President John Dramani Mahama assures speedy Ghana economic recovery.

 

President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday presided over a two-day Presidential Strategic Advisory Committee to kick-start the implementation of measures that would speed up economic recovery.

The meeting, apart from analysing policies and strategies that were adopted at the Senchi Economic Forum, would also map out strategies that would help in the re- shaping of the economy.
It was also attended by Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, Ministers of State and Economic Experts who would all be contributing their quota towards reinvigorating the economy in the coming months.

We will retrieve woyome cash even if… - Ace Ankomah.

 

Private legal practitioner, Ace Kojo Anan Ankomah, has asserted that ‘we will collect our money from Woyome’ even if government refuses to retrieve it from the self-styled financier of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“We can definitely collect the money…unless government is not willing to collect it; even that we will collect some of it,” he said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome to refund the Ghc51 million paid him as judgment debt by the state.
This was after the court granted all the reliefs sought by former Attorney General (AG) and Minister for Justice, Martin Amidu who sued Alfred Woyome in his personal capacity.

Ghana Facing Major Economic Crisis Since 1980s.

 

A renowned economist, Kwame Pianim, says Ghana is facing a major economic crisis since the dark days of the economic recovery efforts of the 1980s. However, he stated that: "Most public pronouncements seem to be in denial of the gravity of the crisis. It is being claimed the challenges are temporary or largely driven by external factors". According to him, the Senchi Consensus was explicit on the fact that what was needed first and foremost was to get a handle on the growing structural imbalance in government finances and to restore policy credibility which has sunk to a historical low.

Mr. Pianim, who chaired a two-day stakeholders' dialogue on boosting Ghana's Foreign Exchange Resources in Accra noted: "Recent demonstrations reinforce the idea that if the mangers of our national economy do not admit publicly that there is a serious fiscal crisis and open our books to the leadership of organized labour, we cannot agree on a social contract which is badly needed to get labour to give us fiscal space to tackle this urgent problem.

Ghana's Takoradi and Its Uneasy Affair With Oil.

When the oil began to gush, Ghana was determined to avoid the 'resource curse.' But the prosperity many had hoped for in the coastal city of Sekondi-Takoradi has so far trickled down to just a tiny minority.

In Sekondi-Takoradi harbor they are waiting for the colorful fishing boats to return home. When the boats arrive, there is a bustle of activity because everybody wants to secure a share of the catch.

Ten years ago the nets were brimful of fish, but those days are over. "The catch has declined drastically," said Emmanuel Nii Botchway from Ghana's Inshore Fisheries Association."Drilling for oil is driving the fish away," he explained.

Ghana's Jubilee oil field was discovered 60 kilometers (37 miles) off the coast in 2007 and is one of the biggest to be found in Africa since the millennium. Ghana has been producing oil in sizable quantities for the last four years.

Ghana: Press Briefing By the Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Team, Hon Dr Kwaku Agyemang Mensah, for the Management of Ebola Viral Disease, 31 July 2014.

Press release

The Ministry of Health (Ghana) continues to monitor the progression of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. As of 23rd July, WHO states there have been a total of over 1,200 (1,201) cases of which more than half (56%) have died. More people get infected daily and some more die each day. On the average, in the past week, 50 new cases were diagnosed each day. This means the epidemic is far from slowing down and we must as a nation do all we can to keep it at bay.

Not only have Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone recorded EVD cases but also Nigeria has confirmed a case of Ebola in a traveller from Liberia who unfortunately passed on. Many of us are aware of the recent Ebola scare in our country which have helped strengthen our preparedness and response to possible EVD in Ghana.

Alban Bagbin digests Ghana's ‘winner-takes-all’ mantra..

 

Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin, Member of Parliament for Nadoli Kaleo and Majority Leader in Parliament, has identified the phenomenon where elected presidents become ‘alien’ to the political party that voted them into power, as a major contributing factor to the Winner-Take-All phenomenon that has crept into the country’s body politic.

Mr. Bagbin made this observation at the sidelines of the final public consultations organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs in Accra on Tuesday, on proposals for rethinking “the Winner-Takes-All” practice in Ghana’s political governance. Winner Take-all is an expression used to describe a situation where the winner of an election receives all the rewards and take absolute control of political and executive powers, to the neglect of other political parties.

Kessben CEO remanded in Police custody.

 

An Accra Circuit Court has remanded the Chief Executive Officer of Kessben Group of Companies, Kwabena Kesse, in police custody.
He is to re-appear on August, 7 2014.

Mr Kesse has been charged with two counts of money laundering and forgery of documents to which he has pleaded not guilty.
He is alleged to have illegally transferred $127,931,727.65 out of Ghana to dubious locations within a period of 14 months and also forged documents to the bank to facilitate the act.

Ghana is in crisis, says Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

 

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate to Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2012 elections, says Ghana's economy is in crisis and collapsing under the weight of an incompetent economic management.

Speaking to delegates at the Radach Memorial Hall in Tamale, Dr. Bawumia explained that the crisis the economy finds itself in is evident in the fact that the Ghana cedi is now the worst performing currency in the world.
"When the New Patriotic Party left government, the exchange rate was GH¢1.1 to $1. Now you need GH¢4 in order to get $1. Our gross international reserves as it stands now does not even cover two weeks of imports. As an oil economy, we now have the world's worst gross international reserves."