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It is less than one month to the seventh edition of the much-anticipated All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) 2021, and votes have long been stacking up for all 38 categories created to celebrate the best of African music. AFRIMA 2021 holds at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, Nigeria from November 19-21, 2021 with live broadcast to 84 television stations in 109 countries. Public voting is ongoing and ends on Saturday, November 20, 2021 on AFRIMA’s website www.afrima.org . Tickets to the Music Fest coming up on Friday, November 19, 2021 at 6pm, and the award on Sunday, November 21, 2021 will be on sale on AFRIMA website ( www.afrima.org ) from Sunday, October 31 at 18:00 (EAT).   The ‘Artiste of the Year’ category is one juicy nomination that, like the Midas Touch, if wielded by any artiste has the power to turn almost every situation into gold. This year is quite interesting as it is not just a battle of the greats, but a battle that infuses some of the most prominent voices ever in Afric...

After a successful launch in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale, the Guinness Bright House Experience finally made its stop in Takoradi much to the delight of ‘Tadi’ creatives and revelers. The Guinness Bright House Experience is a model bar and a fundamental part of the Guinness Black Shines Brightest campaign and it serves as a cultural space and a hub for people to connect and energize each other with creativity, inspiration and, of course, a cold bottle of Guinness. In Takoradi, the Bright House Experience started off with a fashion show where young and talented fashion designers across the Western Region showcased what makes them shine bright through a stunning display of amazingly creative designs. Before Vanilla, a fast-rising vocalist and versatile songwriter mounted the stage to dazzle guests with his 'Sikilite' hit song, underground musicians in the region came to display their music and rap prowess to the admiration of all. This set the tone for the music aspect of the Bright ...

Only a few months after the launch of the digital experience hub GROHE X, the internationally renowned Red Dot Award Brands & Communication Design 2021 in the category “Digital Solutions” has now been awarded to GROHE, a leading global brand for holistic bathroom solutions and kitchen faucets. Prof. Dr. Peter Zec, initiator and CEO of Red Dot, emphasized the importance of digital solutions for the success of brands and companies – especially today: “As an award winner, GROHE has proven that they think ‘outside the box’. The brand knows how to act quickly in times of crisis and use upheavals for new design approaches. In this way, they master important challenges and also make a valuable contribution to the further development of society.” With GROHE X, LIXIL in EMENA has developed the first digital platform of its kind in the industry for its GROHE sanitary brand together with strong partners VOK DAMS, IBM and D'art. As a content hub tailored to the interests of B2B target grou...

Following a successful outing this year with a chart-topping single, ‘Outside’ and scintillating features on hit singles like 'Feeling', 'Your Body', 'Bling', and 'Cold Outside', Buju releases his debut EP titled, ‘Sorry I’m Late’.  One can easily deduce from the EP title that the project has been a long time coming, as Buju can be seen on the cover art placing a call to his past and apologising for the delay. Buju is a young charismatic Afro-fusion singer whose style can best be described as daring, dauntless and relentless Afro-fusion. The EP opens with 'Daniel Benson', which happens to be Buju's biological name. This Afro-dancehall track is fused with dynamic lyrics through which Buju outlines his successes and strengths. The track relies on modish Afro sound, mid-tempo drum influences caressed by his melodic vocals to score deserved points. On the second track 'Never Stopped', Buju declares that he had never stopped 'hustling...

Some personal and business insurance claimants are slated to share their experiences at 4 pm this Thursday during the October 2021 edition of H.Insured: All About Insurance Webinar Series hosted by insurance group, Hollard Ghana, with its subsidiaries Hollard Insurance and Hollard Life Assurance. The webinar will be live on Zoom and on the company’s Facebook page. The webinar will be moderated by Dorothy Salifu, Head of Operations, a claims expert at Hollard Life Assurance, joined by her colleague, award-winning claims personality of the year at CIIG 2020, Iris Logan, who is Head of Claims at Hollard Insurance. The claimants, drawn from business and private sector, are Hollard customers with testimonials to share. They are Michael Asiedu Ampomah, Chief Superintendent of Immigration, Adepa Family Plan claimant, Senyo Agbesi, Credit Controller, Motor Insurance claimant, Kwasi Asamoah, Eye equipment supplier, Adepa Wo Fie claimant, Appiah Agyeman Jnr, Head of People and Oper...

In line with its adherence to integrity and transparency, The African Union Commission and The International Committee of All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) have appointed Price water house Coopers (PwC) as the official international auditor of AFRIMA’s voting processes and applications as announced at a joint press conference and unveiling ceremony held at the PWC Experience Centre in Lagos, Nigeria on Wednesday October 20, 2021. PwC will perform independent stress testing of AFRIMA’s voting platform, conduct vulnerability assessment to validate the integrity of the software deployed for improved security controls, carry out penetration testing covering the voting system and its interface, monitor public and academy voting portals, collate votes and present the sealed results during the award ceremony. According to the Leader – Technology, media, Entertainment and telecommunication (TMET), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Femi Osinubi, “The partnership aims to provide technic...

Hollard Ghana, with subsidiaries, Hollard Insurance and Hollard Life Assurance has joined its retail partner, Melcom Limited to announce it is running an insurance awareness week from 18 th to 24 th October to increase access to insurance. Customers can visit any of the participating stores to learn about life and non-life insurance products including motor insurance, home appliance plan, cell phone insurance, travel insurance, life, accident and saving policies. The participating Melcom shops are: Weija, Afienya, Spintex, Tema, Opera Square, Bibiani, Santasi, Adum, East Legon, North Industry Area (LFS), Takoradi, Frafraha, Sunyani, Ashiaman, Haatso, Ahodwo, Ablekuma, Suame, and Tamale. Speaking on the motivation for the initiative, Group Head of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Cynthia Ofori-Dwumfuo said: “This initiative affirms the goal of our unconventional partnership to increase insurance penetration through a diversified distribution model. As a purposeful company, we are comm...

It was a night of energy and great talent display as Guinness unveiled its Bright House Experience in Tamale where Fancy Gadam, Sefa and Incredible Zigi showcased their boldness and creativity through their talent. The Guinness Bright House Experience is a model bar which serves as a cultural space and a hub for people to connect and energize each other with creativity, inspiration and, of course, a cold bottle of Guinness. The Guinness Bright House Experience was first unveiled in Accra at the Accra Polo Court and made a stop in Kumasi’s Golden Bean Hotel and now Tamale. The Bright House Experience was held at the Tamale Stadium and it started off with performances from local creatives and musical talents including up and coming rappers Med Gee and T.I.P . Sefa’s 'Echoke' kept the crowd excited as she performed hit song after hit song. Her performance was quickly followed by Incredible Zigi and the Afrozig dance crew in Tamale. They dazzle guests with their energetic dance per...

United Bank for Africa (UBA) Ghana has organised series of workshops for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) to educate them to overcome credit accessibility constraints in the country. The first workshop which was held in Accra brought together SME’s ranging from importers, contractors, suppliers, traders among others.   The second in series will also be held at the AMA Conference Hall on the 22nd October, with the last session to be held in Kumasi next month. Giving the keynote address, the Deputy Managing Director for UBA Ghana, Mrs. Sylvia Inkoom, said the seminar will create awareness to SMEs on several products and services available to them in order to gain access to UBA loan facilities. Mrs. Inkoom noted that Micro Medium and Small Enterprises (MSMEs) constitute about 85 percent of all businesses in Ghana.

One of the best ways to curb the spread of diseases such as the flu and other viruses, germs and bacteria is to wash the hands regularly, with soap and under running water. Today it may seem like common sense to wash one’s hands often, even more so, in recent times when COVID-19 keeps everyone on their toes to adhere to safe and basic personal hygiene practices including frequent handwashing to prevent the spread of the virus. However, it may come as a surprise to many that the link to handwashing with soap and health was only made less than two centuries ago. It was not until the 1980s, when a string of foodborne outbreaks and healthcare associated infections led to a public outcry that the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified hand hygiene as an important way to prevent the spread of infection. This paved the way for the first nationally endorses hand hygiene guidelines, and subsequently many more have followed. In recent years, handwashing with soap and...

Lifebuoy, the world’s number one hygiene soap brand, is celebrating Global Handwashing Day (GHD) by hosting the World’s Largest Virtual Classroom to impart the important lesson of handwashing with soap. Having already helped over 1 billion people develop better handwashing habits, improve their hygiene, and protect themselves against preventable diseases, this GHD Lifebuoy will launch a hygiene-focused alphabet book. In 2020, inspired by how children learn their A, B, C’s, Lifebuoy set out on a mission to transform the way the letter H is taught worldwide. The brand launched the “H for Handwashing” multi-year campaign carrying a simple message:  While H is for hat, horse, and hippo…H must also stand for Handwashing! Since its launch last GHD, the campaign has reached over 11 million children. Lifebuoy has partnered with the education ministries of India, South Africa, and Sri Lanka to ensure workbooks and other educational materials help to engrain effective hygiene habits from an ...

Amid the ongoing concerns about COVID-19 and anxiety around a 3rd wave, age-old industries have rethinked daily operations and adapted new ways, especially when it comes to payment of goods and services. Visa, especially its contactless payment platform has stood the test during the pandemic to the point that today, the new buzzword is Contactless! Contactless is a quick and easy way to pay and more convenient than using the traditional payment methods. With a Visa Contactless debit or credit card, a customer is only required to ‘tap to pay’ on the POS device to execute transactions not exceeding GH¢100 with no requirement to enter a PIN, swipe their card, or sign a receipt. During a recent TV interview, the Country Manager of Visa in Ghana, Adoma Peprah said there was a strong shift with e-commerce earlier on during the pandemic but the lockdown was not quite long so many Ghanaians had to re-open shops and find a safe and convenient way of transacting business and making payments. Vis...

Not too long ago, the world came to a halt with life as we know it changing to what we now call the new norm. Companies evolved to remote working, schools to virtual schooling and physical human contact became a luxury only few, if any, were able to afford. The world over, humans learned to live this way and although it seemed difficult at first it became a norm that began to work. Families spent more time together, people paid more attention to their physical, mental, and spiritual health, with others finding parts of themselves they did not know ever existed. As the world found ways to live in the new norm, scientists and researchers also did their best to find a way possible for the world to return to what it was. Subsequently, strides have been made with the adaptation of best practices and the roll out of vaccines to control the virus while human beings find a way to go around their usual business through physical contact, without thinking too much about contracting the virus.

Four top performing Bolt drivers in Ghana will be awarded with brand new 2021 Suzuki Celerio cars in recognition of their amazing service by the end of the platform’s 2021 driver reward contest that was launched today. The 2 nd edition of the annual Bolt driver reward contest kicked off on 11 October 2021 has been dubbed the “ Bolt Driver’s League ” and will see the top New Driver, top Existing Driver, top Woman Driver and the overall Top Driver in the country awarded. With this contest, Bolt, the leading ride-hailing platform in Africa is reaffirming its long-standing commitment and tradition of caring about its drivers who are the people that make its services possible. David Kotei Nikoi, Bolt Country Manager in Ghana said “With the unveiling of the Bolt Driver’s League contest, we aim to build a community of drivers who will take pride and be passionate when serving passenger each time. In addition, we are delighted with the opportunities that the grand prizes will bring to the wi...

Mercy Eke, Big Brother Nigeria (BBNaija) Season 4 winner, is returning to reality TV this October with the premiere of the sophomore season of her show, Mercy: What Next? While the first season of the show - Mercy and Ike, focused on Mercy’s relationship with her BBNaija love partner, Ike, the new season follows the life of Mercy as a star, her search for love, adapting to fame and the constant pursuit of her dreams. “The engaging and unscripted original that tells the story of Mercy Eke from a new perspective, two years after winning BBNaija, also caters to younger audiences and budding stars with a series of lessons on managing fame, dealing with an increasing fan base and the business of celebrity life,” said Busola Tejumola, the Executive Head, Content and West Africa Channels, at MultiChoice Nigeria. In the final episode of the first season, viewers saw Mercy and Ike talking about how they enjoyed shooting the reality TV show together, lessons learnt in their relationship and how ...

The prestigious Ghana Make-Up Awards has this year rebranded into Ghana Beauty Awards (GBA) under the theme “Transforming the Beauty Industry: 5years on and  it will  come off on November 20 at the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel in Accra. The 5th edition which will be one of its kind, is a  ceremony being organized by  Make-up Ghana in partnership with First Choice Hair & Beauty,  Ghana’s hub for great hair and other beauty needs. The award ceremony is also part the 5th  Africa Makeup & Beauty (AMB) Fair which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday November 17 and Thursday November 18 2021 at the Dome, Accra International Conference Centre before the awards night on November 20. The beauty fair comes with activities such as  exhibitions & discount sales, beauty business forums, workshops and seminars, beauty shows, Live Demos, trim avenue and live demos.

FanMilk PLC, Ghana’s leading manufacturer of dairy based and juice-based products has embarked on a ‘Strong at School’ drive to promote the consumption of nutrient rich foods while at school. With the new Strong at School programme FanMilk has provided 150,000 school children across Ghana with the new zinc fortified NutriDay yoghurt, to support their immune systems. This comes on the back of the company’s one-planet one-health agenda and its commitment to protect the health of its people and keep the environment safe. Following the global health pandemic, interest in healthy living among consumers have heightened exponentially. Parents have adopted healthy eating measures to ensure that they avoid diseases while boosting the whole family’s immune systems. Now, as schools resume, it is important that the trend continues, hence FanMilk’s initiative to roll out a donation drive to keep Ghanaian children healthy while in school.

Supermodel Victoria Michaels and her Fashion Connect Africa (FCA) company on Thursday launched the FCA Model Bootcamp, the first of its kind in Africa to help models and creatives alike to discover great opportunities in their field. This is scheduled to take place on October 22nd and 23rd at the Alisa Hotel in Accra where it was launched. The FCA Model Bootcamp 2021, according to organisers will create an inspiring environment for models across Africa, as it provides them with skills and global career best practices. It would also empower models with additional skills to generate multiple streams of income as well as preparing them for global modelling opportunities, cultural shocks and social diversities.

For decades, the Diaspora has increasingly become a critical constituent in their home countries; a huge reservoir of human and financial capital; and an important social and a commercial bridge between itself and the African continent. The value of the Diaspora to Africa goes beyond remittances and financial capital to families in home countries, to include intellectual capital, political capital, social capital, and cultural capital. As the curtain draws on the International Decade for People of African Descent, as proclaimed by the UN General Assembly, between 2015-2024, the time is apt to deepen the conversation and realize quick wins on the contribution of the African diaspora to the development of the African continent. Stemming from its definition of intra-African trade to include trade between Africa and its diaspora, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) recognizes the invaluable contribution of the Diaspora to the African continent’s structural transformation aspiratio...