My Ghana Electronic Desk

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 opportu...

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-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....

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 Pre...

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 no...

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 hi...

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 ...

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 ...