SARPONG'S BLOG

By: Fred Yaw  Sarpong   The Minister for Health, Madam Sherry Aryittey has disclosed that the Ghanaian company (name in the custody of the Daily Express but withheld for now) responsible for the importation of the 130 million pieces of fake condoms for Ghana Health Service (GHS) will be asked by the government to refund at least US$5 million to the state. The ‘Be Safe Condoms’ imported into the country by the company were confirmed to be fake or substandard after an investigation. The Minister of Health, Madam Sherry Aryittey said government will not accept replacement of the condoms. “The company must refund the money to the state,” she affirmed. “The Ministry of Health will seek for a full return of funds from the supplier of the sub-standard condoms and the supplier will bear full responsibility for the proper disposal of the sub-standard condoms,” said the Minister. Hon. Aryittey said this in Accra on Tuesday 26th November, 2013, after the comm...

The latest round of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS6), which is being conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), has revealed that children as young as five years are (5 – 14 years) currently engaged in economic activities. While the first round of the survey (1st to 3rd cycles) conducted between 18th October, 2012 and 6th February, 2013, found that 22.9% of children, numbering 1,312 were economically active, the second survey (4th to 6th cycles) found a much higher percentage (25.7%, numbering 1,521) in active employment. The second survey (4th to 6th cycles) was conducted between 8th February, 2013 and 25th May, 2013. Mr. Anthony Amusu, the Chief Technical Director at the service announced this in Accra last week after the completion of the 4th to 6th cycles. According to him, the survey revealed that children spent an average of 16.3 hours on all economic activities during the first three cycles compared to an average of 18.6 hours during the 4 th ...

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on Thursday launched its Clients Charter and Manual to improve customer service to both internal and external clients in a move to boost revenue collection. Speaking at the launch, Mr George Blankson, Commissioner-General of the GRA said the launch of the Charter marked another milestone in the Authority’s modernization process, describing it as a social contract between it and the clients. He said with the launch, the GRA was submitting itself to public scrutiny as the Charter contained the rights and obligations, core values and the standards against which the revenue administration would be assessed and measured. “As a matter of priority, we need to re-think the way we relate to, or work with the people and institutions with different mandates. If we are truly determined to create a transformational Revenue Authority, then we need to constructively engage our stakeholders and place them at the cutting edge of our operations,” he said. The ...

Samsung Electronics has unveiled a new T9000 smart refrigerator in Accra at an event dubbed ‘Samsung product day with Media’. Mr Richard Nunekpeku, Marketing Manager for Samsung Ghana, said the T9000 refrigerator was born from insight and innovation, and has a big capacity, as well as the best premium design. He said the refrigerator which is the world’s largest, has four doors with 819L storage capacity, 543L fridge and 276L freezer. “It offers families the unique opportunity to buy and refrigerate all their needs without worrying about storage space,” he said. He explained that a refrigerator has a triple cooling technology which perfectly cools the large space without difficulty and the wide space of the fridge compartment also allows for the storage without shuffling food items. “T9000 has a smart 13 sensors which monitor the internal and external temperature by maintaining optimal freshness inside. During the day when a user opens the door frequently and external tempe...

Major Albert Don-Chebe (Rtd), Director-General of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation has attributed the nation’s under-development to the high illiteracy rate and failure of policy makers to apply pragmatic steps to deal with the situation. He said for Ghana to progress beyond the lower middle-income then steps ought to be taken to cure what he termed as the “unnecessary disease of illiteracy”. The Director-General made the comment at the 5th Congregation of the University of Professional Studies in Accra, over the weekend. He said, in the light of technological advancement and learning innovations, it is unnecessary to have millions of the citizens consigning their productive lives in illiteracy and ignorance. He observed that illiteracy is the acknowledged saboteur of all the grand development programmes announced with great fanfares by government after government, which have all failed spectacularly. Major Don-Chebe cited India, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore and China as nation...

The Africa Centre for Energy Policy is demanding that Parliament suspends an oil exploration and production deal between the Ghana National Petroleum Cooperation (GNPC) and a consortium, AGM Petroleum Ghana Limited. The multi-million dollar contract is touted as one of the biggest oil exploration deal ever considered by Ghana since the discovery of oil in 2007. The deal is however now a subject of controversy.  Some civil society groups are questioning its propriety and potential to aggravate the international tussle between Ghana and Ivory Coast over a disputed piece of maritime area. Africa Centre for Energy Policy argued that the AGM Petroleum Ghana Limited lacks the pedigree to execute the deal in the best interest of Ghana compared to the other international oil and gas companies, which put in a bid for the contract. Documents intercepted by Joy News indicate that Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee has recommended the approval of the c...

Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) has expressed worry over continuous rising crop production cost over the years as it worked to raise cocoa output from a previous 400,000 tonnes per annum to about 900,000 tonnes at present. The cocoa regulator said inputs such as planting materials and chemicals have seen their costs rise, and spending on infrastructure in cocoa communities has increased. “Our cost is rising even as we continue to sustain our production target of between 800,000 tonnes and over 900,000 tonnes annually through sustainable input supply systems like planting materials, chemicals to control pests and disease, improved infrastructure at some cocoa-growing centres, and also sustainable income for farmers. “We must find ways of getting all these to sustain production targets,” Mr. Emmanuel Opoku, Deputy Director, Research, at Cocobod told participants at a two-day National Cocoa Stakeholders' Conference in Accra. The country opened the 2013/14 crop season...

Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Nayon Bilijo, says he is taking steps to avert a looming European Union (EU) sanction on the country’s fishing industry. He said his Ministry is pursuing a policy of sub-regional collaboration to stop illegal fishing in Ghanaian waters following an EU Commission resolution that placed Ghana on a list of countries set for sanctions. The EU announced on November 26, 2013 that it had banned exports from Belize, Guinea and Cambodia. However, the announcement also warned three countries including Ghana to take action against illegal fishing or risk being blacklisted. The EU has branded Ghana as one of the countries with the most illegal fishing industries. If the sanction is imposed, Ghana’s exports of Tuna to the EU will be blocked. “What Ghana has to do now is to liaise with our neighbours to ensure that it is easier for a Ghanaian vessel to acquire fishing license to fish in Liberia, Ivory Coast and so on”, said Mr Bilijo. Th...

Dream Sales Limited, a subsidiary of Dream Holdings, has opened an ultra modern IT consumables and mobile device shop at Tudu, Accra, Thursday. The short but impressive ceremony saw the Managing Director of the company Mark Asamoah take the media personnel and customers on a tour of the new shop to see the array of computer and mobile phones and accessories on display. Mr Asamoah told Myjoyonline.com at the sidelines of the Dream opening, that the new shop will soon be the nerve centre for customers yearning to own mobile and computer devices. It is the fifth shop opened by the company across the country. "We realised that Tudu is the nerve centre when it comes to business. We wanted to bring our services and product devices closer to the target market and to serve the mobile needs of the people in Tudu," he said. While selling at hugely competitive prices, the company in partnership with its sister company Dream Finance, is also offering a pay m...

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for the first time formally wrote a letter dated October 28, 2013 to all telecom operators in the country asking them to allow Subah Infosolutions Limited to fix auditing equipment on their respective networks to check domestic call flows for revenue assurance. This comes after what was recently exposed as illegal payments of about GHC75million GRA made to Subah for no work done since 2010 when GRA supposedly contracted Subah to do a physical audit of the billing systems of the telcos. ADOMBUSINESS is reliably informed that following GRA's first and only formal request to telcos, Subah has made contact with each of the telcos and held a series of closed-door meetings on modalities for doing the physical audit of their billing systems. Highly placed sources have also told ADOMBUSINESS Subah has so far reached some agreement with Airtel for the installation of equipment, but they are yet to concretize things with the other t...

President John Dramani Mahama has pledged to lead the process towards attaining a common monetary convergence by countries in the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) by 2015, as well as a common currency in the sub-region by 2020. He said the attainment of a common currency in West Africa would facilitate business transactions among the people of the various countries in the sub-region. Besides, he said, the monetary convergence would enable the sub-region to negotiate with other continental groupings as a block instead of as separate countries. President Mahama, who has been nominated by the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State to monitor and supervise the implementation of the monetary cooperation project, made the pledge yesterday during a courtesy call on him by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, at the Flagstaff House in Accra. Mr Ouedraogo, who was accompanied by other Commissioners of the ECOWAS Commission, was at the seat of gov...

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) on Wednesday said its latest survey shows that it has become very difficult to get loans from banks in the country. Dr Kofi Wampah, BoG Governor, said the credit stance for all loan types tightened during the period 2013. He said the survey also showed that the number of loan applications from households, small, medium and large enterprises, a measure of credit demand, decreased. Dr Wampah who revealed this during a presentation of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) Report in Accra said, the principal reasons cited for rejection of loan applications included poor credit history, low cash flows, inadequate security, weak management and weak financials. He said for the first 10 months of the year, broad money (M2+) grew by 20.8 per cent, compared with 21.9 per cent during the same period last year. This, he said, was largely on account of a sharp slowdown in growth of foreign currency deposits, even though this was moderated by in...

Samsung Electronics West Africa has announced that it will from November this month reward their cherished customers ahead of the Christmas season in a special end-consumer promotion. The promotion will reward consumers with instant gifts for buying Samsung products that make lives easier, convenient and more enjoyable. The nationwide consumer promotion is simple and rewarding. Starting this November, any purchase of any of the Samsung Air-conditioner series comes with free brand new sleek Samsung Chief Hero Dual SIM phone.   Customers who buy the Samsung Smart Refrigerators depending on the model mix will also win instantly either a free Samsung Microwave Oven or Chief Hero phone. Other appliance that will win customers fantastic prizes for their Christmas celebrations include the Samsung Smart Televisions with which depending on the model purchased the customer will get instant rewards ranging from free 32” Flat Screen Television Sets, Digital Home Theatres and Free ...

Responding to Nigers Call to Action for improvements in womens reproductive health and girls education, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim pledged today to strongly support the initiative and to invest US$200 million in a new regional project aimed at improving the regional response to maternal and reproductive health and adolescent girls issues.   Too many children still die, too many mothers are lost to complications of childbirth, and too few girls are in secondary school, said Nigers President Mahamadou Issoufou . So we need to do much more. During an historic trip to the region by leaders from five international organizations the UN, World Bank, African Union, African Development Bank, and the European Union Kim announced the US$200 million Sahel Womens Empowerment and Demographics Project. The initiative, which is additional to the Banks existing US$150 million in commitments over the next two years for m...