SARPONG'S BLOG

By Fred Sarpong The World Bank Ghana has allocated US$1.4 billion in support of Ghana’s Country Partnership Strategy (CSP), which is expected to be approved by the bank directors in May, this year. The CSP will ends in 2017. Dante Mossi, World Bank Country Senior Officer announced this in a meeting with the media in Accra. The meeting was to brief the media the new Country Partnership Strategy for the Republic of Ghana and the World Bank Group. Mossi, who led the discussion, said the objective of the new strategy is to consolidate the Middle Income status of Ghana. This is to protect the economy from volatile global commodity prices; improve value for money of public investments, use other instruments, such as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in line with the PPP policy; support a financially sustainable energy sector; and strengthen public institutions to manage the macro economy and financial sector. The international bank has said that the CPS is a response to the Gh...

By Fred Sarpong The Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission (PCSRC), the regulator for the postal and courier sector in Ghana is taken steps to flush-out all companies operating postal and courier services in the country without licenses. Even though the commission has registered a quite number of operators, it believes that there are a number of them still operating without licenses in the country. The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Isaac Annan Riverson disclosed this to Business Week in a exclusive interview in Accra. ‘We currently have 60 registered operators in the country, made up both domestic and international companies and will be increase this year,’ said Riverson, in addition he indicated that despite some operators are willing to corporate and register with the commission, there are others who do not see the reason why they must register with the commission, especially those operating at transport yards. According to Riverson they have been o...

By Fred Sarpong Year-on-year inflation in ex-factory prices of goods was 9.1% in February 2013, recording the lowest since January, 2012. This is measured by Producer Price Index (PPI). The Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services. This means that, ex-factory prices of goods for all industry increased on average by 9.1% in February 2013 relative to the price level recorded in February, last year. The monthly change rate for February 2013 was also negative 0.3%, meaning that compared to January 2013, the PPI increased by 0.2%. Kofi Agyeman Duah is the Acting Deputy Government Statistician in charge of Operations, he announced in Accra last week that Mining and Quarrying producer price inflation rate decreased by 10.7 percentage points over the January 2013 rate of 18.5%, to record 7.8%. According to him the Manufacturing rate, which constitutes more than tw...

Samsung Electronics West Africa has announced that the fourth generation Galaxy S, the Galaxy S IV, the future of smartphones , will be launch in Ghana in May, this year. Sequel to its highly publicized, successful and outstanding official launch in New York last Thursday, the Samsung Galaxy S IV, world’s latest and smartest smartphone is making its way to Ghana shortly. The teeming population of Ghanaians who are eagerly waiting to lay hands on the Galaxy S IV will not have to wait for too long. Understanding what matters most to us, the Samsung Galaxy S IV was developed to redefine the way we live and to maximize our fulfillment of life. The sleek and innovative smartphone makes every moment of life very meaningful; it understands the value of relationships, enabling true connections with friends and family. It believes in the importance of an effortless user experience, making life easy and hassle-free. Talking about some unusual special feature of the smartphone, Ja...

By Fred Sarpong The active mobile phone lines in Ghana increase to 4,352,721 lines, representing 20.47% at the end of December, 2012. The lines increase from 21,265,706 in January 2012 to December last year. These are contributions from Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN), Vodafone, Tigo, Airtel, Glo and Expresso. MTN had a marginal increase and maintained its position as the market leader with a subscriber base of 11,734,500 representing 46% of total market share. 
 Vodafone’s subscriber base increased to 5,259,487 which represent 21 % of total market share. 
 Tigo had a marginal subscriber base increase, closing at 3,698,409 which represent 14% of the market while Airtel increased its subscriber base to 3,192,154 representing 12% of the total market share. GLO decreased its subscriber base; its current subscriber base of 1,568,014 represents 6% of the total market share. 
 Expresso though, decreased its subscriber base to 165,863, the 165,863 represents 1 % of th...