...that you are likely to find huge billboards either advertising religious services, or pastors and conventions by "men of God"!
And often are the boards left for display many months after the "services", and conventions are over:-o
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Sure: it's not your typical name for a radio station, but legend has it that this English-speaking station, which was set up in 2012 -- and won an award in 2013 from the Ghana Journalist Association Awards for being the best radio for Democracy & Development -- arrived at the name because of the degree of saturation of radio stations in Accra.
By calling the station Radio XYZ, it was to indicate that after all the names is a refreshing station title that signifies excellence.
It's been three years, and XYZ is still located at Osu. Still running programmes. It also happens to be the only radio show in Ghana...
...with a weekly African magazine show that seeks to explain; unpack; and demystify ECOWAS; AU; South-South cooperation policies around Africa's integration. It's a two-hour show, which is airborne every Tuesday from 13h00 to 15h00.
For more details, check out www.africainfocusradioshow.org.
Feedback & comments welcomed!
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I love this picture.
Wish Einstein were alive to interpret why the lights of the speeding truck come AHEAD of the speeding truck!
Something to do with physics? And that oft-repeated speed=distance/time?
Back to the mundane! Accra Mall logo is peeking at us to the left of the picture😅
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First: is there such a thing as Ghanaian coconuts? Anecdotal evidence suggests there is. Those who have tasted Nigerian coconuts say it pales into comparison to that of Ghana's on account of the juice alone.
Second: Coconuts are sold all over the capital -- nay, all over the country -- but you are sure to get some almost every corner of Accra and even its suburbs.
They go for less than a dollar. These days, that's a VERY loaded term, but rest assured they are affordable for everyone.
Today's not the day to tell you about health benefits of coconut, which are immense!
Just to say that: although West Africa is home to coconuts (at least Ghana; Nigeria; & Cote d'Ivoire feature), no West African country is in the top 10 of coconut production. That prestige goes to the East African country of Tanzania, which produced (according to 2009 figures) 577,099 thousand tonnes.
That said, UNCTAD reports that as far as coconut oil is concerned, Cote d'Ivoire is in there, with 28000 tonnes*, while it exports 19,849 tonnes* at a value of USD3,725,000 -- as per UNCTAD's data!
Again: no other West African country features, prompting my immediate question: what is my government doing strategically to ensure we enhance the value chain of our coconuts, and get to the stage where we can compete with our West African neighbour to the West of Ghana?
*Source: http://www.unctad.info/en/Infocomm/AACP-Products/COMMODITY-PROFILE---Coconut2/
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This is downtown Accra, but you probably would not recognise it, because of the increasing number of high-rise buildings sprouting up all over the capital.
This part of town is where the so-called "Octagon" is being constructed. It is not far from Novotel; very close to Tudu, which is literally the very heart of Accra, with a lots and lots of human traffic. Every day!
Elsewhere, in lieu of the Octagon building, there would have been lots and lots of...green. Regrettably, Accra does not seem to have a concept of a green economy. Am not even sure whether we have a green belt!
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At a time Ghana is ready to accept next tranche of IMF money in August, it is very refreshing to see the simplicity, albeit sartorially-eloquent style, of outgone-Finance Minister Varoufakis -- a Minister who had the testicular fortitude to make history by encouraging Greeks to vote "Oxi", or "No!" to more bailouts from Europe.
It is speculated that for having dared call the Troika of the European Commission; European Central Bank; and IMF "terrorists", they no can no longer countenance his presence among negotiators.
Very democratic, that!
#lifeunderIMF
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Only in Ghana will you find a signboard advertising a cleaning company, such as this "Cleaning Force", some minutes away from...a rubbish dump.
Did I mention it is NOT even an official rubbish dump?😅
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I took this picture around the beach, near Osu, at the centre of Accra. Ghana's Social Security National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has invested our pensions heavily into some up-and-coming flats near the beach, which prices are most likely high-and-exorbitant, totally outside the brackets of the putative middle-class family with 2.5 children!
I deliberately used a blue-ish filter as a kind of tongue-in-cheek to the film genre "film noir", which connotes gritty realism: a fatalism that has an under-current of menace, or a sense of foreboding of storm clouds ahead.
Simply put: there is a falling cedi, yet a surge of high-rise buildings. A veritable film noir, Accra-style!
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HAPPY 55TH $REPUBLIC DAY, #GHANA! ● As a potential #Grexit weighs heavily on the minds of #Europe, will this small West African country, which was once the darling of the West for what some consider its successful prosecution of #IMF policies, begin to take cues from #Greece?
Further, as it goes down another round of IMF money, will Ghana consider how Grexit may inform Ghana's own locus in the West African integration dynamic of #ECOWAS when it's #paybacktime to the IMF? Will Ghana continue to overlook the regional space, including Ecowas Bank for Investment & Development, or will it experience the regional-panacea epiphany? #AFRICAINFOCUSSHOW
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To say 3 June was a bad day is to understate it. It was a day Ghana would suffer twin calamities of torrential rain that triggered floods throughout the centre of Accra (spawning #AccraFloods on twitter) and the explosion of a GOIL filling station killing some 140 people.
For which reason this picture is important as it is the SUV of the Environmental Protection Agency.
If you can quickly overlook the irony of the EPA using a gas-guzzling vehicle like this monster, allow me to inform you that the sighting of this SUV on the day I took this picture was accompanied by a Landcruiser out of which the Minister for Environment...Mahama Ayariga issued from to give instructions on the closure of the restaurant sited on the premises of the filling station.
The closure was predicated on premise that restaurants and fuel stations are strange bedfellows and should not be welcomed.
And so, the restaurant that the EPA vehicle was parked in front of has been closed!
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Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
When you think of drinking #water in #Ghana, you are supposed to think of #Voltic, which is known for having provided bottled water for years in this country.
But it also produces #sachetwater, which is a "staple" of many a #westAfrican economy. I must say this is the first time I have seen it advertising its sachet water. Is it an indication of #badtimes for the company?
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#Capitalism has a new home: #Ghana, where malls spring up faster than you can say "is that another #Lebanese retail outfit?".
Oxford Shopping Mall is a new one, boasting five floors. #Shoprite is already running. Quick! Run and go spend. !!:-\
I guess the only consolation now is that in the competition between Accra Mall, A&C Plaza, Marina Mall and Oxford Street Mall, there will be some sense of discrete units of the population aggregated in certain parts of Accra.
As to whether this will be a boon to the horrendous Christmas traffic, the jury is out on that one!
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I know it has been more than a while. I am around, just experiencing a LOT of real life, including following up on new, indigenous projects like this one.
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In a country that seems to depend a lot on hope, Ghanaians will be happy to know that technology is slowly-displacing this more-ephemeral of sensations to one predicated on practicality.
For comments or suggestions about the blog , please send me an eml: ekbensah AT ekbensah.net Thank you!
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