Daily Heritage July 18

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Quake Edition 112.qxp_Layout 1 7/17/17 8:53 PM Page 7 17TH JULY 2017 MONDAY CURRENCY PARIS CODE BUYING SELLING US Dollar USDGHS 4.3593 4.3636 RATES Pound Sterling GBPGHS 5.6941 5.7010 Euro GBPGHS 5.0019 5.0049 10 DAILY HERITAGE TUESDAY, JULY <strong>18</strong>, 2017 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH BoG releases APR for June 2017 BY ROSEMOND BOATENG ADDAI Rosemond.adjetey@dailyheritage.com.gh THE BANK of Ghana (BoG) has released the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) for June showing varying interest rates banks charge on credit for various sectors of the economy. The release contains sectors, namely vehicle loans, mortgage, other consumer credit, agriculture, manufacturing, commerce and construction. When the DAILY HERITAGE zoomed in on the sectors, it took interest in vehicle loans due to the important role transportation plays in the growth of the economy. According to the APR list released by the BoG, uniBank recorded the highest interest rate of 39.8% on vehicle loans for the month of June 2017, which is above the industry rate of 33.1% on vehicle loans. The BoG stated that APR is the true interest rate banks and non-bank financial institutions charge the public on loans and advances, which reflects the true cost of borrowing and includes charges and commissions levied by banks, whereas the base rate reflects the minimum interest rate that can be charged on loans and advances. Omnibank recorded the second highest rate of 38.4% followed by Bank of Africa, 35.6%. The Royal Bank 35.5%, HFC Bank 34.4%, , Barclays Bank 34.2, Ecobank and •Bank of Ghana CAL Bank 34.1% each, Energy Bank 33.9%, Prudential Bank 33.6%, United Bank of Africa and UT Bank 33.1% each, in that order. GN Bank comes in with 32.1%, followed by ADB 31.8%, GCB Bank 30.7%, BSIC and Zenith Bank 29.6% each, and Stanbic Bank 26.3%. According to the release, 13 banks do not give vehicle loans. The industry average base rate as at June 30, 2017, according to the BoG release, is recorded as 26.3%, which shows a marginal drop of 0.3%, compared to 26.6% at the end of May 2017. The bank explained that at the end of January 2017, the industry average base rate was 27.6%, giving a year-on-year to date drop of 1.3% currently. The average deposit rate as at June 30 was 10.9 %, a marginal decrease of 0.3 %, compared to 11.2 % at the end of May 31. The bank pointed out that at the start of the year (end-January), the average deposit rate was 11.9 %, giving a year-to-date decrease of 1 %. The BoG added that the publication of these rates is to promote transparency in the pricing and provision of banking services and aims to promote accountability of its decision making and build understanding of the monetary policy formulation process among stakeholders. In all, the list covers 32 banks. MTN bags 10 awards at GIITA MTN Ghana, the leading telecommunications service provider in the country, received 10 prestigious awards at the 2017 Ghana Information Technology and Telecoms Awards (GIITA) held in Accra on Saturday. Organised by Instinct Wave, the GITTA was keenly contested by industry players in Ghana, and MTN distinguished itself in the following categories: Customer Experience Award, 4G LTE Provider of the Year, Mobile Money Service of the Year, Cloud Service Provider of the Year, CSR Company of the Year, Mobile Operator of the Year, IT Team of the Year and Customer Service Team of the Year. Additionally, MTN Ghana’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Ebenezer Twum Asante, was adjudged CEO of the Year while the Chief Technical Officer, Mr Mohammed Lawal Rufai, was adjudged Chief Technology Officer of the Year. The awards were in recognition of MTN’s outstanding leadership, organisational performance, solution-based products and services, customer focus, innovation and impactful CSR initiatives. Commenting on the awards, the MTN CEO said, “I believe this is the first time in Ghana one organization has won 10 awards at a •Officials of MTN Ghana receiving one of their awards at the event go and we are humbled by this clear affirmation of our focus on creating a distinct customer experience at every touch point. We are elated and extremely honoured to receive these awards. They confirm that MTN is charting the right path. We will continue to do more to make our customers’ lives a whole lot brighter while providing exceptional customer experience to all our customers.” Mr Asante dedicated the awards to MTN’s loyal customers, stakeholders and staff for their contributions towards making MTN the network of choice. According to him, the awards validate MTN’s focus on leadership by example. “For the fourth consecutive time, MTN won the Customer Service award, demonstrating that MTN is a customer-centric organization. For the second and third conservative time, MTN won ‘Telecom Operator of the Year’ and ‘Mobile Money Service of the Year’ respectively. We are happy with these awards; they throw the challenge to us to do more to bring the benefits of digitisation to Ghanaians and extend financial inclusion more deeply across Ghana,” he added. Mr Asante also attributed the 4G LTE Provider, Cloud Service Provider, and IT Team of the Year awards to the continuous investments MTN makes in order to sustain the provision of quality network services across the country. MTN Ghana has invested over US $3.47 billion in network and information technology infrastructure as of 2016. The company has also made significant social investments in 142 major projects that benefit over three million people in communities in which it operates. Demonstrating its commitment to leading the delivery of a bold new digital world to its customers, over 500 4G LTE sites have been rolled out across the country since acquiring its 800 MHz licence authorisation in 2016. As a result, MTN Ghana currently has the widest and most comprehensive 4G coverage in Ghana with both 4G services available in all major districts. The MTN mobile money service has grown to become a household name, with a subscriber base of over nine million and over 63,000 merchant points across the country. The Ghana Information Technology and Telecoms Awards programme was instituted to reward excellence in customer service and innovation. MTN Ghana pledged to continue to nurture talent and invest in staff in order to continually offer the best services to Ghanaians.
Quake Edition 112.qxp_Layout 1 7/17/17 8:53 PM Page 8 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH DAILY HERITAGE TUESDAY, JULY <strong>18</strong>, 2017 11 Politics Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it — Steve Jobs Recognise efforts of RICCS and DICCS—WAG Country Director THE COUNTRY Director of WaterAid Ghana, Mr Mohammed Abdul- Nashiru has expressed the urgent need to recognise the efforts and contributions of the Regional Interagency Coordinating Committees (RICCS) and the District Interagency Coordinating Committees (DICCS) in the country’s quest to improve access to basic sanitation, especially at the rural level. Mr Abdul-Nashiru praised the institutions for being at the forefront of turning open defecation practices to open defecation free situations at the local levels. Speaking during the opening of the Fifth National Basic Sanitation Forum in Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region, Mr Abdul-Nashiru said sub-structures such as the RICCS and DICCS were operating under very dire conditions in their efforts to transform lives, despite the constant bashing they received from partners when results were not forth coming. “These are sub-structures that face a lot of frustrations in trying to push transformation of lives and yet we still bash them when • Mohammed Abdul-Nashiru, WAG Country Director we do not see results; they are not doing a great job, if you go down there and see the sacrifices they make, the risk they take, a good number of us there will not want to dare, we should commend them,” Mr Abdul-Nashiru stressed. “We have heard of natural leaders and traditional authorities and again we take things for granted, go down there and see those of them who are functioning and really moving from house to house, speaking to individuals, creating awareness in institutions, clinics, schools, within communities, also doing so at a certain risk and to some extent we expect them to do it for free, which they are; we really need to recognise their efforts and see how best we can support them to deliver better,” the WaterAid Ghana Country Director emphasised. The WAG Country Director implored sector actors to move away from the business as usual mindset as stakeholders take stock of five years of implementing the Rural Sanitation Model and Strategy and raise some of the tough questions in order to find answers to them to enhance the process of accelerating rural sanitation across the country. He said, for instance, it was critical for questions to be asked about the number of communities an institution had entered and how many of them were converted from open defecation to open defecation free, adding that most of the time partners shy away from these realities because the conversion rates were very bad and yet funds had been expended. He also advised WASH sector actors to implement good ideas they had conceived and convinced were likely to achieve results and begin to learn lessons from its implementation, instead of waiting to get a total assurance of its workability before rolling them out. Mr Abdul-Nashiru explained that WaterAid had been working for the past 20 years in some of the most deprived communities in Ghana and indicated WAG’s resolve to continue to learn from other partners to improve upon their activities’ implementation since it did not have all the answers to the challenges in the WASH sector. The 2017 National Basic Sanitation Forum was under the theme: “Five years of Rural Sanitation Model and Strategy (RSMS) implementation in Ghana, Learning for Scaling Up, Now and Beyond.” RCN Ghana is a network of institutional partners seeking to promote Knowledge Management in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Sector in Ghana. The vision is a dynamic knowledge-driven WASH sector providing improved and sustainable pro-poor services. I don’t hate Akufo-Addo – Ken Agyepong BY KWAKU BAAH-ACHEAMFOUR OUTSPOKEN NEW Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for the Assin Central constituency in the Central Region, Mr Kennedy Ohene Agyepong has defended his constant criticisms of the Akufo-Addo led administration. According to him, the criticisms are not ill-intended but to make sure the President and the NPP deliver on its mandate to Ghanaians. The controversial politician added that a lot of things are not in the right place in the 6-monthold government, and only criticisms will cause all government appointees to be conscious of their actions. Ghanaians, he said, would not renew the mandate of the NPP government come 2020 if the party fails to address their needs. He added that the NPP must stop playing to the whims and caprices of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) as they are behind the challenges the government is facing including the BOST contaminated fuel saga. Mr Agyepong alleged that the Managing Director of the company is under attack because he kicked against selling the contaminated fuel to NDC functionaries at a cheaper price after opposition party members working at BOST had orchestrated the contamination. “The •Mr Kennedy Ohene Agyepong practice was that NDC intentionally caused the fuel they imported to be mixed with diesel by switching valves at the site and turn round to declare it contaminated thereby selling it to themselves at cheaper prices. “Between February 2015 and February 6, 2016, there were 49 transactions of contaminated fuel at BOST which NDC sold to themselves at cheap prices and because the new Managing Director stood his ground not to sell it to them at that ridiculous prices, the NDC guys set a trap for him and NPP is also falling for it blindly,” Mr Agyepong said at the party’s Central regional delegates conference at Assin Fosu. He also bemoaned the neglect of the people of the Central Region in terms of government appointments. According to him, none of the ambassadors recently appointed came from the Central Region which he said is not a good sign. Mr Agyepong called on the people of the region to rise up and fight for what is due them as they played a huge role in the victory of the NPP.
Page 2 and 3: 02 CONTENT DAILY HERITAGE TUESDAY,
Page 4 and 5: Quake Edition 112.qxp_Layout 1 7/17
Page 6 and 7: Quake Edition 112.qxp_Layout 1 7/17
Page 8: spread_112.qxp_SHOWBIZ TEMP 7/17/17
Page 13 and 14: 13 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH DAILY H
Page 15: DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH Sports DAILY H

Daily Heritage July 18

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?