My Ghana Electronic Desk

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Mr Kofi Asamoah Organised labour has given the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) and the government 10 working days to slash the recent tariff increases. The group warned that it would be forced to resort to industrial action if the ultimatum was brushed aside.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The decomposed body of an unidentified woman believed to be in her mid-20s was retrieved by the police from a litter bin behind the Morning Star High School at Tantra Hill in Accra yesterday.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Mrs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, The Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs of the United States of America, Mrs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has lauded the successful conduct of Ghana’s election petition hearing by the Supreme Court. She said this had demonstrated how far Ghana had come with democracy.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A section of cocoa farmers at the durbar President John Mahama has said the government remains committed to paying producer prices for cocoa that will not leave Ghana’s hard-working cocoa farmers worse off. He said in spite of the daunting challenges facing the crop globally as a result of rising costs and declining world prices that had given rise to concerns for sustainability, the government would ensure that adequate prices were paid for cocoa.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Emeritus Professor Kwame Gyekye  Emeritus Professor Kwame Gyekye, Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, has advocated a new notion of private member’s bill in Parliament from citizens and not from the government. According to him, such a bill would give a voice to ordinary citizens in matters of governance.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Sylvester Mensah, has stated that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has become a model for other African countries to learn from, although it continues to receive a lot of criticism from Ghanaians.

  BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Former South African President, F. W. de Klerk, has stated that much as he admires American and British democracies, they should not be dogmatic about Africa following their example. “There is often an enormous chasm between Western protestations of democratic rectitude and their social practices back home”, he said, noting that the two democracies were not as perfect as they had been made to appear.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE When CEPS took its turn. Pix Credit: Daily Graphic Four Ghanaian state departments and establishments have been invited to appear before the Commission of Inquiry established by President John Mahama to inquire into Judgement Debts Payments and other related matters, at its public sitting on Wednesday, September 11, 2013.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Health Service Workers’Union (HSWU) of the Trades Union of Ghana (TUC) has appealed to government to reconsider its position on the coverage of diseases as well as remittances to accredited service providers. According to the Union, the appeal stems from the exclusion of certain treatments and services by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which subjects Ghanaians to some financial difficulties.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Rotary signage in the heart of Abidjan Rotary District 9102,  comprising 66 clubs in Ghana, Togo, Benin and Niger, has held a   special breakfast meeting with 100 leading Chief Executive Officers of corporate Ghana. The Breakfast Meeting, which was held   Tuesday, 20th August   2013  at the Movenpick Hotel  Accra, was intended   for District 9102 to interact with business leaders in Ghana on the ideals of Rotary and also as a platform to introduce Rotary’s humanitarian   and sustainable service projects in the District.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE DHL Express, one of the world’s leading logistics companies, is supporting Little Sun, a solar light company, by moving free of freight charges, 4,000 lamps to Ethiopia and South Africa from Germany as part of Deutsche Post DHL’s activities around the United Nations World Environment Day. In a similar move, the courier company has also partnered with Solar without Borders, a Belgian non-profit organisation to get light to some countries in sub-Saharan Africa. After executing all kinds of solar projects from Guatemala to Mongolia, Solar without Borders have combined their expertise and developed the ‘Solar Kiosk’, a central solar installation per village where 100 self-developed solar lamps can be charged.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The African Development Bank and the Nigerian government will Monday, July 29, 2013, hold a high level policy dialogue on ‘Infrastructure and Structural Transformation in Nigeria’ in the federal capital of Abuja, a press statement from AfDB has said.   According to the release, the meeting, which is jointly organised by the AfDB, Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance, and the country’s National Planning Commission is expected examine ways in which Nigeria could accelerate the reduction of poverty and social inequality.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Prof. Kwame Karikari Panellists at a public forum Tuesday, July 9, 2013 in Accra, on the theme “The Courts, Free Speech and Judicial Accountability in a Democracy: Defining the Boundaries” expressed worry that the law on Contempt of the Court has not been clearly delineated in Ghana’s statute books and yet attracts punishment. Apart from not being clear to people what constitutes contempt of the court, it is also nebulous while the penalty is not prescribed anywhere, the panellists agreed.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE H.E.Ali Bongo Ondimba H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Gabonese Republic, has announced the creation of a $200 million fund, in association with the New York Forum Institute and with the support of the whole CEMAC region (Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo). The fund, called “Train My Generation”, was announced at the closing session of the New York Forum AFRICA, and will finance the creation of 50 professional schools that will train 100,000 students in 18-24 months, whereas the training programmes will last from 12 to 18 months. Announced at the biggest pan-African summit in the world, the fund will also be presented to the G8 Summit currently ongoing in the United Kingdom.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE AfDB President Donald Kaberuka African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Donald Kaberuka, today June 17, 2013, applauded the G8 for its emphasis on the issues around resource mobilisation through greater transparency in taxation of Africa’s natural resources. Speaking as G8 leaders began meeting in the United Kingdom, Kaberuka urged the international community to promote transparency, curb tax evasion and ensure more balanced contracts in the natural resources sector, saying transactions in the sector were very opaque. “It is only in this way that our countries will be able to find the financial resources they need to fund infrastructure and trade corridors, which until now have been very dependent on donor funding,” Kaberuka said.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A cross section of participants at the conference Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Former President of Finland Tarja Halonen , United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark and African Women’s Development Fund CEO Theo Sawa are among over 4,500 leaders who have today called for continued investment in girls and women. Taking turns to speak at ‘Women Deliver 2013’ the third and largest conference of such nature in the decade held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, all the afore mentioned leaders addressed the importance of placing girls and women at the centre of the next development agenda, and discussed advocacy strategies to keep girls’ and women’s needs in focus.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Different types of contraceptives for women Global leaders have announced progress and new commitments toward expanding contraceptive access for women in developing countries and also outlined plans for sustaining this momentum in the years to come. This was during the second day of Women Deliver 2013, the largest conference on girls and women of the decade held in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur this week.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Tuesday, May 22, approved a US$ 100 million unfunded Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) between the bank and Commerzbank AG, a leading international bank headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, to boost trade finance in Africa. Under this facility, the two banks will share the default risk on a portfolio of qualifying trade transactions originated by issuing banks in Africa and confirmed by Commerzbank AG, which will help address critical market demand for trade finance in Africa, by providing support for trade in vital economic sectors such as agribusiness and manufacturing.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Tuesday, May 22 approved a US$ 20 million Trade Finance Line of Credit for UT Bank Ghana (UT Bank), a mid-sized, indigenous Ghanaian bank, to support the trade finance activities of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and local corporates in Ghana.      Explaining the underlining reason for the credit approval, via a press statement, AfDB maintained that as the Ghanaian economy continues to grow and diversify, there is increasing need to address critical market demand for Trade Finance by supporting businesses in key economic sectors such as agriculture and light manufacturing.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A new report launched by the African Development Bank (AfDB) during the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in April 2013 by the bank’s Finance Vice-President, Charles Boamah, says African countries need to improve their regulatory frameworks in order to ensure the successful launch of African infrastructure project bonds.    The AfDB report titled “Structured Finance – Conditions for infrastructure project bonds in African markets,” states further that Africa is ready for the launch of such infrastructure bonds, provided some conditions are met.  According to Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank, in the foreword of the report, “With Africa having now no other option than to tap into its own internal resources, ‘the book points in the right direction’.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Following on from the success of its first two programmes run in 2011 and 2012, France Telecom-Orange, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 43.5 billion euros in 2012,   yesterday May 14, 2013 launched its third African Social Venture Prize, a project which promotes social innovations in support of development that use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).  Already present in 18 African countries and boasts over 70 million customers, Orange is seeking to become a major player in the economic and social development of every one of these countries.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Dubbed the Africa Domain Name System (DNS) Forum, the Internet Society, African Top Level Domain (AfTLD) and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) , are organising a conference for registries, registrars, experts and policy makers to foster cross-border collaboration. The event, which comes off from July 12, 2013 to July 13, 2013 in Durban, South Africa, aims to establish a platform for the DNS community across Africa and to advance the domain name industry and domain name registrations on the African continent. According to the three organisers, the upcoming forum has been necessitated by the fact that despite the support offered over the years for the continued development and growth of Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) in Africa through capacity building and technical support, the growth and sustainability of African ccTLDs and adoption of new technologies remain very low as compared to other regions of the world.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The African Development Bank (AfDB), has concluded a one-week, pan-African training workshop for African regulators of derivatives and commodities exchanges in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The workshop, which ended on May 10, 2013, provided participants representing 30 African countries with strategic and technical skills to assist African securities and capital markets authorities develop legal and regulatory frameworks for derivatives and commodities exchanges.   

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A new report – the Symantec Corp.’s Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 18 (ISTR) released yesterday, May 13, 2013, has revealed a 42 percent surge in cyber fraud during 2012 in targeted attacks compared to the prior year. The report, which lists top 30 countries in Africa in terms of their internet security threat profile, also reveals increase in cyberespionage – including threefold increase in small business attacks.    

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Global Board of Trade (GBOT), the first international multi ‐ asset bourse from Mauritius, has successfully launched Contracts for Difference (CFDs). Contract for Difference (CFD) means a standardised derivative traded on GBOT, where a buyer and a seller agree to exchange the difference in value of a particular underlying between the time when the Contract is opened and when it is closed. The launch of CFDs on GBOT Tuesday, May 7, 2013 in Mauritius, makes it the 1st exchange in Africa and 2nd in the world to introduce CFDs.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Chinese and African leaders have met at the 4 th International Roundtable on China-Africa Health Cooperation and the first China-Africa health meeting to be held in Africa, to explore new partnerships to address some of the most pressing health challenges facing Africa. The meeting, which was held Monday, May 6, 2013 in Gaborone, Botswana to promote South-South partnership on African health priorities, was also aimed at strengthening an innovative health partnership and promoting sustainable health solutions that meet the needs and priorities of African countries, while drawing on China’s unique expertise. One aim of the roundtable, which had as its major theme; “how African and Chinese officials can create win-win scenarios that will benefit all partners”, was to develop joint recommendations that could lay the groundwork for a long-term strategic plan for China-Africa health cooperation, which could be considered at the Ministerial Forum of China-

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A slum in Ghana The Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2013, released April 29, 2013 by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), states that although urbanisation helps pull people out of poverty and advances progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it can also lead to burgeoning growth of slums, pollution, and crime if not managed well. Explaining this assertion, the report says urbanisation has been a major force behind poverty reduction and progress towards other MDGs and that with over 80 per cent of global goods and services produced in cities, countries with relatively higher levels of urbanisation, such as China, and many others in East Asia and Latin America, have played a major role in lowering extreme poverty worldwide.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Monday, April 29, 2013 announced it will soon open its first hub office in Istanbul, Turkey, though a firm date was not given. Making the announcement, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fadi Chehadé, said: “ICANN is becoming increasingly international in terms of our outlook, policies and the makeup of our staff.  Now our global hub strategy will take our internationalism to an improved operational level. These hub offices will become part of the core fabric of ICANN.” Divulging what informed the choice of location, Fadi Chehadé said: “We looked closely at a number of possible global locations. We chose Istanbul because of the quality of its infrastructure, growing ICT sector, business-friendly environment and its close cultural and geographic proximity to Europe, the Middle-East and Africa.”

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Michael Lalor, Ernst & Young’s Director of Strategy and Innovation-Africa Business Center and Dinesh Kumar, Ph.D., Country Leader for Supply Chain and Procurement Services at KPMG South Africa, will lead several other industry experts to analyse breakbulk, project cargo and heavy-lift logistics challenges in Africa from April 15 to April 18, 2013. Set for Cape Town, South Africa, Michael Lalor will outline sub-Saharan Africa’s development, investment trends and proposed capital projects as he delivers the first day’s keynote speech at the Breakbulk Africa Congress 2013.    Mr. Lalor’s responsibilities include the firm’s thought leadership initiatives on Africa as well as assisting a wide variety of companies in developing, stress-testing and executing their Africa growth strategies.  

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, has stated that the year 2012 was a record year for its engagement with Ghana, having provided a total of US $211.6 million in grants and loans to support the country’s development during the year. AfDB further discloses that the total 2012 grant and loan approval amount represents the highest level of support the country has ever received from the Bank within a one-year period since the Bank Group began operations in Ghana in 1973. To date, the Bank Group has financed 105 loans and grants in Ghana valued at approximately US $3.755 billion, while projects funded by the Bank primarily fall within the areas of transport, energy, agriculture, water and sanitation, education, health and multi-sector.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Rice production in Ghana still largely manually done Africa’s farmers and agribusinesses could create a trillion-dollar food market by 2030, says a  new World Bank report launched Monday, March 4, 2013 in Washington. This can however only become possible if Africa’s farmers are able to expand their access to more capital, electricity, better technology and irrigated land to grow high-value nutritious foods, and if African governments can work more closely with agribusinesses to feed the region’s fast-growing urban population. According to the “Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness” report, Africa’s food systems, currently valued at US$313 billion a year from agriculture, could triple if governments and business leaders radically rethink their policies and support to agriculture, farmers, and agribusinesses, which together account for nearly 50 percent of Africa s economic activity. The report, which highlights the strong opportuniti

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE More than 5,000 experts and advocates of women’s health and reproductive rights issues, have confirmed their participation in the third in a series of global conferences on women scheduled for May 28, 2013 to May 30, 2013 in Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia. Dubbed Women Deliver 2013, the conference will be addressed by speakers of great repute such as Melinda Gates,   Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ; Michelle Bachelet,   Under-Secretary-General & Executive Director of United Nations Women and Helen Clark,   Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) . Others  are Michel Sidibé,   Executive Director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) ; Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Mette-Marit   of Norway and Dr. Hans Rosling,   Professor of International Health, Karolinska Institute; Co-founder & Chairman, Gapminder F

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Dr, Carlos Lopes Dr. Carlos Lopes, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), has passionately appealed for due attention to be focused on the use of viable available data for any development agenda, after the Millennium Development Goals period in 2015. Making the plea to the UN-mandated High Level Panel of Eminent Personalities on the post-2015 Development Agenda, Lopes tasked them to ensure that any development framework that eventually replaces the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) “pays due attention to the availability and use of viable data.” Addressing a session of the Panel in Monrovia last weekend, the UN Under-Secretary General made a personal but insightful analysis of why some of the MDG targets could not be fully attained by African countries, suggesting that the absence of up-to-date data for clear measuring mechanisms might even have obscured achievements in some countries.