West African Corporates Leading the Way in Ghana?

When I took this random picture on Ghana's Ring Road, it was more of a serendipitous one, hoping to capture a snapshot of life there.

Instead, I unwittingly and fortuitously caught the logos of no less than two West-African-based corporate brands.

GLO, clad in green, is a 100% Nigerian mobile telecommunications company, which recently launched its broadband service--Glo 1--a few weeks ago in Ghana.

"ECOBANK"--a brand that is no stranger to this blog--is based in Togo, just next door to Ghana. Thankfully, this minimalist description belies its reach: it is represented in no less than 30 countries, and started off as a bank for West Africa, with support from the West African Chamber of Commerce. These days, it has expanded astronomically, diversifying into brokerage services; investments, etc.

It recently opened a China desk to take care of increasing Chinese investments in the country. It has an office in Dubai, and France!

Simply put: it's only a matter of time before the West African private sector goes global...watch this space!

"CNN Gets Ghana Wrong"--and Here's a Picture to Prove Why!

Last week the Ghanablogging.com communitywas agog--screaming blue murder--over foolish pronouncements by no less than a group associated with the CNN who claimed that most Ghanaians are able to cater for themselves through a Ghanaian variation of advanced-free fraud, or SAKAWA.

Fellow ghanablogger Mac-Jordan--also a member of the Global Voices Online community -- captured it in his summary here: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/04/15/bloggers-react-to-demeaning-article-about-ghana/. The reason why I refer to the article again is to ask you to read the link above and get a sense of the complaints.

Secondly, the title is a nudge-and-wink to Kobby Graham, who's title I wittingly borrowed to draw attention to the simple fact that CNN got it wrong--whether by association or otherwise, they should never have posted an article by a source who had not done the necessary checks on a story.

As the picture I took last May at the airport shows, Ghana's NACOB (Narcotic Board) has increasingly been reminding Ghanaians about the need to be vigilant in how they handle luggage--never mind the risks of carrying narcotic drugs.

I don't know about you--but if this is not an effort by a government agency trying to remind Ghanaians about keeping the country free from such vices, I do not know what is!!

Beaches by the City of Accra

Okay. So I exaggerate. There are not that many beaches by the city of Accra, but there certainly are one or two: KOKROBITE and LABADI beach.

That alone is sufficient to warrant any visitor to want to come to Accra. It certainly has challenges with sanitation in particular parts of the city, but the Accra mayor assures Ghanaians that in keeping with Accra as a Millenium city, it will become a city for all Ghanaians to be the best they can be.

The picture is that of Elmina, in the central region of Ghana, but is very reminiscent, nonetheless, of the beaches dotted along the coastline of this beautiful country!

Five Years of Providing Vignettes of Accra Life to You!

This blog was born on 25 April, 2006. It's very first post was profoundly minimalist. You can read it here.In that respect, I consider April to be its birth month--and appropriately so, as 26 April is my own birthday. To say that there is some existentialist connection with this blog would probably not be far from the truth.

At the time I created it, I knew nothing of the citydailyphoto blogs, mooted by Frenchman Eric Tenin, who created Paris Daily Photo.

Back in 2006, there were few indigenous bloggers blogging about their home country--let alone indigenous bloggers blogging about their city, so inevitably, I became a kind of pioneer in that genre. My entries have waxed and waned. There have been times I have had blogger's block, but I always returned, trying to ensure that I portray not necessarily the best parts of Accra--but the parts that made the whole experience real. 

To be honest, I am surprised that in less than a month, this blog has been nominated for two awards. First, the tripbase; now this "Go Overseas Top Blog", which you can find here: http://www.gooverseas.com/ghana-blogs. 

In this category, I came 6th of out 10 blogs. The criteria for the selection is listed below :

GO! Overseas editorial staff evaluates blogs with the following criteria:

• New content is posted at a minimum of once a week.
• A writing style which is both clear and interesting.
• A website which is constructed in a manner that provides a user-friendly interface and is maintained regularly.
• A target audience which goes beyond providing friends and family with updates. Our editorial staff is looking for content which appeals to a wider audience.
• Content that is relatively error free and grammatically correct.
• A blog site which engages users on the website and is responsive to regular contact.

from: http://www.gooverseas.com/featured-blogger-badge.

Back in 2007, academic Rebekah Hurt wrote what was in essence a biography of me through my blogs, which she mysteriously pulled down. Before she did, though, I had managed to copy her work, which I reproduced on my website here: http://www.ekbensah.net/pb/wp_fccca1c0/wp_fccca1c0.html. I copy below what she wrote about Accra Daily Photo at the time it was using a pink interface:

Accra by Day & Night is designed in pink tones and is headed by an elaborate banner where different photos rotate within a fixed screen, overlain by moving star characters and blue spots which contain occasional captions. Beneath this very advanced blog feature is the following short description, “Accra is the capital of the small, West African country of Ghana, which achieved its independence in 1957 from its colonial master, the United Kingdom. It celebrates 50 years in 2007, and is projecting itself fast and furiously as ‘gateway to West Africa’. It’s an exciting city, with its unique problems, but with it close to the Atlantic ocean, and many beaches, who can resist not [sic] coming here? Come along...” Along with this header, there is another unique and advanced inclusion of a background song that can be turned on and off with the click of a speaker icon and that, when on, plays on repeat the theme-appropriate song, “Ocean Sized Love” by Leigh Nash[2]. At the top of the page there is a link to the Ghana at 50 website, and then down the right hand margin of the page appears Bensah’s profile, a selection of his favorite videos with embedded media, followed by an extensive list of links to other city photoblogs across the world, a Zooomclouds cluster box which highlights the words most frequently appearing in the blog, and a list of previous posts. The governing order of this blog is that Bensah posts a new photo or photos from daily scenes around Ghana (primarily Accra and Legon) with short captions, comments, and observations...

Suffice-to-say, I am very humbled by the accolades. If anything, it has given me more vim to continue this blog. As I am human, there will be times when there will be hiatus, but I hope to continue offering aspects of Accra life in the quintessential ways in which I have delivered them.

Thank you to all those who have commented and helped encourage me to get this far. Five years is no mean feat! Thank you!!

The Tale of The Nutty West African History Professor Comes to an End

I deliberately chose to use this photo-capture from the front page of Ghana's Daily Graphic today. Given that the ex-President of Cote d'Ivoire Gbagbo was captured Monday, I was confident that the following day, New Media outlets would be replete with the story. While many outlets probably have better pictures, this picture still does not take away the gravitas surrounding Gbagbo's capture by what many believe to be "special" French forces.

Given the proximity of Ghana to that country (we share a border to the West of the country), Ghana was always going to be intimately drawn to any news around him.

West Africa will now focus on how to ensure that its collective effort, through the sub-regional body of ECOWAS, can be brought to bear on bringing the country back to a degree of normalcy.

Accra Daily Photo is in Top Ten of "Tripbase" Awards for Best Travel Blog in Ghana

On the last day of March, I saw a tweet from a fellow tweep who had included me in their felicitations of a so-called "honour." Later, a fellow blogger clarified what the big fuss might really have been about--me to link my blog to TRIPBASE's blog. Still, the honour is to be enjoyed--so here it is!;-)

www.Tripbase.com

Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:53:37 +0800
Message-ID:
Subject: =?windows-1252?Q?Accra_Daily_Photo_=96_Listed_in_the_Tripbase_2011_Aw?=
=?windows-1252?Q?ards?=
From: Claire Tucker
To: comments@accradailyphoto.com
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=0016e64bd074967523049fc5f118

Hello there,

Tripbase Awards 2011

I am pleased to inform you that your site has been chosen to receive a Tripbase 2011 Blog Award.

This year our panel of judges reviewed hundreds of sites from across the Internet before hand-selecting the best ten for each travel category. Your site is among these elite ranks, and can be seen here:

http://www.tripbase.com/d/awards/2011/categories/winners/ghana.htm

I would like to congratulate you on your continued hard work and achievement in winning a Tripbase Award - this year, the awards have been featured in CNBC, CBS and AOL News. We have created small and large badges for you to show off your achievement to your readers, so please feel free to grab the code and upload it onto your site.

Well done once again, and keep up the great work.

Kind Regards,

Claire Tucker

~ Tripbase Inc ~