My Ghana Electronic Desk

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Contrary to fears that the contribution of Ghanaian journalists to the country’s elections this year would be close to negligible because they were not privileged to do early or special voting as has been the case in previous elections, the media has been very visible in every nook and cranny of the country. This, it is believed, is as a result of a special dispensation accorded all media persons accredited by the Electoral Commission to cover the elections. In the absence of the special voting, presiding officers at all of the country’s 26,000 polling stations were instructed to permit any media person at their stations to enjoy preferential voting, so they would be able to adequately cover the elections after casting their ballot. The plan ‘B’ seems to have made an otherwise disturbing situation better, although some reports indicate that media persons who were deployed to other parts of the country by their establishments had to sacrifice their votes

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE An electoral officer explaining things to anxious voters Nature herself smiled on Ghana’s 6 th consecutive democratic polls currently ongoing across the length and breadth of the country, with two bouts of moderate to heavy rain along the coastal belt, especially in Accra the capital. Residents of Accra received a heavenly package of cool showers in the early afternoon and around 7pm on the eve of the country’s 2012 elections. And as if the creator Himself knows that most polling stations are in the open where people will have to queue for long hours to exercise their franchise on the D-day, the rain the previous night has brought a coolness to the entire electoral process as seen from the capital. To show their determination to cast their ballots for their preferred Parliamentary and Presidential candidates, Ghanaians began forming long winding queues with chairs, benches, stones and with some even spending the night at their polling sta

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Donald Kaberuka Participants at the closing session of the seventh African Economic Conference (AEC), held in Kigali, Rwanda on November 2, 2012, have urged African leaders to put in place bold economic reforms, aimed at sustaining growth and boosting human development.     The participants agreed that good governance and fair competition will help Africa meet its sustainable development agenda, while carefully calibrated government support can help fulfill Africa’s economic potential, reducing political risks and bolstering financial accountability to open new markets. The four-day conference highlighted the need for policy-makers to create diversified economies capable of generating employment, implementing better social policies and inclusive growth. Also, one of the running threads of the conference was how to use natural resources to create economic benefits for ordinary citizens. Hosting the AEC for the first time, Rwandan President Pa

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The old note The Bank of Ghana (BoG), has announced that the old GH¢50 bank notes are no longer legal tender and so cannot be exchanged for goods and services rendered or in any transaction. In a press release issued today, BoG informed all banks and the general public that “the old GH¢50 banknotes ceased to be legal tender after SEPTEMBER 30, 2012, and should therefore not be issued to members of the public. The release says the old GH¢50 banknotes will however continue to be exchanged at all banks and the Bank of Ghana.  BoG has therefore directed all banks in Ghana to accept the old GH¢50 banknotes for exchange or deposit from the general public after authentication. The new note It says thereafter all banks should endeavour to lodge the old GH¢50 banknotes with the Bank of Ghana and should ensure that lodgements of the old series are segregated from the upgraded series. The release does not say though, when receipt of the old notes will

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Rice is the staple food for billions of the world's population The Government of Ghana ,Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), food security sector partners, and    Ghanaian farmers are marking World Food Day today,   October 16, 2012 at   Bewadzi in the Gomoa West District of the Central Region. This year’s celebration is being held under the theme  “ Agricultural cooperatives: key to feeding the world”, to   highlight the many, concrete ways in which agricultural cooperatives and producer organisations help to provide food security, generate employment, and reduce poverty. In his message for the observance of this year’s event, Dr.   José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General, pays special tribute to cooperatives for working against hunger and overcoming market and policy constraints, by providing their members access to a range of assets and services. For his part, Mr. Musa Saihou Mbenga

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The just released 2012 Global Hunger Index report titled “The Challenge of Hunger: Ensuring Sustainable Food Security under Land, Water, and Energy Stresses”, has stated that two of the three countries with extremely alarming levels are Burundi and Eritrea in Sub-Saharan Africa, while the third is Haiti. South Asia, it says,  is the other region that continues to suffer from the highest levels of hunger, which on a global scale remains serious with 20 countries having levels of hunger that are “alarming” or “extremely alarming.”  According to the report released in Washington, D.C. for the seventh year by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, a non-governmental aid organisation based  in Germany and Concern Worldwide, an international NGO dedicated to the reduction of suffering and the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries, unsustainable use of land, water, and energy is threateni

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The African Development Bank (AfDB) has proposed plans to float Africa’s first infrastructure bonds to member nations to raise up to $22 billion for investments in infrastructure projects such as ports, railways, roads and energy, across the African continent. This follows a recommendation by Made In Africa Foundation (MIAF) for AfDB to offer the opportunity to invest in the infrastructure bonds to all, which would be in addition to funds committed by member governments. It also brings to reality, an initiative first raised at the March 2009 conference on Growth Corridors, hosted by MIAF’s Ozwald Boateng and UK Foreign Minister, David Miliband. According to a statement issued by MIAF partner - Nigerian oil company, Atlantic Energy Tuesday, September 25, by opening up the bond offering to everyone – private institutions such as global banks and pension funds, individuals and corporations – there would be increased transparency, and hopefully better gov

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Western Union, a leader in global payment services and new Global Partner of the UEFA Europa League, has announced it will turn every successful pass in this season’s European football competition into funding to provide a day’s education for young people around the world. By so doing, it hopes to deliver one million school days to unschooled but brilliant and hardworking students around the world. Declaring this through a statement issued from Paris, France Tuesday September 11, 2012, Western Union said their decision is informed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO’s) publication that 71 million bright, hardworking students globally are not enrolled in secondary or vocational education. Stating that this is a tremendous loss of economic and human potential, the payment service known very well in Ghana for remittances from relations abroad, believes each extra year of school can increase an individual’s pot

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Telecommunications services provider, Airtel Nigeria, has been named Telecoms Brand of the Year, at the 8th edition of the Nigerian Telecoms Awards held in Lagos, after 21 months of operations in the country.   The telecoms company, which chalked the feat in Nigeria on Saturday, September 8, 2012, clinched a total of three industry Awards - The Most Innovative Telecom Company of the Year, Telecom Brand of the year and Customer Friendly Operator of the year at a well-attended event marked by a huge presence of dignitaries from both private and public sectors.  According to Awards’ citations, Airtel emerged overall best in the three categories following its enviable strides in charting new paths in meeting the demands and needs of its esteemed stakeholders through superior brand experience, a rich portfolio of innovative products and services ranging from exciting voice solutions to inventive data packages and mobile broadband. On the Customer Friendly

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Millicom International Cellular S.A. (“Millicom”) operating under the Tigo brand, and non-profit organisation ‘Reach for Change’ are working in partnership to improve the lives of children in Africa through social entrepreneurship. As part of the programme, a joint programme to identify and support social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions for children is being launched in Chad, DR Congo, Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania throughout 2012.    In the programme which has already been piloted in Ghana and has reached more than 140,000 children in the first year, Tigo and Reach for Change invite people in all of the African countries where Tigo operates to present innovative ideas for improving the lives of children. The most entrepreneurial candidates with the strongest and most promising ideas are then invited to join a three year incubator programme, where they will work on transforming their ideas into sustainable ventures. According to Tigo, the ent

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin Dr. Agnes Kalibata Two of Africa’s female leaders, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources in Rwanda, and Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, outgoing CEO of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) in Ethiopia, have been awarded the Yara Prize for an African Green Revolution . The prize seeks to contribute to the transformation of African agriculture and food availability, within a sustainable context, thereby helping to reduce hunger and poverty and the two leaders were selected by the Yara Prize Committee yesterday, September 5, 2012,  for their work on groundbreaking areas for the African Green Revolution: effective public policies in support of agricultural growth and profound innovation in agricultural markets. The award consists of US$ 60,000, which will be split between the laureates, a crystal trophy and a diploma and was handed out in Oslo from 2005 to 2009 but moves to Tanzania, Africa, this year . S

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Airtel Africa yesterday, September 5, 2012, announced a US$ 400,000 innovative project with a grant from the GSMA Development Fund, to provide approximately 250,000 small-holder farmers in Kenya reliable and relevant agricultural information via their mobile phones. The innovative project, dubbed ‘Sauti ya Mkulima’ (Swahili for voice of the farmer), aims to provide farmers with access to pertinent agriculture-related information, advice and research that will help them make better decisions about their crops, increasing the productivity of their yield, as well as their potential income. According to Airtel, it will also help create a farmer community within which peers can share experiences and exchange information about social gatherings, events, and job opportunities.    Outlining the importance of the project, Shivan Bhargava, Managing Director, Airtel Kenya, said: “At Airtel, we recognise innovative telecommunications solutions have the power to t

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Political leadership is more important than a city’s wealth, when it comes to protecting the lives and economic assets of cities and towns from disasters, a new study launched by the UN two years ago has established.  The study of a major urban safety campaign, the “Making Cities Resilient Report 2012”, provides a global snapshot of how local governments reduce disaster risk and was undertaken by a team from the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), led by Senior Fellow, Dr. David Satterthwaite.  Commenting on the study, Dr. Satterthwaite stated: “The Making Cities Resilient campaign is proving that despite a rise in extreme weather events and the threats posed by climate change, urbanisation does not have to lead to an increase in risk.” He said “Where city and local governments demonstrate leadership and competence in working with low-income populations living in informal settlements, flood impacts can be reduc