Bussiness
Land litigation, estate developers disrupting food production in Awutu-Senya – Agric Director
Mr Edward Laryea koney, the Municipal Director of Agriculture of Awutu-Senya-East of the Central Region, has stated that land litigation coupled with activities of estate developers, was taking a toll on agriculture production in the area.
According to him, the phenomenon, which continued to cause a reduction in farmlands, did not only disturb food production but also affected the livelihoods of farmers.
“Estate developers are taking over all the lands. Someone will start farming and then somebody from nowhere will come and claim ownership of the land, sometimes, turning into a court case. So, most of the farmers are now ‘perching’ on the farm lands.
“Other times the owners reclaim the land at a time the crops have not mature and they don’t even allow them to harvest before the land is taken away from them”, he lamented.
Mr Koney was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview on the sidelines of the Municipality’s Farmers Day celebration and indicated that the Area was now shifting towards non-traditional farming, which required a small area of land to undertake.
He said his office was mobilising the youth and equipping them with the necessary training and logistics for the new farming module.
“What we are doing now is that we are forming groups so that they will go into non-traditional farming like rabbit rearing, grasscutter, and poultry, which actually occupy just a small area.
“There are people who are into mushroom production as at now and so, we are mobilising the young ones to train them to go into this non-traditional farming because of the land issues,” he explained.
Mr Koney said his outfit was negotiating with the Assembly for support to enable them realise that vision.
Touching on other issues, Mr Koney disclosed that the recent case of bird flu that rocked some parts of the country this year, ravaged six farms in the municipality where a total of 3,970 birds were affected between July and October.
Of the number, 1,327 of the birds died before the laboratory confirmation results from the Accra Veterinary Laboratory were received.
The rest, he revealed, were destroyed and a destruction certificate issued while intensive surveillance was also instituted to prevent further outbreak, he added.
The Agriculture Director, disclosed that there had not been any case of bird flu for the past one month and prayed for its complete eradication. -GNA
Bussiness
Ghana’s GDP shows economy is fast recovering despite DDEP – Finance Ministry
Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicates a rapid economic recovery despite global challenges and ongoing debt restructuring, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
The Ministry in a statement today indicated that latest data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), cumulative economic growth for the second quarter (Q2) of 2024 reached 6.9%, a notable increase from the 4.7% recorded in the first quarter of 2024.
The MoF statement further noted that, “The economy’s robust recovery is in response to the macroeconomic stability and growth interventions that government is pursuing under our IMF-supported Post Covid-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG).”
According to them, the overall real GDP growth for the first half of 2024 rebounded strongly, with year-on-year GDP growth averaging 5.8% for the period, significantly higher than the 2.9% recorded in the same period in 2023.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
Read full statement below
Bussiness
Facebook, Youtube, online trading companies must be taxed – Deputy Finance Minister
The Deputy Finance Minister Dr Alex Ampaabeng, has proposed that online trading companies should be taxed to bolster the economy.
He noted that these companies, both local and international, generate significant revenue from their Ghanaian clients, which underscores the necessity for taxation.
In an interview with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, Dr Ampaabeng pointed out various potential revenue sources for Ghana, including online businesses and content creation companies.
He questioned why other national companies operating in Ghana are taxed, but social media platforms like Youtube and Facebook, which run numerous advertisements, are not included in the Ghanaian tax system.
According to him, these social media companies earn profits from the advertisements they display, and online trading companies also generate income from the sale of their products and services.
He mentioned online trading companies such as Jiji, Jumia, and Tonaton, which he believes surpass all physical marketplaces in Ghana in size.
According to him, “I can’t think of a country which has not gotten a digital service tax system of some sort, so Ghana is long overdue. Just to make an example so that people will appreciate where I’m coming from. Go to Youtube and play a video, within one or two minutes, you are going to watch about two, or three adverts.”
“What it tells you is that Facebook or Youtube is making profits right here in Ghana. Go to your Facebook account, and you are going to see a number of adverts on your right, left. What it is telling you is that Facebook is making profits right here in Ghana and not being taxed. Meanwhile, there are companies operating in Ghana, for jurisdiction reasons, of course, that are being taxed,” he said.
The Deputy Minister added that “So then, it comes to the question of the application of our tax laws. Revenues generated in Ghana are subject to taxes. We have Facebook, TikTok and all those players, these are digital platform owners.”
He stressed, “Then we have the digital or market players, here we are talking about individuals who are using the digital platforms. We have Jiji, Jumia, Tonaton, these combined, are bigger than all physical marketplaces in Ghana. And it tells you the volume of transactions, that are going on there.”
He expressed his hope that individuals earning online profits from Ghanaian residents would be taxed.
“There are conversations ongoing, I wouldn’t want to pre-empt anything, maybe in the future, it might not be anytime soon, what I would like to see, is a Ghana where people who are earning all forms of profits in the country are subject to taxes. People who are trading online to Ghanaian residents, people who are generating revenue from Ghana are allowed to pay taxes,” he noted.
Additionally, he proposed a collaboration with the government to curb cybercrime by registering and verifying these online trading companies.
“We can have a system where the government engages these operators, so individuals will submit their Ghana Card and are registered and verified,”he concluded.
Source: Citinewsroom.com
