W-H-A-A-T!! ¢500 MILLION DEAL 4 KUMASI RADIO PRESENTERS?

WITH amounts ranging between ¢500million and ¢100 million being dangled before some top radio presenters in Kumasi as enticement fees, two tycoons have plunged the radio industry in Kumasi into the biggest poaching exercise ever to hit the Garden City.
The two men, Mr Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North and Mr Kwaku Oteng, Managing Director of Angel Group of Companies, have purchased Ashh FM and Mett FM respectively and are set to turn them into formidable stations in the coming weeks.
Ashh FM is being rechristened Time Radio while Mett FM becomes Angel Radio.
The enticement fees are so attractive that the presenters involved are said to be seriously rethinking their next moves.
Names that have cropped up include Kwame Adinkra of Fox FM's morning show, Fox Morning Drive. A source disclosed to Graphic Showbiz that he has been offered a whopping ¢500million to move to Angel Radio. Joe Laka of the sports desk of Kessben FM, the source said, has also been offered ¢400million to transfer to Angel Radio.
Other names being bandied about include Tweneboa Kodua, Sampson K. Nyamekye, Nana Asabre and Kwabena Bobie Ansah all of Hello FM, Kwadwo Marfo of Kapital Radio, Otwinoko of Nhyira FM, Eugene Adu Poku and Chief Bekoe a.k.a. Star Boy of Kapital Radio. They are all said to be on the lists of the new moguls. The source said the least enticement fee being offered is ¢100 million.
Some of them contacted by Showbiz declined to comment, one of them only stating that we are still at the talking stage.
Owners of the two new stations however appear determined to change the fortunes of their various acquisitions and build huge broadcast businesses out of them, hence the juicy enticement fees.
Mr Agyapong purchased Ashh FM from Mr Wilson Arthur, the brother of the owner of Skyy Power in Takoradi. Mr Agyapong is said to be making feverish preparations to move his new property from Pankrono Estate to Amakom, near the former Edward Nassar Buscuit Company premises. Mr Oteng has also began putting things together for Angel Radio to be housed at Abrepo junction at the former premises of Radio Mercury.
The source disclosed that some presenters have already tendered in their resignation letters to their former employers and are poised to join the new ones. The source was, however, unable to name the presenters who have resigned.
Kwame Adinkra, for instance, went off-air for the Christmas holidays and has not been heard again since on Fox FM.
It was gathered that he is currently on holidays in South Africa and that one of the new employers facilitated the travel to prevent others from contacting him.
On the part of Joe Laka of Kessben FM, it was gathered that he is keen to leave Kessben FM but the stationÕs management is reluctant to let him go because his contract elapses in about five months time. Laka was poached from Fox FM to Kessben FM about two years ago and sources say he was offered about ¢150million by the management of Kessben as an enticement fee at that time.
News of the emerging moguls and their intent to poach good presenters from existing stations have sent shivers down the spines of some owners of existing stations.
Some of them, it was gathered, have already sent various delegations including chiefs to Mr Kwaku Oteng of Angel Radio to ask him to stay away from their presenters.
Two years ago when Hello FM and Kessben FM joined the radio scene in Kumasi, a similar scenario emerged. At that time, station owners who did not want their presenters to leave increased their incentives for them.
The Managing Director of Fox FM, Mr Francis Poku a.k.a. Afro, for instance, had to pay huge incentives to presenters such as Kwame Adinkra and Sometimer Otuo Acheampong for them to stay on.
Despite that, Fox FM lost presenters such as Ohene Djan and Tweneboa Kodua to Kessben FM and Hello FM respectively.

KMA TO DECONGEST CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT OF KUMASI

Trading activities along the streets and pavements of the Kumasi metropolis is now a brisk business.
Street trade, which hitherto was restricted to only the Central Business District (CBD) of Adum now occur in different parts of the entire metropolis.
Most traders locate themselves at strategic points with heavy human traffic, while others walk from one place to the other.
They locate themselves along main roads and streets especially at intersections where there are traffic lights, near shopping centres and offices or at corners where they can be seen easily by pedestrians and motorists.
The traders settle in streets spontaneously without any official allocation. There are some informal methods used in locating and operating within a particular site, especially on the pavements.
A few traders consult the owners of neighbouring yard, while others negotiate with acquaintances and share with friends and colleagues.
Most street vendors in Kumasi have no authorised sites of operation, which results in incidences of confrontation and brutality between them and city authorities.
The authorities do not want to encourage trading on pavements and streets, especially within the Central Business District (CBD) because of lack of space and the resultant congestion.
Again, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) views vending and hawking on streets as illegal and view vendors as responsible for making the city dirty, obstructing traffic and therefore a public nuisance but has on numerous occasions failed to eject them from the streets as a way of enforcing its by-laws.
Rather, the traders have severally been allocated trading sites outside the CBD and in satellite markets in the metropolis but they have rejected to move there, arguing that they are not accessible to customers.
The traders deal in a number of commodities such as foodstuffs, both fresh and processed, fabrics/clothes, shoes, cosmetics, flowers, hardware, electrical appliances and general merchandise such as office stationary, school supplies, books, sweets, brooms and newspapers among others in different locations of the city.
Those on the pavements use different structures, including tables, racks, wheel barrows and handcarts to display their goods.
Others display their goods on the ground over a mat while others especially those who trade on the streets simply carry their commodities on their hands, heads and shoulders.
There are also those that hang their goods such as clothes on walls, trees, fences and an advanced group that construct temporary shades with stands for displaying their goods.
This type of trade is very common on the road between the Kumasi Club and the High Court building, where a few traders started displaying cloths on the walls along the road but has been joined by more traders in the course of time with the city authorities not doing anything about it, making the area to turn into a large market place.
This manner of expanding street trading has been the order of the day in most areas in the metropolis but surprisingly anytime the KMA have had to initiate a move to eject them from there, the assembly is confronted with the issue of finding an alternative place for them to relocate, forgetting that the KMA did not play any role in settling them on streets.
Some residents have blamed city officials for not having the political will to be firm on ejecting traders from the streets.
They have therefore called on the assembly to be upstanding and always try to nib the canker in the bud at its initial stages the moment an area starts to develop into a market centre, rather than waiting for the area to amass more traders before moving in to eject them.
While the KMA view vending sites as temporary, the vendors view them as permanent and that some confrontations have arisen anytime the assembly initiates a move to sack them from the streets.
Kumasi is notably the commercial hub linking the Northern and Southern parts of Ghana. The largest market, the Kumasi Central Market is located at the heart of the city.
As a result almost every trader wants to trade in the heart of the city resulting in congestion at the city centre since there are a lot of products that account for the prosperity of commercial activities in Kumasi.
Because of the persistent harassment by city authorities for them to leave the streets in the CBD, they have developed a new strategy of moving away from the CBD and not to the satellite markets in the metropolis, rather to the periphery of the CBD, especially on roads leading to the CBD.
Although it has been argued that vending attracts those who have limited opportunities for obtaining formal employment and prestigious business, and also minimises chances of social exclusion and marginalisation, street vending is increasingly becoming an option for many citizens.
It is no longer limited to the lower social groups, especially the underprivileged who carve out a living in an environment full of harassment by city authorities.
It would therefore be better for the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to institute stringent measures to check street trading in order to help avoid possible confrontations with traders in future.
PICTURE SHOWS
The sprawling clothing market on the road in between the Kumasi Club and the High Court in Kumasi

Boost 4 Aquaculture

The Ministry of Fisheries has entered into an agreement with Luye Fisheries in China for assistance in the production of male tilapia fingerlings for distribution to fish farmers in Ghana.
The move is aimed at helping to make high yielding fingerlings always available to fish farmers so as to serve as a boost to aquaculture in the country.
Consequently, the Ministry had allocated the Aquaculture Adaptive Trials Centre at Nkawie in the Atwima District of Ashanti to be used as a pilot station for the development of what they termed, the Super Male Tilapia in the country.
Mrs Gladys Asmah, Minister of Fisheries, on Wednesday, led a team from Luye Fisheries in China to inspect the Aquaculture Adaptive Trials Centre at Nkawie to enable them have first hand information before the project commences.pictture shows-Mrs Asmah (in cap) conducting the Chinese team round the Aquaculture Adaptive Trials Centre at Nkawie.
The male tilapia is noted for growing faster than the female and that it could attain the weight of about 750 grammes within seven months, for harvesting. Hence it is profitable to use male fingerlings instead of female fingerlings in fishfarming.
Mrs Asmah stressed that the government was determined to ensure that aquaculture developed in the Ghana to make the country a major exporter of fish in Africa.
Luye Fisheries in China is one of the biggest tilipia producing companies in the world and was noted for growing the super male tilapia, producing about one billion fingerlings each year for distribution to fishfarmers across China.
Mrs Asmah said aquaculture development in the country was a priority of the Ministry of Fisheries and that having a proper fish seed could help make the country achieve its aim of becoming a major exporter of fish.
She said the tilapia in China originated from Ghana and that after the creation of the Ministry of Fisheries, the Chinese Embassy in Ghana was contacted to assist in the development of an aquaculture base in Ghana for export.
She said as a result, an arrangement was made for some officials from the Ministry including herself to visit China to have first hand information.
She said Luye had pledged to assist Ghana to export about 400,000 metric tonnes of tilapia each year and that with the commencement of the pilot project, the Chinese would teach Ghanaians the technology of producing the super male fingerlings.
The Minister said having just one point of fingerlings production was not enough and added that the project was expected to be extended to other parts of the country.
The leader of the Chinese team, Mr Chen Jianhua, who is from the China National Fisheries Corporation said the climate in Ghana was suitable for tilapia production and noted that there was plenty water bodies in the country suitable for tilapia production.
He said Luye would assist the government to promote aquaculture in the country to help make Ghana a major exporter of tilapia in Africa.
PICTURE SHOWS
Mrs Asmah (in cap) conducting the Chinese team round the Aquaculture Adaptive Trials Centre at Nkawie.