The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ghana

  • ICAN chief to lead 500 accountants to Ghana confab

    The President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Mr Doyin Owolabi, will lead a delegation of about 500 chartered accountants to the Second African Congress of Accountants (ACOA) holding in Ghana between 13 and 17.

    The congress is being organised by the Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA) and hosted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG) in collaboration with ICAN.

    In a statement, ICAN said the congress whose theme is, Africa’s economic growth, accountability and democracy, will explore issues related to key areas that directly and indirectly affect the accountants’role in economic growth, accountability and democracy through seminars, workshop and exhibitions.

    Apart from the theme of the congress, advanced topics and issues affecting today’s dynamic business landscape, such as the implications of implementing IFRS, strengthening financial markets and institutions in Africa, shaping the accounting profession on the continent, promoting the growth of SMPs, building capacity of SMPs etc, will be discussed.

     

  • Ghana Starlets boss dazed by Eaglets heavy win

    Ghana Starlets boss dazed by Eaglets heavy win

    Ghana U17 coach Paa Kwesi Fabin says he took responsibility for his side’s heavy 6-1 defeat at fierce rivals Nigeria at the African Junior Championship, admitting he got his tactics wrong.

    The former Hearts of Oak trainer, who looked dazed after the Golden Eaglets crushed the Black Starlets in an embarrassing fashion, also accepted that he was clueless about the superior display of the Nigerians.

    The Black Starlets were outclassed by the Golden Eaglets who had striker Isaac Success score four of their goals.

    Ghana were brimming with confidence after scoring a total of 18 goals in three pre-tournament training matches in Italy including an impressive 3-2 defeat to the first team of Italian Serie A side Sampdoria.

    But the Black Starlets were thoroughly beaten by a far superior Nigerian side who dominated all aspects of the game as they opened their U17 campaign in Morocco.

    Fabin, and his side have come under fire from home supporters after the result but the former Heart of Oak trainer is making no excuses for the under par performance.

    “Nigeria surprised us tonight, they were far better than we had expected and outplayed us,” Fabin admitted after the match that sent shockwaves throughout Ghana.

    “We did not see this heavy defeat coming at all and not only were the Nigerians good but they were stronger too.

    “So we need to have a look at how we approached this game because our tactics and set –up did not work today.”

    Ghana’s next Group B match will be against Congo-who drew 1-1 with Ivory Coast- on Wednesday.

     

  • Eaglets wallop Ghana Starlets 6-1

    Eaglets wallop Ghana Starlets 6-1

    NIGERIA’S Golden Eaglets began their African Junior Championship with a five star performance after they walloped a ten-man Ghana Black Starlets 6-1 in the second Group B game played in Marrakech on Sunday.

    Striker Isaac Success announced his presence in the tournament by topping the goals scorers chat firing four past Nigeria’s arch rivals.

    He opened the scoring with a cool finish with just 10 minutes of play before Bulbwa added the second from a counter-attack in the 30th minute.

    The coach Manu Garba-led side profited from another break and Success was at his predatory best to finish the move in the 40th minute.

    After the break, the lanky ace converted a spot-kick to make it 4-0 before pouncing on a defence splitting pass to blast past Starlets substitute goalkeeper.

    The Black Starlets pulled one back through Yeboah who struck from 20 yards.

    The Golden Eaglets completed the demolishing exercise with a final goal by Ihenacho before seven minutes of added on time.

    Meanwhile, in the first game of the group, Congo and Cote d’ Ivoire shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw of the opening Group B match of the 2013 CAF U-17 Championship played in Marrakech on Sunday. Cote d’ Ivoire came from behind to equalise in a game the Baby Elephants dominated but could not breakdown a hardworking Congo. The goals came from Ngatsongo Obassi eight minutes into the match and an equaliser from Junior Ahissan.

  • GHANA MUST GO! Eaglets aim to stop rivals B/Satellites

    GHANA MUST GO! Eaglets aim to stop rivals B/Satellites

    NIGERIA’S Golden Eaglets said they plan to start their Africa U17 Championship campaign today with victory over rivals Ghana.

    Both countries have met three times at this level and Nigeria have enjoyed the upper hand, claiming victories twice in 1999 and 2007, while Ghana won in the final of the very first edition in 1995 3-1 after extra time.

    Both rivals have prepared well for this tournament and are looking forward to winning their third titles having won it twice apiece.

    Eaglets assistant coach Nduka Ugbade said Nigeria will fly in Morocco as they aim to win the title.

    “We are not under pressure. It’s our opponents who should be. We are in the tournament to win and we want to start on a winning note,” Ugbade said.

    “It has taken us a long time to arrive here and by the grace of God, we are going to win our first game against Ghana on Sunday,” said soft-spoken Musa Muhammed, the captain of the side.

    “We want to go back to Nigeria as champions and we must show the stuff of champions starting with Ghana.”

    Defence stalwart Izu Omego said they are toughened after overcoming strong oppositions along the way.

    “We are confident going into the game against Ghana,” said the tireless Omego who is a fulcrum of the team. This team is strong and we have beaten stronger teams like the Malians with their big size.

    “We can’t do anything with our power and that is why we are always praying to God to bless all our hard work.”

    However, Ghana Football Association (GFA) vice-president, Fred Crentsil, has boasted the highly-rated Nigerians are beatable after spying on them in two friendly matches against Botswana in February.

    The Black Satellites are also not short of quality as they boast top performers like Oti Essigba, Benjamin Tetteh and Paul Asare De vrica.

  • Security retreat for schools holds in Ghana

    Nigerian security experts will join the Inspector General of Police in Ghana, Mr. Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, to speak at a security retreat holding at the Ramada Coco Beach, Hotel, Accra, between the 14th and 18th of this month.

    The International Executive Management Retreat on Security Awareness and Emergency Preparedness for educational institutions in Africa is being organised by the Exam Ethics Marshall International to help prepare manage challenges of insecurity.

    Others who will join Alhassan who will delivers the Keynote Address, include: Prof I.S. Williams, Faculty member of the National Institute for Strategic Studies; Prof A. Ekoko, former Vice-Chancellor, Delta State University and a former faculty at the Nigeria Defence College, and Prof E.O. Aliemeka, Faculty member of Nigeria’s National Institute For Strategic Studies.

    Others are: Dr. U.K Brown of Liberia; P.K Krampar of Ghana.

    A statement signed by the founding chairman of the group, Mr Ike Onyechere noted that the Retreat will focus on: “critical security lessons from attacks on staff, students and facilities of educational institutions across the world; security and emergency preparedness against kidnapping; hostage taking, terrorist activities and bomb threats; critical factors for improved security of staff and students; governance, leadership and policy issues in security of educational institutions in Africa; security survey and diagnostic audit procedures to identify risk factors in educational institutions; etc”.

    The retreat being, coordinated by MJ One Security Consultants and POTOMAC Consulting International in conjunction with Exam Ethics Marshals International, is expected to be attended by Heads of education ministries and agencies; Governing Councils of tertiary institutions; education committees of legislative houses; Vice-Chancellors; Provosts; Rectors; Chief Security Officers and other principal officers of educational institutions from across Africa.

    Educational institutions in Nigeria including IBB University, Minna and the Imo State University, Owerri have already registered to attend the retreat.

     

  • Nigeria defeat Ghana at ICC World League

    Nigeria defeat Ghana at ICC World League

    Nigeria on Sunday defeated Ghana by six wickets at the ongoing International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cricket Division 7 League in Botswana.

    Nigeria had earlier lost to Fiji by three wickets in their first match on Saturday.

    An ICC statement said on Monday in Lagos that Nigeria had an early loss of two wickets but came back into the game to defeat Ghana.

    The statement quoted Adekunle Adegbola, Captain of the Nigeria team, as saying that he was pleased with their performance and the high standard of the game.

    “It was a wonderful game from both sides and a sweet victory for Nigeria,” it said.

    According to the statement, a disappointed Ghanaian captain, Peter Ananya, said his team lost so many chances, which resulted in their loss.

    “Our fielding was poor and we lost a lot of chances,” it quoted Ananya as saying.

    It also said that Saheed Akolade was the leading wicket-taker for Nigeria, with three wickets for 43 runs, while his compatriot Oladotun Olatunji was Man of the Match with 127 runs.

    Nigeria will meet Botswana on Tuesday, while the competition which commenced on April 6 ends on April 13.

  • In light of Ghaana’s dominance

    Among the five-member countries that make up the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), SS3 candidates from Nigerian secondary schools outnumber those from Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia by about five to one.

    For the 2012 May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) there were 1,545,004 Nigerians and 391,724 from the four other countries combined yet the top three candidates did not come from here. They were all Ghanaians, namely: Miss Yvette Yeboah-Kordieh (1st), Master Josbert Abaasa Ayambire (2nd) and Master Bright Seyram Tsevi (3rd).

    In the said examination, only 38.81 per cent of Nigeria’s candidates made up to five credits and above in English, Mathematics and three other subjects, which is the minimum benchmark for admission into tertiary institutions.

    It did not used to be so. Many years ago Nigerian candidates used to dominate the performance table, clinching the International Excellence Award for the top three slots and the

    Augustus Bandele Oyediran Award for the best candidate. For many years we took it for granted that the awards belonged to us. Given that we provide the lion share of the candidates and the funding to run the international headquarters of the Council in Accra, Ghana, we thought we should always expect to be the best.

    But this is not about expectations; it is about input; it is about performance. Ghana has decided that presenting a much smaller number of candidates should not be an excuse for mediocre performance. It upped its game and now, to our shame, we are trailing behind like overweight spoilt brat.

    Though the 38.81 per cent is the best in recent times (because we posted between 18 and 29 per cent in the past seven year), we cannot accept it as good news in its totality. It is work in progress. It is likely the improved performance is from states where the governments are making concerted efforts to remedy the situation by investing in infrastructure, teacher training, extra coaching for examination classes, and monitoring to ensure that teaching and learning takes place in schools.

    To restore Nigeria to the top, the Federal Government must be involved. We know secondary education is the responsibility of the states but we cannot afford to have some states make efforts to improve while others are nonchalant. We need the Federal Government to coordinate a national roadmap to the Promise Land of good performance. We need the Federal Ministry of Education to coordinate and the process for achieving national objectives regarding learning outcomes’ performance and skills. We must put an end to the politics that makes it a taboo for WAEC to publish performances of candidates on state basis so we can identify those states not doing well and why. In such cooperation we will find strength to excel. The attempt to protect those not doing well is the reason pupils are completing primary and secondary education without literacy, numeracy and life skills to survive in the labour market.

    The report on Nigeria’s inability to meet the 2015 Education For All goal should be a wake up call for us to do what is right. We are producing non-functional graduates, people without skills – with the bulk of them from poor backgrounds. If we have battled militants and terrorists groups today unsuccessfully, we cannot hope to eradicate them in future with the present education template. We need to act fast or we will not have a future to look forward to.

     

  • Nigeria, Ghana hold tourism show in April

    Nigeria, Ghana hold tourism show in April

    The Ghanaian government through its tourism coordinating agency, Ghana Tourism Authority, has thrown her weight behind Tribe Media towards the successful organization of the second edition of the Ghana-Nigeria Tourism and Culture Showcase 2013.

    The two-day event which was first held in 2011 is scheduled to hold from April 18 to 19 at the Accra International Conference Centre, Ghana. Though initiated by Tribe Media, publishers of Horizons Int’l magazine in collaboration with Pan-Africa Ghana, the Ghana-Nigeria Tourism and Culture Showcase remains not just the first privately organized bilateral arts, tourism and culture event in the West African sub-region, but the biggest Private Public Partnership (PPP) in the sub-region credited to be the most prestigious and best attended arts, tourism and culture forum geared towards promoting Africa’s tourism potential as well as the restoration and sustenance of the people’s cultural heritage.

    A statement by the Deputy Executive Director/Operations, Ghana Tourism Authority, Frank Kofigah said: “The board is very pleased with the efforts of Tribe Media aimed at maximizing the tourism and cultural potential of both Ghana and Nigeria for mutual socio-economic gains”.

    In a similar vein, the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana, having endorsed the event in a letter signed by Andrew Idi for the High Commissioner, Ambassador Ademola Onafowokan, the High Commission expressed delight in endorsing the event, while urging Tribe Media to improve on the remarkable success of hosting the 2011 event just as “the High Commission hopes this year’s edition of the Ghana-Nigeria Tourism and Culture Showcase will further provide a greater basis for the projection of Nigeria’s culture”.

    This year’s edition, which has an expanded scope is already eliciting so much enthusiasm in the tourism, arts and culture sector. Some of the supporting partners include: National Council for Arts and Culture, Osun State Government, Ghana Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture, Artists’ Alliance Gallery, Ghana, among others.

    The high points of this year’s event will include: The conference with intellectually stimulating expert discussions and interaction intended to annex the tourism potential of both nations, reawaken the intrinsic cultural values of Africa and as well enliven her people’s pride and prestige. There shall be musical performances with the very best of indigenous Afro-centric music and dance. The exhibition will focus on a showcase of our rich tourism potential cultural heritage, showcase of African fashion/fabrics in the fashion parade by some leading Nigerian/Ghanaian designers, display of traditional African hairstyles and cultural performances from selected participating states in Nigeria and regions in Ghana as well as invited cultural troupes. While the gala night will feature the regional West Africa Business, Tourism and Culture Award in special recognition of efforts by individuals and organisations committed to evolving a new culture to promote values for growth and development in different spheres of African renaissance especially with regional business interest, promotion of tourism and sustenance of our cultural heritage.

     

  • Nigeria now 30th in FIFA rankings

    Nigeria now 30th in FIFA rankings

    Nigeria leapt 22 places up the FIFA rankings on Thursday following Super Eagles victory at the just concluded Africa Cup of Nations but the continent remained without a team in the top ten.

    The Super Eagles, who edged Burkina Faso 1-0 in Sunday’s final in South Africa to win the competition for the first time in 19 years, rose to 30th place in the table, the team’s best position for three years.

    The Burkinabes, who exceeded expectations by reaching the final, stayed outside the top 50 but had jumped 37 places to 55th, Supersport.com reports.

    Ivory Coast, beaten by Nigeria in the quarterfinals, remained Africa’s highest-ranked side in 12th, followed by Ghana seven places below.

    Surprise package Cape Verde, who reached the quarterfinals in South Africa, moved up 13 places to 63rd.

    CONCACAF’s highest-ranked team is Mexico in 15th while the best Asia could muster was Japan, who is ranked 28th.

    Five-times World Cup winners and 2014 World Cup hosts Brazil remained in 18th spot, the team’s lowest-ever ranking, after losing 2-1 to England in Luiz Felipe Scolari’s first game back as coach last week.

    The win took England up two places to fourth.

    The South Americans showed their strength-in-depth as Venezuela climbed 10 places to 45th, leaving all of the continent’s 10 teams in the top 50.

    There was no change in the top three where world and European champions Spain lead, followed by Germany and Argentina.

    The Turks and Caicos Islands, Bhutan and San Marino were tied in 207th and last place.

     

  • Falcon Petroleum eyes gas distribution in Ghana

    •To manufacture equipment

    Falcon Petroleum Limited, which has the franchise to distribute natural gas to industries and bulk energy users in Ikorodu, Lagos, has concluded arrangement to extend distribution of the product to Ghana.

    The Managing Director of the company, Prof. Joseph Ezigbo, made this known at an event for women of Ikorodu Phase II pipeline host communities.

    He said: “We are not only hoping to invest in Nigeria, we are also looking at Ghana. At the moment, we are working with our partners in Ghana to supply gas in the West African country. We are interested in building a gasification plant in Ghana to supply gas to industries in that country.

    “Though Ghana is already getting gas from Nigeria through the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo), this is not enough for Ghana at the moment.”

    On the other plans of the company, Ezigbo said: “Falcon Petroleum has grown substantially. We are consolidating on pumping gas to industries. We are also increasing our capacity. At the moment, the company is building a 12-inch gas pipeline. This will increase the gas supply as well as gas coming into our system. This will also increase the ability of our customers to be connected to our gas supply grid as required.

    “We have also gone into assembly and manufacturing of equipment, which is used in the country’s oil and gas sector. We have entered into a partnership with a company in India to operate a company in Nigeria to fabricate gas stations. We believe that when the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is passed, there will be industrial explosion in the country. That means the industrial development will escalate.

    “We hope to complete the first phase by March this year. We are also trying to expand to other areas of the country because whether we believe it or not, industries depend on gas and the industrial revolution will not just be within the western region, but all over the country.”

    Commenting on the company, Ezigbo said: “As the first phase of the Ikorodu gas distribution phase project continues to witness an upsurge in the gas requirements of customers, and coupled with new industrial off-takers and prospects positioned along the Lagoon expansion axis, Falcon Petroleum Limited has initiated a capacity upgrade on its existing City Gate metering and regulating facility.

    “The capacity upgrade is necessary to enable the company to meet its immediate, medium and long-term supply obligations to its ever growing customer base. The new 25 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) capacity City Gate station will ensure a hitch-free gas delivery to all our customers in accordance to the requirements. The enhanced station will also ensure availability of excess capacity to meet any future supply nominations that may be required over the next few years.”

    He said the Ikorodu community has provided friendly environment for the company’s operations.

    “In Ikorodu, the people are so civilised and are very appreciative as well. This vocational training being sponsored by Falcon Petroleum is a way of saying thank you to the people of Ikorodu.

    “We will not stop here. We will send them for industrial attachment and will have monitoring team to monitor them, after which a starter-pack will be provided for them. They will be given a certain amount of money and equipment to start their businesses and we monitor them for one year to ensure that the system goes on as planned.

    “At the end of the training, we will select another group. It is a progressive thing because at the end of the day, the company would have empowered them to face the future positively.”

    Falcon Petroleum supplies gas to industrial giants such as Mayor Engineering, Spintex Mills, African Steel Mills, Sunflag Steel, Lucky Fibres and Energy Company of Nigeria – an independent power plant,, among others.