This comes a month after former Trade Minister, Alan Kyerematen and Agric Minister Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto resigned to focus on their respective political campaigns.

As required by the 1992 Constitution, the President wrote to the Speaker of Parliament, informing him of the new changes in government on Tuesday, February 7.

New persons have been appointed while other ministers have been reshuffled to other ministries.

Below is the full list.

1. Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa, K.T Hammond has been appointed Minister-designate for Trade and Industry.
2. Member of Parliament for Abetifi, Brian Acheampong has been appointed Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture.
3. Member of Parliament for Karaga, Mohammed Amin Adam, who was stationed at the Energy Ministry as deputy Minister has been given a new post. He has been appointed Minister of State at the Finance Ministry. He is set to replace Charles Adu Boahen.
4. Stephen Asamoah Boateng has been appointed Minister-designate for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs.
5. Herbert Krapah, who was Deputy Minister at the Trade Ministry has been moved to the Energy Ministry as Deputy Minister-designate. He replaces Mohammed Amin Adam.
6. Meanwhile, Dr Stephen Amoah is now Deputy Minister-designate for Trade and Industry to replace Herbert Krapah.
7. Member of Parliament for Akuapem South, Osei Bonsu Amoah, has been appointed Minister of State at the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry.

Source: myjoyonline.com

Send your news, stories or articles to info@chrife.com.gh or via Whatsapp +233550144803

The post President Akufo-Addo reshuffles ministers appeared first on Chrife.com.gh.

Source: ghanasportsonline.com

The post Ghana Could face Nigeria in Round of 16 appeared first on Chrife.com.gh.

He said: “Every young person or individual should have the discipline of defining a purpose and direction in life and harness all energy to achieve it through hard work, commitment and a positive, positive mindset.”

Dr. Bassey, who gave the advice at the end of a three-day leadership conference organized by Prophet Michael Andoh Ministries at Adenta in Accra said the youth should not look for success without the God factor.

He said the youth constitute a critical mass of the population, who would take over the mantle of leadership in the future and it would serve a good purpose if their leadership perspective were directed to meet the demand of society.

He advised them to take their time and build themselves academically, morally and physically and pursue their goals passionately, saying they could only meet their aspirations with proper focus on the life they choose to lead.

Dr. Bassey said life was tallied with vision and not age and that the age at which one succeeds has not much relevance and therefore the young ones should not allow the African belief and value systems that life begins at 40 or the female child was not as important as the male child, among others.

The Director implored the youth to have faith in themselves and resolve to succeed in their homeland and should erase the notion that one could only make it outside the shores of Ghana.

“We should be responsible in building our own continent and for that matter our country because no one else would do it for us.”

Prophet Michael Andoh, the Founder of the Michael Andoh Ministries said he was passionate about the youth and that the event was organized to give them skills that would enable them assume leadership role with competence.

Source: GNA

The post Youth Urged to Have Focus and Direction in Life appeared first on Chrife.com.gh.

According to Barclays, it is committed to helping Ghanaian traders achieve their financial goals with a robust and broad array of product offering, coupled with extensive experience in the banking industry. The bank said Absa had lined up superior and exclusive offers and opportunities for customers to grow their businesses.

The forum, dubbed:“Global Trade and Risk Management – Optimizing the way Organizations Transact Business Internationally”, provided participants with deep insights into global trade, exposed them to discussions on Ghana’s paperless clearing system, opportunities presented under the Africa Free Trade Agreement and examined trends in Ghana’s foreign exchange market. It also provided a platform for an interaction among industry players in international trade.

Speaking at the forum, Ellen Ohene-Afoakwa, Corporate Banking Director at Barclays Bank Ghana, assured clients that as Barclays transitions to become Absa, the bank would continue to be a key player in assisting them in their trade facilitation.

“As a bank, we intend to continue playing our rightful role by providing superior financial services to facilitate trade between countries …” Ohene-Afoakwa said.

Other speakers at the event were Bohani Hlungwane, Absa Regional Head of Trade; Ivy Deh, a Senior Dealer at Barclays Bank Ghana; and Abena Serwaa Opoku Fosu, Corporate Affairs Manager at Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA).

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com

The post Barclays Intensifies Trade Finance Offering To Businesses appeared first on Chrife.com.gh.

The Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has said the opportunity to be corrupt is so high as a result of the lack of proper mechanisms to check the colluded activities of some individuals in the country.

Professor Stephen Adei, has, therefore, called for the empowerment of state authorities to question individuals about the sources of their wealth. According to the NDPC chairman, some people have taken advantage of this shortfall and have become rich overnight, without their sources of wealth known or interrogated.

In other developed countries, Prof. Adei said, such empowerment had served as an effective tool to ensure that people who held positions of trust did not abuse their office to embezzle funds for private gain. As a panel member on the second national dialogue, dubbed the “Public Accountability: Abuse of Office”, organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on Tuesday,  in Accra, Prof. Adei said the perception that corruption was high was actually a reality which ought to be wholly accepted as the first step in dealing with the issues of corruption in the country.

National dialogue

The dialogue was held to deliberate on ways to promote public accountability and deal with the abuse of office by public officers. It was also to subject a 2017 National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) survey on corruption in Ghana to intense scrutiny and find ways to adopt a collective approach in dealing with the canker going forward.

Panel discussion

At the dialogue, the panel of discussants analyzed the findings of the NCCE report in 2017 and corroborated that the views shared by the respondents in the survey were true. Other panelists at the dialogue were a private legal practitioner, Mrs. Clara Kasser-Tee, and the Auditor-General, Mr. Daniel Domelevo.

Leadership

Prof. Adei said it was crucial for leaders to accept that they were partly to blame as far as matters of corruption were concerned. He urged them to view their position as a position of service and not an avenue to loot and create wealth for themselves. He also advised the leaders to avoid acts of cronyism and nepotism since it was another negative trait that was negatively affecting development.

Enforcement

Mr. Domelevo, for his part, called for a review of the legal framework of the Constitution to ensure that relevant institutions, particularly the Ghana Police Service, were free from any political interferences. That way, he was optimistic that the relevant stakeholders would be firm in their resolve to adequately join in the fight to end corruption at all levels.

He also urged that stiffer sanctions be meted out to persons found to be meddling in colluded activity, adding that such a move would make corruption very unattractive.

Values system

Mrs. Kasser-Tee touched on the need for Ghanaians to be re-oriented on the negative effects of corruption.
In that regard, she urged the government to adequately empower the NCCE in order for it to perform its duties satisfactorily.

Fight against corruption

The chairperson of the NCCE, who defined abuse of power as the misuse of public trust for private gain, said the fight against corruption had become a major priority of her commission particularly considering the negative implications it held in the country. She expressed the concern that issues of corruption, particularly in areas such as cronyism, nepotism, and abuse of power at workplaces, were increasingly becoming an accepted norm in the country.

Touching on the effects, she said the shortfall was breeding mediocrity, creating poor corporate governance structure and stifling national development. She, therefore, called on the media, faith-based movements and other stakeholders to ignite public discourse and action on this issue to adequately tackle corruption at all levels. 

Source: graphic.com.gh

The post Corruption On The Rise appeared first on Chrife.com.gh.

Speaking at a two-day Ghana Digital Roadmap Conference organized in Accra recently by the Government of Ghana, she said: “Though Ghana has to improve in some areas, with the stability that we have and our geographical location, we are strategically positioned to become a digital hub”.

She said that in order for the country to become a digital hub there is the need for a bold; aspirational and ambitious national vision that looks beyond our limitations and challenges.

“We need a shared vision, backed by strong leadership, a blueprint with a robust plan to ensure outcomes are predictable and sustainable and not accidental successes that cannot be replicated.”

She added that the National vision must be felt by citizens at all levels. It must be a shared vision that is effectively communicated to all corners of society with every citizen having a feeling of inclusion in the national building agenda. She recalled the era of her childhood when Ghana changed to right-hand driving and there was a collective excitement and responsibility when all chanted “enyifa nyifa nan yin”.

Ms. Mintah commended government on the significant strides made and urged for the need to continue creating the enabling environment for businesses and budding entrepreneurs to thrive.

Touching on technology the IT consultant said: “technology is only an enabler and not a driver and therefore we need to understand what problems we need to solve, understand the processes, the people and policy environment first, to avoid just throwing expensive technology solutions at our problems” she also stated that it is imperative that we “Think Global and Know Local” to ensure we adopt and develop technologies that would yield maximum impact in our environment.

The two-day Ghana Digital Roadmap Conference organized under the auspices of the Office of the Vice President and the Minister of Communications was on the theme, “Moving Ghana beyond aid: Expanding the local digital economy” brought together industry players to contribute to the development of a digital roadmap for the country.

Also in attendance were speakers and contributors with experience in the development of technology roadmaps as well as panel discussions on the impact of Digital Roadmaps on the economies of countries.

West Blue Consulting a Ghanaian owned company is an industry leader in software development and Trade Facilitation.

Source: thepublisheronline.com

The post Ghana Well Positioned to Be A Digital Hub – Valentina Mintah appeared first on Chrife.com.gh.

According to IMANI, the NPP has made significant achievements in its first year.

After taking over a virtually collapsed economy from the then ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), IMANI observed that the NPP had impressively managed to stabilize the Ghanaian economy in its first year.

For instance, it said the Akufo-Addo administration has managed to reduce inflation from 15.4 percent as at year ending 2016 to 11.4 percent as at year ending 2017.

Also, it said the government has made significant progress in stabilizing exchange rates in the country, helping the cedi to perform better against the major international currencies like the US Dollar, British Pound Sterling and the Euro.

Under the previous Mahama administration, the Ghana Cedi experienced a free fall against those major currencies.

According to the report, the NPP has been successful in reducing the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio from 73 percent as at the end of 2016 to 68.3 percent in 2017.

“Government has achieved some reasonable progress in the fulfillment of its manifesto promises,” according to the IMANIFESTO 2018 report.

One of the lead researchers, Barbara Andoh, who presented the findings of the IMANIFESTO 2018 report, explained that “the general proof for the macroeconomic stability is that the country has received positive credit ratings from rating agencies like Fitch.”

The policy think tank also indicated that even though the ruling government has not started the actual implementation of its flagship industrialization programme, the ‘One District, One Factory’ programme, steps it (government) has taken so far with respect to implementing the policy are “commendable” and that there was a high level of transparency with respect to what government was doing so far in that direction.

Again, it said, the government has taken major steps to mainstream Information Communications Technology (ICT) to the national economy by introducing the digital property addressing system and the national identification project.

The digital property addressing system has been rolled out and the national identification project is yet to come on stream.

The NPP in 2016 had 146 campaign promises for the Ghanaian voters, many of which it has been able to fulfill since January 7, 2017.

 The Report

This year’s analysis of the report was purely qualitative unlike in previous years and has highlights and comments on what has been achieved so far under the Akufo-Addo-led NPP administration.

The analysis was reportedly carried out along eight broad themes namely Economy, Job Creation, Agriculture, Governance, Education, Health, Energy and Infrastructure, with its data sources being the 2016 Manifesto of the NPP, 2017 and 2018 Budget Statements of the Government, the 2017 to 2024 Coordinated Programmes for Economic and Social Development, among others.

The report identifies major gaps, challenges and offers some suggestions on how the government should implement some of its promises.

According to IMANI, the NPP has delivered on its promises in the educational sector, notable among them are the roll out of the Free Senior High School (SHS) initiative and the restoration of teacher trainees’ allowances.

It, however, pointed out that there has been some challenges in fully implementing the Free SHS policy, for instance, and that the implementation of the policy has not really addressed the issue of equity in the educational system in Ghana, saying the issue of equality has, however, been adequately looked at.

IMANI Africa raised concerns about the sustainability of the funding source for the Free SHS programme, saying that it would have been much better if government had chosen tax revenues to fund the project instead of oil revenues, which are not reliable.

 Agriculture

On agriculture, IMANI again was impressed with government’s performance so far, saying the NPP has been able to increase agric’s GDP contribution from 3.9 percent in 2016 to 7 percent in 2017.

The growth, according to the think tank, was partly due to the roll out of innovative ideas such as the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme which in 2017 had 201,000 registered farmers nationwide.

On energy, IMANI commended government for restructuring the legacy energy debt and reducing it by half (GH¢ 5 billion).

 Failures

IMANI, however, scored the government low in getting the right balance between tax cuts and revenue mobilization.

It said the government missed its revenue target of GH¢44.9 billion in 2017 due to its failure to get a right balance between its major tax cuts and revenue mobilization.

Touching on national security, IMANI Africa said, there has been a general atmosphere of lawlessness in the country.

The police service is not befitting for the country that we have, President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe said, appealing to government to rise up and shape the image of the police service.

IMANI appealed to the government to expedite action in implementing policies to fulfill other promises.

Anyidoho Praises

Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, praised the IMANI’s report.

But he advised that the next edition of the report should be situated in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), saying situating the report in the context of the SDGs will help stakeholders better appreciate the gains being made.

He, however, chided President Akufo-Addo for “talking too much without doing anything on the lawlessness in Ghana.”

The post NPP’s Performance So Far So Good – Says IMANI appeared first on Chrife.com.gh.