Man captured in Ghana, returned to US to face trial for shooting wife to death

A Ghanaian man wanted since 2003 for the alleged shooting to death of his wife in the US has finally been captured in Ghana and returned to the US last Thursday February 24, 2011 to stand trial.

39-year-old Richard Konadu who was living in Irvington is accused of shooting to death his wife and mother of two, 27-year-old  Regina Carroll, a report by a New Jersey publication nj.com says citing US security officials.

According to the report, Konadu first fled to England after the incident and then to Ghana.

His arrest followed international investigations involving overseas agents, US diplomatic security services in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Ghana Police Service.

Konadu will face weapons and murder charges related to his alleged role in the shooting to death of his wife.


Source: ghanabusinessnews.com

Oil spillage pollutes Ghana’s Axim coastline

A long stretch of the coastline at Axim in the Western Region has been inundated with heavy oil spillage, known as tar balls, as a result of the increase in vessel traffic in the country’s waters.

The substance is not the country’s sweet crude currently being produced offshore at the Jubilee Fields but heavy waste oil from vessels that supposedly visit the country’s ports for commercial or supply services.

At the moment, the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) is yet to identify the par­ticular vessels that continuously discharge the waste oil into the country’s waters.

The inhabitants of three communities in the Axim municipality – Amanfukumam, Akyinim and Brawire – who are mainly fishermen cannot use their beaches as a result of the situation.

However, the Western Regional Manager of Zoomlion, Mr Gershon Sogbey, and a team from the Eco Brigade have moved in to clean portions of the beach to enable the fishermen and the community to use it.

Mr Sogbey told the Daily Graphic that the team had managed to clean most of the affected areas, especially the place the fish­er folk could use for their trade.

He said his outfit was very vigilant and proactive and would ensure that the affected areas were cleared in order not to affect the activities of fishermen.

When contacted, officials of the Environ­mental Protection Agency said they had vis­ited the area and taken samples of the sub­stance for examination.


Source: Daily Graphic

Ghana’s first oil production expenditure within original budget – Tullow

The first commercial oil produced from Ghana’s Jubilee field was within budget, says Tullow Oil.

According to Tullow Oil the first successful oil production which was achieved on schedule within 40 months of discovery was also within estimated budget.

Commenting, Tullow Oil’s CEO, Aiden Heavey said “In 2010 we achieved exceptional exploration success and together with our partners delivered ‘First Oil’ on schedule in Ghana by year-end,  and was within its original budget.”

According to the UK oil and gas explorer which owns majority share in Ghana’s Jubilee oil field, the largest oil field to be discovered in West Africa in the last 10 to 15 years, the final cost of the first oil production is “expected to be within 10% of the original $3.1 billion budget.”

This was revealed in Tullow Oil’s trading statement and operational update published January 27, 2011 on its website.

According to the statement, Tullow is expecting a full production capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil per day in the next six months.

“Current gross production is around 50,000 bopd from four wells and full production capacity of 120,000 bopd is expected to be reached within six months as the remaining five production wells are completed and brought on stream”, it said.

Production of oil from the Phase 1 development of the Jubilee field was inaugurated by the President J. E. A. Mills of Ghana in a First Oil ceremony on December 15, 2010.

After lifting the first 650,000 barrel cargo Jubilee crude oil on January 5, 2011, Tullow said a water injection to two wells which is currently 75,000 barrels of water per day and a further four water injection wells will be completed during 2011 to maintain production levels.

The statement however said a gas compression commissioning on the FPSO commenced in January with gas injection to the reservoir is scheduled to start in February 2011.

To help maintain field production levels and develop further reserves, Tullow is planning work for Phase 1a, of the Jubilee fields to comprise between five and eight infill wells which started in fourth quarter 2010 adding “It is anticipated that the investment decision will be made in third quarter 2011 following analysis of reservoir performance and submission of plans to the Government of Ghana.”

“A Declaration of Commerciality for the Mahogany-East discovery (previously known as “Southeast Jubilee”) was submitted by the Operator of the West Cape Three Points licence, in September 2010 and a Plan of Development is currently being prepared.”

The statement added that “The development of the Mahogany-East reservoirs, which are extensive but generally thinner than in the main Jubilee reservoirs, will be either a standalone development or a tie-back to the existing Jubilee field subsea infrastructure.”

Tullow however hinted that it is planning a secondary listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
In November 2010, Tullow announced that in order to create a more accessible opportunity for Ghanaian individuals and institutions to invest in the future of the oil industry.

“Originally planned for December, the Listing has been postponed due to the requirement over that period to focus on First Oil from the Jubilee field and year-end corporate planning”, Tullow said.


By Ekow Quandzie
ghanabusinessnews.com

Ghana attains 75% mobile phone penetration end of 2010

The number of people using mobile phones in Ghana has hit 75% of the country’s estimated 23 million population.

According to statistics on the website of the industry regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA), the total number of mobile phone subscribers in Ghana is over 17.4 million at December end 2010. It puts the figure specifically at 17, 436, 949 subscribers which is an increase of 2.2% from the November figure of 17,062,917. And the 2.2% increase in subscriber rates in the month of December is the highest increase in the entire year 2010.

The five of the six licensed mobile phone companies in the country share the subscribers. These are Expresso, 239, 815; Tigo, 3, 999, 262, MTN which has the largest market share has 8, 721,249; Vodafone, 2,722,364; and Airtel, 1,754,259.  The sixth provider, Glo is yet to start operations.

This growth is notwithstanding the fact that the introduction of compulsory SIM registration, which became effective on July 1, 2010, was expected to result in much weaker mobile customer growth in 2010, compared with 2009.

The SIM registeration is also expected to result in the widespread deduction of inactive and unregistered mobile customers by the operators.

Landline or fixed network subscriptions on the other have dropped significantly during the same period.

The two companies offering landlines, Vodafone and Airtel recorded a total of 277,897 subscribers. This is a decline of 13.5% from the month of November total of 321,349 fixed lines.


Source: ghanabusinessnews.com

NCA terminates 3,469 fraud numbers on AIRTEL in January 2011

Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, Minister for Communication, on Tuesday said in the first twenty days of the 2011, 3,469 fraud numbers, 95 per cent of total fraud numbers, were terminated on AIRTEL’s network.

Mr Iddrisu who was answering questions on the floor of Parliament noted however that the total number of fraudulent SIM cards had reduced from 12, 440 in October 2010 to 3,506 as of 20 January 2011.

He said notwithstanding the National Communication Authority’s (NCA) success in reducing fraud on the network, it was still alarming that AIRTEL was still recording fraudulent numbers on its network.

The NCA has accordingly been instructed to assist AIRTEL to remedy the situation.

Mr Iddrisu said the situation was made known after a study carried out by the NCA for the period between June 2010 and January 2011.

He said the study showed that Kasapa was the only network that had recorded fewer fraudulent numbers-only three cases in June 2010 and one case in January 2011.

He said all the other networks including; MTN, AITEL, TIGO and VODAFONE, have recorded fluctuating escalating fraudulent numbers in the same period.

Mr Iddrisu said October 2010 recorded the highest fraudulent numbers of 12,440 with VODAFONE having the highest of 8,010 numbers followed by AIRTEL (formally ZAIN) with 4,241, MTN with 85, TIGO 13 and Kasapa-zero.

He said from January 1 to 20 2011, a total of 3,506 fraudulent networks was recorded with AIRTEL recording 3,469 followed by VODAFONE (24), TIGO
(10), MTN (2) and Kasapa (1).

Mr Haruna said the escalating fraudulent numbers on the networks of the telecom operators constituted loss of revenue to the companies and to government.

He said anti-fraud exercise of the NCA had also led to the arrest of two illegal operators and the seizure of 8,792 SIM cards which if they were still in use will lead to an estimated revenue loss of $500,000 per month, with government losing up to 100,000 per month in tax/levy collection.

He said in June 2009, Cabinet granted approval for the implementation of a Call Verification system in Ghana to address fraud and other by-pass mechanism employed by telecommunication operators in the termination of in-bound international telephone traffic and also enhance tax revenue to government.

He said the project was implemented by the NCA and its partners; Global Voice Group of South Africa, adding that to facilitate the implementation of the project, the Electronic communications 2008, (Act 775) was amended by Parliament in December 2009 by the passage of the Electronic Communications (Amendment) Act 2009 (Act 786) to give effect to the government policy.

He said the NCA commenced the installation of the intelligence signaling management system (SIM Box Fraud Detection Tool) to verify the Call Data Records of the networks of the telecom operators.

Mr Iddrisu said the Electronic Communication Act was amended to empower the NCA to establish mechanisms and institute measures to monitor compliance with this section and may in this regard carry out inspections and request any relevant information from a network operator.

He said the installation exercise was stalled as a result of a court action initiated in July 2010 by the Alliance for Accountable Government seeking relief that exercise will not intrude into their private conversations.

After appreciating the need to eliminate illegal SIM Box termination in the country, AFAG graciously withdrew the court action.

Mr Iddrisu noted however that three other Ghanaian citizens subsequently filed another action in court and it was this that stalled the installation of anti-fraud equipment, adding that the matter was still pending before the law court.

He said the NCA was currently relying on voluntary declaration of call volumes to invoice telecom operators for payment of government’s portion of termination rate as provided in the law.

He said within six months of implementation ending December 2010 and relying on voluntary submission of call Data records, the revenue generated as Non-Tax revenue contribution to the government stood at about 30 million dollars.

Mr Iddrisu noted that the NCA was continuing with its anti-fraud monitoring responsibilities and reports at two-hourly intervals to the telecom operators, fraud numbers detected on their networks so that these will be immediately disconnected to prevent usage, adding that until the verification equipment was completed on the networks, this action cannot be authenticated.

The Minister said that NCA had successfully installed and tested the equipment in various designated locations.

These include; Graphic Road Base station, Kumasi Nhyiase for MTN, while ZAIN has completed installation at North Ridge, and Spintex Road as well as the main Zain site in Kumasi. TIGO  and Vodafone have not yet started installation.


Source: GNA

Ghana tops Africa in latest FIFA rankings

World Cup quarterfinalist, Ghana is now leading the African continent in the latest FIFA rankings.

According to the rankings released in Zurich today February 2, 2011, Ghana gained 16 points scoring 940 points as against 924 in December 2010.

In the last FIFA rankings, Ghana placed second in Africa and 16th in the world.

In the overall rankings, Ghana moved up by a spot securing the 15th position making the country occupy the number one spot in Africa.

African champion Egypt fell from the top spot in Africa to the place third whiles Cote d’Ivoire placed second at 33 and 26 respectively in the overall rankings.

Surprisingly, Burkina Faso ranked 5th beating nations like Cameroon, Guinea and South Africa.

Nigeria was fourth in Africa and No. 40 in the world.

There was o African country in the overall top ten.

Meanwhile world cup winner Spain still leads the FIFA rankings followed by Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Argentina and England placing 2nd, 3rd, 4th , 5th  and 6th respectively.


By Ekow Quandzie
ghanabusinessnews.com

Digital migration challenging in Africa – Spio-Garbrah

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah has said that it will be difficult for the African continent to embrace the digital switchover from analogue to digital technologies.

Speaking about the challenges faced by African countries in their digital switchover strategy, Dr Spio-Garbrah said “The migration from analogue to digital technologies can be a challenging one for a continent as large as Africa”.

“While these are challenges that is not new to any country that has gone through a digital switchover, in Africa if the digital switchover if successful, would address it’s socio-economic developmental needs, thereby bringing it closer to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)”, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah said.

His remarks come ahead of the CTO’s conference to examine progress in Digital Migration in Africa which will be held in Johannesburg from February 1-3, 2011.

He was optimistic that best practices from ‘digital-ready’ countries can help alleviate some of the challenges to be faced by the continent during the migration.

Meanwhile the Ghana government has rolled-out a three-year national digital timetable to achieve a cost-effective and timely migration from analogue to digital broadcasting.

The Ministry of Communication has directed the setting up of a National Digital Migration Implementation body by the end of January 2011 and issuance of licence for digital television until the end of 2014.

Other aspects of the migration plan includes a nationwide roll-out of digital television to commence in April 2011 till 2013; phased analogue switch-off to be determined by the implementation committee; completion of switchover on the target date of December 2014 and appraisal of the switchover process to be undertaken within six months after the completion.

Over one hundred broadcasting experts and ICT leaders across Africa including Ghana are currently in Johannesburg, South Africa, deliberating on the progress made in the switch over from analogue to digital broadcasting in Africa.

Organised by the London-based Commonwealth Telecommunication’s Organisation (CTO)  the conference will seek to address issues of policy and regulation, the adoption of the new European standard BVB-T2, funding mechanisms, technology, international frequency planning, the Digital Dividend, among others.

Ghana’s Communications Minister, Haruna Iddrissu in an interview with Joy FM monitored by ghanabusinessnews.com, said the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has set June 2015 as the deadline for migration from analogue to digital radio and television broadcasting adding, “As a member of the Union, Ghana has an obligation and responsibility to facilitate that process and has set herself a deadline of December 2014 to complete that process.”

Mr Iddrissu said this will improve both picture and sound quality in broadcasting.
Digitization of broadcasting is the application of digital techniques to encode audio and video signals and transmit digital data rather than analogue waveforms on networks to consumers.

The project on completion would support mobile reception of video, internet and multimedia data, making applications, services and information accessible and usable anywhere and at any time.

In 2009, Ghana is said to be one of the first countries that accepted the challenge to migrate all existing analogue broadcasting equipment to digital.

The migration started with the national broadcaster, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
Ghana is also expected to present a report on the experiences of the migration at the conference.

The report is expected to focus on challenges and maximizing opportunities for a successful transition, the role of Geosynchronous Satellites and local content strategies.


By Ekow Quandzie
ghanabusinessnews.com