SARPONG'S BLOG

Spanish coach Juan Ignacio Martínez Jiménez will be named as the new coach of the Black Stars anytime soon ahead of Ghana's AFCON clash against Uganda next month The 50-year-old is said to have stolen the march of Michel Pont and Avram after excelling during an interview session two weeks last ago. The Ghana FA is keen to end speculation about who will take over from Kwesi Appiah by announcing the Spanish as the new coach of the Black Stars as an executive committee member of the Ghana FA claims. The Spanish popularly known as 'JIM' was appointed at La Liga side Levante UD on 9 June 2011, replacing Getafe CF-bound Luis Garcia. After two draws in the first two rounds, Martínez coached the team to seven consecutive wins; including a 1–0 home triumph against Real Madrid which led the league during several rounds He exhibited promises to manage and has the experience of managing big stars and big egos, which could come in handy with respect to players like Sulley Mun...

Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL) updated its shareholders on the Company’s financial performance for the year ended 30 June 2014 at its 42nd Annual General Meeting held at the African Regent Hotel in Accra. Chairman of the Board, David Harlock outlined a number of challenges faced by the business and wider industry during the period under review. These included the deterioration in the Ghanaian economy charaterised by the steep increase in the rate of inflation and unprecedented fall in the value of the cedi against major international currencies, dampening of demand and the continued erratic supply of utilities. "Despite these macroeconomic challenges however, we are confident of the future prospects for our business. In the year under review, we continued pursuing our vision of becoming the most vibrant and iconic business in Ghana with focus on six strategic areas: -- Strengthening and accelerating our premium core brands, -- Winning in Reserve, -- Innovating...

Construction and mining equipment dealers, DEM Ghana, has launched the John Deere range of construction and building equipment in the country. The addition of the robust and world acclaimed John Deere equipment to DEM Group portfolio brings to four brands marketed by the company. DEM Ghana is a subsidiary of DEM Group, who are also distributors of Hitachi, Wirtgen Group, and Combi Wear Parts. At the launch of the John Deere construction equipment in Accra Thursday, United States ambassador to Ghana, Gene Cretz said Ghana's growing demand for infrastructural improvements makes the introduction of the machines timely. "The John Deere brand and the quality product it represents has a history dating back to the early days of the United States. Working with farmers and construction professionals, John Deere has literally helped build America", he stated. The American ambassador was confident Ghana's infrastructural development would also be boosted by the John De...

Invest in Africa (IIA), an organisation focused on tackling shared private sector challenges, has launched the African Partner Pool (APP), Ghana’s first cross-sector online business directory for Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). Invest in Africa Logo This cross-sector directory under the URL: www.africanpartnerpool.com was created to simplify the local sourcing process by connecting independently validated Ghanaian SMEs with international and domestic companies. The directory aims to increase the visibility and credibility of Ghanaian SMEs and support international and domestic companies who want maximize their local supply chains quicker and more cost effectively thorough its search functionality. Local businesses registered on the APP will have a profile page to promote their business on, whilst international and domestic companies are able to use a search tool to help them find suppliers with the qualifications, experience and standards they need. A tender’s notice...

Mr Seth Terkper, Minister of Finance, on Thursday said the Ministry would with effect from next year ensure that no warrant for payments are issued unless such expenditure are duly captured and aligned with procurement plans of entities. “If any capital expenditure is not properly incorporated into the procurement plans of Procurement Entities then it will have no basis for payment,” he said. The Minister, who was speaking at the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) 2014 Public Forum and 10th anniversary celebration, said “if we are to reform as a nation, we must be bold to unearth malfeasance and fraud from our system”. The occasion, on the theme “Extending the Frontiers of Ghana’s Procurement Management: A Look at the Next Decade” attracted more than 500 people from industries, entities, academia, civil society, donors, and past board members of the Authority. Mr Terkper said the theme was most appropriate because looking back, it was indeed a joy to note that the current public p...

Source: Yaw Sarpong, Pretoria Courtesy: Enterprise Life Over 30 Financial Journalists from more than seven African countries are currently undergoing financial training at Pretoria, South Africa. The Journalists were drawn from South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, and among others. The Sanlam Summer School for Financial Journalists 2014 is under the theme “Enterprise Development and Economic Growth.” The one- week intensive training is been organized by the Sanlam Group form South Africa. In his address to officially open the school, Mr. Ainsley Moos, the Head of Communication at Sanlam Group said for the past 10 years the group has been supporting the development and capacity of journalists on the continent. “We have been doing this in three areas. These are the Summer School, support to the Financial Journalist of the Year in South Africa and as well as building the capacity of the South African local media,” he added. According to him it is also the com...

The Controller and Accountant General wishes to inform Heads of MDAs/MMDAs, employees and the general public that the suspension of salaries of employees without bank account numbers (zero account numbers) will continue in October 2014 to cover employees in other regions. BRIEF BACKGROUND It will be recalled that Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) as part of measures to clean the payroll data suspended the salaries of employees with zero bank account numbers in the Greater Accra, Volta, Central, and Western regions in September, 2014.The CAGD has further been directed to suspend the salaries of employees without the bank account numbers in the remaining regions. ie Eastern, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions in October, 2014. The Controller and Accountant General wishes to assure employees whose salaries were suspended in September and in this month of October, 2014 due to the zero bank account numbers that if they subm...

By: Mathias Amoah Penplusbytes’ new media hub (www.penplusbytes.org/location) will be hosting a hackathon from the 24th to 25th October, 2014. This is with the support of STAR-Ghana, and in partnership with the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) and the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NGRI). The 2- day hackathon which is themed “Hack4Oil”, will focus on developing solutions to stimulate better management of Ghana’s nascent oil and gas resources as ideas and technologies of participants will be elicited as part of a drive to garner innovative means of enhancing citizen engagement, government accountability and resource transparency. This has become even more crucial with Africa’s not so inspiring history of not making the most gains from extractives as resource – rich Nations have long been known to suffer what has come to be known as the “resource curse” with most experiencing increased poverty and conflict. For a country like Ghana, which is pro...

By: Yaw Sarpong The employees of Samsung Electronics West Africa (SEWA) as part of their Employee Volunteer Programme (EVP) have educated students of Dago L/A Basic School in the Akuapim South District on Cholera and the deadly Ebola diseases. The company also used the opportunity to educate the students on personal hygiene because that is the primary preventive measure in fighting against both the Cholera and Ebola endemic. This was done with the help of a district Public Health personnel who advised the student to wash their hands regularly with soap under running water. Employees of the Accra office of SEWA also donated over 40 bottles of large sized Hand Sanitizers to the school for their use as well as to boost personal hygiene. Other items donated were stationery, fruit juice and noodles. The all-day event also saw the Samsung management interact with the students through sporting activities. This included athletics and football, dancing competitions an...

By: Mathias Amoah The Ambassadors of Guinness made-of-black-Campaign, Fuse ODG, E. L, and Shatta Wale have gained 20 nominations collectively in the 6 th edition of the MTN 4Syte Music Video Awards. Fuse ODG earned seven nominations in seven different categories with his recently released hit track “Dangerous Love” featuring one of the world’s dancehall heavyweights, Sean Paul. “The Million Pound Girl”   hit maker is battling it out with other Ghanaian artistes in various categories including Best Collaboration Video, Best Directed Video, Best Male Video, Best Storyline, and Most Popular Video. BBNZ’s finest, E.L also managed had seven nominations in seven different categories with his new release “Ayaaya”. The track is nominated in categories such as Best Story Line Video, Best Hip Life Video, and Most Influential. Shatta Wale, 2014 Artiste of the Year, with his popular tune “Everybody like my thing”, also earned him six nominations in six different cat...