Ben Kofi

Ben Kofi

This pastor was chopping the lady behind the speakers in the back of the church. A few men moved closer to the chapel to witness what was going on, as the sound of the hot afternoon action caught their attention. From a distance, they witnessed the pastor hitting a lady in the back, and their camera captured it on film.

 

In Ghanaian society, it's ordinary to see Christians paying offerings, that is 10% of their pay to ministers and chapels.

 

Some places of worship have utilized this money to change the lives of individuals through instruction and wellbeing, We have schools like SDA JHS, SDA SHS, Methodist Basic School in Wa, Catholic Primary in Wa, Presy SHS in Accra and Many others, in the interim, other chapels have depended on that to cover their power bills, Pay their congregation investors and get themselves rich vehicles.

It's anything but an unquestionable requirement to pay tithes in Church and nobody will get lost if you don't pay offerings to a congregation.

This book of scriptures refrains underneath can protect the reality to the current matter as of now.

Check Deuteronomy Chapter 26:12 and it peruses "When you have completed the process of saving a 10th of all your produce in the third year, the extended time of the offering, you will give it to the Levite, the outsider, the illegitimate and the widow, so they might eat in your towns and be fulfilled." and Verse 13 Continues that "Then, at that point, tell the LORD your God: "I have taken out from my home the holy piece and have given it to the Levite, the outsider, the bastard and the widow, as indicated by all you directed. I have not diverted beside your orders nor have I failed to remember any of them".

 

Per this let the offerings reflect in your area, your working environment, family and old neighbourhood before considering Churches, other than God is Omnipresent(everywhere) you don't should be in the chapel to revere him. Plant that seed in your relatives, mates, Customers, associates and Community individuals.

 

 

Ghana is rapidly booming with many infrastructures, as we know every country that wishes a better standard of living for it's citizens has a duty to invest massively in infrastructure development.

This is because it creates the necessary and conducive environment to attract more investment in trade and improve tourism in addition to generating revenue and employment as well as increase foreign exchange earnings

Here are four (4) Key infrastructures that will change the face of Ghana once completed;

1. Ghana international mall:

Ghana International Mall is the upcoming West Africa's largest shopping centre. The project is located at the intersection of Spintex road and Agblezaa - Manet road, right opposite Manet Police Station. The mall has provision for a parking space of over 5,000 cars, combined with swimming pool, children's playground and other recreation centers.

2. Pretonia City:

Petronia City is a new state of the art self-sufficient integrated city. The city is designed around the ideology of ‘work, live, learn and play’, Petronia City is a self - sustaining, master - planned, integrated city. 

It will attract, retain and support businesses, human capital needs and elevate Ghana’s Western Region into a world-class business location, tourist destination and home. The city will be built in phases with high-tech Infrastructures, recreational center, shopping mall, schools and clinics and more.

3. Marine Drive City:

 

 

The Marine Drive Tourism Investment Project is a government initiative aimed at developing sections of the coastline of Ghana’s capital city (from the Christianborg Castle in Osu, through the Independence Square to Baiden Powell near the Arts Centre in down - town Accra) into a state of the art tourism and hospitality enclave.

This development will have tourist resorts with facilities such as hotels, shopping malls, casinos, water theme parks, 15-floor office complex, conference and exhibition centres, a playground and a beach soccer pitch, among other things.

4. Africenter City:

Africenter City is an ongoing project of a huge commercial and recreational complex at Adenta, Accra. This project is the pioneering commercial project of AfCFTA with an international trade centre, international exhibition centre, cross - border e-commerce and logistics park and an international standard water park.

It will be the biggest international business district in West Africa as well as one of the major commercial hubs in Africa. The construction would make Ghana one of Africa’s major commercial centres.

 

 

 

 

MTN Ghana says it will cap its mobile money service fee at GH¢7.5 for any transfer from GHS1,000 and beyond when the 1.5 per cent electronic transfer levy (e-levy) is implemented.

Currently, the cap is on GH¢10, but MTN and other telcos have already announced a 25% decrease in transfer fees if e-levy comes on stream.

What was not clear was whether the the reduction was going to apply to the cap, and the CEO for MTN MobileMoney, Eli Hini has confirmed to Techgh24 that the cap will reduce to GH¢7.5.

Vodafone however still maintains a zero-rate on all transfers to all networks till date. Some Vodafone customers have been asking to know if the telco will also absorb the e-levy, but it has not announced any such gestures.

 

Background

E-levy was first announced by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta in his 2022 Budget presentation to Parliament. It was initially 1.75% but due to reasons only known to government, it has been reduced to 1.5%.

Indeed, it remains a controversial tax because the Minority in Parliament, civil society groups, industry players and several Ghanaians are still opposed to it.

Indeed, long before it was every mentioned, the champion of Ghana’s digital transformation, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia kicked against any plans to tax mobile money saying that it is a pro-poor platform that is driving financial inclusion, and taxing it will impact government’s own digitalisation drive negatively.

The Government however managed to get the Bill for its implementation passed in Parliament amidst a walkout by Minority MPs, some of whom are currently in court challenging the legality and constitutionality of the passage of the Bill.

While the case is yet to be determined, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has hurriedly assented to the Bill to make it law, pending implementation in May 2022.

Weeks before the passage of the Bill, the tax collector, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) issued implementation guidelines which had timelines indicating the government was preparing to implement the tax in three phases, starting between late March and early April.

In the march to this point, government officials have been on an errand to parts of the country holding townhall meetings and churning out some untruths and half truths just to convince Ghanaians to accept the tax.

They for instance, said at 1.75%, e-levy is the lowest tax rate. Meanwhile, their own Health Levy stands at 1%, much lower than the rate of the e-levy. Again, the claimed there is a 10% e-levy on British citizens, but that was also fact-checked and found to be a palpable falsehood.

As government, its institutions and industry players prepare to implement the e-levy in May, the point has been made that everywhere an e-levy or its type has been implemented on the continent, it has failed because it impacted negatively on the use of mobile money and failed to yield the expected result.

In the case of Ghana, government is targeting some US$1 billion to get the economy back on track from being hit by Covid-19, and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Only time will tell if the government took the right decision in imposing the e-levy in spite of the huge public outcry against it.

Meanwhile, Vice President Bawumia has been very silent on e-levy since it was announced by his government.

 

A cedi here, a cedi there, soon you have a billion Ghana is home to many prominent and highly successful individuals. Dine with Kennedy Agyapong and you will never starve again. He is considered to be among the richest Ghanaians of the 21st century. Born and bred in Assin Dompin, his life was not always as smooth as it is now and his success is a pure display of his dedication to achieving his goals.

 

 
 
 

Will Smith has won the Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of Venus and Serena Williams' father Richard in the tennis biopic "King Richard".

53-year-old man took home the trophy just minutes after he went viral for slapping presenter Chris Rock on stage after he had made a joke about the actor's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Smith referenced the moment in his speech and later apologized to the Academy before going on to thank the Williams family.

How it happened

The exchange began when Rock took aim at Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, saying, “Jada, I love you. ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it, all right?” Rock’s reference was made from the 1997 film “G.I. Jane,” starring Demi Moore, who shaved her head to portray a fictional Navy Seal candidate.

Pinkett Smith revealed in 2018 that she was diagnosed with alopecia. She has often discussed the challenges of hair loss on Instagram and other social media platforms.

The joke missed, badly.

Smith who laughed at first then walked onto the stage from his front-row seat and took a swing at Rock with an open palm, generating a loud smack. Smith walked back to his seat and shouted for Rock to leave Pinkett Smith alone. Rock replied that he was just making a “G.I. Jane” joke — and Smith yelled back at him a second time.

Smith shouted at Rock to “keep my wife’s name out of your (expletive) mouth,” and the crowd hushed as it became clear this was no act.

But once Smith returned moments later to accept his first-ever Academy Award, he delivered a tearful apology.

Smith shared what Denzel Washington told him earlier: “At your highest moment, be careful because that’s when the devil comes for you.

"I’m hoping the Academy invites me back," Will Smith said, as he concluded his on-stage remarks.

Chris Rock announced he wouldn't press charges against Will Smith for the Oscars assault.

The confrontation overshadowed Smith’s milestone accomplishment. He was previously nominated twice for best actor, for his role in “Ali” in 2002 and “The Pursuit of Happyness” in 2007. In those films, he portrayed real-life characters: Boxing legend Muhammad Ali and Chris Garner, a homeless salesman.

This time, Smith won against formidable competition including Andrew Garfield, Javier Bardem, Benedict Cumberbatch and Denzel Washington — who won his first and only best actor Oscar award in 2002 over Smith for “Training Day.”

King Richard follows Williams’ relationship with his daughters, as well as their development into tennis stars. Smith also served as a producer for the film.

 

 

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to create a new African Union-led peacekeeping force in Somalia.

The new mission, Atmis, replaces the current mission of nearly 20,000 military, police and civilians that will be gradually reduced to zero by the end of 2024.

The purpose of the new mission is to continue the fight against Shebab jihadists.

The US Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Richard Mills, described Shebab extremists as "representing a formidable and adaptable threat to Somalia and East Africa more broadly".

Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, has been the scene of multiple terrorist attacks.

Two separate attacks last week in the centre of the country resulted in at least 48 deaths.

Somalia has been waiting for parliamentary and presidential elections for over a year.

The mandate of the current head of state, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as President Farmajo, expired in February 2021

 

The United Nations Population Fund just published its annual State of World Population Report. This year's document focuses on unintended pregnancies, prengancies occuring to women who did not intend to have anymore children or not at this moment in their life. The reaseach reveals that they concern 121 million women worldwide each year with 60 percent of them leading to safe or unsafe abortions and 5 percent to 13 percent to maternal deaths. A global phenomenon that affects the african continent.

 

#DidYouKnow: Globally, nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended? That's a startling 121 million each year. This is an unseen crisis unfolding right before our eyes. Start #SeeingTheUnseen today and join @UNFPA to take action: unf.pa/stu

"If young people are affected by unintended pregnancies, development is hindered, their education is hindered, their contribution to socio-economic life is hindered, explains Dr. Jean-Pierre Makelele, Deputy Resident Representative UNFPA Senegal, In short, somewhere along the line, in terms of cost, it is a loss".

Therefore, the UNPF decided to highlight the problem of unplanned pregnancies, particularly in West and Central Africa, in this year's report. The UN agency is calling on public authorities and all sectors of the African population to take global action.

"If we want to take advantage of the demographic dividend, it is time to act on the levers that will accelerate the reduction of all the psychological, medical, economic, social and ediucational consequences of unintended pregnancies", says Huguette Gnakadja executive secretary of the Beninese Institute of women.

The report stresses the link between the developement of women's rights and unplanned pregnacies and for activist Kadiatou Konaté, the main solution for it is a real political engagement."If decision-makers are willing to enforce laws, we will evolve. It's not enough to pass laws, you have to enforce them", insists the young activist, Executive director of the Young women leader's club in Guinea.

In order to avoid this situation, the UN emphasizes on the importance of contraception and claims to have distributed tens of millions of forms of contraceptives in 2020.

 

 

The opening match is scheduled for November 21st.

The host nation, Qatar, will face Ecuador to kick off the tournament in Group A that also includes Senegal and the Netherlands.

The African champions will also have to face the hosts, Qatar, and Ecuador for a place in round 2.

In Group D, Tunisia will be playing against defending champions, France and Denmark plus an unknown opponent that could be Peru, Australia or the UAE.

In Group F, Morocco faces a battle against Canada, Belgium and Croatia.

The Atlas Lions are currently being managed by Bosnian Vahid Halilodzic.

Record holder Brazil is in Group G and will face Cameroon, Switzerland and Serbia.

The Indomitable Lions are under the supervision of Rigobert Song. It is the eighth time that Cameroon gains a place in the competition. For many, the question is how far the Lions will be able to go this time.

Finally, in Group H, Ghana will face Portugal on November 24th. Uruguay and South Korea are the two other teams in the same group.

All eyes will also be on Group E where Spain and Germany will be facing each other.

 

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