The high costs of sending money home mean the Ghanaian diaspora are losing out on up to 15.40 percent when sending money home.

Each year $2.1b is sent into Ghana in remittances and the final week before Christmas is one of the busiest times to send money.

The World Bank reports that the average cost of sending money is around 7.21% with sub-saharan Africa being one of the most expensive regions to send money to at 9.13%.

WorldRemit research revealed that switching to lower cost channels could mean thousands of Ghanaians could receive an extra Christmas present this year.

The savings were highest when sending from Australia to Ghana with a saving of US$30 (GHS 135) when sending $200 (around GHS 880) – enough to buy around 6 metres of traditional print fabric.

With hourly wages in Australia ranging from earning between US$15-25 on average, these high costs mean the diaspora are having to work almost an extra hour to cover the elevated cost of sending money home through high cost channels this Christmas. The impact of the savings could be even more significant to those back home where the saving of US$30.8 could be enough to buy 6 metres of traditional fabric.

Ismail Ahmed, CEO of WorldRemit commented:
“It’s important to consider that the cost of sending money goes far beyond the transactional cost. Traditional methods mean travelling to an agent to pay in money, taking time off work to do so knowing your family and friends receiving the money will have to do the same.

By sending money from one mobile to another instantly, we can save people not just money, but also time.”

It costs around $9 (GHS 39.6) for a return trip to travel from Volu to pick up cash in Ho, taking about 2 hours to go there and back. Even those living within Accra can take up to 1 hour to travel to an agent and back, costing up to $4 (GHS 18.09) return trip.

WorldRemit data suggests that most of their customers send between three to four transfers a month so the savings across the month of December could be even greater. The savings on travel and time to pick-up money alone could be enough to buy a customised throw pillow.

Ismail Ahmed, added: “We see that being able to send money more frequently without paying high costs and wasting time brings families and friends closer together even when living hundreds of miles apart. So we hope we can give people more time with family and friends this Christmas.”

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Source: WorldRemit

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Edna was announced winner at the Silver Jubilee Miss Ghana UK awards night in London on Saturday night.

Digital money transfer service, WorldRemit, and the Miss Ghana UK Foundation announced Edna Azumah Aninga’s proposal to use art to curb societal problems.

Edna’s entry was selected from more than 120 entries, where women across Ghana (between the ages of 16 and 26), explained how they would use the money to fulfill their ambitions and inspire others in the process. Ideas ranged from photojournalism to farming and from music to the military, but almost a quarter of the entries planned to use Ghana’s artistic heritage in beading, art and design to build a better future.

As Edna notes, “Art is the universal language which everyone understands” and it was the opportunity to use Ghanaian art to reach people around the world which particularly inspired the judges. Edna proposes to build an online art market promoting her community in Northern Ghana both as an art and a tourism centre. She will train people in her local community in pottery and weaving to enable them to use these skills to escape poverty whilst using her background in journalism and the arts to tackle problems such as teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortions unemployment and child labour.

The judging panel of representatives from the Ghana Union, The Ghanaian High Commission in London, the Miss Ghana UK Foundation and WorldRemit praised Edna’s entry for her creativity and her passion for helping her community.

They particularly commended the focus on spreading knowledge for future generations and its sustainability as a business which could grow and promote Ghana’s talent both within Ghana and abroad.

With the success of Ghanaian artists such as El Anatsui and Ibrahim Mahama, and the recent opening of Gallery 1957, people around the world are looking to Ghana as hotspot for art and design.

Edna’s proposal offers the opportunity to leverage international interest in Ghanaian art and design to help those most in need at home.

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Source: WorldRemit

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The budget details for the Black Stars participation at the 2014 World Cup is a state secret, according to Ibrahim Sannie Daara.

The Director of Communications at the Ghana Football Association was reacting to the news broken by two media outlets, Citi FM and the Captivating Ghana Sports newspaper, that they had details of the breakdown of the budget for the tournament.

“As we speak now those figures speculated in the media have got no legs to stand on,” Sannie said in a debate on the state-owned Ghana  Television.

“I’d say with no equivocation that as I sit here as Director of Communications of the GFA, I’ve not seen the breakdown.”

“The Chief of Staff has said that this is a state secret and if someone brings it and if I am not able to authenticate it, I will say that person s carrying a false document.”

The former BBC journalist had been invited to GTV’s Sunday Night Live show hosted by Christopher Opoku and Karl Tufuoh.

Also invited were the Sports Editor of Peace FM, Dan Kweku Yeboah and Gary Al-Smith, Citi Sports’ editor.

Last week, Yeboah and Al-Smith released figures from documents they had intercepted which showed that, among other things, the  officials who make up the Black Stars management committee will get slightly more bonuses than the players themselves during the group stages of the World Cup.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL CITI SPORTS STORY ON WORLD BUDGET

“Show me the documents”

But even though Sannie admitted that he had not seen the budget breakdown, he insisted that what the two journalists were reporting were “concoctions”, going further to call Al-Smith a “liar” who uses lies as his “stock in trade.”

The FA spokesman challenged the two journalists to show him documents from the office of the Chief of Staff, which is – according to him – the only place the breakdown could have been leaked from.

“If anybody comes out with any breakdown, unless I see the documents as authentic from the Chief of Staff’s Office I will say that [whatever they have as a] document is a ruse,” Sannie said.

Sannie revealed that after meetings with the Chief of Staff, everyone present had been charged not to discuss the details of the budget, but quickly dismissed claims that the GFA do not want the public to know.

On his part, Dan Kweku Yeboah also contended that taxpayers’ money cannot be used for projects and be labelled state secrets, “unless they think there are things to hide from the people of Ghana.”

Citi Sports editor Al-Smith also pointed out that as a fundamental principle of journalism, he was under no obligation to disclose sources.

Al-Smith told the FA spokesman: “You’ve been a journalist for more than 15 years. Look at me very carefully, do I look like a journalist who will disclose my sources to you?”

A visibly angry Sannie charged: “How dare you talk to me like that?”

The program remained heated until  it had to be abruptly ended by the hosts.

When contacted, producers at GTV however told Citi Sports that the show was ended because it had overrun and not because of an order from senior management, as was widely speculated in the past few days.

WATCH VIDEO 

By: Citi Sports Desk

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