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Current Feed ContentEcobank introduces ETI shares Tuesday, August 26, 2008 As part of its corporate responsibilities in contributing to the socio-economic development of Africa, Ecobank has introduced a new offer called the Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), which is said to be Africa’s largest and first regional public offering. The offer, which is scheduled from August 25 to October 3, is listed on the Abijan’s Bourse Re’gionale des valeurs mobili’eres, on the Ghana Stock Exchange in Accra and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, in Lagos. Speaking at a press briefing, yesterday, at the Ecobank Gambia head office along Kairaba Avenue, Fitzgerald Odonkor, the Ecobank Gambia Limited managing director, said: “From August 25th, 2008, 3,763,759,981 shares will be offered exclusively to ETI’s existing shareholders at US$0.27 a share (at a ratio of five new shares for every nine held as at August 18th 2008); while 5,116,499,328 shares will be offered to the public at US $0.29 a share. The rights issue and the public offer are being undertaken at discounts of 20.0% to shareholders and 12.5% to the public (based on 30-day volume weighted average price of ETI shares on all three stock markets). According to him, approvals for the registration and listing of the new shares have been obtained from the relevant regulatory authorities in Nigeria, Ghana and the Union Economique et Moneraire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA). He said Ecobank Nigeria plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank plc and ICMG Securities Ltd are joint issuing houses in Nigeria, EDC Stockbrokers Ltd and SIC Financial Services Ltd are the sponsoring stockbrokers in Ghana and EDC Investment Corporation and CGF bourse are the sponsoring stockbrokers in the Union Economique et Monetaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA). A press release from Ecobank revealed that the chairman of ETI, Mande’ Sidibe, said that the proceeds of the rights issue and public offer would be utilised to strengthen Ecobank’s growth plans, to expand its network of branches in the countries where it currently operates as well as expand into new countries thereby consolidating its position as the leading Pan-African banking group. The ETI group’s chief executive, Arnold Ekpe, said that he expected good shareholder and investor response to the combined rights issue and public offer across the three stock markets, as investors are well aware of ETI’s strong fundamentals. “ETI is the holding company of the Ecobank group, the leading independent regional banking group in sub-Saharan Africa with a presence in more African countries than any other bank. Currently operating in 25 countries, ETI was established as a regional bank holding company in 1985 with it head office in Lome, Togo. It has grown to a full-service regional banking group with over 500 branches and offices and over 10,000 employees in West, Central, East and Southern Africa,” the release concluded. Author: by Assan Sallah Pranic healing takes root in Gambia Tuesday, August 26, 2008 The West African Pranic Healing Foundation - The Gambia, concluded, on Sunday, a three-day workshop on Pranic healing techniques at its main office in Bijilo, Western Region. The aim of the workshop was to spread the priceless teachings to both urban and rural areas in the West African Region and to ensure uniformity and purity of teaching, as well as to maintain strict quality control over all courses as the Pranic healing courses follow a standard syllabus in more than 100 countries such as USA, Malaysia, Dubai , Ghana and The Gambia among others. Srikanth Jois, a trainer and Pranic healer, expounded significantly on Pranic healing and its benefits to humanity. According to him, Pranic healing is an ancient science and art not only destined to heal the whole physical body but also to enhance the healing process of the body by increasing the life energy on the affected part or parts. Scientifically, he said, scientists with the help of Kirlian photography have rediscovered the energy body which keeps the physical body healthy and alive. As such, any disturbance in the energy body can manifest as a physical ailment. The energy required in Pranic healing can be measured because healthy people have more energy which is on balance while sick people have less energy without balance. He noted that through scientific methods, the healer can inject the sick person using two main methods, energising and cleansing. He then added that this experiment was conducted on plants, stones and on tablets. For her part, Reyes Jallow, president of West African Pranic Healing Foundation - The Gambia branch, seized the opportunity to highlight the importance of the workshop, noting that it was basically meant to relay and spread information about Pranic healing, which, he said, does not undermine the traditional healing as this totalises the techniques to be used to help and energise the patient’s bioplasmatic body. As Pranic healers, they both hailed President Jammeh for his magnanimous traditional healing. Eva Wagner, a medical practitioner, who has been residing in The Gambia for 18 years, has now embraced Pranic healing. She spoke at length on the simplicity of the healing adding it is easy to learn and that any healthy person with average intelligence and an open mind can learn. She reminded the participants of the necessity to spread the knowledge and make good use of it. Lamin Camara, a minor Pranic healer emphasised that Pranic healing is not intended to replace allopatric persist, but rather to complement it. He added that Pranic healers are not medical doctors but medical doctors can be Pranic healers. They also do not make medical diagnosis and should not prescribe medical treatments, he noted. The West African Pranic Foundation - The Gambia will hold a free Pranic healing session on August 30th 2008 from 10.00am - 6.00pm. Author: by Bekai Njie Libyan People’s Bureau Speaks on Mediterranean UnionThursday, August 07, 2008 “The African People have always resisted efforts to divide their countries by the colonialist, who aimed to divide the countries of the Continent into geographical regions into Black and White Africa and into Africa North of the Sahara and Africa South of the Inspired by all these efforts According to the release, the Sirte declaration issued on the 9/9/1999 had spelt out the insistence of African Leaders and heads of Governments on intensifying Unity, Solidarity and Integration among the people’s of Africa. African Leaders had also confirmed in the resolution No.-(107), validated by the Khartoum Summit and the Resolution No: (130) Validated by the Banjul Summit, that Africa is one and cannot accept division, partition or joining any part of it to another space or Continent except the African Continent. “The Notion of one Africa has established co-operation with other spaces and groupings in the world like The African Arab Co-operation, the co-operation between the African Union and The European Union manifested in Cairo Summit in the year 2000, in the Lisbon Summit in 2007 and in the Third Summit between the two unions which is to be held in On the other hand, it added, the co-operation has begun between Countries North of the Continent bordering the The French President Nicola Shakozy has made a proposal recently on what he called the Mediterranean Union of African and European Countries bordering Her entire commitments to the Resolutions issued by the summit are: meeting of the Africa union and they are: resolution No(107) issued by the This is to be made clear that Great Jamahiriya at a time welcomes and support co-operation between African and European Unions according to strategies commonly agreed on. She emphasises the necessity that Europe and other Countries of the world should deal with It said that some African countries immediately expressed their reaction to the conference and many statements were issued from The President of The Republic of Togo, President of The Republic of Benin and President of the Author: By Nfamara Jawneh Third World: 19M unsafe abortions - Says VP Njie-Saidy Tuesday, July 15, 2008 "An estimated 19 million unsafe abortions take place each year in developing countries. Every year, an estimated 68,000 women die as a result of unsafe abortions and millions more suffer from complications." These were the words of Dr Aja Isatou Njie Saidy, the vice-president and secretary of state for Women’s Affairs, in a speech read on her behalf by Duwa Jatta, the director of Administration at the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), during the celebration of the World Population Day on Friday, at the Gambia Family Planning Association headquarters, Kanifing. Shocking figures According to the vice-president, the current maternal mortality rate is heart-touching, as in every minute, at somewhere in the world, a woman dies giving birth, adding that every year, 536,000 million women die of pregnancy related complications. "Every year, more than one million children are left motherless and vulnerable because of maternal death. Children who have lost their mothers are up to 10 times more likely to die prematurely than those who haven’t," she said. Commenting on this year’s theme, ‘Family Planning a right, lets make it real’, the vice president noted that the focus on family planning could not have been timelier, as challenges facing families still remain a hindrance to the full attainment of the Millenium Development Goals, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and the Vision 2020. Vice-President Njie-Saidy emphasised that family planning is essential to women’s empowerment and gender equality, noting that the time has come for concerted efforts to ensure that the cause of women empowerment is re-energised in a bid to ensure universal access to reproductive health. Imperical evidence "Studies conducted in the past have shown that family planning is also an effective tool in fighting poverty, as it creates conditions that enable women to enter into the labour force and families to devote more resources to each child, thereby improving nutrition, educational level, and by extension, living standards," she said, adding that effective family planning programmes slow down the population growth rate, which can reduce the cost of providing social services (water, food, education, health care, housing, transportation, as well as jobs). VP Njie-Saidy asserted that researchers have estimated that universal access to family planning could save the lives of about 175,000 women each year and increase birth intervals to at least 36 months, which could also prevent the death of 1.8 million children under five years, globally. In The Gambia, she continued, the rate of maternal mortality has reduced, but it’s still high at 730 per 100,000 live births. She said that efforts to prevent maternal deaths and ensure universal access to voluntary family planning requires commitment from all partners - men and women, international organisations, government, civil society and the media. Dr Njie-Saidy then concluded that the recent Multi-indicators Cluster Survey conducted in the country has shown that the single most critical intervention for safe motherhood is to ensure that a competent health worker with midwifery skills is present at every birth, and also, transportation is available to a referral facility for obstetric care in cases of emergency. Other speakers at the ceremony included Aja Kassa Kanteh, the chairperson of the National Women’s Council, Awa Luis, the finance and administration officer of the Gambia Family Planning Association, and Adam Jeng of KMC. Author: by Hatab Fadera WIO calls for more parental Care for African orphansMonday, July 14, 2008 “The World Initiative for Orphans Foundation has released a message with urgency that children without parental care are spreading quickly all over the world. More and more countries and their people are aware of the silent but devastating drama that is growing rapidly under our eyes every day. In the next two generations the world faces over 400 million direct or indirect orphaned and abandoned children. In quantitative terms children without parental care, constitute one of the major problems we are facing in this world (Alice Kakvoort 2008)” according to a press release from the World Initiative for Orphans. According to the WIO, children without parental care do not rank high on the priority list of most governments around the world, especially those suffering from economic crisis. These children according to them, don’t vote and they can’t organize rallies to demand their human rights and speak out against the violations of their human rights and don’t have funding or resources to hire attorneys or representation. So they are just pushed into the system (if one exists), and the general population assumes that they are being taken care of. The WIO added that children without parental care are at greatest risk of becoming victims of violence, exploitation, trafficking, discrimination or other abuses. These vulnerable children need special protection. “For these children to develop well, be healthy, self-confident, and useful to society, they should live in the kind of family surroundings. A family setting provides the necessary stimuli, appropriately varied and diverse, corresponding to their stage of development. These stimuli, together with the surrounding environment, should create for children a meaningful world permeated with love which they have not experience before and free of feelings of insecurity, anxiety or danger. They should gain the important feeling that they mean something to others around them. This is a positive identity, the awareness of one's own self and one’s own worth. Besides basic health care, nutrition and education, for a good development, it is also necessary to respect the child’s need to have an open future, meaning being able to look forward to or expect something. When any of these needs are not met, it is bad for the development of the child” the release stated. The World Initiative for Orphans further observed that it has been recognized by all countries that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding (in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) “If you visit some foster care homes/institutes and look “behind the scenes” beyond the food, clothing, and shelter then you can see the mental deprivation of these children. And yet, most of them have been in the system for months and years. Efficiency in finding the best option for permanency for these children, which is their greatest need, seems to take a backseat to a long list of other adult issues that must come first. That makes sense if you keep in context that adults can express their rights and make demands on the government, and children cannot. WIO therefore, believed that the best thing that we can do for these children is to make every effort to give them the necessities they need for living, including education. If we can help them get these things and help governments to develop alternative care systems, then as they grow, they may have a better chance of passing through this crisis. One thing is certain, if we do nothing, these boys and girls won’t have any change for a meaningful future. We are trying to reach out to as many orphaned and vulnerable children as we can. But there are just so many who need our help. It is an incredible challenge. The only way we can really be successful is, if people and organizations will join us in this great campaign” the foundation concluded. Author: by Assan Sallah Impact of tourism in AfricaWednesday, July 02, 2008 The impact of tourism in Africa accounts for more cash moving from rich to poor countries than governments give in aid. Tourism constitutes over 10% of total exports in more than half of African countries for which there is data. In countries such as Mali and The Gambia, tiny annual international arrival figures of 70,000 – that’s less than 200 tourists a day – are significant and tourism contributes 10.1% and 30.5% of total exports for these countries respectively. But can tourism really be pro-poor? Yes, according to Caroline Ashley and Jonathan Mitchell, but only if current practices change. On the contrary it is fairly clear that isolated, ‘alternative’ and small-scale initiatives are unlikely to have the impact or market linkages to delivering the scale of benefits to the poor that are realistically possible from changes at the margin to mainstream tourism. Over the decade of the 1990s, Africa has experienced a rise in tourist arrivals from 8.4 million to 10.6 million. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO, 2006), the tourism industry in Sub-Saharan Africa enjoyed a robust annual market share growth rate of 10 percent in 2006. In spite of this, there are only few empirical studies that investigate the contributions of tourism to economic growth and development for African economies. Using a panel data of 42 African countries for the years that span from 1995 to 2004.This study explores the potential contribution of tourism to economic growth and development within the conventional neoclassical framework. The results show that receipts from the tourism industry significantly contribute both to the current level of gross domestic product and the economic growth of Sub-Saharan African countries as do investments in physical and human capital. Author: by Yunus S. Saliu Pakistani envoy bids farewell Monday, June 23, 2008 Abdul Malik Abdullah, the outgoing Paskinatini High Commissioner to The Gambia, on Friday, bade farewell to President Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, at State House, Banjul. High Commissioner Abdullah, who was based in Dakar, Senegal, ended his tour of duty after a three-year devotion to consolidating bilateral relations between Banjul and Islamabad. Speaking to newsmen, shortly after his audience with Dr Jammeh, the Pakistani High Commissioner expressed satisfaction with the progress in relations, saying “I am leaving as a very satisfied person”. This [success], according to him, was due to the fact that cooperation between the two countries has been expanded to incorporate other fields that have a bearing on the development of the two countries. He told journalists that these achievements are evidently manifested in the area of defense, human resource development, such as training of Gambians in the fields of diplomacy and banking. Author: by Pa Malick Faye Discipline is the right step for progressFriday, June 13, 2008 Editor, Few days back, The Gambia scorpions locked horns with the teranga lions of Senegal. The local derby (called commonly) for the world and african cup qualification, is alway a tough and not easy journey particularly between these two countries. This is so because the two countries share almost everything. However, the dream of reaching the African and world cup competitions, respectively, is always manifest by the aggression shown by both teams each time they met. Nevertheless, we are one people. Senegal is the Gambia and Gambia is Senegal. Conflict in football is natural. This is caused by mixed feelings of nervousness and eagerness to excel but to condone defeat at the end of games. Remarkably, I want to use this opportunity to thank every Gambian for playing our card right. I can guess this time there was no misconduct reported to. The boys played well unfortunately ending it up with a goal-less draw. The peaceful atmosphere at the Independence Stadium throughout the 90 minutes which earned us our first home draw in the qualifiers, is remarkable and there for the whole world to see and know that Gambia is no trouble land taking into consideration the history of football between these two countries. However, Gambians will stop at nothing to save the lives of their fellow brothers when attacked. As we prepare for the derby at Senegal, I am appealing to every Gambian to go with 100% of discipline. For discipline is the right step to succeed! by Ebrima Dukuray Bsic Gambia Ltd Author: DO Uko lauds International Root FestivalWednesday, June 11, 2008 The just concluded International Homecoming Root Festival has been rated as the strongest and best in West Africa. Speaking to Tourisphere at the offices of the Daily Observer recently at the end of this memorable festival, Mr Ikechi Uko, Chief Executive Officer of African Quarterly Travel, has applauded and rated the International Root Festival as the best among the five international events that have global recognition in West Africa. Ikechi Uko who was accompanied by Mr B Nkeruwem, the president of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), he said that “Africa needs to transit and begin to market its culture. When people appreciate your culture they will appreciate you. And they will give you some value. That is the reason I am very impressed with the success of the International Root Festival because tourism now is about people and heritage.” According to Ikechi Uko, the kind of facilities and environment available in the Gambia, in compare to some other West African countries, are sufficient for tourists and tourism industries. He added that “The Gambia have efficient and people that are calm. This makes the country distinct from other African countries where there is lot of religion problem and crisis; it is a good example to the whole world not only Africa.” The travel market guru has also confirmed that the 9th Edition of International Root Festival is the most robust among others since 1996. He noted that “Gambia has an opportunity as the market leader and the most developed tourism destination in West Africa to tap into the huge human capacity available in the region because there are 250-270 million people in West Africa.” He emphasized “if just a million of them can come to the Gambia it will boom the country tourism industry and sell the rest to the world tourism market.” Author: by Yunus S. Saliu Diplomats present credence to H.E.
Friday, May 30, 2008 Ms Esther John Audu, the new Nigerian High Commissioner and Richard RC Shih, the new Taiwanese ambassador to The Gambia, yesterday, presented their letters of credence to President Jammeh at State House, in order to formally commence their diplomatic assignments in the country. Speaking to newsmen shortly after presenting her credence, the Nigerian High Commissioner expressed her desire to further strengthen the cordial bilateral relationship that exists between the two countries. According to her, Nigeria will widen its technical assistance programme from the areas of health, education and youth development to agriculture and any other sector requested by The Gambia government. For his part, Ambassador Shih, talked about the “excellent relationship” that exists between the two countries, expressing his desire to further strengthen and deepen it. Asked whether he had discussed with the president the global food crisis, the Taiwanese diplomat responded: “I have discussed a lot on the issue of food safety with the president. I want to echo the president’s remark that no one can escape if he is not engage in agricultural activity.” To that effect, the Taiwanese ambassador said his embassy, the Taiwanese Technical Mission, the Department of State for Agriculture and the president will be working towards food security as a priority. Author: DO |
