Author: TNRgh

…Told to Learn from Akufo-Addo and Stop Belittling It for PopularityBy Prince AhenkorahA parliamentary intervention by Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has united President John Mahama and Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in rare accord, exposing a political miscalculation that isolates the NPP MP on a matter of historic and Pan-African significance.Afenyo-Markin used a recent parliamentary sitting to question the logic behind Ghana’s campaign for reparative justice, suggesting that African complicity in the slave trade undermines the case for compensation. “We maltreated our own and told the white man that he should also maltreat our own,” he told the House. The…

A new pact between the state’s petroleum regulator and the nascent 24-Hour Economy Authority signals a push to secure the logistical backbone of President John Dramani Mahama’s flagship industrial programme.An Memorandum of Understanding signed on 31 March between the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the 24-Hour Economy Authority aims to force the downstream petroleum sector into round-the-clock operation. The deal, which brings together security services, private distributors, and state-owned BOST Energies, marks the first major institutional test for the government’s economic transformation agenda.Under the agreement, the NPA will impose new operational standards covering lighting, security, staffing, and digital fuel monitoring…

…as Mahama tests business allies at Kwahu forumBy Prince Ahenkorah President John Mahama will this weekend use the Kwahu Easter festivities to stage an unusual convergence of business elites, political operatives and emerging entrepreneurs billing the gathering as a diagnostic session on his government’s performance and a launchpad for its industrialization agenda. The Kwahu Business Forum, opening 3 April at the Mpraeso Hills Convention Centre, is being positioned by the presidency as a pivot from the region’s traditional merrymaking to hard-headed economic engagement.Behind the scenes, the event is largely the handiwork of Chief of Staff Julius Debrah, who has made…

$70 Million Vanishes in Export Scam By Leo Nelson A widening export fraud scandal has drained an estimated $70 million from Ghana’s rubber sector over two years, exposing deep failures in regulatory oversight and raising uncomfortable questions about political complicity. The scheme, built on under-invoicing and permit evasion, has left local processing factories idle and thousands of jobs hanging in the balance.Customs data obtained by The New Republic reveals that 89.68 million tonnes of raw rubber were exported in 2024 without a single permit issued by the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) the statutory body mandated to regulate the sector.…

Turns From Economic ‘Messiah’ To Digital ‘Evangelist’By Prince AhenkorahWhen former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia stepped onto the stage at the London School of Economics on March 28, he was returning to familiar territory. The lecture circuit had served him well once before: between 2012 and 2016, his public lectures on the economy helped establish him as a technocratic force, culminating in the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) capture of political power.But his keynote address at the Africa Summit carried a telling omission. The subject was not the economy. It was artificial intelligence.For the man who was appointed head of the…

…Global Oil Cools, Inflation Eases, But NPA Shoots ‘Pump’ Prices By Prince AhenkorahThe paradox is as striking as it is deliberate. Global oil prices are softening. Inflation has collapsed to historic lows. Yet from the first of April, Ghana’s National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has forced up the minimum price of petrol by nearly GH¢1.73 a litre and diesel by almost GH¢2.75. The question circulating through Accra’s policy circles is whether this is simply pricing mechanics – or a quiet hedge against a Gulf war whose trajectory no one can read. On paper, the macroeconomic picture offers little justification for a…

as PAC Probes GH¢20 Million ‘Ghost’ HospitalBy Leo Nelson | Africa ProPublicaA high-stakes confrontation is brewing in Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as former Health Minister Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye and ex-District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) Administrator Irene Naa Torshie Addo have been summoned to explain how GH¢20 million in public funds was disbursed for a parliamentary hospital project that, according to official records, never saw a single shovel hit the ground.The payment, authorised on December 31, 2024 the final day of the Akufo-Addo administration was flagged in the Auditor-General’s report as mobilisation funds for a contract signed by Okoe-Boye. Yet…

No wor, no documents, no accountability By Prince AhenkorahThe signature sanitation project that former Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia took to the campaign trail in 2024 is now at the centre of a financial scandal. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has summoned two public officials over GH₵8.2 million in payments linked to the “Toilet for All” initiative funds disbursed for work that never happened.Bawumia had championed the project as a flagship intervention, promising eight-unit toilet facilities and 24-unit bathhouses across the country. It was meant to burnish his image as a results-oriented administrator ahead of the 2024 election, which the New…

By Prince Ahenkorah A transport contractor has reimbursed the Ghanaian government GH¢19.1 million following an Auditor-General’s report that uncovered overpayments for grain haulage. The refund, confirmed by Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Nyarko Ampem before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on 30 March, is being cited by officials as early evidence that a broader audit of GH¢68 billion in arrears is yielding results.The case centres on Rans Logistics, a transport services firm. According to the audit findings presented to Parliament on 10 March, the company received excess payments for transporting grains. Within a week, on 17 March, Rans Logistics repaid the identified…

By Prince AhenkorahGhana’s healthcare legacy of Nana Akufo-Addo is not quite what he promised. Speaking at the centenary of Kyebi Government Hospital over the weekend, the former president urged his successor, John Dramani Mahama, to complete the flagship Agenda 111 hospital programme a project Akufo-Addo himself launched but could not finish.Of the 111 hospitals planned, only three had been completed by the time of the transition, according to a disclosure from the Mahama administration. Even those three are not yet fully operational.“We must be honest; not every project was realised, not every facility was completed,” Akufo-Addo told the gathering in…