Kofi Ahovi

 The Apex body of Women in Poultry Value Chain (WIPVaC) has held a three-day poultry management training for its members and other producers in the poultry value chain within the Ashanti region. The training, which was in collaboration with the American Soybean Association (ASA), World Initiative for Soy In Human Health (WISHH), Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers, focused on quality egg production, biosecurity to improve hygiene on the farms. President of the WIPVaC, Dr. Victoria Norgbey says the training complements government’s efforts to bolster the poultry industry. If you have all the resources for poultry farming and you don’t have good farming management practices, your farm cannot still survive. These trainings come together to help the farmer stay afloat in the business,” she said.   [caption id="attachment_10032383696" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Dr. Mrs. Victoria Norgbey - President, Ap...

 UCS Facility Management Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies as part of its Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR) has offered a free professional cleaning services to flood victims at Nanakrom near East Legon Hills in the Adentan Municipal Assembly in the Greater Accra Region. The company took the initiative to bring relief to flood victims of last Friday September 22, rains which flooded the whole community rendering them homeless and destroying millions of properties. The Nanakrom Community which is noted as a flood prone area since June 3, 2016 is also a borderline within the operations of UCS hence the decision to move to the community to help them salvage the rest of their properties. Speaking to the media, the Operations Manager of UCS Facility Management Ghana Ltd, Mr. Grant Daniel Kuao said UCS believes in touching lives through professional services. So as part of our CSR, we decided to offer free professional cleaning services to the flood victim...

 The US oil benchmark briefly surged to $95 a barrel as dwindling stockpiles at a key storage hub fanned fears about falling crude supplies globally. West Texas Intermediate touched the highest level since August last year, before paring gains to trade little changed. Oil’s latest leg higher was led by a decline in inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for US futures. With supplies there flirting with minimum operational levels, key prices gauges are surging amid fears of scarcity, a move that is rippling across the world. The nearest timespreads for WTI and global benchmark Brent are in extreme bullish structures as traders pay bumper premiums to keep crude supplies local. “It really all boils down to concerns over supply tightness continuing and even exacerbating going into the northern hemisphere winter months,” Vandana Hari, founder of consultancy Vanda Insights, said on Bloomberg TV. “You have a market which is very tightly strung right now, almost on the verge ...

  Fitch Ratings has affirmed FirstRand Bank Limited's (FRB) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BB-' with a Stable Outlook. According to the UK based firm, FirstRand Bank Limited's Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) are driven by its standalone creditworthiness, as expressed by its Viability Rating (VR) of 'bb-'. The VR reflects the bank's solid domestic business profile, strong profitability, comfortable capital buffers and stable funding and liquidity. However, the VR is one notch below the implied VR of 'bb' due to the following constraint: Operating Environment/Sovereign Rating. This underlines the concentration of the bank's activities in South Africa and high sovereign-related exposure relative to equity of about 3x at the end of half year 2023”, it mentioned. Furthermore, it said the bank's National Ratings reflect its creditworthiness in local currency relative to that of other South African issuers. Strong Domestic Franchise Fitch s...

 Ghana’s health budget is expected to expand to ¢16.5 billion in 2024, from ¢15.2 billion in 2023. According to Fitch Solutions, the medical device market will benefit from increasing government spending on health and economic recovery over 2024.  We believe ongoing health infrastructure projects and rollout of the National Health Insurance Scheme will continue to support increased budgetary spending on health over the coming decades as well spending on pharmaceuticals and medical devices. We further highlight recovery in Ghana’s real Gross Domestic Product in 2024 after sharp declines in 2022 and 2023 will also support private spending on medical devices and medical devices imports in the country over our forecast period”, it explained. “We forecast real GDP growth to accelerate to 3.7% in 2024 from an estimated 3.0% in 2023. However, GDP will remain below the five-year pre-pandemic average of 5.3% as a result of strong price pressures and fiscal consolidation”, the UK based ...

 The Data Protection Commission would today September 28, 2023 embark on another enforcement exercise to clamp down on unregistered data controllers. The Commission began active enforcement last month, conducting spot checks, data protection audits and arresting companies found culpable of data breaches. This activity, the Executive Director, Patricia Adusei-Poku, says has come to stay in order to hold accountable data controllers to ensure full compliance with the law. We the Data Protection Commission still consider that the percentage of public who are responsible for data controllers compared to what is in our database is still very low. We have over 800,000 records of active tax payers that have failed to register with the commission.” “This is why we have scaled up the law by doing this spot checks and visiting institutions that are falling foul of the requirement of this legal obligation”, she told an Accra based television station. She added that her outfit is undertaking t...

  ABSA Bank has disbursed GH¢100 million under a new initiative meant to empower and drive the growth of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana.  The initiative, under the bank’s 10 per cent SME Loan Programme, is in partnership with Mastercard Foundation, and it is a landmark financing programme from the bank to help transform the landscape of SMEs with a lot of focus on women-owned businesses, young entrepreneurs, agribusinesses and fintechs in Ghana.  It allows SMEs in scope of the programme to borrow up to GH¢11 million from Absa Bank at a remarkably low rate of 10 per cent per annum.  It also allows them to borrow up to GH¢1million without collateral as against the average commercial borrowing rates that have soared above 25 per cent making it harder for businesses to thrive and achieve their full potential.  In a release issued by the bank, it said Absa Bank Ghana LTD has always been committed to the growth and success of small and medium-sized...

  Solar Taxi, has been assembling electric vehicles in Ghana and is the third largest electric vehicle assembler in Africa.   The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Wednesday (Sept 27] paid a visit to the start-up, SolarTaxi.     They assemble motorcycles, cars, and buses.   "It was a pleasure to take a ride in one of their buses which can travel from Accra to Kumasi without need for a recharge of the batteries. They are also able to convert existing internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles," Vice President Bawumia said when he visited the plant on Wednesday.     Dr Bawumia made the point that electric vehicles are the future and the government was working on a policy framework of using electric vehicles for public transport in Ghana.     "This will drastically reduce the cost of transportation as the major components of the cost is fuel and spare parts. It will also reduce carbon emissions," the Vice President added. ...

 New report reveals Ghana’s democratic ranking, one of the highest in Africa, is at risk of decline as the government increases its possession of surveillance technologies, coinciding with the arrest of journalists and civil society campaigners. The report published by the Institute of Development Studies and the African Digital Rights Network details Ghana’s use of surveillance technologies, where known contracts with multiple overseas companies totaled US$184m. The majority has been spent on implementing a so-called safe city project with a CCTV component powered by Chinese company Huawei’s facial recognition AI. Additionally, multiple new biometric identification systems require citizens to provide facial recognition or fingerprint biometrics. Ghana has previously been recognised as one of Africa’s most politically open and free countries, but recent and rapid expansion of public space surveillance have given cause for concern. The government is using this technology to single o...

  Bilateral trade volume between Ghana and China reached an unprecedented high at US$10.2 billion last year, with Ghana's exports to China surging by 60 per cent. Lu Kun, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, who stated this, added that his country remained Ghana's largest partner and major foreign investment source for years, thus offering significant opportunities for their peoples. The Ambassador was speaking at a reception to mark the 74th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Hosted by Lu at his official residence, in Accra, and attended by high profile dignitaries, including the Second Lady, Samira Bawumia, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, members of the Diplomatic Corps, the Chinese business community and residents in Ghana, the grand reception was charaterised by rich Chinese cultural displays. In 2021, the bilateral trade volume was US$9.57 billion. China mainly imports mineral fuel...

  Former Black Stars coach, James Kwasi Appiah, is set to travel to the Sudan to manage the North African country's senior national team after receiving endorsement from the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to take up the new role. However, the 63-year-old will maintain his esteemed position as the Technical Director of Ghana Premier League side, Asante Kotoko. In a statement released by Kotoko on Wednesday, it was revealed that the Asantehene, who is also the sole shareholder of the club, engaged in a fruitful discussion with Coach Appiah during a meeting in London on the coach's dual responsibilities of managing the Sudanese national team and his role at Kotoko. Following the meeting, the Asantehene offered his wholehearted endorsement for Appiah's new role with the Sudanese FA and his ongoing commitment to the Porcupine Warriors. The club's website also confirmed Appiah's intentions to contest the GFA's Executive Council position in the upcoming elections in...

 The Apex body of Women in Poultry Value Chain (WIPVaC) with support from Star Ghana Foundation has held a planning meeting for stakeholders in the livestock sector to develop a roadmap for the implementation of biosecurity on farms. The roadmap is expected to be presented to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The National President of WIPVaC, Dr. Victoria Norgbey, stressed that the implementation of the biosecurity on the livestock farms will greatly impact the quality of production of livestock for the Ghanaian market. [caption id="attachment_18425" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Women in Poultry Value Chain, biosecurity, WIPVaC, Star Ghana [/caption] The certification will enable the insurance and financial institutions to lower the risk level when farmers are accessing these products. and we ourselves will have efficient production and maximize profit as well as adequately meet the protein needs ...

 The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has disclosed that, the decision to establish an Independent Secretariat for Climate Vulnerable Forum and the V20 Group of Finance Ministers was a giant step towards achieving climate prosperity objectives. The Minister, who is the Chair of the V20 – the Finance Ministers of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, made these remarks at a high-level leader’s meeting during the 2023 United Nations General Assembly. The meeting was under the theme “Advancing Climate Prosperity, Building a Resilient Global Financial Architecture for the Climate Vulnerable’’.   The establishment of an independent Secretariat, the Minister said, would ensure that the coalition has a legal form that would facilitate the mobilisation of more resources to support member states in the development and implementation of their climate prosperity goals. He added that, it would also ensure the provision of policy guidance, facilitation of access to financial resources for adap...

The Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) says enough progress has been made in tackling the issues of obscure licensing procedures and concealed ownership. Dr Steve Manteaw, the Co-Chair of the GHEITI, at a dissemination workshop, highlighted the significant progress that was made in promoting transparency and accountability within the extractive industry, leading to solving the longstanding concern of opaque licensing procedures. The workshop was part of the 2020 Ghana EITI reports on the mining, oil, and gas sectors held at New Abirem in the Birim North district of the Eastern region. In 2019, the government, through the Office of Registrar of Companies (ORC), and Parliament passed a new Companies Act (Act 992) that mandated the ORC to establish a central register for the collection of Beneficial Ownership (BO) information. Dr Manteaw said the transformative impact of the introduction of BO measures had successfully addressed long standing concerns about obscure...

  Leaders from global business, investment, government, sports, and the arts gathered in New York on Thursday, 21 st September to mark the commencement of “Unstoppable Africa”. The event by the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI) seeks to elevate Africa’s prominence in the global economy and position the continent as the premier destination for business, trade, and investment. The two-day event is co-convened by the United Nations Deputy Secretary General, Amina J. Mohamed and the Chairperson of the African Union H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. GABI, coordinated by the UN Global Compact, serves as a pivotal forum for Heads of State and Government, CEOs, investors, policymakers, industry experts, and U.N. leaders to discuss and strategize the way forward for Africa’s dynamic business landscape. “Unstoppable Africa” is a powerful affirmation of GABI’s unwavering commitment to redefining Africa’s economic narrative. O...

  Unstoppable Africa 2023 has concluded, leaving a profound mark on the African continent. The two-day Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI) event aims to boost Africa’s standing in the global economy and establish the continent as the foremost destination for business, trade, and investment. This transformative gathering on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly has not only chartered the course for economic growth but has also solidified GABI’s pivotal role as a catalyst for change and progress. On the second day of the event, Caroline Wanga, CEO of Essence Ventures, emphasized the importance of authentically portraying African narratives. She highlighted that the continent's rich heritage has traditionally been expressed through its unique storytelling methods. Wanga stated, "In discussing Africa, it's vital to engage in genuine dialogue. We've celebrated our heritage through our distinct method of storytelling, which the world is longing for now more than ever...

  The Ghana Upstream Petroleum Chamber has held its 2023 Ghana Oil and Gas Conference. The well attended conference brought together over 500 participants from industry, government, banking, academia and numerous professional services with an interest in oil and gas. The 2-day conference had the theme "Prospects and Opportunities in the oil and gas industry. The highly patronized event included delegations from Nigeria and from Trinidad and Tobago. The Chamber launched its 2023 industry report - a comprehensive and up to date documentation of the state of the industry at both the global and local level. The report provides an overview of the industry with reference to key issues in 2022 such as oil production, gas production, gas for power generation and the economic benefits of gas. It also highlights the contribution of the sector to the economy and the global outlook for oil and gas. It ends with some recommendations centered around increasing incentives for exploration, optimi...

The Fund for Peace (FFP), a Non- Governmental Organization (NGO), through its Responsive Engagements and Collective Learning Approaches to Inform Mercury Substitution (RECLAIMS) project is seeking to reduce mercury use in Artisanal and Small-Scale gold mining (ASGM) in Ghana. They plan to achieve this by incentivizing less-harmful alternatives for gold processing and addressing the technical and methodological gaps in the adoption of these alternatives. Speaking with members of the Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA) at a capacity building in Accra, the Programmes Director of Fund For Peace, Wendy Wilson, noted that in the medium- to long-term, this will lead to improved licensing, regulation, and oversight of the ASGM sector and address current policy challenges to reduce environmental, health, and other vulnerabilities and risks. She explained that the RECLAIMS-ASGM project seeks to address the ASGM issues at three different levels: local, regional and national/policy. At the loc...

 The Management of Zoomlion Ghana Limited has noted that it finds it quite regrettable publications in the media on comments attributed to the Hon. James Klutse Avedzi Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC) on Wednesday, 20th September 2023, cautioning Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) against renewing contracts with Zoomlion. According to the company, in a press statement, said it actively participated in a PAC hearing to address questions and provided comprehensive explanations with evidence regarding the issues raised in the Auditor General's report. During this hearing, the company said it presented substantial evidence to demonstrate its commitment to fulfilling its contractual obligations to the MMDAs. Following the PAC hearing, there has been no adverse report or further queries from the PAC suggesting any irregularities with Zoomlion’s performance. This to us indicates that, the PAC was satisfied with the explanations and evidenc...

  MTN Ghana has presented a cheque of GHS34,581,713.52 to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT)   as payment  of the final dividend for the  year ended 2022  and interim dividend for  2023. The presentation follows the approval of the final dividend of 12.4 pesewas on ordinary shares at its Annual General Meeting held earlier this year, bringing the total dividend for the 2022 financial year to 16.4 pesewas per share  and the declaration of an  interim dividend of  5 .0 pesewas per share  for the 2023 financial year. Antoinette Kwofie, Chief Finance Officer of MTN Ghana, presented the cheque to SSNIT and  thanked the leadership of SSNIT for their continued faith and partnership  with  MTN  Ghana . She also  emphasized the company’s unwavering commitment to  realizing  its Ambition 2025 strategy  which will unlock value for all stakeholders . Antoinette Kwofie noted that  SSN...

  Plans to manufacture vehicle components are underway to build the nation’s competitiveness in the automobile industry, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond, has said. This will help establish and sustain the competitiveness in the sector over the long term while an increased local content will qualify its products as substantially made in Ghana in order to access preferential markets such as AfCFTA, duty-free and quota-free,” he added.  Event  Hammond was speaking at the opening of the 2023 Association of Ghana Industry (AGI) Industrial Summit and Exhibition in Accra yesterday.  The three-day summit is on the theme: “Industrialisation through sustainable and efficient supply chains.”  The platform would enable members of the association, manufacturers, international bodies and agencies, industry players, government institutions, as well as the private sector to deliberate on decisions that will enhance their operations and also provide oppo...