SARPONG'S BLOG

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong The Daily Express can exclusively report that some multinational commercial banks operating in the country are refusing to report financial fraud cases that have occurred in their banks to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for fear of bad publicity. Although this paper has exclusive evidence of some of the fraudulent cases, and interacted with some of the victims, checks from the CID indicate that the banks involved did not report such cases to them, despite compensating the victims financially, as evidence of admonition of the fraud. In one instance, a victim of the fraud (name withheld) revealed to the Daily Express that late last year, some fraudsters managed to withdraw thousands of Ghana Cedis from his account via an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). He said upon prompting the bank which is situated between the Appolo Theater, near Kwame Nkrumah circle and the Nima Police Station on the Ring Road Central, ...

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong Fire Officers in the Eastern Region are rejecting what they call a “compulsory welfare funds” instituted by their superiors in the region.   According to them, the so-called welfare funds, including the Fireman Provident Fund need to be scrapped because they do not derive any benefit from them. In separate interviews with a Daily Express reporter, the Junior Officers in the region complained that even though they reluctantly contribute between   GHc15.00 to GHc30.00 every month, no account has been rendered to them,   and they have not been told what their monies are being use for. “At least at the end of every year, we expect them to tell us the state of the fund, but they have never done that,” one of the Officers complained. According to them, even accessing loans from the fund in times of need, becomes difficult.   “Even when the loan is granted, we do not get the actual amount, unlike the Senior Officers who benefit ...

Samsung Ghana is sponsoring three lucky winners to South Africa after they become top winners of the 10-week edition of the Samsung Christmas Promotion. The promotion aimed at rewarding valued customers who purchase any of the selected range of genuine Samsung phones and register it on the e-warranty platform. The lucky winners were Inez Larsey Gbedemah, Johnson Alorwu and Thomas Appiah. These three persons will benefit from all expenses paid trips to South Africa. Other Samsung customers win Samsung products such as LED TVs, Home Theatres, Galaxy Tabs and shopping vouchers from Koala Shopping Centre in Accra, A-life Supermarket in Kumasi, Vicarichie Ghana Limited in Ho and All Needs Supermarkets in Takoradi and Legon. The nationwide promotion, which is being done in collaboration with the National Lotteries Authority (NLA) rewards 50 lucky winners each week with Samsung’s range of consumer electronics and Smartphones, and at the monthly draws, six lucky winners will sta...

MASHAV, the Israeli Agency of International Development Cooperation, in cooperation with the German GIZ and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) will be training citrus farmers and technical officers of MoFA drawn from the Eastern and Ashanti regions in a two week training workshop to upgrade their knowledge and enhance their capacity in citrus production. The workshop, which is intended to revitalize the citrus industry through interventions that will attract investments in fruit processing facilities and ultimately generate higher income levels for the citrus growers; will be facilitated by two Israeli citrus experts Dr. Shmuel Gross (entomologist) and Mr. Dubi Raber (agronomists) who were in the country last year to undertake similar training with some selected citrus farmers and MoFA staff.   Last year, about one hundred citrus farmers in the Western and Ashanti regions were taken through similar training to increase their knowledge in best practices.  ...

Vodafone Ghana has introduced a portable mobile wireless device known as Vodafone Mi-Fi to provide faster and better internet experience for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana, as part of efforts to help the growth of small businesses in the country. The new Vodafone Mi-Fi provides a secure shared mobile internet connection with up to 10 laptops or any Wi-Fi enabled device, allowing users to surf the web, download files and music, share photos and documents and manage emails, on the go. Vodafone’s new Mi-Fi comes with a one year warranty and it is arguably the hotspot device with the longest life span on the market. The portable hotspot device gives users reliable and affordable internet access, particularly SMEs since there is no setup or maintenance cost required. Recently, the company launched 21.1 megabit per second (mbps) MI-Fi and modem. The Mi-Fi and modem provide seamless high speed internet connectivity and Vodafone is the first network t...