According to a report by Bloomberg, the success chalked by Ghana is because of friendlier policies, lower-cost mines and new development projects. The report indicated that South Africa’s dwindling gold production is due to high costs, regular strikes and geological challenges of tapping the world’s deepest mines. It also stated that South African industry stalwarts AngloGold Ashanti Limited and Gold Fields Limited are also shifting their focus to other countries, including Ghana, where deposits are cheaper and easier to mine; adding that the largest remaining gold miner in South Africa, Sibanye Gold Limited, is cutting thousands of jobs and diversifying into platinum-group metals as it struggles to contain costs. <b>Golden Share</b><br />Citing figures from the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the Minerals Council of South Africa, the report said Ghana produced 4.8 million ounces of gold in 2018 as opposed to South Africa's 4.2 million ounces. According to Ghana’s Chamber of Mines, gold output jumped to 12 per cent, with small producers accounting for the largest share of the total. The report further noted that Ghana’s gold output will get a further boost when AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi operation, previously overrun by illegal miners, restarts later this year. Production from Obuasi is forecast at 350,000 to 450,000 ounces of gold annually during the first 10 years. credit: Bloomberg
The Ministry of Communications has organised a 4-day data upload challenge and a hackathon under the Ghana Open Data Initiative to make government data open and accessible to all for free. The ministry is developing an Open Data Portal as part of its implementation of the transform Project hence the competition. The event had about a hundred and thirty (130) participants from MDAs, civil societies, academia and application developers to interact with datasets uploaded on the revamped National Open Data Portal and create ideas on developing applications for citizens and sector stakeholders. Organised in collaboration with MobileWeb Ghana the event was held from April 2 to 5 at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (KACE). The ideas generated during the event helped teams create an application which helps citizens trade their waste for money, a dashboard that gives users a visual representation of agriculture, health and registered businesses in Ghana and also applications that give users the opportunity to make predictions amongst others. The Open Data Upload Challenge which was organised during the first two days of the event brought a group of software developers, data scientists and statisticians to interact with representatives of some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The software developers also assisted them to do a data assessment on the relevance of such data to development. It enabled MDAs upload relevant data onto the portal using the standard all institutions are required to adhere to while making their data freely accessible to all. Data was uploaded by the Energy Commission, Ghana Investment Promotion Commission, Ministry of Agriculture, Registrar General’s Department and the Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development. A total of 50 datasets and about 200 data resources were uploaded on the National Open Data Portal during the event. The data hackathon ran for the next two days of the event and brought people together to work on data-related projects for problem-solving from MDAs use-case, recognition and networking. The hackathon enabled the use of datasets uploaded on the Open data portal to develop citizen-centric applications for the stakeholders of MDAs. Awards were given to the best three (3) institutions for the Data Upload challenge while the winners of the Data hackathon received a total of GHC15,000 prize money and are currently undergoing a month acceleration program at Mobile Web Ghana to enable them fully develop their software solution. <i><b>About the Ghana Open Data Initiative</b></i> The Ghana Open Data Initiative was started in 2012 to ensure that government data will be open and easily accessible but became inactive from 2015. To revamp the initiative, the Ministry of Communications under the eTransform project redeveloped the open data portal, developed a national data sharing policy with an open data component. The Ministry also trained 154 government employees from 20 MDAs on open data management, publication, policy and change management. The redeveloped portal currently has 130 datasets with about 1000 data resources and can be found at <a target="_self" href="https://data.gov.g">https://data.gov.g</a> Source: Ghana| <a target="_self" href="http://Myjoyonline.com">Myjoyonline.com</a>
GE Healthcare has kicked-off a two-day ‘Healthcare Dialogues’ to drive conversations around innovative sustainable healthcare solutions to help progress Ghana’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The event brings together public and private sectors’ industry stakeholders including policymakers, healthcare professionals, decision makers, academia, investors and financing institutions as they seek solutions to the country’s healthcare issues. Under the theme of Elevating Healthcare through Collaborations, key topics to be discussed include Structuring Innovative Healthcare Financing Solutions; Ghana’s Vision for UHC; the Future of Radiology with Artificial Intelligence (AI); Healthcare Technology Innovations, among other topics. A key highlight of the event was the unveiling of GE Healthcare’s new budget-conscious ultrasound system, the Versana Essential. It has excellent image quality and can be used by obstetricians and gynaecologists, family and general practice physicians, and clinicians in a number of other specialities, making healthcare accessible to promote maternal healthcare in Ghana. It also comes with local product and clinical training backed with GE’s solid aftersales service to help healthcare professionals gain comfort and proficiency with the system to enhance patient care. “Promoting health for all is key in accelerating Ghana’s vision for Universal Health Coverage,” said Eyong Ebai, General Manager, GE Healthcare West Central Africa & French Sub-Sahara Africa. “Through collaborations, continuous investment in sustainable healthcare solutions and capacity building, GE Healthcare will continue driving access to quality and affordable healthcare in the region.” Ghana has been recognized for its commitment to address barriers to health care services and attainment of UHC by2030 by providing formal support to its vulnerable population through its National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). In 2018, NHIS had increased to about 11 million people from the 1.3 million memberships at inception in 2005, representing 38% of Ghana’s population. In addition, the healthcare system engages over 4,000 public and private providers and accounts for about 85% of its internally generated fund. “We are proud to host the GE Healthcare Dialogues in Ghana and provide a platform for the industry stakeholders to advance the country’s healthcare agenda,” said Sulemana Abubakar, CEO GE Ghana. “This is a testament of our role as a global leader with a local presence, to drive better outcomes for people in the markets in which we operate.” GE started its operations in Ghana in 2010 with only 5 employees and has grown to over 100 employees currently 90% Ghanaians, with two offices in Accra and Takoradi. Through strategic partnerships and localization commitments, GE is supporting co-creation of solutions to tackle key challenges in Healthcare, power and oil and gas to help improve life for the people of Ghana. GE Healthcare in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service is also training and equipping healthcare professionals at the primary healthcare level with over 500 portable ultrasound machines across 125 of Ghana’s 216 districts. As a result, 1.5 million expectant Ghanaian women are expected to benefit from the initiative by 2020. <b>Source:</b> Ghana | <a target="_self" href="http://Adomonline.com">Adomonline.com </a>
Deputy Education Minister in-charge of Basic and Secondary Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has disclosed government’s plan to commence creative arts oriented secondary schools in Ghana as a means to diversify the Ghana educational curriculum. According to Dr Adutwum, the siting of arts schools within Ghana’s second-cycle schools is one of the essential areas in building positive mindsets among the youth. Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme, Tuesday, Dr Adutwum described arts as the best form of expressing one’s self-confidence and ability and will help to develop more talents in Ghana. “Government is focused on developing education in Ghana to attain the world’s standard and as part of this; we are working on building eight science and creative arts-oriented schools in Ghana,” he stated. “There will be an inauguration of the committee in charge of the Creative Arts schools on Thursday [June 13] with MUSIGA [Musicians Union of Ghana] and the Creative Arts Ministry on board. These schools will be fully furnished and students will be auditioned to gain admission into these schools,” he added. Dr Adutwum added that this new initiative is to assist students in their acquisition of artistic and aesthetic experiences, knowledge, skills, all of which contribute to students’ total personal development. <b>Source</b>: Ghana | <a target="_self" href="http://Adomonline.com">Adomonline.com </a>
Inflation rate for May 2019 recorded a marginal reduction to 9.4 per cent down by 0.1 percentage point from the 9.5 per cent recorded in April 2019. Deputy Government Statistician, David Kombat has been explaining to the media in Accra that the rate recorded was highly influenced by the declining rate of food inflation in the measuring basket. "We have seen a slight decline in food prices especially vegetables as a result of the weather patterns. This usually happens when we're entering into the raining season and commodity prices begin to experience some dips but this is also accompanied by some reductions in certain components of the non-food items" he said. Upper West recorded the highest general inflation of 11.1 per cent whiles Ashanti the highest rate in food inflation. "The food and non-alcoholic beverage group recorded 7.3 per cent, a reduction of 1.1 per cent point lower than the rate recorded in April 2019," Mr Kombat said. The non-food group recorded a year on year inflation rate of 10.6 per cent in May 2019 compared to 10.4 per cent recorded for April 2019. Four subgroups recorded year on year inflation rates higher than the group's average rate of 10.6 per cent. Clothing and footwear, recreation and culture recorded the highest inflation rate of 15.0 per cent followed by furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance with 14.5 per cent and transport with 12.5 per cent. Inflation was, however, lowest in the communication sub-sector with 6.1 per cent. Source: Ghana | JoyBusiness
The aim of the NASIRA programme is to create 800,000 jobs and boost access to finance for people such as migrants, the youth and women who usually struggle to access funds. It targets portfolios consisting of loans to youth, females and migrant entrepreneurs (including refugees, returnees and internally displaced people) and the goal of these guarantees is to allow local banks to provide loans to groups they normally perceive as too risky. Speaking at a lecture on Africa-Europe Alliance, which was organised by the Council of Foreign Relations Ghana, the EU Commission Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, Mr Jyrki Katainen, said “this tool is for you. The local banks in Ghana will benefit from this guarantee and it will allow them to invest in some of the cutting-edge ideas that would otherwise be too risky for them to support.”<br /><br /> <b>Access to electricity<br /></b>He said the EU Commission was also looking at supporting the government’s efforts to boost access to electricity and ensuring affordability as one of the pillars of a rapid response action plan to improve the business environment. In this regard, he said the commission sought to support with its guarantees as it did with grants. “Our guarantee tools aimed at boosting access to renewable energy and its affordable prices in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana, will amount to €450 million. Through the guarantee tool with the European Investment Bank, French Development Agency (AFD) and German Development Bank (KfW), we plan to provide independent power producers with the necessary liquidity to cover their financing gaps in case their off-takers delay payments,” he explained. He said all those support through the guarantees were aimed at strengthening micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and private sector development, which are the anchor of Ghana’s economy. “We will promote gender equality, empowerment of women and young people. Through this alliance and its innovative approach in terms of investment, we want to give you the tools that you can turn into innovative solutions. It is for you to become ‘William Kamkwamba’- the Malawian boy who harnessed the wind and provided electricity to his village. That’s how you start shaping the future and we are here to support you,” he stated. <b><br />Africa-Europe Alliance </b><br /> He said both Africa and Europe were in exciting times, yet challenges such as precarious jobs, inequalities and climate change still remained. “We need to grasp the challenges and turn them into opportunities. The problem of lack of fixed telephone lines in Africa a few years back was turned into an opportunity, with mobile phone penetration in Africa reaching record high levels.” To adapt to a rapidly changing global context and emerging challenges, he said the EU recently launched an Africa-Europe Alliance for sustainable investment and jobs. He said the alliance would take the partnership to the next level, shift the paradigm and go beyond a traditional development aid based one.“We are putting the private sector right in the centre of this partnership as it holds the largest potential for generating jobs and sustainable growth. We need to unlock more responsible private investment in Africa and in Ghana,” he stated.