The maths is not mathing

Chale, how much is maize in your area?

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Chale News
October 11, 2024

Today is fantastic dynamic Friday! As usual, we bring you fantastic, dynamic news!

So what happened today?

  • Economic: Agric Minister says "nah" to food inflation stats, claiming GSS might be living in a different Ghana than the one he's tracking daily.

  • General News: A driver’s mate's first day on the job becomes his last after a crash in Accra.

  • Politics: The presidential hopeful of Yellow Ghana, isn't taking his disqualification lying down—he’s suing the EC to get back in the 2024 race!

  • National: Ghana is dropping 5G like it’s hot on November 1st.

  • Fact of the Day: 1 in 18 people have three nipples.

  • Business: Ghana’s pensioners are saying, “Dear government, you can’t keep chopping our cash and leave us with just vibes in retirement!”

  • Politics: EC adds 4K+ polling stations for 2024 – and we’re all just here like, “More stations, less stress!”

  • National: The TUC hit pause on their galamsey strike, saying it’s a strategic timeout, not a sellout.

  • Politics: The EC’s got the ballot printers on pause for the 2024 ballots.

QUICK BYTE

  • The Agric Minister is basically your friend who always knows where the best food deals are in town. But this time, someone told him that prices were high, and he was like, “Wait, what? Not where I shop!” GSS came out with stats that said food prices were rising faster than your heart rate during an e-maths exam, but Bryan was like, “Bro, where did you get your data from?” Want the deets in full? Check out the Deep Dive section.

  • You know how they say some days just don’t go as planned? Well, for a driver’s mate in Accra, his first day on the job tragically turned into his last. In a wild series of accidents on Wednesday, two trucks transporting soft drinks and bananas flipped over, leaving one dead and three injured. And while firefighters were trying to keep things from blowing up, some bystanders had a different mission—swooping in for free drinks. Apparently, when the truck transporting soft drinks swerved to avoid a pickup at Anyaa Last Stop, it tipped over. Get the 411 in the Deep Dive section below

  • Samuel Apea-Danquah, the flagbearer of Yellow Ghana, is feeling the heat after getting disqualified from the presidential race. Now, most people might have taken that as game over, but not Apea-Danquah. He’s suing the EC, asking the court to hit rewind on that disqualification decision and give him his rightful place on the ballot. And, oh boy, this isn't the first time the EC has been called out like this. Apea-Danquah is joining a growing list of disqualified candidates who are taking their frustrations to the courtrooms. Read more

  • Well, come November 1st, Ghana is cutting all that slow internet wahala out and going full-on speed mode with 5G! Our very own Ursula Owusu-Ekuful confirmed that we’re about to see speeds 10 times faster than 4G! I mean, at this point, buffering is just a myth. Now, before you ask if you’ll need to sell your kidney to afford this, don’t stress. The government has partnered with seven major players to make this affordable for everyone. Read more

FACT OF THE DAY

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So about 1 in 18 peeps have a third nipple. It’s called polythelia, and it happens when some genes decide to throw a little mutation party.

  • So, you might’ve heard some rumors about ballots for Election 2024 getting printed already, but nah, the EC’s like, “Chill, not yet.” In fact, they’ve only just started printing the Notices of Poll (basically, the election’s ‘coming soon’ posters). Actual ballot paper printing? That’s still in the drafts, and they’re not hitting ‘print’ until all the stats get shared with candidates and parties. Read more

  • A group of pensioners holding Ghana’s Eurobonds are in their feelings—big time. After hearing Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam say international bondholders just forgave $5 billion of Ghana’s debt, the old folks are like, “Hold up, what about us?!” They’re out here struggling with the reality of a 37% chop (aka ‘haircut’), lower interest rates, and bond maturity dates that are basically a marathon away. These pensioners aren’t playing though—they’ve been hitting up the Finance Ministry for months but haven’t gotten even a ‘Hi, we’ve seen your letter’ text back. Now, they’ve gone full media mode to get the government to listen. Read more

  • The EC has decided that 40,975 polling stations is the magic number for this year’s general elections, adding more than 4,000 extra polling spots compared to 2020. It’s like they looked at the old election day chaos and said, “We need more chill zones!” So here we are, getting blessed with more voting stations than ever before. This means fewer lines, less sweating in the sun. Read more

  • If you were hyped for that big strike on galamsey, I hate to break it to you—it’s on ice for now. Yup, just a day before Organised Labour was set to hit the streets and demand action against illegal mining, they hit the brakes. Cue the disappointed groans. But here’s the thing: TUC Chairman Bernard Owusu says it’s not what you think. No one’s backing down—it's just that the government threw them a bone, and they’re taking a second to see if it’s legit. Read more

DEEP DIVE

Food Prices Drama!

While GSS paints a bleak picture of rising inflation, Acheampong insists that except for maize, prices for all your faves—tomatoes, plantain, and onions—are on a major price drop tour.

Bryan basically said he’s out here tracking prices every single day, like he’s got a subscription to a "Farmers’ Only" price service. He’s got his eye on 22 different commodities, and according to him, tomatoes are out here living their best life with a 30% price drop. Plantain? A cool 27% off. But maize? Yeah, maize is doing the most and being a little extra with its price hikes. Everything else, according to him, is chillin'.

He hit us with the “I don’t know where they got their data from” line, which is basically the grown-up version of “That’s cap.” He says while GSS is comparing last year’s September prices to this year’s, he’s out here telling us that prices since January have actually been sliding down smoother than a muddy slope.

So now, we’re left wondering: are we living in two different Ghanas? Because Bryan swears his market runs tell a different story than the one GSS is out here narrating. At this point, we’re just waiting for GSS to hit back with their own receipts. Read more

Accra’s Wild Wednesday!

So, Wednesday started off like any other day on the roads of Accra, but things took a sharp turn when a driver’s mate, who was on his first day at work, tragically lost his life in a crash.

What happened was a truck carrying soft drinks from Agyen Kotoku to Tarkwa was doing its thing, cruising down the road. But then, out of nowhere, a pickup decided to pull a risky move and crossed the truck's path at Anyaa Last Stop. The driver, in a heroic attempt to avoid a collision, swerved, but in the process, the truck went tumbling over.

While the mate lay trapped and emergency services were scrambling to prevent an explosion, some of the locals clearly thought it was Black Friday. Instead of helping out, they rushed to snatch soft drinks like it was a flash sale. Firefighters were there trying to stop the truck from overheating, and the crowd? Oh, they were more worried about getting their hands on some free Fanta than saving lives.

Now, fast forward to the second accident on the same wild Wednesday. This time, it was a truck hauling bananas on the Ofankor-Achimota stretch. Just like in an action movie, the truck overturned, blocking the main road and leaving three people injured. The driver, his mate, and a female passenger were all rushed to the hospital. No word yet on how many bananas survived, but that’s a tale for another day.

So, what caused the second accident? We’re all still waiting for the official word, but it’s safe to say Wednesday was not the best day to be a truck on Accra’s roads. Read more

NEWS SOURCES

Today’s stories are curated from: