Founder of defunct uniBank, Dr Kwabena Duffuor

Private legal practitioner, Kwame Boafo Akufo, has described the collapse of uniBank as a process marred by legal inconsistencies and what he termed a “remarkably painful error,” raising fresh concerns about the legitimacy of the 2018 banking sector clean-up exercise.

His comments follow the Attorney-General’s decision on July 22,2025, to file a nolle prosequi in the criminal case involving former Minister of Finance, Dr Kwabena Duffuor and seven others.

The accused had been standing trial for alleged offenses including theft and money laundering in connection with uniBank’s insolvency.

Speaking in an interview on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey on Thursday, July 31, Akufo stated that no forensic audit had been conducted to verify the financial claims that led to uniBank’s collapse.

“So far as I’m concerned, the records do not disclose that a forensic audit was done. In fact, KPMG issued the report and said that the figures they relied on were not validated. That’s why the basis of the exercise itself was fraught with a remarkably painful error,” Akufo explained.

He further argued that the entire process was not aligned with proper legal standards.

“These matters that took place were not in alignment with the law,” he emphasized.

While refraining from speculating on individual motives behind the collapse, Akufo maintained that the absence of proper auditing and reliance on unverified figures rendered the Bank of Ghana’s actions questionable.

“The decision to revoke uniBank’s license was based on figures that were not only unaudited but, by KPMG’s own admission, not validated. That alone shows the exercise was deeply flawed,” he added.

The case, The Republic v. Kwabena Duffuor & 7 Others (CR/0248/2020), formed part of the broader financial sector clean-up that led to the closure of several indigenous banks.

However, Deputy Attorney-General Dr Justice Srem-Sai indicated that the state was discontinuing the case due to “significant recoveries” of public funds—reportedly covering at least 60% of the alleged losses.

Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament has strongly criticized the Attorney-General’s decision to drop the case, labeling it a betrayal of public trust.

They have demanded a full explanation and are considering legal action, arguing that the discontinuation undermines accountability and sets a troubling precedent.

At the 15th Anniversary of the Ghana Entrepreneurs Foundation Awards and Dinner Gala, the Government reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to empowering the private sector as the engine of national transformation.

Delivering a speech on behalf of the Chief of Staff, Hon. Julius Debrah, at the event on Friday, 1st August 2025, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah assured the business community that the government sees entrepreneurs not as competitors, but as partners in development.

“To every entrepreneur here tonight, I bring you this assurance: The government is your partner—not your competitor. We are creating the enabling environment—policy stability, digitization, lower taxes, reliable energy, skills development, and smart investment incentives. You can plan. You can scale. You can thrive.”

The address highlighted the pivotal role of entrepreneurs in national development, citing their contributions to job creation, innovation, tax mobilisation, and Ghana’s international business footprint.

Mr. Debrah described the entrepreneurial spirit as central to Ghana’s economic story, stating: “Ghana does not belong to governments alone. It belongs to the men and women who wake up every day and turn ideas into enterprises. You are our silent nation-builders. And tonight, we make your impact visible.”

He outlined significant progress made under President John Dramani Mahama’s leadership, including the stabilisation of the cedi, falling interest rates, increased reserves, and landmark initiatives such as the Ghana Commodity Exchange, the Goldbod programme, and reductions in fuel prices.

The Chief of Staff also spotlighted upcoming policy directions under the Big Push Agenda, a $10 billion infrastructure-led growth programme aimed at revitalising roads, schools, railways, and hospitals—while unlocking fresh investment opportunities and creating thousands of jobs.

Other key initiatives include the Feed Ghana Programme, designed to modernise agriculture and position it as a strategic pillar of the economy, and the 24-Hour Economy, a bold blueprint to rewire Ghana’s economic productivity cycle for round-the-clock operations.

The night also witnessed the celebration of distinguished Ghanaian entrepreneurs through the Legacy Lifetime Achievement and Top 25 Most Influential Entrepreneurs of All Time awards.

Read also: Ghana Entrepreneurs Foundation honours distinguished business leaders at 15th anniversary gala

Mr Debrah commended the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Ghana for its visionary leadership and dedication to honouring excellence in enterprise. “Your lives are textbooks. Your businesses are case studies. Your stories are blueprints. Continue to inspire us,” he concluded.

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.

Entrepreneur Richard Nii Armah Quaye unveiled a nationwide food bank project on August 1, 2025, targeting hunger and dignity restoration in vulnerable communities.

The RNAQ Foundation initiative, launched at Accra’s La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, will provide free daily meals across Korle-Gonno, Kasoa, Ashaiman, Odorkor, and Madina. Quaye, recalling his own struggles, declared: “This isn’t just about feeding people; it’s about telling every Ghanaian they matter.”

Meals will be sourced from local vendors to simultaneously support small businesses and ensure nutritional quality. The project drew praise from officials including National Youth Authority CEO Osman Abdulai Ayariga, who called it “timely” for its generational impact, and Deputy Food Minister John Dumelo, who applauded Quaye’s use of wealth for public good—joking he’d “use [his] Ghana Card” for a meal.

Quaye, who stepped down from leadership roles at Quick Angels and Bills MicroCredit this year, now focuses solely on empowerment. Citing Maslow’s hierarchy, he vowed: “As long as I have strength, we’ll keep expanding this project.”

A high-powered delegation from Mombasa, Kenya, led by Governor Abdullswamad Sherrif Nassir, has visited Zoomlion Ghana Limited and other subsidiaries of the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC) to study the company’s innovative waste management model.

The 26-member delegation, including members of Parliament (MPs), technical staff members, and administrative personnel, aimed to explore potential areas of collaboration and emulate the Jospong Group’s sanitation module in Kenya.

The visit follows a working trip by the Executive Chairman of JGC, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, to Kenya in July this year, aimed at promoting a Pan-Africa solution to the sanitation challenges, by turning them into opportunities for growth.

Their visit was to discuss and observe at first-hand how the Jospong Group uses green technologies and state-of-the-art facilities to solve challenges within the environmental sanitation space. The team, after several discussions and touring these eco-friendly facilities, was overwhelmed with the depth of knowledge and expertise exhibited by the Jospong staff.

They saw Jospong Group’s solution as one that brings social, environmental, and economic empowerment to the youth.

During their four-day (July 29 – August 1, 2025) visit to Ghana, the delegation toured various facilities of the JGC, including Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited (SSGL), Zoomlion Transfer Station in Pantang, Accra Compost and Recycling Plant (ACARP), Kpone Landfill Site, Universal Plastic Product and Recycling Plant (UPPR), in Accra and Kumasi Compost and Recycling Plant (KCARP), Medical Waste Treatment Facility, and Kumasi Waste Water Treatment Plant in the Ashanti Region.

The delegation was impressed by the company’s waste management module, which turns waste into a resource and opportunity. They commended the Jospong Group for taking the lead in waste management in Africa and creating opportunities for the youth.

The Governor of Mombasa, Abdullswamad Sherrif Nassir, outlined the county’s waste management strategy, which includes dividing Mombasa into 600 units and employing young people to collect waste.

According to him, the collected waste will be taken to a transfer station and then to a material recovery facility, eliminating the need for landfills that cause environmental degradation.

“In the past, people were disposing of waste haphazardly due to the lack of a formal collection system,” Governor Nassir said.

“To address this, we’re dividing Mombasa into 600 units and employing young people to collect waste. We’ll pay them a salary to prevent cartels from forming.”

The Governor expressed gratitude to the Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, for his support and participation in the upcoming devolution conference.

The Executive Chairman, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, in his statement, emphasised the importance of collaborative partnerships and supporting local talent. “We’re committed to making this project a success, and we’ll work closely with you as partners,” he said. “We believe in collaborative partnerships, supporting local talent, and creating employment opportunities.”

He added that Jospong Group’s team will work with Mombasa County to complete feasibility studies and ensure timely delivery. “We’ll send a team to discuss details with stakeholders and before work begins,” he said. “By the time we finish, locals will be equipped to operate the plant, and we’ll establish a training regime for knowledge transfer.”

The partnership between Mombasa County and Jospong Group aims to promote sustainable waste management practices and create employment opportunities for the local population.

Mohamed Faki Mwinyihaj, Senator and member of the delegation, echoed this sentiment, saying, “The Jospong Group’s waste management module is a model that we can learn from and replicate in Kenya. The level of job creation and environmental protection is impressive.”

Chairperson of Mombasa County Public Service Board, Farida Abdallah, was particularly impressed with the level of job creation the transfer station has provided for the youth. “This is a model that we can replicate in Kenya to create jobs and promote environmental protection,” she said.

Other members of Parliament Likoni, Mvita, Kisauni, Changamwe, Mishi Kuma Mboko, Constituencies, also expressed similar sentiments, emphasising their government’s commitment to job creation and environmental protection. “The Jospong Group’s waste management module aligns with our government’s priorities, and we are excited about the potential for collaboration,” they said.

The Minister of Blue Economy, Agriculture, and Livestock in Mombasa County, also expressed support for efforts to emulate the Jospong Group’s sanitation module in Kenya. “We believe that this model can be adapted to our context and help us address our waste management challenges,” she said. The Officer in charge of Water and Sanitation in the County of Mombasa noted that the Jospong Waste Module turns waste into a resource and opportunity, a feat worth emulating.

“This is a game-changer for waste management in Kenya, and we are excited about the potential for collaboration,” he said.

Earlier during the tour, Sherrif Nassir, together with all his MPs, technical and administrative staff members, paid a working visit to the KCARP, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group and the biggest compost and recycling plant in Africa. They also visited the Kumasi Waste Water Treatment plant and the ultra-modern medical waste treatment plant.

The Governor mentioned how sanitation challenges such as solid waste, sewerage, and medical waste have bedevilled the county of Mombasa, hence their readiness to allow Jospong Group to replicate their blueprint solutions to the sanitation sector to provide a sustainable environment for all.

The visit aims to foster knowledge sharing and collaboration between Ghana and Kenya to promote sustainable waste management practices. The potential collaboration could lead to new partnerships and opportunities for growth in the waste management sector.

Earlier in July, there was a working visit by officials from the office of Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, as well as the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), to explore sustainable waste management partnerships in Kenya.

Meanwhile, watch as Prophet Worlasi shares bombshell prophesies on Bawumia and NPP on The Lowdown:

As the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary, its founding principle enshrined in the U.N. Charter remains as vital as ever: to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

In an era of rising zero-sum rivalries and cultural divides, China has emerged as a unifying force, championing dialogue among civilizations and advancing a community with a shared future for humanity. Through a mix of ancient wisdom and modern initiatives, China bridges East and West, demonstrating that mutual understanding, not confrontation, paves the path forward.

Harmony without Uniformity: China’s Philosophy of Exchange

China’s commitment to civilizational dialogue traces back centuries. The Han Dynasty’s Silk Road, pioneered by envoy Zhang Qian, turned windswept deserts into thriving arteries for exchanging goods and ideas. Centuries later, Chinese explorer and navigator Zheng He’s treasure fleets carried porcelain and tea to distant shores, embodying a philosophy of exchange, not conquest.

Today, as cultural tensions rise globally, China’s Confucian ideal of harmony without uniformity offers a timely antidote to the “clash of civilizations” narrative. The Global Civilization Initiative underscores this vision, rejecting cultural hierarchy in favor of mutual learning. By advocating equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness—alongside the common values of humanity, namely, peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom—China offers a timeless framework for coexistence among civilizations.

Guardians of Shared Memory: Preserving Humanity’s Legacy

Civilizations thrive when their shared history is preserved. As custodians of humanity’s collective memory, World Heritage sites serve as bridges between past and future, a mission China has embraced through global collaboration.

Take the Mogao Caves, a Silk Road treasure housing 45,000 square meters of Buddhist murals and 2,000 sculptures. Facing irreversible decay, China and the U.K. led a coalition of 35 international institutions to digitize the caves, enabling scholars from Dunhuang to London to study and restore them.

This spirit of cooperation extends through China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In Cambodia, Chinese archaeologists spent three decades restoring Angkor Wat, setting a “gold standard” for heritage cooperation. In Uzbekistan, Chinese and local artisans revived Khiva’s blue-tiled Ark Citadel, rekindling Silk Road bonds. When the Notre-Dame Cathedral burned in 2019, Chinese timber specialists shared restoration techniques with French counterparts, turning tragedy into solidarity. Such efforts culminated in China’s 2024 proposal for the U.N.’s first “International Day for Dialogue among Civilizations”, adopted unanimously by all 193 member states as a resounding rejection of cultural containment.

Weaving Tomorrow’s Tapestry: Youth as Builders of Understanding

The future of inter-civilization dialogue lies with the young. Youth engagement is central to China’s vision for sustainable cultural exchange.

The China-U.S. “50,000 Strong” initiative, which aims to bring 50,000 American students to China, exemplifies this. Sarah, a once-skeptical Californian high-school student, became fascinated with Peking Opera’s fusion of martial arts, poetry, and music. “Shakespeare meets Marvel,” she raved. Despite political tensions, such exchanges remain transformative, proving that people-to-people ties go beyond geopolitics.

Sports and arts are universal languages that transcend division. As the world’s only Dual Olympic City, Beijing showcased this in 2022 when Russian and Ukrainian athletes embraced, reminding the world that human bonds outlast conflict.

Even digital spaces foster connection. On Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform, the hashtag #ChinaUSFamilyExchange has millions of views, featuring heartwarming meetups between American “TikTok refugees” and Chinese netizens. Algorithms may divide but humanity’s desire for connection prevails.

Over the past eight decades, China has proven that heritage preservation, institutional innovation and youth engagement can build resilient bridges among civilizations.

Within the U.N. framework, China continues to forge connections, guiding humanity toward shared prosperity. As a young visitor wrote in the Mogao Caves guestbook: “The future isn’t a single thread it’s a tapestry.” China’s mission remains clear: ensuring every culture finds its place in humanity’s collective masterpiece.

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.

David Oscar Dogbe is a Ghanaian reggae artiste

Reggae artiste David Oscar Dogbe brought down the roof at his annual ‘Reggae Spot Music Festival’ with a powerful rendition of Bob Marley’s classic, ‘Small Axe’.

The performance, captured during the previous edition of the musical festival in the Eastern Region in November 2024, has been making waves among reggae enthusiasts.

The video showcases David Oscar’s brilliant take on the iconic tune, captivating the audience and getting them “jamming to the tune” throughout on the night of the show.

This performance turned out to be the climax of the festival, demonstrating not only his musical talent but also his deep respect for the legends of the genre.

The ‘Reggae Spot Music Festival’ has become a staple for reggae lovers, and David Oscar’s tribute to Bob Marley serves as a perfect example of the quality of music and vibrant atmosphere the event offers.

Fans who missed the show can now get a glimpse of the unforgettable performance in video below.

VPO/EB

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…as Nigeria, Ghana reaffirm strong ties 

The governments of Nigeria and Ghana have moved to dispel growing concerns sparked by viral videos suggesting animosity towards Nigerians living in Ghana, insisting that bilateral relations remain cordial and that no such incidents have occurred.

The joint reassurance came during a diplomatic visit by Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, who led a fact-finding delegation to Accra on the directive of President Bola Tinubu.

Addressing journalists at a joint press conference alongside Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Odumegwu-Ojukwu emphasized that there was no indication of hostility against Nigerians.

“The situation on ground is calm and peaceful. We interacted with Nigerian residents and community leaders here in Ghana, and there’s no cause for alarm”, she said.

She expressed appreciation to the Ghanaian government and particularly commended President John Dramani Mahama for his leadership in maintaining peace and regional diplomacy.

She also advocated for the reactivation of the Nigeria-Ghana Joint Commission, describing it as a vital platform to strengthen bilateral ties and prevent future diplomatic misunderstandings.

Ghana’s Foreign Minister also addressed the concerns, denying that any group protests or targeted aggression had occurred.

He noted that all law-abiding residents, regardless of nationality, are protected under Ghanaian law and urged the public to disregard misleading narratives spread on social media.

“We must be cautious about the kind of information we consume and share. The recent videos making the rounds are misleading and have the potential to unnecessarily damage the historical and cultural ties between our nations”, Ablakwa said.

The ministers recalled previous strains in Nigeria-Ghana relations, including the infamous “Ghana Must Go” saga of 1983, as reminders of the need for careful diplomacy and regional cooperation.

Both leaders stressed that Africa must learn from its past and work towards unity, peace, and mutual progress.

In addition to the press briefing, the Nigerian delegation held several closed-door meetings with diplomats, community leaders, and other key stakeholders.

play videoThe Gold-for-Oil program was launched in 2023 by the Akufo-Addo government

Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, has questioned the rationale behind the Gold-for-Oil program initiated by the Akufo-Addo government.

Describing the program as an “unthinkable policy,” he criticised the approach of barter trading Ghana’s gold for oil in today’s global economic system.

He argued that the policy defies modern economic logic, noting that both gold and oil are commodities traded openly on international markets with standardized pricing.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament, the Cape Coast MP said; “The oil for gold, or gold for oil, whatever you call it, that you were doing, which turned out to be one of the unbelievable, unthinkable policies that can ever be implemented in this modern age. We have a world market for gold. We have a world market for oil and you are sitting in some little corner, you are doing a barter trade of oil and gold. How? And you said it’s an economic policy.”

“Gold has a world market price. If anybody wants to buy gold, they go to the market. Oil has a market price. If anybody wants to buy oil, they go to the market. Why would you call somebody in Dubai and do a barter trade in this day and age? I mean, did you set up your own price in that barter trade?” he quizzed.

Ricketts-Hagan further asked that; “Did you have a different price for gold and a different price for oil than what is being given in the world market? What was in for you? And what was in for the other person? Nobody in their right senses will sell oil to you at a price lower than the market and then you may want to sell gold to other people below the world market. It is not surprising.”

According to him, the program resulted in a staggering loss of $2.4 billion, citing a lack of transparency in pricing, supplier identity, and transaction structure.

“We don’t know who was supplying the oil. We don’t know the price. The government itself didn’t know,” he said.

The Gold-for-Oil policy was a strategic program launched by the Akufo-Addo government in 2023.

It aimed to utilise the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase (DGP) program to support the importation of petroleum products into the country.

The initiative was designed to free up foreign exchange resources and reduce pressure on the central bank’s foreign reserves and the banking sector.

It also sought to procure petroleum products at competitive prices through government-to-government arrangements.

The BoG purchases all gold produced and exported by companies with licensed small-scale concessions, including community mines.

This gold is then used to pay for oil supplies to Ghana, either through barter trade or via a broker channel.

However, the program’s execution quickly drew scrutiny.

According to the Bank of Ghana, the country recorded some loses of GH¢2.14 billion from the program, GH¢320 million in 2023 and GH¢1.82 billion in 2024.

The central bank attributed it to exchange rate differentials and petroleum stockpiling.

SA/EB

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The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has officially released the full calendar for the 2025/26 Women’s FA Cup, marking a significant expansion in participation and competition structure.

The tournament is scheduled to kick off on the weekend of November 21, 2025, and will culminate with the grand finale on May 4, 2026.

In a major development, the upcoming season will see the number of participating teams double from 32 to 64, featuring 44 Division One Regional Women’s Clubs alongside 20 Women’s Premier League Clubs. This expansion is part of the GFA’s broader efforts to grow women’s football and provide more competitive opportunities across all levels.

A key structural change includes the introduction of a Round of 64, where fixtures will be drawn on a regional basis to minimize travel and logistical burdens in the early stages. From the Round of 16, the competition will shift to a zonal format, increasing competitiveness and variety in matchups as the tournament progresses.

Faith Ladies, champions of the 2024/25 edition, will return to defend their title after a thrilling 2-1 victory over Jonina Ladies in last season’s final at the University of Ghana Stadium.

The GFA’s announcement signals a bold step forward for the Women’s FA Cup, underlining its commitment to the development and visibility of the women’s game across Ghana.

A new actuarial model could help African insurers lead the next era of financial resilience, starting with Ghana.

Reinsurance rarely makes the headlines, but it plays a quiet, stabilizing role behind the scenes such as helping insurers pay claims after disasters, supporting public health schemes, and safeguarding national assets.

In Ghana, where insurance penetration remains under 2% of GDP and financial shocks like pandemics and floods regularly test the limits of local capacity, rethinking how insurers share risk is not just technical; it’s urgent.

In a new study, actuarial scientist Dr. Ernest Forson Aboagye presents a new model that reimagines how insurers determine the balance between retaining risk and transferring it through reinsurance. His solution is built for the complexity of emerging markets, where data can be sparse, losses are volatile, and every premium cedi counts.

Rethinking Risk Transfer in the Ghanaian Context

Traditionally, reinsurance modeling in academia and regulation has favored stop-loss (SL) contracts, a structure where insurers pass aggregate losses above a threshold to reinsurers. While this works well in controlled simulations, it often fails in real-world settings like Ghana’s, where inflation, exchange rate shocks, and climate volatility make loss forecasting difficult.

Dr. Aboagye’s model shifts toward excess-of-loss (EoL) contracts, which are sparsely used in practice, compared to SL contracts, but lacked a robust theoretical foundation. His contribution is a statistically rigorous, nonparametric approach to estimating the optimal “retention limit”, i.e., how much risk the insurer should keep before triggering reinsurance.

The model allows insurers to: use actual local claims data rather than imported assumptions; align with global capital adequacy regulations like Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES); and adjust retention dynamically based on market conditions or contract design

Why EoL Is More Viable in Ghana and West Africa

In West African markets like Ghana’s, EoL contracts offer critical advantages over SL structures. First, they are more marketable to reinsurers, as they are based on individual claim limits rather than hard-to-estimate cumulative losses. This makes pricing more transparent and reduces uncertainty.

Second, premium costs are generally lower, as EoL does not require exhaustive aggregation of claims across a full policy period — a process that is difficult in markets where claims reporting and data infrastructure remain fragmented.

Moreover, in Ghana’s context, inconsistent claims timelines and delays in loss development often render SL assumptions unreliable. EoL, by contrast, allows for event-based protection as reinsurers can step in after a single large loss, even if other claims are pending or under investigation. This is crucial for insurers covering catastrophe, motor, or health risks, where shocks are frequent but hard to tally in real time.

Finally, the regulatory shift toward risk-based supervision favors models that can stress-test individual risk layers: something EoL structures accommodate naturally. All of these factors make EoL a more resilient, cost-effective, and regulation-friendly contract type for the region.

Why This Matters Post-COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed weaknesses in Ghana’s insurance ecosystem, especially for health and SME risk, where liquidity constraints and coverage gaps became acute. Although the industry recorded GH¢4.2 billion in gross written premiums in 2020, representing about 21% year-on-year growth according to the National Insurance Commission , growth slowed compared to earlier years, and pressures on capital reserves increased.

In response, Ghana’s NIC has accelerated its transition toward risk-based supervision, in line with global standards like Solvency II. Dr. Aboagye’s framework supports this shift by providing actuaries and regulators with a tool that is analytically sound, locally adaptable, and aligned with solvency reforms.

Who Benefits? Real-World Use Cases

This isn’t just theory. The model has practical implications across sectors:

• Agricultural Insurance: For insurers covering maize or cocoa farmers in the northern and other regions, the model supports rainfall-linked risk pooling and more accurate catastrophe pricing.

• Energy and Infrastructure: Ghana’s investments in renewables and oil infrastructure require reinsurance contracts tailored to project-phase risk, something this method enables.

• Microinsurance and Health: Products under Ghana’s NHIS or private health insurers need backstops for pandemic-scale claims. The model helps insurers simulate extreme events and set fairer terms with reinsurers.

• Property and Urban Flood Risk: In cities like Accra and Kumasi, insurers are increasingly exposed to climate-driven property damage. The model supports event-based coverage, allowing firms to design trigger thresholds for localized flooding or fire incidents, especially useful where urban planning gaps and drainage failures elevate loss unpredictability.

Ghana is home to strong reinsurers like Ghana Re and WAICA Re, and newer players such as ZEP-RE (PTA Re) and ARC Ltd are increasing their African footprint. For them, adopting flexible and data-informed treaty structures is not just prudent, but also a source of competitive edge. This reinsurance model provides the theoretical foundation for reinsurers seeking to price risk more precisely in emerging economies.

A Call for Ownership and Vision for Resilience

Crucially, this is not a “black box” algorithm. “It’s implementable using standard actuarial tools and open-source statistical software,” Dr. Aboagye says. “The goal is to put the power of modern risk design into the hands of African professionals.” This includes Ghanaian universities, where actuarial science programs are growing, and insurance companies seeking to train local talent in pricing and reinsurance analytics.

Rather than replicating imported models that assume complete data and perfect market stability, Dr. Aboagye argues for a context-aware reinsurance architecture. “Ghana has its own risk story,” he says. “Our models should reflect that.”

With partnerships between regulators, reinsurers, and academic researchers, Ghana could emerge as a leader in homegrown financial resilience strategies, not just reacting to disaster but proactively designing around it.

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The Feed Ghana program presents a viable opportunity for profitable investment in modernising agriculture and addressing climate change, Eric Hatudson Asamani, Greater Accra Regional Director of Agriculture, has said.

He made the remarks at the Ghana-Nebraska Agribusiness, Growth and Trade Relations Chamber (GNEBCham) forum in Accra, themed “Doing Business in America with Americans.”

“Our proposal is the Feed Ghana program, which comes with all manner of opportunities, mechanising and scaling up our production base, and this is achievable through the establishment of agribusiness centres,” Asamani stated.

He identified input supply, land development, technology, and infrastructure, particularly for producing soybean, maize, rice, sorghum, starchy crops, tree crops, and poultry processing, as priority areas for investment.

Asamani said Ghana’s five central pivot irrigation systems were inadequate and presented further investment potential.

“It’s a huge opportunity for investors, especially in the era of climate change. The water bodies exist, and we can really create more with the involvement of dugouts, for commercial farming,” he added.

Asamani noted that investing in Ghana would allow Nebraska agribusinesses to consolidate their presence and expand into West Africa.

“For international investors, Ghana’s stable democratic environment, English-speaking population, and strategic location in West Africa present additional advantages beyond the immediate agricultural prospects,” he said.

Alberta Nana Akyea Akosa, Co-Founder of GNEBCham, said the Chamber was promoting collaborative agribusiness ventures to avoid siloed operations.

“We are always looking for our individual interest, but this time, we’re coming together as a Chamber to even have a commercial farm project, bringing value and volume to the table and exporting our products in large quantities sustainably,” she said.

Ken Schilz, former Nebraska State Senator and Co-Founder of GNEBCham, said American companies were developing smaller, more practical machinery to support Ghana’s agricultural needs.

He emphasised that successful international partnerships required sustained effort and noted ongoing engagements with Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture to advance mutual initiatives.

A new actuarial model could help African insurers lead the next era of financial resilience, starting with Ghana.

Reinsurance rarely makes the headlines, but it plays a quiet, stabilizing role behind the scenes such as helping insurers pay claims after disasters, supporting public health schemes, and safeguarding national assets.

In Ghana, where insurance penetration remains under 2% of GDP and financial shocks like pandemics and floods regularly test the limits of local capacity, rethinking how insurers share risk is not just technical; it’s urgent.

In a new study, actuarial scientist Dr. Ernest Forson Aboagye presents a new model that reimagines how insurers determine the balance between retaining risk and transferring it through reinsurance. His solution is built for the complexity of emerging markets, where data can be sparse, losses are volatile, and every premium cedi counts.

Rethinking Risk Transfer in the Ghanaian Context

Traditionally, reinsurance modeling in academia and regulation has favored stop-loss (SL) contracts, a structure where insurers pass aggregate losses above a threshold to reinsurers. While this works well in controlled simulations, it often fails in real-world settings like Ghana’s, where inflation, exchange rate shocks, and climate volatility make loss forecasting difficult.

Dr. Aboagye’s model shifts toward excess-of-loss (EoL) contracts, which are sparsely used in practice, compared to SL contracts, but lacked a robust theoretical foundation. His contribution is a statistically rigorous, nonparametric approach to estimating the optimal “retention limit”, i.e., how much risk the insurer should keep before triggering reinsurance.

The model allows insurers to: use actual local claims data rather than imported assumptions; align with global capital adequacy regulations like Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES); and adjust retention dynamically based on market conditions or contract design

Why EoL Is More Viable in Ghana and West Africa

In West African markets like Ghana’s, EoL contracts offer critical advantages over SL structures. First, they are more marketable to reinsurers, as they are based on individual claim limits rather than hard-to-estimate cumulative losses. This makes pricing more transparent and reduces uncertainty.

Second, premium costs are generally lower, as EoL does not require exhaustive aggregation of claims across a full policy period — a process that is difficult in markets where claims reporting and data infrastructure remain fragmented.

Moreover, in Ghana’s context, inconsistent claims timelines and delays in loss development often render SL assumptions unreliable. EoL, by contrast, allows for event-based protection as reinsurers can step in after a single large loss, even if other claims are pending or under investigation. This is crucial for insurers covering catastrophe, motor, or health risks, where shocks are frequent but hard to tally in real time.

Finally, the regulatory shift toward risk-based supervision favors models that can stress-test individual risk layers: something EoL structures accommodate naturally. All of these factors make EoL a more resilient, cost-effective, and regulation-friendly contract type for the region.

Why This Matters Post-COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed weaknesses in Ghana’s insurance ecosystem, especially for health and SME risk, where liquidity constraints and coverage gaps became acute. Although the industry recorded GH¢4.2 billion in gross written premiums in 2020, representing about 21% year-on-year growth according to the National Insurance Commission , growth slowed compared to earlier years, and pressures on capital reserves increased.

In response, Ghana’s NIC has accelerated its transition toward risk-based supervision, in line with global standards like Solvency II. Dr. Aboagye’s framework supports this shift by providing actuaries and regulators with a tool that is analytically sound, locally adaptable, and aligned with solvency reforms.

Who Benefits? Real-World Use Cases

This isn’t just theory. The model has practical implications across sectors:

• Agricultural Insurance: For insurers covering maize or cocoa farmers in the northern and other regions, the model supports rainfall-linked risk pooling and more accurate catastrophe pricing.

• Energy and Infrastructure: Ghana’s investments in renewables and oil infrastructure require reinsurance contracts tailored to project-phase risk, something this method enables.

• Microinsurance and Health: Products under Ghana’s NHIS or private health insurers need backstops for pandemic-scale claims. The model helps insurers simulate extreme events and set fairer terms with reinsurers.

• Property and Urban Flood Risk: In cities like Accra and Kumasi, insurers are increasingly exposed to climate-driven property damage. The model supports event-based coverage, allowing firms to design trigger thresholds for localized flooding or fire incidents, especially useful where urban planning gaps and drainage failures elevate loss unpredictability.

Ghana is home to strong reinsurers like Ghana Re and WAICA Re, and newer players such as ZEP-RE (PTA Re) and ARC Ltd are increasing their African footprint. For them, adopting flexible and data-informed treaty structures is not just prudent, but also a source of competitive edge. This reinsurance model provides the theoretical foundation for reinsurers seeking to price risk more precisely in emerging economies.

A Call for Ownership and Vision for Resilience

Crucially, this is not a “black box” algorithm. “It’s implementable using standard actuarial tools and open-source statistical software,” Dr. Aboagye says. “The goal is to put the power of modern risk design into the hands of African professionals.” This includes Ghanaian universities, where actuarial science programs are growing, and insurance companies seeking to train local talent in pricing and reinsurance analytics.

Rather than replicating imported models that assume complete data and perfect market stability, Dr. Aboagye argues for a context-aware reinsurance architecture. “Ghana has its own risk story,” he says. “Our models should reflect that.”

With partnerships between regulators, reinsurers, and academic researchers, Ghana could emerge as a leader in homegrown financial resilience strategies, not just reacting to disaster but proactively designing around it.

How Virtual Reality is enhancing business and customer experience

Cocoa relief targets displaced in Gaza

Former President Nana Akufo Addo has promised to extend the needed support to the children of the late Highlife Musician Daddy Lumba.

He noted that this is part of the measures to show appreciation to the musician.

 The Former President said this when he visited the family to extend his sympathy.

Nana Akufo-Addo insisted that the late Highlife Musician Daddy Lumba is indeed among the greats in the Music industry that the country has produced.

“Indeed, Daddy Lumba goes into the History books for Highlife greats that the country has produced, like King Bruce, Jerry Hanson and E.T. Mensah.

“He is indeed part of them. And to his children, the assurance is that they will not be orphans. We will all support them,” the former president said.    

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.

Photo of a rubber plantation

Some rubber farmers in the Nzema enclave, have called on the Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA) to license and regulate activities of stakeholders in the rubber production value chain to help protect the interest of all players particularly farmers, traders, and aggregators.

Yirenkyi Ansah, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on behalf of his colleague farmers, said some local rubber processing factories had taken advantage of the unregulated sector to pay unfair prices for raw materials supplied to them.

He said the situation was having a negative impact on their livelihoods, making some of them to sell off their farms to illegal miners.

“Most rubber processing factories in Ghana now are without their own plantation or with plantations that cannot feed even a quarter of their factory’s capacity, so they mostly depend on farmers for direct supply or through traders and aggregators.

“However, these processors are unwilling to offer reasonable prices that can take care of the cost components of the plantation, making the rubber trading business among local processors unprofitable,” he stated.

He also mentioned other challenges like the delay in payment by local processors for supply made to them, and the inadequate capacity to process the raw materials.

He said: “One of the reasons why we prefer to trade with exporters of raw rubber rather than supplying to local processors is a lack of cooperation and compromise between us and them, and they have turned deaf ears to our genuine concerns.”

The farmers, therefore, called on the TCDA and other relevant authorities to take steps to regularise the rubber production sector to benefit every stakeholder in the value chain and help grow the industry.

“We are calling on the Tree Crop Development Authority to take careful steps to license and regulate the rubber industry to protect all actors including farmers and traders whose activities impact the economic life of the rural communities and directly affect production,” they added.

Mona Gucci (L) has been fined for making some defamatory comments against Yvonne Nelson (R)

An Accra High Court has fined Ghanaian media personality Mona Gucci GH¢ 340,000 for spewing some derogatory comments about actress Yvonne Nelson.

It would be recalled that on May 26, 2020, the media personality, during a discussion on Neat FM, referred to Yvonne Nelson as a “slay queen”, adding that the actress’ lavish lifestyle was sponsored by persons behind the scenes.

In a recent development, an Accra High Court on Wednesday, May 30, 2025, presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay ruled in favour of the actress.

Per the court’s ruling, Mona Gucci is obligated to retract her statement and apologise to Yvonne Nelson on the same media platform where she had earlier said them.

Mona Gucci has also been ordered by the court to pay Yvonne Nelson a sum of GH¢ 250,000 as general damages, exemplary damages of GH¢ 50,000, and GH¢ 40,000 for legal fees.

According to reports, copies of the ruling shall be available for parties on the 8th day of August, 2025.

JHM/EB

Meanwhile, watch as Prophet Worlasi shares bombshell prophesies on Bawumia and NPP on The Lowdown:

The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) Joint Task Force in Bawku has launched a major intelligence-led cordon and search operation aimed at flushing out armed bandits and retrieving illegal weapons in the conflict-hit municipality.

The operation, which took place on Friday, August 1, was led by Taskforce Commander Colonel Rosslyn Foli Atiogbe, alongside Lieutenant Colonel Kakra Sasu-Antwi, Commander Rear of the 11 Mechanized Battalion, and other senior officers.

According to the military, the operation was carefully coordinated based on actionable intelligence targeting suspected hideouts of criminal elements believed to be behind recent violence in the area.

This latest action comes in response to the renewed escalation of conflict in Bawku, which recently resulted in the tragic killing of three Senior High School students. In the wake of these killings, the Ghana Armed Forces have significantly increased their presence in the Bawku general area in a bid to restore order and safeguard civilians.

More than 200 military personnel have been deployed within the Bawku municipality, with an additional 200 troops strategically stationed across the Upper East Region to strengthen security and intensify patrols.

During a working visit to the area on July 30, 2025, the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Lawrence Kwaku Gbetanu, commended the troops for their professionalism and commitment to peace enforcement.

He reiterated the Military High Command’s unwavering support for the operation and affirmed that every necessary step will be taken to ensure lasting peace in Bawku and its surrounding areas.

“We will not leave any stone unturned in our efforts to restore calm. The safety and security of the people in Bawku and the Upper East Region remain a top priority,” Major General Gbetanu stated.

General Gbetanu assured the public that the ongoing operations will be conducted with strict adherence to human rights protocols and has called on troops to be professional in the discharge of their duties.

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.