litre variants, with a P300 turbocharged petrol offering 221kW and 400Nm, and a D240 twin turbocharged diesel producing 177kW and 430Nm. A comprehensive model range is...

Parliament has approved government’s request for 11.8 billion Ghana cedis in supplementary estimates for the 2020 financial year. The request was tabled before the House last week Thursday by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta. Government says the amount is needed to support its expenditure for the rest of the year particularly due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The request, according to the Finance Minister, has become necessary due to the revenue shortfalls and budget deficit created by the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. According to him, the double shock of the pandemic and a global economic recession, resulted in a revenue shortfall of GH¢13.6 billion and unanticipated but necessary expenditures of approximately GH¢11.7 billion. Government in the Mid-year budget announced a reduction in the Communication Service tax from 9 to 6 percent, and extended free water supply to Ghanaians for the next three months and free electricity supply to lifeline consumers fo...

Newmont Ghana has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) to support the nation’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the MoU, Newmont Ghana will procure PCR equipment, ancillary equipment, reagents and other consumables to augment the capacity of KCCR to scale up its testing. Also, KCCR will help set up two laboratories in Newmont’s Ahafo and Akyem host communities to build their testing capacity for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. The total value of procuring the PCR machines, ancillary equipment, reagents and setting up of the laboratories is GHc 3.1million ($545,000).   KCCR is one of the two major testing centers in the country and the increasing number of cases in the country has put significant strain on the facility. The Director of KCCR, Prof. Richard Phillips, expressed gratitude to Newmont Ghana, saying “this will significantly boost our capacity to test more samples. With the...

Many people are taking advantage of Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI), to move money from bank accounts to Mobile Money (MoMo) wallets and vice versa. The overriding feature of the second phase of the MMI, is the financial inclusion triangle, that is the linking of bank accounts to MoMo wallets and e-zwich cards, which allowed funds to move across all the three platforms. As a result of these, many people now freely move their funds across the platforms. The Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) Half Year Performance report shows that more people are moving funds from their bank account to MoMo wallets than previously. In the first half of 2019, the volume of funds moved from bank accounts to MoMo wallets stood at about 240,192, but it jumped to 2.1 million transactions in the first half of this year, representing an impressive growth of over 780 percent. Although the volume of movement of funds from MoMo wallets to bank accounts is lower, it also recorded very high...

The Bank of Ghana says it intends to build additional reserves of up to 300 million cedis to stabilize the country’s currency. This will be a medium-term solution to prevent the free fall of the cedi. The currency has performed marginally well within the first half of the year, compared with other major currencies such as the US dollar and the Euro. There has been reduced export earnings coupled with limited revenue from the country’s oil reserves due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, the cedi is trading at 5 cedis 68 pesewas to a dollar and to the Euro at 6 cedis 68pesewas, and 7 cedis 32 pesewas to the pound. Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Ernest Addison, says various strategies are in place to keep the cedi stable against major trading currencies. “For the half year period had zero balance and we are hoping that we will be able to build some additional foreign exchange by the end of this year. The target is to build additional reserves of about three hundred mill...

TC’s Energy USA and its partners, Power China Huadong Engineering Corporation Ltd and Seabased of Sweden, have signed a major agreement to finance and revive the Ada Foah Energy Project, which stalled for years. TC’s Energy Ghana, a wholly Ghanaian owned company is the local counterpart to the project. The project seeks to establish a wave energy park in the Gulf of Guinea in Ghana, about 17 km off the coast of Ada to generate 1,000 megawatts (MW/H) of power from sea waves, employing an environmentally friendly technology – the ‘SEABASED’ Wave Energy Converters (WEC). TC’s Energy has applied to the Ghana Standards Authority for Marine Energy Converters Certification to ensure that the project meets the highest international requirements. Under the terms of the agreement, Power China, a state-owned key enterprise, will provide 85 per cent of the cost, while the remaining 15 per cent is to be borne by the Ghanaian company. The initial plan is to begin with five megawatts and scale up to ...

Public transport fares will be reduced by 10% effective August 1, the General Secretary of the Ghana Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) Duncan Amoah has said. According to him, “This is in respect to the fact that the President in his last address to the nation eased down restrictions as far as social distancing in public transportation systems is concerned.” President Akufo-Addo while ushering the nation into phase two of easing down restrictions on Sunday said public transport operators can resume operations at full capacity. Thereafter, COPEC called on transport operators to reduce transport fares. Although some drivers said they were unwilling to obey the directive, the leadership of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) said the union was in talks with stakeholders in the transport sector to see the way forward. After the stakeholders’ meeting, drivers have been directed to reduce transport fares by 10% effective August 1. So now that our public transport operator...

The bonuses, allowances, per diems, and other entitlements of comfort of State-Owned Enterprises workers have been scrapped due to the Covid-19 loses. This comes after government directed all SOEs to cut down their expenditure by about 30 per cent. So far, 18 out of 28 of the Enterprises are projected to lose in excess of ¢2 billion by the end of 2020 due to the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Director-General of the State Institutes and Governance Authority (SIGA), Stephen Asamoah Boateng told Joy Business, the SOEs have no alternative now than to operate with a lean budget. “The first-quarter figures show that we were going down and that’s where we started revising our notes. The president gave the indication that we needed a plan ‘B’ and cabinet had to look at all the SOEs, cutting back and withdrawing their programs. “We’ve been looking across the board about 30 per cent drop has happened. What it means is that some arrears bonuses, increase in salaries will be affected. ...

The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih, has announced that public markets in the region would be disinfected quarterly to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the region. Announcing this at the launch of the second phase of disinfection exercise in the region on Saturday July 25, 2020, the minister said it has now become the policy of the government to disinfect all public markets quarterly. “This is not a one off exercise; the government has made it a policy that every quarter public markets will be disinfected,” he announced. The Dr. Salih reiterated the public that Covid-19 is real and government will not rest on its oars but will ensue that all citizens are safe The region has recorded 75 cases with 73 recoveries and one death which means the region currently has one active case. “We are not out of the woods yet so everyone must observed the preventive protocols” He reminder every that the wearing of face mask is now mandatory and offenders would be prosecuted. “People are...

  The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, through the Bono Regional Coordinating Council has ended the markets disinfection exercise in the region with a massive cleanup exercise. The exercise which begun early in the morning saw all the central business centres, police stations, post office, poly roundabout and the three markets as well as other public areas being cleaned up by Zoomlion’s sanitation officers with support from the military, the police and the fire service. According to the Municipal Chief Executive, Honourable Awo Owusu-Banahene Jestina, Sunyani is poised for cleanliness and Covid-19 is reinforcing its neatness. She however urged that society should not sit down for diseases to attack before cleaning the environment to improve health. She noted that the municipality is strictly adhering to the all the preventive protocols hinting that before reopening of the schools for final year students, children between ages 2-16 were not allowed to come o...

The Bono East Regional Minister Hon. Kofi Amoakohene has expressed his commitment towards adopting and making disinfection a regular practice in the region. He said the pandemic is that it has taught people to practice personal hygiene and proper sanitation and to ensure that this continues the municipality will organize disinfection, fumigation and clean up exercise regularly. The Regional Minister made the promise while launching the Region’s markets disinfection exercise in Bono East on Thursday. This is the second phase of the exercise and we are disinfecting the markets and public places to keep our environment safe and free from Covid-19″, Hon. Amoakohene emphasized. … And we are disinfecting all these places. Today we will extend it to public toilets as well”. He stressed that the exercise is President’s special initiative through the local government ministry in collaboration with Zoomlion to rid the 48 markets in the region of any virus and bacteria with the sole aim of curbin...

Markets and lorry parks in the Ahafo Region on Thursday had their turn of the on-going second nationwide disinfection, fumigation and clean-up exercise, aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus disease  (COVID-19) epidemic in the region, and the country as a whole. In all, a total of sixty-six (66) markets together with lorry parks and one hundred and six (106) public toilets benefited from the exercise. The exercise, a collaboration between the ministry of local government and rural development (MLGRD) and waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), will include a huge clean-up operation, which will be done on Friday (June 24) Launching the exercise at the regional capital, Goaso, in the Asunafo North Municipal, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Yaw Osei Boahen, encouraged the residents to continually observe the COVID-19 safety protocols. It is for the above reason that the assembly has distributed about 10,000 nose masks and scores of alcohol-based han...

Customers of Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) can now seamlessly self-register for the Bank’s  *767#  USSD service without visiting any branch of the Bank. This service allows customers to link their mobile money wallet to their bank accounts, check account balance, view mini statements, transfer Funds (account to wallet, wallet to account, inter-bank transfers, intra-bank transfers), buy airtime for all networks, pay bills (DSTV, Light, water, GoTV, and a lot more.” Existing ADB Customers can sign on to the  *767#  by following simple steps which include Input account number ,  choosing the type of Identification card, Input the ID Number, date of birth, get a unique OTP ,  Choose PIN ,  Verify PIN which then completes the setup.   For verification purposes customers must also use the same mobile number used in opening their bank account to register for the  *767#  service. The ADB Managing Director, Dr. John Kofi Mensah said the sel...

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed the Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful to suspend her directive to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to suspend three of its six channels on the national Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform. A press statement dated July 23, 2020, signed and issued by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin said the Minister has been directed "to suspend the implementation of the directives given to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in connection with the reduction of GBC's channels on the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform, pending further consultation with stakeholders." The National Media Commission (NMC) had described the directive by the Minister as a move that undermines the 1992 Constitution. In a statement signed by its Chairman, Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, the commission said the directive by the minister was a form of political control ...

A Former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, has blamed Ghana’s increasing debt on the discontinuation of measures put in place by the erstwhile government. According to him, that situation put the country in a very dire position. Within the 1st quarter of 2020, Ghana increased its debt by 16.9 billion cedis, putting the debt at 236.1 billion cedis, representing 59.3 percent of GDP. Also the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has already predicted a slow growth rate due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking on CitiTV’s Point of View Show, the former Finance Minister said the pandemic could have had less impact if government had adhered to measures aimed at helping middle income economies to withstand economic shocks to some extent. “They discontinued what the middle income countries are doing to become stronger. I’m saying that it is in the debt report for 2020. It starts from 2014 where it started after the smart borrowing policy and it started going down again. You see...

In a bid to pursue an aggressive process of rebuilding the Ghanaian economy due to the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, government has announced the setting up of a 100 billion Ghana cedis development programme known as the ‘Ghana Coronavirus Alleviation Revitalization of enterprises Support Program’. The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, made this known when he delivered the 2020 Mid-year budget statement to Parliament on Thursday, July 23, 2020. The initiative, which has been named the ‘Obaatanpa Programme’, is aimed at transforming the economy from its currents state and also cushion all sectors that have been hardly hit by the Coronavirus Pandemic. “Mr. Speaker, we wish to take this opportunity to announce to the people of Ghana that their President and his team have done a lot of thinking since March. We have brainstormed over the crisis with the view of using the challenges it presents rather as an opportunity to transform Ghana and for all Ghanaians. I am happy to an...

The management of Ecobank has refuted reports that the Supreme Court has ordered the closure of its Head Office building over ¢4m judgment debt. In a statement, management unequivocally refuted the reports stating that “no such execution has been levied on the bank.” Management said, “Ecobank is open for business and assures all stakeholders and the general public that the Bank is fully compliant with all legal and regulatory directives.”

Gold prices kept their upward momentum on Wednesday, stretching past the nine-year peak set during the previous trading day, as investors continue to place bets more stimulus measures to ease the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Spot gold was up 1.0% to $1,860.43/oz by 11:30 a.m. EDT, after reaching its highest since September 2011 earlier in the day at $1,864.90/oz. US gold futures were 1.3% higher at $1,867.40/oz in New York. “The fact that governments, central banks and pretty much everyone else are looking to more fiscal and monetary policy inputs is helping drive the yellow metal,” Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK told Reuters. “With equities struggling to push higher, gold is likely to test $1,900/oz over the next few days and weeks,” Hewson said, adding that “only an improvement in the pandemic situation and the economy could stop gold’s bull run.” Bullion has surged nearly 22% this year and is now within $70 of an all-time high, bolstered by lo...

  Markets, lorry parks and public toilets in Offinso in the Ashanti region have been disinfected by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA). The exercise which was done in collaboration with Zoomlion Ghana Limited forms part of the second phase of the nationwide disinfection exercise in the Ashanti Region. The markets include Offinso- Kokote,  Abofou,  and Akumadan. Speaking at the commencement of the exercise, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon. Simon Osei Mensah pleaded with the general public to be considerate as the exercise was going to disrupt their business activities. We know this exercise will disrupt your businesses but please bear with us. After two to three hours you can go back to operate your shops without any harmful effect” he told traders and shop operators. The Minister reiterated the need to obey all the Coronavirus Pandemic protocols because regular hand washing under running water will help each and every individual in the fight against the virus. He f...

The MCE of Ga East and the Presiding Member of the Adenta Municipal Assembly have both expressed satisfaction with the second phase of disinfection exercise being undertaking by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in partnership with Zoomlion Ghana Limited. In separate interviews, they said the exercise will greatly impact government’s efforts aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus which has and continue to disrupt the world. Janet Tulasi Mensah Ga East MCE ,  Speaking to journalists after markets in their respective municipalities were disinfected, the Ga East Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Janet Tulasi Mensah, cautioned the general public especially market women and transport operators to continue to observe the preventive protocols to avoid getting infected and onward spread of the virus. They must always continue to wash their hands and sanitize same as well as wear face mask to protect themselves and others too” she advised. The disinfection e...