Bussiness
Obuasi Enterprise and Skills Development Center to boost local economy inaugurated
An Enterprise and Skills Development Center, serving as a one-stop hub to provide solutions to local businesses and also support skills development and capacity building, has been inaugurated at Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.
The project, jointly executed by AngloGold Ashanti Ghana (AGAG), Obuasi Mine, and the AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Community Trust Fund, aims to boost the local economy of the mining community.
It comes with varied facilities, including a multipurpose conference and training unit, business unit, fully-equipped industrial sewing, and bead-making units, a fully-equipped workshop, hand sanitizer production unit, and eight mini-meeting areas.
Dr Eric Asubonteng, Managing Director of the AGAG, Obuasi Mine, said the project was in line with the Enterprise Development Programme under the Social Management Plan of the company.
The Programme, according to him, had provided business solution support to about 600 businesses at Obuasi, covering women-owned businesses and artisans to enhance their productive capacity, efficiency, and ability to compete on the market.
He added that the Center also aimed at functioning as an anchor for the private sector development objective of the AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Community Trust Fund.
Under the Trust Fund’s Skills Development Programme, 60 master craft persons have been trained in leather works, bead craft, and fashion design, amongst others.
“Undoubtedly, the Obuasi Enterprise and Skills Development Centre has the potential to boost the local economy by developing market ready training programmes that will improve the living conditions of our youth and enhance their self-reliance,” Dr. Asubonteng observed.
He was hopeful the Center would, to a large extent, improve both human and economic capital, and assist in the development and fast flow of business activities in the mining community and other host communities.
Mr Simon Osei-Mensah, the Regional Minister, lauded the mining company for resuscitating the local economy, saying, the Center added up to the many initiatives designed to equip the people with employable skills.
“Any economy whose strength is dependent on the private sector is bound to succeed,” he noted, citing how the likes of China, Japan, Germany, amongst others, had built resilient informal sectors to underpin sustainable growth.
Consequently, the people ought to avail themselves of the programmes offered at the Center to empower them for wealth creation, he advised.
Nana Oppong Boakye Yiadom, Board Member of the AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Community Trust Fund, lauded the mining company for resourcing the Fund to meet its expectations.
He called on the people, especially the youth, to embrace employable skills training courses to open up opportunities for them to establish their own businesses.
The event had the presence of traditional authorities within the catchment area of the Obuasi Mine. -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
