At least 15 persons have been burnt to death in an accident on the Takoradi- Cape Coast highway.
According to reports, the incident happened at Asemasa Number 1 in the Western Region on Tuesday around 2:00pm.
The accident involved a tipper truck and a Ford bus with registration number GW 5628-21, which had onboard, some Ghanaians and Chinese nationals travelling from Tarkwa.
Eyewitnesses told JoyNews that the tipper truck did a wrongful overtaking. Upon realising the careless driving on the part of his counterpart, the driver of the Ford vehicle stopped to make way for the truck.
But the truck’s driver lost control of his vehicle as a result of a tyre burst during the process.
The tipper truck then fell on the Ford and caught fire.
Former Black Stars captain Asamoah Gyan seems unhappy about the Ghana Blackstars list for the Nigeria Games.
The former WAFA graduate, Ashimeru, has been in imperious form for Anderlecht this season, making an outstanding 31 appearances with three goals and two assists to his name.
Asamoah Gyan believes Ashimeru has something Great for the team ,This is what he said in a Tweet
“This guy Majeed Ashimeru is the best midfielder in Ghana,after Thomas Partey period. I have kept quiet on this but this nonsense must stop. Smh
Asamoah Gyan tweet
He has then Apologized for the harsh word
I still insist that Ashimeru deserves to be in this current Black Stars BUT am sorry for using the word “ Nonsense “ in my statement so I unreservedly withdraw that word , I was carried by my emotions . Go Ghana 🇬🇭 🙏🏿
The unveiling of the list comes after mixed reactions trailed the delay, with some Ghanians suggesting it was part of their tactics to keep the technical team of the Super Eagles in the dark, and to hopefully spring a surprise on matchday.
Roma youngster Felix Afena-Gyan is also included in the squad after he failed to make the cut to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon
Crystal Palace forward Jordan Ayew is included in the squad despite testing positive for Covid-19.
Ghana Coach Otto Addo has named a 27-man squad to face Nigeria in the World Cup play-offs.
Ghana will host 1st leg at Baba Ayara stadium on March 25 before return leg four days later in Abuja.
Ghana will witness the manufacture of its own electric cars from start to finish from January 2023.
This is a boost for the quest by the country to move towards the use of environmentally-friendly vehicles.
Manufacturers of the vehicle, Mana Mobility, have already engaged the Design and Technology Institute to partner in the manufacturing process.
Chief Executive of Mana Mobility Germany, Peter Scharzenbauer, told JoyBusiness that all regulatory bodies are being engaged to ensure a smooth take-off.
He was speaking after a stakeholder meeting to introduce the design and concept of the vehicle to some selected agencies in Accra last Friday.
“The cars will be developed, produced in Ghana by Ghanaians for Ghana. For the entire week, we have spent time working on how to make the right concept. We have experts coming in from all different kinds of areas.
“We have the Design and Technology Institute helping us find the right way of doing it. And the outcome was the car we just presented. The next steps are for the next five, six months, we are building some prototypes so we can also see in real life and not only in PowerPoint.”
After the engagement, the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority, Professor Alex Dodoo, described the entry of Mana mobility into the country as timely.
He expressed confidence that it will create jobs for more artisans and other people in the automobile industry.
He, however, called for more support for the local artisans.
“We have the quality to check the quality of the vehicles. But importantly, we can develop the component.
“Now that is where we need to have a national conversation because that is where the money is. The guys are doing it, but we’re not doing it according to standards nor reproducing at scale.”
Member of Parliament for Nhyieaso and member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, , Dr Stephen Amoah has told Former President John Dramani Mahama that no one is disputing the fact that Ghana, just as any other country around the globe, is going through some economic challenges at the moment.
Dr Amoah said countries including the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK) are all having their share of the economic challenges therefore, Ghana’s situation is not different.
Even in the midst of the economic challenges, he said, there are still some of Ghana’s economic indicators such as the lending rate, still better than what was bequeathed to the Akufo-Addo-led government by Mr Mahama.
“Nobody disputes the fact that Ghana, just like any other country around the globe is going through some sort of hardships and economic crisis. I think we should look at other places if this is not true. For about forty years now, US is experiencing the highest inflationary rate, UK moved from 1 to 4, which is about 200 per cent. So we need to analyze all these things in the context that we are talking about then we can do proper trend or comparative analyses. We even have some of the economic parameters still doing far better than what we took over.
“So, I think the former President, as much as he is actually saying what is prevailing in terms of hardships in the system, which that one I agree, he is rather doing politics more than trying to analyze issues in the right context and offer better alternative. If you go this way then we will all move beyond probably our professional ethics and performance. Even today that policy rate has been increased by about 250 basis points, it is still far lower than what we took over, lending rate is still far lower than what we took over. The economy has met uncontrollable global factors, this is a fact.
“If you have an economy that went through over 22 months of impaired productivity which is not your fault, is it government’s fault that restaurants and shops had to close down? I don’t think it was our fault that private sector had to sack about over forty thousand workers, I don’t think it is the fault of this government that fuel prices moved all-time high, these are major issues around the globe. Under Mahama we didn’t have these problems with these same causative factors, no but what happened? We had lending rate moving to about forty percent” he told Accra based Joy FM on Monday March 21.
The former Chief Executive Officer of the Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) was reacting to a comment made by Mr Mahama to the effect that the Akufo-Addo administration has badly managed the economyand the dollar has arrested Bawumia.
The vice president of Ghana.Dr Muhammadu Bawumia commissioned the 5th and 6th Distribution Centres for Zipline Ghana.
According to Him,the two new Centres, at Anum and Kete Krachi, will serve all health facilities within the Afram Plains areas and many other hard-to-reach communities in almost all parts of Volta Region, most parts of the Eastern Region, and parts of the Oti and Savannah regions, ensuring almost total national coverage.
After 3 years of service, over 2,300 health facilities in 147 districts in 13 regions, and more than 2 million deliveries of life-saving medical products, saving hundreds of thousands of lives and limbs. Aside from these, other medical supplies like blood, anti-snake venom and PPEs have been transported with ease to government health facilities within the period.
Below is the full statement from his Facebook page.
Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison has stated that albeit signs of weakening consumer and business sentiments, domestic growth conditions are fairly strong.
According to Dr Addison, the banking sector performance remains strong, with sustained growth in total assets, investments and deposits.
He said key financial soundness indicators such as profitability, liquidity and solvency remain healthy, asset quality improved slightly, although there are upside risks to the outlook, requiring continued monitoring to address early signs of stress within the sector.
This follow rising fuel prices in Ghana, exacerbated by the geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine and depreciation of the cedi.
Addressing the media after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Accra on Monday March 21, Dr Addison noted that “The Sovereign credit rating downgrades of Ghana by Fitch and Moody’s led to widened yield spreads on both cedi-denominated Government of Ghana bonds and the country’s Eurobonds.
“These downgrades reflect market and investor concerns about fiscal and debt sustainability. Consequently, the Ghana Cedi has come under severe pressure as offshore investors exited positions in domestic securities at a time when domestic demand for forex has increased, reflecting both real and speculative demand. This has caused the exchange rate to overshoot its long-term trend.
The strengthening of the US dollar, liquidity pressures, uncertainties regarding budget implementation, portfolio reversals by nonresidents and some speculative pressures are key contributory factors.
“At this MPC meeting, the combination of tighter global financing conditions, sharp pressures on the exchange rate, and elevated inflation pose some policy challenges. Headline inflation has risen sharply to 15.7 percent in February 2022, and both headline and core inflation are significantly above the upper limit of medium-term target band.
“The uncertainty surrounding price developments and its impact on economic activity is weighing down business and consumer confidence. The risks in the outlook for inflation are on the upside and include petroleum price adjustments and transportation costs, and exchange rate depreciation. The Bank’s latest forecast still depicts an elevated inflation profile in the near term, with inflation falling within the medium-term target band within a year.
“Fiscal policy implementation has come under strain, reflecting embedded rigidities in the fiscal framework which will require extensive structural reforms to free fiscal space to restore both fiscal and debt sustainability. Revenue performance has been slow to align with projections, while expenditure remains rigid downwards despite the strong efforts to cut expenditure by 20 percent as announced by the Government. The above have resulted in financing constraints which would have to be resolved very swiftly to ensure the announced fiscal consolidation path is achieved.
“The MPC is however confident that ongoing discussions will lead to very decisive policy reforms that will address underlying fiscal mismatches and restore some calm in the markets. This, together with the monetary policy decision and additional measures, should help re-anchor inflation expectations.
“Under these circumstances, the Committee has decided to increase the policy rate by 250 basis points to 17 percent.”
Former President John Mahama has taken a jab at Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia over the depreciation of the cedi.
Speaking at the launch of the Tertiary Education Institution Network App held at the University of Professional Studies, Mr. Mahama said Ghana was currently facing hardship “on a scale never witnessed in the 30-year history of our Fourth Republic.”
“General incompetence, corruption, and waste of scarce resources have combined to make life simply unbearable for the generality of Ghanaians,” he said.
The former president cited inflation, rising fuel prices, and the depreciation of the cedi as key challenges facing Ghanaians.
After Vice President Bawumia famously said the Akufo-Addo administration had arrested the depreciation of the cedi, Mr. Mahama contended that “the dollar has rather arrested him.”
“So we are looking for him. We can’t find him. I asked IGP if he had the key so that we could find where our Vice President was, and he said he doesn’t have it and doesn’t know his whereabouts,” Mr. Mahama said.
According to the Information Ministry, the President has approved some moves aimed at mitigating the depreciation of the Cedi, ensuring expenditure discipline, and providing relief in the face of global fuel price hikes and inflation as well as ensuring that priority programs meant to grow the economy are protected.
Meanwhile, as part of efforts by government to improve the economy, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has revealed that all 16 flagship programmes of government will soon be reviewed to ensure their objectives are well achieved.
According to him, it is one of the decisions taken during the three-day cabinet retreat at the Peduase Lodge in the Eastern Region to mitigate the economic difficulties in the country.
“All the 16 flagship programmes are up to be looked at. The President has directed that the flagship programmes should be protected and fully implemented to ensure that the impact is achieved. However, he wants it done within the constraints of item number two, which is the fiscal framework we are working with.
“If based on the caps that we are working with we will have to rescope a particular flagship programme, we will do it and see how much we can achieve. So all the 16 are up for discussion; none is off-limit.
Only that the President has laid down the red line that we will not compromise on the fiscal consolidation agenda because our real problem over the years has been a year-on-year deficit going out of hand,” he said in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, Monday.
Ken Ofori Atta is expected to brief Ghanaians on measures the government seeks to implement to address current economic challenges later this week
Ghana has been ranked 111th in the just-released 2022 World Happiness Report, a UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network publication.
This indicates a drop by 16 places from the 95th position last year, 2021.
The ranking was based on variables such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and views of corruption, as well as other qualities that tend to lead to better happiness.
Although no African country was among the first 50 countries, Mauritius secured the 52nd position, dropping by only two places.
Latest data released by the Bank of Ghana puts Ghana’s total public debt stock as at December, 2021, at US$ 58.6 billion or GH¢351.8 billion. The amount is equivalent to 80.1% of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product, the highest level recorded in recent history.
In Cedi terms, the total debt stock increased by about GH¢7.3 billion from GH¢344.5 billion in November to the GH¢351.8 recorded in December. In Dollar terms however the debt increased by about US$400 million from the US$58.2 billion recorded in November to the US$58.6 billion recorded in December 2021.
A look at the data from the Central bank shows that year-on-year, from December 2020 to December 2021, the debt stock rose by about 20% from GH¢291.6 billion to GH¢351.8 or an addition of about GH¢ 60 billion within that 12 month period.
A further breakdown of the debt numbers show that the component of debt secured locally rose by about 21% between the period of December 2020 to December 2021, from GH¢ 149.8 billion to GH¢ 181.8 billion.
The external component of the debt, in Cedi terms also rose by about 20% between the period of December 2020 to December 2021, from GH¢141.8 billion to GH¢170 billion. In dollar terms however, the increase in debt was about 14.5%, from US$24.7 billion in December 2020 to US$28.3 in December 2021.
The rise in public debt has led to concerns about debt sustainability and the ability of the country to access the International Capital Market for more support.
Ratings agency Fitch recently downgraded Ghana to B negative, with a negative outlook, following a pandemic-related surge in government debt, and uncertainty about the government’s ability to stabilize debt against a backdrop of tightening global financing conditions
