Bussiness
Hollard Life launches ‘MeBanbɔ’ micro-insurance
Hollard Life Assurance has partnered with pan-African fintech company, Cassava Fintech and Vodafone to launch a micro-insurance product, providing funeral and disability cover to the underserved.
The insurance product, is ‘MeBanbɔ’, to wit “My Protection”.
Patience Akyianu, Group CEO of Hollard Ghana, the parent company of Hollard Life Assurance, described the launch of MeBanbɔ as a significant milestone in the business’ quest to enable more people to create and secure a better future.
Patience said: “Our business goals are tied to our purpose to ensure access to insurance as a social good and an enabler of better future. We make it a point to be a catalyst for ensuring change by providing insurance products that serve the needs of our customers.
MeBanbɔ is a prime example of this, and we are proud to bring it to market in partnership with Cassava Fintech and Vodafone Cash.”
Nashiru Iddrisu, Managing Director of Hollard Life, said: “We developed MeBanbɔ after engaging with potential customers in underserved markets who expressed interest in securing their financial wellbeing against unexpected incidences, such as funerals and disability.
“However, they also revealed a reluctance to sign up for traditional life insurance products because of the seemingly unaffordable premium amounts, modes of payment and claims collection process.
MeBanbɔ eases these concerns. It is made for them, affording everyone the opportunity to plan their future wellbeing simply via mobile money, in amounts that suit their pockets and with an equally simple claims process.”
MeBanbɔ is currently available via Vodafone Cash and made possible through a partnership with Vodafone.
Head of Vodafone Cash, Martison Obeng-Agyei, said: “Our decision to partner the MeBanbɔ Insurance initiative was intuitive because this is yet another example of an innovative and affordable insurance product for Ghanaians.
This creates a golden opportunity for scores of hitherto underserved persons and communities to avail themselves of the benefits of insurance to secure themselves and their loved ones against future upheavals, and ultimately improve their quality of life.
Inclusion is one of our pillars as purpose-led organisation and undoubtedly a critical prerequisite for equitable growth as a country.’’
In a statement, Godwin Mashiri, the Head of Cassava Fintech International’s Mobile Insurance Business, the platform provider for MeBanbɔ, said: “We are very excited to be a part of this partnership with Hollard Life Assurance to launch MeBanbɔ in Ghana.
This partnership demonstrates and underscores our commitment towards a socially and financially inclusive future that leaves no African behind.
It is our hope that the launch of MeBanbɔ in Ghana would enable those who could not access affordable insurance cover to benefit from this product. This partnership would not be the last as we continue to provide a platform which improves the lives of everyday people across the continent.”
By Alfred Nii Arday Ankrah
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
