top stories

Introduction On May 25, 2021, the website of Ghana’s Parliament published the following: “The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon Alban S. K. Bagbin has today opened the Second Meeting of the First Session of the Eighth Parliament with a firm commitment to see to the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill into law.” Fast-forward to 2023, the first item under ...

The government is said to have achieved more than the 80% target needed for the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). The programme is part of the requirements before Ghana can secure an economic bailout of about $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Some persons close to the team who worked on the programme told Joy Business the target ...

The death toll from earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria this week neared 16,000 on Thursday as hopes faded of many people being found alive 72 hours since the disaster and frustration simmered over the slow delivery of aid. A Turkish official said the disaster posed “very serious difficulties” for the holding of an election scheduled for May 14 in which President ...

Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry and Aisling Bea are among celebrities calling on the five of the UK’s biggest High Street banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coal projects. It follows criticism that HSBC, Barclays, Santander, NatWest and Lloyds are funding “fossil fuel expansion” despite making green pledges. Businesses and charities like Greenpeace also back the campaign. HSBC and ...

Nigeria’s Supreme Court has temporarily suspended Friday’s deadline to stop using old banknotes, which had caused a cash crisis in the country. Banks have not been releasing enough of the new naira notes, leading to desperate and chaotic scenes as people tried to get their hands on them. There were fights at ATMs, protests and mob attacks on commercial banks. ...

Although fictional, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story The Visit provides a glimpse into a world where gender roles are reversed; men stay home and care for the children and home while women go to work and provide financially for the family. This role reversal throws a spotlight on some of the inequalities women face by placing men in their position. ...

Individual Pension Bondholders are picketing at the Ministry of Finance Monday morning, demanding that they should be exempted totally from the ongoing Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.  About 50 of the bondholders wearing red armbands have thronged the Ministry’s premises with placards to register their displeasure over their expected inclusion in the programme. According to convener of the group, Dr Adu ...

United Nations member countries have urged the Ghanaian government to address the shackling and inhumane treatment of people with mental health conditions in Ghana, Human Rights Watch said today. These recommendations were made on January 24, 2023, at the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of Ghana.“Ghana has failed to meet its own commitment to protecting the rights of people with psychosocial disabilities who are held in shackles ...

The deputy Energy Minister, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, has confirmed that the initial consignment of 40,000 tons of oil brought into the country under the Gold-for-oil policy was purchased with cash and not gold as widely claimed by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. His disclosure comes after several calls by Industry experts such as the Institute of Energy Securities and ...

The World Bank has signed an agreement with four West and Central African nations worth $311 million to fund renewable energy projects. The funds will finance around 106 megawatts (MW) of solar power generation capacity with battery energy and storage systems, and 41 MW expansion of hydroelectric capacity. The countries are Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, and Chad. The funds will ...