A journalist friend of mine came by my workplace yesterday to introduce an innovation in this country--a free newspaper!Not to steal his thunder or anything, but his paper will be called "Real News", and there is even a website in the offing. Sounds all exciting!
Even more so was our conversation after he told me he's been using the same Areeba # for five years.
"I prefer ONETOUCH these days" I started. "You can surf the 'Net on it. Did you even know that ONETOUCH is launching Mobile television with a Korean firm?".
As he started to text away a message, he remarked: "what, do you know someone working there--the way you're doing P.R. for them!"
"Not at all" I quipped, "it's because they're almost-all Ghanaian!"
He broke out in a semi-laugh, adding "I see!"
That's what I am talking about--supporting the Ghanaian industry no matter what. Idem with the ADB/Stanbic furore.
I have actually been accused elsewhere of being xenophobic towards South Africans, because of my acerbic post about Stanbic.
If it behooves me to hold strong viewson a so-called strategic foreign investor that is clearly in Ghana to maximize whatever profits it can -- under
the guise of facilitating Ghana to the Promised land of a West African gateway, then I'm all against it!
Stanbic is now providing loans for the re-construction of Flagstaff House; it's also intent on partnering with thw country's state paper Daily Graphic on some projects.
Nice try, Stanbic. Get into the hearts and minds of Ghanaians, and maybe, just maybe, the divestiture-friendly governmentwill give you the nod--and maybe, a wink with good measure.
Again, not so fast, Stanbic.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of them all of the time!
I don't want Stanbic money in any part of my economy. What I want is autonomy to manage my country's own affairs!
MTN is Born
I'm really bored by the yellow front cover that most newspapers had today regarding the changeover from AREEBA to MTN--yet another South African entity.
I am hoping more that what MTN Ghana brings is quality to the execrable network that AREEBA was offering. With its humongous subscriber-base of circa two million subscribers, eclipsing that of TIGO; ONETOUCH and KASAPA, it better get delivering--fast!
At least I have my AREEBA/MTN number for life. It's an easy number to remember, so I gotta get filling it with credit;-)
Have a good weekend!
