However, the west African country also produces great athletes in other sports. Read this piece further to find out who are the most popular athletes from Ghana today.

Janet Amponsah – Athletics

Janet is regarded as the best female sprinter in Ghana right now. She has won medals in the 4 X 100 meters relay at two African Championships, one held in Marrakech, Morocco, and the other in Asaba, Nigeria.

Janet also took part in the 4 X 100 meters relay and 200m races in the 2016 Olympics Games held in Brazil. Her other achievements include finishing runners-up behind Marie-Josee Ta-Lou of Ivory Coast at the 2018 Women’s 100 meters final at the African Senior Athletics Championships held in Asaba, Nigeria.

Isaac Dogboe – Boxing

Isaac Dogboe hails from Ghana’s capital Accra. His family relocated to London when he was still young. However, he still represented his motherland in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Although he did not excel in the Olympics, he went on to become a dreaded featherweight African boxer. Having a flawless record helped Isaac become a world champion aged 23.

He later lost his title to Emanuel Navarette from Mexico and also lost the rematch. These are the only losses in his professional boxing career. To date, his record stands at 21-2, and looks keen to reclaim his world champion status. His achievements have made him a popular athlete not only in Ghana but worldwide. In fact, many boxing bettors on Betway believe he has what it takes to regain his title.

Thomas Partey – Football

Thomas Partey comes from Krobo Odumase in Ghana. Before his move to Arsenal from Atletico Madrid, not many fans knew much about the Ghanaian defensive midfielder. He is also the Black Star’s vice-captain. However, after switching allegiance to London-based club Arsenal, Partey became a popular African footballer loved by many fans globally.

His current contract with The Gunners also makes him one of the highest-paid athletes at the club. The midfield general takes home 13 million GBP annually. Many commentators believe he will become a bigger player in Europe should he find his form at Arsenal next season.

Nadia Eke – Triple Jump

Nadia Eke was born in Accra, Ghana, in 1993. She is a top Ghanaian triple jumper with an illustrious career. Some of her accolades include finishing tenth in the Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, won silver at the African Championships in Marrakech, Morocco, and emerged seventh at the IAAF Continental Cup. In addition, she won bronze at the African Games in Brazzaville in 2015 and was African Champion in 2016.

Her exploits on the track have seen her qualify to represent her country at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She holds the Ghanaian Triple Jump record of 14.33 meters.

John Paul Amoah – Sprinter

John Paul Amoah is a 100 and 200 meters sprinter from Ghana. He has taken part in top competitions in the continent, including the 4 X 100 meters relay and 100 meters at the 2019 African Games. He finished fourth in the 2019 African Games 100 meters final.

Amoah’s personal best in the 100 meters is 10.01 seconds and 20.08 seconds for 200 meters. He set both records at the 2019 NCAA Division I Championships. His personal best for the 200 meters race also helped break the national record previously held by Emmanuel Tuffour, a three-time Olympian. Amoah will represent Ghana at the Tokyo Olympics.

Final thoughts

There are many other top athletes with Ghanaian roots, so even if you’re not a Betway sports betting fan, you are still most likely aware of at least a handful of talented athletes, especially football.

Nevertheless, the ones mentioned here stand out from the rest. Who is your favorite Ghanaian athlete?

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The 500t Marine 711 with about 40 Ghanaian and three South Korean sailors was boarded by the Nigerian pirates on 26 March.

The pirates seized the three South Koreans and escaped on a separate speedboat, with their current whereabouts unknown.

The Marine 711, registered in Ghana, later arrived at a port at Ghana where the Ghanaian sailors disembarked, according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.

South Korea’s military said the pirates had been identified as Nigerians, Yonhap reported.

According to the news agency, Munmu the Great, a South Korean warship that had been involved in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, had been sent to the nearby sea.

It’s expected to arrive at the destination near West Africa around April 16, carrying some 30 SEAL members.

The destroyer also carries Lynx multi-role choppers armed with 12.7-mm machine guns.

‘We are closely coordinating with local countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Benin as well as the US and the EU to locate our nationals and secure their release,’ the foreign ministry said.

The pirates have not yet demanded a ransom in return for the release of the abducted sailors.

In 2011, the Unit successfully carried out a gunfight operation to rescue the South Korean crew of a cargo vessel hijacked by Somali pirates.

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Source: AFP

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This is due to the full implementation of the recently announced electricity tariff reduction from residential and non-residential power users in the country.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) in March announced a reduction in electricity tariffs of between 17 and 30 percent for residential and commercial consumers.

Though the reduction was scheduled to take effect on March 15, the ECG suggested that its monthly billing system couldn’t allow the immediate implementation.

The Managing Director of the ECG, Engineer Samuel Boakye-Appiah in an earlier press conference explained why the reduction could not take effect as indicated.

He said that “the monthly billing cycle of the prepayment metering system does not technically allow ECG to implement the review in the middle of the month”.

“Consequently, prepaid customers of ECG should note that the programming of the billing system will refund the reduction from the implementation date of the 15th to 31st March 2018. When they deposit cash or purchase electricity from 1st April 2018 onwards,” he added.

Engineer Boakye-Appiah pointed out that, the prepayment system will detect aggregate purchase for consumers in March, and then compute the reduction due them, from the effective date of 15th March to 31st March.

“This will be refunded to you on your next visit to vending point”.

He stated that the average percentage reduction, which is 15.5 percent for residential, 30 percent for non-residential, 25 percent for SLT and 10 percent for the mines, effective 15th March 2018 is only on energy consumption.

“Therefore the addition of statutory levies and other fixed charges will reduce the average percentage relief announced by the PURC”, he noted.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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“We have a full alert at the port of entry to make sure that those products will not come in. We’ve intensified post-market surveillance throughout the Easter period, we will be going around to check if any has been brought in at all. We will make sure that we collect them all, in what we call a full recall. We will go round all the supermarkets to make sure that there is none,” Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, Delese Mimi Darko, told Citi News.

[contextly_sidebar id=”JpEoUyri5Q0kCPLe5bw774do0mtGLzDf”]In the last few weeks since Rwanda’s caution on food imports from South Africa, the FDA has warned Ghanaians against purchasing possibly listeriosis infected processed meat products by Enterprise Foods.

The Authority also announced that it would destroy the meat products from Enterprise Foods in Polokwane, South Africa.

The outbreak of listeriosis has been going on since the start of 2017. According to the World Health Organisation, 978 laboratory-confirmed listeriosis cases have been reported in South Africa between January 1, 2017, and March 14, 2018. 42% of the cases have been neonates who were infected during pregnancy or delivery.

In January, Rwanda warned Ghana to ban the importation of some food products from South Africa to avert the outbreak of listeriosis. Before the warning, Rwanda had already placed a ban on some food products from South Africa.

After the warning, the Ghana’s Ministry of Health assured Ghanaians that it had beefed up surveillance in the country to forestall the outbreak and spread of the disease.

About Listeriosis

Listeriosis is food poisoning that is caused by eating foods contaminated with the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium. In pregnant women, the infection can result in miscarriage, premature delivery, serious infection of the newborn or even stillbirth.

It mainly affects pregnant women, newborns, the elderly, and adults with impaired immune systems.

According to the WHO, the outbreak in South Africa is the largest that has been detected worldwide. Due to the potentially long incubation period (one to three weeks and up to 70 days), further cases are expected before the impact of the recall of the affected food products is observed.

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By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Delivering his Easter message to Ghanaians on Thursday, the President said Ghana had enough resources to ensure its own development.

According to him, the government has so far worked to harness the resources available to the country to resolve some of its key challenges.

He indicated that the government had plans to ensure that the country’s economy was boosted to enable it compete favourably in the global market.

“We are looking past commodities to position our country in the global market. We’ve determined to flee our people from the mindset of dependence aid, charity and handouts,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo, who has on various national and international platforms emphasized his belief that Ghana, like many other African countries, is endowed with enormous resources to guarantee its growth, said that a government under him is “bent on mobilizing Ghana’s own considerable resources to resolve Ghana’s problems.”

“We are building a Ghana beyond aid. Let us celebrate Easter as a real source of hope that there is a brighter future ahead of us. Let us use this Easter celebration to renew and strengthen our faith in God and be confident that with God’s guidance we can transform our nation and use all the blessings that the Almighty has bestowed on us to bring progress and prosperity to all our people. I wish all Ghanaians a happy Easter” he said.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Kwaku had never considered the health implications of his smoking habit. Just like many teenagers today, he was exposed to onscreen smoking imagery and was made to believe that smoking signified maturity, making it easy to join the craze.

A troubling development about Kwaku’s experience has to do with the accessibility and cost of cigarettes in Ghana. When asked how and where he got his cigarettes from, Kwaku responded, “I go to a shop near my home, and with less than a Cedi, I get to buy a stick and I am good to go.” “Of course, I pretend to be buying for an adult,” he added.

Ghana has failed significantly when it comes to the excise tax on the retail price of cigarettes. The minimum World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark for excise tax on the retail price of cigarette is 70 percent. Ghana currently imposes an excise tax of only 13.02 percent on the retail price of cigarettes which is about 56 percent below the WHO benchmark, contributing significantly to the low price of cigarettes in the country. A single cigarette stick is priced between 20 pesewas to 70 pesewas in Ghana making it very accessible to the youth.

“Tobacco tax increases that result in higher tobacco-product prices are among the most effective tobacco control measures available,” according to the Tobacco Atlas. The Atlas also notes that higher prices are especially effective in reducing tobacco use in more vulnerable populations, like youth and people with lower incomes, because those groups are particularly sensitive to price increases.

Over 5,800 children (10-14 years old) smoke cigarettes every day in Ghana. “The number is expected to increase significantly as large tobacco firms turn their attention to Africa,” according to Dr. Steven V. Shongwe, the acting Director of the Non-communicable diseases (NCD) cluster at the WHO Regional Office for Africa.

This Principal Research Officer at the Ghana Health Service, Divine Darlington Logo revealed on the sidelines of the World Conference on Health or Tobacco in Cape Town that, there was no budgetary allocation in 2018 for the enforcement of the tobacco control law in Ghana.

“For the last five years, there has not been any money specifically allotted to tobacco control in Ghana. That has been part of the challenge in the effort to discourage young children from smoking. There are concerns of smuggling when it comes to increasing taxes on tobacco products,” he disclosed.

Kwaku, who began smoking at the age of 14 is now determined to quit the habit, but has no access to cessation counseling and has to rely on sheer willpower to quit the deadly habit. He tells me, “It has been a struggle for me to quit for the past six months. I tried a few times but gave up eventually because the urge was too strong. Moreover, my closest friend also smokes so it makes it difficult to quit, even though I want to.”

The economic cost of smoking in Ghana amounts to 97 million cedis in direct costs related to healthcare expenditures and indirect costs related to early mortality and morbidity according to the Tobacco Atlas. Increased tobacco tax revenues would strengthen domestic resource mobilization to help offset the costs to the Ghanaian economy as well as help government invest in tobacco control programs that can benefit the likes of Kwaku Addo.

Ghana can still do more to make the proven tobacco control tools work for its citizens’ well-being.

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By: Gideon Sarpong | iwatchafrica.org

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Today’s meeting comes weeks after the leaders of the political parties met the President in Accra to report on progress made so far.

[contextly_sidebar id=”2Q6IwcAlhBfjMtKB5KJd71YIAKcFMDdZ”]The 14 opposition parties suspended all forms of protests and demonstrations as agreed in their last meeting.

They are pushing for a return to the country’s 1992 constitution which imposes limits on presidential terms.

Faure Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005 when his father, Eyadema Gnassingbe, died. His father had ruled the country for 38 years.

There have been protests against the Togolese government in demonstrations that were in some cases met with acts of violence by state security forces.

The demonstrations were started by the main opposition PNP and CAP 2015, a coalition of five smaller opposition parties before expanding.

The 14 parties decided to suspend all forms of protests and demonstrations aimed at forcing President Faure Gnassingbe to step down,  following a meeting between President Nana Akufo-Addo and representatives of the government in Togo.

Support in Ghana

Their cause has gathered some support in Ghana notably from the Ghana-Togo Solidarity Movement, which is led by Bernard Mornah.

Just like protesters in Togo, Ghana-Togo Solidarity Movement supposedly fell foul of law according to Police.

In December 2017, Mr. Bernard Mornah, Chairman of Ghana’s People’s National Convention, PNC, and some members of the group were arrested for a supposed illegal protest against the continuous rule of Gnassingbe and his disrespect for Togo’s constitutional term limit.

He has complained that the Ghana Police Service’s frequent interruptions in their lawful protests only gives the impression that the government of Ghana is in support of Faure Gnassingbe’s ill-governance.

This is despite the government’s consistent assurances of its neutrality.

Mr. Mornah vowed that the movement will support Togolese citizens to ensure that Gnassingbe steps down.

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By: Sammi Wiafe/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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