News — ghana

French billionaire Vincent Bolloré has been accused of shady deals and underhand dealings in the processes leading to his company’s control of Ghana’s largest port, the Tema Harbour.

In a special report, Pan African publication African-Confidential uncovered how Bolloré’s firm, Bolloré Africa Logistics, won the right to build and run a state-of-the-art container terminal at Ghana’s Tema port.

The report described the new container port of Tema as a “lifeline not only for Ghana but for landlocked Burkina Faso and Mali, through their 70% owned joint venture with the Ghana government, Meridian Port Services (MPS).”

The agreement, which was signed under the administration of then Ghanaian President John Mahama, became a subject of a ministerial investigation following his defeat in 2016 to President Nana Akufo-Addo, who secured a second term in December 2020.

The ministerial committee report said the French billionaire and his partners persuaded Mahama to award MPS a new container terminal contract in secret in breach of the country’s procurement laws.

It also said MPS overstated its planned investment which won tax holidays worth $832 million from Ghana’s parliament and that the agreement surreptitiously cut Ghana’s equity in MPS to 15% after first agreeing to 30%.

The committee’s report further claimed that Bolloré and his partners persuaded the government to allow it a monopoly on handling containers, “putting thousands of jobs at other port concerns at risk and driving up prices, and to set tariffs.”

The committee’s report also showed how Bolloré and his partners reduced the fees payable to the government over the life of the concession by $4.1 billion.

To this end, the committee concluded that the deal did not inure to the benefit of Ghana and recommended for a renegotiation which the Akufo-Addo administration ignored. 

“The terms of the agreements between MPS and the state are so tilted against Ghana’s interests, concluded the report, delivered to ministers in February 2018, they should be renegotiated immediately. Yet the much-criticized contracts are still unchanged,” Africa Confidential said.

Africa Confidential further reported that the history of those relations shows “serious ethical professional deficiencies” with the result that “the engagements have to be carefully and deliberately reviewed.”

The newsletter noted that President Akufo-Addo inherited the situation when he won the 2016 election and “instead of blaming the scandal on his predecessor he has chosen to leave the contracts as they stand while friends and officials of his New Patriotic Party (NPP) take up posts with MPS.”

According to Africa Confidential, although Akufo-Addo faced Mahama in December 2020’s general election, “the topic of the Tema deal did not come up in campaigning.”

“The two men appeared to observe a pact of silence on this and several other instances of alleged bad governance and corruption. Akufo-Addo narrowly won the election (AC Vol 61 No 25). This is the story of how the deal took shape, and how a fightback within the Transport Ministry and the NPP against the MPS deal was finally quashed, and the legendary ability of Vincent Bolloré to accommodate political change asserted itself,” it added.

Bolloré has been accused of running a port monopoly in West Africa as his firm is linked to managing 18 ports in the sub-region.

The report likened Bolloré’s concession of Ghana’s port to one he won in for his operations at the port of Lomé, Togo, in return for financing the re-election of the country’s president, Faure Gnassingbé, in 2010.

“On 26 February this year Bolloré and two of his fellow executives admitted, in a plea bargain, to bribing the Togolese president in exchange for favors at the port, and were fined €375,000 each. Bolloré’s company paid a €12 million fine (see Box, Bolloré – a monopoly in every port). The judge was so shocked by what they had done in Togo she rejected details of the plea bargain and ordered a trial of the executives,” the report added.

For Francis Akuamoah Boateng, there could be no better time in history than now to establish Ghana’s first solar panel factory. In international circles and the energy industry, there has been a consensus for a shift to solar energy as thermal and coal energies have not only proven to be costly but contribute to pollution.

Boateng’s solar factory, Solar Power Solutions (SPS), was constructed in 2016 at the cost of $50 million and produces all manner of solar electronics. Offering solar-powered solutions, it supplies and installs “off-grid and grid systems, photovoltaic systems and PV street lights.” The Ghanaian business mogul says his solar company was born out of his vision to light up the country as the nation could no longer depend on hydro and other gas plants for energy.

Born to a paramount chief in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana, Boateng said he saw his dreams and opportunity to make it in life right in Ghana.

For him, traveling outside Ghana to seek greener pastures was not something he entertained. “I never thought of leaving Ghana, it was something out of the equation for me,” he said.

On why he decided to venture into solar energy, he recalled traveling to his hometown in the Bono region and nearly hitting someone at a checkpoint because the place was dark due to lack of streetlight. “So I said to myself, ‘why can’t we have lights around and then I remembered that the national grid cannot extend to those areas,’” he told vlogger Wode Maya.

“So the concept of solar energy came to mind and that is how I started.” He added that he was also driven by his passion to ensure the rural areas of Ghana have light, a basic social commodity in the 21st century.

Fortunately for Boateng, the Ghana Cocoa Board also came up with a similar concept to start introducing solar street lights in cocoa-growing areas and shea nut catchment areas in the north of Ghana.

Initially, Boateng imported his solar panels from China and other countries but with time, he decided that it was time to have them produced locally and produced in such a way that it is suitable for Africa.

SPS is now managed by Boateng’s son Ofori, who was raised in both Ghana and U.S. Ofori told Wode Maya that SPS’s solar panels are designed for Africa and made in Ghana. “We are trying to push [ourselves] into the arena of being one of the product developers within the electronics,” he said, adding that they seek to expand the factory to increase production capacity due to both local and international demands.

He indicated that the entire company’s capacity is 32 megawatts and will expand to hit 150 megawatts soon.

For young Africans outside the continent and other entrepreneurs, Boateng has a message for you: “Don’t give up.” According to him, hard work is a key ingredient to success in life. “And when you lay your hands on something you think you can do, just go all out,” he said.

Nigeria has its own established Premier League, but its love for the English Premier League is just indescribable. In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, it’s not uncommon to see advertising billboards featuring Premier League stars or buses and walls of pubs beautifully adorned with club stickers. Apart from having their players in the League, locals would tell you that they follow the English Premier League because it’s the most competitive.

As a matter of fact, data show an estimated 276 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa watch the Premier League every year, bringing in financial benefits in the form of partnerships and replica shirts sold. In Nigeria, Arsenal is one of the most popular clubs. The London-based club enjoys a huge following in the West African country dating back to the days of Nwankwo Kanu, who joined the football club in 1999, and recent players like Alex Iwobi and Chuba Akpom.

It is therefore not surprising that almost every year for the past 15 years, thousands of Nigerians have come together to celebrate Arsenal Day, a two-day celebration of Arsenal football club. Arsenal fans from five local government areas in Nigeria’s Kogi state turn out in the town of Okene in south-central Nigeria annually for the event. They show up in their red and white Arsenal T-shirts with white jeans or trousers to sing, dance, eat and cheer. Banners and posters of players are hung on the walls as well.

“Our reason to start [Arsenal Day] is to celebrate Arsenal club and the players,” Ilyas Abdulsalam, director of Arsenal fans club Ebiraland which has more than 16,000 members, told CNN.

It is believed that Arsenal Day first began when two villages came together to celebrate the London club’s success in 2004, having reached the Champions League final. Others say the festival started following the opening of the Emirates Stadium in 2006. Though the Gunners haven’t won a Premier League trophy since 2004, fans in Nigeria still turn up in their numbers in Okene for the festival almost every year. There is no denying that these fans are expecting a trophy from the club. And although they are yet to get it, they are very patient and hopeful, they say.

With that optimism, Nigerian businessman and politician Orji Uzor Kalu last December revealed his desire to invest in Arsenal. The investment, he said, is inspired by his quest to help the club win more trophies, including the Champions League and the English Premier League. Kalu’s intention to buy shares in Arsenal made him the second Nigerian businessperson to express interest in investing in the club. Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote recently showed serious interest in taking over the Gunners.

Today, even though Chelsea, Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid fans in Nigeria do organize their own festivals, Arsenal Day seems to reign supreme.

Achimota School in Ghana, formerly known as Achimota College, was the school where Zimbabwe’s most iconic citizen, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, attended as a student-teacher to attain his certification to be able to work in newly independent Ghana.

But how many times can you say that Mugabe is arguably not even the biggest element in a given context, such as among alumni of a school? This is because Achimota’s alumni include none other than Kwame Nkrumah, Mugabe’s hero and an African political icon. Such is the pedigree of the school currently embattled over its refusal to admit to boys with dreadlocks.

The school’s authorities have said that the two students who had been placed there by a computerized placement system according to results from standardized nationwide exams, will not be admitted unless they shave off their hairs. Both sets of parents of the boys who identify as Rastafarians have committed to going to court for an interpretation of their religious liberties.

The alumni association of Achimota has however issued a strongly-worded letter to the current management of the school to stand by its rules and regulations. This alumni association which includes some of Ghana’s most prominent people is thought to be the reason an earlier Ghana Education Service (GES) directive to the school headmistress to admit the boys was reversed.

That suspicion may not be entirely unfounded. As much as Ghana possesses its own competitive Ivy League rankings of senior high schools, Achimota stands above so many due to heritage, and no annual rankings would change that. Alumni of Achimota has been known to channel millions of dollars into running the school, even though it is publicly funded.

The school was established in 1924 as Prince of Wales College and School through the initiative of a colonial governor of the Gold Coast, Gordon Guggisberg, the20th century African educationist James Kwegyir Aggrey and Rev Alec Garden Fraser, an English Anglican priest and schoolteacher.

It has undergone radical changes including renaming and the introduction of mixed-gender learning in its nearly 100 years of existence. In post-independent Ghana, Achimota, along with other schools founded by Christian missionaries prior to independence and right after, became the preferred institutions for bourgeois Ghanaians.

Most of these schools were founded as colleges but became senior high schools. They have continued to represent upper socioeconomic class, taste, and ambitions, meaning that it is common to see members from well-to-do backgrounds in Ghana attend these schools, mostly through alumni privileges. But since the computerized school placement system was introduced in 2005, many more Ghanaians from underprivileged, if not un-esteemed backgrounds are gaining access to schools previously reserved for the affluent and the connected.

Coupled with the introduction of free and compulsory senior high school education, many more Ghanaians are expected to breach what has been an enclave of wealth and power.

Achimota, for one, has produced more than its fair share of Ghana’s powerful people and continues to do so. The school was just one of many missionary-founded and colonial educational institutions established by the 1930s that now are the academies of prestige.

Jerry Rawlings, the former coup leader-turned-president was at Achimota. So were his two vice-presidents, Kow Nkessen Arkaah and John Evans Mills – who later became president. Mugabe was not the only non-Ghanaian former president who was at Achimota – Dawuda Jawara, the first head of state of Gambia, was too.

The father of Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, Edward Akufo-Addo, schooled at Achimota. The older Akufo-Addo was also a president of Ghana. All of this is not counting for more the hundreds with diverse achievements in academia, politics, law, science, finance, and technology.

Those who are of the view that Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism is Kwame Nkrumah’s most important book are in the sound company of many.

The independence leader and Ghana’s first-ever president was an intellectual whose expertise on politics, ideologically and practically, outweighed all of his African counterparts. At least, so said a BBC Africa poll in 2000 that said Nkrumah was the “Man of the Millenium”.

Neo-Colonialism certainly adds to this widely-held opinion. This is one of the 15 books authored by Nkrumah but it is the only one that spoke exhaustively to a situation transcending Blackness and African identity. Rather, what Neo-Colonialism offered was an introduction to a novel sociopolitcal concept and an explanation of the material conditions that permit this concept.

That is to say before 1965, global political lexicography had not registered the term ‘neocolonialism’. It has since become an idea not only prevalent among those on the global left but also those interested in postcolonial studies. Neocolonialism was defined as such in the introduction of the book:

“The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.”

Neocolonialism was in effect, theorized as a critique of the way in which colonized countries seemed to view the end of their independence struggle as an end in itself. ‘Mere’ independence did not sit well with Ghana’s first leader because as he thought foreign capital would still be used “in such a way as to impoverish the less developed”. Richer countries were still dependent on poorer countries for so much even if the picture was drawn as if colonizers had attained self-sustenance.

Nkrumah’s book was premised on two simple axioms namely, the eternal cooperation of polities i.e. global affairs, and the recognition that the mighty would always look to have its way as Thrasymachus said in Plato’s Republic.

The book took into cognizance the ideological Cold War between the West and the East and the fight to have influence over underdeveloped nations. This meant that Nkrumah, despite his leftist leanings, realized that it was possible for the USSR to victimize formerly colonized peoples.

Ever the evangelist, Nkrumah shared his book to African leaders and other who attended the 1965 conference of the Organization of African Unity in Ghana’s capital Accra. But this bid to teach his fellows what he felt was in store after independence angered the United States.

The US thus withdrew a hitherto agreed $25 million aid it had promised Ghana.

A year ago, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo became the first African leader to be invited in about 60 years on a state visit to Switzerland. But his visit may not have gone as his host would wish as he announced that his country will soon end the process of selling raw materials to trade partners for onward value addition.

Although Akufo-Addo’s visit was about 12 months ago, the details of his announcement have been rekindled by conversations sparked by recent impediments placed by rich countries on a World Trade Organization (WTO) proposal. The proposal would have seen coronavirus vaccines produced in large quantities widely in other countries if pharmaceutical corporations can waive off intellectual property claims.

Richer nations like those in the European Union as well as the United States have blocked this proposal although, in terms of global numbers, they are in the minority. Akufo-Addo’s statement to the Federal Council of Switzerland is seen by many pro-African interest observers as well as Pan-Africanists as a possible route through which Africa can win on trade on the global scene.

Ghana’s quest to hold back on exporting raw materials is an agenda independent of what is happening with the WTO’s proposal on COVID-19 vaccines. The agenda was even stated before the pandemic thus, it requires us to understand it within the context of Ghana’s developmental ambitions.

One of the raw materials that Ghana is not looking to export any much longer includes cocoa beans, a commodity for which Ghana happens to be the second-largest producer in the world after neighbors the Ivory Coast. Switzerland, a great manufacturer of chocolates, buys its cocoa from the two West African neighbors although Ghana is Switzerland’s biggest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.

President Akufo-Addo told the Federal Council of Switzerland, then headed by President Simmoneta Sommaruga:

“Ghana is currently Switzerland’s largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, largely from the export of gold and cocoa to Switzerland and the import of chemical and pharmaceutical products…However, as I have stated on many occasions, Ghana no longer wants to be dependent on the production and export of raw materials, including cocoa beans. We intend to process more and more of our cocoa in our country with the aim of producing more chocolate ourselves”

Akufo-Addo tied in the movement towards value addition to Ghana’s national pride as well as poverty alleviation. Even though it can be read as an approach antithetical to what free-marketeers like Switzerland have advocated over the last few decades, protecting Ghana’s interest in short ot long term would be difficult to argue against.

Last year, both Ghana and Ivory Coast halted the sale of cocoa to United States manufacturers accusing the U.S. confectionary giants Hershey’s and Mars of avoiding paying a bonus that will help improve the economic fortunes of poor farmers.

The Coffee Cocoa Council (CCC) and the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) in a statement said the two of the world’s top chocolate sellers were not paying the living income differential (LID).

The LID gives cocoa farmers a bonus of $400 per tonne in addition to the market price and envisioned to cushion many farmers who live in poverty. The $400 a tonne LID on cocoa sales for the 2020/2021 season was introduced by the West African nations last year.

That trade war did not last long as Ghana and the Ivory Coast won their way. It was the second time in two years that the two countries had manufacturers to concede on deals. With Ghana’s move towards processing its own cocoa, the world, and not just Switzerland, will experience a massive shortage since Ghana is responsible for about 45% of the world’s cocoa.

With this, it is understandable how Akufo-Addo’s promise to the Swiss people, who are one of the world’s largest producers of chocolate, falls within the trajectory of hopes of those who wish Africa well.

One of the aspirations of Africans in the diaspora is to eventually return to Africa and among other things, contribute to the socio-economic development of the continent. Although a number of factors turn to hinder their return, a considerable number of them have returned home.

One of the things many of them do upon return is to establish a business venture to serve as a source of livelihood and a job creation avenue. Face2Face Africa has documented the entrepreneurial journey of some of them and their success stories.

Today, we highlight the success story of Nana Ama Serwaa. Born in Ghana, Serwaa has lived in Atlanta, United States, for over 35 years. She returned home to establish Ike’s Cafe and Grill, the biggest traditional restaurant in Ghana located in the nation’s Ashanti Region.

The restaurant is built with a touch of Ashanti culture and other side attractions such as a live band, Karaoke, a continental bar and a local bar (that serves local Ghanaian wines and gins), a VIP section and a range of delicious local and continental dishes.

Serwaa tells vlogger Wode Maya she was inspired to open her restaurant so that other Ghanaians living abroad who have been away for long can come and experience Ashanti and Ghanaian culture and how beautiful it is to live in an African environment.

She projects Africa as the next big investment destination, adding that the continent has virtually everything to make one’s investment worthwhile. “I want my brothers and sisters to know that the way Africa use to be is not so anymore. Right now, the way things are going, Africa is a place to be,” Serwaa tells Ghanaians in the diaspora. “And that is where our roots are. We have to come and build our motherland.”

Serwaa’s project had a sad beginning. Stories of entrepreneurs who turned their tragedies into success abound. Serwaa is one of such people. The initial project got burnt and she had to rebuild. Although she was distressed, she did not allow the unfortunate incident to discourage her but it rather propelled her to start again.

She also recounts how her Spa company, located in Ghana’s capital, Accra, collapsed due to the poor work ethics of her employees. She revealed that she pumped $150,000 into the business. “So that was my first time I tried in Ghana and I failed,” she said.

She is now transforming her restaurant into a “village” where tourists and other visitors can come and stay and enjoy the wide range of services she is providing. As part of the village, she is building a hotel and other tourist attraction sites. The whole idea behind the village is to bring back the “community feel” Africans had in the past.

She reiterated her call for Ghanaians in the diaspora to return home and contribute to the economy of Ghana. While acknowledging structural challenges in establishing a business in Ghana, Serwaa underscores the fact that they are surmountable and should not discourage anyone from returning home to establish a business.

Stacy Osei-Kuffour will sprinkle some Black Girl Magic on the all-new ‘Blade’ played by Mahershala Ali as she becomes the first Black female to write a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. Osei-Kuffuor was chosen among a list of other potential Black writers as a hallmark of Marvel’s Phase Four to increase diversity behind the scenes.

Ali, 46, is replacing Wesley Snipes, 58, who had played the sword-wielding half-man, half-vampire hunter in the three franchises; the first in 1998 by New Line Cinema, then in the 2002 sequel and in 2004.

Snipes gave his blessing to the two-time Oscar winner, who was involved in the screening of the writers together with the studio bosses.

“To all the DAYWALKERS losing their minds right now, chillaaxx. Although the news comes as a surprise, it’s ALL GOOD. Such is the ‘business’ of ‘entertainment!’ Much peace to the MCU crew – always a fan. Honor and respect to the grandmaster Stan,” Snipes said.

“Congratulations and Salaam to Mahershala Ali, a beautiful and talented artist whose expressions I look forward to experiencing for many years to come,” he added.

The three films starring Snipes, which were all written by David S. Goyer, grossed about $418 million globally through 2004, according to Variety.

Although no director has been attached to the Blade reboot yet, Ali expressed interest in the role and the Marvel Studio chief Kevin Feige who nursed the reboot of Blade jumped at it when they believed it was time.

“Now with Doctor Strange and the supernatural elements coming into the MCU, it felt like we could definitely start exploring that.

“Mahershala wanted to come in and meet with us, and when Mahershala Ali wants to meet, you take the meeting.”

Osei-Kuffuor, the Watchmen writer, earned a nomination for her script in a Season 1 episode of Hulu’s “Pen15”. She has also worked as a story editor on Amazon’s “Hunters” and HBO’s “Run”. She is now among the Black women making history in MCU. Nia DaCosta was recently selected by Marvel as the first Black woman to direct a Marvel Studios film with “Captain Marvel 2.”

DaCosta has had little stints in the industry but it was the 2019 indie movie “Little Woods,” starring Tessa Thompson, that served as the springboard which fully launched DaCosta’s career. It opened the door for her to direct the new “Candyman” movie produced and co-written by Jordan Peele.

Marvel Studios is known to work with different directors for their movie sequels to bring different perspectives to their movies.

Ghana on Wednesday became the first country in the world to receive Covid-19 vaccines from Covax, an international co-operative program whose mission is to ensure that low and middle-income countries are not left behind in the distribution of coronavirus vaccines. The shipment, consisting of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines, arrived Wednesday morning at the Kotoka International Airport in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

The vaccines, which are part of the first wave of vaccine deliveries headed to several low and middle-income countries, were produced by the Serum Institute of India, in the Indian city of Pune, a joint statement issued by UNICEF Ghana and WHO Ghana said.

“Today marks the historic moment for which we have been planning and working so hard,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “With the first shipment of doses, we can make good on the promise of the COVAX Facility to ensure people from less wealthy countries are not left behind in the race for life-saving vaccines.”

“The next phase in the fight against this disease can begin -– the ramping up of the largest immunization campaign in history,” said Fore. “Each step on this journey brings us further along the path to recovery for the billions of children and families affected around the world.”
Ghana, with a population of 30 million, has so far recorded 81,245 cases of the coronavirus and 584 deaths. The West African country is among 92 countries that have signed onto the Covax program. Covax is led by the United Nation’s World Health Organization; Gavi, a vaccine group; and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI. Covax is funded by donations from governments, foundations and multilateral institutions. Its aim, according to a report by CNN, “is to buy coronavirus vaccines in bulk and send them to poorer nations that can’t compete with wealthy countries in securing contracts with the major drug companies.”
In February, Covax said it had secured almost 2.3 billion doses for distribution this year. Out of that figure, 1.8 billion is expected to be made available to 92 of the world’s poorest countries, the majority of which will be free. Countries that have signed to the program have to submit a detailed plan for handling and distributing the shot. Charles Adu Boahen, Ghana’s deputy finance minister, said Accra was first because the WHO had given the nod to its rollout plan. That rollout plan was led by former WHO deputy director-general Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah.
“[He] was in charge of vaccines for three years at the global health body and . . . was instrumental in putting together the rollout plan in a timely manner, allowing Ghana to be approved ahead of other African countries,” Boahen said, according to the Financial Times.
Ghana’s vaccination campaign will start March 2 and will be conducted in phases, beginning with health workers, adults of 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary, and their related staff, Ghana’s acting Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said in a statement.

“The government of Ghana remains resolute at ensuring the welfare of all Ghanaians and is making frantic efforts to acquire adequate vaccines to cover the entire population through bilateral and multi-lateral agencies,” he said.

Peter Akwaboah first made his mark in sports. While in high school in Ghana, he was a multisport athlete. When he reunited with his family in the UK, sports was still an integral part of his personal development. 

However, he knew coming from a country with limited resources, his chances of succeeding among his peers who had everything was daunting.

“My peers were better, faster and stronger, given they had access to better facilities,” he says, according to this blog. Nonetheless, it did not deter him from seeking excellence. And true to his character, he managed to be part of his school’s athletic team.

Akwaboah was an unused substitute in his school’s athletic team. In one competition, he was asked to replace a colleague who didn’t show up. He grabbed the opportunity and set a new record in the high jump category and subsequently represented the UK in global competitions.

“‘This is my big chance,’ I thought—a chance to show everyone I am good enough. I dug deep, remembered everything I had learned in training and went for it. I broke the school record that day,” Akwaboah recalls.

Born in the UK, Akwaboah was brought to Ghana at a young age. He reunited with his family as a teenager to pursue higher education. He went to the University of Birmingham in the UK, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master’s degree in Engineering.

He joined Morgan Stanley in 2015 as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Operations. Before joining Morgan Stanley, he worked as a software developer for many financial institutions in Europe.

After working at Morgan Stanley for a year, he became the Global Head of Shared Services Operations which includes managing the firm’s settlement and payments infrastructure. What’s more, he had an additional role as the chair of Morgan Stanley’s payment risk steering committee and member of the Federal Reserve Bank’s (FRB) Payments Risk Committee.

Akwaboah is now the new chief operating officer for Morgan Stanley’s technology and operations division. In his new position, Akwaboah will oversee the operations and technology strategy for the firm, including a team of 300 people.

“He brings significant experience, knowledge, and leadership skills to this strategically important role having led teams and worked across technology and operations functions during the course of his career,” Rob Rooney, the head of technology, operations, and firm resilience, said in a memo, according to the Business Insider.

Akwaboah has previously worked at Deutsche Bank in a number of Technology roles, including KPMG and IBM. He also worked at Royal Bank of Scotland for 10 years with his most recent role in the Asia Pacific as Chief Operating Officer responsible for Operations, Technology and Corporate Services across the region.

Finding business opportunities are one of Akwaboah’s hallmark. Thanks to his involvement, Morgan Stanley became one of the banks to co-lead a $3 billion bond sale for Ghana. Before that, the firm had never executed a deal with the government of Ghana.

Being separated by geographical boundaries does not limit Akwabaoha’s ability to undertake philanthropic activities in his country of origin. He is one of the major supporters of a hospital called the Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine in Ghana. The hospital specializes in providing complex spine and joint replacement surgeries to adult and pediatric patients age 9 to 25.

In 2019, Akwaboah was honored with the 2019 Corporate Leadership Award at the FACE List Awards gala during the Pan-African Weekend.

The first Pan African Heritage conference will be held virtually August 5-7, 2021 under the theme “Building Bridges among Africans worldwide through Scholarship, Culture, Technology and Innovation”.

The first global conference of the Pan African Heritage World since its launch on September 21, 2020, brings together academics, cultural workers, creatives, entrepreneurs and innovators in the wide Pan African world to deliberate on practical ways to bridge the knowledge gap among people of African descent.

The conference precedes the start of the Pan African Heritage World Museum which will be completed in December 2022 and commissioned in Ghana in 2023.

The first Pan African Heritage conference will be held virtually August 5-7, 2021 under the theme “Building Bridges among Africans worldwide through Scholarship, Culture, Technology and Innovation”.

The first global conference of the Pan African Heritage World since its launch on September 21, 2020, brings together academics, cultural workers, creatives, entrepreneurs and innovators in the wide Pan African world to deliberate on practical ways to bridge the knowledge gap among people of African descent.

The conference precedes the start of the Pan African Heritage World Museum which will be completed in December 2022 and commissioned in Ghana in 2023.

Among the many speakers featuring at the conference are Professor Molefi Kete Asante of Temple University, USA; Dr Runoko Rashidi, historian and public lecturer; Professor Maulana Karenga, professor on African Studies and founder of Kwanzaa Festival; Emeritus Professor Kofi Asare Opoku of Ghana; Emeritus Prof Rupert Lewis of Jamaica, Emeritus Professor Iva Carruthers of California; Mr Onyekachi Wambu of AFFORD-UK; Dr Aurola Vergara-Figueroa of Columbia; Professor Toyin Falola of University of Texas at Austin, and Dr Sheila Walker, Cultural Anthropologist, USA.

The Pan African Heritage World is an international non-political, non-profit NGO registered in Ghana, the USA, and various parts of the world to construct a Heritage Museum complex in Ghana to provide the opportunity to unlearn and relearn the history, culture, ideals and civilization of Africa from mankind’s creation till the present. The first living museum of its kind in Africa, the complex includes the Pan African Heroes Park, the Palace of African Kingdoms, the African Herbal Plant Village and a host of experiential programmes and activities.

The Museum project is endorsed by the African Union Commission, the Association of African Universities, UNESCO, the NAACP, and many other international organizations.

The August conference will also launch the Virtual Version of the Pan African Heritage World Museum. Registration details will be published soon.

Headquartered in Accra, Ghana, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is now officially the largest free trade area by the number of participating countries since the founding of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.

The AfCFTA is based on an agreement among 54 African countries. Negotiations began as far back as 2012 but it was in 2018 at the 10th Extraordinary Session of the African Union (AU) in Kigali, Rwanda that three separate agreements were adopted to establish the free trade area.

Despite teething problems including the initial refusal of Africa’s biggest single market, Nigeria, to join the AfCFTA, the agreement came into fruition on Friday, January 1, 2021. Some 30 of the 54 countries have ratified the agreement which means that as of now, Africans and other global stakeholders can look forward to a new era of doing business in Africa.

But it is also important to see the January launch of the AfCFTA as a largely symbolic gesture. It will take a few years, even for the most optimistic, to see Africans overcoming the challenges to a free trade agreement including protectionism, national red-tapes as well as poor infrastructure across the continent.

The new AfCFTA era brings to the fore certain structural changes as well as establishes new rules that one must know. Here are three things to note under the new dispensation:

African Trade Observatory

The African Trade Observatory (ATO) is an online mechanism brought about by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The way the ATO is meant to function is that it provides a dashboard to give real-time trade statistics to African users.

The ATO dashboard gives intra-continental trade flows (traded values, traded quantities, the use of tariff preferences, taxes and fees paid at the border), and information on market conditions, enabling stakeholders to make evidence-based decisions and quickly.

Rules of origin

Rules of origin in the legal documents that established the AfCFTA touches on among other things, the “Certificate of Origin” which means the documentary proof of origin; “Chapter” which refers the two-digit Chapters code used in the nomenclature; “CIF Value” which is the price paid by the importer as well as “Classified” which speaks to the classification of a Product or Material under a particular Heading or Sub-heading.

Rules of origin in the AfCFTA is supposed to standardize ambitions of intellectual property as well as ambition. These rules preempt a significant globalization process in Africa.

Freedom Of The Movement Of Persons

The ambition to have people move across Africa as freely as goods have not seen the light of day although it has been debated for well over two decades. Within the framework of the AfCFTA, the plan to allow people free movement comes with the establishment of a visa-free zone within the trade agreement area.

This obviously seems like a plan that would come to pass if there are enough willing African countries. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has strived to employ a similar strategy for citizens of the sub-region.