Ghana Business News

Parliament is set to amend various business registeration laws to provide for electronic transactions in line with government’s e-Governance project.

The project aims at modernizing key ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to support the provision of citizen-friendly services through ICT.

Three amendment bills, including the Registeration of Business Names (Amendment) bill 2011 and the Companies (Amendment) bill 2011 are before the House for amendment.

The Ghana government in collaboration with World Wide Web Foundation (WWWF), an NGO, is to commence the implementation of the Ghana Open Data Initiative to make government data available to citizens for re-use.

The initiative if implemented will make government more transparent, improve efficiency and spark off innovation from the demand side for applications to be developed to better serve the citizenry.

Zenith Bank (Ghana) Limited in collaboration with Google Ghana has introduced a new product unto the Ghanaian market dubbed Z.com in an effort to give its customers the opportunity to position their businesses to enable them access the global market. Z.com is a business solution opportunity tailored to suit the needs of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana.

In a statement copied to GNA on Friday, the product would afford SMEs the opportunity to globally advertise their businesses thereby increasing top of mind awareness and ultimately their turnover.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says Africa is leading the trend with 51 mobile money systems in place, and as many as 37 of the deployments being in least developed countries (LDCs).

The 11th meeting of ECOWAS Telecommunications and Information and Communication Technologies Ministers (Telecoms-ICT) ended with an adoption of a draft regulation on conditions for access to submarine cable landing stations in West Africa.

The meeting which was held in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire, ended October 14, 2011 with Ministers coming from the 15 Community Member States. It also informed Ministers of the progress made in regional broadband connectivity programmes and in the harmonization of the Telecommunications and ICT regulatory framework in the Community at large.

Internet search giant Google has launched its classified ads service, Google Trader, in Kenya, the Forbes Magazine reports October 17, 2011. Kenya becomes the third African country to have the service after Ghana and Uganda.

Google Trader is a free classifieds service that lets internet users trade products and services and search for jobs, real estate listings or just about anything else.

The government says it has initiated policies that will see the operations of the National Communications Authority (NCA) decentralised.

The Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrissu told reporters that the decentralisation is to make the NCA show presence in all the regions.

“As I speak the Authority is in the process of establishing regional offices in Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi and Tamale to enhance close monitoring activities and also help address customer concerns in a decentralized manner,” says the Minister in speech during a press briefing October 3, 2011 in Accra.

The telecommunications industry in the sub-Sahara African region is said to growing at a faster pace with significant investment from the private sector. These investments are primarily focused on network expansion and infrastructure.

A World Bank report, “Africa’s ICT Infrastructure: Building on the Mobile Revolution”, indicates that the rapid expansion of the telecommunications networks in Africa has required very high levels of investment.

After Globacom was handed the license to operate as the fifth telecoms company in the Ghanaian market for a fee of $50 million, there was an unavailability of spectrum for the Nigerian company to start operations in Ghana, says Ghana’s Minister of Communications. Yes, you read that correctly: Glo was give a licence for which the spectrum to deliver it was not available.

The National Lotteries Authority (NLA) has filed a suit against Vodafone Ghana seeking an injunction to restrain Vodafone from carrying on with its “More Money” game.

The NLA is also seeking to bar the Gaming Commission of Ghana (GCG) from issuing permits to organizations to organise games of chance, which the NLA considers as lottery.