For an industry which doesn’t favour young artistes, it’s always great to gain attention in the mainstream and Afrobeats artiste, King Promise can’t be thankful enough for the favour 2017 brought him.

The graduate of the Central University College, who shot to fame with his track, Oh Yeah admitted to Showbiz in an interview that he had a great year.

“Yes, I will say 2017 was my year of luck. It’s not as if I was new in the system but the year gave me a good reason to hope for better days in the industry.

I got the attention many equally talented young artistes are still struggling to get and I’m so grateful to Ghanaians for the support,” he said.

Among his many blessings he recounted were the release of songs such as Oh Yeah, Thank God, Double Trouble featuring Sarkodie and the new Selfish which is getting a lot of airplay.

“My team and I were very hopeful when we dropped Selfish. It was ready at the time Oh Yeah was released but we planned to hold on for a while and its success has been inspiring,” he said.

King Promise’s talent is not being appreciated only in Ghana but outside as well. In December last year, British-born Nigerian producer and recording artiset, Maleek Berry, commended him after his performance at the Detty Rave concert at the La Pleasure Beach.

King Promise acknowledges that such endorsements are morale boosters for him. Managed by renowned sound engineer, Kill Beatz who produced Selfish, the young graduate is looking forward to another promising year to churn out good songs.

As the awards season begins, King Promise’s name is being mentioned alongside others for trophies but he says that isn’t his focus now.

“My aim is to produce songs my fans can relate to. Although awards are important, my main focus is to produce good songs and take Ghanaian music worldwide,” he said.

Source : graphic.com.gh

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that from January this year, non-residential users of electricity in the country would enjoy an average of 14% reduction in electricity tariffs.

According to President Akufo-Addo, not only has Government succeeded in normalising the power situation in the country, “we now want to boost private business in our country.”

Thus, the President indicated that “from January this year, the non-residential tariff rate, which is the rate which includes all of you here, is being reduced by an average of 14%. For barbers, it is being reduced by 18%; for hairdressers and beauticians, 15.7%, and for tailors, 9.8%.”

President Akufo-Addo continued: “An average bill last year was GH¢562 a month. With this reduction from January, it is coming down to GH¢473 a month, which means GH¢88 has been taken from the electricity tariff that you pay. We want to encourage private business, and make business stand on its feet.”

The President made this known on Monday, 15th January, 2017, at the opening of the 8th Salon Academy of the National Association of Beauticians and Hairdressers, held at the Mensah Sarbah Hall, University of Ghana, Legon.

Expressing his appreciation to the Association for their support of his candidature in the run-up to the 2016 elections, President Akufo-Addo noted that one of the pledges he made to them, the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy, is now a reality.

“By the grace of God, Free SHS, which some said was not possible or would be possible only after 20 years, is now a reality in our country. Free SHS has come to stay. It is going to be a central feature of the education architecture of our country. We are not going to go back on it. By 2020, all students in form 1, form 2 and form 3, would enjoy the free SHS policy,” he said.

This statement was met with a rapturous round of approval from the hundreds and hundreds of beauticians and hair dressers at the packed Mensah Sarbah Hall.

In response to the request by the President of the Association, Mrs Joyce Lamptey, for tax exemptions for start-up businesses, the President stated that in the 2018 budget, there is a provision which ensures that young entrepreneurs, up to the age of 35, will enjoy a tax holiday for the first five years of operation, before being taxed in the subsequent years.

Touching on the provision of skills training, he revealed that, up until now, all the institutions responsible for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the country, were under so many organisations.

“My government has made the decision to centralise all of them (TVET) under the Ministry of Education, so we can scale up TVET training, and make it better and more robust for you. The demand for an industrial park in every region is part of the NPP manifesto, and you know that all the pledges I have made to the Ghanaian people, I am going to fulfil each and every one of them,” he said.

In conclusion, President Akufo-Addo appealed for the continued support of the Association, stressing that “this government is your government; it is the government of the private sector. Whatever we can do to strengthen the private sector, we will do it. We have come to do a job to raise Ghana up, and, with your support, we will raise Ghana up. The Black Star is going to shine and shine and shine again.”



Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3FM

The government of Ghana should exercise restraint in committing a large amount of the country’s resources into bitcoin investment, Dr Kobby Mensah, a lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, has cautioned.

For him, there are so many uncertainties regarding bitcoins. However, he said the country can take advantage of the technology behind cryptocurrencies and apply it in other sectors to the benefit of the nation.

“As a country, let us focus on blockchain and see how blockchain can help us to decentralise our system and make it more transparent. I think we can go full swing on that but when it comes to cyptocurrencies like bitcoin, there should be caution,” he told Dr Etse Sikanku on Class91.3FM’s World Affairs programme on Friday, 12 January.

A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses cryptography to secure its transactions, to control the creation of additional units, and to verify the transfer of assets.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralised digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or single administrator. The network is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes through the use of cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain.

Bitcoin was invented by an unknown person or group of people under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and released as open-source software in 2009.

Following the increase in the price of bitcoin and further expectations of increases in the price in the future, some analysts are advocating the commitment of government funds by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) into the investment of bitcoin. However, Dr Mensah is advising government to hasten slowly.

“I think we have to tread cautiously. I wouldn’t say we should speedily, although I’m a fan of the technology. I’m the number one person who recommends technology adoption.

“I think that we should proceed cautiously when it comes to bitcoins and cryptocurrencies themselves. As I said, we have 700-plus active ones and you wouldn’t know which one the world is going to adopt and what policies, whether there would be conversions [from one cyptocurrency to the other]

“For me, I would recommend that we adopt a 70-20-10 approach to technology adoption. For example, we invest 70 per cent of our resources to areas that we know work very well, 20 per cent into other areas we also know that they are developing and then we experiment with the 10 per cent, maybe bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency we think for some time to come, will be the big deal. So, we have to take that cautious approach as opposed to going full swing,” he explained.

He is rather advocating the adoption of blockchain technology to improve the efficiency of various sectors where it can be applied.

For him, what “we should probably invest very much more in, is the idea of blockchain because blockchain is not only for cryptocurrencies but for so many applications.

“Blockchain makes the system open and you can even use it to check fake medicines and many other things because everyone has access to it, it is instant and almost like what we call in real time. Additionally, you don’t have a centralised system for information. So information asymmetry is somehow remote”.

Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3FM