FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-HAVING A BUSNINESS

A business is any activity that generates income for you without your presence. In this write up, the word business would be used to describe all kinds of business like sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation. Most of these businesses carry certain distinct features like legal entity distinct or different from its owners and can act on its own by utilizing its legitimate rights, power and authority. Sole proprietorship does not have the feature separate legal entity.

A business is able to serve a larger community than an individual and a business is expected to be a going concern or is expected to have a perpetual life. Sole proprietorship usually has the shortest going concern because the death of the sole proprietor can render the business closed. Under normal circumstances a business could be passed unto generations to run and serve society.

When one owns a business, one could relieve oneself from many expenses and one can enjoy many privileges from the business, provided the business attains a certain status and is really law abiding by meeting its tax obligations and other statutory responsibilities. You can set up a business yourself or buy an existing business. Whichever, a business is a business and what is important is that it exists and is capable of generating revenue for you and is serving its target market.

There are several things that are required for a business to be successful, human resource issues, cash flow and book keeping issues. Owners of businesses should employ the right people to stir the affairs of the business for it to function and continue to be a going concern.

The cash flow of the business should be a critical factor, because the business cannot exist without money to operate. There should be cash flow management measures in place and these measures should be adhered to and implemented. It is essential for business cash to be spent on budgeted items only and should be captured in the books of account.

Every business needs initial working capital, aside the fixed assets and human capital to operate effectively. Working capital is the cash needed for the day to day running of the business.

 If the business is an existing one, its working capital should be expanded and consolidated.  Without working capital, it is very likely to run into debts that could have been prevented, because things done on credit for the business would always be more expensive, especially when your suppliers know you might not be credit worthy, than when done with cash. Yes, it is better to transact businesses on credit but that would be after your business counterparts know you very well and believe you have a reputation and that you are really credit worthy.

Marketing of the organization’s products or services is crucial to the well-being of the organization and this could help sales flow in so the business could make some good cash. Without vigorous marketing and sales of the products or services, the business has no future. It’s expected that every entrepreneur should be able to sell his or her own products or services very well and hence should be able to hire people like him or her or better than he or she to make good sales for the business.

Every business should have very strong and robust internal controls to cater for administration, accounting and finance and other departmental needs. Approvals and authority levels clearly spelt out. Segregation of duties for employees is clearly done and allocated. That management is not overwriting its own rules and the integrity of management is not questionable.

Internal controls should be designed in such a way that they should help prevent, detect and correct fraud and similar instances.

If the business has no internal controls, it will not last and shall be closed down in no distant future.  The internal controls in fact are the tools intangible that would concretize and make it perpetual.

A business must be backed by a good legal system, meaning, it should protect itself against its competitors by having good lawyers to act for it and it should also be law-abiding to meet all its legal and statutory obligations.

All businesses in the world only exist when they have product(s) and or service(s) to offer to the world else, it is an impossibility to get from the world without giving it anything in return.

Once, again, there is nothing for something in the world.

The business must have a product or service to give to the world and get back from it. The business could increase its product or service lines as and when necessary after doing the necessary marketing survey and research. The product or service should be packaged well to be attractive, catchy, appealing, durable and trusted.

The privileges of having a business are:

·         The business could protect your assets for you

·         The business could bear all personal expenses for you

·         The business could serve a larger society than you doing it alone

·         The business generates income for you while you sleep

·         The business could pay tax in larger amounts than you would pay yourself to aid national development

·         The business could be passed unto your children

·         The business can contribute to environmental friendliness and sustainability development

·         The business opens many doors of opportunities and gives you the opportunity to meet many learned and prominent people

·         If you have your own business, you are your own boss and you not answerable to anybody

·         If you have your business, you can have time to attend to other important, personal matters and still make money

·         If you have a business, your money works for you, while you concentrate on other important matters

It is not only entrepreneurs, who should have businesses, employees could also have businesses and at the same working diligently for their employers.

FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-AUDITING

The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product.
Financial Audit, or more accurately, an audit of financial statements, is the review of the financial statements of a company or any other legal entity (including governments), resulting in the publication of an independent opinion on whether or not those financial statements are relevant, accurate, complete, and fairly presented. Financial audits are typically performed by firms of practicing accountants due to the specialist financial reporting knowledge they require”

In the financial world, businesses are mostly set up by people, who are not necessarily the same people who run or take care of them.

Auditing in the financial realm is meant to show evidence of the performance of the manager(s), and assess and evaluate their stewardship as they have been given authority and responsibility to run the business. More importantly, auditing allows other people to cross-check the work you have done to be sure are no errors or misstatements in the financial statements or any data or information that would be used by others to make decisions.
It is always easier to carry one’s mistakes or errors even from the beginning to the end, but once, there is someone competent to cross-check one’s work, mistakes or errors committed would be eliminated or at least minimized. In Financial Literacy Education auditing is as important as it knowing how well to keep one’s house and abode free from destruction and clean from dirt and filth.
We should learn to audit ourselves, before we are being audited in all our financial dealings and we learn to understand the importance of auditing and the importance of the work of an auditor. When we set up our own business and run them ourselves or let other take care of them for us. Auditing could be the secret that will keep your business going on and striving to the test of time all the time.
When you set up your business whether big or small do not compromise on paying a qualified auditor to audit your financial records for you. You need auditing for many good reasons as would be outlined soon

Around 2002 many companies amomg them were Enron and WorldCom collapsed in the USA and other companies in other parts of the world also collapsed because auditing and corporate governance were not applied appropriately and professionally. If auditing was applied as required those collapsed companies would have lived at least a bit longer. Good and competent auditing could therefore help prolong the life of your business and your own financial being, because if you are a shareholder of any listed company whether private or public limited liability company, you need to participate in selecting qualified auditors to exam the financial statements and express their opinions on them. Your share value could be appreciated or increased and become lucrative for potential investors if auditors give a good report of your company.
Auditors have their responsibilities distinct from that of the managers.
I f you are a manager of an organization, do well to carry out your responsibilities accurately and timely for the auditor to be able to do his work and not have difficulties.



When management performs its duties creditably, it reduces the work of the auditor and lower audit fees are paid.

Auditors could be external or internal. Internal auditing if not outsourced would mostly be performed by staff members who are also employees of the organization and they also have their responsibilities assigned to them by superiority authority within.
Big time companies are supposed to have an internal audit department or consider having one. BPP Publishers define Internal Audit as “an independent appraisal function established within an organization to examine and evaluate its activities.”
External auditing in many cases (all cases) are statutory and whether management is happy with the idea of having auditors or not, audit of their stewardship would be carried out annually and copies of the financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies. The Internal or Inland Revenue Service also gets a copy so they could study it and get back to the organization on tax issues.
There is public misconception about what auditors especially the external auditors come to do in an organization in which they not employees. Auditors are just human beings, who have been asked by the shareholders or owners of the organization to exam the financial statements and express their opinion on them.
Auditors do not go organizations to audit with an aim of finding faults with employees or management. The auditor is a finance professional who carries out his/her work with professional skepticism among other professional attributes such as objectivity, independence, confidentiality and many more and would report anything good or bad he/ she comes across if there is the need to.
It is not the duty of an auditor to prevent, detect and correct misstatements and errors in the financial statements as far as the current auditing standards are concerned, though the auditor’s responsibilities could be extended, these have not been covered yet. Auditors are expected to prepare their audit plan and programme in such a way that all material misstatements in the financial statements could be detected by they, the auditors but should be corrected by management. So if, in doing their routine work the auditor comes across some fraud or an error and he/she could report it and that would not meant the auditor went there with a mind of finding faults with employees or management.
It is hundred percent and the core duty of management to put in good measure to prevent, detect and correct errors committed by employees or if management itself so that the organization could be a going concern to function smoothly.
The expectation gap exists where, what the public expects the auditor to do and what the auditor actually does. The expectation gap could be broken through public education among other potent factors of the current duties of auditors and management.
Importance of auditing:
• Audited financial statements could be used access funds from lenders

• Audited financial statements are filed with the Registrar of companies and all copies sent to all stakeholders that require them.

• Auditing would report if the organization is a going concern

• Auditing helps the organization keep good and accurate financial records

• Auditing keeps employees and management awake and functioning

• Auditing brings trust between shareholders and management

• Auditing allays and addresses the fears of shareholders and all stakeholders

• Auditing could add to the fortunes of the company
When you set up your organization, make sure you have qualified auditors to audit your financial statements for you and the future well being of your organization could be guaranteed.
Auditors can and should be changed when their independence and objectivity are impaired, prejudiced and threatened and when familiarity begins to mar the good works of the auditor they should be changed. Remember, the auditor is paid to do a good work and should be fired where their independence and other professional demeanours are compromised. On the hand, where everything is going well but management thinks they have had a long relationship with their auditors and familiarity begins to breed up, they could also change the auditors.
Auditors are not managers and should never be seen to be executing management functions.
The solidity of sustainable development and environmental friendliness greatly depends on auditing and auditors reporting appropriately.
By Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo
Email: gayeebo@gmail.com

FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-GOOD & BAD LOANS

Businesses every where are run with money. Most businesses raise their capitals in the form of loans. Loans are as old as mankind and will continue to live as far as man lives. I, believe, everybody, has at least once been encountered with a loan transaction before whether formal or informal. We take loans from friends, sisters, brothers, employers, and more especially the money-lending financial institutions, i.e. the banks and other non-bank financial institutions.

Many formal loans are borrowed with the understanding of giving back the original loan taken together with some form of interest on it, so that the lender could benefit for the opportunity lost in not putting his/her money in another investment to earn them some return.

Loans taken from friends and family members are mostly interest free and there are also mostly in small amounts taken mostly for personal purposes. Their repayment period is also shorter and many of these loans are not even repaid, because some of the borrowers fail to be honest and reliable to perform their part of the obligation and agreement.

Loans could be good or bad depending on the terms and conditions of the loan agreement and the purpose for which the loan is contracted.

If a loan involving a large amount is taken and the purpose is to acquire personal property then that is a bad loan, in the sense that the loan is not for free, it will be repaid, so, it should go into an income generating venture to make more money for the loan to be repaid easily.

Good loans should be contracted for business purposes, which in the long term will bring more returns than the interest on the loan. A good loan’s interest is tax allowable but with a bad loan you bear the interest yourself. A good loan should help decrease your tax liability but a bad loan helps increase your tax liability

 A good loan is a loan that someone else pays it for you. You don’t feel the pain, inconvenience and depletion in your cash flow. This means, you hedge the loan contracted, so its repayment becomes pleasurable.

Good loans increase the value of   your assets. If you draw up your assets, you realize the loan has added to its value, if not then it’s a bad loan

Good loans have very moderate and affordable interest rates charged on them. Bad loans have interest rates that are skyrocketing and are unpalatable to contract and are never friendly to repay. Most Ghanaian loans are of this class. The interest rates on loans in Ghana are crazy and unbelievable. No wonder, all the banks, report higher profits year after year. Interestingly, the interest the banks give on our monies that we have deposited with them on savings, etc, is nothing compared with the rates on loans. Risks on loans? They are credible and very honest and less risky business ventures and people in the country, but how many banks in Ghana would grant them loans by using even the 91-day T. Bills rate as interest rate for them?

Good loans bring income home, but bad loans take away the little you have from home and give it to the lender. A good loan taken should be invested to generate some type of income for it to be a profitable loan. Bad loans are taken for purposes, which are not investment-oriented and bring nothing home.

Good loans are free from conditions and covenants that are unfriendly and tied or attached to your personal property, in case of default, you lose everything.

Good loans allow and give opportunity to re-negotiate interest rates downwards; bad loans’ interests’ rates are not negotiable after signing.

Mortgages are loans, they could be good or bad depending on what purpose the mortgage was contracted. Mortgages for personal property are bad loans, but mortgages but for business purposes could be good loans.

In my humble opinion, I would not take a mortgage facility to buy a house for my personal use, no. I know I need a house by a certain age, so I plan for it and build it gradually. If I don’t finish building it before I retire, generations after me will finish it, after all the land, the most valuable property, the land would have been acquired and owned by me or us.

In a mortgage facility it will be difficult to transfer the property to generations after you if you have not finished paying for it even if the land was bought by you.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  I wouldn’t mind taking a mortgage facility to buy a house and rent it out and the rent received should be able to pay the interest on the mortgage, if not then no mortgage for me.

If you take a mortgage facility for a personal property, then you become an employee for the mortgage company, because you would be working very hard for them till you finish paying them.

Good loans bring prosperity and wealth creation. Bad loans drain us financially and bring problems home.

© 2010, Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo

Email:gayeebo@gmail.com

Blog: www.g-xavierayeebo.blogspot.com

FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-ENTREPRENEUR & EMPLOYEE

In the world today, one works as either an employee or an entrepreneur to earn a living. Financial Literacy touches so lovely, attractively and delightfully on the contributions of the entrepreneur and the great contributions of the employee. The two are not the same, so as their rewards.

As has been discussed before, financial literacy affords people the opportunity to learn to be creative, financial literacy greatly promotes entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship is the brainchild of financial literacy.

Financial literacy takes a critical look at the differences between entrepreneurs, who create jobs for themselves, and employees, who work for others and always seek for job security all the time.

Entrepreneurs create a job, whilst employees seek for a job. Entrepreneur takes risks but the employee doesn’t take risks. The entrepreneur’s income could be in the form of portfolio income or passive income but the employee’s income is earned or active income.

The entrepreneur owns the job, but the employee is hired to work, the entrepreneur is the inside investor or shareholder but the employee is mostly not a shareholder, in cases, they are involved they are outsiders investors.

The entrepreneur builds his own assets and has the chance of getting very rich once he/ her succeeds but the employee build assets for somebody else and has little chance of getting richer.

The entrepreneur is greatly a knowledge worker as well a data worker but the employee is mostly a data worker.

The entrepreneur doesn’t seek for job security; they keep on investing in other areas and managing risks, but the employee greatly seeks for job security and doesn’t compromise on it.

That is why some employees would even kill and maim their colleague co-workers to secure their jobs. They don’t take risks, no way. They play politics, they gossip, they pull him/her down ( PHD holders) to occupy certain positions at their work places maybe to get more pay, fame or power but they are answerable to the owner of the business. The entrepreneur owns the company and doesn’t fight with anybody to retain his title and position. He/she can hire and fire appropriately. He/she is not answerable to anybody in taking decisions affecting his/her organization.

The employee relies on a monthly pay cheque to survive life but the entrepreneur doesn’t need a monthly pay cheque at all to enjoy life. In fact, the entrepreneur could live for a long time without pay. The great and successful entrepreneur delays luxury for a later time in order to run his/her business.

The entrepreneur may not necessarily have personal expenses, their organizations could bear all their expenses for them but the employee always has personal expenses, he bears all his/her own expenses.

The entrepreneur has enough time to attend to family matters and other important issues at his/her own will but the employee has to seek for permission to be granted time to be able visit his sick wife/child or her sick husband/mother. In some instances, the employee is refused permission to attend to family matters, even in very urgent ones.

The entrepreneur takes decisions about the company but the employee has little say about the company.

The entrepreneur doesn’t do the same job every day but the employee does a monotonous job all the time, only reassigned once a while. The entrepreneur could sleep and still make some money but if the employee decides to sleep without permission, he/she gets fired to go home without pay, he therefore gets poorer. The employee can only make money when he is working.
The entrepreneur retires or dies and leaves a job for his/her children but the employee retires and goes home without his /her job.

The entrepreneur spends before paying tax, but the employee pays tax before spending.

The entrepreneur plays a leadership role in the organization but the employee plays a managerial role in the organization.

The entrepreneur is visionary and thinks about the long term success of the business but the employee is occupied with the short term well-being of the business.

Life is a choice, you decide what you want and nobody does that for you, not even your parents. You decide to be a follower for the rest of your life or you become a leader to take up great responsibilities with great risks and rewards.

“Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them” said Robert Jarvik

Credit: Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo
Blog: www.g-xavierayeebo.blogspot.com
Email: gayeebo@gmail.com

GODWIN-XAVIER AYEEBO: FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-RETIREMENT PLAN

GODWIN-XAVIER AYEEBO: FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-RETIREMENT PLAN

FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ALL-PASSIVE INCOME

Human beings depend on some form of income to survive life on earth. One type of income is Passive Income that I would share with you today. We looked at Portfolio income sometime ago and we had briefly talked about earned or active income which we said it is income earned from employment, i.e. your monthly salary.

Passive income is one type of income that earns a lot but does not necessarily need your physical strength especially at the revenue earning stage. Initially, a lot of effort would be required but, when the project starts generating revenue; it would not need your effort again. Passive income could be a regular income to you on regular basis without much effort from you.

What then is passive income? Passive income is income derived from royalties, patent rights, copyrights, screen play royalties, royalties from movies, books, television and all other forms of intellectual property rights. Passive income is also income got from real estate, i.e. rent. Internet advertisements on websites/ blogs could also earn you passive income.

Passive income could only be derived if and only when we use our brains to create things and become the originators of those inventions and or discoveries. You are fully entitled to the rights and benefits of an intellectual property if you are the one who invented or discovered it and had legal backing to protect it. 

We have different types of intellectual people: the technical people, the people’s people, the analytical people and the creative people. All these categories could do something that could entitle them to some form of intellectual property rights, but the creative people are the group that get unimaginable passive income from their creativity.

The creative people are mostly writers, actors, artists, artistes or musicians, inventors, comedians, scientists, who invent and have discoveries, entrepreneurs, who invent new products, methods and systems.  The creative people have powerful thinking processes and they use this to create more money for themselves and for generations.    

Passive income is income for these people who use their brains and for that matter their intellectual property to create things and become original owners, thereby getting the license that entitles them to sole proprietorship. Any one, who wants to use their invented/discovered property, must pay to be allowed to do that.  This is a great source of income to people who have undertaken to work on earning much from intellectual property. It is their full time job and all they do is to think and think and come out with something that has never existed and get license to it to be their bonafide property. They could then rent or sell to others who want o make use of the creativity.

All over the world, it is known that we have landlords/ladies and tenants. These two are not the same; the landlords/ladies are like the entrepreneurs or employers but the tenant is like the employee, the tenant pays rent to their landlords/ladies periodically and this is complete passive income enjoyed by the owners. They originally had to spend maybe their earned or portfolio income to put up these structures and turn them into incoming generating ventures, earning them rent.   

Anybody could be a passive income earner, but the creative (C) people who spend much of their time meditating, taking cogent decisions, contemplating deeply and inventing and giving to society what it needs as a necessity and who love doing that are the true intellectual property owners.

Creativity has nothing to do with the level of your classroom education or formal education.

 Thomas Alva Edison, who was the greatest and highest patent rights holder and still has not been beaten had just three months of formal education, but he lacked nothing as far as creativity was concerned.  He had a powerful thinking process and he made sure he had legal backing for his inventions, because there are always thieves in the neighbourhood, who would even try to steal from your mind.

Thomas Edison, I believe, he is the most persistent and persevered person I ever read about. He never gave up till he succeeded.

Robert Kiyosaki wrote “It is the way of thinking that creates assets and once you have that way of thinking you will be richer than you ever dreamed possible.”   

Henry Ford said “Thinking is the hardest work there is. That is why so few people engage in it.”

Henry Ford’s formal educational level was just high school, yet he was able to build an empire of wealth for generations. He was a stubborn powerful thinker and doer. 

In Ghana, there are many people, who are very creative and are really making it even if on a low scale. I want to encourage especially my colleague young guys, who believe that they have the ability to sit down and create things to begin now. They don’t need to look for jobs anywhere. Just begin creating and you would be marvelled the exposure you would get and the money that will follow. Young Ghanaians should begin to write books, they should become internet gurus and go into invention of many things that are marketable to the populace. They will be self-made millionaires soon.

Smart young guys should learn how to acquire assets with their creativity that is they should create something and get passive income from that thing and use the money to buy another thing they desire. Creative people don’t necessarily need to have money before they acquire property. They could create their own intellectual property, get the money from it and use that passive income to acquire that dream house, hospital, hotel, business and all that you can dream of.

The future of the world is in the hands of creative people. They are the people who use the right side of their brains greatly together with the left side minimally.   

© 2010, Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo

Blog: www.g-xavierayeebo.blogspot.com

Email: gayeebo@gmail.com

ERADICATION OF POVERTY IN NORTHERN GHANA

Life in northern Ghana is not easy. Living standards are very low compared to southern Ghana.
Development between the north and south leaves a very big gap that will take radical and drastic measures to bridge it. Formal education got to northern after over hundred years of formal education in the southern Ghana. The gap started there and since has not been bridged. The biggest problem is that the northerners who hail from there, and are well-to-do in the south do not ever want to go back home to help a bit. The northerners should try to build their own houses and I believe that outsiders would help them build nice, beautiful, inviting and tantalizing homes.

If all northerners, who, are doing well in the south or in other countries, should team up and contribute in very various to fight poverty in the north, the supposed poverty will be defeated. The professors, the accountants, the lawyers, the medical officers, the military officers, the customs officers, the sports professionals, the police officers, the prison officers, the fire service officers, the bank officials, the miners, the lecturers, the nurses, the station masters, the loading boys, the drivers and all other northern brothers and sisters, who are doing well in the south could all make the north a better place to live if we all contribute money, share ideas and wage a crusade to eradicate poverty in the north.
We all know very well the problem in northern Ghana; low education, no white collar jobs, high poverty level, low rain fall, bad weather, severe harmattan, the land becoming desolate, no potable drinking water for the people, and very unnecessary conflicts.
However, northern Ghana can boast of sunshine for solar power generation, attractive, natural energetic and beautiful women and handsome men, natural tourism sights, hardworking people, cattle, sheep, goats, fowls, pure vegetables, cereals, vast land for maize, rice, groundnuts, sheabutter, mangoes, guavas, many fruits than in the south, sorghum, malt, millet, cotton, wheat cultivation.
Northern Ghana can therefore become one of the most beautiful places in the world if all stakeholders, put their energies and ideas together for a common cause. Northern Ghana currently needs: modern dams, irrigational facilities, fertilizers being available and subsidized, silos, barns, boreholes, canals, and controlled prices for onions, sheabutter, tomatoes, poultry and other livestock. Solar energy should be tapped for power generation for factory use and for use for many other activities.

There should be financial assistance and grants to farmers without impediments or middlemen.
If it is true that we all want the eradication of poverty in the northern Ghana to become a reality, then:

• Parliamentarians from the north should start now. They should form an association to contribute money and ideas to embark on developmental projects in the north. They can say for instance that, this, month, this year, the next three weeks, the next five years, we all MPs from northern Ghana, we are contributing to construct a northern dam for a particular place, village or town. After this, then they embark on another project. Next time they all come together to construct a canal for a particular place. Their projects could be long or short term projects. As far as democracy prevails in Ghana, there shall continue to be Mps from northern Ghana, so it does not matter who and who are MPs, what matters is that the association should be a non-partisan association.

• Professional accountants from northern Ghana should form their own association and contribute funds to embark on other projects, like, constructing commercial, technical schools, and computer centres etc.

Lawyers from northern Ghana should form an association to embark on other projects, e.g. library complexes, etc.

Medical doctors, judges, lecturers, teachers, nurses, drivers, station masters, and all northerners in southern Ghana should contribute.

Nobody would build the north for us, not even a president from the north.

It’s a collective responsibility

The central government must have a non-partisan long term development policy and plan for northern Ghana. The government should begin to encourage oneness, unity, let the rule of law really work in northern Ghana to forestall the unnecessary conflicts over there among northern brothers and sisters, and to promote peace and unity for development
• Government should build modern hospitals with the state-of- art facilities. Modern schools, primary, JHS, SHS, polytechnics, universities, build tourist attraction places in northern Ghana. I challenge the present and future governments to help turn northern Ghana into an oasis of tourist attraction in the years to come. Only our imaginations limit us to the possibilities and opportunities that exist in northern Ghana. There abound endless opportunities in northern for generations to come.

Others like NGOs, foreign Investors, ADB, NIB, etc. should all assist heavily, meaningfully for the development of northern Ghana.

• The elimination of some cultural practices and the eradication expensive funerals and marriage rites in the north.
• SOURCES OF FUNDING:
• A compulsory fund set up for long term development of the north. I am not talking about a fund that is not backed by law and will be discarded when there is a new government. This fund should be constitutionally recognized and entrenched.

Chiefs in the north should be encouraged to organize their subjects and divisional chiefs to levy their subjects compulsorily every year, some small amount for all grown-up residents in the north. I believe many both men and women could contribute at least GHC 2 during their harvesting period, between November and January each year. The people, who contribute should know the purpose for their contribution and the money should be paid into a bank account that only credible, well meaning people who live among the contributors and have been nominated as members of the management of such a fund, should be allowed to sign for withdrawals and make sure all monies collected have been deposited into the right account.

Government should link up with the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), National Investment Bank (NIB) and foreign investors and encourage them to invest in northern Ghana.

• Laws should be passed to enforce and encourage northerners to contribute towards the development of north.

• Philanthropists should be encouraged to assist develop the north.

On Thursday, 24th September 2009, the Ghanaian Daily Graphic reported that, there was going to be a business fair in Tamale, the northern regional capital, starting from 28th September 2009. I applaud the originators and organizers of this business fair. More of these business fairs and similar ones should be encouraged in the north..

There were worse places elsewhere in the world than the situation in north Ghana, but the natives and the government have been able to turn such places into some of the best places on earth. It can be done in northern Ghana. Let us all contribute our quota to make northern Ghana a blessing for us and a manifestation of God’s wonderful, beautiful creation. God has given us wisdom and has provided everything for us to use to eliminate poverty in the north and make the north a place where life could be freely enjoyed.

I still have wonderful memories of my childhood in the village of Zaago near Bawku.

It was great, we would swim in the village dam, play games, wrestle one another, ride horse and donkeys and many other nostalgic memories.

Long life northern Ghana, Long live Ghana

©2009, Godwin-Xavier Ayeebo,
Blog: www.g-xavierayeebo.blogspot.com
Email: gayeebo@gmail.com