Kofi Ahovi

  A high powered delegation comprising mostly the new Board Members of the Ghana Bauxite Company (GBC) led by its Executive Chairman, Isaac Ofori Poku, has participated in this year’s 2022 Bauxite and Alumina Conference held this week in Miami- USA. The delegation led by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, also the MP for Damongo Constituency, Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor used the platform to woo potential investors in bauxite mining and further made a strong case for the need to establish a bauxite refinery in Ghana. The trip which was fully sponsored by the Ghana Bauxite Company  also had GIADEC CEO, Michael Ansah, on the trip. Also in attendance were the Director of Ports Takoradi, Captain Ebenezer Afadzi and Dr. Kingsley Antwi-Boasiako, the Head of Marketing, Takoradi Port. The GBC has been producing metallurgical grade bauxite which is known as trihydrate sweetener bauxite for over 80 years and recently Bosai Mineral Group sold its 80 percent shares in GBC to a n...

 The participation of mining communities and the public in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA process), especially before any mining operation takes place, was very crucial, the Associate Executive Director of Wacam, Hannah Owusu-Koranteng, has underscored. She said such a move enables stakeholders, particularly mining communities, to know the intended project and its effects on them, allow for obtaining local and traditional knowledge for decision-making, and more importantly, facilitate alternatives to mitigate the impacts of the project. Owusu-Koranteng was speaking at the opening of a two-day training on human rights for communities affected by mining in the Central Region organised by Wacam in Bogoso of the Western Region on Thursday, April 21, 2022. The workshop brought together about thirty-five (35) people from various communities affected by the operations of Perseus Mining Ghana Limited (PMGL) in the Upper Denkyira West of the Central Region. The communities were Br...

  The Centre for Environmental Impact Analysis (CEIA) has cautioned residents in mining communities to carefully think about the health consequences of mining before giving their consent to any mining project. This, the non-governmental organisation said, would help put in place measures to protect the health of community members against the health hazards of mining. The Executive Director for CEIA, Dr. Samuel Obiri, gave the advice in a presentation dubbed: ‘Making Human Health and Environmental Issues Associated With Mining an Important Consideration to Decide Whether to Accept Mining’ during a two-day training on human rights for communities affected by mining. The workshop, which was organised by Wacam in Bogoso in the Western Region, on Thursday, April 21, 2022, for communities affected by operations of Perseus Mining Ghana Limited (PMGL), brought together 35 community members. The affected communities were Ayanfuri, Breman and Akrofuom—all in the Upper Denkyira West District ...

  Kwadwo, who allegedly engaged his biological brother, Kwabena Appiah Mensah Antwi, to succeed in the crime, and used his share of the stolen money to buy two iPhones for himself or his wife, paid off his personal debt, as well as completed building his house. Kwadwo Berko Antwi, a personal Accounts Manager of a customer of Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited, Maame Nkansah, is said to have allegedly forged a document and stolen funds of the customer to the tune of GH¢485,450. Kwadwo, who allegedly engaged his biological brother, Kwabena Appiah Mensah Antwi, to succeed in the crime, and used his share of the stolen money to buy two iPhones for himself or his wife, paid off his personal debt, as well as completed building his house. Kwadwo, Relationship Officer at the Fidelity Bank, Ridge Branch, and Kwabena, a Graphic Designer, were arraigned before the Accra Circuit Court ‘2’ on the counts of forgery of official document, stealing, and abetment of crime. The two have pleaded not guilty t...

  MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana are pleased to announce significant progress in the bid to implement a national roaming service in Ghana amongst operators. In this regard, MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana have entered a strategic partnership to pilot national roaming in the Volta Region as a first step to a broader nationwide national roaming partnership. This agreement will see Vodafone Ghana expand coverage of its network by leveraging MTN’s network infrastructure in this pilot phase. National roaming implementation in Ghana is intended to facilitate universal access and accelerate digitalization in line with the country’s ambitions of a digital economy. This pilot is a first step to a bigger plan by Government to have a full national roaming regime amongst all operators in the country. Patricia Obo-Nai, CEO of Vodafone Ghana in a statement said, The implementation of national roaming will enable Vodafone Ghana customers to stay connected in areas outside our current locations of cove...

The Central African Republic (CAR) has approved Bitcoin as legal tender - just the second country to do so. CAR is one of the world's poorest countries, but is rich in diamonds, gold and uranium. It has been wracked by conflict for decades and is a close Russian ally, with mercenaries from the Wagner Group helping fight rebel forces. Lawmakers voted unanimously to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, said a statement from the CAR presidency. The move puts CAR "on the map of the world's boldest and most visionary countries", it said. El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as an official currency in September 2021 - a move criticised by many economists, including the International Monetary Fund, which said it increased the risk of financial instability. Others have raised fears that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin could make it easier for criminals to launder money, and that they are environmentally damaging because they use so much electricity to generate. Th...

  All is set for the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy) to take off on Sunday, as scheduled. The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the three charging entities – banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions (DFIs), electronic money issuers (EMIs) and telecommunications companies (telcos) – have put in place the relevant systems and mechanisms to start collecting 1.5 per cent as levy on daily electronic transfers. This means that from Sunday, all electronic transfers that are done in a day and above GH¢100 will attract a 1.5 per cent per cent levy to be remitted to the GRA to support the government to fund development. Smooth takeoff The Commissioner-General of the GRA, Rev. Dr. Ammisshaddai Owusu-Amoah; the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, and the CEO of the Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB), John Awuah, told the Daily Graphic in separate interviews yesterday that they expected the implementation to be smooth. Th...

The government has cut the revenue target from the Electronic Transactions levy (E-Levy) to GH¢4.5 billion in line with developments following the proposal of the levy in November last year. The Commissioner-General of GRA, Reverend Dr. Ammisshaddai Owusu-Amoah, explained that the revision followed the reduction in the rate from 1.75 per cent to 1.5 per cent, the delay in implementing the levy and the negative sentiments that heralded the proposal of the levy last year. Dr. Owusu-Amoah added that GRA’s internal survey had indicated that electronic transactions would slowdown in the first days of the levy's implementation before picking up. He was, however, optimistic that transactions would stabilise in the medium term as people get used to the levy. He said the various exemptions provided by the government were boosters to the usage of electronic transactions and thus urged the public to look at the convenience provided by digital transactions. He also called on the public to take...

 The Interior Minister has urged officers of the Greater Accra City Response Team (CRT) to work hard and be disciplined in the discharge of their duties. Ambrose Dery, who represented President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, made the call at the passing out ceremony of the first batch of the Greater Accra City Response Team Course 1--2022. In all, 867 CRT trainees passed out after four weeks' rigorous training at the Army Peace Operation Training School (APOTS) of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) at Burma Camp on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. The Greater Accra City Response Team module is under the 'Operation Clean Your Frontage' campaign which was launched by President Akufo-Addo in October, last year. The four-week course trained the CRT officers in traffic management, voice procedure reporting, first aid, VIP protection, crowd control, sensitising Ghanaians on good sanitation practices among others. Four recruits — Ernestina Afriyie, Florence Jean, Caleb Mensah and Ransford Lartey ...

 A businessman at Ayanfuri in the Central Region has vowed to use all legal means possible to ensure that Perseus Mining (Ghana) Limited (PMGL) compensates him for the company’s alleged damage to his television set and refrigerator. According to Moses Akomaninig Agyapong, the issue has lingered on for almost two years now with PMGL unwilling to address the matter once and for all. That, he said, was against the backdrop of several written and verbal complaints sent to the mining company. Akomaning Agyapong in an interview on the sidelines of a two-day workshop organised for communities affected by mining in Bogoso in the Western Region recently. Additionally, he is asking the company to compensate him for his frozen stuff in the refrigerator which subsequently got spoiled after the incident. He said in the current state of play, he has been left with no option but to resort to legal action to have the matter permanently resolved. And whatever legal action I am taking will also incl...

 Mobile network operator, Glo has entered into a nationwide National Roaming arrangement with state-owned AirtelTigo for voice, data and SMS services as part of efforts to provide wider coverage and a faster internet experience for its customers. As part of the partnership, all Glo customers will automatically latch onto the AirtelTigo network by April 23, 2022. A joint statement issued by the two companies assured customers that all other conditions of service remain unchanged on the Glo network under the agreement. This means, Glo customers will continue to recharge with Glo's scratch cards or electronic credit transfers and enjoy all existing Glo products including Value Added Services," the statement said. The statement also urged all Glo customers who will face any difficulty in automatically switching service provider to do so manually. Glo customers who face any difficulty in automatically latching onto the AirtelTigo network are advised to manually select the Airt...

 The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has expressed grave concern over the alarming rate at which cocoa farms are being destroyed by illegal mining, also called galamsey, across the country. The Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, said in a presentation available to the Daily Graphic that more than 19,000 hectares (Ha) of cocoa farms had either been destroyed or affected by galamsey activities, leading to loss of income to farmers and investments by the board and the country at large. In the presentation, made to the members of the boards of directors of COCOBOD and the Minerals Commission at a joint board meeting to find lasting solutions to the canker, Aidoo said the destruction of cocoa farms through galamsey was pronounced in the Eastern, Western and Ashanti regions, from where more than 90 per cent of the country’s total cocoa production comes. The meeting, which was convened by COCOBOD, the cocoa sector regulator, was co-chaired by the Board Chairman of COCOBO...

 A pharmaceutical company, Atlantic Lifesciences Limited, has inaugurated a large-scale plant for the production of intravenous (IV) fluids, antiserums and vaccines for the West African market. The $35 million specialised factory, with a sterile pharmaceutical plant for producing infusions, eye drops, vaccines, serums, injections and general anaesthesia drugs, was financed by the Ghana Export Import (EXIM) Bank and the Standard Chartered Bank and from the company’s own resources. Located at Lakpleku, near Old Ningo in the Ningo-Prampram District in the Greater Accra Region, the plant, which operates under the government’s One-District, One-Factory (1D1F) initiative, has become the 107th factory to be operationalised under the initiative, which has 278 enterprises being established and rehabilitated across the country. The inauguration of the Atlantic Lifesciences plant by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo last Friday brings to five the number of infusion manufacturing firms in ...

 One of the major components in food crop production globally, which was badly hit last year because of COVID-19 and exacerbated this year by the Russia invasion of Ukraine, is fertiliser. Farmers globally rely heavily on fertilisers to grow their crops. All fertilisers are made up of either nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium. Nitrogen, which is 98 per cent of the world fertiliser is made from natural gas, but unfortunately, the prices of natural gas have more than doubled and in some places, four times higher than the previous year, making the future market look gloomy. Consequently, the price of ammonia fertiliser, which is nitrogen-based, has shot up from $200 per tonne last cropping season to $1,000 per tonne currently on the global market. The other two types are equally not spared, especially as a result of the crisis in Ukraine. It is estimated that about 10 per cent of the world's phosphate comes from Russia and 25 per cent of the world's potassium also comes from Russia...

Mars Incorporated, a maker of chocolate for more than 100 years, has announced a new effort to improve the livelihoods of smallholder cocoa farmers. Two groundbreaking farmer-first programs will aim to support 14,000 smallholder farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Indonesia on a path to a sustainable living income in the next eight years. These programs were designed in consultation with cocoa farmers and development partners and build on lessons learned from Mars’ recent efforts to improve livelihoods for farmers of mint and other raw materials. The findings from these new programs will be used to create a blueprint of interventions that Mars can scale across the cocoa supply chain. Ten years ago, Mars decoded the cocoa plant genome for the first time. Today we are aiming to crack the code on a sustainable living income for cocoa farmers to enable them and their families to thrive for generations,” said Barry Parkin, Mars Chief. Sustainability and Procurement Officer. “Efforts to improve far...

 Beginning this year, the woes of the Ghanaian cedi have deepened as it has become one of the worst-performing currencies in Africa. While a fall in the value of a currency may not in itself be a bad thing – (many countries have used exchange depreciation to increase the volume of exports) – the case of Ghana is unique, in that our problem with the cedi’s depreciation is double-edged. First, we are unable to take advantage of it to increase our exports; second, we remain unable to limit our reliance on imports for daily consumption. These perennial problems are mainly due to basic flaws in the structure of our economy. Historical background During colonial rule, Ghana’s economy was designed to export raw materials to feed the industrialisation agenda of Western economies while being dependent on imports of finished goods from these nations. Since then, there have not been any major attempts (apart, perhaps, from the 1960s) to restructure the nation’s economy to support a more benef...

 The Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency at the Presidency, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, has urged businesses, especially those in the extractive sector, to fully comply with the Beneficial Ownership Transparency (BOT) initiative that Ghana has signed on to. He said the existence of a quality and timely beneficial ownership (BO) data was important to improve natural resources governance in the country. The government in September 2021, committed to the implementation and acceleration of BO disclosure and data use by joining the Opening Extractives (OE) programme, which is a global initiative aimed at transforming the availability and use of BO data for effective governance in the extractive sector. Speaking in an interview with the Graphic Business, Dr Osae said BOT, which helped to ensure transparency over who ultimately owned and controlled companies, was an important intervention to reduce corruption by preventing companies from hiding revenues that could be taxed. He said it ...