Ampofo Ankrah took no World Cup visa money, lawyer says

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Ampofo Ankrah took no World Cup visa money, lawyer says

The lawyer for suspended National Sports Authority (NSA) Director-General Yaw Ampofo Ankrah says his client received no money from anyone over the alleged 2026 World Cup visa scheme.

Jerry Avenorgbor said Ampofo Ankrah had been attending interviews at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters over the past week and had neither collected money from visa applicants nor taken part in any visa transactions. “My client has not received a penny from any individual,” he said.

The denial comes as pressure on the case widens beyond one official. The NPP Minority in Parliament alleges that about US$623,000 was collected from people seeking help to travel to the tournament in the United States and Canada, and is now demanding the dismissal and prosecution of Sports Minister Kofi Adams and the Chief Executive of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA). Neither the amount nor the Minority’s account of the arrangement has been established.

Avenorgbor said the police were handling the investigation well and should be allowed to establish the facts. If his client were found culpable, he said, the law would take its course.

President John Dramani Mahama suspended Ampofo Ankrah on 1 October pending the outcome of the CID investigation, and appointed Professor Emmanuel Osei Sarpong as Acting Director-General. The letter from the Presidency described the suspension as an administrative measure and said it was not a finding of wrongdoing. The Bureau of National Investigations is also looking into the matter.

The case began with a petition to the CID on 8 September, alleging that people connected to the NSA took money from prospective travellers on the promise of arranging visas and travel. The NSA has said its partnership with TRIBE Culture Fest, a FIFA-licensed fan-experience company, never authorised anyone to collect money for visas. The Minority says the arrangement grew out of a Memorandum of Understanding between the NSA and TRIBE signed on 2 June 2025, and that visa processing was costed at US$3,000 per person for the United States and US$2,000 for Canada.

Ampofo Ankrah told JoySports after his suspension that he was disappointed he had not been given a chance to explain his side.

On 8 October, his lawyers said he would not appear before Parliament on the allegations until the CID investigation was complete, arguing that testifying earlier could prejudice the inquiry. They said he would respond to the substance of the allegations once the police findings were made public.

NCCE turns violent extremism campaign to Ghana’s southern borders

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NCCE turns violent extremism campaign to Ghana’s southern borders

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) is extending its violent extremism awareness work to Ghana’s southern border communities, saying years of northern-focused programmes have left a gap.

Samuel Asare Akuamoah, the NCCE’s Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations, made the case at a national dialogue in Accra on 7 October on sustaining post-election peace and building resilience against emerging security threats in southern border communities. The dialogue opens a series of community engagements in those areas.

Akuamoah said most efforts to prevent violent extremism had concentrated on the north, partly because that was where development partners chose to fund work. The record bears this out. The European Union-funded Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism project, run by the NCCE, covered 75 districts in the Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East, Upper West, Oti, Bono and Bono East regions. It followed an earlier project aimed specifically at the northern border regions.

NCCE Chairperson Kathleen Addy, in a speech read on her behalf, said security concerns were often associated with the north, but the southern and coastal borders were increasingly becoming hotspots for cross-border crime, including violent extremism, narcotics and disinformation.

Akuamoah said the campaign belonged to the commission’s post-election programme, and warned that the period after a vote carries its own risk. “This is the time when people’s complacency can set in,” he said. He noted that some neighbouring countries had suffered attacks by extremist groups, and that in some of them democratic government had collapsed.

The threat he described has moved steadily towards the coast. Al Qaeda’s Sahel affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), has expanded from Burkina Faso and Niger into northern Benin and Togo. Togo suffered its first deadly militant attack in May 2022, when eight soldiers were killed. Benin recorded 155 attacks in 2024, up from five in 2021. Ghana has not suffered a confirmed attack.

Dr Mustapha Abdallah, a Senior Researcher at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), told the dialogue that tighter border control would not be enough on its own. He urged the authorities to tackle the economic hardship that makes vulnerable communities along the southern borders open to recruitment.

The NCCE plans to follow the dialogue with sensitisation sessions in southern border communities to help residents recognise and report warning signs.

NPP supporters greet Baffour Awuah in Kumasi after GH¢10m bail

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NPP supporters greet Baffour Awuah in Kumasi after GH¢10m bail

Hundreds of New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters greeted MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah at Kumasi’s airport on his first return since his arrest and GH¢10 million bail.

Video of the arrival at Prempeh I International Airport, published by GhanaWeb, shows party supporters waving NPP flags, wearing campaign shirts and chanting as the Manhyia South MP arrived. It was his first visit to Kumasi since the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) detained him.

The reception shows how the case has become a political rallying point for the opposition. Baffour Awuah, a lawyer, has called the prosecution a witch-hunt, while EOCO and the Attorney-General’s office say they are pursuing an ordinary criminal investigation.

On 3 October, an Accra High Court sitting on a Saturday granted him GH¢10 million bail with two sureties, the MPs for Bosome Freho and Effia. He pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit a crime, intentionally causing a financial loss of GH¢9.85 million to the state, and money laundering. The money laundering charge relates to an alleged GH¢1 million transfer to the then Managing Director of SIC Life in 2024. The court, presided over by Justice Charity Akosua Asem, ordered him to surrender his passport and to make himself available to EOCO whenever required.

The charges arise from work his former law firm, Sarkodie Baffour Awuah & Partners, did for SIC Life Savings and Loans in trying to recover money from Equity Savings and Loans. His lawyer, Samuel Atta Akyea, says his client’s role came from legitimate legal work for SIC Life. The allegations have not been tested in court.

Speaking after his release, Baffour Awuah challenged the prosecution to prove its case before the court. “No dirt can stick on me,” he said.

His arrest followed a confrontation on 23 September at the Accra High Court, where EOCO officers tried to detain him after he appeared in an unrelated bail hearing. EOCO said he had not honoured two invitations in February 2026. His lawyers replied that the letters were addressed to him as a senior partner of the firm and that he had referred them to the Clerk to Parliament because he had since become an MP. He took refuge in Parliament, and the NPP Minority accused EOCO of abusing its power. A High Court then issued a warrant for his arrest, and he surrendered to EOCO on 1 October.

The case returns to court on 26 October and 2 November 2026.

Blast reported at Riyadh airport as Houthi strikes escalate

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Blast reported at Riyadh airport as Houthi strikes escalate

Several people were injured on 10 October after a blast at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, news agencies reported, the latest in a run of Houthi-claimed strikes on Saudi airports.

Reuters and AFP reported that the airport was evacuated after a loud explosion. Reuters cited an eyewitness who saw more than a dozen ambulances heading to the site, and AFP quoted a hospital source as saying dozens were wounded. Saudi authorities had not commented on the incident. The airport told passengers to check with their airlines before travelling, Western embassies warned their citizens to stay away, and several Gulf carriers cancelled flights, including Kuwait Airways, which cited the security situation.

The airport, which handled 37 million passengers in 2024, has now been hit or targeted repeatedly in five days. Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said attacks on 6 and 7 October on King Khalid and on Abha International Airport in the south-west killed three people and injured 36. A Sudanese man died in Riyadh, and a Moroccan woman and an Algerian woman died in Abha.

On 8 October, the Houthis claimed a further ballistic missile strike on the Riyadh airport. Saudi Arabia did not confirm it, and the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted two missiles fired towards the capital. The disruption that day was already severe: 169 of 378 scheduled departures, or 44.7 percent, were cancelled or did not operate, according to the aviation analytics firm Cirium. Lufthansa Group suspended Riyadh flights until 16 October, and Air India and Air India Express until 10 October.

The Houthis, an Iran-backed movement that controls much of north-western Yemen, say they are retaliating for Saudi support of Yemen’s internationally recognised government. They have also warned international airlines to stop using Saudi airspace, except over Mecca and Medina.

The fighting has intensified since the Houthis seized a stretch of Red Sea coast along the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the narrow channel between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden that carries a large share of global shipping. Government forces, backed by Saudi air power, have launched an offensive to retake the territory, and the coalition says it has struck dozens of Houthi military sites in response to the airport attacks. More than 200,000 Yemenis have fled their homes as the fighting has escalated.

Saudi Arabia built a military coalition in 2015 to stop the Houthis taking over Yemen. A truce in 2022 largely halted the fighting after years of war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, but it began to break down in July this year, when the Houthis resumed missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and Red Sea tankers.

Verify before you speak, Chief Justice tells record 1,568 lawyers

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Verify before you speak, Chief Justice tells record 1,568 lawyers

Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie has told 1,568 newly called lawyers, the largest cohort in Ghana’s history, to check facts before commenting publicly, warning against the pull of viral claims.

He gave the charge at the 63rd Call to the Bar ceremony in Teshie, Accra, speaking as Chairman of the General Legal Council. He told the new lawyers that a message shared on WhatsApp could cross borders before anyone established whether it was true. Videos, headlines and repeated claims, he said, lead thousands of people to form opinions on facts they have neither checked nor witnessed, and lawyers had to behave differently.

His advice was to pause, read carefully and cross-check before speaking, and to recognise when professional restraint required them to say nothing until the facts were clear.

“The most important currency of a lawyer is not money, not even knowledge,” he said, naming integrity instead. He warned that a reputation built over years could be lost in a short time.

The Chief Justice told the lawyers they were not above the law. He urged them to refuse bribes and not to let political loyalties override their professional principles. Youth and inexperience, he said, would be no excuse for turning up to court unprepared. He also advised them to manage their money carefully and to build their reputations patiently.

The size of the cohort marks a sharp jump. At the previous October ceremony, on 10 October 2025, 824 lawyers were called to the Bar. The previous record, 1,097, was set at the 60th ceremony in 2023 and was then described as the largest single enrolment since Ghana began training lawyers.

The intake has grown as the legal education system has changed. Earlier this year, Baffoe-Bonnie abolished the long-standing split between the “main call” and the smaller “mini call”. Candidates can now be enrolled at either an October or a March ceremony, and he said no hierarchy should exist between them.

Akosua Achiaa Sarpong won the John Mensah Sarbah Award for the best all-round performance in the Professional Law Examination. She was also named the best student in Civil Procedure.

Government puts 2026 health recruitment at 16,500, above earlier target

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Government puts 2026 health recruitment at 16,500, above earlier target

Deputy Chief of Staff Nana Oye Bampoe Addo says the government plans to recruit 16,500 health professionals in 2026, 500 more than the figure the Health Ministry has cited all year.

Speaking at the Ghana Health and Labour Summit 2026 at the University of Ghana, Legon, she said financial clearance had been secured before recruitment so that no new hire would work unpaid.

That promise answers the most damaging episode in the sector’s recent history. Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has said 13,500 nurses, midwives and other professionals recruited in 2024 began work without financial clearance. Many went close to a year without pay. The Coalition of Unpaid Nurses and Midwives marched on the Finance and Health ministries in October 2025 and later threatened to strike over 11 months of arrears. Akandoh has since said more than 99 percent of the group have been paid.

The new figure does not match the ministry’s earlier statements. In April, the Health Ministry said about 16,000 professionals would be engaged in 2026, with clearance secured for roughly 8,000 posts and approval for the rest still being sought. Akandoh later told Parliament the 16,000 intake was part of a drive covering 2026 to 2028, and said clearance for the second 8,000 would be obtained before those recruits were hired.

Recruitment opened on 16 April under a clearance that expires on 31 December 2026. The ministry is working through graduating classes in order. The 2021 batch of nurses and midwives came first, the 2022 batch is due to be absorbed before the end of the year, and the 2023 batch will follow, subject to clearance from the Finance Ministry.

Bampoe Addo told the summit that hiring alone would not stop trained workers leaving. She said the country had to build workplaces where professionals wanted to stay and build careers.

Chief Labour Officer Dauda Ibrahim Braimah, speaking for the Minister for Labour, Jobs and Employment, said pay was only part of that decision. “Ultimately, retention depends on quality of life, including housing, security, transportation, and workplace culture,” he said.

He said the Labour Ministry was working with employers and unions to update labour laws and institutions for changing workplaces, including new technology, and to improve working conditions and access to decent jobs.

All recruitment under this year’s clearance must be completed by 31 December 2026.

UP urges private funding for expressway to pay teachers’ arrears

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UP urges private funding for expressway to pay teachers’ arrears

The United Party (UP) has urged the government to bring private investors into the Accra-Kumasi Expressway, freeing part of the US$2 billion set aside for the road to pay teachers’ arrears.

Dr Nana Yaw Adutwum, the party’s Director of Policy, made the case on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue on 10 October. He called the expressway commendable but said the way it is being financed leaves no room to meet other urgent bills. “Why don’t you invite the private sector to bear part of that cost,” he said.

The proposal runs against a choice the government has made deliberately. Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson has pledged to fund the road without borrowing “a pesewa”, and President John Dramani Mahama has stressed that the money comes from taxpayers, not lenders.

The sums are large and growing. Ato Forson told Parliament in his 2026 mid-year budget review that US$1.7 billion had been deposited in a dedicated expressway account at the Bank of Ghana as of 22 July. He said the money was ring-fenced and would be released only after the main construction contract was awarded. By 14 September, Mahama put the balance at US$2 billion, and Ato Forson has said the full amount will be ready by December 2026. The six-lane road is estimated to cost about US$4 billion and is due for completion in 2028.

Adutwum’s objection is to that idle balance. He said holding more than US$2 billion in reserve while waiting for a contract to be awarded was the wrong priority when teachers were still owed money.

Teachers’ pay has been the government’s most pressing labour dispute this autumn. The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) declared an indefinite strike on 25 September. Their demands covered promotion-related arrears, a delayed new Collective Agreement and the 20 percent deprived-area allowance. GNAT had insisted that an agreement reached with the Education Ministry on 31 August, which committed to placing all promoted teachers on their new salary scales by the end of September, be honoured before any return to work.

Private investment in large roads usually comes through a public-private partnership, in which investors recover their money from tolls or government payments over many years. Adutwum did not say which model he favoured.

NDC’s Fieve rejects galamsey emergency call; activist cites water fears

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NDC’s Fieve rejects galamsey emergency call; activist cites water fears

Julius Fieve, a National Democratic Congress (NDC) communications team member, has rejected calls for a state of emergency on illegal mining, saying the government needs time to intensify its crackdown.

Speaking to Isaac Addae on Starr FM’s Morning Starr, Fieve said he respected the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which has led calls for emergency powers, but did not share its view. “I don’t, in a very humble way, agree on declaring a state of emergency,” he said.

His position matches the line President John Dramani Mahama has held for more than a year. At his media encounter on 10 September 2025, Mahama said existing laws already gave the government enough power to fight illegal mining, known locally as galamsey, and called a state of emergency a last resort. He has said he would declare one if the National Security Council advised it.

Fieve made the same argument. He said security agencies and other state institutions were best placed to judge when emergency powers became necessary, and that the President would act on their advice. He described the Catholic bishops as one of the few institutions that bring Ghanaians together across religious and social lines, and said he found it hard to oppose them.

The bishops have pressed the case repeatedly. In a communiqué issued in November 2025 at the end of their plenary assembly in Damongo, they urged a state of emergency in high-risk mining zones. They cited figures showing Ghana lost more than 5,252 hectares of forest reserves to illegal mining that year, that 44 of the country’s 288 forest reserves are now degraded, and that an estimated 75 percent of its rivers are polluted, largely by the mercury and cyanide used in unregulated mining.

On the same station, Awula Serwah, Executive Director of Eco-Conscious Citizens, attacked what she saw as misplaced sympathy in the debate. She said too much was said about the livelihoods of illegal miners and too little about the peasant farmers and fishermen whose land and rivers the miners destroy.

She warned that the damage reaches well beyond mining areas. Food sold in city markets may be grown on polluted land, she said, and residents of Accra could not know whether chemicals such as cyanide had reached their tap water, since the substances are colourless. She did not cite test results for Accra’s water supply.

Not everyone backs emergency powers. The Small-Scale Miners Association has called the demands politically motivated, while the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) warned in September 2025 that the scale of the destruction was pushing Ghana towards the point where a declaration would become unavoidable.

Under Article 31 of the 1992 Constitution, the President may declare a state of emergency in any part of the country, acting on the advice of the Council of State.

GRA apologises to airport traveller, says customs duty was paid

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GRA apologises to airport traveller, says customs duty was paid

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on 9 October apologised to a traveller who alleged extortion at Accra International Airport, saying the GH¢807.68 duty she was charged reached its account.

The traveller, Gifty Osei Bonsu, had accused customs officers of extortion. In a statement, the GRA said a preliminary investigation found the money had been properly accounted for. It said an outage on its Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) delayed both the payment and her official receipt.

The authority’s own account shows how the money moved during that outage, and that is now the focus of its procedural review. With the system down, Bonsu handed GH¢600 in cash to the officers and a friend added GH¢200. The officers covered the remaining GH¢7.68 from their own pockets, the GRA said.

According to the statement, Bonsu arrived on an EgyptAir flight at 12:48 pm on 3 October. After risk selection and scanning, she was directed to the Red Channel for a closer examination of her luggage. Officers found 20 pairs of new women’s shoes, nine new women’s dresses, 18 new men’s shirts and four new wigs, and assessed duty on the shoes only.

Bonsu told officers she had a connecting flight to catch, the authority said. Once ICUMS came back online, the full GH¢807.68 was paid into the GRA’s revenue account at Ecobank Ghana at about 4:57 pm, a little over four hours after she landed, and a receipt was issued in her name.

The GRA said the officers acted in good faith. It apologised to Bonsu for the long wait.

It said it had since put in place alternative procedures for handling payments during system outages. It is also reviewing the rules governing how customs officers deal with passengers, focusing on how they communicate, how duty is assessed and collected, and how transactions are documented. A passenger-facing process to explain customs requirements, concessions, payments and complaint channels is being developed, alongside wider public education on dutiable goods and how charges are calculated.

The authority urged travellers carrying dutiable goods to ask for an assessment notice, pay only through approved channels and insist on an official receipt.

The case adds to a run of complaints over customs at the airport, which was renamed from Kotoka International Airport in February 2026. In December 2025, the GRA rejected extortion claims from a traveller charged GH¢12,690.63 on 18 undeclared phones, saying the duty had been processed through ICUMS and receipted. In October 2025, a customs officer stationed at the airport appeared before the Adenta Circuit Court charged with extorting GH¢2,000 from a businessman. He pleaded not guilty.

Short Prophet recounts jail term linked to late boss’s shop

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Short Prophet recounts jail term linked to late boss’s shop

Social media comedian Daniel Amartey, known as Short Prophet, says he spent nearly four years in Nsawam prison after investigators seized stamps and documents from his late employer’s workplace.

Amartey, who was an apprentice at the business, gave his account on the Convo with the Face podcast. A clip of the interview was later shared on X by @askghmedia. He said he was deputy captain of the Black Giants, Ghana’s national amputee football team, when he was convicted and sentenced to five years at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison. He maintains he knew nothing about the items.

By his account, the case began in 2015. His employer had died, and about a month after the funeral the family asked him to reopen the shop so it could earn money for the children left behind.

Four weeks later, he said, officers from the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) arrived with a handcuffed associate of his late boss. He told them his employer was dead, and they searched the premises.

The search reached a cabinet that he said had stayed locked since his boss died. He had no key, so the officers forced it open and removed documents, stamps and other materials they said were used to forge certificates. With the owner dead, Amartey said, he was the one arrested and later put before the court.

He said he was detained for a week before being granted bail. He blamed his conviction on a lack of money and poor legal representation during the trial. He said he served three years and eight months of the five-year term before his release.

He also accused the officers involved of knowing he had nothing to do with the forgery. “The EOCO officials knew I was innocent in all this,” he said. He said that about a month after his release, he met one of the officers, who told him the decision had come from a superior. He did not name the officer.

EOCO has not publicly responded to his claims.

Since his release, Amartey has built a following with comic skits on social media.

FBI says more than 130 held in Ghana scam takedown

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FBI says more than 130 held in Ghana scam takedown

More than 130 people have been arrested or detained in Ghana in a scam takedown linked to nearly US$10 million in losses, FBI Director Kash Patel said on 8 October.

The figure is not a count of suspects. In his post on X, Patel said the number included victims who will be sent back to their home country. He did not say how many of those held were alleged scammers and how many were trafficked workers. Investigators have so far identified 89 victims of the fraud and seized more than 300 devices, and the investigation is continuing.

The raid is part of Operation Blackout, which the FBI describes as a global effort against scam compounds that defraud Americans. Patel has described those compounds as fortified sites where trafficked workers are allegedly forced to run fraud against victims abroad.

The case fits a pattern Ghanaian authorities have uncovered repeatedly over the past year: young Nigerians lured to Accra with job offers, then held in rented apartments and made to run romance scams.

In January 2026, raids at East Legon Hills, Afienya, Kwabenya, Weija and Tuba led to the arrest of nine Nigerian nationals as suspected key actors and the rescue of 44 others considered victims. Officers found the rescued group working on laptops inside apartments. In October 2025, police rescued 57 Nigerians aged between 18 and 26 and arrested five suspects accused of trafficking them into the country. Nigeria’s Diaspora Commission has said its anti-trafficking agency would give medical care and rehabilitation to returnees from one earlier handover.

The losses are mounting at home as well. Online fraud, including romance scams, accounted for GH¢12.87 million in losses reported to the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) between January and September 2025, about 47 percent of all cybercrime complaints the authority received in that period.

Patel has put the wider operation’s results at roughly US$17 billion seized, hundreds of alleged scammers arrested and thousands of trafficked workers freed. He closed his post on the Ghana case by saying more was to come.

Ablakwa says BRICS bid will not cost Ghana Western ties

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Ablakwa says BRICS bid will not cost Ghana Western ties

Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said on 10 October that Ghana’s bid to join the BRICS bloc of emerging economies would widen its economic choices without breaking ties with Western partners and lenders.

Speaking on TV3’s KeyPoints programme, Ablakwa said the decision rested on national interest and the need to spread Ghana’s economic relationships beyond its existing development partners. “It’s freedom of choice,” he said.

The case he is making will be tested on two fronts. Ghana is four months into a 36-month Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose Executive Board approved the programme on 27 July 2026. And Washington has already warned off countries drifting towards the bloc: in July 2025, United States President Donald Trump threatened an extra 10 percent tariff on any country aligning with what he called the anti-American policies of BRICS.

Ablakwa said Ghana would keep its traditional alliances while giving itself more options, describing the approach as consistent with the country’s non-aligned foreign policy. He said the government wanted to maximise opportunities, not commit to any one geopolitical camp.

He also pointed to trade settled in local currencies as one benefit, citing arrangements with China as proof that Ghana had already begun reducing its reliance on the dollar.

That shift is under way at the banking level. At the Bank of Ghana’s 132nd Monetary Policy Committee briefing, Governor Johnson Pandit Asiama said Stanbic Bank Ghana was piloting a service that lets importers pay Chinese suppliers from cedi accounts, with Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) preparing a similar product. The Stanbic service runs on China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, and the supplier receives yuan. Dollar payments remain available, and the yuan route covers only eligible transactions.

Ablakwa first disclosed the Cabinet decision on 6 October at a joint press briefing in Accra with India’s External Affairs Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Ghana had already asked India for help with the application. Jaishankar said India supported Ghana’s aspirations but stressed that membership would need the collective agreement of BRICS members.

Brazil, Russia, India and China founded the bloc in 2009, and South Africa joined the following year. It has since expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. India hosted this year’s summit in New Delhi.

The government has said it will submit the formal application and canvass existing members for support. No date has been announced.

NDC, NPP communicators trade jabs over John Boadu’s election

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NDC, NPP communicators trade jabs over John Boadu’s election

A National Democratic Congress (NDC) communicator has dismissed John Boadu’s election as New Patriotic Party (NPP) National Chairman, saying he poses no threat to the governing party in 2028.

Hamza Suhuyini, a lawyer on the NDC communications team, made the remarks on Tamale-based Saganai TV, MyNewsGh.com reported. He pointed to Boadu’s record as General Secretary, a post Boadu lost in 2022 when delegates chose Justin Kodua Frimpong.

The exchange offers an early look at a line both parties are likely to test before the 2028 polls: whether losing an internal contest, or a national election, should rule a party official out of leadership.

Suhuyini said the NPP had been politically finished for a long time and that the new executives could not revive it. “They think the executives they have elected can resurrect the dead NPP,” he said. He added that some NPP supporters were unhappy with the new leadership and doubted it could return the party to power.

Haruna Mohammed, a member of the NPP communications team, said the NDC was in no position to make that argument. He noted that Johnson Asiedu Nketiah was NDC General Secretary when the party lost the 2016 general election, yet the party later elected him National Chairman.

Both records are more mixed than either side allowed. Asiedu Nketiah served 17 years as General Secretary, a period in which the NDC also won the 2008 and 2012 elections, before beating incumbent chairman Samuel Ofosu Ampofo by 5,574 votes to 2,892 in 2022. The NDC returned to power in the 2024 election with him as chairman.

Boadu, for his part, was NPP General Secretary from 2018 to 2022, which covered the party’s victory in the 2020 general election.

He won the chairmanship on 3 October 2026 at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi, polling 2,888 votes against 2,408 for former Energy Minister Boakye Kyerematen Agyarko, 790 for former chairman Paul Afoko and 41 for Sammy Crabbe. He succeeds Stephen Ayesu Ntim, who did not seek re-election. Kodua retained the General Secretary post with 4,486 votes, the highest tally of any candidate at the conference.

Flagbearer Mahamudu Bawumia has since congratulated the new executives and said no member should be left out of the 2028 campaign, whether they won or lost in Kumasi. In a statement on 5 October, Boadu pledged to reconnect the party with young people, including by restoring its presence on tertiary campuses.

He has said the new executive will work with Bawumia to strengthen the party’s organisation and finances, particularly at constituency level.

Israel has not banned preaching about Jesus, records show

Roger A. Agana
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Israel has not banned preaching about Jesus, records show

Israel has not banned preaching about Jesus, despite a video shared online saying otherwise. The bill behind the claim was filed in January 2023 and stalled within weeks.

The difference matters for pilgrims, church groups and mission organisations with links to Israel. Talking about faith there is legal. Two narrower acts are crimes, and both have been on the books since 1977.

What the 2023 bill proposed

The proposal came from Moshe Gafni and Yaakov Asher, members of United Torah Judaism, one of the six parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition. They submitted it on 9 January 2023, seeking to prohibit soliciting a person directly to change religion. The text set out one year in prison for an adult conversion and two years where a minor was involved, and its explanatory notes singled out Christian missionary groups.

The bill drew little attention until March. Anger among pro-Israel evangelicals followed a report by the Christian outlet All Israel News, and a former United States religious freedom ambassador, Sam Brownback, publicly opposed it.

On 22 March 2023, Netanyahu posted on Twitter, now X: “We will not advance any law against the Christian community.” Gafni then said the bill had been tabled at the start of each Knesset session as a matter of procedure. It never progressed beyond the proposal stage.

The video gets the timeline wrong. It dates the bill to 2020 and says it was presented to the president before being blocked. Neither happened.

A bill filed again and again

The 2023 text was not new. Gafni has proposed anti-missionary bills in one form or another at the start of every Knesset since 1999. An earlier attempt went further. In 1998, Labour lawmaker Nissim Zvili sponsored a bill criminalising written proselytising material, then withdrew it after dozens of evangelical groups publicly pledged not to carry out missionary work in Israel.

What Israeli law already bans

The existing limits sit in the 1977 Penal Law. Anyone who gives or promises money or another material benefit to induce a person to change religion faces up to five years in prison. The United States State Department’s 2022 religious freedom report states that proselytising to anyone under 18 without the consent of both parents is illegal.

Beyond those two limits, sharing faith with adults is lawful. Tamar Hofnung, a visiting scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, told USA Today that no legal prohibition on preaching Christianity exists in Israel and that free speech protects it. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, a psychology professor at the University of Haifa, said he was not aware of anyone being charged under the penal code for proselytising.

Legal is not the same as welcome

The law and daily life do not always match. The same 2022 State Department report recorded that Christian clergy and pilgrims said ultra-Orthodox Jews regularly harassed and spat at them, and that some Jews regard missionary work aimed at Jews as religious harassment.

Other errors in the video

The speaker says Jesus was born in Nazareth, in Palestine. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke place his birth in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank. Nazareth, where he grew up, is in northern Israel.

The video also credits King Solomon with building the Western Wall. The wall is a retaining wall from King Herod’s expansion of the Second Temple compound in the first century BC.

A 2026 legal guide to Israeli law lists verbal sharing of faith, personal testimony and most distribution of religious literature as legal, with targeting minors without parental consent still an offence.

Motorists await 16 October fuel outlook after recent price rises

Roger A. Agana
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Motorists await 16 October fuel outlook after recent price rises

Ghanaian motorists head into the 16 October pricing window with no official projection yet published, after petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas prices rose at the start of the month.

The direction of the next adjustment matters for transport fares and food prices. It will depend on crude oil movements and the cedi over the past fortnight.

How October opened

The Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies (COMAC) projected increases for the 1 October window:

  • Petrol: up by as much as 3.31%, to about GH¢17.91 a litre
  • Diesel: up 3.32% to 5.60%, potentially reaching GH¢19.60 a litre
  • LPG: up about 2.25%, to roughly GH¢17.06 a kilogram

International product prices drove the rise. Petrol rose 2.43%, diesel 6.91% and LPG 8.55%. The currency added pressure. COMAC said the cedi fell 1.27% to GH¢11.6321 to the dollar, based on average bank rates between 12 and 26 September 2026.

Floors moved up too

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) raised its minimum prices for the window:

  • Petrol: GH¢16.00 to GH¢16.45 a litre
  • Diesel: GH¢16.77 to GH¢17.97 a litre
  • LPG: GH¢10.97 to GH¢11.10 a kilogram

Those floors are not pump prices. They exclude premiums charged by international oil traders and the margins of bulk distributors and marketing companies.

A volatile year

The swings have been sharp in both directions. In mid-year, COMAC described a July reduction as the steepest two-week fall in fuel prices since the oil market collapse of 2020. Earlier, in April, the government absorbed GH¢2.00 a litre on diesel and GH¢0.36 on petrol to cushion consumers.

Pump prices also vary because some of the more than 200 oil marketing companies change prices immediately, while others wait to watch competitors.

For the second June window, the NPA announced new price floors on 12 June, four days before it opened.

Sekondi-Takoradi: how a 1928 harbour fused two towns

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Sekondi-Takoradi: how a 1928 harbour fused two towns

When the Gold Coast’s colonial government opened a deep-water harbour at Takoradi in 1928, it changed more than the colony’s trade routes. The port pulled a small coastal settlement level with its older and better-connected neighbour, Sekondi. Within 18 years the two towns had become one city.

A set of Gold Coast-era photographs shared by Fante Voice Studios on social media, and reported by GhanaWeb on 10 October 2026, has renewed interest in that history. The images show how separate the towns once were, and how much of Sekondi’s early character came from its Fante residents.

Sekondi came first

Sekondi is the older settlement. The Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly has suggested that Sekondi was already a town by 1894, decades before Takoradi had much to its name.

The railway gave it an early lead. A railway and a deep-water seaport were built in Sekondi and Takoradi in 1903 and 1928, after which both became important economic centres. The line linked Sekondi’s coast to the gold-mining districts inland and to Kumasi. Government offices and institutions settled in Sekondi, and it served as the area’s administrative centre.

A harbour few believed in

Takoradi’s rise was not inevitable. A study of the city’s economic history, published in an academic journal, describes a private bid to develop the site long before the state moved. Around 1903, a man named Lefeber spotted Takoradi’s potential as a harbour town. His successor kept paying rent on the land in the hope that a port would follow, while the colonial government focused on building a harbour at Sekondi instead.

The faith ran out. Around 1913 the rent payments stopped because the leaseholders no longer believed Takoradi would ever get a harbour.

They were wrong. The harbour was built in 1928 as part of the 10-year development plan of Gordon Guggisberg, then governor of the Gold Coast. It became West Africa’s first artificial harbour and was served mainly by rail. Shipping companies, trading firms and workers followed the cargo, and Takoradi grew quickly as the colony’s commercial gateway.

During the Second World War the port and a neighbouring airfield became a staging point on an Allied air route that ferried aircraft across Africa to the North African front.

Union in 1946

As both towns spread along the coast, the gap between them closed. The two were formally amalgamated on 2 December 1946, combining Sekondi’s administrative role with Takoradi’s port economy.

The names themselves carry older traces. Researchers note that “Takoradi” and “Sekondi” are local forms of the Prussian names “Taccarary” and “Secundis”, recorded during the 17th century when European trading powers competed along this stretch of coast.

Today Sekondi-Takoradi is the capital of both the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly and the Western Region. Since Ghana began producing oil from the offshore Jubilee field in 2010, the metropolis has also become the main onshore base for the industry, and academic work has described it as West Africa’s newest oil city.

Faces from Sekondi’s past

The photographs shared by Fante Voice Studios focus on Sekondi before the merger. They show Fante women and girls, artisans and community groups, with the town named as the location. One image, captioned as Morphy’s Hotel, is presented by the collection as an example of Fante-built architecture.

The captions also bring out how outsiders wrote the name of the people. Gold Coast-era documents use spellings such as “Fanti”, “Fantee” and “Fantyn”. “Fante” is the standard modern English form, while speakers of the language use “Fantse”.

The Dutch built a fort at Sekondi in 1642. It now serves as a lighthouse.

Jomoro MP, Nzema chief court investors for coconut factory

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Jomoro MP, Nzema chief court investors for coconut factory

Jomoro MP Dorcas Affo-Toffey has met the Paramount Chief of the Western Nzema Traditional Area and prospective investors over a planned coconut processing factory in the Western Region municipality.

The investors, who have not been named, are studying whether a plant in Jomoro could turn locally grown coconuts into higher-value products for domestic and export markets. Affo-Toffey said the factory could create jobs for young people, widen markets for coconut farmers and raise incomes across the municipality.

The project is still at the feasibility stage. No investment amount, processing capacity, supply arrangement or construction timeline has been made public.

For Nzema farmers, the question is whether a processor would pay better and more reliable prices than the current trade in raw nuts. Coconuts can be processed into oil, milk, desiccated coconut and other foods, while husks and shells can supply fibre and industrial products. A plant’s value to farmers would depend on how it buys its raw material and on whether local supply is large and steady enough to keep it running near capacity.

The meeting follows a push by traditional leaders to revive the crop. In August, Awulae Kwasi Amakyi III, the Paramount Chief, told the Jomoro Development Conference at Half-Assini that the area would revive its coconut industry rather than turn to illegal mining. He said Jomoro needed processing factories to add value to its coconuts, and described the once-thriving industry as a former mainstay of employment in Nzema.

The Western Region is the centre of Ghana’s coconut production. In 2022, the then regional minister said it supplied more than 80 per cent of the country’s coconuts for local use and export. The Jomoro and Shama districts received new coconut seed gardens under a regional replanting programme launched in 2020.

Ashanti inflation hits 9.8% as Western prices fall in September

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Ashanti inflation hits 9.8% as Western prices fall in September

Inflation in Ghana’s Ashanti Region reached 9.8 per cent in September 2026, nearly double the national rate, while prices in the Western Region fell, Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) data show.

Figures released on 7 October put national inflation at 5.2 per cent. Ashanti recorded the highest regional rate, followed by the Eastern Region at 7.8 per cent. Greater Accra came in below the national average at 3.4 per cent. The Western Region recorded a rate of minus 0.5 per cent, meaning its consumer basket cost slightly less than a year earlier.

The spread shows how little the national average says about any one household. The 10.3-point gap between Ashanti and Western means two families buying similar goods can face very different price trends depending on where they live. For businesses and workers in Kumasi and the wider Ashanti Region, the cost of living is rising at close to the pace the whole country saw a year ago, when national inflation stood at 9.4 per cent.

A regional rate measures how fast prices are changing, not how expensive a place is. Faster inflation in Ashanti does not mean living there costs more than in Accra, only that prices there have risen more quickly over the past 12 months.

Nationally, inflation rose for a second straight month, from 5.0 per cent in August. Prices rose 1.1 per cent over the month, after falling 1.0 per cent in August. Food inflation climbed to 4.0 per cent from 3.0 per cent, driven by fresh tomatoes, up 153.4 per cent on the year, and ginger, up 100.4 per cent. Some staples moved the other way: lime prices fell 29.9 per cent and maize 26.4 per cent.

Locally produced items drove about 86 per cent of inflation, which Government Statistician Dr Alhassan Iddrisu described as largely homegrown. National inflation remains below the lower bound of the Bank of Ghana’s medium-term target of 8 per cent, plus or minus 2 points.

Rent becomes Ghana’s second-biggest inflation driver in September

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Rent becomes Ghana’s second-biggest inflation driver in September

Rent payments accounted for 13.9 per cent of Ghana’s 5.2 per cent inflation rate in September 2026, second only to fresh tomatoes, Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) data released on 7 October show.

Fresh tomatoes contributed 20.3 per cent of the headline rate and ginger 9.9 per cent. Prices of the two items rose 153.4 per cent and 100.4 per cent from a year earlier. The share figures measure each item’s contribution to overall inflation and reflect its weight in the consumer basket, not how much its price rose.

Rent’s place near the top of the table points to where the next price pressure lies. Food inflation is volatile and can swing back quickly once supply improves. Housing costs are stickier. Government Statistician Dr Alhassan Iddrisu said services inflation, at 8.3 per cent, was rising twice as fast as goods inflation, at 4.2 per cent. He said services “are the last hurdle for us to deal with.” Housing, water, electricity and gas recorded the highest inflation of any category, at 10.3 per cent.

Headline rate still low

Inflation rose for a second straight month, from 5.0 per cent in August, after falling to 3.2 per cent in March. It remains well below the 9.4 per cent recorded in September 2025 and below the lower bound of the Bank of Ghana’s medium-term target of 8 per cent, plus or minus 2 points. Food inflation rose to 4.0 per cent from 3.0 per cent, while non-food inflation eased to 6.2 per cent from 6.8 per cent. Locally produced items accounted for about 86 per cent of inflation, which the GSS described as largely homegrown.

The upfront cost the index misses

The price index does not capture the lump sums many tenants must pay before moving in. Landlords in Accra, Kumasi and other cities commonly demand one or two years’ rent in advance. That is illegal under the Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220), which caps advance rent at six months for tenancies longer than six months and two months for shorter ones.

The state has stepped up enforcement this year. In March, President John Mahama urged tenants to report landlords who demand more. The Rent Control Department said it would prosecute offenders from 1 April. In June, Acting Rent Control Commissioner Frederick Opoku told tenants to gather evidence and report violations. He also announced compulsory registration of landlords on a digital database.

The department’s capacity is limited. Opoku said in April that it had only 185 staff nationwide and described it as poorly resourced. It plans to introduce a standard tenancy agreement by November 2026.

Some landlords argue that long advances pay for repairs and building work. They have warned that tighter limits could push rents up.

Ghana’s mobile money boom leaves most businesses behind

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Ghana’s mobile money boom leaves most businesses behind

Ghanaians moved GH¢518.8 billion through mobile money in August 2026, yet most of the country’s businesses still do not accept digital payments, according to central bank data and census-based research.

The gap between how Ghanaians pay and how firms get paid is now one of the clearest weak points in the country’s shift away from cash. It matters for small businesses in particular. Firms that keep no digital record of their sales struggle to show lenders what they earn, which shuts many of them out of credit.

Consumers moved first

Bank of Ghana figures show the value of mobile money transactions rose from GH¢323.2 billion in June 2025 to GH¢492.9 billion in June 2026, an increase of more than 50 per cent. Volumes reached 954 million transactions in June alone. Values rose again in July and August.

Across 2025, mobile money transactions totalled GH¢4.54 trillion, up 50.8 per cent on 2024. The infrastructure is extensive: about 546,000 active agents, and 26.4 million active accounts out of 85.8 million registered as of August.

Firms lag behind

Businesses tell a different story. A study by the Ghana Statistical Service and the Retail Finance Distribution (ReFinD) research initiative at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) found that only about 37 per cent of firms accept or use digital payments. The study drew on the 2024 Integrated Business Establishment Survey. By contrast, nearly 95 per cent of individuals surveyed had paid digitally as consumers.

“This large gap between individual and business use tells us there’s strong potential,” said Francis Annan, the initiative’s co-lead.

Adoption is uneven. It stood at 38.4 per cent in services, 34.9 per cent in industry and 22.4 per cent in agriculture. Formal firms were far more likely to go digital than informal ones, at 56.7 per cent against 35.2 per cent. Use is concentrated in Greater Accra and regional capitals, with businesses in northern Ghana less likely to take part.

Even firms that have adopted digital payments mostly rely on personal mobile money accounts, which the researchers describe as the costliest and riskiest option for business. Merchant accounts are cheaper and more efficient. The researchers found that firms using merchant accounts recorded better revenue growth. Owners cited limited knowledge, cost, taxes and fraud concerns as the main barriers.

Why records matter for credit

The link to financing is where the stakes rise. A business that takes payments digitally builds a transaction history that a bank can assess. A business that runs on cash usually cannot prove its cash flow.

That matters more now that borrowing costs are falling. The average lending rate dropped to 15.9 per cent in August 2026 from 24.2 per cent a year earlier, Bank of Ghana data show. Cheaper credit helps only firms that can show they are creditworthy.

The researchers have recommended stronger cybersecurity, wider digital infrastructure outside the main cities, incentives for women-led businesses and better financial literacy among business owners.

Mahama says government no longer crowds out private borrowers

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Mahama says government no longer crowds out private borrowers

President John Mahama says government has stopped crowding businesses out of the credit market, citing lower interest rates, during a visit to drinks maker Kasapreko reported on 9 October 2026.

Speaking at the Ghana Stock Exchange-listed company’s production facility, Mahama said heavy state borrowing had previously soaked up bank credit. He said that left little for private firms and pushed the interest rates they were charged to excessive levels.

“We are exercising fiscal discipline, making sure government lives within its means,” he said. He added that the aim was to create room for the private sector to grow.

The claim matters because the cost of credit decides whether manufacturers like Kasapreko can expand and hire. Official data show borrowing costs have fallen sharply, though not as far as some of the President’s examples suggest.

Mahama said commercial lending rates had dropped from highs of around 32 per cent, and that some businesses were now borrowing at rates as low as nine per cent. Bank of Ghana data put the average lending rate at 15.9 per cent in August 2026, down from 24.2 per cent a year earlier. The World Bank’s latest Ghana Economic Update said average lending rates fell from about 27 per cent in June 2025 to 15.6 per cent in June 2026. Rates still vary widely between banks and borrowers, with some lenders charging up to 30 per cent.

The decline followed deep cuts by the Bank of Ghana, which lowered its policy rate from 28 per cent in April 2025 to 14 per cent by March 2026. It has held the rate there since, most recently on 24 September, as inflation edged up to 5.2 per cent in September.

The President also pointed to a surge in foreign direct investment, which he said rose from $624 million in 2024 to $2.62 billion in 2025. The Ghana Investment Promotion Authority’s 2025 report confirms the $2.62 billion figure. However, Bank of Ghana data show that 95.4 per cent of net inflows on a balance of payments basis came from reinvested earnings of firms already operating in Ghana, not new money.

Mahama urged Ghanaian entrepreneurs to follow foreign investors and expand, and praised Kasapreko’s growth into export markets.

Bloom Africa injects GH¢1.13bn into Prudential Bank, eyes regional network

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Bloom Africa injects GH¢1.13bn into Prudential Bank, eyes regional network

Mauritius-based Bloom Africa Holdings has completed a GH¢1.13 billion capital investment in Prudential Bank, a Ghanaian-owned lender, as the group pursues a West African banking network.

Prudential Bank announced on 9 October 2026 that the deal had closed after approval from the Bank of Ghana. The money came through Bloom Africa Holdings Ghana Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mauritius holding company.

The bank said the capital lifts it above the Bank of Ghana’s minimum capital requirement. It said the funds will support more lending to small and medium-sized enterprises and corporate clients, as well as spending on technology and digital banking.

“This investment significantly strengthens Prudential Bank,” said Ebow Quayson, the bank’s acting managing director.

For Bloom Africa, Ghana is the largest market yet in a West African expansion built largely on acquired banks. Its subsidiaries operate as Bloom Bank Africa in The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Those banks were previously Skye Bank Gambia, Keystone Bank Sierra Leone and Global Bank Liberia. In 2024 the group drew backing from the Fund for Export Development in Africa, the impact investment arm of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), to support that expansion.

Gabriel Edgal, Bloom Africa’s board chairman, said the group wants to build African institutions that can finance trade and help businesses grow beyond their home markets. He said Prudential’s knowledge of its Ghanaian customers would anchor that plan, linking them to capital and opportunities elsewhere on the continent. Edgal also leads Oakwood Green Africa, an associate company of the group.

Prudential Bank, founded as a privately owned Ghanaian bank, has until now described itself as wholly Ghanaian-owned. The bank has not disclosed the size of the stake Bloom Africa now holds, how much of the new capital will go to small-business lending, or any lending targets.

Wontumi says GH¢30m Exim Bank case is civil debt

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Wontumi says GH¢30m Exim Bank case is civil debt

Bernard Antwi Boasiako, the former New Patriotic Party Ashanti chairman known as Wontumi, has asked the High Court to declare his GH¢30 million Exim Bank case a civil dispute.

In a filing reported on 8 October 2026, he and his company, Wontumi Farms Limited, argue that the dispute is a civil debt that has been wrongly treated as a crime. They say the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has overstepped its mandate by acting as a debt collector for the bank.

They point to the security attached to the loan. Antwi Boasiako personally guaranteed repayment in the event of default, and the Ghana Export-Import Bank agreed to take out insurance on the loan. They are asking the court to send the matter to the civil courts. They also want it to direct the bank to recover any outstanding balance through the mortgage, his personal guarantee or the insurance cover.

If the court grants the application, the criminal prosecution would effectively end and the dispute would become a matter of recovering a debt.

Antwi Boasiako is standing trial with Thomas Antwi-Boasiako, who is at large, and Wontumi Farms Limited over an alleged GH¢30 million loss to the bank. The prosecution alleges that the two men obtained about GH¢14.302 million from Exim Bank in 2018 by false pretences. It alleges that a pro forma invoice for farm machinery was used to support the loan application, and that money was later withdrawn from the company’s accounts for personal use. None of the allegations has been tested at trial.

The state filed an amended charge sheet on 22 September after plea discussions with the defence broke down. It retains a charge of uttering a forged document under Section 169 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960. The accused were first arraigned on 18 May 2026 and will have their pleas taken afresh on the amended charges.

Antwi Boasiako is currently serving a prison sentence after his conviction in a separate illegal mining case.

The Accra High Court will resume hearing the Exim Bank case on 13 October 2026 at 10.30am.

UTAG-UG threatens strike from 19 October over research allowance

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UTAG-UG threatens strike from 19 October over research allowance

The University of Ghana branch of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG-UG) threatened to withdraw teaching from 19 October 2026 unless members’ Book and Research Allowance is paid.

In a notice to the National Labour Commission dated 9 October, the branch gave the government until Friday, 16 October, to pay the 2026 allowance. It said members would withdraw all teaching and related services from the following Monday if the money had not arrived.

The branch said the delay breaches a 2020 Memorandum of Agreement between UTAG and the government, which it said requires the allowance to be paid by the end of August each year.

A walkout at the country’s largest public university would disrupt the new academic year at Legon. It would also add to pressure from other unions in the sector. The Technical University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (TUTAG) has been on strike since 1 October.

The allowance helps lecturers buy books and academic materials, fund research and attend scholarly events. It has been a recurring flashpoint this year. In June, UTAG’s national leadership threatened a nationwide strike over the Finance Ministry’s delay in releasing the dollar exchange rate used to calculate the allowance. It later set a 30 June deadline for the government to resolve outstanding conditions-of-service issues, and suspended planned action in early July after government assurances.

There are signs that payment is moving. TUTAG President Professor Deodat Adenutsi said on 1 October that a letter from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, dated 28 September, confirmed funds had been released on the government’s financial management system for first-batch payments by individual institutions. He said TUTAG no longer treated the allowance as a ground for its own strike. TUTAG is instead striking over unpaid post-retirement contracts and other conditions of service.

Dutch seek Ghana’s help to choke Bolle Jos supply lines

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Dutch seek Ghana’s help to choke Bolle Jos supply lines

The Netherlands is seeking Ghanaian help to cut supply lines of fugitive Dutch trafficker Jos Leijdekkers, known as Bolle Jos, after cocaine shipped from Ghana was seized in France.

Dutch Justice and Security Minister David van Weel is backing efforts to bring Ghanaian authorities into the pursuit, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported. The form of the cooperation is still being worked out but could include sending Dutch police officers to Ghana, the paper said.

The move puts Ghana at the centre of one of Europe’s most prominent manhunts. Leijdekkers is the Netherlands’ most wanted criminal. Dutch authorities believe he is hiding in Sierra Leone, and The Hague has tried for months without success to secure his extradition from Freetown.

The trigger was a seizure in early September 2026, when French customs at the Port of Dunkirk found nearly 3.9 tonnes of cocaine in a container of plastic waste shipped from Ghana. French authorities valued the drugs at about €225 million (about US$260 million). De Telegraaf and Belgian media have linked the shipment to Leijdekkers’ network.

Four Ghanaians have since been arraigned before the High Court in Accra on charges of conspiracy to export narcotic drugs and exporting narcotic drugs. They have pleaded not guilty. The Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) has said the suspects were under surveillance for one to two years before their arrest. It said intelligence showed that Leijdekkers himself had not entered Ghana, although associates operated from the country.

NACOC has said Ghana will not be a safe haven or transit point for international drug trafficking groups. President John Mahama has ordered an inter-agency task force to draw up a plan to stop drug trafficking through Ghana’s borders.

Europe is also stepping up pressure on Sierra Leone. The European Commission has suspended about €18 million in 2026 budget support to the country, which Van Weel said was because of its failure to cooperate on extradition. The Netherlands wants a further €22.5 million earmarked for 2027 withheld if Leijdekkers is not handed over. It is also pursuing European measures to freeze his assets and restrict his movements.

A Dutch court sentenced Leijdekkers in his absence to 24 years in prison for trafficking nearly seven tonnes of cocaine.

GES brands SHS placement ‘goro boys’ scammers, urges official help

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GES brands SHS placement ‘goro boys’ scammers, urges official help

The Ghana Education Service (GES) in remarks published on 10 October 2026 urged parents not to pay “goro boys” promising senior high school places, calling the middlemen criminals and scammers.

Daniel Fenyi, the GES head of public relations, told GhanaWeb TV’s Lowdown show that the Service has no dealings with people who claim they can influence placement for a fee. “They are criminals. They are scammers. We don’t work with them,” he said.

The warning targets the families still caught in this year’s self-placement process. Parents who pay middlemen risk losing their money with no school place to show for it.

Under the 2026 Computerised School Selection and Placement System, about 527,000 students were placed automatically. That left roughly 13 per cent of candidates to choose schools themselves through the self-placement portal. Official figures put the number eligible for self-placement at 53,887, of whom 33,726 had secured schools by mid-September. The Education Ministry then extended the exercise to 18 September.

Fenyi said parents struggling with the process should go to their children’s former school heads, district education offices or the placement resolution centres. GES runs 17 such centres nationwide, with the national centre at GNAT Hall in Accra. He said official staff there handle cases, including families who have trouble using the online system.

He asked parents who had already lost money to share details that could help trace the middlemen, such as phone numbers, names, payment records and photographs. Many victims, he said, have been unwilling to come forward.

This year’s placement drew complaints of long queues at resolution centres, particularly in Accra and the Ashanti Region. In September, Fenyi said 15 of the 17 centres were running smoothly. He argued that the pressure in those two areas did not amount to a national crisis, noting that there were about 800,000 places for just over 600,000 students.

Assafuah seeks GTA CEO’s suspension over World Cup visa list

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Assafuah seeks GTA CEO’s suspension over World Cup visa list

Minority MP Vincent Ekow Assafuah on 10 October 2026 called for the suspension of Ghana Tourism Authority chief Maame Efua Houadjeto, alleging her agency misrepresented World Cup visa applicants.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, Assafuah said a document submitted to the United States Embassy listed more than 30 people as members or affiliates of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) board, though the board has about 11 members.

“Over 30 people were misrepresented to the US Embassy as board members,” he alleged. He said the CEO should step aside so the matter could be investigated without interference.

The claim deepens a controversy over how Ghanaian public institutions handled visa arrangements for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Assafuah is the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee and the New Patriotic Party MP for Old Tafo. He also cited a WhatsApp exchange in which, he said, a person who was not on the board admitted obtaining a US visa on that basis. He did not name the individual.

He challenged the Sports Ministry’s account of when it began dealing with the embassy over the tournament. The ministry has said formal engagement started around March or April 2026. Assafuah produced an email dated 3 February 2026 from the embassy’s public diplomacy section, which invited stakeholders to a third World Cup meeting and referred to an earlier meeting on 22 October 2025.

Houadjeto has previously denied involvement in the visa controversy, and the GTA has denied collecting money for US or Canadian visas. A special aide to the Sports Minister said on 10 October that the US Embassy treated the National Sports Authority, the Ghana Football Association and the GTA as separate entities for visa applications. He also said the ministry was not shielding anyone.

Assafuah’s demand is a call for investigation and does not amount to a finding of wrongdoing.

The new allegation adds to claims the Minority made at a press conference on 7 October. There, Assafuah alleged that the US Embassy verified only two of 50 people the GTA submitted as media personnel. The Minority also called for the removal of Sports Minister Kofi Adams and the GTA chief executive.

President John Mahama has asked National Sports Authority Director-General Yaw Ampofo Ankrah to step aside while police investigate the visa arrangements.

Okoe Boye demands apology for nurse in Ghana Jollof case

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Okoe Boye demands apology for nurse in Ghana Jollof case

Opposition figure Bernard Okoe Boye has demanded an apology for Salomey Awiti Baffoe, the nurse charged in the Ghana Jollof case, saying on 10 October 2026 her detention was unjustified.

Dr Okoe Boye, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Greater Accra Regional Chairman, made the remarks on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue. He questioned how the prosecution could treat Baffoe as a threat to the state while she was in custody, then raise no objection to her release on bail. He also noted that the case has now been adjourned to February 2027. He suggested some officials had wanted to show her where power lay.

“I want those involved to come and apologise to her,” he said. He added that protecting individual liberty should be a priority whichever party is in government.

The comments widen the political argument over a prosecution that has drawn protests since Baffoe’s arrest. They also highlight a gap at the centre of the case: the High Court refused her bail in September, yet the prosecution did not oppose it at the Circuit Court on 5 October.

Baffoe, 40, is a senior nursing officer based at Hansua, near Techiman in the Bono East Region. Police took her from her home on the night of 13 September. She is charged with abetment of crime, namely publication of false news, under the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, and has pleaded not guilty. None of the allegations has been tested at trial.

The prosecution alleges that she acted as a liaison for Barbara Asantewaa Kodua, whom police identify as the operator of the Ghana Jollof TikTok account. Police have declared Kodua wanted and believe she is in the United Kingdom.

The High Court in Accra refused Baffoe bail on 24 September. It cited concern that her release could interfere with ongoing investigations involving cyber-related evidence. On 5 October, the Adenta Circuit Court granted her bail of GH¢100,000 with two sureties, after the prosecution, led by Deputy Attorney-General Dr Justice Srem-Sai, said it did not oppose the application. She must report to the police at Hansua every two weeks. Her lawyer is Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, the NPP Member of Parliament for Manhyia South.

The case resumes on 17 February 2027.

GES reports progress on teacher pay as NAGRAT warns

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GES reports progress on teacher pay as NAGRAT warns

The Ghana Education Service (GES) says paperwork for promoted teachers is largely done after unions suspended their strike on 9 October 2026, but one union has threatened fresh action.

Daniel Fenyi, the GES head of public relations, told GhanaWeb TV’s Lowdown show that about 60,000 promoted teachers did not see their new ranks reflected in their September salaries. He said the Service had finished documentation for one batch and was processing about 30,000 more. He said the Ministry of Education had ordered the papers to be ready within a week so the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department can adjust salaries. He expressed confidence that GES would meet the ministry’s 30 October deadline.

Fenyi called the teachers’ concerns legitimate. “If you touch them, you have touched the hearts of the next generation,” he said.

The timeline matters because the suspension is conditional. The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) said on 10 October that it would resume its strike if the government fails to start paying the 20 per cent deprived-area allowance in January 2027. NAGRAT President Jacob Anaba told Channel One TV’s The Big Issue that the allowance has been pending since 2009. He said it is vital to keeping teachers in remote communities, where many leave within a year or two.

NAGRAT, the Ghana National Association of Teachers and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers’ Association of Ghana suspended their two-week strike after talks with the Council of State and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission. They have told members to return to the classroom on Monday, 12 October.

The strike centred on three issues: salary adjustments and arrears for promoted teachers, the deprived-area allowance, and a new collective agreement to replace the one that expired in June 2026. Fenyi said talks between the unions and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission on the agreement would continue. He said consultations on the allowance are scheduled to run until January 2027.

Reported figures on the promotion payments differ. Earlier accounts of the deal said the first batch of arrears would go to about 51,000 teachers by 16 October, with the remainder due by the end of the month. Under the same commitments, a digital support allowance is to be paid in November and the continuous professional development allowance in December.

Yendi MP Jofa and predecessor Farouk Mahama row over transformer

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Yendi MP Jofa and predecessor Farouk Mahama row over transformer

Yendi MP Abdul-Fatawu Alhassan Jofa has accused his predecessor, Farouk Aliu Mahama, of misleading residents of Nayilifong, where the former MP donated a transformer, GhanaWeb reported on 10 October 2026.

The row, in the Yendi Municipality of the Northern Region, pits the constituency’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) politician he unseated in the December 2024 election.

Farouk Mahama donated a 100kVA transformer to the community, according to a MyJoyOnline report on 9 October. Residents turned out in large numbers to watch it being offloaded, and some praised him for continuing to support the area after losing his seat. The report said Nayilifong had suffered erratic power supply for months, hurting businesses, students and households.

GhanaWeb reported that the Nayilifong Saasigli area had been without power for about 24 days. It said Jofa then arrived in the community with two transformers of his own after learning of his predecessor’s donation. Residents angry over the outage reportedly drove away the MP’s supporters.

According to GhanaWeb, Jofa blamed Farouk Mahama for the confrontation, accusing him of stirring up residents and lying to them. He also accused him of spreading falsehoods while he was MP.

Farouk Mahama, son of former Vice-President Aliu Mahama, represented Yendi for one term from 2021 before losing the seat to Jofa.

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