The elimination of the Black Stars of Ghana from the ongoing 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Cameroon, having played three group games from which they bagged only one point – a draw and two defeats dominates the headlines of the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that the Black Stars of Ghana have been eliminated from the ongoing 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Cameroon, having played three group games from which they bagged only one point – a draw and two defeats.
Southern African debutants The Comoros accounted for the Black Stars 3:2 in an eventful encounter Tuesday night to show the wobbly Stars the exit.
Not only were the Black Stars disappointing on Tuesday, their exit also stood as a repeat of an unenviable feat of exiting the tournament at the group stage. The last time it happened was (Egypt 2006), some fifteen years ago, and by a side previously considered the whipping boys of their group.
Ex-Black Stars Skipper Asamoah Gyan summed up the day’s humiliation thus: “We didn’t play with purpose… We didn’t create enough chances, we didn’t do anything and then we are going home… People will be disappointed.
“You have to give the people something to talk (cheer) about, we didn’t give anything to talk about. As we are talking I don’t know how people are going to feel back home. I’m very, very disappointed we are going out, we shouldn’t have gone out. Ghana we know, we didn’t see the Ghana we know today.”
It was not only on Tuesday that the team failed to sparkle. The Stars failed to glitter in all the three matches they played.
They had lost the opening game to Morocco courtesy a goal they conceded in the dying minutes, and followed it up with a one-ll draw against Gabon, conceding the equaliser also in the final minutes.
However, there still lingered some hope of advancing, if only the team could win handsomely. Many agreed it was possible playing The Comoros, who had themselves lost to Gabon (1-0) and Morocco (2-0).
Various permutations had raised hopes of qualifying for the knockout stage and made the encounter a make or break affair for the Black Stars – to win the final Group C game and hope to advance, or lose the encounter and exit altogether.
The newspaper says that the government is capitalising the Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) with $40 million to enable it to fund more viable start-ups in the country.
The funding was secured from the World Bank Group (WBG) to help revive the trust fund and strengthen it to provide funding for investors for the transformation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially viable young enterprises.
The Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, disclosed this when he swore in the Board of Directors of the VCTF in Accra yesterday.
The new board is chaired by Mr Kofi S. Yamoah, the immediate past Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
Mr Ofori-Atta said the government was aware that the VCTF did not have funds, after its capital was exhausted, hence the decision to recapitalise it.
He said the inauguration of the board had paved the way for the Ministry of Finance to kick-start processes to disburse the funds, which he said represented the government’s commitment to use the venture capital and private equity (VC/PE) model to grow SMEs.
He expressed the confidence that the funds would be available to the fund “in a couple of months” and further challenged the new board to leverage it to attract additional capital.
The eight-member Board of Directors of the VCTF has the Managing Director of the fund, Mr Yaw Owusu-Brempong; a Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr John Kumah; the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, and Mrs Efua Appenteng as members.
The rest are the investment banker and Managing Director of Sentinel Asset Management, Mr Kisseih Antonio; Mrs Mabel Nana Nyarkoah Porbley and Mr Brian Frimpong.
Mr Ofori-Atta said the VCTF had been made a beneficiary of the government’s Ghana Economic Transformation Project (GETP), an initiative meant to promote private investments and firm growth in non-resource-based sectors of the economy.
The Ghanaian Times reports that fuel prices have gone up marginally by some ten pesewas per litre, representing about three per cent increment since the beginning of the year.
An assessment by the Ghana News Agency indicates that as of the morning of Monday, January 17, 2022, some Oil Marketing Companies (MCs) had increased their prices for petrol from GHC6 8 per litre to GHC6.9per litre, whereas diesel was sold for 7.0 per litre.
Other OMCs have, however, maintained their prices at the pumps, with some selling both petrol and diesel for as low as GHC6.3 per litre.
Before the beginning of the year, both petrol and diesel were trading at an average GHC6.7 per litre at the pumps.
Some analysts have projected that fuel prices may shoot up by as high as 3.7 pesewas per litre before the end of January, 2022, owing to the continuous rise in crude oil prices on the international market.
The Institute for Energy Security (IES) had projected that prices for petrol and diesel would go up by some 18pesewas per litre in the first week of January, 2022.
In its review of the First Pricing-Window in January, the IS projected that fuel prices would go up betweenGhp30 to Ghp40 per litre in the 2nd Pricing Window of January.
“The imminent price increases may force some OMCs to sell Gasoline and Gasoil at Gho7 00 per litre at the pumps for the first time,” it said in a statement last week.
GIK/APA