A precious stone known for its rarity and brilliance, this blue gem is found solely in one place in the entire world: Tanzania, the country it was named after. Now the Swiss luxury brand Bernhard H Mayer (BHM), which offers high-end handcrafted timepieces and precious jewelry through direct selling company QNET, features Tanzanite in its newest collection.

Described as ‘a geological phenomenon’, Tanzanite is considered a thousand times rarer than diamonds. The name reflects the gem’s limited geographic origin, as all the mines are located in an area of about eight square miles near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro.

As Tanzanite mining is under strict control, legitimate marketers such as QNET have stepped into partner with the Responsible Jewelry Council (RJC) to ensure that all their jewelry products are ethically sourced. The RJC seeks to reduce unlawful mining practices and improve greater efficiency in the mining supply chain traceability.

QNET …

Economic activities in Ghana are expected to strengthen faster after the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, experts have said.

Boost confidence

Speaking in an exclusive interview with one of the leading local dailies, economic analysts noted that vaccinating people would boost the confidence of businesses and consumers.

This, according to them, will enable people to carry out their activities as they explore new business avenues for a faster recovery of the economy.

Professor Peter Quartey and Dr Said Boakye while giving their insights argued that Covid-19 vaccines rollout would also boost the confidence of business partners abroad to open up or increase trade to the country.

The government, the experts say, should set economic growth for this year to between 4.5 and five per cent on the back of the positive impact of the vaccine rollout on gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

They were giving their insights on the impact of …

Delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to selected health facilities has kicked off in Ghana.

The exercise which began on Tuesday, March 2, is being conducted by Zipline, using drones.

Ghana is now the first country in the world to deploy drones on a national scale to deliver COVID-19 vaccines, which were shipped into the country on February 23, by the Covax facility.

Ghana received 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, from the Serum Institute of India (SII).

The arrival in Accra is the first batch delivered anywhere in the world by the COVAX Facility as part of an unprecedented effort to deliver at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2021.

How COVID-19 vaccines will be distributed

With about 12 million people in Ghana living outside cities, the country’s government will use Zipline’s network to deliver its COVID-19 vaccines to ensure rapid, …

Three significant news items went on the global wire on 25^th February 2021 as follows;

1. Liquid Telecom, a member of the Econet Group that has laid more than 70,000km of fiber optic cable across Africa[1], raised $840M financing package (US$620M bond and a US$220M equivalent term loan in Rand). This was Liquid Telecom’s second bond issue and it was 5.5 times oversubscribed with JP Morgan Chase & Co, Standard Chartered Plc and Standard Bank Group Ltd as joint global bookrunners[2].
2. Convergence Partners, a leading Pan African Private Equity fund[3] entered into an agreement with Nasdaq listed Inseego (INSG) to acquire 100% of their subsidiary Ctrack’s operations in Africa and the Middle East[4].
3. Ecobank Nigeria, the largest country operations of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), issued a London listed $300M bond that was 3 times oversubscribed[5] and drew significant international

A mineral-rich continent, with a fast-growing economic potential and a considerable population stands a chance to become a predominant global hub for trade and investment. Africa’s growth potential has been mainly driven by a significant surge in investment, as indicated by the African Development Bank. As opposed to consumption expenditure driving economic growth, industry players and governments have realised the long-term benefits of investment to the growth of African economies. A longevity approach to a sustained growth of the African continent as a whole is the thrust of Agenda 2063 of the African Union, propelled by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. …

For the first time in the 25-year history of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) an African woman is set to take over as Director-General. Three women were shortlisted amongst the final five and ultimately two highly qualified women made it to the final round of consideration for the top position; no woman had ever made it to this stage in the history of the institution. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala became the obvious front-runner after her South Korean rival withdrew and the US reversed its previous opposition to her taking the leadership role of the body. There may still be some impediments but the future for African women is bright! …