Day: February 3, 2022

The Deputy Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament and National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central Constituency has prevailed on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to cut the fanfare and bring the controversial E-levy to the floor of Parliament.

“It is the floor that the business of passing bills and laws are done and not going on a jamboree,” he said.

Mr. Isaac Adongo made this statement in reaction to a statement by the president that he is determined to have the E-levy passed despite the unnecessary disputations on the floor to save Ghana’s economy from collapse.

Speaking on Accra-based Joy FM Mr Adongo ridiculed that if the president was really determined to pass the E-levy, he should bring his 138 parliamentarians against the NDC’s 137 to parliament to have the E-levy passed knowing very well that each side of the house has 137 lawmakers each.

He said the E-levy is the most disliked bill ever introduced on the floor of Parliament.

“It has been three months now since the E-levy was introduced on the floor and there is no indication the bill is going to be passed and the president should be worried about this and not the fanfare,” he stated.

The minority in parliament and a cross-section of the population have kicked against the e-levy and called on the government to drop it.

However, these calls have fallen on deaf ears.

The government has explained that the upsurge in the use of e-payment platforms, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been an impetus for the introduction of the levy.

As a result, Ghana recorded a total of GHS500 billion from e-transactions in 2020 compared with GHS78 billion in 2016.

The government says the e-levy proceeds will be used to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, and digital and road infrastructure, among others.

Source: Modern Ghana

Tema,- The Ship Owners and Agents Association, Ghana (SOAAG) is to evacuate about 200 empty containers from the state warehouse in the Port of Tema, back into the custody of the various shipping lines.

Due to uncleared cargoes, many containers had been left sitting in the Tema Port, creating congestion and leading to negative revenue implications for the government and shipping lines, who are custodians or owners of these containers as it slows down maritime trade.

Madam Perpetual Osei Bonsu, Executive Secretary of SOAAG, interacting with the media on the issue, said the evacuation was necessary following years of effort to have it done and clear the Port.

She said in the past containers were being used for warehousing to support the system due to the lack of enough warehouses to take over the cargo.

Mr Mark Klutse, Chairman of the Technical Committee of SOAAG, on his part, explained that the non-returning of containers had dire consequences on the business of shipping lines.

He said while uncleared cargoes were not the making of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the expectation was that Customs would expedite processes following its detention.

Mr Klutse stressed that “you have situations where containers have been moved to state warehouse and have been there for three to four years, and you would see containers which are 30 to 40 days being auctioned and one will ask why?

The executives of SOAAG also called for the rehabilitation of the state warehouse to better accommodate uncleared cargo.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,- The State has charged James Gyakye Quayson, Member of Parliament for Assin North, with deceit of public officer and forgery of passport or travel certificate.

He has been additionally charged for knowingly making false statutory declaration, perjury and false declaration for office.

This is after an injunction application was brought against the MP at the Supreme Court to restrain him from holding himself as a legislator.

When the matter was called at the High Court, a State Attorney informed the court that a letter had been written to the Police directing them to serve the accused with the charge sheet.

According to the State Attorney, efforts to reach the accused and serve him had been unsuccessful.

The Attorney, therefore, prayed the Court for an order for the issuance of a hearing notice to compel the accused to appear in court.

The Court, presided over by Mrs Justice Mary Maame E. Nsenkyire, ordered copies of the charge sheet and facts sheets to be served on the accused.

The matter has been adjourned to February 9.

The case of the State is that the accused person, James Gyakye Quayson, is the Member of Parliament for Assin North Constituency.

The complainant, Richard Takyi-Mensah, is a teacher and a resident of Yamoransa in the Central Region of Ghana.

According to the State, on July 26, 2019, the accused person signed an application form for a Republic of Ghana passport.

On the application form, he indicated that he was a Ghanaian and did not have a dual citizenship.

It said the accused at the time held a Canadian citizenship issued on October 30, 2016 but failed to declare same on the application form.

The State said the passport application of the accused person was vetted on the 29th of July 2019.

It said based on that false information together with other information provided by the accused person on the passport application form, he was issued with a Ghanaian passport number G2538667 on 2nd August 2019.

Again, before the 2020 General Elections of Ghana was conducted on 7th December 2020, nominations were opened between the 5th and the 9th of October 2020.

The State said the accused person picked up nomination forms to contest for the position of Member of Parliament for Assin North Constituency.

It said the accused person at the time was a Ghanaian and a Canadian citizen, making him a dual citizenship holder.

The State said he was, therefore, disqualified under Article 94(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana to be a Member of Parliament.

It said in part IV of the nomination forms of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, the accused person used a statutory declaration, which he had sworn to on October 6, 2020 before the District Court Registrar at Assin Fosu stating that he did not owe allegiance to any country other than Ghana.

The State said the accused person further went ahead to file his nomination forms on 8th October 2020 with the false information in the statutory declaration.

It said based on that false information together with other information provided by the accused person in the nomination forms, his nomination was accepted by the Electoral Commission.

It said the accused person contested for the position and subsequently won the seat.

It said the accused person was issued a Certificate of Renunciation of his Canadian citizenship dated 26th November 2020, about forty-eight days after he had made the false statutory declaration and filed his nomination forms.

The State said on January 14, this year, the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department received a petition dated 11th January 2021 from the complainant in, which the complainant reported the actions of the accused, leading to investigations into the matter.

In his cautioned statement to the police, the accused person claimed that at the material time, he honestly believed that he did not owe allegiance to any other country.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Former National Sports Authority [NSA] board chairman, Kwadwo Baah-Agyemang has described the Black Stars performance at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] in Cameroon as a ‘total blackout’.

Ghana, who were chasing their fifth continental title were crashed out of the 33rd edition of the AFCON at the group phase for the first time in 2006.

The Black Stars exited the tournament with just a point and failed to win a game in a group that had Morocco, Gabon and Comoros.

Following the shocking performance, Milovan Rajevac, who was on a one-year renewable contract has been sacked.

But Kwadwo Baah-Agyemang says the performance of the team is totally unacceptable.

“The performance of the Black Stars in Cameroon was absolutely shocking,” he said on Asempa FM.

“You looked at how the Black Stars lost to Comoros and you ask yourself is this our Black Stars? The performance of the team and the coach was shocking.

“For me, it was a total blackout,” he added.

Meanwhile, a new Black Stars coach is expected to be named soon before the team take on Nigeria in the 2022 World Cup playoff in March.

Source: Modern Ghana

MTN Ghana has won two prestigious awards at the National PR and Communications Excellence Awards organized as part of the National PR and Communications Summit and AGM by the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), Ghana at Akosombo.

MTN was adjudged PR Organization of the Year for the fifth consecutive time and won Best Community Relations Programme of the Year for the third consecutive time.

MTN Ghana was recognized for putting in place effective PR strategies to engage its stakeholders digitally, especially during the COVID-19 period. Through effective means of communication and engagement, stakeholders of the business were well-informed, educated, and empowered with information on how they could use technology to work, transact business and also stay connected with friends and family during the period of the pandemic.

MTN Ghana also won Best Community Relations Program of the Year. The company in the year under review provided essential support to the National COVID-19 Trust Fund, presented PPEs to various hospitals across the country, and undertook community upliftment projects aimed at alleviating the challenges that COVID-19 restrictions placed on people’s livelihoods.

Receiving the awards, the Senior Manager for Corporate Communications at MTN Ghana, Georgina Asare Fiagbenu thanked the IPR Awards Committee and the PR fraternity for the recognition. She said, “the team and I are grateful for the awards. This will inspire us to work harder and continue to employ best practices in communicating with our stakeholders.”

Commenting on the awards, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Mr. Selorm Adadevoh congratulated Georgina and the Corporate Communications team for effective use of technology and PR strategies to ensure various stakeholders of the business were reached during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Commendation to the team for excellently championing PR campaigns, which positively impacted and enhanced the image of the organization,” he applauded.

MTN Ghana has won many awards from the Institute of Public Relations in the past including PR Organization of the Year, Best Community Relations Programme of the Year, Best in Crisis and Issues Management, Best in Non-For-Profit Organization among others.

The IPR Excellence Awards aims at honoring and recognizing the achievements and positive contributions of individuals and companies in their service delivery. The awards program was also instituted to promote professionalism in the practice of PR in Ghana.

Source: Ghana Web

Accra,- A former Finance Minister, Mr Seth Terkper, says it has become prudent for the Government to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for policy credibility to enable the country have access to loans on the international market.

His proposal to the Government comes at a time that International Ratings Agency, Fitch Solutions, has downgraded the country’s credit rating from B to B-.

The downgrade, Fitch said, was because of the uncertainty about the Government’s ability to stabilise debt against a backdrop of tightening global financing conditions.

Another concern is the issue of the country’s current economic fundamentals, which some Economic and Finance experts have noted to be “fragile” to shocks, leading to the debate of the country going back to the IMF.

While admitting that Government’s borrowing to finance development projects and essential expenditure was unavoidable, Mr Terkpey said the current economy lacked that international market borrowing credibility.

He said: “Borrowing is inevitable; because your budget, including the e-levy without any major restructuring is going to pay compensation, interest (on loans), running of government business, and continuation of pipeline projects.”

He said this in a media engagement in Accra.

Mr Terkper, who once served as a Senior Economist with the Fiscal Affairs Department of IMF noted that current revenue to expenditure deficit could not make it possible for the Government to finance such expenditure.

He said: “You borrow because you have commitments and you don’t want to default but then alongside with that one, you borrow part of the money from the market to refinance and pay down some of the debt and put in other measures as we did with the sinking fund.”

He added: “When you do an IMF [bailout] programme, the World Bank, African Development Bank, and development partners have clarity [on your policy credibility], and just as the World Bank, IMF and everybody is warning us, we lack market access.”

Meanwhile, Mr John Ampontuah Kumah, a Deputy Minister for Finance, at this year’s Annual New Year School, said: “The clear position of Government is that we’re are not going for an IMF programme. We’re competent to manage our economy and we trust our ability to weave out of these difficult times.”

Mrs Abena Osei Asare, also a Deputy Finance Minister, on a media platform, said the introduction of the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-levy) would be a “homegrown solution” to the country’s current economic challenges.

She said: “Globally, there are issues everywhere and all countries are trying very hard to find space within themselves to develop and then you have [a method you can use] to raise more revenue, and you say you are shelving that and running to IMF?”

In the Appendix 3A of the 2022 budget, the Government pegged total revenue for 2022 at 100,516,846,109, with e-levy estimated to contribute 6,963,386,254 [6.92 percent of the total revenue].

The country last exited an IMF programme in 2019 after it went for $918 million loan from the international financial institution in 2015 to stabilise the economy, which the IMF said was in “trouble”.

At the time the IMF said the country was faced with a widening current account and budget deficits, rampant inflation, depreciating of the currency, out-of-control government spending, credit dry up as interest rates rose and bad bank loans piled up.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Kpone, (near Tema),- Nii Tetteh Otu II, Paramount Chief of the Kpone Traditional Area in the Greater Accra Region, has urged members of Parliament to be guided by the national interest in the consideration of the government’s electronic transaction levy E-Levy.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview Nii Tetteh Otu II said the two sides in parliament must tone down the war of words either for or against it.

The 1.75 per cent E-levy has generated controversy since it was announced in the 2022 budget and had sharply divided Parliament, with the Minority vowing to vote against its passage into law.

The levy is to allow the government to generate revenue from electronic transactions, including mobile money.

The Kpone Paramount Chief asserted that many Ghanaians were opposed to the passage of the bill and appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to listen to the masses and withdraw the bill.

He urged the government to prevent the many financial lapses within the public sector to rake in the needed revenue for developing the country, instead of introducing new taxes and levies.

The Kpone Paramount Chief urged parliamentarians from both sides of the political divide not only to take delight in what benefits them alone but must consider the plight of the average Ghanaian.

He also advised the parliamentarian not to stage a walk-out when the house finally sits to deal with the electronic transactions levy.

Nii Otu also suggested the judicious use of the county’s resources to create wealth, saying that Ghana could not afford to fail amid the natural resources.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ghana Premier League side, Berekum Chelsea are set to name Prata Da Gregorio Rui Pedro as the new head coach ahead of the second round of the 2021/22 Ghana Premier League campaign.

The ‘Bibires’ have not been convincing in the ongoing season and after 15 matches, Chelsea sit 12th on the league log with 18 points.

However, Rui Pedro, who is a Portuguese trainer has arrived in Ghana to head the technical department of the club.

His appointment comes as a result of the club’s management decision to make the club one of the best in the Ghana Premier League.

Berekum Chelsea have already completed the signing of their former forward, Solomon Asante on a free transfer until the end of the 2021/22 season.

Chelsea will be hosted by Dreams FC in the matchday 16 games at the Theatre of Dreams at Dawu on Sunday.

Source: Modern Ghana