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Tag: Ghana

Pillars deserved win over Ghana U-23s, says Loute

Kano Pillars left-back Isaac Loute has told AfricanFootball.com his side worked hard to beat the Ghana U-23 team in a friendly on Saturday in Accra.

Saturday’s clash was Pillars second in Ghana as they prepare for a CAF Champions League game against Malaika of South Sudan. The Nigeria champions drew the first test match 2-2 with Hearts of Oak.

“It was a tough game as expected, we thank God for giving us the victory because we put in our very best to win the game and thank God our effort was crowned with the victory. We are so happy with the victory because we deserved it,” Loute told AfricanFootball.com.

Mercurial midfielder Rabiu Ali scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot after a Ghanaian defender handled a goal-bound shot from Christian Obiozor.

The coach Okey Emordi-led team will face Malaika in South Sudan on February 13.

February 9, 2015
AFCON 2015: Senegal shocks Ghana 2-1

At the just ended African Cup of Nations (AFCON) group C match opening, Senegal has dramatically defeated the Black Star of Ghana by 2 goals to 1.

The Ghanaian team add an impressive performance withing the first 15 minutes of the game and was able to record the first goal in the match through a penalty but returned for the second half only to play more of what seemed to be defensive.

Meanwhile, the Senegalese came all out for victory in the second half and got it.

Senegal got the equaliser and continued to mount more pressure n the Black Stars until Moussa Sow got a long pass at the 93rd minute of the match to put the score line at 2-1.

January 19, 2015
Nominations open for Ghana Music Awards

CHARTERHOUSE, organisers of the prestigious Vodafone Ghana Music Awards Festival, has announced it is inviting musical works for this year’s competition. This year’s event will be the 16th edition and the organisers are inviting works from musicians and record labels for works that were released between January 1 and December 31, 2014, for nominations. The event will be held in the month of April.

“Artistes and artistes managers are advised to download the nomination forms from the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards website www.ghanamusicawards.com or pick up the forms from Charterhouse office at North Industrial Area,” a statement from the outfit said.

“All completed entries should be submitted to the offices of Charterhouse,” the organisers added.

The statement also revealed that this year, the general public has been given the opportunity to also nominate their favourite artistes and songs by downloading nomination forms from the event website and submitting thereafter.

This, according to the organisers “will give artistes the opportunity for their musical works to be considered for nomination for the 16th edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards. Deadline for submission of entries is February 1, 2015.”

January 17, 2015
Ghana to issue 400m cedi domestic bond in April

Ghana plans to issue a 400 million-cedi, seven-year domestic bond in April in a fresh bid to use longer-term maturities to restructure its rising debt, the central bank said.

Reuters said the country’s third bond will finance infrastructure projects and will be open to foreign investors.

Ghana is seeking aid from the International Monetary Fund as it grapples with fiscal problems including a debt-to-gross domestic product ratio above 60 percent.

The West African country aims to raise a total of 25.4 billion cedis ($7.88 billion) in domestic securities before July, the bank said in its issuance calendar.

Ghana issued its debut seven-year domestic bond in August 2013 and held a similar auction three months later with yield at 18 percent yield.

The bank will also issue five-year bonds in March and June to raise 440 million cedis each, and three-year paper worth 630 million cedis each in February and May to roll over maturing debts. The government did not issue a seven-year bond last year as it wanted to avoid a spike in yields following a slump in the local currency.

January 12, 2015
Nigeria puts pressure on Ghana to probe oil theft

•U.S. dumps Nigeria’s crude

Nigeria is demanding a probe into the activities of a company, which it believes is involved in laundering stolen crude to Europe.

Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a US-based newspaper which levelled the allegations, said Saltpond Offshore Producing Company (SOPC) is suspected of being used to tranship and smuggle stolen Nigerian crude to Europe and that Washington is probing the company as part of a broader inquiry into how Nigerian oil gets stolen and laundered.

Sources within the intelligence community in Ghana told a local publication The Finder, that Nigeria is not happy that Ghana has not ordered official investigations into the accusation when it was published.

Consequently, investigative bodies in Nigeria have officially written to their Ghanaian counterparts to investigate the allegations levelled against Saltpond Offshore Producing Company.

The US for the first time failed to import a single barrel of crude oil from Nigeria in July 2014.

This troubling scenario, according to industry watchers, would not augur well for the Nigerian economy, which is highly dependent on revenue from oil.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude exporter, depends largely on crude proceeds to service over 85% of its budget.

Nigeria used to be the fifth largest exporter of crude oil to the US.

While US crude imports rose by 569,000 barrels per day in July, imports of Nigerian crude fell to zero for the first time.

Data obtained from the US Energy Information Administration showed that US imports rose to 7.623 million bpd, up from 7.054 million bpd, in June.

But imports from Nigeria fell to zero in July, down from 89,000 bpd in June, all of which had gone to the US Atlantic Coast.

Reports indicated that before July, the US has reduced crude imports from Nigeria by 91%, putting the country’s crude exports in disarray.

The US, which was hitherto the biggest importer of crude from Nigeria with over one million barrels per day, early this year imported an average of 100,000 bpd till June 2014.

Data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) revealed that by the end of last year, the US dropped to the 10th highest importer of Nigeria’s crude, with 1.438 million barrels down by 15.111 million barrels in December 2012.

North America accounted for 22.19% of Nigeria’s total crude export by December 2012, but it dropped to 2.23% by December 2013.

According to an NNPC report, “prior to the decline, the US was the highest buyer of Nigeria’s crude, purchasing 14.279 million barrels in December 2012, thereby accounting for 19.15% of Nigeria’s total crude export and 86.28% of total crude export to North America.

Oil laundering allegation at Saltpond platform

The accusation was that small vessels that have loaded “unofficial” oil in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta frequently come to discharge at Saltpond. There, the Nigerian crude is mixed with Ghanaian oil. It comes from Nigeria, but it gets a certificate of Ghana origin.

The oil is then transferred to larger tankers for transhipment to Europe.

The provenance of the other oil that made its way to an Italian refinery over the course of the past year, however, is not clear.

Three cargoes, listed in shipping documents as “Saltpond blend crude oil,” went to Genoa’s terminal for delivery to Italy’s Iplom SpA refinery, according to shipping and port records and officials.

The WSJ reported that two cargoes, unloaded in August 2013 and February 2014, carried about 340,000 barrels altogether, according to Genoa port officials.

The third tanker, unloaded in April of this year, carried 132,000 barrels. Together, that’s more than four times the platform’s 2013 output of around 100,000 barrels, according to the Ghana government’s figures.

Giorgio Profumo, Iplom’s president, confirmed to WSJ that his refinery had received crude labelled as coming from Saltpond, but said he believes the cargoes were legitimate because they are approved by the Ghana authorities.

Saltpond platform was inaugurated in 1978 to pump oil from an offshore field. In its heyday, the field, located seven miles off the country’s coast, produced more than a million barrels a year. That has dwindled to just over 100,000 barrels over the course of 2013.

But since last August, three tankers picked up more than 470,000 barrels from Saltpond, transporting it to an Italian refinery near the port of Genoa, according to port officials, ship-tracking services and port records, reports the WSJ.

Some US and Nigerian officials suspect Saltpond is one of several destinations that smugglers use to tranship stolen Nigerian crude, effectively laundering it by making it appear to come from a legitimate source outside of Nigeria, says the US newspaper.

October 20, 2014
Ghana backs Nigeria against Boko Haram

*ECOWAS leaders to meet on Ebola 1st week of November

President of Ghana, John Mahama, has offered his country’s support to Nigeria’s fight against the Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

Addressing State House correspondents after closed-door meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Friday, he said that key bilateral issues concerning the two countries were discussed.

He urged Nigerians to fully support Jonathan’s administration in its effort to stamp out the terrorists.

Stressing that Nigeria is a strategic country in West Africa and its destabilisation would adversely affect the entire region, the Ghanaian Preseident, who is the current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said that anyone who means well for West African region must join hands with Nigeria to ensure the menace of insurgency and terrorism is contained.

He said: “We also discuss the issues of security and we are optimistically hopeful that Nigeria will continue to be able to deal with the issue of Boko Haram. We believe that the people should stand in solidarity with the a government, you must be one in dealing with this threat to your national survival.”

“And for us in West Africa, we believe that the destabilization of Nigeria is destabilization of the whole of the West African subregion. It is not only because of the size of Nigeria, but it is the largest economy in the whole of the subregion and indeed the whole of Africa. We will continue to express solidarity with Nigeria in your fight against this insurgency.”

He also commended Jonathan and Nigerians for successfully checking the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease in the country and for assisting less successful West African countries in tackling the deadly disease.

According to him, a meeting of ECOWAS heads of state will be convened by the first week of November to discuss concerted efforts at checking further spread of Ebola which has already killed over 4,000 persons in the region in the past four months.

October 17, 2014
IMF recommends wage freeze for Ghana

The International Monetary Fund has told Ghana during its talks on a financial assistance programme that it would like to see a freeze on public sector wages, President John Mahama said on Wednesday.

But the government has said that salary levels must take account of inflation, Mahama told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.

Inflation in the West African country stood at a four-year high of 15.9 percent in August. An agreement on public sector wages is seen as crucial to securing the IMF programme, which aims to restore Ghana’s fiscal balance.

“The IMF was recommending a wage freeze. I think there must be adjustments for inflation. You can’t say you’re not going to do any wage increases over the next three years. As inflation comes down, the need for higher (wage) increases reduces,” he said.

Ghana and the IMF held a first round of talks in Accra last month. A second round of talks will take place in Washington this month.

Mahama said he would like to start the three-year deal in January but if an agreement was concluded before then, it might be factored into the annual budget, which is due to be presented in November.

The IMF said last week Ghana’s fiscal problems could hit economic growth hard, as a yawning budget deficit, high inflation and a tumbling currency take their toll on one of Africa’s star economies of recent years.

October 2, 2014
BLACK MAGIC RITUAL: Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan denies killing rapper Castro

According to the Metro, Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan has denied playing any part in the killing of rapper Castro, who is presumed dead after a jet-ski accident gone wrong in southern Ghana.

The accident occurred back on July 6 in the town of Ada where Gyan had flipped the bill for a vacation for 16 of his friends. The details are minimal but in short, Castro and his girlfriend Janet Bandu went off on a jet ski ride and failed to return. The group thereafter carried out a search for the couple when they spotted an unmanned jet ski and informed the police.

With authorities in Ghana still unable to locate the bodies more than two months later, rumors have now emerged that Castro’s corpse was used for a black magic ritual for financial gain or, as Gyan’s lawyer Kissi Agyabeng explains, a sacrifice to spiritually enhance his career.

A statement released by Agyabeng reads: “When it became apparent that Castro and Janet had disappeared, an article appeared online which appeared to commiserate with Asamoah Gyan citing the recent loss of his mother and now the loss of his best friend.

“One would have thought that this would have been a point of reference to console the Gyans – and indeed, a good number of well-meaning persons expressed this sentiment and sought to encourage us to stand firm.

“To the thousands of individuals and institutions that came to our aid and to offer support, we express our gratitude.

“Sadly, the expression of empathy during a person’s moment of grief and utter dismay does not sell in the media.

“What sells in the media, and what indeed sold and is still selling in the media in Ghana are wild allegations and rumours directed especially at Asamoah Gyan – ranging from the absurd – of the imputation of criminality to him in the sense that he either murdered Castro or had him kidnapped – and ending with the ludicrous – that he sacrificed him spiritually to enhance his career.

“We had no hand in that occurrence. We have no moral or legal culpability whatsoever.

“None of us rode out into the open estuary with Castro and Janet Bandu.

“Castro rode out there on his own volition and none of us have the slightest idea as to what happened to them.

“We have only been guess working and conjecturing and making what appears to us to be intelligent deductions – in light of the facts available to us, especially the fact that when they rode out on the jet ski Janet Bandu was not wearing a life jacket.

“We know Castro all too well. He was our brother. We loved him as one of our own. We did everything together with him.

“You are all witnesses to the hit songs Castro has been featuring Asamoah Gyan on and the added popularity that gave him.

“Indeed, the duo was just about to release another song. We will never do anything to harm him.

“We are in unimaginable pain and shock and we will give anything to Castro and Janet back.”

September 25, 2014
Bank of Ghana keeps rate at 19% as cedi stabilises

Ghana’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged after the government sold $1 billion in Eurobonds and began talks with the International Monetary Fund, helping to revive confidence in the economy.

The Monetary Policy Committee maintained the rate at a decade-high of 19 per cent, Governor Kofi Wampah said.

That matched the forecasts of eight of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Two analysts predicted an increase of 50 basis points to 100 basis points.

Ghana is struggling to contain an economic crisis that’s pushed inflation to 16 percent in August and caused the currency to lose a third of its value against the dollar this year, the worst-performing currency in sub-Saharan Africa. The cedi has gained 9.2 per cent in the past month after the government said it will seek support from the IMF.

September 18, 2014
‘Competition’ll not affect our operations in Ghana’

The competition on the Lagos-Accra route will not deter it from flying into the West African sub-region because of the robust relationship between Nigerian businesses and the neighbouring countries, the Managing Director, Medview Airlines, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, has said.

He said what matters to an airline was not the number of operators in a route, but the quality of service offered.

He spoke in an interview in Lagos against the backdrop of plans by Medview Airlines to start flights between Lagos and Accra next week and the competition on the route.

He said the airline was propelled by the need to offer a window for Nigerians to have more options in their choice of carriers in facilitating their business and educational pursuits as well as other concerns between Nigeria and Ghana.

Bankole said the airline was fine- tuning plans to expand flights to the five countries in West Africa it has been offered by the Federal Government.

He listed the countries to include Senegal, Côte D’ Ivoire, Mali, Gabon.

Bankole said the desire to extend flight operations into Ghana would assist Nigerian passengers connect into Europe and other parts of the world, where foreign airlines offer cheaper fares.

He said the commencement of operations into Accra would facilitate such window where Nigerians could access Ghana by air and enjoy the lower fares available to other countries.

Apart from the huge business transactions between Nigeria and Ghana, Bankole said flights into Ghana would further open up the market for many Nigerians who live are in many communities in Ghana.

Bankole said: ‘’Looking at the market, Ghana as a country is significant because of its relevance in terms of stability.

“This is in terms of the gains of its stable democracy and Ghana as a connection to other countries in the West African sub region. And flight connections into other parts of the world including Europe and other places.

‘’A lot of Nigerians fly into Ghana to connect flights into other countries for many reasons.

“The reason many Nigerians fly into Ghana to connect flights into other parts of the world is predicated on the fact that the air fares offered by many foreign carriers from Nigeria into Europe and other destinations is very high. In fact, it is prohibitive.

“If you carry out any comparison, you would realise that air fares from Ghana into Europe is cheaper. And not only that Nigeria and Ghana belong to the same African family.

“There is a trading relationship between Nigerian and Ghana. Nigeria and Nigerian businesses are well represented in Ghana even in their communities.

‘’This large population of Nigerians in Ghana needs a passage by air to come back home.

“That is why Medview Airlines is tapping into this window to provide the best services to facilitate such movement across national borders.

‘’Another angle to the business is that we want to make the airline the carrier of choice to move goods across the countries.

‘’Recall that half of the Ankara made in Ghana is sold in the Nigerian market.

‘’So, both countries have common relationship that require movement by air to facilitate it.

“The basic motivation for this is create an avenue to bring our people back home.

‘’Another consideration is the large number of Nigerians schooling in Ghanian institutions , who would require to come back home all the time.

“That is another catchment for passengers. That is why Medview Airlines is providing the intervention.

‘’As an airline we have been around with our feasibility study in the Lagos-Accra route, with on time departure we are convinced we would have a good flight operation.

“With improvement on our flight services and a lot of innovation in what other carriers have not done, we are convinced our foray into Ghana is a done deal.

‘’We are not afraid of competition on the Lagos – Accra route.

‘’What is important is the number of airlines flying the route but the quality of service.

‘’What would mark us out is the quality of flight services.”

He said the airline was set to consolidate its operations on the Abuja – Jeddah and Dubai routes, which he affirmed many Nigerians are excited about.

He said: ” The authorities of Ghana were not ready to assist us, but, we have to work hard to achieve this.

“We have five destinations in West Africa. Where government designated us. We are working towards Abidjan, Mali, Libreville. We are taking it step by step.

‘’With time we would expand into all the routes.

‘’We are trying our best to assist Ghana with STABO and other companies to enable them come back.

“The Ghanaian authorities were not willing to assist because, they say three Nigerian carriers are flying into Accra without a single Ghanaian carrier flying into Lagos.’’

He continued: “But we have done our best to ensure the operations would run seamless.

‘’We are looking beyond Accra to fly to Bamako, Libreville, and other countries.

‘’On the Dubai operations, we are very ready, we have put our house in order and the Nigerian community is ready for us.

‘’We need to support our airline , because only Nigeria carriers would offer jobs to its nationals , not the foreign airlines coming in here to make money.

“I have travelled to Saudi Arabia and Dubai to prepare for the operations. We need to support our own carriers. We are going to create jobs and have Nigerian flavour on board.”

September 8, 2014