Kennedy Agyapong backs government’s move for a 10% withholding tax on winnings from sports betting and lottery
NPP flagbearer aspirant Hon. Kennedy Agyapong has supported the government’s move for a 10% withholding tax on winnings from sports betting and lottery. According to Mr. Agyapong, betting is not anything good for anyone’s future and that is why it should be punitive to discourage young men and women coming up to take their destiny into their own hands instead of spending time with games and all those things. Whatever money you are going to make is temporal. He believes youth allocate more of their time to betting because there is no job employment made available for the youth in the country. “We have to create employment, you wake up very handsome you go out there you are working, you get your beautiful girlfriend, you start a family yes, but with betting, and you cannot call any woman because you go out there, go and sit with the game and all that. So, I will advise the youth….i don’t blame them now, I cannot say that the youth don’t want to work because they don’t have a job. “But with me, I will create the opportunities because employment is everything and that is what I believe in”. “I feel so guilty, my daughters in America at age 21-25 all have jobs and good money, none of them makes less than $120, 000 a year. Why is it that my daughters who are Americans after college make so much money and Kennedy Agyapong the loud for 23 years as a member of parliament have not been able to solve unemployment problem”. “I want the youth of this country to give me that opportunity as a president and you see the number of jobs I will create in this country”. Mr. Agyapong appeals
Contractors are not paid because they supported me – Dr Afriyie Akoto laments
The former Minister of Food and Agriculture Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has criticized the leadership of the party for not putting measures in place to stop some happenings in the battle to choose the party’s presidential candidate for 2024 elections. Engaging with JoyNews in an interview, the former Minister of Food and Agriculture, accused the party’s leadership of being fair in the treatment they offer some persons flouting the roles of the party; Dr. Akoto insists that some of the happenings in the campaign for the primaries show clear evidence no discipline in the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP). He believes the situation is pushing top officials of the party and the government to declare support for a certain contender without consequences, whiles those who openly declare their support for him and the other candidates face punishment. Buttressing his point, Dr. Akoto alleged that contractors who openly declare support for some of the candidates in the presidential battle face discrimination. “There is some sort of force being used – intimidation… those contractors who do not seem to be for this candidate are not paid when they complete their jobs. And they have taken huge sums of money from the banks and the interest rates are 35%, 40%. They are not paid and are being punished for supporting someone else.” He said contractors who have done a job or a contract with the government are not paid, but contractors who declare for that particular candidate are paid. In the current NPP presidential primaries, 10 people would be contesting and scheduled for August and November 2023. The delegate conference would be held on August 26, 2023, to slash the number of contestants down to five while the main primaries would be held on November 4, 2023, to choose the party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 elections. The 10 interested contestants are: former Minister of Railways Development, Joe Ghartey; Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; a former Trade Minister, Alan Kyerematen; Kwadwo Poku, an energy expert; a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto; a former General Secretary of the NPP, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong; MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong; a former MP for Offinso North, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku; and a former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko. Source: Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana For publication please kindly contact us on 0256336062 or Email: apexnewsgh@gmail.com
Addison has messed up BoG so badly that USA had to send down rep. to keep him in check – Mornah
Justice For Ghana Covener Bernard Mornah has said Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison has mismanaged the bank to the extent that the United States of America had to send down a representative to keep the operations of the banking sector regulator in check. Reacting to a comment by former GIMPA Rector Prof Stephen Adei, in which the former member of the advisory board of the finance ministry described the call for Dr Addison’s resignation by the minority caucus as “irresponsibile”, Mr Mornah, who is a former Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie in an interview on Class91.3FM’s mid-day news 12 Liveon Wednesday, 16 August 2023, that the Governor must go so as to bring back confidence in Ghana’s monetary regime. “When you are able to secure a removal of those who have sunk the economy, and, in this instance, the central bank, what simply will happen is that it will bolster confidence; people will begin to say that, ‘Well, those who messed up are gone’, and the new people that have come in will come with new vigour … and ensure stability within the monetary system”, Mr Mornah argued. “So, if the governor is seen as a very bad leader and you say that, ‘No, if we allow a bad leader to go, it will have ramifications and our currency will depreciate, how is the currency going to depreciate becuase our currency has already depreciated as one of the worst currencies in the world”, he observed. Mr Mornah added: “Now that our currency has depreciated as one of the worst, the USA has sent somebody to come and be at the Bank of Ghana to monitor the operations and activities of the Bank of Ghana”. “Is that alone not sufficient to tell you that our central banker is incapable of handling the affairs of the nation?” Mr Mornah wondered. The minority caucus, which first called for Dr Addison’s resignation, gave him a 21-day ultimatum. The caucus vowed to “occupy” the central bank to chase the governor out if he remains in office after the expiration of the ultimatum. The 2022 audited report of the central bank revealed that it made a loss of GHS60.8 billion and recorded a negative equity of GHS55.1 billion. The minority caucus insists Dr Addison and his two deputies must go for not only destorying the bank but also illegally printing over GHS80 billion and loaning it to the government and subsequently writing off GHS48.40 billion of it without parliamentary approval. Meanwhile, the central bank has explained that a huge chunk (₵53.1 billion) of the ₵60.8 billion loss it posted in 2022, per its audited accounts, was a direct result of three items that were badly affected by the government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). The DDEP, together with an external debt restructuring programme, was critical for securing the US$3-billion extended credit facility from the International Monetary Fund to salvage Ghana’s tottering economy. Explaining the factors that drove the loss, the central bank said: “The main reason for this huge loss is the impairment of the holding of marketable government stocks and non-marketable instruments of government” which were both being held in its books. “This stock of government instruments has been built over the years”, the bank noted. In addition, the central bank said its “exposure to [Ghana Cocoa Board] COCOBOD, which has been built over the years, was also impaired” by the DDEP. “The holdings of government instruments and COCOBOD exposures were all part of the perimeter of the debt exchange”, BoG indicated, adding: “Whereas all other stakeholders that participated in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) did not have principal haircuts, but rather had new instruments with new tenors and coupon structure, the BoG served as the loss absorber to the entire debt exchange programme, a key requirement that allowed the Government of Ghana to meet the threshold for the approval of the IMF programme”. As a result, the BoG had to take on a 50 per cent principal haircut on the total principal (which stood at ₵64.5 billion at the time of the exchange)”, the bank pointed out. “Consequently, BoG had new instruments with extended tenor and significantly reduced coupon”, it added. The central bank revealed that applying the full requirements of IFRS 9, meant that “from the principal alone, a 50 per cent haircut on the non-marketables amounted to a loss of ₵32.3 billion”. It said the “impairment from exposure to COCOBOD also amounted to ₵4.7 billion”. “These three DDEP items (i.e. marketable, non-marketable and COCOBOD) accounted for ₵53.1 billion out of the total loss of ₵60.8 billion for 2022”, BoG computed. “In addition to these three items, price and exchange rate valuation effects accounted for ₵5.2 billion of the total loss, whereas interest expense on cost of monetary policy operation accounted for ₵3.3 billion”. —Classfmonline— For publication please kindly contact us on 0256336062 or Email: apexnewsgh@gmail.com