The president of the Republic of Ghana ,H.E Nana Akufo Addo on Friday, 22nd April 2022, commissioned the $30 million Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd, a company operating under Government’s 1-District-1-Factory Programme, and located at Ningo Prampram.
The Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd is part of the one hundred and seventh (107th) factory completed and operating under the 1D1F initiative, out of the two hundred and seventy-eight (278) enterprises being established and rehabilitated across the country.
Out of the total investment for the project, which is estimated at thirty-five million dollars (US$35 million), Ghana Exim Bank provided a credit facility to the tune of ten million dollars ($10 million) for the procurement of plant, equipment, and machinery.
This underscores the kind of support given by Government to the private sector to take advantage of economic opportunities in the country.
Speaking at the commissioning, President Akufo-Addo said the ceremony was a fulfilment of the promise by the government, in partnership with the private sector, to set up at least one medium to large scale enterprise in every district of Ghana.
He made it clear that the plant, the 107th to be built under the 1D-1F initiative, would enhance the country’s plan to be self-reliant in the production of essential medicines and equipment, and vaccines.
The President was happy that the factory would create some 380 direct jobs and when fully operational it will generate additional 400 direct jobs.
Mr Alan Kyerematen, Minister for Trade and Industry was also there to assist.
Deloris Frimpong Manso, known by her on-air name Delay is back on the radio.
Delay has a vast experience in the Ghanaian broadcasting space, having been in the business since 1999 till date.
She has worked with notable radio stations such as Life FM in Nkawkaw , Top Radio Accra and then Oman FM .
Whilst she was working with Oman FM, Delay started her own television program, the Delay Show in 2008 on TV3.
In 2011, she wrote and produced the household television series, Afia Schwarzenegger.
Her television production company, Maxgringo Productions brought out yet another television series ”Cocoa Brown”, a story loosely based on the true-life of herself.
In a post cited by countryghana on her official facebook page as shown below potrary how she is happy is to be back on wontumi radio.
The Minister of Education Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum had a meeting with the management of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to extend the deadline for the payment of fees .
In a statement released signed by Dr Daniel Bekoe the deputy registrar of university relation Office,KNUST has entreated all those affected to take advantage of the new directive of the extension for the payment of fees which will end on 23rd May,2022 and those with genuine financial crises to visit the Student Load Trust.
They also advised parents and guardians to take special note in assisting their wards in the new directives
Despite assets growing strongly, the banking industry has witnessed a decline in the growth of deposits in February 2022, compared to same period last year, with non-residents leading the damage with a huge slump of 118.6 percent, a development an economist says reflects the general economic challenges in the country.
The Monetary Policy Report (March 2022), published by Bank of Ghana has revealed that banks saw a colossal decline in their non-residents deposits growth to 49.6 percent in February 2022, from 168.2 percent same period last year.
Domestic deposits also decreased to 18 percent from 24.6 percent within the period. In all, banks’ deposits grew by 18.2 percent in February 2022 compared to 25.1 percent in the corresponding period of 2021.
This development, a senior lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Ghana, Dr. Agyapomaa Gyeke-Darko, in an interview with the B&FT, explained it’s happening as a result of the general economic downturn, where rising inflation and exchange rate volatility are not making it attractive any longer to keep money at the bank – as the value will be eroded by inflationary effects.
“When the country started experiencing covid in 2020, things slowed down a bit and because of this, domestic mobilisation also slowed. Now when all the measures were put in place, the economy started getting revitalised, so we saw an increase in deposits in 2021.
“And just as we were also trying to recover from covid, we started facing some problems from the latter part of 2021 as far as the economy is concerned. We have seen very high inflation rate; we have seen our currency depreciating, so our economy is not doing very well and that affected banks’ ability to mobilise deposits.
“Because of the downturn in the economy, especially high inflation rate, people want to hold more currency for transaction purposes than deposits. High inflation rates erode the value of deposits and don’t make it attractive.
“Also, the downturn in the economy is making it difficult for corporate entities and even some public institutions and the central government to be able to make enough money and set aside part as deposits,” she said.
Commenting on the huge decline in growth of foreigners’ deposits, Dr. Gyeke-Darko said, it reflects uncertainty on the part of non-residents regarding the economy, thereby, making them cautious.
“If foreigners are uncertain about the economy, they are not going to bring in their funds. If they think that by the time they need their money, the value will be eroded, they are not going to bring in their funds.
“So if the economy is not doing well, it affects deposits by individuals, it affects deposits by public enterprises, and it also affects deposits by foreign residents,” she added.
Despite the slow growth in deposits, total assets of the banking industry grew by 23.5 percent (year-on-year) to GH¢187.8billion as at February 2022, well-above the 18.5 percent growth recorded in the same period of 2021. Growth in domestic assets was higher at 27.1 percent in February 2022 from 19.1 percent in February 2021, while foreign assets contracted by 21.9 percent from a growth of 11.1 percent during the same review period.
The report however, expressed optimism saying: “The outlook of the banking sector remains stable and positive, although the current macroeconomic challenges present major risks in the medium term.
“The banking sector will therefore be closely monitored to effectively detect and address early warning signals from a possible spill-over of macroeconomic challenges to the sector. This will help sustain the sector’s performance going forward”.
To further promote their country, Sarkcess Music owner believes diplomatic passports can assist.
“We can move quickly and shine a light on our country,” said the BET Awardee if such an identification card is readily “accessible” to artists across the continent. “It will assist.”
He made these remarks before the Accra in Paris concert on April 23.
In addition, he and his colleagues should be able to tell the world what their nations have to offer.
As an ambassador for Ghana, I have been on the go a lot. So I shouldn’t have any problems spreading my own nation. That way I may easily roam anywhere and promote Ghana.”-
Aspiring “Artiste of the Decade” for the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, hoped this problem would be resolved soon to help promote Ghana internationally.
The artists in Africa will benefit from this. It is a sort of international identification paper issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Diplomatic passports are often provided to government officials and their families attending congresses and seminars.
Cocoa production in key regions in Ghana, especially the Western North Region, has declined to a historic low in recent years.
With about 70 per cent of farms in the region estimated to be affected, cocoa production volumes have been adversely impacted, reducing average annual output from 350,000 metric tonnes to barely 150,000 metric tonnes.
The sector regulator, Cocobod, has attributed the situation mainly to massive devastation by the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD).
According to a 2017 survey, some 315,000 hectares of cocoa farms have been rendered unproductive by the disease, which so far has no cure.
Cocoa rehabilitation programme
In October 2020, the government of Ghana in conjunction with the Ghana Cocoa Board launched the National Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme.
The objective of the intervention is to cut and replant all CSSVD-infected and over-aged cocoa farms for replanting in a sustainable manner.
The AfDB-funded initiative requires that millions of permanent shade trees be planted alongside the cocoa seedlings.
However, it would take over a year before these permanent shade trees will be mature enough to serve their intended purpose of providing a canopy over the young cocoa trees.
To fill that shade gap, scientists identified plantain as the most suitable crop to provide temporary shade for the survival of cocoa seedlings.
Plantain is found to be fast-growing, able to retain soil moisture for the benefit of the cocoa seedlings and also provides food for the farmers within 9 months.
For the most effective outcome, not less than 1,100 plantain suckers would need to be planted per every hectare of the cocoa farm undergoing rehabilitation.
That translates to sourcing millions of plantain suckers for the rehabilitation gangs, in time for planting in the April-June planting window, depending on the onset of the rain.
For Cocobod, meeting this target was a near-impossible task, especially relying on traditional propagation methods.
Homegrown solution
A collaborative partnership by two indigenous Ghanaian agriculture supply chain management firms, Afarinick Company Limited and Kumad Global Impact Limited, birthed a homegrown and world-first solution.
Joe Forson is Chief Executive Officer of Afarinick Company Limited, one of the project partners and shares their motivation for the bold venture.
“We knew COCOBOD was in the process of rehabilitating roughly 136,000 hectares of diseased cocoa farms and will need plantain suckers for the project,” he explained.
Forson added, “So we approached COCOBOD, and told them that we have the technology and the resources to be able to deliver the plantain suckers that will be used to support the Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme.”
117 million plantain seedlings
The Kumasi-based firms successfully pooled years of experience, human resources, and technical know-how to deliver arguably the world’s biggest plantain seedling nursery here in Ghana.
The site covers an estimated area of 400 hectares at Suaman-Dadieso, in the Western North Region, at the very heart of Cocobod’s cocoa rehabilitation campaign.
With their state-of-art propagation and manipulation technology, they are able to multiply a single plantain sucker to about 120 seedlings.
By the close of the year 2023, the project is expected to have delivered its target of 117 million plantain seedlings.
In the meantime, managers of the plantain nursery are optimistic about delivering an initial 35 million seedlings by September this year.
Jobs and wealth creation
In less than 6 months of operation, the Afarinick-Kumad plantain nursery project has created direct employment for about 900 people, 65% of whom are female.
Dozens of others have been engaged through supply contracts providing plantain suckers, wood, sawdust, hydrological and construction services, among others.
Tricycle-taxi operators locally referred to as Pragya, as well as food and water vendors, have not been left out.
By the close of the first phase of the project this year, management is hopeful to have recruited a total workforce of 2000, a figure it hopes to double by next year.
Technology transfer
More than half of the staff have been adequately trained, free of charge, by technical experts to undertake the complex scientific technique of bud manipulation.
This is the process by which a single plantain sucker is engineered to produce a minimum of 25 and a maximum of 150 seedlings.
“I have mastered the multiplication process. So after this project, I am definitely going to apply the knowledge on my own farm to produce enough planting material and also sell the surplus,” Gladys Kyei, a cocoa farmer and project worker, testified.
She underscored that aside from the technology transfer that she and her colleagues have benefited from, the project has come in handy to help make ends meet through the weekly wages they earn.
Financial Inclusion
Beyond producing millions of plantain seedlings to boost the revitalisation of the country’s all-important cocoa sector, the project is contributing immensely to achieving the national financial inclusion target.
The about 900 direct employees on the project, most of whom have never had access to banking services, have been successfully onboarded through local banks for payroll purposes.
They comprise mainly farmers, farmhands, and some unskilled youth from the project catchment area.
Food security
Because cocoa is the mainstay of the Western North Region, the devastation to the farms by the CSSVD almost completely eroded all economic activities here, including the production of food crops.
But thanks to this unprecedented plantain nursery project and other Cocobod-backed activities, like the cutting of CSSVD-infested trees, land preparation and farm maintenance, life here is fast returning to normalcy.
People who migrated to other parts of the country in search of greener pasture are returning in droves to cash in on emerging opportunities and also monitor activities on their rejuvenating farms.
As part of the contract for having their swollen-shoot-infested farms cut down for rehabilitation, farmers were handed a monetary compensation package of GHC1000 per hectare.
In addition to that, cocoa farmers reserve the right to harvest the thousands of plantains cultivated on their farms to raise extra income.
The plantain, which will be ready for harvesting between eight and nine months, is expected to improve food security in the region and the country in general.
With over 100 million plantains to be planted within the next couple of months, it may not be far-fetched for entrepreneurs to prepare in advance for post-harvest business opportunities, including processing and marketing.
Cocobod hails initiative
On his recent familiarisation tour of the Afarinick-Kumad Plantain Seedling Nursery site, the Chief Executive of Cocobod, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, commended the Ghanaian investors saying, “This is very amazing. I haven’t seen any nursery of this magnitude.”
Aidoo was impressed with the propagation techniques deployed to produce high-quality disease-free plantain seedlings for the cocoa rehabilitation programme.
“We realised that when we move plantain suckers, which are very key for the ongoing national cocoa rehabilitation programme, from old farms to new farms we tend to transfer pests. We transfer a lot of diseases,” he regretted.
The Cocobod boss added, “We have visited a lot of farms and the farmers are happy because they get a lot of benefits from the plantain.”
A letter of impeachment cited by countryghana signed by some three citizens of the republic of Ghana.
According to the three namely Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese, Elikem Kotoko and Stephen Kwabena Attuh, the allegations, of one Evelyn Aidoo Alias Serwaa Broni against the President, if proven to be true, would amount to “human rights abuse, abuse of office, exposing the security of Ghana to external threat…” as well as “…dragging the name of the high office of President into disrepute”.
The letter further explain that
“Owing to these duties and other responsibilities as concerned citizens, we deem it imperious to petition Parliament on the wake of consistent allegations leveled by one Ms. Evelyn Aidoo Alias Serwaa Broni, a Canada-based Ghanaian, against the President of Ghana, on several counts of human rights abuse, abuse of office, exposing the security of Ghana to external threat, the use of the national security apparatus to perpetuate criminal activities and dragging the name of the high office of President into disrepute, among others.
Four contractors, whose contracts were terminated by the Petroleum Commission in 2021 for non-performance, are in arrears of US$1.88million of Surface Rental payments, the latest Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) report has revealed.
The four – Swiss African Oil Company Limited – SWAOCO, UB Resources, Brittania U, and Sahara Energy Fields Ghana Limited – account for about 73 percent of an outstanding Surface Rental of US$2.5million.
PIAC’s 2021 report on petroleum revenue management indicated that Surface Rental payments received in 2021 totalled US$826,815 compared with US$928,551 for 2020, indicating about 11 percent decrease.
“According to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), this amount includes arrears payments to an amount of US$205,530 in respect of past years. As of the end of December 2021, Surface Rental Arrears had amounted to US$2.5million up from US$2.1million as of the end of 2020, representing a 22.22 percent increase,” the report stated.
It would be recalled that Oranto/Stone Energy was reported not to have honoured an outstanding Surface Rental invoice of US$67,438 since February 2013.
The GRA was, therefore, asked to compel the company to pay the outstanding invoice with applicable penalties for the period during which it has been in default.
However, it indicated that Oranto has been located in Angola, Chad and Mozambique, and has subsequently made contact with the company but no payment has been made.
According to the authority, since the issue has assumed a cross border dimension, it has escalated beyond it and was being handled at the ministerial/governmental level.
But PIAC in its 2018 Annual Report, stated that GRA should collaborate with the relevant authorities in these jurisdictions to retrieve the principal together with the interest.
Vice Chairman of PIAC, Nasir Alfa Mohammed, is urging GRA to step up efforts to retrieve all such monies.
“Where there are Surface Rental arrears, GRA, being the institution responsible for collecting revenues should, as a matter of urgency, initiate action to retrieve or recover it with the appropriate interest,” he stated.
Mr. Alfa Mohammed who was speaking in a telephone interview, noted that concerning the four companies which have had their petroleum agreements terminated, he indicated that the GRA should make effort to recover the arrears “with immediate urgency”.
“These are companies whose agreements have been terminated, and so they will not have the urge to pay these monies unless you go after them.”
He added that: “It would be good for GRA to have immediate engagements with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and Petroleum Commission to see how easy it may be able to recover these monies.”
Also, the Africa Programme Officer, Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), Denis M. Gyeyir, said two things are important in ensuring that the Oranto Stone situation does not come again.
“There is a need to actively monitor petroleum contracts to ensure that companies live up to the obligations contained in their contracts and relevant laws.
“Secondly, inter-agency collaboration must be enhanced between the petroleum commission, GRA and BoG in sharing information on the status of various oil blocks, the obligations of companies and payments due and outstanding,” he recommended.
The latest development comes on the back of a 17.5 percent increase in total petroleum revenues from US$666.3million in 2020 to US$783.3million in 2021.
The gains, which were attributed to higher crude oil prices, were recorded despite the decline in crude oil production in 2021.
As of the end of 2021, there was sustained but relatively low production in the country’s three offshore producing fields – (Jubilee, Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme (TEN) and Sankofa Gye Nyame (SGN)) – reflecting global dynamics.
A total of 55.06million barrels of oil were produced, down from the 2020 production of 66.93million bbls, representing a 17.73 percent decrease.
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Richie CEO of Lynx
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lynx Entertainment has opened up about his success story.
Recently, Richie celebrated the 15 anniversary of Lynx.
He has revealed that the journey has not been easy. According to him, he nearly gave up along the way.
Richie Mensah stated that he is where he is now because of consistency.
“I always tell people that the Lynx they see today was not the same 10 or 15 years ago when we started. It’s been tough and there were times I questioned myself on why I even got into this in the first place but here I am today celebrating a decade and half of my sweat.
“You need to persist in this industry if you want to make it bigger than Lynx. Keep going and fight through the challenges. Without persistence, there will be no results; we must get that understanding,” he told Graphic Showbiz.
“Those coming up should also understand that the allure they see about Lynx is as a result of sweat, toils and years of not giving up.
“People will marvel if I open up on what I went through initially but today, everybody sees the glitz and glamour thinking that was attained without any sacrifice. It never works like that,” Richie added
Kwabena Jumah, son of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GIHOC Distilleries, Maxwell Kofi Jumah has finally tied the knot with President Akufo-Addo’s last daughter, Edwina Nana Dokua Akufo-Addo.
The private traditional marriage which started at about 10am at the Jubilee House was strictly limited to invited guests.
Kwabena Jumah, son of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GIHOC Distilleries, Maxwell Kofi Jumah, has in a private traditional ceremony married President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s last daughter, Edwina Nana Dokua Akufo-Addo.
The event as reported by dailyguidenetwork.com was held at the seat of government, Jubilee House, and was strictly by invitation for the guests.
It will be recalled that last year in October, pictures and videos went viral after the two love birds held a private family introduction at the Presidential Villa, which event was attended by the respective families and top guns of the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP.
In some of the viral videos and pictures, CEO of GIHOC Distilleries, Maxwell Kofi Jumah was seen draped in traditional Kente cloth while President Akufo-Addo was seen in white long sleeves with black trousers to witness his daughter’s special day.
One of the videos which emerged also showed the president asking his daughter if she was ready to accept Kwabena Jumah as her husband-to-be which she responded in the affirmative.
Also in attendance at the beautiful ceremony were First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo and the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia together with second lady Samira Bawumia.
Some NPP stalwarts and other dignitaries also graced the occasion.
However, news portal dailyguidenetwork.com reports that the earlier reported marriage ceremony was rather a private introduction ceremony.
Kofi Jumah, detailing how his son met the president’s daughter, said the two love birds met in America at a time when they both did not know the profile of their parents.
According to him, his son told him about the young lady over a year ago and he said he didn’t know she was the daughter of the President until they met later.
“My son told me that they met in America, and she did not know that I am his father, and he did not know that the President was her father.
He said they had known each other for the past four years,” he said.
He continued that “when I got to know it was the President’s daughter, I had to look at my son’s commitment level to the relationship because this is not something you can go into and leave just like that. I needed to be sure he was into the young lady,” he added.
The NPP stalwart commended the President’s daughter for her humility and pleaded with Ghanaians not to involve politics in the marriage of their children.
He also refuted assertions that their marriage was arranged.
Meanwhile, the white wedding of the couple has been slated for the weekend.
