Kofi Ahovi

MTN is adding its voice to the global drive to raise awareness about the importance of wearing face masks with today’s launch of the #WearItForMe campaign across its 21 African and Middle Eastern markets.  To help drive this much-needed change in behaviour, MTN is committing its September 2020 marketing resources to encouraging everyone to do more to save lives. As our Africa and Middle East markets continue to navigate the “new normal” brought about by COVID-19, wearing masks remains one of the most effective preventive measures to slow the spread of the virus and accelerate recovery. However, many people refuse to wear them, wear them incorrectly, or still feel it is not important. “We need to demonstrate that we are good together by taking a collective responsibility. The stemming of the pandemic lies within us, let’s take the bold step, wear our face masks everywhere we go to safeguard our future , ” says MTN Ghana Chief Executive Officer, Selorm Adadevoh.   This campaign...

  Government says all travellers coming to Ghana by air are supposed to pay $150 (¢868) for Covid-19 testing fee. The revelation follows the reopening of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to international passenger traffic after five months of closure. The mandatory testing, which is to be conducted for all passengers coming into the country forms part of directives outlined by the Ministry of Aviation and Health to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus and ensure that the deadly disease is not imported into the country. Speaking during a press conference to update the nation on measures taken ahead of the reopening of the airport on September 1, the Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company Limited, Yaw Kwakwa said the accuracy of the test is around 99 to 100 percent. “It takes a maximum of 30 minutes for a particular passenger to go through the entire process and get his or her results. This system is so convenient that passengers will practically go through our ter...

  Aviation Ministry in partnership with Zoomlion Ghana limited has disinfected the Kotoka International Airport ahead of the September 1, 2020 reopening to international flights. The exercise forms part of government’s efforts at curbing the spread of the Covid-19 virus which most nations are battling with. According to the Rev. Ebenezer Kwame Addae, General Manager Vector Control Services of Zoomlion, today’s infection is different and also augments earlier exercise undertaken a couple of months ago. “You know the virus was imported and the airport is a high-risk area so the first disinfection exercise was to tame the virus but today, we are reinforcing what we did by adding more stronger but friendly disinfectants and it is also not combustible,” he explained. The exercise started from the Terminal three and later moved to Terminal two and Terminal one. Other areas including the apron areas,  airport clinic, offices of the airlines, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority offices...

  The 2020 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) will be held under the leadership of H.E. President Paul Kagame and the AGRF Partners Group from September 8 – 11, 2020 in Kigali, Rwanda. The AGRF virtual Summit 2020 will be attended by more than 4,000 delegates and high-level dignitaries, including current and former Heads of State and Government; Agriculture and Finance Ministers; Central Bank Governors; eminent leaders of global and regional development institutions; top industry captains from the national, regional, and global private sector; mobile network operators; technology leaders and agri-preneurs; and lead representatives of farmer organizations and key non-governmental implementing partners.   Dr. Victor Antwi, Head of Input Distribution- AGRA AGRF 2020 comes at an unprecedented time when African major cities, especially, those that mainly rely on imported food face a looming hunger crisis following the implementation of lockdowns in several countries to contain...

Outgrower farmers supplying raw materials to factories under the government’s One-District-One Factory (1D1F) policy are set to receive loans from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB). This was disclosed by the Managing Director of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Dr. John Kofi Mensah. According to him, industries established under the 1D1F initiative in need of agricultural support can be assured of the Bank’s preparedness to provide them with the needed financial support to better their output. At the commissioning of the Ekumfi Fruits and Juices Limited and Casa De Ropa Limited in the Central Region by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Dr. Kofi Mensah said the bank will soon disburse an amount of about GHS50 million to outgrower farm companies operating within the catchment areas of the two factories. He noted that, “These factories need constant supply of raw materials to remain in business and as our contribution to the 1D1F, we are giving out loans, espe...

Governor of the Bank of Ghana , Dr. Ernest Addison has rejected claims that depositors who had their monies locked up with the collapsed banks have not been paid. Dr. Addison said all customers of the nine collapsed banks have been paid their locked-up funds. He was speaking at a meeting with President Nana Akufo-Addo after the latter’s working visit to the Central Bank on Tuesday, August 25, 2020. We had the [banking sector] reform in two phases. The first phase had to do with the banking system where we revoked the licenses of the banks. Depositors got their monies.” He, however, indicated that there were some outstanding payments to be made to customers of collapsed microfinance companies, savings and loans, and finance houses. The second phase of payment has to do with the SDIs – Savings and Loans and Microfinance Institutions and in their case, more than 95 percent of depositors have been paid so there is just about 5 percent of depositors who have not been paid.” Read also: Recei...

Data from the Bank of Ghana indicates that the flow of remittances into Ghana went up marginally within the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2019 despite the impact of COVID-19 on jobs both home and abroad. The remittances for the first half of the year stands at $2.3 billion as compared to $2.1 billion in the same period last year. Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, in the latter part of 2019, the virus has claimed over 800 thousand lives globally, out of over 23 million cases, although over 16 million infected people have also recovered. The impact of the disease has been very severe as almost every sector has had its share of the ravaging virus, and the transfer of remittances is no exception. Read also: Ashanti groups take on GIADEC over bauxite mining in Nyinahin Forest Reserve                     NGO begins Petition for the Ban of Shisha in Ghana A remittance refers to money that is ...

   The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Development Association , GREDA, Sammy Amegayibor, has stated that the lack of continuity among different governments in the country will affect the housing sector. According to him, this does not augur well for the country’s development in housing delivery. His claims follow the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s pledge that the government will establish a Ghana Housing Authority and a National Housing and Mortgage Finance Company to oversee the building of more housing units in its next term of office. But the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Development Association, Sammy Amegayibor, believes this pledge is a repetition of a policy that the previous government implemented. Read also: Ashanti groups take on GIADEC over bauxite mining in Nyinahin Forest Reserve While there are programs and discussions that have taken place in the past, which we have to take a look at, and see how we can follow it through, and...

The Ministry of Education (MoE) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL) have been commended for the on-going second phase disinfection exercise in tertiary institutions in the country. The exercise follows the directive by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during his 15th national address on measures against COVID-19 for tertiary institutions (both public and private) to be disinfected before reopening yesterday. In addition, he said CUCG had equally put in place measures to protect the continuing students who will be returning to campus from the virus. Addressing the media, the Senior Assistant Registrar and University Relations Officer, Catholic University College of Ghana (CUCG) at Fiapre in the Bono Region, Hammond Oppong Kwarteng, was full of praise for Zoomlion, following the disinfection of his university on Friday, August 21, 2020. We have bought Veronica buckets, alcohol-based hand sanitizers and they will be placed at various locations for use by the students. We have also ensu...

  Ashesi University , a private university located in Berekuso in the Eastern Region, on Monday benefited from the second phase of the on-going national disinfection exercise in tertiary institutions across the country. The exercise, which started at 9:00 a.m., was carried out by Zoomlion Ghana Limited, in partnership with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ghana Education Service (GES). It was in line with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's directive to the MoE and GES to ensure that tertiary institutions were disinfected before reopening on Monday, August 24th, 2020, against the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Read also: E/R Police has no Covid-19 case- Regional Commander For the smooth execution of the exercise, Zoomlion deployed about 15 spraying guns and one atomiser. While the spraying guns were used in various enclosed facilities, the atomiser disinfected open spaces of the university. Other facilities of Ashesi University that were disinfected were lecture halls, ...

   There comes a time when men have to stand up against other men’s oppression- be it physical, emotional or economic. The wealth gap in Ghana is one of the highest in the world with one man owning an estimated tens of billions of cedis while paying his sanitation workers a mere GHs 120 or $21 per month. Both the NPP and the NDC in the last 29 years have shown no empathy to the ordinary Ghanaian but both parties agree to spend an estimated Ghs 3.42 Billion on luxury vehicles for politicians alone. Despite the killing of people under Jerry Rawlings in the 1979 coup and more in the eleven more years of military adventurism from Dec.31, 1981 to January 1992, all for alleged corruption, neither the NDC nor the NPP have bothered to take public theft, often softly called corruption, seriously enough to investigate and to prosecute. In the mean time the NPP under Nana Akufo Addo has set the world record in loans per capita, and the lowest public crime prosecution in the post-Independ...

  Meridian Port Service (MPS) has reached a new level of container handling productivity on vessels by exceeding the previous record of 112 moves/hour which was achieved on MSC ALTAIR that berthed at Terminal 3 on 15th May 2020. The new vessel productivity record of 139.91 moves/hour on MSC LIVORNO is from first lift to last lift and operationally recognised as 145.86 moves/hour after adjusting the permissible deductible times. This was achieved on Saturday 15th August 2020.  This has so far been logged as the all-time record for Tema Port and may certainly be by far the best on the West African Coastline. Read also: AfCFTA boss pledges to empower women   MSC LIVORNO is flying the German Flag and among a fleet of Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCV) deployed on the MSC’s Africa Express (AFEX) weekly service into Ghana. Her capacity is 14,000 TEUs and Gross Tonnage of 153,115. Her length overall (LOA) is 366 meters and she is 51 meters wide. The CEO of MPS, Mohamed Samara...

As part of efforts to curb the myriad of problems facing the country’s housing sector, Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has announced the provision of low-interest loans for young people to rent affordable homes if the mandate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is renewed. According to him, this will be done through a new scheme known as the National Rental Assistance scheme. The scheme which will start off with a seed amount of GH¢100 million from government will be done in partnership with the private sector to raise more capital and relieve a lot of people of the burden of rent. Speaking at the official launch of the party’s election 2020 manifesto, in Cape Coast, the Vice President said that the move is to help young people who have accommodation problems. While we continue to pursue long term solutions to the development of the housing market, to address, in our second term, the short-to-medium term market failures in the renter-segment of the housing market, we will ...

The Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says if the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is given the nod to govern the country for another term, small businesses will pay their taxes online. This forms part of government’s efforts to digitalise every sector of the country. Read also: Chamber for Tourism Industry calls for tax cuts At the official launch of the NPP manifesto at Cape Coast on Saturday, Dr. Bawumia stated that this new development will make it easier to monitor the payment of taxes by Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs). We want to introduce regulatory flexibility for MSMEs in their compliance because there’s so much hustle under the current dispensation that we see for many MSMEs in complying with taxation. So we want to introduce a simplified tax regime for MSMEs with a very flexible one and make sure they can pay their taxes online. So that tax collectors from GRA cannot come in and harass them for non-payment of taxes. In fact, we would totally discourage payme...

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) is calling on government to invest in the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to prevent it from collapsing. According to COPEC, per its investigations the situation at the refinery is dire and maintaining its day to day operations is a challenge. Speaking to  Citi Business News , Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah said efforts must be made at all cost to save the country’s only refinery from turning into a white elephant. Read also: Oil crashes below $19, falling to an 18-year low He added that, “Clearly three things are involved here; we’ve had in the past poor management practices where you expect certain things to be done right yet they are done the other way. We have also not had the right kind of investments and retooling and equipment, some of which were actually fixed in the ’80s and 70s.” He explained further that TOR is indeed worth investing in. We think that the right investment must be made in the refinery. Refineries are profitab...

OCP Africa, in a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), has increased its efforts to support the agricultural value chain in Ghana. This agreement seeks to intensify OCP Africa’s flagship agribooster program that will bring a global offer to farmers with access to the quality of inputs, training and market. The 2020 Agribooster Campaign which is aligned with Government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Programme, and jointly implemented between OCP Africa and MoFA, has provided improved fertilizers to support farmers across eight (8) regions of Ghana to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on small-holder farmers. Over 100,000 farmers who have benefitted from these improved fertilizers in the 2020 agribooster campaign will also receive training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). Country Manager of OCP Africa in Ghana, Samuel Oduro-Asare, noted that it has become necessary now more than ever to support farmers because they are confronted with an...

MTN Group has announced that the current group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of MTN Group, Ralph Mupita, has been appointed as the new Group President and CEO. His appointment takes effect from 1 September 2020. Ralph has served as the MTN Group CFO since April 2017 and has played a critical role in the development and execution of the group’s strategy, capital allocation processes, financial performance as well as in the resolution of a number of complex regulatory matters. In a statement issued by MTN, Group Chairman, Mcebisi Jonas said “After a rigorous and extensive search process, we are pleased to have appointed someone of Ralph’s calibre, experience and ability to fill the group president and CEO position. Ralph’s experience as the group CFO, strong knowledge of our businesses and markets, as well as successful background in financial services, M&A and emerging markets, place him in an excellent position to lead the growth and sustainability of the business going forward.” R...

Poultry farmers in Ghana are encouraging locals to consume poultry products produced locally. They are targeting to takeover 60 percent market share of the country’s total poultry consumption. Currently, Ghanaians consume only 10% of local poultry as compared to the more patronized foreign products which make up 90% of total consumption. The poultry farmers claim the move has become increasingly necessary following reported cases of COVID-19 infected poultry meat from Brazil. Brazil is a major foreign supplier of poultry products to Ghana. Some international media outlets have reported that Dourados, located in Mato Grosso do Sul, is the second BRF plant that China has suspended since the coronavirus allegedly began affecting Brazilian meat plants. BRF, Brazil’s biggest chicken exporter, said in a statement on July 29, 2020, that it was not formally notified of the suspension, but learned of it via a publication on China’s Customs website. Reuters   on August 14, 2020, reporte...

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has written to the management of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) detailing safety protocols for the resumption of international air travel amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. Authorities of the health management body say they have identified overcrowding as one of the major factors contributing to the spread of the virus hence the instituted measures to stem the rate of infection during the easing of COVID-19 restrictions on flight travel. The GHS says in view of this, the Ghana Airports Company Limited must demonstrate it would not be a place for the transmission of the virus. Read also: Ghana: World Trade Centre, Silent Eight announce partnership to fight financial crime and cyber fraud Key amongst the four measures is for the airport management to ensure that there is no form of congestion at the facility while ensuring strict adherence to social distancing and compulsory wearing of face masks protocols. Below are the measures the GHS has ordered KI...

   World Trade Centre Accra (WTC Accra) and Silent Eight, a global RegTech firm with offices in Singapore, London, New York and Warsaw, have announced a partnership to enhance the capacity of governments and the financial services industry in Africa to combat the “three ills” of international financial crime, cyber fraud and money laundering. To kickstart the partnership, the two firms in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana will hold a webinar on the 27th August, 2020 under the subject: New Solutions for Combatting International Financial Crime, Cyber fraud and Money Laundering . The webinar will examine the peculiar challenges faced by the African financial system and serve as an exposition of new digital solutions for fighting international financial crime, cyber fraud and money laundering. The webinar will be moderated by Scott McCleskey (Former Chief Compliance Officer, Moody’s) with a global knowledge bank to include Marcus Swanepoel (Manager- Business Solutions, Temenos...