Nigerians are rejoicing over the invention of a gas cooker which does not use kerosene or gas by a 67-year-old man at a time when the price of gas has increased significantly. The man who goes by the name Hadi Usman demonstrated in a video how the product works. He appealed to the government to support in terms of patent and finance to produce more and help the masses. “I wish relevant institutions and bodies can support towards patenting the project for mass production to at least help the without buying kerosene or gas to cook their food by using water.” He said. In the video which was shared by PRNigeria News (you can watch below), the old man is seen practically pumping air into a water container which then transfers a content to the stove to generate fire. According to him, his invention relies solely on air pressure and water instead of kerosene and gas. His invention is being tagged as the “people’s invention” as it will relieve many people, especially the less privileged financially amid rising worry in the increasing price of cooking gas in the country. The talented man is based in Jekadafari in Gombe State – Nigeria. Reports say he has in the past demonstrated his scientific knowledge as he assembled a radio transmitter and also operated a community radio station. At an older age, Usman who is calling for state support aims to establish a full organization to train more youth and also patent and produce more. Watch the video below: Source: Africanhistory.com

The 2020 Presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has told UK’s Commonwealth Parliamentarians that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has abandoned projects his administration started but could not complete. The former President made this report to the UK Parliamentarians on Friday, January 28, 2022, when he hosted them in Accra. Lamenting the neglect of projects, Mr. Mahama said it is shameful on the part of the current Ghana government led by H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as president. “We didn’t see it as brazenly in other governments. It is something that is with this particular [Akufo-Addo/Bawumia] government,” the ex-president reported. The Members of the CPA UK are in Accra for a Trade and Security Workshop for the UK and African parliamentarians to explore how both parliaments can address trade and security issues in the context of unexpected external events like COVID-19. The delegation is led by the Cardiff South and Penarth Member of Parliament, Stephen Doughty. Mr. Doughty who represents the Labour Party with the delegation discussed with former President John Dramani Mahama issues of sub-regional security, effects of COVID-19 on the economy, as well as affirmative action and the role of women in the growth of the economy. There were also discussions on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the worrying issue of abandoning projects started by previous governments in the country. Story by: Eric Nana Yaw Kwafo

The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. George Mireku Duker, has charged the staff and management of the Minerals Development Fund (MDF) to make their impact felt in Ghana, especially in the various mining communities across the country. He said it is important Ghanaians benefit from the inflow of revenue from the Minerals Development Fund expecially what is detailed to the fund from the Minerals Income Investment Fund. He stressed that it is very important they decentralise the inflows of the revenue for mining communities to be developed, especially those in Tarkwa as the town hosts about 60% of Ghana's Gold threshold. "With all these Gold, our people would want to see tangible projects that in the future we can say we got them out of the Gold proceeds. And if the indigenes of our country expecially those from the mining communities are going to be proud of something that we can show, much will depend on MDF" The Deputy Minister said this when he paid a working visit to the Minerals Development Fund office on Friday, 28th January, 2022, to on behalf of the Sector Minister, Hon. Samuel A. Jinapor, familiarise himself with staff and management and also to ascertain their level of operations in the new year. He said the onus behoves of them to ensure the implementation of various projects in mining communities in the districts as the MDF was established purposely to develop these Mining communities. " it is your duty to supervise tangible projects for Ghanaians to witness and for Ghanaians to benefit" Hon. Duker also used the platform to admonish the various local committees to be mindful of the revenues they receive and use them judiciously, cautioning that they engage opinion leaders and indigenes of the communities to ensure that projects embarked on are relevant and of outmost need to the people. He highly commended the staff and management of the Minerals Development Fund for their work done so far commenting that he is impressed with the edifice and how their set up is well organised. Hon. Duker also called on other agencies under the mining sector to work together and equally contribute their quota to developing mining communities as they all derive their revenue from the Minerals Income Investment Fund. He advised that they must also find a way of tracking and monitoring wether or not the monies given are used for the intended purposes and also track the projects embarked on in the various districts. The Deputy Minister's visit is the first of many that he will be embarking on to the various agencies under the mining sector of the Ministry. The Administrator for the Minerals Development Fund (MDF) Dr. Norris Hammah who welcomed the Hon.  Deputy Minister, applauded him for his enormous contribution in the completion of their work space. He gave a detailed presentation on their mandate and work plan for the year (2022) while assuring him that all the policy directives given will be followed through to the latter. In his presentation he made mention of some projects that the Fund has undertaken in various districts, which he said includes the Construction of community Centre at Tamso- Tarkwa, a 3 unit classroom block with office and ICT Centre at Ellembelle Chip Compound in Wassa, a 12 Seater water closet toilets at Wamase Akrofuom. The administrator also disclosed that the MDF has provided direct funding for the construction of ten (10) Infrastructure projects on the campuses of the University of Ghana, Legon and University of Mines and Technology (UMaT). Below are some pictures: Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. Samuel A. Jinapor, MP has underscored the importance of ecotourism to the economy of the country. He said the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has identified the potential of ecotourism to contribute significantly to the country’s revenue generation target. In line of this, Hon. Jinapor says certain measures are being implemented by the government to ensure that the huge potential of the sector is exploited to the benefit of the country. “Ecotourism provides an effective economic incentive for conservation and protecting the ecosystem and biodiversity, as it generates income that contributes to the growth of the national economy. Indeed, in recent years, it has become a major boost to the economies of countries like Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Rwanda, and Zambia, the Minister said. Citing examples from other countries, the Minister said ecotourism contributed about four point two billion United States dollars (US$4.2 billion) to the Kenyan economy in 2020. In Ghana, he said, although we have not fully developed our ecotourism sector, it contributes about one point two billion United States dollars (US$1.2 billion), representing some five-point five percent (5.5%) of our GDP in 2020. The Minister noted that this is a sign that with the right investments and policies, we have the potential to develop this sector to contribute significantly to the economy. Hon. Jinapor was speaking at the launch of the ecotourism handbook, held at the Shai Hills Resource Reserve, on Friday, 28th January 2022. He underscored Government’s commitment to conserve the ecosystem of the country. He cited the Wildlife Resource Management Bill as one of many moves made by the government to safeguard the ecosystem. He said the bill when passed will give the Forestry Commission more authority and legitimacy to protect and manage the Wildlife resources of the country. “Government, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, is, therefore, committed to the conservation and preservation of our natural ecosystem, and developing it to contribute to the growth and development of the economy. We have, thus, laid before Parliament a Wildlife Resources Management Bill to provide a new legal framework for the management of our wildlife resources. “When passed, which I am confident will be done in this First Meeting of the current Session of Parliament, it will provide the Forestry Commission with a lot more authority to be able to manage effectively our national Parks and Resource Reserves. It will also promote private sector participation and community engagements in wildlife management, and improve law enforcement in our protected areas,” he said. The Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Mr. John Allotey emphasized on the potential of ecotourism to help solve the country’s unemployment challenges and generate significant revenue for the state. He stated that the current drive being pursued by his outfit under the guidance of the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources is to develop and promote ecotourism in the country. Mr. John Allotey indicated that the new direction embarked on by the commission has seen them take special interest in the growth and nursing of special plants and animals. Mr. Bernard Asamoah Boateng, the Executive Director of the Wildlife Division gave details about the book which he says will serve as the ‘gospel’ for ecotourism in the country. He was confident that the book will serve as a pull for investors to the sector. He further listed some of the interventions made by the division to promote ecotourism in the country. The event was graced by the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in charge of Forestry, Hon. Benito Owusu-Bio, the District Chief Executive of the area, Hon. Fred Offei Twum, representatives of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Ghana Tourism Development Company, Tour operators Union of Ghana and traditional rulers in the Shai-Osudoku area. Below are some pictures: Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith

When it comes to drinking water, many of us agree that it has enormous benefits to the body. With the body consisting of 60 percent water, regular consumption of water is advised to keep the body hydrated. Doctors recommend that you drink eight (237-mL) glasses of water per day to reap the benefits of body hydration. However, some people tend to take more water at a go than required for various reasons This practice, a Nutritional Specialist based in Germany, Dr Stefan Kabisch has cautioned against. According to him, drinking excessive water, particularly, at a sitting can be life-threatening to the individual. He explained that the liver has a limited storage capacity for acute addition of fluid in the body. Therefore, “Anything in excess of a half to 3 quarters of liter is inadvisable because it leads to unhealthy dilution of the blood. In severe cases, it may well be life-threatening.” He subsequently advised that people should only take the quantity of water their “body-thirst” is calling for. Many self-acclaimed beauty expects on the internet have touted that drinking more water keeps your body young and wrinkle-free. However, Dr Kabisch has disputed the claim. “Like any other organ, our skin also needs plenty of water, so you need to listen to your thirst and ensure that you are drinking enough. But drinking more water than our body tells us, doesn’t reduce wrinkles or anything,” he clarified. Credit: Myjoyonline.com

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has asked Ghanaians to “convince” their Members of Parliament (MPs) to pass the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy) Bill and hold him accountable for all revenues and expenses. The Minister reiterated that the time had come for the citizenry to “burden share” in the development of the country with the government by paying that tax. He said the e-levy would help increase revenue as the country moved into an e-commerce economy, and invest such revenues into debt sustainability, infrastructure development and youth entrepreneurship. Mr Ofori-Atta said this at the closing ceremony of the 73rd University of Ghana Annual New Year School and Conference in Accra on Wednesday. “What I was really expecting was for Parliament to say, we’re going to get 6.9 billion from this new tax revenue measure. So how then do you [Finance Minister] report to me [Parliament] on a quarterly basis on the uses of the fund and its application so that we move on,” he said. Mr Ofori-Atta’s call on the citizenry to ask their MPs to pass the e-levy comes at a time that the government has started town hall meetings to explain and get feedback on the Bill. Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader, has asked the Finance Committee of Parliament to also engage in consultations beyond what the government was doing, following a petition to Parliament by the Mobile Money Agents Association over the same issue. Touching on the concerns by some people that the 1.75 percent was high, Mr Ofori-Atta, explained that the government had engaged telecommunication operators to accept a 0.25 percent absorption to cushion Ghanaians. “…You go to the issue of 1.75 percent e-levy and people will say that’s too high even though we exempted transfers of less than a 100 cedis. The arguments were coming ‘fast and furious’ and we had to listen and reassess that in terms of the impact of the 1.75 percent. We were able to come down by 0.25 percent [by the telcos], which means that the impact will go down for the average Ghanaian,” he said. He added that: “We will still be able to retain revenues needed for these three critical areas of debt sustainability, infrastructure build-up and ensuring that our YouStart programme becomes a standard in our socio-economic development.” At the end of the Annual New Year School, it was recommended that the government introduced innovative ways of mobilising domestic revenue and cut down on “unnecessary expenditure and wastage in the public sector.” Credit: Myjoyonline.com

Well, “broke” is not a policy word, so it is hard to join the raging debate about the brokenness or otherwise of Ghana if one is more biased towards policy activism. I will say this though, when Multimedia, a major Ghanaian media outlet, invited me to deliver a ten-minute “statement” on an important national issue on the first edition of their primetime show, Newsfile, today, I knew I had to talk about Ghana’s finances. Whereas “brokenness” is not rigorous enough a term for gauging the finances of a country, “creditworthiness” is. Like most businesses, most countries require debt to function. Globally, we have seen a surge of public debt for this very reason. Globalisation means that, more and more, governments borrow from investors and savers all over the world, not just in their own countries. 17 African countries (out of 55) are today able to borrow from private investors around the globe (not just from other governments and institutions like the World Bank and IMF). How these investors view the creditworthiness of the borrowing country/government offers one of the most objective metrics in gauging the finances of any country. Such investor sentiment can be discerned from how much they are willing to charge in interest before they lend to a government. For a while now it has become clear that compared to its African peers, international investors prefer to lend to Ghana at a higher rate, clearly a sign that they are more worried about Ghana’s “credit risk”. Note that this growing tendency among investors to price in higher risk for Ghanaian debt has been apparent well before COVID-19 struck. But in recent months things have come to a head and Ghana is now grouped globally with countries like Lebanon and war-troubled Ethiopia in terms of debt riskiness. What accounts for this? Well, since the country became the first on the continent to borrow from the Eurobond market in 2007 (on the back of its first sovereign credit rating in 2003, 3 years after continental pioneer, Senegal), it has been more enthusiastic than most in frequenting the market for more. A combined oil and gold boom from 2010 onwards underwrote this appetite and increased awareness of the Ghana sovereign lending opportunity globally. Before long, all the gains from the HIPC debt relief it secured in the early 2000s had been whittled away. At the end of Ghana’s HIPC program, it owed just 1.18 times more than the revenue the government collects. Today, it owes nearly 5.4 times more. Towards the completion point of the HIPC program in 2004, the country’s absolute spending on its debt had dropped to barely a little over $100 million. Today, the government requires a whopping $6 billion for the same purpose. The reason is simple. Take 2021, for instance. The government needed to find $18 billion to make good on all its obligations. It could only raise $12 billion from investment, taxation and operations. An important nuance: these are “net” flows. To fully appreciate the hand-to-mouth nature of the situation, consider that in the same year it actually borrowed $5.2 billion from overseas sources, but promptly used $2.55 billion in paying back some of what it owed from previous rounds of borrowing. In terms of the burden of debt on national finances, Ghana bears twice that of the average African country. The announcement yesterday by Fitch, one of three major global companies that assess the creditworthiness of countries, that it will downgrade Ghana’s sovereign credit rating to B-, with a negative outlook (meaning that it is more likely to downgrade further than to upgrade) should therefore not have come as a surprise. But it is very significant for a number of reasons. First, it can be argued that Fitch has been a bit more lenient with Ghana than some of its peer rating agencies historically. Given investor sentiment on Ghana’s credit risk, its ratings could actually have been worse than it has recently been. Fitch’s negative outlook is particularly concerning because the B- rating places the country at the border with countries on the verge of defaulting on their debt. Any further downgrade will therefore seriously prolong the country’s shutout from the international private capital markets. To reinforce the point, this is Fitch’s worst rating since it began covering the Ghanaian economy nearly 20 years ago. The country now has the dubious honour of joining Tunisia and El Salvador as B- peers with a negative outlook. Ghana has already been in doldrums territory as far as Moody’s and S&P are concerned, so a negative outlook is expected across the board. That seems pretty bad, so how does the government explain things? The general posture of the country’s economic managers has been to blame COVID for the short-term issues (though, as shown in previous sections, the malaise clearly predates COVID), and low tax compliance by the population for all the other, more chronic, problems. The chart below summarises the government’s favourite point. In sum, in the government’s view, Ghanaians pay too little tax compared to their compatriots elsewhere, even in other African countries. True? Maybe. But there are important nuances to note before one starts comparing apples and oranges. Take a very good like at the countries clustered around Ghana in the chart above, i.e. Ghana’s peer tax laggards. You will notice something curious that is also borne out by the two charts below. Even a cursory glance will tell you that high natural resource dependency and a strong extractives/commodity sector correlates roughly to lower tax-to-GDP ratios. This is intuitive. Even without the usual rigour of multivariate regression analysis, one can hint at the tendency of extractives to inflate output numbers without necessarily boosting state revenues. That this claim is not some fluke of overzealous correlationism is supported by similar findings beyond Africa. Commodity supermajor, Australia, has a tax to GDP ratio of about 24% whilst less commodity-dependent France reports a hefty 45%. An even better contrast can be got when one compares two economies similar in many respects except in relation to the scale of their commodity involvement. Norway hovers around 25% for our metric of interest, whilst Denmark has been known to breach the 48% mark. It is very unlikely that such large differences between Australia and France, Denmark and Norway, or Brazil and Uruguay, can be put down merely to tax collection efficiency or citizen compliance. Nor, clearly, is this strictly a matter of absolute diversification of the economy. In light of the above, it is reasonable to argue that compared with its true peers on the African continent, Ghana’s tax take (which by the way has now converged with the Sub-Saharan average of about 15%) is pretty unremarkable. Exceptionally low tax revenue for the size of the economy cannot be the reason why the country’s creditworthiness is taking such a hit. Misdiagnosing the problem however leads to half-baked ideas such as the e-levy, which we have discussed at length here and here. I will sum up our previous conclusions as follows: The Government’s estimate of making $1.15 billion from the e-levy is overly rosy. Countries like Kenya have been using similar taxes for more than 10 years. Uganda went the same route more than 3 years ago. None of them have been able to rake in fantastical sums. MTN, responsible for 92% thereabouts of transactions in the Ghanaian mobile money space makes about $216 million from unit fees. Adjusting for the facts that Uganda has a fifth of Ghana’s mobile money transactional scale and that it applies less than one-third of Ghana’s proposed rate, Uganda’s $27 million per annum take may translate to about $350 million in Ghana’s case. Far from making a dent in a $6.5 billion fiscal hole. In sum, e-levy is not a major part of the answer. The current design of the e-levy lacks any backing in serious modelling. Its elements are purely arbitrary. If that remains the case, the tax could seriously distort behaviour and drive the emerging digital economy and its players more into the informal rather than the formal bracket. This will undermine larger digital taxation strategies currently being designed by the Ghana Revenue Authority with the help of the British Government. As more business shifts to currently informal digital channels like Instagram, WhatsApp and TikTok, careful thinking is required to figure out how to craft policies for e-commerce that don’t end up burdening the few formal operators. Presently, digital money is mostly used to drive off-line transactions. To truly deepen the country’s digitisation drive, smarter strategies are needed to boost in-app purchases and online transactions. A cleverer digital taxation strategy can achieve that. A blunt instrument will only deepen the cash-like use of digital money, thus forgoing the true benefits of digitisation. Moreover, overconcentrating on tax compliance and collection can distract from other important features, especially when misdiagnosis leads to drawing the wrong lessons from other jurisdictions. For example, one major compositional difference between the rich world and places like Ghana, as far as tax structure goes, is the former’s strong reliance on social security taxes, which reflect demographic and industrial factors that don’t apply in Africa. Another design blind spot created by excessive focus on collection alone is the tendency not to look at categories of taxation that already constitute major sources of revenue, like VAT. Yet, research shows that Ghana’s VAT structure is rather inefficient. Add to the above the issue of “exemptions” that has never really benefitted from broader stakeholder consultation and the scale of neglect becomes even clearer. Indeed, poor stakeholder engagement accounts for the inability of the government to take on public spending, by far the most critical gap to be filled if Ghana is to climb out of its current revenue crisis. Because the government never genuinely invites stakeholders to contribute to policy formulation and merely pretends to listen and then goes ahead to do what it always intended to do anyway, cross-elite buy-in tends to be weak. When painful sacrifices are required, it suddenly becomes obvious to everyone that the government simply does not have the necessary credibility to rally the population. Furthermore, the government and bureaucratic classes are themselves not genuinely interested in tackling waste in public spending head on. Genuine cooption of independent-minded stakeholders in the academic, civil society and opposition benches in Parliament would lead to hard questions the government has no appetite for. For example, Civil Society Organisations would insist on truly independent evaluation of a whole raft of government programs that have become mere troughs of patronage for the politically connected. They will ask for a thorough, rigorous, non-partisan review of the more than 40 so-called youth employment programs in Ghana, and demand evidence that they are indeed adding value. The last time a government slipped and allowed such an independent review, it was discovered that as much as $317 million may have been wasted in one program – GYEEDA – alone. Whilst the government spends tens of millions of dollars on so called entrepreneurship and employment schemes that it refuses to subject to a truly multistakeholder review, the one area that serious research has established could make a genuine dent in youth unemployment – technical & vocational education (TVET) – continues to suffer neglect. For decades, TVET has received less than 2% of the total education budget. Whilst the government was busy pouring millions of dollars into evident scams like the so-called “venture capital trust fund” (where officers invented fictitious companies and used them to pocket the cash), purportedly to resource entrepreneurship as a solution to unemployment, it was also sashaying around Accra, cap in hand, begging the likes of DANIDA for $14 million to invest in youth technical skills. Clearly, the issue is not that Ghana is broke but that it is broken. To mend its broken policymaking and restore the country to creditworthiness, the government and its enabling political class must admit the brokenness of the current public finance model and solicit genuine multistakeholder support to cut another path. Source: Bright Simons

Sexual abuse of children and minors is incredibly common. According to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), 1 in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys under the age of 18 have experienced sexual abuse from an adult. Girls are far more likely to be victims of sexual abuse; the organization reports that 82% of all victims under 18 are female, and those who do suffer from assault and abuse are more likely to also develop mental health issues like depression, PTSD, and drug abuse. I come from India. The country with the rape capital of Delhi, where we three sisters were raised. The place where the powerful gender — men — decide what women must do, when they must do it, how they must do it, and what they should wear. We were born to Christian parents in a Hindu-dominant country, to a dysfunctional set of parents. Not only did they not get along with each other, but they also dared to display their illegitimate relationships openly. My father’s mother was half-Scottish and half-Indian. She played the piano loud and clear so that the adjoining neighbors heard its sound. She banged those keys to drown the cacophony created by the Satsangs and Jagrans — Hindu prayers and songs on loudspeaker by day and night — that went on in the temple nearby. Her three granddaughters with perfect pitch were a source of pride and she grandly displayed their talents forcefully to every person who visited. She was also the loudspeaker for other music — she announced the goings-on between my incompatible parents to the whole world. My father was too lazy to provide for the family. He was spoiled rotten by his mother as the only son born after a period of twelve years. Money had to come from somewhere, so my father rented out rooms that were adjoined to ours, and could not be cordoned off, to male paying guests. This meant men had to freely cross private areas like our rooms in the night to get to the bathroom. My grandfather was in the army and blessed with an army of servants to take care of our every need. He was away for days on end when my grandmother had to resort to other options to satisfy her sexual needs. Our huge bungalow was famous for the sophisticated waltz ballroom parties she proudly hosted. They continued while her husband helplessly lay in bed after he had lost one leg in the war, and after he was no more. My father was nine years older than my mother. He would gallivant in the dark of the night with fellow friends, who found his wife attractive. He did not attempt to stop them from misbehaving. In fact, he considered it an honor when someone he wanted to please danced with his wife. So did my grandmother. Her wonderful parties carried on until the dawn. The next morning, I would find unmatchable partners on every piece of furniture one could lie on. My white sophisticated grandmother had also Indianised herself and was not content with the fact of having three girls, two of whom were not fair like her. Society at large had the same attitude. No matter who my mother introduced us, girls, to, the other side would sadly exclaim, “Only three girls! No son?” “Yes, just three girls, and I am proud of them”, my mother would reply. I was my father’s son. He took me fishing and shooting with him with friends who took advantage of me. He called people randomly to spend the night outside my room. I was expected to cover up and sleep, making sure nothing showed when I twisted and turned in bed. I was more mature for my age and a voracious reader of works like Mills and Boon, Danielle Steele, and Jeffery Archer. Had I not read these books, I would have not known that married partners are actually supposed to be romantic only to each other. I went to a girls convent school and all my friends had smaller houses with loving parents who slept together in the night and woke up to send their children to school in the morning. My parents were hardly home. Even when they were at home at night, they did not sleep in the same room. Dejected, she busied herself running a cab business at the airport with another business partner. The cabs ran night and day and opened our girl-filled house to male drivers who went in and out those doors at odd times. The business partner had to stay the night several times due to the odd shift timings. He was ten years younger than my mom, and perhaps just who she needed for herself and her three daughters at the time. One day he caught the vegetable seller trying to hump my six-year-old middle sister. He beat him black and blue and threatened him to never come back. My father would never have done such a thing. The cook picked me up every day from the bus stop after school. He bought me goodies with a promise to let me be fingered through my panties. I knew this was wrong, but did not know who to tell. Having grown up in a house filled with men who casually touched me in my sleep or my waking hours like I was a corpse who did not feel anything, I became cold and lifeless. When I was 12, I got infatuated with one of those paying guests, double my age. I looked forward to seeing him when I came back from school. My mother realized the twinkle in my eye and thought he was abusing me secretly. No, he did not lay a finger. But if he wanted to, he could have gone all the way. On the other hand, my five-year-old youngest sister was being abused by another 32-year-old man who lived on the same premises. Today he is married with two daughters. How he could ever live with himself after what he did, I did not understand. If there is a God, how could he have let him thrive all this while? But there is a God. We were never raped. We never had to be victims of unwanted pregnancies. We did not start drinking and doing drugs like the many paying guests who stayed at our place. We did not watch porn when the drivers forced the three of us at different times to see the action, while they desperately and shamelessly masturbated in front of us. We weren’t lucky enough to live in a protective cocoon until we stepped out into the unsafe world. Our childhood home was a living hell that helped us appreciate the place we were destined to call home in the second chapter of our lives. The hatred that we as women experienced in India helped us understand that a woman, especially when single, couldn’t survive in this country. My mother is now married after an abusive marriage of 30 years. She lives happily in Germany with her new partner. My grandmother’s extempore piano performances which involved the three of us came to our rescue. She inculcated in us a talent for music and singing that helped us drown our sorrows, win accolades in school that brought appreciation we otherwise lacked, and maintained our confidence despite our abnormal living conditions. My two sisters, my strongest support system, are the greatest gifts my parents produced as a pair. We are all married, each blessed with a pair of boys and girls under ten now happily settled in the USA. We make sure that our children are before us at all times and work to preserve their innocence for as long as possible. None of us would like to raise our daughters in the rape capital and teach them that it was normal to be abused. In the beginning, it was hard to trust a man. It was hard to be felt loved as the sense of touch was associated with something disgusting. Perhaps, all of those episodes still come back to haunt us from time to time, but on the whole, we have survived, we feel more alive than ever, we are enough. Credit: Myjoyonline.com

A former Finance Minister, Mr. Seth Tekper has indicated that the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) is simply a move by the government to nicodemously increase Value Added Tax (VAT) in the country. This is contained in a press release issued by the Founder of PFM Tax Africa rubbishing claims that he is in support of the controversial E-Levy. According to Mr. Seth Tekper, the implementation of the E-Levy will lead to double taxation which makes no sense. “The Telcos pay VAT on taxable goods and services but the government abrogated the VAT on non-core financial services in 2017. Why impose another tax or levy on other finance sector savings, not just expenditures? As with the “blocking” of input VAT (on supplies to registered businesses) for NHIL and GETFund levy, there will be no credit/offset or refund for the e-levy,” part of the release issued by the former Minister for Finance reads. He stresses that while pushing to have the ‘killer’ levy approved by Parliament, the government should be bold to tell Ghanaians that E-Levy is simply its way of increasing VAT. “Is it time to overcome the “Kumipreko” blues, call the e-Levy a VAT increase and stop distorting our well established tax regime with numerous levies in addition to “capping”? "Most importantly, Ghana’s rationale tax regime has always had elaborate provisions to promote, not deliberately punish, savings and investments,” Seth Tekper concludes in his statement. Read the full statement below: My attention has been drawn to publications and news reports alleging my endorsement of the e-levy proposal in the 2022 budget statement. I wish to state that my position, including a presentation I made at PFM-Tax Africa event 2 day ago and reported by various national media, has been consistent on the issue. Ghana’s Tax Structure: In the four decades since the launch of the Economic Recovery Programme or Structural Adjustment Programme (ERP/SAP) in 1983, Ghana has NOT had a tax instrument that taxes savings and investments. Taxing savings and investment: In a recent tweet I quizzed: what difference does it make if Ghanaians kept their savings (which may have attracted taxes already) under their pillows, or in a bank or in a “e-wallet” (purse) on their phones? In the case of the pillow and bank, they do not pay a tax until the money withdrawn is (a) used to set up a business to turn a profit (income tax) or (b) buy consumer goods and services and pay, mainly, VAT, excise and tariff or customs duty. Why then tax the equivalent savings taken from the phone ‘wallet’ before one uses it to set up a business and make profit or buy goods to attract the VAT etc? E-levy: “most nuisance of nuisance taxes”: I have used this expression already to describe the e-levy because, by taxing “savings” in electronic wallets government is among others, Discriminating against savers using electronic ‘wallets’, instead of banks and pillows, to save. This offends the principle of fairness in taxation. Compelling customers to pay tax on the “wallet” transfers but the same tax does not apply to those using cheques and other conventional means; and Engaging in double or multiple taxation of savings that may have attracted the conventional taxes already (as noted below). Likely tax E-Levy on Loans in e-Wallets: The last point may go to such ridiculous extent as paying e-levy on business loans in a bank account, for which, the bank uses its “wallet” to make transfers to customers. A rather ‘nice’ way to promote investments and reduce the cost of doing business? Taxing fees and commissions: It is legitimate for owners of “savings” to (a) pay an “expenditure tax” on the commissions or fees that Banks and Telcos charge them for the “service rendered” in making the transfer; and “income tax” on the interest earned. The Banks and Telcos also pay “income tax” on the fees and commissions that form part of the profit they make. The dilemma facing the government is that, unless the taxes mentioned are exempt by law, it is already collecting these taxes described, discussed in detail below. Our Conventional Taxes: as noted, Ghana has had a tax regime that, in the main, consists of the following handles or instruments. Income Tax: corporate income tax (CIT) earned by incorporated entities as well as personal income tax (PIT) earned by employees on salaries or wages and profit earned by uninncorporated persons. Value Added Tax (VAT): this expenditure tax is paid on taxable (or non-exempt) supplies of goods and services, whether imported or produced locally. Import Duty or Tariffs: this expenditure tax is paid on only imported goods, hence it protects local industries (note another controversy surrounding “benchmark” values and the tussle between AGI and GUTA). Excise Duty: a punitive expenditure tax paid, in addition to VAT and tariffs, on what is considered by some as ‘harmful’ products such as alcohol and tobacco as well as on petroleum products and some luxury items. Levies: these are special purpose income. and expenditure taxes that mimic any one of the above categories and never on savings. Conclusion: The Telcos pay VAT on taxable goods and services but the government abrogated the VAT on non-core financial services in 2017. Why impose another tax or levy on other finance sector savings, not just expenditures? As with the “blocking” of input VAT (on supplies to registered businesses) for NHIL and GETFund levy, there will be no credit/offset or refund for the e-levy. Is it time to overcome the “kumipreko” blues, call the e-Levy a VAT increase and stop distorting our well established tax regime with numerous levies in addition to “capping”? Most importantly, Ghana’s rationale tax regime has always had elaborate provisions to PROMOTE, NOT DELIBERATELY PUNISH, savings and investments. Signed: E. Seth Terkper Story by: Eric Nana Yaw Kwafo

The Mobile Money Association of Ghana says it has been left out of the ongoing consultative engagements for the soon-to-be-rolled-out Electronic Transaction Levy. The group, which has already petitioned the Minority caucus in Parliament to push for the rejection of the tax policy say, implementing the measure without the inputs of its members will burden consumers and cripple its business operations. “If the customer is not there, we the agents are also not there, so for the fact that there are going to be extra charges, it means that our businesses will be impacted. What we are telling the government is that we all have to sit down on how best we can model a tax that will not put either of the beneficiaries at a disadvantage. This is our position because the E-levy will have a toll on us”, General Secretary of the Association, Evans Otumfuor, said on Eyewitness News. The agents argued that the passage of the bill will lead to over a million job losses since it will discourage the usage of their services. In line with consultations, the government has begun holding town mall meetings on the controversial levy. The first was the one held in Koforidua on Thursday. This is part of a series of engagements the government has planned with the aim of explaining the importance of the E-levy as well as taking feedback and inputs from relevant stakeholders on the levy. The government also says the feedback will inform it on the implementation of the levy. Evans Otumfuor further lamented the Finance Ministry’s failure to consult the agents ahead of the rollout of the policy. “As of now, the Ministry of Finance, which is the chief driver of this policy, has not seen the need to engage us as a major stakeholder. You can introduce a policy, but implementation is another thing because we are going to be implementers of this policy. So I just really don’t know how the government defines the scope of stakeholders whereby they are excluding the Mobile Money agents.” The Majority has maintained that the levy will help the government raise the needed revenue to meet the infrastructural demands of the country. It among others imposes a 1.75% charge on all electronic transactions above a GHC100 threshold. Story by: Nii Larte Lartey

The President of the Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot) Samuel Eto’o says Cameroon does not control COVID-19 testing at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon). Eto’o is saying this after claiming the host nation is manipulating testing in favor of the Indomitable Lions. Comoros had more than 10 of their players return positive COVID-19 results ahead of their round of 16 games against Cameroon on Monday, leaving them without a recognized goalkeeper with a defender keeping the posts as they lost 2-1. Burkina Faso also had more than four of their players test positive for the virus prior to the 2021 Afcon opening game against Cameroon. People have used these to accuse Cameroon of disadvantaging their opponents with COVID-19 testing ahead of meetings but Eto’o is not having any of that. He said: “I have never accepted cheating, the agency has chosen to do COVID-19 tests is 100% under Caf control, the Cameroonian government does not manage COVID tests, I humbly wish my country is respected.” Source: Footy-Ghana.com

Andre Ayew and his brother, Jordan, have not quit the Black Stars and will be available for future assignments, according to their spokesperson Fiifi Tackie. Rumors were circulating on social media earlier this week, suggesting that the brothers had quit the Ghana national team following the Black Stars’ disappointing campaign at AFCON 2021. However, in a social media post, Fiifi Tackie refuted those rumors, saying the brothers are very much committed to the team and will continue giving their best to the Black Stars. Black Stars captain, Andre Ayew and Jordan Ayew have made a combined 175 appearances for the Black Stars, scoring 41 goals between them. Below is a tweet Story by: Daniel Koranteng