The orphanages, which Citi FM has been supporting for 13 years, include the Baptist School Complex (BASCO) an orphanage at Trotor, near Suhum in the Eastern Region, the Handivangelism Orphanage at Haatso in Accra, and Mama Laadi Orphanage at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

Over the years, Citi FM has supported Orphanages with cash donations, stationery, food items and more, mostly collected from the station’s listeners and clients.

This year, Citi FMs support to Mama Laadi will be solely in cash.

In 2013, the station through the support of its listeners and corporate Ghana, built a vocational training center for BASCO, and the centre is intended to cater for training in carpentry, plumbing, electrical work, hairdressing, and masonry.

The Easter Orphan Project is a part of the Citi FM’s Corporate Social Responsibility activities.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Click on audio to listen to Taka Awori 

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He also called on Ghanaians to remain resolute and continue to seek God as they enter the new year.

According to him, 2018 is a year full of hope, and that all believers must maintain their relationship with their creator and seek his guidance in every situation.

Pastor Obeng spoke to Citi News after he delivered a sermon at a packed auditorium during the Church’s 31st Watch night service in Kumasi.

“God says I should tell Ghanaians that the same way they have sought his face and he answered their prayer, and they have been patient with him, they should continue to be patient. The same Lord knows their cry and as they continue to seek him, he will meet all their needs”, he stressed.

Pastor Obeng indicated that, the hope of every believer must be in their creator, and they must continue to call upon him in every situation they find themselves.

He also cautioned political leaders not to forget the God that has guided them throughout the previous year.

He said the current political leaders have started on a good note, and must continue to work hard to better the lives of the citizenry.

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By: Hafiz Tijani/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Embrace 2018 with renewed confidence – CCC Pastor appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

On the whole though, the budget has been fairly well received by those who understand what budgets really are. Indeed, on paper it appears well conceptualized, seeking to achieve a prudent compromise between fiscal consolidation and the acceleration of Ghana’s faltering economic growth.

However the national budget is no more than a statement of intent whose implementation rarely goes quite according to plan. Indeed, the out turn for 2017 illustrates this vividly. While government has commendably kept to its key target of keeping the fiscal deficit down to 6.3% of Gross Domestic Product, this has been at the expense of a lot of public spending programmes aimed at restoring the country’s economic expansion. Even key policy initiatives towards private sector growth such as one district one factory, provision of  venture capital and economic stimulus for distressed yet viable enterprises suffered from severe public expenditure cut backs because of financing constraints.

While we understand the inevitable implications of these constraints and indeed sympathizes with government in this regard, financial experts disagree with officialdom’s strategy of refusing to own up to these, preferring instead to be over ambitious in the name of fulfilling its 2016 election campaign promises. The 2017 budget suffered over this and it is likely that the 2018 will suffer the same fate to some degree.

Importantly, this strategy is generating friction between government and the International Monetary Fund, which questions the credibility of some key budget targets, particularly those relating to tax revenues. Instructively, the success of the 2018 budget as a whole rests on government’s ability to meet those targets. Like it did in March this year when unveiling the 2017 budget, government has reacted to widespread doubts as to its ability to meet its revenue targets with assurances that it can; however the admission that it will end this year some 9.3% short of its revenue targets is more instructive than those assurances.

Lofty ambitions can be a good thing – at least they keep everyone involved in meeting the budgetary targets on their toes – but emphasis on false propaganda  about actually meeting them is not helpful in any way. Here it is illustrative that even minutes before Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta admitted to the 9.3% revenue shortfall, members of the NPP communications team were going round the various electronic media who had set up at Parliament house to cover the budget presentation, confidently declaring live on air that the revenue shortfall for this year is 5%, and that is better than the performance of its predecessor administration in this regard.

Despite the capping of allocations to statutory funds, Ghana’s budget is still very rigid with most public spending inevitable going into recurrent expenditure and interest payments. This leaves very little for the discretionary expenditures on the programmes which the 2018 budget claims will turn Ghana’s economic fortunes around; if cuts become necessary as they have been this year, those programmes will again be under-funded except in the claims of the NPP communications team as has largely happened in 2017.

The difference between this year and next year though is that in 2017, most of the initiatives aimed at reviving economic growth were still in their planning stages and so expenditure cuts have not been crucially debilitating. Next year though similar expenditure cuts would effectively lead to the postponement, if not outright cancellation of those initiatives. For instance companies to receive financial stimulus support have been identified as  projects to be established under the one district one factory programme.  If government cannot provide the requisite funding such programmes would grind to a halt in 2018.

This is a real possibility even as government has risked the ire of the IMF – and with it a reluctance by the Fund to endorse Ghana’s economy to the international financial community that it is still critically reliant on – because it has opted for a slower fiscal consolidation than the Fund’s Extended Credit Facility programme called for in its final year. If  government  is not able to fund the initiatives supposed to expand the economy more rapidly this will have been for nothing. I want to believe this will not be the case.

However I can see the real cause to worry over the gamble the government is taking. While positive media spin can cover economic performance shortcomings – at least temporarily – among the lower market segments it cannot among the economic decision makers both at home and abroad.

Which is why government, having devised a very ambitious 2018 budget, will have to ensure it derives the requisite revenues to finance it. Any thing else will turn what looks to be a good budget on paper into a fiasco in reality.

The other key issue has to do with the expected growth for 2018. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2018 is expected to slow compare with 7.9% growth forecasted in 2017.

The real GDP is expected to grow by 6.8 percent in 2018, while real non-oil GDP is expected to grow by 5.4 percent over the same period.

The overall growth takes into account the anticipated reduction in petroleum output as a result of planned maintenance works scheduled for 2018.

While the overall projected growth for 2018 is lower than that estimated for 2017, the non-oil projected growth which is 5.4 % for 2018 is higher than that estimated for 2017 which was 4.8%, on account of government’s intervention in the non-oil sectors of the economy.

Real GDP is projected to grow by 7.3 percent and 5.6 percent in 2019 and 2020 respectively, yielding an average growth of 6.2 percent over the medium term.

Agriculture is expected to grow by 4.5 percent in 2018, largely driven by a strong growth performance of 4.5 percent in the Crops subsector. Growth in Agriculture is expected to be 5.8 percent, 5.0 percent and 5.3 percent in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. The sector is expected to record an average growth of 5.2 percent over the medium-term.

The Industry Sector is expected to grow by 9.4 percent in 2018 compared with 17.7 percent estimated for 2017. Growth in Mining and Quarrying is projected at 17.9 percent, with upstream petroleum, the dominant component of the subsector, projected to grow at 23.4 percent.

Over the same period, Manufacturing and Construction are expected to grow by 4.6 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.

Industry is projected to grow by 9.5 percent, 5.1 percent and 1.2 percent in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively, resulting in an average of 6.3 percent over the medium-term. The Manufacturing subsector is expected to remain on arecovery path, having experienced a contraction in output at the height of theenergy crisis.

The subsector is projected to record an average growth of 5.1percent over the medium-term, aided by a continued normalization of power supply. Over the same period, Construction is also expected to pick up, achieving an average growth rate of 4.7 percent.

The Services Sector is projected to grow by 6.2 percent in 2018, with Information and Communication expected to be the leading subsector recording a growth of 15.9 percent. Education is projected to grow at 8.1 percent, while Health and Social Work is projected to grow at 5.7 percent.

The Services sector is expected to grow by 6.5 percent and 6.1 percent in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Overall, the sector is projected to grow at an average rateof 6.6 percent over the medium term. It is expected that service delivery will be generally enhanced by attempts to achieve greater formalization of the economy, while trade activities will continue picking up in response to a fairly stable exchange rate.

The government must put in good policies that would propel a continued growth.

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By :  Alhassan Farihan

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According to him, Government has already set-up a task force to develop a road-map for the establishment of the bank.

Mr. Ofori-Atta made the announcement during the presentation of the 2018 budget statement in parliament today, Wednesday, November 15, 2017.

Even though Mr. Ofori-Atta did not provide the exact date of the launch, he explained that the move is aimed at strengthening the financial sector of the economy to move ‘Ghana beyond aid.’

“A strong and efficient financial sector is fundamental to realizing Ghana Beyond Aid. This requires innovative and long term financing instruments to support economic development for higher productivity, jobs and inclusive growth.”

As part of efforts aimed at strengthening the financial sector, the Minister added that government will also streamline the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF).

“We will restructure the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) with the capability to mobilize foreign private capital for critical infrastructure development using a private sector model,” adding that government will also “Enhance the capacity of the Ghana Exim Bank to support agriculture and industrialization for export”.

Mr. Ofori-Atta stated that, the financial sector of country remains heavily dominated by banks with the total banking sector assets to GDP ratio as at September 2017, hitting 50 percent.

“ This compares unfavourably with the total market capitalization of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to GDP ratio of 30 percent, as well as the total corporate debt to GDP ratio of 0.36 percent on the Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM), for the same period,” he said.

How different will the National Development Bank be?

Already, some minority MPs are questioning the need for the establishment of such a  bank, considering that the Agricultural Development Bank (Adb) and the National Investment Bank (NIB), which are also state-owned, were set up for similar purposes.

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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post #Ghbudget: Gov’t to launch National Development Bank appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

In the 2018 Budget address, under the theme, “From Stabilization to Work; Putting Ghana to Work Again”, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, said 100,000 tertiary graduates will be employed under the NBC in 2018.

Every one of Ghana’s 216 districts should be able to provide jobs for 462 graduates, the Minister said.

The NBC, which will be based in the office of the President, will focus on alleviating shortfalls in public service delivery.

Graduate unemployment is seen to be at critical levels in Ghana with data from the Institute of Statistics, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, noting that only 10 percent of graduates find jobs after their first year of completing school.

ISSER’s research also indicates that, it may take up to 10 years for a large number of graduates to secure employment due to varied challenges.

The government believes the NBC programme will see a turn for the better as Mr. Ofori Atta said this step “will be a major government initiative to address livelihood empowerment and graduate unemployment to solve economic and social problems.”

“The focus of the initiative will be solving public service delivery in health, education, agriculture, sanitation and drive revenue mobilization and collection.”

NBC to support other gov’t targets

Like the Youth Employment Agency, which targets non-tertiary graduates, the NBC has a number of subsets which are connected to other major government targets and initiatives.

On the back of the Sanitation Campaign launch and the anticipated Sanitation Brigade, the Finance Minister noted that, the NBC has made provision for sanitation inspectors under a “Clean Ghana” Programme. These inspectors will focus on enforcing sanitation laws.

Trained nurses and other healthcare workers will provide health care to deprived and rural communities under a “Heal Ghana” module.

The 2018 Budget Statement made known government’s intent to ensure tax compliance, and NBC will be contributing to these aims with its “Revenue Ghana” programme.

Ghana currently has six million taxable citizens, but only 1.2 million are paying tax.

Tertiary Graduates under “Revenue Ghana” programme will “mobilize the youth to collect taxes that have been difficult to mobilize and enforce collection,” Mr. Ofori Atta stated.

There will also be “Teach Ghana” and “Feed Ghana” modules under this special initiative.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Minister of Finance , Ken Ofori-Atta, who made this known whiles presenting the 2018 Budget and Policy statement in Parliament today , [Wednesday], indicated that a total of 2,160 university graduates and 1,070 youth were employed under the programme, to register and provide extension services to farmers across the country.

According to the Minister, “121, 000 MT of subsidized fertilizers and 4, 454.98 MT of subsidized seeds of cereal, legumes and vegetables have been distributed to beneficiary farmers.”

“The programme also registered suppliers to distribute farm produce to public institutions including the School Feeding Programme, the Free Senior High School Programme, Prisons, Defence and Police, among others to ensure availability of quality food in a timely manner in these institutions,” the Minister added.

Boosting Planting for Food and Jobs

Planting for Food and Jobs, which is expected to to be rolled out in all 216 districts across the country, involves the supply of farm resources such seedlings to participating farmers, and its first phase targeted the creation of more than 750,000 jobs.

Mr. Ofori Atta noted that, investments under the Planting for Food and Jobs will be scaled up.

But the government wants APA to take numerous steps further, as duties on agriculture processing equipment are expected to be abolished along with support granted to agribusiness start-ups.

Minimizing the risk of agriculture financing will also be a target of the government, through agriculture financing and crop insurance schemes.

Funds from the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP), could possibly be diverted to “increase the pace of agriculture mechanization,” according to the Finance Minister.

Major milestones achieved under Planting for Food & Jobs

The Minister also outlined what he termed as “major milestones achieved nationwide” under the programme. These include :

• The Distribution of about 80,000 bags of cereal and legume seeds,  36,000 sachets of vegetable seeds and about 2,000,000 bags of fertilizer

• Recruitment of 822 agricultural extension personnel

• Establishment of a task-force to assess status of warehouses and storage facilities nationwide for rehabilitation

• Creation of market opportunities for farmers by linking them with institutional buyers such as School Feeding Programme and Prisons Service.

• Electronic registration of over 34, 000 farmers out of more than 200,000 manually registered

The Planting for Food and Jobs programme is one of the government’s flagship programs aimed at improving agricultural production in the country.

The government said the program will create some 750,000 jobs and would motivate farmers to grow staple foods such as maize, millet, and beans.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

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This represents a 0.5 percent increase, compared to 2017 which was pegged at 6.3 percent.

Presenting the 2018 Budget and Financial Statement in parliament today, Monday, November 15, 2017, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, stated that government targets “overall GDP growth rate of 6.8 percent, with non-oil GDP growth rate of 5.4 percent”.

“Our prime focus is to ensure that the fiscal deficit, which remains our principal fiscal anchor, continues on a downward trajectory, reaching 4.5 percent of GDP from the projected 2017 end-year estimate of 6.3 percent,” he added.

In addition, Mr. Ofori-Atta announced that, government is targeting an end-of-year inflation rate of 8.0 percent, lower than the 11.2 percent targeted for 2017.

Currently, inflation rate [October] is at 11.6 percent.

Mr. Ofori-Atta is hopeful the fiscal deficit of the country may stabilize below 5 percent of GDP, as government puts in all the macroeconomic measures to grow the economy.

“Achieving this objective is not only critical, but necessary if we are to maintain the healthy primary balance surplus required to eventually reduce the rate of debt accumulation,” he said.

He maintained that there is the need to boost domestic revenue through innovative channels that will not place undue burden on the entire populace.

“We must make these decisions in good time to ensure that our future generations will be bequeathed with a priceless inheritance of sustainable fiscal environment.”

“In this vein, optimizing resources mobilization through improved tax compliance and efficient and effective revenue administration, remains an important part of our fiscal strategy to boost domestic revenue mobilization for 2018 and the medium-term,” he added.

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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

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And before they know it, they lose a gem. Then they weep over heartbreaks begging for forgiveness.

Sometimes you may be forgiven; other times you may not; no matter how repentant you are.

And truly, even if you are forgiven, you will most likely never get that same love, attention, and commitment from that individual again. So you see; it is almost an irreparable damage.

And this is the predicament of our once darling senior national team, the Black Stars.

The Ghana Football Association (GFA), the Ministry of Youth and Sports (Government) and the players of the Black Stars, took for granted the love, passion, commitment and the spirit with which the nation backed the team each time they played.

And they are paying for it dearly today – and it may be much worse in the coming months if the ‘dead support’ for the team fails to resurrect. And the hard truth is that; football is incomplete without the fans.

In fact, football fans, serve a purpose akin to lubricants. Lubricants reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, to ultimately reduce the heat generated when the surfaces move.

A lubricant may also have the function of transmitting forces, transporting foreign particles, or heating or cooling the surfaces – And this is what football fans are to the players on the field of play.

Sometimes even the adrenalin to play exceptionally well against all odds, is triggered by the mere inspiration drawn from the fans who are innumerable.

I was totally astonished on Friday October 7, 2016, to notice that the team that we once loved so much; was playing a crucial world cup qualifier in Ghana against Uganda, and it was without the euphoria and enthusiasm that accompanied their games.

In fact, I was even more shocked at my own disinterest in the game; which was showing on television, considering how passionate I use to be about our once national pride.

I had visited the Champion Restaurant at Adabraka that afternoon of the game to get lunch, which was unusual of me when Black Stars are playing an important game.

Hmmmm – At the Restaurant, the game was showing on Ghana Television (GTV), and to my amazement, there were only a few eyeballs watching the game. Many were either busily eating or queuing to have a taste of the enjoyable meals at Champion.

And when I passed through town shortly after that, I rarely saw people listen to radio commentary of the game, or watched TVs in shops by the roadside and other public places.

Talk about the game even on social media (Facebook) – at least on my page, was relatively less.

At that moment, I genuinely felt extremely sad for the team; despite the justified anger of many Ghanaians like myself against the team, the government of the day, and the Ghana Football Association (GFA).

It wasn’t a surprise when the team only managed a goalless draw after some of the players bought tickets for some children in Tamale to watch the game at the Tamale Sports Stadium; ostensibly to cheer them up.

But that act of benevolence was evidently not enough to fill the many empty seats at the stadium.

But why haven’t Ghanaians forgiven the team even after several apologies for the global embarrassment at the Brazil 2014 World Cup?

It’s been almost two years since the players of the senior national team; held the whole nation to ransom; and forced government to fly as much as three million dollars to pay them bonuses before they would continue the games.

They were not alone – several officials of the GFA and the Ministry; had their share of the booty.

And after they were paid with some of them teasingly kissing the cash on camera, they woefully under-performed, and shamefully returned home empty.

Thousands of dollars were also wasted by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports for Ghana’s general participation in that global football fiesta without proper accountability.

And as if that was not enough, the Government decided to bruise our wounds further, by wasting the tax payer’s money again, in the name of ensuring accountability and transparency.

The presidential commission of enquiry unravelled so much about mismanagement and corruption, yet no one was punished by the state for the mess. Instead, the President shielded the culpable officials from prosecution or any form of sanction.

Till date, nothing significant has happened to the recommendations of the three-man committee, chaired by Justice Senyo Dzamefe.

The government’s sloppiness in cracking the whip by implementing the outcome of the investigations head-on; is undoubtedly the reason for the heightened resentment against the team.

Indeed, people can’t be fooled all the time – and clearly; the masses are wide awake, and will not applaud mediocrity by pretending that all is well.

And like Gilbert Keith Chesterton, an English writer once said, “When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

The Black stars, the GFA, and the government of the day, chose the former- and the consequence; is the ‘dead support’ for the team.

I do not know how the broken hearts of the Ghanaian Black Stars’ lover can be healed; but one thing I know for sure is that; many do not care anymore about the team.
And whether they qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia or not, means nothing to them.
–
By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Email:[email protected]
Follow @AfanyiDadzie

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