News Across The World

There is good news to celebrate on the Ghanaian banking landscape. Calbank, a wholly owned Ghanaian bank listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange this week inaugurated it new head office. The programme was also attended by the President of Ghana Nana Akuffo-Addo and the Governor of Bank of Ghana, Ernest Adisson. This is great news because 2 local banks have been liquidated, whiles another 7 were consolidated because of various infractions such as poor corporate governance, bad credit risk management and manipulation of figures to show non-existent capital. Calbak met the new capital requirement easily. Very well capitalised with a capital adequacy ratio of 20% far above the 12% expected by the Bank of Ghana. The Managing Director Frank Adu Jnr is set to retire from the bank at the end of the year and he is going out well with the bank on the high. The new head office is environmental friendly with rain harvested water and powered by solar.

Finally, she has been put out of her misery. Theresa May, the British Prime Minister after demonstrating crass incompetence at her role as prime minister has finally resigned. After Brexit deal was rejected three times before the House of Commons and no real solutions to the impasse ahead of the deal secured from the European Union, Mrs May will step down as leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June and the race for the next Prime Minister has started. Penny Mordaunt, Jeremy Hunt, Andrea Leadsome and Boris Johnson are expected to lead the party. Anybody in the conservative party can be the prime minister but Boris Johnson. Theresa May main objective taking office in July 2016 after David Cameron had resigned when the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU was to successfully leave the union. She utterly failed at this clear objective and this was also helped by the constant division in her party. In her resignation speech, she said she tried everything to get the only deal she could secure from the EU but it was not good enough for the people. The EU later said that, there is no way any negotiations will take place and that was the final deal and wished Mrs May all the best. The job of the next tory leader is not pretty, getting the only deal available passed when it has been rejected three times or crashing out of the EU.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won by landslide in the 7 phase marathon elections. The winner of the world biggest democracy. Bharatiya Janata (BJP) Party has won 303 out of the 542 seats, increasing from the previous elections where the party had 282. The BJP led National Democratic Alliance has over 351 seats whiles the opposition Indian National Congress (INC) has 52 seats. The INC was led by Rahul Gandhi.

In Indonesia the election results are being disputed and has resulted in violent clashes. The president Joko Widodo is set for another term after defeating his closest rival General Prabowo Subiato. The president is leading with 55% while the opposition candidate is also with 44%. The opposition has alleged vote rigging, wide spread cheating and this has resulted in violent clashes in Jakarta.

The Malawi elections has also been disputed by the opposition. The current president Peter Mutharika, the 74 year old law professor is leading in the elections and set for another term. His Democratic Progressive Party led with 40.49% of the votes. His ally and the current vice president Saulos Chilema, the 46 year old former telecoms executive and United Transformation Movement has 19% of the votes. The main opposition candidate Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party with 35.4% has claimed victory in the elections.

After winning the elections and sworn into power, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky called for a snap parliamentary elections. The former comedian also said that they will work to have good relations with Russia. Russia Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov said that the new president should go ahead of with the Minsk Peace Agreement where prisoner transfers were agreed. Igor Kolomoisky, the oligarch with whom Zelensky has been linked for a while also returned to the country. Mr Zelensky has appointed chief lawyer for Kolomoisky, Andriy Bogdan as his chief of staff. The main thing for the new president is to reduce or more deep seated corruption in the country and revive the stagnant economy. There is also the small matter of Russia to deal with.

This week the brawl between the US and China was taken to the next level when Google blocked updates due Huawei due to the blacklisting of the Chinese tech giant. Google parent company, Alphabet said that they are just complying with US regulations regarding Huawei. The Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Chairperson of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou is still fighting extradition from Canada to the USA for dealing with Iran whiles they are facing US sanctions. Then they later accused the company of building back doors for sending information back to China for their 5G technology. The US also told it allies not to deal with Huawei, if they want to share intel with them. Huawei also said that they are taking the necessary updates to make sure that their products are up to date. Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei said that, the US underestimate the company.

In this week episode of US and Iran confrontation, this has happened. Donald Trump has sent 1500 troops to the region to counter any aggression. Trump also made more threats including completely obliterating the country in times in any war. Iranian Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif said that it was wrong for anyone to threaten an Iranian and it would not end well.

Asamoah Gyan will be in Egypt for the African Cup of Nations after recusing himself from the Black stars and retiring from the National team after the Head coach Akwasi Appiah took the captaincy away from him. The President Nana Akuffo-Addo held meetings with the coach, the Sports Minister and the Chairman of the Black stars Management Committee over Gyan’s retirement. The president spoke with Gyan and impressed on him to rescind his decision and is now the general captain. Meanwhile, Dede Ayew and Kwadjo Asamoah are captain and vice-captain respectively.

The Toronto Raptors are on the cusp of their first NBA finals. They came back from 2 game down to beat the Milwakee Bucks 105-99 to lead the series for the first time. Kawhi Leonard scored 35 points to put the Raptors one game away from the finals against the Warriors. Giannis Antetokoumpo had 24 points for the Bucks but can he step up for another time or will the Raptors win another game to meet the Warriors. The Golden State Warriors swept aside the Portland TrailBlazers with Stephen Curry, Green and Iguodala stepping up for the unavailable Kevin Durant.

Raphael Nadal preparations towards defending his French Open was going sour losing to Fabio Foghini in Monte Carlo, Dominic Thiem in Barcelona and Stefanos Tsikipas in Madrid. Then Nadal step up and beat Novak Djokoic in Rome, and crucially beating the world number one just ahead of the Roland Garros. Raphael Nadal is hoping to win his 12th Roland Garros.

Vicent Kompany has retired from Manchester City and announcing his retirement after City thoroughly out classed Watford by beating them 6:0. He will be remembered as the greatest City captain ever. After 12 years at the club, he is now off to Anderlecht to continue his career as a player and as a coach. He takes enormous amounts of leadership.
Brighton and Holve Albion have appointed Graham Potter as their head coach after they sacked Chris Hughton. Brighton also paid compensation to Swansea for taking their coach and Potter brings his attacking football that the Tony Bloom wants to see play.