Behind the hysteria of Ghana's success at the recent World Cup lies a dubious use of taxpayer money and sense of national priorities, writes Kofi Ali Abdul.

The World Bank has approved financing in the amount of US$44.7 million from the International Development Association (IDA) to the Government of Ghana as additional funding for the ongoing eGhana Project. The original eGhana Project of US$40 million was approved in 2006 to support the Ghana Information Communication Technology (ICT) for Accelerated Development Program.

New laws should be in place in Europe by the end of this year obliging timber importers to ensure the wood they buy has been legally produced - and Ghana will become the first exporting country to be able to offer such a guarantee. The timber trade is a huge business. In Cameroon, where timber exports rank second only to oil in value, it is worth more than US$700 million a year. Indonesia earns nearly $3 billion a year from wood and wood products, but Greenpeace says that as much of 80 percent of the logging in Indonesia is illegal.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the University of Ghana are pleased to announce the international symposium ”The Dream, The Reality: Re-assessments of African Independence”, to be held in Accra, Ghana, from 27th to 29th of September 2010. The symposium constitutes the central event in the inaugural issue of the Kwame Nkrumah Pan-African Intellectual & Cultural Festival Week, a bi-annual event to be held under the Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies.

Do you want an insight into the investment opportunities in Ghana right now? Have you been trying to locate means of finance for your enterprise in Ghana? Would speaking to a knowledgeable experienced and well connected business person from Ghana be of use to you? Then this event is where you should definitely be to get some answers!

Despite international conventions prohibiting the export of dangerous waste to developing countries, enormous quantities of outdated and destroyed electronic equipment from Europe end up in Ghana's Agbogbloshie dump each week.

A recent march by over a thousand Ghanian Muslims against “the growing activities of gays and lesbians” in this West-African country, could hamper initiatives that target Men having sex with Men (MSM), such as HIV and Aids interventions, activists have warned. Mac-Darling Cobbinahof the Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights Ghana, an organisation that also caters for the MSM community said, following a march that went through principal streets of the Metropolis against homosexuality, after an alleged report that close to 60 gays and lesbians from eastern

A 12-year-old Ghanaian student Kwabena Asumadu has been crowned the national winner of the Doodle 4 Google 'Love Football' competition. The competition was for students to design a Google Doodle - the interpretation of the Google logo, around the theme 'Love Football'. Asumadu is now one step closer to being a global winner and will have his logo uploaded on the Google Ghana homepage - - for a day. For his prize he would receive a laptop, dongle, printer and a framed copy of his winning doodle.

As Ghana awaits the first riches from one of Africa’s top oil finds of the decade, expectations on the street are high and rising. “I believe in the oil,” said grocery vendor Grace Asantewaa from behind her meagre stall of tomatoes and chilli peppers at the Agbogbloshie market in the capital Accra. “We are sure everything will change in the name of Jesus,” predicted the 36-year-old mother-of-two, echoing widespread dreams of a more comfortable life once production from the Jubilee offshore field gets going in December this year.

YES-Ghana is seeking a highly motivated and capable Communications Officer to manage its corporate communications agenda. The position is based in Accra and the holder shall report to the Executive Director.

Disgruntled mobile phone customers in West African nation Ghana are planning a day to switch off their phones for six hours to register their grievances to network operators. Customers have not had quality for their money over the years and are hoping to get heard with the "Ghana Off Phone Day."

Security officials in Ghana are cracking down on migrant Fulani herdsmen, accusing them of rape, vandalism, destruction of farms and armed robbery, but conflict resolution specialists say the herdsmen are being manipulated and the government must abide by regional right-of-passage laws.

ith a democratic touch rare in a region better known for dictators, Ghana is asking its citizens what it should do with the windfall from oil production due to start later this year. In a questionnaire entitled “The Use and Management of Oil and Gas Revenues – A Survey of Public Choices” posted on the finance ministry website this week, Ghana says oil-producer nations face major questions.

Eight-year-old Nana Yaw, who is being treated at Central Region’s Winneba Government Hospital for a severe respiratory infection, was sold by his mother for US$50 in 2008. For nearly two years his owners forced him to dive for several hours a day to collect fishing nets in Lake Volta.

Will commercial oil production (due to begin later this year) build or break the back of Ghana’s democracy? This may seem an unnecessarily inflammatory question, but history demonstrates that healthy caution is necessary in managing oil revenues. Ghana, however, has made history by hosting a series of free and fair elections in recent years. Twice the opposition party has won and the incumbent has stepped down in a display of due respect for democracy. This is groundbreaking progress as less than a handful of African countries have attained such a benchmark of democratic consolidation

Mawuli Dake

Momar Dieng

A dispute could break out between Ghana and neighbouring Ivory Coast, if immediate steps are not taken to enter into appropriate negotiations to redefine the international boundary between the two nations. Ghana's Western neighbor Ivory Coast is reportedly laying claims to portions of the huge oil wealth in the deep waters of the Western Region of Ghana.

With Ghana on the verge of an oil 'boom' in 2010, Mawuli Dake considers the steps and measures needed to ensure the country derives full and equitable benefit from the resource. While Ghana's mining industry has historically been characterised by a lack of transparency and the dominance of foreign multinational interests, Dake stresses that the burgeoning oil industry must not be allowed to go the same way.

After 18 years of successful multi-party democracy, Ghanaians are bracing themselves to review the Fourth Republican Constitution. Following cabinet’s approval of a memorandum on the consultative review, government has established an independent body to spearhead the process.

A Ghana High Court, sitting in Accra, has dropped a four-year-old defamation suit brought against 'Akosua', a cartoonist with the privately-owned Accra-based Daily Guide newspaper.