Day: December 10, 2021

Alhaji Karim Grusah, bankroller of King Faisal, believes Maxwell Abbey-Quaye and Zubairu Ibrahim merit a place in Black Stars squad ahead of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nation [Afcon].

The senior national team will begin camp for the tournament scheduled to be hosted in Cameroon next year in Qatar later this month.

However, Milovan Rajevac, who is the head coach of the Black Stars is expected to name his squad for the tournament which kicks off from January 9 to February 6, 2022.

Successive Black Stars coaches have yet to adequately find a replacement for record scorer Asamoah Gyan, who was last with the team at the Afcon in Egypt two years ago.

Alhaji Grusah believes there are proper strikers on the local scene who can solve what seems to be a challenge for the Black Stars.

In an interview on TV3’s GPLXpress, Grusah made a case for Accra Great Olympics’ Maxwell Abbey-Quaye who has bagged six goals in as many games this season and King Faisal’s Zubairu Ibrahim who notched a hat-trick against Kotoko last Sunday.

“Great Olympics have a good striker, King Faisal too have a good striker,” he said.

“No player in the current Black Stars have got pace than Zubairu Ibrahim. Just look at his second goal against Asante Kotoko, he’s an intelligent player and deserves to be with the Black Stars at the Afcon,” Alhaji Gruzah stated.

Four players from the local scene got invitations to the Black Stars in coach Milovan Rajevac’s last call-up.

Source: Modern Ghana

Accra, Dec. 10, GNA – Mrs Elsie Addo Awadzi, Second Deputy Governor, Bank of Ghana, says there is a great potential for women to harness the benefits of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

She said women could also harness many other opportunities beyond Ghana and Africa through technology and e-commerce platforms.

The Second Deputy Governor said these market opportunities offered hope to women-owned and women-led businesses in Ghana to scale up and to compete with their peers abroad.

Mrs Awadzi was speaking at an event to commemorate the Second Anniversary of the AGI-Women in Business initiative in Accra.

The event was on the theme: “Women-Led Businesses: Exploring Finance Channels and Market Access for Growth.”

AGI-Women in Business provided a platform to promote women-owned and women managed businesses and to influence government policies that enhance their contribution to socio-economic development.

She said women entrepreneurs and the businesses they own and lead, however, face serious challenges.

She said limited market access and limited access to finance remained some of the key challenges for all stages of businesses owned by women in Ghana.

She said the good news was that there were growing opportunities to address these bottlenecks that limited women-owned and women-led businesses.

The Second Deputy Governor said to address the limited access to finance challenge, a lot was required both on the side of female entrepreneurs and their businesses on one hand and financial institutions on the other.

“On the demand side, female entrepreneurs must understand various financing options such as bank financing, and financing by specialised deposit-taking institutions (SDIs) such as savings and loans companies, finance houses, microfinance companies, and rural and community banks who tend to focus on Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),” she added.

Mrs Awadzi said the Bank had put in place mechanisms to support the delivery of credit on a sustainable basis to businesses, including women-owned MSMEs.

These include a credit bureau-based reporting system that ensures that banks and other licensed lenders report on credit behaviour (prompt loan repayments as well as defaults) on all borrowers and that creditors check on borrowers’ credit behaviour before they make credit decisions on loan applications.

“Responsible borrowers, therefore, stand a better chance to access more loans and at reasonable interest rates as their credit risk will be lower,” she said.

She said the Bank’s Collateral Registry registerd all collateral (over movable and immovable assets) provided by borrowers to licensed creditors and facilitates the delivery of credit to borrowers, especially women, who might not have access to immovable assets collateral.

Mrs Awadzi said while banks and Special Deposit Institutions (SDIs) continued to expand their client base and lend to more businesses, including women-owned and women-led businesses, it was important to stress that bank and SDI financing, which was loan-based, was not the only type of funding available for businesses.

The Deputy Governor said sometimes, longer-term, and more patient forms of capital may be more appropriate for a business instead of or in addition to the bank or SDI loans.

Such alternative sources of funding include venture capital and private equity financing, equity, and bond financing from the stock market (which includes the Ghana Stock Exchange’s Alternative Market and Ghana Fixed Income Market), finance leasing and hire purchase, all of which are available.

She called on the banks, SDIs and other financial services providers to understand the women market to specifically tailor products that work for them.

Mrs Awadzi said women entrepreneurs form a significant and viable unique market that needs to be understood and serviced to the benefit of all.

“Given the critical role of women-owned and women-led businesses in our socio-economic development, our entire nation stands to gain significantly by equipping these businesses to scale up with good business practices, technology and technical support, and access to finance,” she added.

She said by supporting women-owned and women-led businesses, “we would be positioning our economy to grow on a sustainable basis and in addition to access to finance, programmes that provide networking, mentoring and coaching opportunities for women are needed to provide them with world-class business and entrepreneurial skills.”

The Canadian Ambassador to Ghana, Kathleen (Kati) Csaba, said the platform created by the AGI women was critical for the success of their businesses and urged the women to work together.

She pledged Canada’s assistance through capacity building for the women-led businesses.

Mrs Kosi Yankey Ayeh, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Enterprises Agency, also called on the women to explore various financial opportunities for the growth of their businesses.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ghana Post, the nation’s postal operator, has partnered with Jumia, Africa’s leading e-commerce platform, to expand its market-leading presence in Ghana. The partnership will transform the e-commerce sector and improve customer experience with efficient e-commerce flows.

Ghana Post will support Jumia by delivering packages to consumers via efficient and expedient courier services. The new partnership supports Jumia’s commitment to leveraging its advanced technology and extensive network to provide a seamless and powerful platform for Ghanaians to purchase everyday needs online.

As the national postal operator, Ghana Post is recognised for its innovation and commitment to making package deliveries safe, affordable and accessible.

Deputy Managing Director of Ghana Post, Mr Kwaku Tabi Amponsah, said, “Our partnership with Jumia represents a positive step forward in meeting the online shopping needs of Ghanaians. With over 300 network branches and a leading track and trace system, we are well-positioned to serve the needs of all e-shoppers with fast, secured deliveries. When COVID-19 affected our world, Ghana Post’s innovation and resilience in serving communities and the world proved that innovation is not an accessory but is instead the driving force behind recovery. Postal services are crucial to billions of people.”

The partnership will offer faster deliveries for Jumia’s cross border shipments. With over 360 post offices spread around the country, Ghana Post supports Jumia’s customers via a partnership that provides additional ways for consumers in rural areas across the country to collect their orders faster and conveniently, using the Jumia website and mobile app.

‘’Our overarching goal is to bring e-commerce closer to consumers and make online shopping accessible to all Ghanaians in conjunction with the Ghana Post’s network of branches covering all parts of the country, including rural areas. Jumia has extensive experience in the field of e-commerce and logistics and joining forces with a trusted, and well-structured company like Ghana Post further expands our horizon,“ said Tolulope George-Yanwah, CEO of Jumia Ghana.

This new agreement benefits consumers as it reduces delivery costs, guarantees faster delivery of orders shipped from overseas and improves the level of service, thus heightening consumer confidence and boosting participation in the e-commerce market.

Source: Ghana Web

Accra, Dec 10, GNA – The Government has received 756,000 more doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot Covid-19 vaccine under the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT).

The delivery brings the total doses received by Ghana so far to 4,060,080 under the AVAT initiative.

The vaccine deliveries are part of the historic COVID-19 vaccine advance procurement agreement signed on 28 March 2021 by AVAT for the purchase of 220 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, with the potential to order an additional 180 million doses.

In total, the 400 million vaccines acquired by AVAT are sufficient to immunise a third of the African population.

Ama Amoah, Senior Specialist Digital & Internal Communications, Communications and Events Afreximbank, said the last batch of the consignment for the year is slated for Monday, December 13, 2021.

She emphasized that the vaccines were acquired by the Ghana government and not a donation.

AVAT was established by the African COVID-19 Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, set up in November 2020 under the African Union chairmanship of President Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa.

It is part of the African Union’s COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Access Strategy, and its goal of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of the African population with safe and efficacious vaccines against COVID-19.

The agreement with Johnson & Johnson was made possible through a US$2 billion facility provided by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), who are also the Financial and Transaction Advisers, Guarantors, Instalment Payment Advisers and Payment Agents, and the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) who coordinated the alignment of the AU Ministers of Finance on the financing arrangements.

Source: Ghana News Agency

All persons who are 18 years and above arriving in Ghana will be required to provide evidence of full vaccination for COVID-19 effective midnight Sunday, December 12 the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has announced.

This follows a review of COVID-19 protocols by the GHS for international travellers.

The review by the GHS was necessitated by the detection of the Omicron variant among international arrivals in the country.

The GHS noted that with several countries experiencing their fourth wave, and a number of travellers from these countries coming to Ghana, the number of persons entering the country is expected to increase during the festive season.

Thus, the need to put in place measures to prevent the country from being hit by a fourth wave.

According to the new protocols, “all unvaccinated Ghanaians and residents of Ghana who are currently outside the country and intend to return within 14 days from the midnight of 12 December 2021, are exempted”.

“However, they would be vaccinated on arrival at the airport.”

Also, “all Ghanaians travelling out of the country are to be fully vaccinated effective midnight 12 December 2021”.

Meanwhile, “other arrival requirements remain unchanged”, including the 72-hour Negative PCR test required prior to travel, completion of the Health Declaration Form and all persons who arrive in Ghana will undergo the antigen test.

Source: Modern Ghana

Women Aspire Network (WAN), young women led Non Governmental Organization (NGO) has empowered 300 adolescents under the She-Leads project in Central Region.

The “She Leads Project” is a strategic partnership between Terre des Hommes, Plan International, Defense for Children, African Women’s Development, and Communication Network with funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

The five-year project is targeted at young women between the ages of 10 and 30 years to support and empower them to actively participate in decision making at the family, community, Regional and National levels.

Ms Angela Nhyira Kwabi, the Project Officer for WAN, at a day’s community forum at Elmina Iyisa in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipality(KEEA) called on parents and families, traditional and religious leaders to promote positive gender norms to increase civic spaces for girls and young women.

The engagement formed part of the 16-days activism campaign against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) where WAN is sensitizing the public and most importantly girls to be bold and assertive and to have the power to say ‘NO’ to violence against them.

It is on the theme: “End Gender-Based Violence against children and girls now”.

Ms Kwabi said the violence girls and women go through hindered their progress and her organisation was out to find suitable solutions to resolving them.

She stressed the need for an enabling environment to be created for them to actively participate in leadership and decision making at the family, school, community, sub-national and national levels.

Mrs Olivia Abeka, a Girl Child Officer of the KEEA, Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES), tasked society to motivate and encourage pregnant young girls and nursing mothers to continue their education irrespective of the challenges confronting them.

She entreated men to always give women the needed support in all aspects of life since that would help motivate them to achieve their goals.

Ms Abeka asked women not to allow themselves to be intimidated but be studious and upgrade themselves for better living standards.

The Girl Child Officer told parents to be friends with their wards and teach them the country’s core values and culture, as well as issues concerning their growth for them to appreciate adolescent challenges and consult parents when the need arose.

She underscored the importance of education and urged them to make their wards’ education a top priority.

Madam Lawrencia Ethie Essien, a beneficiary and trainee of WAN advised parents to desist from blaming pregnant adolescents but support and assist them during that trying times for them to easily integrate into society after delivery.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, Dec. 10 GNA- Dr Stephen Opuni, a former Chief Executive of COCOBOD, intends to call eight witnesses to help in his defence in the ongoing trial involving himself and two others.

Mr Samuel Codjoe, the Counsel for Dr Opuni, prayed the Court that out of the eight witnesses they intended to call, two would have to be subpoenaed and they would need the assistance of the Court.

“We need the Court’s assistance for one particular witness, who has health challenges as a result of that we will pray that his evidence be taken via video link,” he said.

Dr Opuni and Mr Agongo are facing 27 charges, including defrauding by false pretences, willfully causing financial loss to the State, money laundering, corruption by a public officer and contravention of the Public Procurement Act.

They have both pleaded not guilty to the charges and are on a GHS300,000.00 self-recognizance bail each.

Mrs Yvonne Attakora-Obuobisa, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), said the use of technology in adjudicating cases had become common.

She said the prosecution had used” these technologies” for their evidence, taking through some of their witnesses, who lived outside the jurisdiction.

“Once a proper arrangement is made, this can be done,” she added.

The Court Presided over by Justice Clemence Honyenuga, a Justice of the Supreme Court, sitting as an additional High Court Judge, said the application to have the intended health-challenged witness through video link was in order.

The Court said the evidence of the intended witness shall be taken after the evidence of Mr Charles Dodoo, the first Defense Witness (DW1).

The Judge urged the Registrar of the Court to take note and do the necessary arrangements with the IT Department of the Judicial Service.

Mr Dodoo in his further evidence- in – chief, told the Court that COCOBOD received a response letter on its request letter for quotation from five companies.

He explained that the quotation letter was to solicit information to help the procurement Unit of COCOBOD to prepare a notification for contract awards.

He further explained that CODAPEC and HITECH Unit of COCOBOD had earlier taken prices from suppliers, which was used to put in an application for approval form the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

The Defence Witness said Agricult Ghana Limited’s response letter was not the only document received by COCOBOD on February 25, 2014.

He said all companies, who received request letters for quotations from COCOBOD also sent in their response letters, which were like that of Agricult.

The witness tendered the five letters, two from Sidalco Ghana Limited,

One each from Chemico Ghana Limited, Wienco Ghana Limited and Louis Breyfus.

The responses provided by these companies were related to different types of fertilizers being purchased by COCOBOD.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Tema, Dec. 10, GNA – The Tema Regional Police Command has tasked the media to use its power to support the law enforcement authorities to fight against crime in society.

The Tema Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Kwabena Otuo Acheampong, said the media must use its platforms for public education and sensitization on the importance of security in the country.

Supt. Otuo Acheampong, who was speaking at a GNA Stakeholder Seminar, said Ghanaians needed to show interest in security issues at all times.

He said the Police needed the support and collaboration of the media, civil society organisations, religious leaders, students and other stakeholders to fight crime effectively, adding, “We must work together for our common interest.”

Supt. Otuo Acheampong, therefore, reiterated the call for the formation of Neighbourhood Watch Committees to provide peace and development in the communities.

“I want to encourage communities and residents to form Neighbourhood Watch Committees so that your neighbour watches over you and you also watch over your neighbour because when you are in distress, usually you cannot call the police yourself, it is your neighbour that will call the police for you,” he said.

The Tema Regional Crime Officer said the contribution of neighbours would complement the efforts of the police in tackling criminal activities in the community.

Supt. Otuo Acheampong said the basic mission of the police was to prevent crime and disorder, adding, “the ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent on public approval of police actions.

“Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.”

Supt. Otuo Acheampong said, in the past, there was a good interaction between people living in the same community because of constant interaction as a result it was easy to identify foreigners in the community.

He added that “now, because of modernization, everybody is living in a self-contained house, some people don’t even know the names of their neighbours, this is dangerous.”

Mr Francis Ameyibor, GNA Tema Regional Manager, said the media was a powerful tool, which must be used strategically for effective change towards national development.

Source: Ghana News Agency