Wedding gowns, second-hand police equipment coming to Ghana from UK

A container from the UK will soon be on the high seas on its way to Ghana. It is development aid coming to Ghana from the National Police Aid Convoys (NPAC) of the UK, the BBC reports.

The consignment contains 200 wedding dresses and second-hand defensive equipment to be donated to the Ghana Police Service “to help stop gun-running and drug trafficking,” the report says.

The report indicates that the consignment is the final container being sent out to Ghana in 2010 by the NPAC.

It says that the 200 wedding dresses in the container form part of NPAC’s ‘Cinderella project’, which utilises once-worn, end of line and sample gowns from the UK to loan free of charge to brides who would otherwise not be able to afford one.

It also helps provide full training and work for local women, it adds.

Enough hairdressing equipment is also being sent to help start two training salons, the report says.

According to the report, in the past year the NPAC has sent nine containers to schools, orphanages and clinics in Africa and has taken six lorry-loads of goods to Albania, along with 357 pallets of food sent by air to flood victims in Pakistan.


Source: ghanabusinessnews.com

Ghana Reinsurance Company’s ratings fall to negative

A global ratings company, A. M. Best has revised the outlook for Ghana Reinsurance Company to negative.

In a press release the company says Ghana Re’s outlook has been revised to negative from stable. It however affirmed the financial strength rating of B (Fair) and issuer credit rating of “bb+” for Ghana Re.

A. M. Best says on its website that it was founded in 1899 and it is a full-service credit rating organization dedicated to serving the financial services industries, focusing on the insurance sector.

It also says policyholders and depositors refer to its ratings and analysis as a means of assessing the financial strength and creditworthiness of risk-bearing entities and investment vehicles.

According to the release the ratings of Ghana Re reflect the company’s strong risk-adjusted capitalization, with the company continuing to transfer profit to capital over successive years. In 2008, it says there was a transfer of GH¢12 million, followed by a further transfer of GH¢8 million in 2009.

A. M. Best says in 2008, the compulsory cession enjoyed by Ghana Re, which obliged insurers to cede 20% of their business written to the reinsurer, was removed. For Ghana Re in 2009 and the year to date, the effects of this legislative change begin to materialize, it says.

To maintain premium volumes, the company has replaced existing arrangements with quota share contracts that pay very high commissions. Despite this, premiums written have fallen in real terms and are likely to fall further, it adds.

A. M. Best expresses further concern that Ghana Re holds a large asset, relative to the size of the balance sheet and premium income, for premium debtors, adding that new regulations from the Ghanaian insurance regulator, the National Insurance Commission stating that premiums older than a year must be written off is likely to put pressure on the company’s technical profitability.

In its view therefore, it is still uncertain whether the removal of the compulsory cession may help to improve technical profitability.

“A.M. Best understands from Ghana Re that a significant proportion of the premium arrears are in respect of the insurers who were forced to cede business to the company. There are material pressures on the rating, but to the extent that the company can improve its business profile, there may be scope for a smaller, more profitable organisation to emerge,” it says.

Efforts to reach officials of Ghana Reinsurance Company for their response were unsuccessful.


Source: ghanabusinessnews.com

World Bank gives Ghana $38m credit to build capacity for oil management

Less than a week after Ghana started commercial production of oil, the World Bank Monday December 20, 2010 approved a credit of $38 million to the government for the implementation of an Oil and Gas Capacity Building Project.

The amount is a concessional loan to be repaid over a period of 35 years including a 10-year grace period and constitutes two-thirds of the total project cost.

The World Bank says the project has two phases: the first it says is to help improve public management and regulatory capacity and enhance sector transparency. These would be achieved by strengthening the institutions managing and monitoring the sector, the Banks said in a press release issued in Washington and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com.

The second phase, it says will support the development of indigenous technical and professional skills needed by the petroleum sector through support to selected educational institutions.

Commenting on the facility, the World Bank Task Team Leader for the Project, Sunil Mathrani says, “The Oil and Gas Capacity Building Project has been prepared in response to these challenges and to support government’s desire to rapidly fix them. The Ministry of Energy, the Ghana National Petroleum Company and the Environmental Protection Agency are among the key state institutions targeted for support.”

Specifically the Project will provide institutional support to the Ministry of Energy and the soon-to-be-established petroleum regulatory body to enable them play their oversight, coordination, policy planning and implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation roles effectively, the Bank says.

Under the Project, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation’s petroleum data repository will be upgraded.

The Environmental Protection Agency will be supported to enhance its ability to manage and monitor environmental issues in the oil and gas sector.  Other beneficiaries are the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, particularly its agencies such as the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Secretariat; the Attorney General’s Department and the Economic & Organized Crime Office, it said.

According to the Bank, another component of the Project targeting human capital development will provide support to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology to improve petroleum engineering and petrochemical engineering teaching and research capabilities.  Additionally it will provide support to vocational training institutions for development of programs focused on technical skills development for the oil and gas industry via support to the Takoradi Technical Institute, Kikam Technical Institute and the Regional Maritime University.

The Project will also support Civil Society Organisations.  The Bank recognises that given the strategic role civil society is expected to play in promoting accountability and community participation, an additional grant of $2 million is being provided under the Bank’s Governance Partnership Facility (GPF) to support a wide range of activities to be championed and implemented by civil society and community based organizations.

“This Project seeks to support the determination of the people of Ghana to make oil a blessing and not a curse. We hope that the support to educational institutions will contribute to Ghana’s intention to develop local content and employment in the sector as quickly as possible”, said World Bank Country Director, Ishac Diwan.

“We see a big role for CSOs,” he added, “and it is part of the plan to support capacity building at that level, to enable them play their part actively as agents of social accountability. We have been assisting the CSO platform on Oil and Gas, and we are happy they are already serving as great partners to government.”

Other co-financiers are the governments of Ghana and Norway.  The Project is planned to take off in 2011 and end in 2015, the Bank said.

Source: ghanabusinessnews.com

Government provides €19.5m for Accra-Tema street lights project

The government has provided a sum of €19.5m for the installation of street lights across the Greater Accra Region.

According to a Daily Graphic report, the project covers a stretch of 160 kilometres of all major roads and ceremonial routes in the Accra and Tema metropolitan areas.

The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashitey made  known during a ‘meet the press series’, according to the newspaper report.

He also indicated that work on the project is going on gradually.

The Minister however blamed nonfunctioning of street lights in the capital on unscrupulous people who steal electrical cables and fittings.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

By Ekow Quandzie
ghanabusinessnews.com

Ghanaians reminded of 10% tax on Christmas hampers

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has reminded Ghanaians of the country’s laws on gift tax. The GRA says this tax payment originates from the Internal Revenue Act 2000 (Act 592) which charges individuals to pay 10% tax on presents that they receive from other people, according to a Daily Graphic report.
The GRA says hampers worth over GH¢50 received as gifts during this Christmas festive season are taxable by 10%. This is known as the gift tax, it says.

The Acting Head of Operations (IRS/Domestic Division) of the GRA, Mr James L. Anaman in an interview with the newspaper urged Ghanaians to abide by this law since they would be considered as “first-class citizens of the country”.

Christmas, is most often marked with presentation of gifts and sharing of hampers.

For more details of the law click here

By Ekow Quandzie
Ghanabusinessnews.com

Ghana Vice President writes book on democracy in Africa

The Vice President, John Dramani Mahama is writing a book on the future of democracy in Africa.

Excerpts from the book have been published on the US site theRoot.com.

The Vice Presidential spokesman, John Jinapor has meanwhile confirmed to ghanabusinessnews.com on the phone Monday December 20, 2010 that indeed, the Vice President is writing a book, but the details would be made known in due course.

In the published excerpts he captures the current situation on Cote d’Ivoire. He writes “The current political development in Cote d’Ivoire, and the manner in which it will be resolved, will serve as either a clear indication of how tenuous the democratic process still is on the African continent, or a joyous testament to how far the continent has traveled in its promotion of peace and advancement.”

“I’m sure that because many people, especially in the Western world, may still not have faith that democracy can actually work on the African continent, it didn’t come as a surprise to some that the results of the Ivorian Electoral Commission were not recognized by Laurent Gbagbo’s incumbent government and not followed by the requisite concession and transfer of power,” he says.

Vice President Mahama write, “Politics in Africa, for centuries it seems, have been a violent game of domination in which the residents of any given region are nothing more than pawns, warm bodies to be subjugated or slaughtered or, in earlier centuries, sold and enslaved. As, one after the other, African nations won their independence from colonization, a sense of hope and a feeling of confidence took hold of the continent. Finally the people of Africa would be free to determine their own destiny. They would be free to partake of all the pride and progress that being sovereign seemed to promise.”

On some of Africa’s celebrated heroes, he writes,  “Yet before cartographers had even finished documenting the names of the newly independent nations, all the leaders who had been celebrated and held up as heroes — like Kwame Nkrumah, Sylvanus Olympio, Patrice Lumumba — were either overthrown or assassinated. The era that followed should have, and so easily could have, been one of steady development and economic stability. Instead, for decades, the continent turned into a garish kaleidoscope of dictators, coups d’etat, prisons overflowing with opposition leaders, and people fleeing under cover of darkness to live in foreign lands as refugees and political exiles.”

John Mahama has a post-graduate Diploma in Communication Studies from the University of Ghana and when the book is completed, he would be the first Ghanaian sitting Vice President to have written a book.


Source: ghanabusinessnews.com

Marrying a UK citizen? You must have command of English language

You are not a UK citizen, you live in the UK, and desire to marry one! Then you need to know this.

The UK government has issued new regulations for migrants marrying UK nationals.

The regulations came into force November 29, 2010.

A press release issued by the UK High Commission in Ghana and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com indicates that all non-European migrants to the UK have had to demonstrate a basic command of English before they are granted a visa.

This new regulation is in addition to previous visa requirements that applicants requiring a UK visa must satisfy. Previously, all applicants had to show that their marriage or partnership was genuine and that they could support themselves financially. Those requirements still remain; in addition applicants must prove English-language proficiency.

The new rule applies to spouses, civil partnerships, unmarried couples, same sex partners and fiancé(e)s, and will be compulsory for those applying from within the UK as well as visa applicants from overseas.


Source: ghanabusinessnews.com

Ghanaian man in $65,000 cheque scam convicted in US

A Ghanaian resident of Charleroi, Pennsylvania, Washington County in the US who was arrested for cheque scams sometime in March 2009 has been convicted.

According to reports in the US media seen by ghanabusinessnews.com, the man, Steven Mensah-Yawson, 33 faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, federal prosecutors in Pittsburg were quoted to have said.

The US Attorney’s Office said he worked with multiple recruiters and at least 15 cheque cashers to perpetrate the fraud.

Mensah-Yawson was said to have made counterfeit cheques on his laptop computer and gave them to his collaborators who either cashed them or found others to do so. The ring, the reports said passed 55 counterfeit cheques. A jury convicted him last week and sentencing has been set for January 7, 2011.


Source: ghanabusinessnews.com