SARPONG'S BLOG

EXACTLY 36 years ago today, Ghana Black Stars won its fourth and last AFCON in Tripoli Libya. Few months to this tournament, the then Hillah Liman government had that ordered that Ghana would not take part in the AFCON because it was being hosted in Libya. At the time, Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi was locked in conflict with the United States and Libyan's government had aligned with the US to boycott all relations with Libya. On December 31, 1981, Jerry Rawlings-led PNDC staged a coup d’état. That was two months to the AFCON and the Black Stars players were at home without any training. There had just been a revolution and the country was in a complete quagmire lacking basic products. Ghana was still reeling without money for relevant administratve expenses not to talk of football.  But then sports minister Zaya Yeebo reveals that, Gaddafi upon hearing the toppling of Liman's government sent a high powered delegation to Accra. After a meeting with Rawlings and his...

The Network of Communications Reporters (NCR), has barked a white paper issued by the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) and Huawei, global telecoms giant, calling on telecom companies to co-share their infrastructure in rural parts of Africa to reduce the operational cost. According to the NCR, the call comes in handy particularly at a time when the telecom companies are refusing to expand rapidly to those areas because of issues of cost and profitability. In a release signed by the Dean of the NCR, Mr Charles Benoni Okine, the network was of the view that rural telephony penetration was still low in the rural areas, a phenomenon which is denying the people the opportunity to improve their economic wellbeing. Particularly at a time when the government is keen on rolling out its One District One Factory initiative more rigorously, there is the need for telephony expansion to cover all parts of the country to accelerate development. Issues of cost should not be entertaine...