SARPONG'S BLOG

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong Wholesale and retail activities by Ghanaians are said to be the major business entities established in the country and also dominate Ghana’s economy than any other businesses. According to the Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES) conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in 2014, wholesale and retail activities recorded about 55.1% in the service sector making it the subsector that employs more persons in Ghana. Apart from the wholesale and retail businesses which recorded the highest in the country, those engaged in other service activities had 20%. Meanwhile, those in accommodation and food business sectors recorded 10.7% and those in the education sector had 5.8%. Others are arts, entertainment and recreation 1.1%; human health and social work 1.2%; public administration and defence 0.7%; administrative and support service activities 1.2%; professional, scientific and technical 1.4%; real estate 0.1%; financial and insurance ...

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will be implementing the second phase of one of its flagship Projects in the Agriculture Sector in Ashanti and Northern regions which is aimed at increasing rice production in the country. The project: ‘Project for Sustainable Development of Rainfed Lowland Rice Production’ offer rice farmers in the Ashanti and Northern regions the opportunity to adopt technology to grow rice in lowland areas in these two regions. A statement from JICA said this was announced by Mr. Kosuke Nagino, Project Formulation Advisor at JICA Ghana Office through a speech at a two separate workshops held in Kumasi in the Ashanti region and Tamale in the Northern region.   Mr. Nagino indicated that at the end of the first phase, on the average, rice yields in the target areas doubled. He mentioned that the increased yields were six tonnes per hectare from a baseline of three tonnes per hectare in the Ashanti Region and four tonnes per hectare fr...

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong National employment report from the Ghana Statistical Services (GSS) shows that about 3,383,206 persons were employed in 2014, according to the first phase of the Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES) report launched on Tuesday. Out of the figure, 2,708,796 were employed in the services sector accounting for 80.0 percent in 2014. The in industry sector also employed 614,517 persons, representing 18.2 percent while agriculture (institutional) employed the least (59,893) number of persons representing only 1.8 percent. The statistics shows that out of the total number of persons employed in 2014 in non-household establishments, 2,039,032 are males, representing 60.3 percent and the remaining 1,344,174 are females, accounting for 39.7 percent. Meanwhile, a total of 1,284,340 persons, constituting 38.0 percent of the persons employed in all sectors are in the Greater Accra region. Out of which males consist of 801,925 while females were 4...

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong- Daily Express The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR) is currently in the process of establishing a Ghana Labour Market Information System (GLMIS) where both employers and employees can assess information. Madam Mary Ann Addo, Director for Research Statistics and Information Management at LMIS told Daily Express that the system is a data base market activities which will have information about available job, people who are looking for job, information on job migration, information on skills that are available, education and a whole lot. “What we initially want to do is to create system where people march their skills with jobs available. Employers are looking for the right people to fill several positions and they can’t find them. People are also looking for the job and they cannot also find it. This system is to address that,” she added. According to her, the system will allow people give information about themselves for the empl...

  By: Fred Yaw Sarpong The phase I Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES) report on job creation by the Ghana Statistical Survey (GSS) has revealed that sole proprietorship created majority of jobs in 2014. This means that about 126,772 businesses registered in the country in 2014 are owned by individual Ghanaians. Out of 126,772 businesses, about 110,567 (87.2%) were skilled jobs.  The first phase of the IBES covered all non-household establishments either engaged in economic activities or are non-profit institutions. According to the GSS, non-household establishments are establishments that can be located at a specific place including churches and mosques that have a permanent place of location and especially those that can be traced. Table top businesses are not included as well as churches operated in classrooms. Per the report, the number of jobs created by state institutions such as public limited companies (1,887) and institutions o wned ...

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong- Daily Express First Atlantic Bank (FAB) has donated a Digital Ultrasound Imaging System to the Tema General Hospital at Tema in the Greater Accra region. The donation, which forms parts of the bank’s numerous corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, was to climax the bank’s recently held “Customer Appreciation Week”. The customer appreciation week of the bank is aimed at celebrating its valued customers. Presenting the device on behalf of the bank to the hospital, Mr. Ebow Quayson, the Group Head of Retail Banking at the bank commended the hospital for quality health delivery, and reiterated the bank’s commitment to continue supporting the health sector. He mentioned that the Customer Appreciation Week celebration had been highly successful. According to him, as part of the celebration they organized health screening exercise; an “Ex-Co Meeter Greeter” session (where the Executive Committee of the bank receive and assist customers at ...

The Network of Communications Reporters (NCR) has commended the Ministry of Communications and the National Communications Authority (NCA) for the working steadfastly towards the full implementation of the analogue switch to digital terrestrial television (DTT). A statement signed by Mr. Charles Benoni Okine, Dean of the group said while the NCR admits that the process towards the implementation of the DTT has delayed, it is refreshing that at last, positive results are bound to show.  The NCR would want to entreat the ministry to follow through its promise to provide set top boxes to people who cannot genuinely afford them. It is our hope that people will be selected devoid of political party colouration while using objective and transparent means to select beneficiaries based on merit. It is also the wish of the NCR that the NCA will undertake frequent mystery shopping to identify shop owners who would want to take advantage of the lapses in the system to sell to u...

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong In first quarter of 2016 Ghana earned €50,514,982.89 from wood products export representing an increase of 12.8%, according to the first quarter report from the Forestry Commission. The volume of the wood products was 92,313.824 cubic meters. Primary products which were made up of Poles and Billets contributed 10.37% and 5.91% in volume and value respectively from the first quarter 2016. However, the secondary products (most exported products) comprising of Lumber (AD & KD), Plywood, Veneer and Kindling contributed 87.18% and 91.31% in volume and value respectively from the first quarter figures. Tertiary products which (least exported products) consist of Processed Lumber or Mouldings and Dowels on the other hand contributed 2.45% and 2.78% in volume and value from the first quarter of 2016. The commission said that the production of primary products could be improved by a partial lifting of the ban on round logs of some high density spe...

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong Bank of Ghana (BoG0 has established rules to govern the repatriation of export proceeds from exporters in the country and this expected to take effect from July 1, 2016. According to the rules, all exporters of goods and services, except exporters with retention agreements are obligated to repatriate to Ghana all export proceeds on receipt. “Exporters who operate in accordance with retention agreements and who have been permitted to operate accounts offshore are allowed, until further notice, to retain in their offshore accounts the portion of export proceeds as provided for under the retention agreements,” the rules noted. The rules pointed out that exporters shall ensure repatriation of export proceeds in accordance with the terms of export, provided that all export proceeds shall be received and repatriated immediately within a period not exceeding 60 days from the day of shipment of goods. Central bank said export proceeds shall be repatr...

…About GHc190,000 missing By: Fred Yaw Sarpong Investigation has revealed that an amount of GHc190,000 belonging to the Private Universities Students Association of Ghana (PUSAG) cannot be traced in  its Unibank account. The GHc190, 000 is part of a GHc286,000 sponsorship package the association secured from the Unibank Ghana for its 2015 PUSAG Games and Entertainment Festival held in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) last year. The 2015 financial statement of the association quoted GHc96,000 as a sponsorship package instead of the GHc286,000. The number 11 item (Note of Account) of the financial statement of the association (Sponsorship-cash equivalent) quoted GHc96,000 as a sponsorship package received by the then National Executive of PUSAG from Unibank in 2015. Checks from Unibank Ghana (Account number withheld) revealed that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the bank and the association for the sponsorship....

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong- Daily Express The Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), a family of business associations and chambers is advocating for the establishment of a fund by the mining firms and service providers in the industry to provide adequate security at all concessions for registered mining firms under the Ghana Chamber of Mines. Nana Osei Bonsu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PEF explaining it further to the Daily Express after Ghana Chamber of Mines 88 th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Accra said this fund is to ensure that assets of these companies are secure, safe and protected from perpetrators of these illegal activities. According to Nana Bonsu, “we are all witnesses to the challenges that the private sector including the mining sector has been facing in recent times.” He mentioned that the mining industry itself is experiencing a cyclical downturn since 2013, as a result of low commodity prices worldwide, thus adding more challenges to the ind...

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong- Daily Express International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, together with the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs of Switzerland (SECO) and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) will launch Ghana Digital Financial Services Initiative on Wednesday June 8, 2016. According IFC, the Ghana Digital Financial Services Initiative aimed at advancing financial inclusion in Ghana through the use of new technology and innovative business models. A statement from the IFC mentioned that the US$5.6 million Ghana Digital Financial Services Initiative is funded by SECO and will be implemented by IFC and CGAP in collaboration with the Central Bank of Ghana and the financial industry. “The program will support regulatory and market capacity, and provide direct technical assistance to two industry actors to increase the reach of digital financial services in support of inclusive economic growth,” the statement said. It ...

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong- Daily Express The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of M-Net, Mrs. Yolisa Phahle has stated that their focus is about telling local stories in all local languages for viewers across the continent.  “We are constantly looking at ways to increase our investment and offering to ensure we tell more African stories through the eyes of local producers and actors.  We currently produce in nine languages and have local channels telling local stories in East, West, and Southern Africa,” said. Mrs. Phahle. According to her, M-Net believe that there are more stories that need to be told in more languages.  “Currently we are focusing on the Africa Magic channels in West Africa, the Maisha Magic channels for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, Zambezi Magic for the English-speaking SADC region and Jango Magic for our Portuguese markets in Angola and Mozambique.  The Mzansi Magic and kykNET channels tell local South African stories,” she mentioned. ...

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong- Daily Express Mining firms operating in the country repatriated total revenue of US$2.6 billion in 2015, according to the President of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Mr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor.                                   Mr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor, President of Ghana Chamber of Mines                    According to him, a total of US$2.1 billion out of the repatriated revenue was returned through the commercial banks and the remainder via the central bank. He mentioned that the companies in the mining industry spent US$865 million on local purchases, which represents 28 percent of their mineral revenue. He said this at the 88th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the chamber in Accra. The event was under the theme “Sustaining Mining and Power Investments: Meeting Stakeholder Expectation in a Challenging Global Environme...