Monalisa Magazine Launches on December 15th, at Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra, Ghana

Weeks after launching the First luxury journal in Nigeria, Monalisa Magazine International, is all set to launch its maiden edition on Sunday December 15, 2013 at the One2One Bar of Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra, Ghana at 5:00p.m.

The Fashion Editor, Ms Estella Ogbonna, who represented the publisher, Monalisa Chinda, said the magazine’s launch in Lagos, Nigeria was a huge success. With similar positive response expected from all other countries that the magazine would be launched in. With Accra, Ghana, being the next preferred location of choice.

Ms Monalisa Chinda, in an earlier visit in Ghana in October, 2013, stated in interviews with JoyNews and Viasat1 [This Morning Show] that Accra, is like home to her, and she would be returning to launch the magazine in Ghana.

Monalisa Magazine remains the First luxury, Fashion, beauty and lifestyle publication out of Nigeria.On a Mission to portray Africa’s culture to the world through its rich contents.

With its strapline: love, laugh, live, Monalisa Magazine is Africa’s International journal of choice for the discerning reader about luxury lifestyle, fashion, art and beauty among others.Monalisa magazine is a publication of Purple Moments Limited. It is an international magazine servicing a global audience with the best contents on luxury fashion, lifestyle, beauty and trends in the industry.

With the richest pool of young, vibrant talents in the industry, MONALISA promises the best editorial contents in a fluid, breezy, informative and trendy writing style with ingeniously creative designs and layouts delivered in a glossy, huge size for that truly INTERNATIONAL FEEL.

Just like the Lagos Launch, the Accra Launch would have in attendance some special guests, Fashion Stakeholders, Ghallywood/Nollywood stars and prominent people both within and outside the country.

The locations that the magazine can be purchased would be announced at the Launch.

by Monalisa Magazine Event Planning Team

Court adjourns Merchant Bank case to Dec 17

 

Court adjourns Merchant Bank case to Dec 17.

Total assets of Banking Industry records growth of GH¢8.8 billion – BoG

By: Frank Owusu-Ofori

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana has revealed that the country’s banking sector recorded strong growth during the first nine months of the year.

According to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Kofi Wampah, the sector remained relatively stable, benefiting from healthy capitalisation as well as sound liquidity and profitability.

He said the total assets of the banking industry recorded growth of GH¢8.8 billion from September 2012 till September 2013.

“Total assets of the banking industry as at the end of September 2013 rose to GH¢33.9 billion, from GH¢25.1 billion in September 2012. This was driven mainly by advances, which accounted for 46.6 per cent of the total,” he noted.

He added that “the asset growth was mainly funded by deposits which recorded an annual growth of 18.1 per cent to GH¢21.1 billion at the end of September 2013.”

However, despite the GH¢8.8 billion growth in the total assets, the banking industry had some challenges to grapple with.

“The non-performing loans (NPL) ratio within the banking industry decreased to 12.3 percent in September 2013, from 13.1 percent in September 2012, while the ratio excluding the loss category, declined to 5.0 percent from 6.5 percent in the same period last year,” he said

Interest rates on the money market have also broadly declined.

Between December 2012 and October 2013, “the 91-day instrument declined to 19.9 percent from 23.1 percent. Similarly, the 182-day declined to 19.9 from 23.0 percent. The 1-year note rate fell to 19.0 percent from 22.9 percent, while the rate on the 2-year note declined to 19.3 percent from 23.0 percent.”

Whereas the 3-year bond rate fell to 19.2 from 21 percent, the rate on the 5-year bond issued in September was 19.0 percent.

The weighted average interbank rate declined to 16.7 percent from 17.5 percent in December 2012.

Dr. Wampah also noted that the average lending rates of the banks declined marginally to 25.6 percent in October 2013, from 25.7 percent in December 2012.

“The average rate on 3-month term deposits remained unchanged at 12.5 percent, narrowing the spread marginally to 13.1 percent in October 2013, compared with a spread of 13.2 percent in December 2012,” he revealed.

BraveHearts wins Ghana StartUp Cup

By: Frank Owusu-Ofori

Out of the over thirty business models which were submitted, adventure organization, BraveHearts Expeditions, shredded off stiff competition to emerge winners of the Ghana StartUp Cup.

BraveHearts, beat six other startUp companies in the final round to take home GH¢ 2,000 as well as tickets to the World StartUp Cup in Yerevan, Armenia, where they stand the chance of winning the grand price of 30,000 dollars.

Onecedi.com, Guardian Angels, Genesis Financial Services, Visser Farms, Mansuki Ghana Ltd and Mobilicious, all took home consolation prizes for their efforts.

Speaking in an interview with The Biz portal, the Expedition Leader of BraveHearts Expeditions, Dziedzorm Segbefia, expressed his excitement about the award

He said the main reason for competing in the Ghana StartUp cup was to represent Africa at the Global Competition.

“We’re confident that our business model is the winning model, and we will invade the global competition with a no-nonsense bias for African excellence. We will bring the first Global cup to Ghana,” he emphatically stated.

Throwing more light on his company, Dziedzorm Segbefia said BraveHearts Expedition is the first startup in Ghana to pursue a green economy “where growth in entrepreneurial revenue is driven by business activities that reduce environmental degradation and pollution as well as preventing the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

“Working in teams, we develop strong relationships and active processes with our clients, which cultivates a culture of change in Africa and creates a profitable, sustainable business that provides economic opportunity for young people,” he noted.

He also described his company as an African adventure firm that runs camping, hiking, mountaineering, paragliding, cross-country safari and wilderness experiential learning expeditions for individuals and groups of all ages and nationalities in Ghana.

The Chairman of the Ghana StartUp Cup, Emmanuel Nyame, said the way startups are being built is rapidly changing.

“Historically, entrepreneurs had the luxury of time and were expected to produce a well-written business plan that included detailed financials, graphs, and future projections showcasing a path to starting and growing a new company, with the main purpose of raising money.”

He said today’s entrepreneurs are rewarded for going to market, securing customers, and generating revenue as quickly as possible.

“The goal for an entrepreneur with a new business concept is to identify a business model, test their assumptions, secure customers, and evolve their model as they grow market share,” he added.

Startup Cup is a locally driven business model competition open to any idea. This innovative community-based approach is designed to increase the quality and quantity of entrepreneurs in the community. The fundamentals of this program was developed in Silicon Valley during the dot com era and transplanted to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2007, by visual thinking pioneer and serial entrepreneur Sean Griffin, with the launch of a program called the Tulsa Entrepreneurial Spirit Award. Since that time every aspect of the competition has been fine-tuned based upon feedback from participating entrepreneurs, judges, coaches, entrepreneurial service providers, and community leaders.