For developing countries, ICT is a rich investment and one man is leading the charge to ensure students across Ghana have access to practical and impactful ICT education. (more…)

“We need songs and hymns that can touch our emotional nerve,” Rocky says. Musical offerings that serve as timely reminders that “love and hope are an indestructible aspect of the human experience that no amount of fear can take away.” – #RockyDawuni speaking to “Music in Africa”

Rocky Dawuni’s “Voice of Bunbon Vol. 1” has been nominated for “Best Global Music Album” for the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards which will be held in Los Angeles on January 31, 2022! Femi Kuti & Made Kuti, Wizkid, Angelique Kidjo and East West Players featuring Daniel Ho have all been nominated in the same category. This is Rocky’s second GRAMMY nomination as he was previously nominated for “Best Reggae Album” for his “Branches of the Same Tree” (Cumbancha) in 2016 making him the first Ghanaian musician to be nominated for a prestigious GRAMMY award!!

“Voice of Bunbon, Vol.1” is available on all major platforms https://tinyurl.com/yy7xo2nf

Rocky Dawuni will be celebrating the GRAMMY announcement with a home town show on Saturday, December 11, 2021 at +233 Jazz Bar & Grill in Accra, Ghana!! Rocky be playing with his full 10-piece band so please come and support LIVE music in Ghana. Tickets are GHC77 and will be available at the door. The concert is kindly supported by Asaase Radio, TV3, Ghana Music, Ghana Web, BeenieWords.com, Kobby Kyei News Live, Ameyaw Debrah, Blagogee.com, OnePlayAfrica.com.

The Voice Of Bunbon has spoken! Those who like Rocky Dawuni’s former works will love this EP – it adds a new flavour to the artist’s output without losing his characteristic style. Well done, Team Rocky!” #Reggaeville

Rocky Dawuni “Woara” Video:

https://youtu.be/NQbuYWSXzsU

Rocky Dawuni “Beautiful People” Video

https://youtu.be/Upb7bjyZJeA

Rocky Dawuni “Ghost Town” Video

https://youtu.be/WIGe4-YjWWQ

Reggaeville Review:

https://www.reggaeville.com/artist-details/rocky-dawuni/releases/mode/review/release/rocky-dawuni-voice-of-bunbon-vol1/

Music In Africa Review:

https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/rocky-dawuni-talks-about-his-new-ep-voice-bunbon-vol-1

For more information and social media connects, please follow Rocky Dawuni at:

http://www.rockydawuni.com

http://www.youtube.com/rockydawunimusic

http://www.facebook.com/rockydawuni

http://www.instagram.com/rockydawuni

http://www.twitter.com/rockydawuni

Managing Director of Absa Bank Ghana, Abena Osei-Poku says collaboration is the new competition in the digital financial services space across the continent. She made the comments during a panel discussion on how Africa can build resilience and drive differentiation in the financial sector at the ongoing Financial Times Global Summit.

Africa’s financial services sector has transformed from a decade ago with digital technology leading a revolution that is impacting every facet of human life. Three players in the ecosystem – Banks, Fintechs and Telecoms – are at the forefront of this unique opportunity. Whilst the orientation of these three players is diverse in several ways, the overall assessment has been for them to collaborate with their complementary skills in creating an ecosystem that reflects scalability, accessibility, and convenience for the customer.

Fintechs and telecom companies have consistently displayed creativity, agility and an innovative mindset that tend to cause positive disruption for the benefit of the customer. Banks, on the other hand, have a robust system of stringent governance and stability at their disposal, which is critical to the partnership.

Taking her seat alongside Sim Tshabalala, Chief Executive of Standard Bank Group and Aishah Ahmad, Deputy Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Abena Osei-Poku said:

“Collaboration will always prove to be the way forward for these key stakeholders to co-exist and create sustainable synergies for the benefit of customers, clients and the financial inclusion agenda. It is a shared responsibility and there is no one size fits all. Regulation is also of extreme importance in this dynamic and already we are seeing Central Banks continuously proving assertive, proactive and transformative in their work in this space. Thanks to the global pandemic as well, awareness around digital payments and collaboration is becoming mainstay, which is a good thing. Essentially, we continue to see a gradual harmonisation of the ecosystem thanks to the understanding of all key stakeholders and this is quite satisfying.”

Led by David Pilling, Africa Editor of the Financial Times, the panellists covered several areas, including impact of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on African economies, financial sector regulation and cross-border transactions aided by digital currency.

On her views around blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, Abena Osei-Poku said:

“We continue to take a closer look at the cryptocurrency concept as a Bank. It seeks to disrupt the entire financial system by driving regulation away from the Central banks into the hands of individuals aided by a web of computer connections. Most opponents to the model worry about the risk of decentralisation to the financial system. There is also the other important point of price volatility, which becomes an issue of concern to most mainline actors in the sector. At Absa Bank, we are still accessing the diversity of information and structure of the concept and are yet to conclusively devise a direction around it. Again, issues around closing legal loopholes to prevent cybercrime and fraud are of immense importance to us and we shall continue to keep an eye on this area.”

‘Tis season is here and as a joyful season which is marked with a lot of loud noises, it can be stressful for pets and frustrating for pet parents especially first timers. It is always important to inform guests about your pets prior to their arrival, don’t startle  them. Below are some  other guidelines that would help you and your pet this holiday season.

Keep your pet inside to avoid harsh weather

Christmas is here again with the harmattan weather conditions which mostly present extreme dryness and cold temperatures especially at night times. Your pets should be keep indoors and inside warm caging to ameliorate the precarious weather conditions. Ensure water is always present for pets to prevent dehydration and to increase humidity  within their environment.

Avoid foods that are poisonous to pets

This season is associated with several feasting bouts and pet owners might sometimes want to invite their fury-friends  to the party by dolling out food from  their plates to the pet animal. Most of these food components like onions can be toxic to your pet which may result in a medical emergency. Table leftovers especially bones are not advisable for pets.

Control your pet during outdoor socializations

You may want to take your pet out for outdoor events around the neighborhood, to the beach or other activities. Ensure to keep your pet on leash to avoid it attacking people or other pets. Unrestraint access to other pets can also allow your pet pick up ectoparasites like ticks from the other animals.

Clean up wrapping papers and gift packages

Christmas is characterized with shopping sprees, and various kinds of gift items. It can be stressful and tiring after the day’s activities but one must ensure that all wrappings or packages gifts, food items came in with are immediately dispose off properly to prevent access by once pet.

Create a safe, quiet place for your pet to relax away from the party

As the celebrations and bustling unfold with a home party, it would be safe to provide a safe, quiet place for your pet to relax away from the party to prevent it getting too excited, especially with cats, in the midst of the people.

By Daniel Baba Abiliba, Emmanuel D. Piiru

Ghana Animal Welfare Society

There have never been so many ways to communicate with businesses. Phones, e-mails, messaging, but also chatbots, which are on the increase. With the Covid-19 epidemic, discussions have multiplied, giving an even stronger reach to conversational marketing and to these bots, which make it possible to automate part of the exchanges and provide clear and rapid answers to your customers and prospects. But to take advantage of this emerging discipline, you will need to continue experimenting in 2022, starting by determining precisely what issues you want to respond to, with what tool but also on what criteria you will judge the success of your action.

Market research

Positioning yourself against your competitors and arousing the interest of consumers requires regular market research. In 2021, they will continue to be of great importance, in a context where competition is intensifying and where positioning your brand has never been more important. Consistency will make the difference: it’s not just about measuring, it’s also about doing it regularly. The data collected should help companies to base their decisions, but also to set up performance indicators.

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly

Due to the COVID pandemic, the use of mobile devices increased sharply in 2020  . It is very important that your website is optimized for mobile. This will make the user experience easy and convenient for the customers. Time flies when you’re having fun or having a good time, and that’s what you want for your users. A mobile-optimized website will also help you with Google’s Core-Web-Vitals, helping you measure speed, visual stability, and responsiveness. In 2021, paying attention to these metrics will help your Google search rankings accordingly. Remember, you want to be accessible to your customers on mobile and desktop. Most users will find you on mobile devices in 2021, so let’s make sure they enjoy the experience.

Focus on User Experience

According to Google, users show they prefer sites with a great page experience. That makes sense, because who wants to spend hours wrestling online, right? Prioritizing user experience (UX) means that visitors will likely stay engaged with your business website rather than visiting your competition. To help businesses measure their website’s user experience, Google has rolled out a new set of metrics called “Core Web Vitals” that help measure website speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.

Create content to answer your users’ questions

The content of the best and most attractive always answers questions from your users. If a user feels they can’t find the answers to their questions, they’ll leave.  You want this content to be informative or to enhance the user experience and ultimately help solve their problems. TikTok is another way to answer users’ questions. You can buy TikTok views and wait for the viral-nature of the video. Most of the videos on TikTok go viral because of the easy-to-use interface.

Take advantage of paid ads

Traditionally, businesses have used radio, television, print, or other forms of media to increase the visibility of their business. However, the pandemic has affected the efficiency of most of these platforms. Digital was the least affected of these and in fact improved during the pandemic. To reduce costs and increase returns, companies are allocating less to their traditional marketing strategies and more to their digital marketing strategies. This improves traffic to the company’s website, and more traffic means more people find you, which means more sales and potential long-term profits.

Moving houses is a challenge, even if you’re a rigorous planner. During the pandemic, it became especially difficult to navigate the logistics. However, this was also the time when mobile apps became increasingly popular. Having moving services and apps at the tip of your fingers is perhaps one of the most convenient things technological advancements have enabled.

From packing to transportation, you can figure out the whole moving process through your smartphone using moving services apps with efficiency and ease. Here are some apps to consider when you’re moving houses, so it is not only COVID-19 safe but a smoother, more consolidated process.

1- Zumper – to Save the Day

If your lease is up and you’ve decided to move out of your current home instead of renewing it, the first step to moving is finding a place to stay. More often than not, apartment hunting is a tiring and tough process, where you have to go and look through each open house before making a list of the potential apartments you like.

Zumper gives you a highly convenient option of looking them up through its app to eliminate that process. With over a million listings, you’re going to get real-time alerts about new apartments even before other rental sites have their ads. Moreover, it gives a landlord the option to review digital credit reports and get an e-application ready right away. The app is available for both IOS and Android.

2- Dolly Moves You

If you’re moving to a new place with minimal belongings but enough to require some moving services, then Dolly is your answer. The app connects you to your local truck owners, movers, or helpers for your moving needs. This is a great idea, especially if you live in a fully furnished apartment and only have to move essentials like clothes, kitchen gadgets, plants, and other décor.

Decluttering is part of moving. Dolly’s helpers help move items you want to donate to shelters, pick and drop off, or move things into storage units. The app is available on Android and IOS, both for ease of use for anyone.

3- TaskRabbit Hopping to Your Help

Regardless of how big or small your moving needs are, whether you want helpers to unpack, pack, or move items to and from houses, TaskRabbit is your best friend. Whether you use the app or the website, you can state the purpose of your move and what task you need to be done. TaskRabbit matches you with a freelancer, i.e., “Taskers” available at that moment who can do the work for you.

You can coordinate with them on the app, let them know in detail all that you want to be done regarding your moving process. The pricing for the freelancers is per hour or per job, depending on the nature of the job. It is also available on both IOS and Android.

4- Sortly to the Rescue

You’ve likely been in a situation where you needed something, but you couldn’t recall which box you packed it in. But if you haven’t, there is a high chance that you will experience it – unless you decide to use Sortly to organize all your boxes.

The app offers the chance to use customizable tags, off-the-shelf QR tags, and labels that can be searched, so you don’t have to keep guessing. Just write what you’re looking for, and the app will help you navigate which box you’ve kept it in so you don’t make a grand mess of things, adding to your move-out, move-in stress.

Conclusion

Of course, moving is never an easy process, but to ease the burden of having to figure it out all by yourself, you can use the moving services listed above to your advantage and for a smoother move!