By Francis Ofori

Accra, Jan.19, GNA-President John Mahama will be the Guest of Honour for the 49th Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) awards scheduled for Friday, January 24,2025. 

The event, which seeks to honour the outstanding achievements of Ghanaian sports personalities, would take place at the Accra International Conference Centre. 

Under the theme, “Gold and Glory, a call for change in national orientation and investment in sports” the President is expected to share his vision for sports development and honor the achievements of the award winners.

A statement signed by Mr. Kwabena Yeboah, President of SWAG said “H. E President John Mahama has confirmed to make a special appearance at the prestigious SWAG Awards as the guest of honor endorsing his interest, focus and his willingness to support sports development and promotion in Ghana.”

 It said the President had shown his commitment to promoting sports in Ghana, and his attendance at the awards ceremony would be a testament to his dedication to recognizing and celebrating the achievements of Ghana’s sports heroes.

 According to SWAG, his presence at the event would undoubtedly add to the excitement and prestige of the occasion as the longest-running award scheme in Ghana since 1975.

 “The SWAG Awards have a history of attracting high-profile guests, and President Mahama’s presence will only add to the event’s glamour and appeal. As Ghana’s president, Mahama has demonstrated his support for sports, and his attendance at the SWAG Awards will be a fitting tribute to his commitment to promoting sports excellence in Ghana,” It said.

 The 49th SWAG Awards is expected to attract a large audience of sports enthusiasts, stakeholders, and media personnel.

This year’s ceremony promises to be an unforgettable and exciting evening, with over 50 top-performing athletes and officials being honored for their contributions to Ghanaian sports.

 GNA

By Iddi Yire 

Accra, Jan 19, GNA – President John Dramani Mahama, has, in fulfilment of his promise to see through the implementation of the Constitution Review Process, established a Constitution Review Committee. 

The eight-member Committee is under the Chairmanship of Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh, the Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), while Dr Rainer Akumperigeya is the Secretary. 

Other members are: Justice Sophia Adinyirah, Dr Godwin Djokoto, Mrs Charlotte Osei, Dr Esi Ansah, Prof Kwame Karikari and Mr Ibrahim Tanko Amidu. 

A statement issued by Mr Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Acting Spokesman to the President, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the Committee was expected to identify and address the gaps in, and the challenges with the implementation of, previous constitutional review work done by the 2010 Committee. 

It is to engage key stakeholders to solicit their views on the proposals for Constitution Review Commission and the 2023 Constitution Review Consultative amendment of the 1992 Constitution, and make actionable recommendations aimed at enhancing democratic governance in the country. 

It said the composition of the Committee underscored the President’s desire to engage persons of proven expertise, dedication to the service of the nation and commitment to good governance, to manage the process. 

The statement said the Committee would present its recommendations for constitutional amendments within five months for consideration by the Government. 

GNA 

TikTok appears to be coming back online just hours after President-elect Donald Trump pledged Sunday that he would sign an executive order Monday to save the banned app.

Around 12 hours after first shutting itself down, US users began to have access to TikTok on a web browser and in the app, although the page still showed a warning about the shutdown.

The whiplash move to bring the app back comes after TikTok became unusable for Americans late Saturday night. Users who tried to open the app at that time were met with a message saying it was offline and asking users to “stay tuned.”

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” TikTok’s message read in part. The app was also unavailable on the Apple and Google Play stores, along with Lemon8 and CapCut, which are also owned by TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance.

TikTok’s restoration will be welcome news for the app’s 170 million American users, many of whom use the app for hours every day to find news, entertainment and community and, in some cases, to make a living, after weeks of uncertainty.

And it signaled that Trump may be poised to score a major political victory by claiming responsibility for bringing back the popular platform. In a statement midday Sunday, TikTok said Trump’s promise to save the app allowed it to restore US users’ access even before his expected executive order is signed.

“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive,” the company said in a statement. “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”

But while TikTok’s shutdown lasted just a few hours, securing the app’s long-term future in the United States is likely to be more complicated.

The path to securing TikTok’s future

Trump said Sunday in a Truth Social post that he plans to issue an executive order following his inauguration on Monday to “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”

He urged TikTok’s partners to allow the app to be restored, saying “the order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”

“Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations,” Trump said.

Trump had said he was considering a 90-day extension in the ban to give him time to work out a deal to sell the app to a non-Chinese owner. In his post, Trump said he would seek a 50-50 joint venture between TikTok’s existing parent company, China-based ByteDance, and a new, American owner.

Such an announcement could serve as a kind of immediate political victory for Trump with America’s youth. Although Trump supported a TikTok ban in his first term as president, he has recently said he wants to keep the app alive — posting on Truth Social Sunday morning: “SAVE TIKTOK!” Last month, he asked the Supreme Court to stay the law so his incoming administration could work out a deal to keep TikTok available to Americans. The Supreme Court upheld the law on Friday.

TikTok appealed to Trump in its pop-up message on the app starting late Saturday night notifying users that the app was unavailable in the United States.

“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office,” the company posted in its pop-up message. “Please stay tuned!”

And TikTok CEO Shou Chew also lauded Trump in a video responding to the company’s Supreme Court loss on Friday, saying, “we are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform, one who has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process.”

Trump attributed his election victory in part to TikTok at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in December.

“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said, then claiming to have won the youth vote by a significant margin. “And there are those that say that TikTok had something to do with it.”

The law banning TikTok passed with strong bipartisan support in Congress, citing national security concerns. Although a Pew Research Center Survey in 2023 found about half of Americans supported the ban, it has consistently proven unpopular with younger generations.

With his executive order, Trump is expected to delay enforcement of the ban to give TikTok parent company ByteDance more time to find an American owner. Trump’s Sunday message may have been enough to reassure TikTok’s technology partners, including Oracle, which hosts TikTok’s content in the United States, and Apple and Google, which host the app on their app stores, to continue supporting the app. Under the law, those companies could face penalties of up to $5,000 per person who has access to TikTok, if it is enforced.

Not a permanent solution

But the executive order could face challenges, including from members of Trump’s own party, who say they oppose any extension of the ban.

“We commend Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft for following the law and halting operations with ByteDance and TikTok, and we encourage other companies to do the same,” Republican Senators Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, and Pete Ricketts, of Nebraska, wrote in a joint statement Sunday. “The law, after all, risks ruinous bankruptcy for any company who violates it. Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date.”

Cotton and Ricketts said TikTok should only come back online by “severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China. Only then will Americans be protected from the grave threat posed to their privacy and security by a communist-controlled TikTok.”

The app’s brief blackout marked the realization of a yearslong effort to block US access to TikTok over national security concerns related to its China-based owner ByteDance. Outgoing President Joe Biden signed a law last April that gave ByteDance 270 days to sell TikTok to an owner from the United States or one of its allies or face a ban.

So even if Trump pledges to reverse the ban, he can’t simply undo a law passed by Congress and signed by a president with an executive order.

That’s why TikTok shut down in the first place. Despite the Biden administration all but saying they would defer enforcement to the incoming Trump administration, a person close to TikTok says “multiple critical service providers” indicated to TikTok that they were concerned that the ban might be enforced starting Sunday.

For example, Apple released a statement Sunday that cited the ban as its reason for removing TikTok from its app store. It noted the app will remain available for customers who already downloaded it, but it won’t be able to be redownloaded if deleted.

“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,” the company said in its statement. “Pursuant to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, apps developed by ByteDance Ltd. and its subsidiaries — including TikTok, CapCut, Lemon8, and others — will no longer be available for download or updates on the App Store for users in the United States starting January 19, 2025.”

The long-term fix

The only truly permanent solutions to keep TikTok online appear to be: 1) pass a new law reversing the old one — no easy task, considering that the existing bill had such broad bipartisan support in Congress — or 2) force a sale to an acceptable buyer.

Two potential buyers — a group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and “Shark Tank’s” Kevin O’Leary, as well as AI search engine PerplexityAI — have submitted formal bids for the app and others have reportedly shown interest in TikTok.

ByteDance, however, has long been adamant that it has no intention of selling. TikTok’s near-magical algorithm, keeping users hooked on the app, is its secret power, and putting a price tag on such a valuable commodity, envied by every other social media app, is difficult.

McCourt’s buyer group has said it would buy TikTok’s US assets without the algorithm and rebuild the app, but tech giants like Meta and YouTube have for years worked to replicate TikTok’s popular algorithm without quite succeeding. O’Leary told CNN he met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month to discuss the outlook for the app.

Spinning off an American-only version of TikTok could also mean the rest of the world has to download a new app to access US users’ content. Yet Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported last week that China is weighing a sale — to Elon Musk.

Musk may have the resources to buy the app, and he’s a major Trump supporter and about to take a quasi-role in his government. But it’s unclear that he would want to, and he has not publicly commented directly on the acquisition reports.

On Sunday, Musk posted on X that he opposes the TikTok ban “because it goes against freedom of speech.”

“That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but X is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced. Something needs to change,” Musk said.

If ByteDance chooses to engage, Trump could perhaps argue that significant progress has been made on a deal — a legal threshold that would legally permit Trump to reverse the ban to allow the sale process to commence.

In his Truth Social post Sunday, Trump said the United States should have “a 50% ownership position in a joint venture.”

“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say (sic) up,” he said. “Therefore, my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose.”

That’s only a temporary measure, though, as the sale would ultimately need to go through. Until then, TikTok’s future will remain very much in doubt.

A ‘surreal’ shutdown

Many TikTok users had held onto hope that the shutdown would be short-lived.

Still, the Saturday night shutdown was a sad loss for some users — a reminder of the app’s cultural influence. Many users joined the app in early 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was otherwise isolating them from community and other creative outlets.

“I’m so sad for so many people. I was shocked. I think I was probably in denial a little bit that it would actually just go dark,” influencer Shannon Lange told CNN early Sunday, before access to the app was restored.

Influencer Alix Earle, who had nearly 8 million TikTok followers, posted a tearful video on the platform ahead of the shutdown saying, “I feel like I’m going through heartbreak. This platform is more than an app or a job to me. I have so many memories on here. I have posted every day for the past 6 years of my life.”

Julie Turkel, a TikTok creator who said she was scrolling the app when it stopped working Saturday night, called the shutdown “surreal.”

“It was just surreal, it did have a very eerie feeling,” Turkel told CNN. She added that although she had anticipated the shutdown after TikTok’s warnings last week, “seeing it actually go down is different.”

Turkel told CNN early Sunday she was taking a digital “detox,” opting not to spend time on Instagram or other short-form video platforms, while TikTok was down. The break didn’t last long.

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.

Investors needed to grow Ghana’s renewable energy portfolio

Ghana is seeking investors for wind and tidal wave energy potential to increase its renewable portfolio.

That will also increase the country’s total installed capacity to the national grid, serve more unserved communities, reduce greenhouse gasses in the energy sector, and honour international commitments.

Mr Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo, the Director at AT Consult, a sustainable Energy Consulting firm disclosed to the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the 15th session of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi.

Under the theme, “Accelerating the Renewable Energy Transition – The Way Forward,” the two-day meeting brought together ministers and high-level delegates from IRENA’s 139 Member States, academia, development banks, chief executives and youth, to enhance wider, cross-sectoral collaboration on the energy transition.

Mr Ahiataku-Togobo hinted that studies on wind energy potential had been conducted at 13 areas of which results showed that the wind speeds ranged from good to moderate along the coast from Tema to Aflao.

“The necessary wind speed measurements have been done, and locations where the wind speeds can easily be installed to give moderate to good power have been identified. It is now open for prospective investors to come and invest.”

“From the coast of Tema down to Aflao, the land is very plain, and there are no big tall trees, and no mountains on the way. So those were the areas that were found to have moderate to good wind speed and easy access for the installation of utility-scale wind power plants,” he added.

The necessary policy instruments, Mr Ahiataku-Togobo said, had been put in place to attract investors in the sector.

Mr Ahiataku-Togobo who is the immediate past Director of Renewable Energy at the Ministry of Energy and the Bui Power Authority stated that significant progress had also been made in the area of wave energy and that it would be included in the country’s energy mix in the immediate future.

“Wave energy potential was found around Ada through Anloga and Keta. It is not surprising because that section of the sea has strong waves and it is difficult for fishermen to go there for expedition,” he said.

“Indeed, there was a test wave energy plant installed and within three days the wave was so strong that it shattered the whole thing. The team of engineers are remodelling a more robust plant, which is almost done for testing.”

Mr Ahiataku-Togobo expressed the hope that the country by the close of the year (2025) would have the first five megawatt wave system in place.

In the sub-region, he said the country had done creditably well in the area of renewable energy explaining that 30 per cent of its energy was generated by Akosombo and Bui hydro dams while plans were in place to increase it by 10 per cent in the next five years.

Ghana’s total GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions recorded a three-fold increase, from 1990 to 2022, driven largely by energy sector growth, the latest Ghana’s Sixth National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report by the Environmental Protection Agency has revealed.

Energy is dominated by fuel combustion; the sector’s emissions surged ninefold from 1990 to 2022.

In the same period, stationary combustion significantly increased by 847.0 per cent.

Both energy sources were driven by increased vehicle numbers and a shift from fuel oil to natural gas in electricity generation.

Similarly, GHG emissions from oil and gas also significantly increased due to the increased expansion of the industry (production and development) since commercialisation in 2012.

Since 2012, the emissions have risen by 498.9 per cent relative to the 2022 levels.

Mr Ahiataku-Togobo and other energy experts with deep insight in the sector told GNA that they were of the strong view that policy directions to increase renewable energy projects, the inclusion of nuclear power as the energy baseload would reduce emissions in the sector.

He said that increasing access to cheap power, would support Ghana’s planned transition from fossil fuel-powered vehicles to the use of electronic vehicles and encourage electric cooking.

“That will also mean reducing the poor air quality causing public health concerns and economic burden on people and the country,” he said.

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John Mahama appointed Afetsi Awoonor as MD of BOST

In an era where visionary leadership and sustainable development are paramount, Afetsi Awoonor emerges as a beacon of excellence. With a distinguished career spanning decades, Afetsi has not only reshaped the extractive industries in sub-Saharan Africa but has also left an indelible mark on global thought leadership and human development.

A Visionary Leader with a Global Perspective

Afetsi Awoonor is a name synonymous with transformative impact in the oil, gas, and mining sectors. His remarkable journey, marked by unwavering dedication and strategic foresight, has positioned him as one of the most influential leaders in the extractive industries across sub-Saharan Africa. With expertise in navigating complex regulatory landscapes and managing high-stakes projects, Afetsi has consistently delivered exceptional results, driving operational excellence and fostering economic growth in over 20 African countries.

Career Milestones That Define Excellence

As a Senior Partner at DOC Africa, Afetsi has redefined Liberia’s mining programs, generating over $2 billion in projected revenue through innovative contract structuring. His leadership extended to crafting strategic petroleum reserves and climate resilience policies, ensuring long-term stability and sustainability for Liberia’s energy sector.

At Convenio Energy, Afetsi’s pioneering work in petroleum supply chain innovations across Southern Africa resulted in quarterly revenues of $10 million. His ability to negotiate $20 million credit lines underscored his financial acumen and commitment to seamless trade operations.

As Government Relations and Business Development Manager at the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) in Ghana – 2016, Afetsi spearheaded the nation’s first Strategic Petroleum Reserve Program, ensuring the Republic’s energy security and strengthening regional trade ties. This initiative is a testament to his ability to align national priorities with regional collaboration.

Championing Sustainability and Innovation

Afetsi’s commitment to sustainability and innovation transcends industries. He has collaborated with intergovernmental agencies to develop Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks and carbon credit policies, paving the way for responsible investment and climate resilience in Africa. His strategic vision extends to advising on policy frameworks that adapt to climate change impacts, earning him recognition as a sustainability advocate.

An Inspirational Leader and Mentor

Afetsi’s leadership is characterized by his ability to inspire and empower others. He has mentored over 2,000 professionals in the petroleum sector, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous learning. His public speaking engagements at premier forums, including MEDays and Africa Energy Week, amplify his influence as a thought leader shaping global energy discourse.

Philanthropy and Community Impact

Beyond his corporate achievements, Afetsi’s philanthropic initiatives showcase his unwavering commitment to human development. As the founder of the Afetsi Awoonor Foundation, he has championed projects that provide clean water, education, and sports development for African communities. His efforts embody the principles of equity, sustainability, and empowerment.

A Legacy of Excellence and Vision

Afetsi Awoonor’s career is a testament to what can be achieved through visionary leadership, strategic innovation, and an unwavering commitment to progress. His work exemplifies the perfect blend of corporate acumen and humanitarian passion, setting a benchmark for leadership in Africa and beyond. As the world looks to redefine sustainable development and energy transitions, Afetsi’s legacy serves as a guiding light for future generations.