Category: General

MTN Nigeria Communications Pic (MTN Nigeria) has been recognized with two
awards at the recently concluded National Tax Dialogue Event organized by the
Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS). The second edition of this stakeholder
engagement forum was held at the Banquet Hall, State House Presidential Villa Abuja on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, with his excellency, President Muhammad Buhari as the special guest of honor.

MTN Nigeria was applauded as the most tax compliant organization and a top 20
the taxpayer in Nigeria for the 2021 tax year. These awards reflect MN Nigeria’s
remarkable performance in remittance of its taxes despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.

In 2021, MTN Nigeria’s total tax contribution to all government agencies including the FIRS amounted to N757.6bn while FIRS collected a total of N6.4frn tax revenue in the year. Specifically, MTN Nigeria paid a total of N618,7bm in direct and indirect taxes to the FIRS in the 2021 tax year, representing approximately 13.5% of the total FIRS collection for the year.

“I am delighted at our performance and recognition at this year’s National Tax
Dialogue event. While the past 24 months have been challenging for our country and nations worldwide, we are committed to supporting the Federal Government’s
ongoing Economic Growth Recovery Plan (ERP),” said Modupe Kadri, Chief Financial
OFFicer (CFO), who received the awards on behalf of MTN Nigeria.

“We will continue to invest heavily in network expansion with a focus on expanding access to under-served communities. We also plan to connect an additional 2,000 rural communities in 2022,” he added.

Speaking at the event, Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National
Planning said the dialogue was designed to engage stakeholders in the Nigerian tax space in meaningful discourse to glean information, ideas, and experience to aid policy formulation and improve the tax environment.

According to the Minister, the other tax revenue objectives are “to institutionalize a healthy tax culture among Nigerians. The right attitude towards taxation will enable every Nigerian to become a co-guardian of the tax system and the commonwealth.

Source: Ghana Web

Ghanaian music duo, Nubian Stunnaz, have released their latest tune set to cause a massive stir in the music space and in the hearts of all good music lovers.

‘Grind Harder’ by Nubian Stunnaz, is hard Drill tune. Nubian Stunnaz took turn to express their lyrical dexterity and ingenuity by advising the youth to go about their hustle and grind harder. Nubian Stunnaz used this danceable song to connect with their fans and any young person who wakes up every morning and stays on their grind.

To encourage Ghanaians to stream the song, Nubian Stunnaz said that: “As a young person, hard and smart work is what gets us successful. However, waking up every morning and getting on your grind can get a bit difficult sometimes, which is why Grind Harder should be on your playlist! Put it on rotation and get your daily boost as you hustle.”

Source: Modern Ghana

Women have been advised to practise good personal hygiene during menstrual periods to prevent infections.

 Miss Rosina Darcha, the Acting Head of the Midwifery Department at the C.K Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, who gave the advice, said personal hygiene was cardinal in the health of women during this period because the menstrual blood was rich in nutrients that aided the rapid growth of infectious microorganism.

 She also advised women and adolescent girls to have their baths at least twice daily and change used sanitary pads periodically to avoid wearing one for more than six hours.

 She was speaking to selected adolescent girls from the Savelugu School of the Deaf on the role of menstrual hygiene at a menstrual hygiene forum organised by the Ghana National Association on the Deaf (GNAD) in Tamale.

 Ms Darcha said women who despised personal hygiene, especially during menstruation, were at a high risk of reproductive tract infections, which could affect their reproductive health.

She emphasised that “There is the need for women to observe and know their body well to be able to tell if there are abnormalities at a point in time to seek early medical attention.”

 She reiterated attending to infections at the initial stages to avoid complications.

 Ms Darcha encouraged parents to make their young girls understand that menstruation was a natural occurrence for women to prepare them psychologically for the stress and discomfort associated with it.

She said, “Making them understand that menstruation is natural and can be discomforting make them mentally fit to handle and easier for them to manage.”

Source: Ghana News Agency

StarTimes is pleased to announce that Mrs Akofa Banson has been appointed as General Manager of StarTimes Ghana to lead the team to achieve set targets and drive new strategies for the territory Ghana.

Mrs Akofa Banson joined StarTimes in 2016 as Head of Marketing, a position she has held until her promotion.

She is an experienced media executive with a career spanning over 20 years in Media marketing, advertising, content acquisition and film production.

Akofa was named amongst the 50 most influential CMOs in Ghana 2019 and she is an associate member of the Chartered institute of marketing Ghana.

She started her career in 1999 as a marketing officer with TV3 Network Ltd. She later became General manager for Alpha Limousine where she led sales improvements to an enormous 200% increase.

Mrs Banson joined StarTimes from African Broadcast Network, where she worked as marketing manager for five years and General manager for four years.

Her appointment takes effect from 1st April 2022, taking over from Mr Felix Ahonzo who is moving on to pursue other interests after five years with StarTimes as COO.

“We are extremely excited to have someone with her experience to lead our team on an exciting new growth path, we believe she will add significant value in achieving our vision and objectives.” the Executive Chairman, Mr. Techie said during a handing over ceremony on thursday.

StarTimes is a Pay Tv service provider with strong presence in Sub-Saharan Africa. StarTimes offers digital terrestrial television and satellite television services to its consumers.

With over 30million users in 30 African countries, StarTimes has become Africa’s leading Pay Tv service provider.

Source: Ghana Web

Parliament is expected to go on a holiday break on Tuesday, April 5, 2022 for Easter celebration.

This was contained in the business statement of next week presented by the business committee.

The committee urged lawmakers to devote themselves to the scheduled business for the week under consideration for a successful adjournment on the proposed date.

The date for their return will subsequently be announced.

Meanwhile, during Friday’s sitting, some minority members of parliament expressed concern over the continuous failure of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to honour invitations of the House to answer questions posed by legislators.

The lawmakers said they are unhappy that the Minister has failed to attend to the house to respond to dozens of questions piled up for him.

A.B.A Fuseini, the Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu said the minister must be directed by the Speaker to urgently attend to the House to address the questions.

“I am concerned about the integrity of this House and the extent to which the Minister can treat this House with contempt and get away with it. He is carrying his ‘untouchable’ status to this House. This House must prevail on the Finance Minister,” he said.

The Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, last week raised a similar issue and urged the first Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Osei Owusu to issue definite instructions to the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, over his failure to appear before Parliament to answer questions.

The Minister has been programmed to answer over ten questions on different subject matters on Thursday, March 24, 2022, but did not show up.

“I find this to be very unacceptable because the Finance Minister can go around the country and do town hall meetings, yet he doesn’t want to come here to answer to the reps of the people. All the 13 questions have been outstanding for a very long time. Today we are told he is holding a press conference to address the country. My worry is that, if we keep accommodating his excuses, this question will never be answered. We should give a definite instruction to the Finance Minister to come and answer the questions,” Muntaka Mubarak said.

Source: Modern Ghana

JACCD Design Institute Africa, the first private creative university in West Africa and Ghana’s leading creative design university has opened its ultra-modern campus at North Legon in Accra to offer quality creative education to creative innovators.

The new campus hosts air-conditioned lecture halls, syndicated rooms, faculty and administrative block, tech-enabled labs/studios, galleries, a design incubator, a state-of-the-art computer center, one of the best creative arts libraries in Ghana, and a 400-seater-auditorium to facilitate public events.

Speaking at the launch, the President and Founder of JACCD Design Institute Africa, Madam Joyce Ababio reiterated her commitment to educating Africa’s creative thinkers and innovators.

“Our focus at JACCD DIA is to develop a curriculum that can be a standard to any design school in the world and have faculty design lessons in ways that make students desire to solve problems critically. Our university will support students to be creative, think originality and unconventionally, and push boundaries; above all, we will teach them to be ethical, professional, respectful, value diversity and inclusion and of course, embrace the unknown”.

She added, “We are not here to reinvent the wheel but assist our students in Africa and beyond to take the wheel and add their own solutions to make it better. This can be achieved through critically adapting circumstances and providing solutions. Now more than ever, the world needs an abundance of creative thinkers and practitioners. Without individuals who think differently, who can reinvent the rules to solve the complex challenges today”.

Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mark Okraku Mantey, on his part stressed on government’s contributions to supporting JACCD Design Institute Africa to nurture a new crop of entrepreneurs and workers to drive the Creative Arts industry. He said, “for the implementation of policy-based, innovation-oriented strategies to be developed in all aspects of national development, creativity is the key”.

The special Guest of Honour, the First Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Her Excellency Rebecca Akufo-Addo was represented by the Director-General for the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Service, Madam Mawusi Nudekor Awitey. Speaking on behalf of the first lady, Madam Mawusi Awitey congratulated Madam Joyce Ababio and her team.

She emphasized that creative education is the backbone of industries all over the world and we as a country cannot overlook this ‘goldmine’ with perceptions, attitudes, and wrongful tagging, but rather encourage our wards to engage in creative and critical thinking to become better citizens.”

Several dignitaries and stakeholders within the creative arts and education sectors including the Director-General of Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) Prof. Mohammed Salifu, representatives of the National Entrepreneurship & Innovation Programme (NEIP), representative of the Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina Constituency, Francis-Xavier Sosu, representatives of the University of Cape Coast and principals, career counselors of various high schools graced the occasion.

JACCD Design Institute Africa is fully operational and accepting students. The institution now offers unique learning opportunities for students across numerous programs including; Animation and Game Development, Fashion Design, Textile Design, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Film and Television, Photography, and Special Effects Makeup.

Source: Ghana Web

Accra, April 1, GNA- Fuel prices are likely to drop marginally between 3 to 5 per cent in the coming days, the Institute for Energy Security (IES) has projected.

In its Projections for the April 2022 First Pricing Window (April 1 to April 16, 2022), the Institute attributed the expected marginal drop in fuel prices to the fall in prices on the international market and Government’s proposed forex support for the bulk oil importers.

“However, barring any cushioning from market players for consumers, the changes in the market variables and the government’s announced intervention may not be enough to produce any significant drop in the prices of fuels on the local market.

“Should that be the case, it may not stall an increase in transportation fares,” it said.

In the March 2022 Second Pricing Window, fuel prices at the various pumps across the country experienced sharp leaps. Petrol sold beyond GHS9.70 per litre whereas diesel sold above Gh¢10.50 per litre at most Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).

The current national average price for petrol is pegged at GHS9.80 per litre and GHS10.70 per litre for diesel.

This is an increase of 20.25 per cent above the previous average price of GHS8.15 per litre for petrol and a 31.29 per cent increase for diesel price, the IES said.

The Government on Thursday, March 24, 2022 announced a reduction of the margins on fuel by 15 pesewas per litre for the next three months effective April 1, 2022.

Addressing a press conference in Accra, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, announced a reduction in the BOST Margin by 2 pesewas per litre, and the Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund Margin by 9 pesewas per litre.

The Government further reduced the Fuel Marking Margin by 1 pesewa per litre, with the Primary Distribution Margin also reduced by 3 pesewas per litre.

In its Review of the March 2022 Second Pricing Window, the IES observed that Brent Crude price on the international market fell from its highs at the beginning of March but closed the window above the $120 per barrel mark.

“For the window under assessment, prices reached an average of $108.27 per barrel, representing a 4.08 per cent reduction over the previous window’s average price of $112.87 per barrel,” it said.

The IES said data analysed by its Economic Desk within the window revealed that the Cedi further depreciated against major trading currencies on the Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.

The Cedi depreciated further by 1.5 per cent to close at GHS7.28 to the Dollar from the earlier window’s rate of GHS7.17 to the Dollar, it said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Veteran Ghanaian comedian Fritz Baffuor has asked comedians to refrain from making jokes about people’s disabilities.

In an interview on Class Drive, Mr. Baffuor indicated that he used to make jokes about people who stammer in the initial stages of his comedy career.

According to him, there are jokes that are politically correct and incorrect therefore the need for a comedian to be able to decipher between the two.

“There were jokes I used to make about stammers that now at my age, I wouldn’t do again because I’m also sensitive to the fact that a disability is not something to laughed at, but when I was younger and we had a different kind of cultural milieu, I could do it,” he stated.

He stated that the world has taken a different cultural turn and he has learned to become sensitive to people’s conditions in line with his work as a politician.

“I have learned to be sensitive to someone who has a voice disability, someone who is disabled because when I was a politician, I worked on that side, social protection, I was a member of the committee on social protection,” he added.

His comments come after actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the just ended Oscars.

The latter had made a joke about the actor’s wife’s hair loss.

Source: Modern Ghana