Parliament has passed the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, 2022, to provide for an annual adjustment of fees being charged by public institutions. The Bill forms part of revenue measures outlined in the 2022 budget and will give a legal backing to the request for a 15% upward adjustment of government fees and charges. When assented to by the President, the new Act will review existing fees and impose new ones in line with prevailing economic conditions in the country. It replaces the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2018 (Act 983), which gave the Finance Minister the authority...
Over 50 shops, houses demolished by unknown men at Sakaman
Over 50 shops and houses have been destroyed at Sakaman Blue Lagoon, a suburb of Dansoman in the Greater Accra Region. Residents say the land owners gave them an evacuation notice which ends in September, 2022. According to Adom News’ Kwame Anum, the victims have been left stranded. Many of them could not collect their belongings as they watched helplessly while the bulldozers broke into the structures. Property worth thousands of cedis are said to have been lost in the rubble. The affected residents say there were working towards the two-month deadline by which time they would have relocated. But...
Nollywood actor sentenced for child sexual assault
A Nigerian actor has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a minor between 2013 and 2014.The trial of Olanrewaju Omiyinka at a special offences court in Lagos lasted a year. The 49-year-old is popularly known as Baba Ijesha in Nollywood – as Nigeria’s film industry is called. The judge ruled that Omiyinka should be sentenced to 16 years in total for the four charges of which he was found guilty. However, as he is to serve the sentences at the same time, he will spend a maximum of five years in prison. Two counts of sexual assault were dropped because...
$1bn loan: You gave advise, we can take or reject it; we don’t take orders from you – Minority tells IMF
The Minority in Parliament has raised fundamental issues with the $1billion loan agreement that is currently before the House, an agreement which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) asked Parliament to approve. Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam lawmaker, Casiel Ato Forson said there are disparities with the currencies in the document that was presented by the government. At one point, he said, the document quotes the loan in dollars, in another instance, it states Euros in the same document. Parliament, he said, will have to correct this disparity. Mr Ato Forson further indicated that no decision has been taken to approve the loan yet despite the call...
Government expands health infrastructure in Ashanti Region
As part of the efforts to ensure healthy lives for all, the government has invested heavily in the health sector in the Ashanti Region. Currently, six health facilities are under construction, some of which have been completed, with the others at various stages of completion. They are the over 40-year-old Maternity Block of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), the Afari Military Hospital, the 250-bed Regional Hospital at Sewuah in the Bosomtwe District, the Bekwai Municipal Hospital, the Kumawu District Hospital and the Konongo District Hospital. This came to light during a recent tour of the facilities by the National...
We are not compiling new register for 2024 but… – Electoral Commission
The Electoral Commission (EC) has dismissed reports that it will compile a new register for the 2024 Elections. Maintaining that the register which was compiled for the 2020 Election was still credible, the Commission says it was instead putting in place measures to ensure the continuous registration of persons onto the register. The Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Serebour Quaicoe said the new registration process would rely on the Ghana card as a base document to register new persons. “We are not compiling a new voters’ register. The one we compiled in 2020 is a...
NPP Delegates Conference: Workers’ demand for better salaries will intensify if contestants display cash – Prof Gyampo
A political scientist, Professor Ransford Gyampo has stated that the current agitations on the labour front may intensify if the contestants display cash at the NPP’s upcoming National Delegates Conference. The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is set to organise its National Delegates Conference this weekend, to elect new national executives for the party. Over the years, such conferences by political parties in Ghana have been characterised by vote-buying; with aspirants splashing monies to win the sympathy of delegates. According to Professor Gyampo, if this happens at the NPP’s national executive elections on Saturday, it will cause stakeholders on the...
Oil & Gas Service providers call for enforcement of regular fuel storage tank cleaning rule
To ensure the quality of petroleum products sold at the pumps is not compromised, players in the oil and gas services sector are demanding the strict enforcement of standards and protocols across the value chain. The National Petroleum Authority was established by law to regulate the petroleum downstream industry in Ghana and Benjamin Armstrong, the Managing Director at Bidi Group Ghana, believes the Authority ought to ensure the compliance of businesses in space to the regular mandatory cleaning of their storage tanks for instance. Mr Armstrong stated that this would ensure residue accumulated in the tanks over the period...
Stakeholders call for increased transparency in how E-Levy funds are used
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr. Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey, has backed calls for transparency in the manner in which funds accrued from the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) are used. One of the sources the government was hoping would help it raise much-needed revenue is the E-Levy, but information from government’s quarters indicates that it is underperforming woefully. A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko recently noted that the tax measure since its implementation has generated only 10% of estimated revenue, causing some to call for it to be scrapped. Others...
Bibiani-Anhwiaso Bekwai DCE, driver die after crash on Accra-Kumasi highway
Police in the Eastern Region have commenced investigations into the cause of an accident which claimed the life of the District Chief Executive for Bibiani-Anhwiaso Bekwai, Alfred Amoah and his driver. The fatal accident involving three vehicles, a fuel tanker with registration number GN- 8549-X, a trailer, AS- 4229- X and the DCE’s official vehicle, a Nissan Patrol with registration number GN-2060-18, occurred at Akim Fisher on the N6 highway at about 6:30 pm on Tuesday night. Personnel from the Ghana Police, National Fire Service and the Ambulance service who rushed to the scene managed to convey some injured victims...