Kofi Ahovi

 The President of Hungary, H.E. János Áder, has decorated the Founder and Leader of World Miracle Outreach, Dr. Lawrence Tetteh, an International Evangelist, with the highest national award of his country—the Knight of Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary. The conferment was done on behalf of President Áder by the Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Tamás Fehér, at a brief and colourful ceremony on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, at the Hungary Embassy in Accra. Dr. Tetteh was honoured by the Hungarian government for his outstanding performance and instrumentality in building the bilateral and business relationship between Ghana and Hungary. Conferring the Honour on Dr. Tetteh, the Hungarian Ambassador mentioned that this was the second time a Ghanaian is receiving this award in the history of Hungary. Read also: Ghana, Netherlands deepen economic cooperation Addressing the gathering, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, H.E. Claudia Turbay Quintero, the award was in recognition of Dr. T...

 Transformational Leadership Concepts, a behavioral and attitudinal change advocacy group on Sunday 27 th March 2022, held its first Time Keeping dialogue for the year where the speakers have encouraged Ghanaians to have a change in perception and attitude about time and be time conscious.  The virtual dialogue which was organized to coincide with Ghana month was under theme ‘’Time as a national resource’’ and had the Chief of Adidome and Convener of the group, Togbe Kwasinyi Kakakloko Agyeman V as the chairman. The event was hosted Georgina Asare Fiagbenu, a communication for development advocate. The speakers for the dialogue were, Nana Kwasi Gyan Apenteng, a communications and culture consultant and Comfort Ocran, a Motivational speaker and Author. Expressing their views on the theme, speakers spoke about the concept of time from the cultural and organizational perspectives. They shared how the disregard for time has cost the lives of several Ghanaians through road acciden...

 The Ghana Chamber of Mines, in partnership with three financial institutions, has launched a programme to financially support members to enhance their services and productivity. The launch of the ‘Chamber of Mines’ Supply Chain Financing Programme,’ in Accra on Wednesday March 30, 2022, makes way for members to access financial products tailor-made for mining support services companies in the Ghanaian mining industry. Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr. Sulemanu Koney, said the programme was developed in response to the financial challenges its members especially, the mining support services companies, faced. Having identified that problem, we put together a team to find a way of designing products which are tailor-made to serve the needs of the mining companies as well as the mining support services companies that is what we have launched today” he added. Dr. Koney indicated that the idea is to make sure that members of the chamber have the best capacity in...

The Chief Corporate Communication Officer of Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), Ms. Sophia Kudjordji, has been honoured with a Global Women Achievers Award 2022 in the field of communication. The 2022 Global Women Achievers Awards (TGWAA) which was organised by CMO Global and World Women Leadership and Congress & Awards--all in India, recognises sterling contributions and accomplishments of women across the world. It also celebrates and honours women who have excelled in various spheres of life. The TGWAA was presented to Ms. Kudjordji via zoom together with 85 women from 37 countries who were also acknowledged. A citation accompanying the award praised Kudjordji for her strong track record of building the function and teams of some of Ghana’s leading organisations. The citation particularly mentioned the 25 years’ experience of Kudjordji in the media and communication space which has been brought to bear on the JGC. Under Kudjordji’s watch at Jospong Group of Companies, one of the ...

The Chief Operating Officer (COO)-Environmental Sanitation Cluster, Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), Florence Larbi, has received a Global Women Achievers Award, 2022 from India. The Global Women Achievers Award (TGWWA) was presented to Larbi via zoom recently in recognition of her contributions in the environmental and sanitation space in Ghana. The Global Women Achievers Awards is organised annually by CMO Global and World Women Leadership and Congress & Awards--all in India, and is aimed at honouring outstanding women who have impacted societies positively. It also celebrates women who have excelled in various spheres of life. Read also: MTN Group receives recognition on the Fortune's Change the World list In a citation accompanying the award, Larbi is recognised for her huge contributions towards the transformation and expansion of the Jospong Group of Companies. With great passion for growing a local brand coupled with hard work, she was promoted and appointed the General...

As part of an initiative to give back to the community, EcoZoil Services (formerly Zoil Eco Brigade), a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), has taken its coastal clean-up exercise to the Central Region. The Central Region exercise came off on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, at the Elmina and Moree beaches. At both Elmina and Moree beaches, workers of EcoZoil cleaned landing sites and beaches. The workers also picked plastics littered at the beaches and landing into trash bins. Among the sanitation equipment used during the operation were wheel barrows, rakes, shovels, broomsticks, compactors and trash bins. And it is to support communities along the coastal stretch of the country to have clean beaches and landing sites. Speaking to the media, the Business Development Manager of EcoZoil, Daniel Lamptey, said the nationwide clean-up exercise was being organised along the coastal stretch of the country, adding that Western Region is next after Central. Read also: Senior minister ...

The Minority in Parliament has described the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) as not reflecting the true hardships and sufferings facing Ghanaians presently. Seconding the motion for the House to adjourn after the President had delivered the SONA on the floor of Parliament, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said with the rising cost of living that had affected the prices of fuel, foodstuffs and services, the President downplayed the harsh reality of the Ghanaian economy during his address. We expected the President to deliver the true state of the nation address which would reflect the growing hardships and sufferings of Ghanaians,” he said. Lack of confidence Iddrisu said regrettably, the President did not have the confidence to talk about the economy. So he is continuing with his promises and slogans, but as a constitutional imperative, we the Minority are ready to debate our Majority counterparts and prove a credible alternative government, led by former President J...

  A former Prime Minister of Togo, Gilbert Houngbo, has been elected the 11th Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and will become the first African to lead the UN agency. After two rounds of voting, the ILO's governing body elected the 61-year-old to succeed the British trade unionist, Guy Ryder, who steps down as Director-General at the end of September, after 10 years in the job. You have made history," Houngbo told the governing body after the election. "I am deeply and absolutely honoured to be the first representative of the Africa region to be selected to lead the ILO after 103 years." Ghana’s Mary Chinery-Hesse, OSG, an international civil servant and diplomat, is the first female Deputy Director-General of the ILO. Five candidates Houngbo was chosen from among five candidates and had been seen in a strong position after the African Union threw its weight behind him. The four other candidates for the post of ILO Director-General wer...

  President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on all Ghanaians to “pull and push together” to overcome the economic challenges facing the country. “There are many problems that we have to overcome to get back to where we ought to be. I need your support. No President, no Parliament, no government can undertake this task all by themselves. We need all Ghanaians to pull and push together,” he added. He said the road to recovery from the economic challenges would be hard and long, but the job could be done with the support of all. President Akufo-Addo made the call when he delivered a message on the State of the Nation to Parliament in Accra on March 30, 2022. He said the government had accepted the challenges and was taking the required difficult decisions that would get the country out of them, saying: “If anyone ever had any doubt about the need to be self-reliant, the point has now been forcibly drilled home to us. The pursuit of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda is even more compe...

  GhanaWeb Reporter, Ghana’s first digital media sharing platform, has been launched to democratize journalism and empower content creators. Integrated into the GhanaWeb App, the award-winning platform running on both iOS and Android operating systems aims to give Ghanaians an opportunity to amplify their voices on issues that matter to them and for content creators to earn a share of the advertising revenue. Envisioned in 2019, the GhanaWeb Reporter has gone through several phases of development and in December 2021, it was presented to the public at the Ghana Bloggers Summit where 10 bloggers and citizen journalists were selected for usability testing to evaluate its effectiveness. The GhanaWeb Reporter has two main accounts which are the Basic Reporter and the Professional Reporter. The Basic Reporter is the default account that gives users access to the basic features including GhanaWeb discounts and services like the GhanaWeb Self-Service Advertising, GhanaWeb Memorial and Gha...

  THE economy is in for a digital payments boom as more people switch from cash-based transactions to electronic (e) commerce that are settled electronically. The rising momentum in e-commerce transactions has led to a strong growth in the amount of transactions that are settled online, with estimates showing that the figure could more than double by 2025. The Country Manager of Visa, Adoma Owusu, said at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting on E-services last week that E-commerce sales in Ghana was projected to hit US$1.3 billion by 2025 Owusu said about US$638 million was spent on goods and services last year and estimates now show that the figure will rise by 19 per cent to US$759 million in 2022. The digital technology expert was the chairperson at the thought leadership event that was held on the theme: ‘Integration of E-Service into our economy - Implications for economic growth and quality of life.” Experts say the increment in E-commerce will create more jobs...

The government’s quest to make Ghana an industrialised nation in the nearest future is gradually beginning to bear major fruits. Through the Ghana Automotive Development Policy launched in 2019 with the aim of making affordable new vehicles in the Ghanaian market and reduce the heavy reliance on used vehicles, which create environmental pollution, Japan Motors Trading Company (JMTC) has finally been approved to begin the production of the all new ‘Built of More’ Nissan Navara at its new assembly plant in Tema. near Accra. It is in line with the country’s quest to create the right environment that seeks to change the dynamic to attract investment from leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) into the economy. Known for its positive business acumen, Japan Motors got the nod after the company went through the rigorous Nissan manufacturing quality standards validation process in February 2022. Earlier, Japan Motors sent a core team of 12 engineers to Nissan Motors continental light ...

  Nigerian's Vice President, Prof. Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo, has declared his intention to run for the highest seat of the land.  See  below for  the Vice President Osinbajo’s presidential declaration speech . Fellow Nigerians, a few moments ago, I met with President Muhammadu Buhari. I informed him that I wanted to succeed him as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Though it is not my life-long ambition, it has become imperative that to rescue Nigeria, we need someone to build on the achievements of President Buhari. I have looked around; I do not see anyone better suited to carry on that solemn assignment than my humble self. As a great father of the nation, which Buhari is, he wished me well. I took this bold step after a wide-ranging consultation with Nigerians of various ethnic, religious, and economic hues. I listened to market women and men, I sat down with the young and old, I heard from students and intellectuals, I broke bread with the unemplo...

...wins 7 awards in one night MTN Ghana has been inducted into the African Human Resources Innovation Awards (AHRIA) Hall of Fame at a ceremony held over the weekend in Accra. In addition, MTN won six other prestigious awards, the highest of awards received by any nominee at the event. The awards MTN received were: HR Hall of Fame - MTN Best Organization in Employee Benefits Most Innovative Work from Home Plan Policy Employer Brand of the Year HR Team of the Year (Gold) Employer of the Year Africa Top 50 HR Leader – Amma Benneh-Amponsah The Chief Human Resources Officer at MTN Ghana, Amma Benneh-Amponsah was named among the Africa Top 50 HR Leaders. This is the third time Amma has been recognized for her exceptional contribution to people/human capital strategies in Africa. Speaking at the Awards, Amma Benneh-Amponsah, expressed gratitude to the organizers and dedicated the awards to MTN Employees.  She said, “As an organization, MTN enables an environment that allows Employees to ...

 PRICES of foodstuffs in the open market have gone up sharply in the last couple of months, raising serious concerns about the rising cost of living in the country. The development is largely driven by the steep rise in petroleum products leading to the upward adjustment in transport fares across the country according to a random survey conducted by the Graphic Business in some major markets in the capital city. They include the Mallam Atta, Adabraka, CMB and Agbobloshie markets. The survey was to gauge how the increase in transport fares had affected food prices in the last couple of weeks ahead of the formal release of inflation figures for the month of March. The latest phenomenon is fast eroding the disposal income of both private and public sector workers whose earnings have largely remained static since January. Food prices Read also: Hike in fuel prices: Minority demands scrapping of 3 taxes on petroleum products A 50kg bag of onion now sells at GH¢550 as against GH¢400 in D...

 ON a daily basis, more money circulates between mobile phones that cost a few thousands of cedis to own than they move around banks and their branches that cost an arm and a leg to build or rent. Since overtaking cheques as the number one payment system in the country around 2017, mobile money (MOMO) has maintained its dominance in the electronic (e) transactions space, helping to oil the digitalisation and cash-lite drives that are the next game-changers for the economy. The mobile chip-based transactions have also emerged as the most potent medium to deepening financial inclusion and closing the inequality gap in the country and globally. Through MOMO, millions of Ghanaians who would have hitherto struggled to access financial services now consume them at the comfort of their farms, shops and homes. The data A Bank of Ghana (BoG) report showed that 372 transactions valued at GH¢76.2 billion occurred on MOMO in January, this year, compared to the 436 cheques valued at GH¢16.1 bil...

The Ghana Cocoa Board, COCOBOD, is predicting fertilizer shortage for cocoa farmers in the coming years. Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahene Aidoo, attributed the impact of COVID-19 and the current Russia-Ukraine war as reasons for the potential shortage. Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus are the three countries that produce the base elements for fertilizer production. And with the war there, it means that, we cannot get the base elements to produce the fertilizer not only for Ghana but the world. It is going to be difficult so if that base element cannot be obtained, it means there is going to be a shortage. So we must all brace ourselves that come next year, fertilizer is not going to be there. Even if there is, it is going to be limited.” He was speaking during the inauguration of three Management Committees including the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), the Seed Production Division (SPD), and the Cocoa Health and Extension Division. Boahene says even though measu...

  A Vector Control Officer (VCO) of Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), Enoch Mintah, has hinted that his outfit's continuous disinfection of the country’s airports is to contain the virus. He said despite the reduction in Covid cases across the country, his company will continue to carry out disinfection operations in the country’s airports until the virus was no more. Even though we know there has been a fall in the number of cases recorded in recent times, we're bent on ensuring the country records zero cases of Covid, particularly at the entry points", he assured. Mintah made the observation during the monthly disinfection of the Kotoka International Airport on Tuesday, March 29, 2022. He also underscored the need to concentrate more on the country's airports, detailing that most of the cases recorded by the country were imported. We all know that the airport is a hotspot. Therefore, the need to concentrate on the airports. We know we have recorded low number of cases an...

  Minority Members of Parliament staged a walk-out before the Electronic transfer Levy (E-Levy) Bill 2021 was passed on Tuesday (March 29, 2022) afternoon. The Minority had complained that it had been taken by surprise by the consideration of the levy given that it was not listed in Parliament’s business statement for the week. The Bill which was considered under a certificate of urgency was adopted at a reduced rate of 1.5% from the proposed 1.75%. Walkout The Minority MPs had walked out of Parliament before the second reading of the Bill after debating it. Read also: Roads Minister instructed to reverse suspension of road tolls As a result, proposed amendments in the name of some Minority MPs were removed because none of them was present to move the amendments in their name. The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, stated that he was surprised by the walkout of the Minority. He, however, indicated that it would not affect the course of proceedings. Background The Government of Gh...

 About 12.7 per cent of fully completed houses as well as other habitable structures nation-wide are not occupied although the country grapples with a 1.8 million housing units deficit. The unoccupied houses are part of the 10.7 million structures listed during the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC). The development is the result of peoples’ inability to afford existing houses across the country. It is in the light of this that the government has prioritised the delivery of affordable housing units in the medium term to help ensure that people with low incomes are able to afford decent accommodation. The Minister of Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, who said this in Accra, last Tuesday, added that the government had instituted strategic policies meant to increase the delivery of low-cost houses and help close the affordability gap. Delivering his keynote address at Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) Breakfast Meeting for estate developers and allied firms, Asenso-Boakye ...