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Ghana’s E-Cedi: What You Need To Know About Ghana’s Digital Currency (E-CEDI)

By Paa Kwesi Eshun

The Bank of Ghana (BOG) will pilot the digital Cedi currency also known as the E-CEDI this month.

This was announced by the First Deputy Governor, Dr. Maxwell Opoku Afare, when he addressed the media on Monday, July 12, 2021.

In June 2021, the governor of the BOG, Dr. Ernest Addison, disclosed that the digital currency (E-Cedi) is in the advanced stages and will go through three phases – design, implementation, and piloting – before it goes into circulation.

The design phase, which involves the design of the digital money, is completed. The Central Bank is moving to the implementation and the piloting stage where a few people would be able to use the digital cedi on their mobile applications and other apps that are currently running.

Ghana’s Central Bank partnered with a U.S. company called EMTECH, a fintech startup dedicated to central banks for a digital transformation journey that will establish a template that other regulators and stakeholders can embrace for a robust banking sector. The partnership will leverage EMTECH’s software to test innovative solutions, including blockchain. The approach will bring on board new products and services as well as bridge the gap between the banked and unbanked.

The project is also designed to speed up the time to market for the Bank of Ghana’s CBDC.

What is a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)?

The Central bank’s digital currency is the digital form of a country’s fiat currency.  The BOG will issue electronic tokens whose value will be backed by the full faith and credit of the government and will replace the minting coins or the paper notes.

The supply of the digital currency will be wholly determined and controlled by the central government.

Can Ghanaians use the E-Cedi in other countries?

Dr. Maxwell Opoku Afare says that as part of the preparations for the launch of the digital currency, there would be coordination between the Bank of Ghana and other central banks across the world, to enable Ghanaians to use e-cedi for international transactions as well.

Is the E-Cedi Volatile?

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are characterised by a number of factors, including a lack of proper central bank regulation, that leads to its volatility. 

Click here to continue reading  

Recent fact-checks 

• Unpacking GIPC’s Claims on Ghana’s Performance in Foreign Direct Investments for 2019 and 2020

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mr Yofi Grant, at the official launch of its investment summit dubbed “Spark Up” on August 3, 2021, made some false claims regarding the country’s foreign direct investments in 2019 and 202.

He said that Ghana is the second country in Africa, following Egypt, to receive the highest foreign direct investment in 2020. He also claimed Ghana recorded 2.7 billion in FDI in 2020, and that the country recorded 1.9 billion in 2019. All of these were found to be false. 

• Does water from Bongo have special sex-drive-stimulating properties

The District Chief Executive of Bongo District, Peter Ayinibisa, claimed that the water his constituents drink makes them very fertile and sexually active, the reason for the high rise of teenage pregnancy in Bongo. However,  we found no evidence to back up this claim. The water being drunk in Bongo has not been tested for aphrodisiac-inducing minerals or chemicals. 

• Misleading claim about Ghanaians being ranked among top visitors of Pornhub

According to a number of local news portals, Ghana is among the top visitors of pornhub.com, a pornography website. Yet, this claim is not only false but also misleading as the chart on which the claim is premised only refers to visitors of just one category of videos on the websites.

More Fact-Checks Here

1. Is Ghana’s “198 years old” Amodzie the oldest woman in the world?
2. The “Kissing Priest”, Anglican Church Celibacy Rule and Matters Arising
3. False: Rent Control Department Office not locked by landlord for rent arrears
4. False! Burnt laptop is not that of yet-to-be distributed “teachers’ laptops”
5. Viral photo purported to be a destroyed asphalt road in Ghana, false
6. False: Sticking garlic into your nostrils will not unclog sinuses
7. Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme: Its introduction and implementation process
8. Photo of newborn babies sleeping on plastic chairs not from Ghana
9. Fact-checking Dr Sean Brooks’ viral vaccine video
10. Nestle-Ghana and Melcom are not giving out cash or prizes to random customers after filling a survey. It is a scam!!!

Explainers and Media Literacy Articles 

1. Delivery tracker and Green Book: Here is what you need to know
2. Pegasus: All you need to know about spyware that could erode your phone privacy despite encryption
3. English language speakers have a higher tendency of spreading Covid-19 – Research
4. Gifting or dumping? Germany’s gift of 1.5 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to Ghana
5. New Delta Variant of COVID-19: Facts, Symptoms and What We Know so Far

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Claim: Viral TikTok post suggests that sticking garlic into the nose unclogs sinuses.

There is no scientific evidence that garlic can be used to unclog sinuses. Health experts say that sticking garlic cloves or anything up the nose blocks the mucus flow and causes irritations that may result in the buildup of mucus, which explains the outcomes seen in the video.

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A Tik Tok user with over 4,000 followers, Rozaline Katherine, who is a personal trainer, has claimed in a video that sticking up garlic in one’s nose can relieve one from clogged sinuses.

In the video, it is seen that in each nose, she inserts one clove of garlic. She then urged viewers to leave the garlic for 10-15 minutes in each nose. She later claimed that after removing the cloves from her nose what comes out after is a stream of mucus that shows that garlic presumably has unclogged her sinus.

The video has amassed over 4 million views, 5,000 likes, 8,680 comments with 47,000 shares across other social media platforms including YouTube.

Many TikTok users have jumped on the bandwagon, confirming that the health hack works.

Verification

What are sinuses?

Sinuses are air-filled chambers located in the bones of the face.

A non-profit multi-specialty academic medical centre that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education, Cleveland Clinic describes it in detail.

It explains that sinuses are four paired chambers in the head. They are connected by narrow channels. The sinuses make thin mucus that drains out of the channels of the nose. This drainage helps keep the nose clean and free of bacteria.

According to the Harvard Health Medical School, if you have ever had a cold that just would not go away, chances are it was sinusitis.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine defines sinusitis as an inflammation of the tissue lining of one’s sinuses, and it is usually due to an infection or allergy. This swelling causes that unpleasant sensation of sinus pressure. And when your nose is swollen or stuffed up, it can block the sinuses from draining mucus properly, causing even more congestion and pain.

Normally filled with air, when your sinuses become sore, the mucus gets thick and sticky leading to your sinuses getting blocked and filled with fluid preventing it from flowing out of your nose through the tiny openings called Ostia.

But can your sinuses, blocked with sticky and thick mucus, be clogged with garlic?

What are experts saying about garlic use to unclog sinuses?

Dubawa spoke to Dr Kofi Agyeman, an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist at the Jubail Specialist Center who clarified that blocked noses can be caused by different things, all requiring their own kind of treatment. Pertaining to the issue of sticking peeled garlic into the nostril, Dr Agyeman stated that:

“The runny nose people get from using garlic is likely from stimulation of the trigeminal nerve (same thing an onion does) and not from unblocking the sinus as they think.”

He added that people should be cautious as sticking garlic into their noses could be dangerous.

“I will discourage the practice because it assumes you can treat everything the same way (everyone’s blocked nose is not from the same cause).  Also, it is dangerous because you can accidentally inhale the garlic, resulting in it getting into your lungs and windpipe,” Dr Agyeman said. 

Dr Richard Wender, the Chairperson of Family Medicine and Community Health at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said the claim is not scientifically proven.

His reaction to the claim was captured in an explanatory report on Insider Intelligence, a leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation.

“Shoving garlic cloves up your nose can actually have the reverse effect, it might irritate your nostrils and make them less effective,” he said.

He added that “the results may be due to the garlic generating excess mucus that wasn’t there before, as the nose produces mucus when it is irritated. And that sticking cloves up the nose blocks the mucus flow for a bit, which is why it all comes pouring out after.”

Similarly, a Medical Doctor and Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Katie Phillips, is quoted to have debunked the claim, explaining that garlic itself will not help clear up your sinuses, but instead, it will obstruct them.  

“People feel like they’re not getting enough air through their nose, or they’re having a lot of drips down the back of their throat or the front of their nose, and garlic itself is not going to exactly help with that nasal congestion. Instead of clearing your sinuses; you’re obstructing them,” Dr Phillips told Health.com.

Like Wender, she said the reason why mucus runs down your nose after blocking it with garlic or any object is that you produce excess mucus in your sinuses, so when it is blocked and removed after some time, it automatically comes out.

“If you’re blocking the ability of the sinuses to drain, you’re going to get a backup of mucus. Once the obstruction is removed and, in this instance, a pair of garlic cloves, automatically that “goo” is going to come out,” she added.

Also, Dr Deborah Lee from the Dr Fox Pharmacy says stuffing objects including garlic in your nose can lead to several consequences which include the blockage of one’s windpipe.

“I think, as usual, this is people taking some basic health information and going too far. Yes, it’s true that garlic has some antibacterial properties, which means it may be useful to treat a variety of common ailments. In one study, those who took garlic supplements for three months had fewer colds than those who did not. But this is not the same as actively treating a stuffy nose or blocked sinuses. Garlic is not a decongestant, and in fact, may just irritate the lining of the nose and airways and make symptoms worse.

“It’s never a good idea to stick objects up your nose. There is the potential for these to get lodged in the back of the throat, or even obstruct the windpipe, which could be very serious,” she said.

Medical Doctor Anthony Youn from America’s Holistic Plastic Surgeon in a reaction video on Tik Tok also debunked the claim. According to him, garlic cloves irritate your nasal lining, thus causing your nose to be runny, which is very dangerous. He advised against sticking anything, except the finger, in one’s nose.

Conclusion

Despite the numerous health benefits garlic possesses, it is not scientifically proven that it can clear up sinuses. Instead, sticking garlic cloves up the nose causes irritation which leads to the buildup and subsequent release of large quantities of mucus. Also, obstructing the nostril with anything can block the mucus flow, which is why it all comes pouring out after.

This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up roles in the profession the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking. 

Germany in March 2021 suspended the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, owing to incidents of blood clotting in people below age 60. This decision came about after the country’s medicine regulator, The Paul Ehrlich Institute, found 31 cases of a rare type of blood clot in people vaccinated with the vaccine.

Fast forward to August 2021, five months after this suspension, the German government is set to give the Ghanaian government 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

This, according to the Director of Communication at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, is as a result of discussions between The President, Akufo-Addo and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, following Germany’s offer to Africa of up to 70 million COVID-19 vaccine  doses.

Does Germany’s suspension of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have any play in their release of 70 million doses to Africa, of which 1.5 million is coming to Ghana?

Well, some social media users seem to think so.

Following the announcement of Ghana’s gift of 1.5 million doses of the vaccine, some social media users have questioned the intent behind the gesture with posts like the one below being seen online. 

A March 12, 2021 report by Aljazeera has listed countries that have stopped using the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, listing Germany among the countries cited. The report, which states that over a dozen countries, mostly located in Europe, have held-off the use of the vaccine in states that Germany did the same as a precautionary measure while investigations were carried out of the cases involving the blood clots.

In May, 2021, however, Germany opened up AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for all adults. This was after the suspension, which disallowed adults below 60-years from taking the shots, was lifted, indicating its safety for use. This decision was arrived at between the German federal and state officials as they concluded that the shot had far higher benefits than risks.

WHO’s take on Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine

The World Health Organisation has issued interim recommendations for the use of the vaccine with directives for use by health workers at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus and older people, including those aged 65 and above. 

In the guidance document, updated July 30, 2021, this vaccine is intended for use by people 18 years and above, regardless of a very rare  syndrome of blood clotting combined with low platelet counts with the majority of such cases having been recorded in the United Kingdom and The European Union countries.

In general, the WHO considers the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine safe for use after it underwent SAGE consideration and the European Medicines Agency review. 

Claim: A Twitter User by name Mahama2024 says the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS) was started by Late President Rawlings and the NDC

The NHIS was introduced by the Late former President, Jerry John Rawlings

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The Ghanaian political system is faced with the ‘who started what’ syndrome where political parties play blame games and tease one another with achievements during their tenure. 

One such accomplishment to come under the radar is the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

On February 2, 2016, the National Women Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Anita De-Soso, stated that the ‘National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is not the brainchild of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). She said that the idea was conceived by the Catholic Church, and the late former President Jerry John Rawlings decided to pilot the concept in Dodowa and northern parts of Ghana.

A year later, the current speaker of parliament and then Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli North constituency in the Upper West region, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, claimed during a discussion on Accra-based Class FM on June 8, 2017 that the NHIS was introduced by Late President Jerry John Rawlings. 

Fast forward to 2021, what seemed to be a revelation some four years ago has been raised by Mahama2024, a Twitter user who also shares the same claim.

This claim has been retweeted by several users. One other user had the caption:

“Assuming power they tried stealing it for themselves by running it as a mutual (district-based) scheme instead of the ‘national’ as proposed and piloted by the NDC.

The Mills/Mahama government reverted it to the ‘National Health insurance scheme’.

Shameless elephants.”

Verification

What was the norm before the introduction of NHIS?

According to a working paper titled Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme in the Context of the Health MDGs – An Empirical Evaluation Using Propensity Score Matching, Ghanaian citizens enjoyed free medical services after independence in 1957 but economic and health infrastructural challenges in the early 1980s led to the introduction of a ‘cash and carry’ system as part of conditions of the Structural Adjustment programme, also referred to as the user fee policy, the ‘cash and carry’ system meant that patients or clients had to make direct payment at health facilities when they accessed health care.

Attempts were made during the period to introduce some form of health insurance to address some of the challenges of the ‘cash and carry’ system. For instance, according to research by Terence Darko in 1999, the government of Ghana, in partnership with the Ghana Health Care Company, piloted a tax-funded health insurance scheme with the aim of using revenue from taxes to pay for medical bills but not a single person was registered.

Other health insurance schemes without state backing, however, operated successfully. This included NGO-initiated community-based health insurance schemes (CBHIS), implemented by different actors including the St Theresa’s Catholic Mission Hospital at Nkoranza, the bilateral donors DANIDA (the Danish International Development Agency), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), faith-based organisations, and other NGOs were said to be working successfully.

When was the NHIS Act passed?

The Parliament of Ghana passed the National Health Insurance Act in 2003 to outline plans for a healthcare system that would provide universal coverage to all Ghanaians and bring an end to the ‘cash and carry’ system.

The scheme was passed into law during the John Kufuor administration to secure financial risk protection against the cost of healthcare services for all in Ghana.

Currently, a new law, Act 852 has replaced Act  650 which was passed in 2003 to consolidate the NHIS, remove administrative bottlenecks, introduce transparency, reduce opportunities for corruption and gaming of the system, and make for more effective governance of the schemes.

When was the scheme introduced?

According to a research titled Kwame Nkrumah, vision and tragedy, the scheme, inaugurated in 2003, is the successor to the attempt by Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, to provide free universal healthcare [Until the enactment of the new NHIS Act, 2012 (Act 852) that established the NHIA, the scheme operated semi-autonomously district-wide (public) mutual health insurance schemes (DMHIS)]. 

Which government implemented the scheme?

According to a Capacity Development Consult (CDC) research findings, when the NPP government assumed power in 2001, they had no clear road map on the structure and funding of the health insurance policy in their election manifesto and therefore provided a broad range of healthcare services to Ghanaians through district mutual and private health insurance schemes. 

A Ministerial Task Force, upon inauguration by the government in the first quarter of 2001, advised the Ministry of Health (MoH) on the development of a national health insurance scheme, and how the ministry will regulate and mobilize extra resources to support the scheme. 

The Task Force later presented the draft policy to the government for further stakeholder consultations at both national and local government levels. After reviewing the concerns and proposals raised in various stakeholder consultation forums, the Task Force updated the zero draft.

According to a research titled politics of accountability in Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme, conducted by Capacity Development Consult(CDC) in June 2016, the proposal proved contentious, as did other aspects of the basic structures of the scheme. Nonetheless, by the last quarter of 2003, the NHIS Act (Act 650) was passed into law. 

Jennifer Singleton’s research paper titled Negotiating Change: An Analysis of the Origins of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Act indicates the NHIS implementation began in 2004 before the presidential and parliamentary elections that same year. 

Another research work titled ‘The state of enrollment on the National Health Insurance Scheme in rural Ghana after eight years of implementation’ conducted by the International journal for equity in health on December 31 2019 states that, before the implementation process began, the Kuffour government piloted what they termed as the District and Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (DMHIS) across all Districts in the ten regions.  

The second phase of implementation according to Terence Darko’s research findings states that the NDC upon winning the 2008 elections set up a legislative process by the NHIA that culminated in the review of Act 650, which was duly superseded by Act 852 in 2012.

Another research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit reveals that the NHIS is also funded through individual annual premium payments; a value-added tax (VAT) levy contribution from those in the formal sector. 

New additions onto the NHIS

The National Health Insurance Scheme currently covers over 546 medicines from all district and regional hospitals across the country. The Authority has a total of 166 district offices & five registration centres. These centres report to the Membership and Regional Operations Directorate through the regional offices and are headed by managers. Registration of members and renewal of membership of the scheme is done at the district offices.

The Authority has also introduced new Biometric Cards which contain basic biographic information as well as biometric data of the subscriber. The card is valid for five years subject to yearly membership renewals. The card is now more electronic than physical due to the biometric nature of the data which is embedded in the memory of the card.

The benefits package includes outpatient and inpatient services and review, eye care, emergencies, oral health, and maternity care.

With the introduction of digitization and technology, subscribers can renew their membership using shortcodes on all telecommunication networks.

Conclusion

By the findings above, Dubawa concluded that the NHIS was introduced by late President Jerry John Rawlings of the NDC, but implemented by the NPP government led by former President John Agyekum Kuffour.

Claim: District Chief Executive of the Bongo District, Peter Ayinbisa, claims the water his constituents drink makes them more fertile and sexually active, a reason for the astronomical surge in teenage pregnancy cases in the area.

False. The water being drunk in Bongo has not been put under any tests to see if it contains any particular aphrodisiac-inducing minerals or chemicals. 

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It is possibly unlikely for anyone to think that the water they drink can whet or inflame their appetite for sex. However, a story published by myjoyonline.com and mynewsgh.com reports the District Chief Executive of the Bongo District in Ghana’s Upper East Region, Peter Ayinbisa, attributing the high teenage pregnancy rate in the Bongo area to the community’s libido-boosting drinking water. Ayinbisa said his source of information was a nurse whose name he did not disclose. 

“The water we drink makes us highly potent and makes us, the men, sexually active,” he is reported to have said.

He added that the water does “wonders” to the men and women in the district, thereby leading to an increase in teenage pregnancies; although he admits he has not independently verified the truth of the matter.

“Somebody told me [the] story that the water we drink makes us [men] sexually active and makes the women highly potent. I don’t know the science of it but a female nurse told me it’s true,” he told Bolgatanga-based Dreamz FM.

The audio, together with the publications, has since received viral and distinct reactions. A Facebook post by this user.

Verification

Water and Sexual drive

A number of studies have linked the intake of water to the effectiveness of one’s sex life. As the MedicalNewsToday puts it, “a person’s hydration levels can affect their erectile function.” It adds that dehydration can cause poor blood flow in the body, including an improper function of the male reproductive organ.

Similarly, the American Academy of Family Physicians found that depression and anxiety, which are all closely linked to lower water intake, affects sexual performance. A regular intake of about 8 to 12 glasses of water daily is therefore recommended in order to enhance one’s sexual drive and stimulation.

A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2011 also found that young people may suffer from poor sex life due to problems with their cognitive performance and mood, as a result of dehydration. 

Does the Bongo drinking water contain libido-boosting chemicals?

Residents of Bongo and its environs drink from mechanised boreholes, the District Chief Executive, Peter Ayinbisa, told Dubawa.

He said the boreholes, after being drilled, are inspected and tested by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to ensure the safety of the water for human consumption and use. The GWCL confirmed this as true.

“They don’t drink water from the taps, they get water from mechanised boreholes. We are trying to connect Bongo to our water distribution system…A new treatment plant has been built in the area and is completed. It will soon be commissioned by President Nana Akufo-Addo,” Stanley Martey, the Communications Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited, told Dubawa.

The GWCL also says it has identified harmful chemicals in the Bongo water. The chemicals negatively affect the growth of people, but do not enhance sex drive or potency as the DCE claimed.

According to Stanley Martey, the Communications Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited, “that’s how come we know [the water] contains fluoride which is not too good for their teeth.”

Fluoride can also affect the bones, and lead to improper functioning of the brain of adults, with children at higher risk, as well as other health problems including skin problems.

“The Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) has also improvised something that takes the fluoride out but we [GWCL] can’t confirm or deny the DCE’s claim since we don’t have any scientific bases for that,” Martey added.

Mr Martey, however, acknowledged that water, in general, has its own properties and is good for the growth of the human body, yet, cannot single out the sex potency aspect [as is being projected by the DCE].

Are there contrary views?

A Medical Anthropologist and Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof. Kojo Sena, has described the claim as unfounded and lacking merit. He indicated that drinking any ‘natural’ water cannot trigger one’s sex drive or potency.

“I read the news on social media yesterday and laughed. Though I’m not a medical doctor, I know there is no connection between water and people’s sex drive,” he said. “If the elders and authorities in Bongo cannot control the menace (teenage pregnancy), they shouldn’t blame it on water.”

A medical doctor who doubles as the Chief Executive Officer of Tantra Community Clinic, Dr Senyo Misroame, has equally underscored that water can only cause a metabolic change in individuals when polluted with chemicals or organic substances.

“Water is supposed to be tasteless, odourless and without any chemical elements. If water is polluted by some chemicals or organic agents, it doesn’t become water in its natural sense; they can cause a metabolic change in bodies,” he told Dubawa.

“You don’t expect water in its natural sense to cause any change in body physiology. It will be difficult for me as a scientist to believe what the [Bongo DCE] said until we put some scientific test into it,” he added.

Meanwhile, the DCE, Peter Ayinbisa, has admitted to Dubawa that he has no research or information to support what he said.

“It is not a fact; a nurse told me. We all know there are obvious causes of teenage pregnancy [but] the kind of water people drink can’t be one,” he said in an interview with Dubawa.

“I was just citing an example to raise the ego [or attention] of our listeners. I never said I had done research or study on it,” he said.

However, he stressed that there is no traditional belief that drinking the water in Bongo leads to pregnancy. 

Conclusion

There is no evidence to support the claim that the water being consumed in Bongo is extraordinary in its sexual enhancing and potency enhancing abilities. 

This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up roles in the profession the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking. 

Ghana is among the top visitors of pornography website, pornhub.com, according to local media reports.

The chart that is being circulated to back the claim does not entirely represent the top visitors of the website.

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Several online portals have published a story saying that Ghana is one of the top visitors of pornhub.com, a popular pornography website.

Websites that have published the said story include modernghana.com, ashesgyamera.com, thepostghana.com and headquartersgh.blogspot.com

They use a chart released by the pornography website as the basis for the story.

Verification

The chart used in the stories can indeed be found on the Pornhub website. 

It was published on March 8, 2019, in a post titled “Big Beautiful Women.”

However, as indicated on the chart, it only reflects the search that is made for a particular kind of content on the website. It is this category of content that has been classified as ‘Big Beautiful Women.’

Big Beautiful Women (BBW) is just one of the numerous categories of pornography that is available on the website.

“Worldwide, the popularity of BBW searches (as a proportion of all searches) decreased slightly over the last 2 years. That’s not to say that Big Beautiful Women aren’t as popular as ever, but as Pornhub’s traffic has grown in certain parts of the world, other genres make up a larger portion of total searches (for example, Hentai’s popularity in Japan),” part of the report on BBW searches on the website says.

Which countries are leading by traffic to the website?

Unlike the website’s 2019 report, in Pornhub’s 2020 Tech Review, the report about Ghana did not categorically mention the countries that were leading in traffic.

However, it can be deduced from the electronic devices that were used in accessing the website and the countries from which those devices were used. 

The countries captured in the ‘traffic by device’ chart of 2020 are very similar to the top 20 countries by traffic in the 2019 review report of the pornography website.

It may be interesting to note that the only country in Africa that has made it to the group of top visitors to pornhub, in recent times, is South Africa.

South Africa was captured in the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Review Report of Pornhub as among its top 20 countries by traffic.

Conclusion

Ghana has not been ranked among the top visitors of pornography website, Pornhub. The chart that is being used to back this claim only refers to visitors to just one category of videos on the website.

This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up roles in the profession the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking. 

A video of a man claiming, among other things, that recipients of the COVID-19 jab will die within five years has gone viral.

The man, who identifies himself as Dr Sean Brooks, said that recipients of the vaccine will die because of a dramatic decrease in their immune system, antibody-dependent enhancement, and blood clotting.  

He made the claim at the Talawanda School District Board meeting on August 16, 2021, at a discussion of COVID-19 protocols.

The meeting was streamed on YouTube and can be found here.

Since its publishing on August 21, 2021, the 4minute video has recorded over 241,000 views with over 1,000 comments.

Who is Dr. Sean Brooks?

Dubawa ran an online search to help establish the identity of the man as he said he had “48 publications including 23 books” and had “studied health medicine, anatomy and physiology for approximately 21 years.”

Insufficient information was found about him, thus raising questions about his expertise to make such claims.

On Amazon, we found several books published by a certain Sean M. Brooks. They were all education-related. 

Further, a 2018 research project written by one Sean M. Brooks of Walden University was unearthed in our search. It was titled “Urban High School Educators; Perceptions of Pre-Service and In-Service Conflict Resolution and Violence Prevention Education.”

The search also brought up one Sean M. Brooks who operates American Education FM on toppodcast.com

Sean M Brooks of American Education FM was a guest on The Alex Jones Show. 

From minute 3:38, the host made reference to the viral video and gave Sean M. Brooks an opportunity to express his concerns further.

A video published on Bitchute.com in March 2020, featured the same Sean M. Brooks who appeared on the Alex Jones Show.

In that video, he is introduced (28:47) as having obtained his bachelor’s degree in Education from Miami University in Ohio, and a master’s degree and PhD from Walden University. Miami University is located in Oxford, Ohio, United States of America.

We delve into the claims made by Brooks.

Claim 1: “The people who have taken it [COVID-19 vaccines] are going to die in the next six months to two to three years to five years,” Dr Brooks said at the meeting.

No mass deaths have been recorded even after several months of vaccinations globally. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control say the vaccines are safe for use.

Several countries including the United States of America, England and Italy have been vaccinating their population since December 2020. The US, for instance, has administered a total of 361,192,198 vaccine doses as of August 20, 2021, according to WHO.

In Africa, South Africa started their vaccination programme in February 2021, with Ghana commencing in March 2021. Figures from the WHO also indicate that a total of 9,962,111 vaccine doses have been administered in South Africa as of 23rd August 2021.

In these countries where vaccinations have been ongoing for close to a year, there have been no reports of mass deaths nor disturbing complications.

The Centre for Disease Control insists that the vaccines are safe for use.  In a report last updated on August 23, 2021, CDC said that reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination were rare.

“More than 363 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through August 23, 2021. During this time, VAERS received 6,968 reports of death (0.0019%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine…Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem. A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records, has not established a causal link to COVID-19 vaccines. However, recent reports indicate a plausible causal relationship between the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and TTS, a rare and serious adverse event—blood clots with low platelets—which has caused deaths,” the report reads.

What does CDC say about Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) following COVID-19 vaccination?

A May 2021 report on TTS by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) says that the condition is rare, clinically serious and can be life-threatening. It suggests a  “plausible causal association with the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine” with symptoms occurring within two weeks of vaccination. TTS is common among women between the ages of 18-49.

The CDC recommends early diagnosis and treatment of TTS. 

Claim 2: “You’ve dramatically decreased your own immune system by 35 per cent. The first jab did it by at least 15 [per cent] and the second did it by 35 [per cent]. If you take any booster shot, you will die,” Sean Brooks claims.

The WHO says the vaccines rather build the immunity of persons who are vaccinated.

Brooks’ claim that vaccinated individuals’ immunity is decreased is neither backed by science nor experts.

According to the WHO, immunity against the disease rather increases after taking the vaccine.

Claim 3: “Antibody-dependent enhancement is what is happening with these jabs with everybody who has taken them unless of course, you have taken a placebo but there is no way you will know that,” said Sean Brooks.   

There have been no verified reports of ADE occurring as a result of COVID-19 vaccines.

Sean Brooks said that recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine will die because the jab will cause antibody-dependent enhancement.

“Antibody-dependent enhancement is what is happening with these jabs with everybody who has taken them unless of course you have taken a placebo but there is no way you will know that. Given that fact, the antibody-dependent enhancement tricks the entire body into believing that the cell that’s eating the pathogen is eating it when it isn’t. It ends up leading to what is called a cytokine storm which causes organ failure. That will cause your death and there is stopping that. No amount of drugs will stop that,” he said at the meeting.

An article published on health-desk.org explains what antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) is.

“Sometimes, after developing antibodies to the disease, our immune system can overreact the next time it gets exposed to the disease. This is a very rare phenomenon called antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE),” it says.

It noted however that “there have been no verified reports of ADE occurring as a result of COVID-19 vaccines” adding that in the process of making COVID-19 vaccines, scientists developed vaccine strategies around avoiding ADE. Some of these strategies included the specific targeting of a SARS-CoV-2 protein that was the least likely to cause ADE in early vaccine design.

Other research published here assert that “clinical data has not yet fully established a role for ADE in human COVID-19 pathology.”

This position is not different from what has been published in this report on why ADE has not been a problem with COVID-19 vaccines.

“Scientists say that ADE is pretty much a non-issue with COVID-19 vaccines, but what are they basing this on? From the early stages of COVID-19 vaccine development, scientists sought to target a SARS-CoV-2 protein that was least likely to cause ADE. For example, when they found out that targeting the nucleoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 might cause ADE, they quickly abandoned that approach. The safest route seemed to be targeting the S2 subunit of the spike protein, and they ran with that, wrote Derek Lowe, PhD, in his Science Translational Medicine blog “In the Pipeline,” part of the article reads.

Claim 4: “Everyone who is taking the jabs is blood clotting,” says Sean Brooks.

Although there have been reports of experts say it is a rare side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine.

An article published on the health page of the University of UTAH describes blood clotting as “a collection of blood cells and coagulation proteins that clump together, forming a gel-like substance in the blood system that can obstruct blood flow”.

There have been reports of some persons who suffered blood clotting after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca and the Johnson and Johnson coronavirus vaccines.

UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), reviewing reports, concluded that the “evidence of a link with COVID-19 vaccines AstraZeneca is stronger.”

However, the NHS says that blood clotting was “an extremely rare side effect of some COVID-19 vaccines.”

A study conducted by scientists at Oxford University says that COVID-19 leads to several times higher risk of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) blood clots than current COVID-19 vaccines.

The WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) also confirms that the risks of blood clotting after vaccination was very low.

“Data from the UK suggest the risk is approximately four cases per million adults (1 case per 250,000 who receive the vaccine, while the rate is estimated to be approximately 1 per 100,000 in the European Union,” GACVS’ review reads.

This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up roles in the profession the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking. 

Claim: Viral post with links on social media platforms claims that Nestle Ghana and Melcom are giving 500 Ghana Cedis together with prizes to customers who participate in a survey to mark the anniversaries of these companies. 

Nestle Ghana and Melcom say they are not conducting any surveys nor are  they celebrating any anniversary. 

Full Text

Two posts making the rounds on some social media platforms, mainly WhatsApp, claim that Nestle Ghana and Melcom are giving out 500 Ghana cedis and other prizes randomly to 100 people who fill out a survey. 

The post captioned Nestle 150th Anniversary Celebration and Melcom 30th Anniversary!,  urges interested customers to use these links to take part in the survey. When users follow the link, it leads them to some websites with logos of Nestle and Melcom at the top left corner of the site with a notice to unsuspecting individuals that these companies are celebrating their anniversaries. A number of comments from people claiming to be winners are seen below the survey question.

“Today, you have been chosen to participate in our survey. It will only take you a minute and you will receive a fantastic prize! Each week we randomly choose 100 users to give them a chance to win amazing prizes. 500 Cedi! There will be 100 lucky winners. This survey aims to improve the quality of service for our users and your participation will be rewarded 100%. You only have 4 minutes and 16 seconds  to answer this survey! Hurry up, the number of prizes available is limited!,”  the purported link for Nestle Ghana reads.

See image below.

People are required to fill out four questions including whether they know Nestle, their age, what they think of Nestle, and their gender. 

After the answers are verified, they are congratulated and given three attempts and asked to choose their prize from 12 similar boxes to get a chance to win those prizes. 

Afterward, they are asked to share the link to 5 groups and tell 20 friends about the promotions, after which they are promised to receive the money.

It also has many comments of about 183 of supposed testimonies of past winners of the prizes. 

Meanwhile, the purported link from Melcom Ghana reads,

“Congratulations! Melcom 30th Anniversary! Through the questionnaire, you will have a chance to get 500 Cedi”.

In this claim as well, people are again required to fill out four questions including whether they know Melcom, their age, what they think of Melcom, and their gender. 

After their answers are verified, they are congratulated and given three attempts and asked to choose a prize from 12 similar boxes to get a chance to win those prizes. 

Afterward, they are asked to share the link to five groups and tell 20 friends about the promotions, after which they are promised to receive the money.

Verification

Dubawa through a PSafe search result found that the link to both purported promotions are unsafe, and described as a suspected and unsafe site.  

Additionally, clicking on the search sign on both survey sites does not provide any result as it is supposed to do on the original Nestle and Melcom sites.

Moreover, both Nestle and Melcom, through emails, have told Dubawa that the survey links going viral are fake and that no anniversary celebrations are ongoing. 

Melcom has also issued a disclaimer in the mail sent to Dubawa. 

Conclusion

These two viral survey links are not from Nestle and Melcom. Both links are fake and should be ignored. 

The official Nestlé website is  www.nestle-cwa.com and the official link for Melcom is https://www.melcom.com/ . 

This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up roles in the profession the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking. 

Claim: Ghana is home to the oldest woman on earth, according to Captain Smart, the host of Onua TV’s Maakye show.

Captain Smart’s claim of having interviewed the oldest person on earth cannot be regarded as factual due to the absence of adequate documentary proof or scientific test to confirm the age of the woman.

Full Text

A viral video from a live telecast of Onua TV’s Morning Show on August 16, 2021, streamed on Onua TV’s Facebook account, claimed a 198-year old Ghanaian woman, who gave her name as Amodzie, is the oldest woman in the world.

The host of ‘Maakye’, Captain Smart, said, while introducing his guest, that the Ghanaian is the oldest woman in the world, after asserting that similar records provided by the “Guinness Book of Records,” now Guinness World Records (GWR), were untrue. 

Amodzie, during the interview, referred to her knowledge of the birth of the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, as a confirmation of her age, in the absence of any documentary proof.

According to her, she witnessed the time the late Dr. Nkrumah’s mother was pregnant with him, as well as knew of his birth in 1901. 

To further prove her age, she said she had divorced twice and was in her third marriage at the time of Nkrumah’s birth. 

In addition, she said some educated people around the time indicated her age to her while she was growing. 

She is revealed to have birthed seven children, of which three have passed on. The youngest of her children is currently 88 years old, according to Captain Smart.

Verification

Her ‘vivid recollection’ of events that took place at the time leading to the late Dr. Nkrumah’s birth as well as becoming the first President made the claim quite interesting to verify.

However, the absence of any documentary proof to confirm her age made the claim about her age quite debatable.

Granted that the claim is true, this means that Amodzie was born circa 1823. If so, with the youngest child alleged to be 88 years this year, it will mean that she gave birth to her at the age of 110 years, in 1933. 

At what age can a woman not have a baby?

In 2019 the Washington Post reported Mangayamma Yaramati as the oldest person to birth a child, at the age of 74 years.

The development revived several controversies around geriatric pregnancies because the twins she had were conceived through in-vitro fertilization. This was because, at 74 years, she had experienced menopause, according to the Washington Post.

Healthline Media says a higher proportion of women reach menopause, the stopping of the menstrual cycle (for a year or longer), somewhere between their late 40s and early 50s, with an average age of around 51 years old. 

It also notes that women who give birth at older ages between 55 and 70 could possibly conceive through hormone therapy and in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

Ghanaian context

A specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr. Senyo M.K. Misroame, explained in a telephone interview that the history of an older person conceiving and giving birth is traced to the Bible. 

But, he added that no scientific data is available to prove this occurrence.   

Dr. Misroame, who is also the CEO of Tantra Community Clinic and Fertility Centre, Acheampong Specialist Clinic, at Labone, said the oldest person he has seen getting pregnant at one of his facilities was at age 52 years.

However, he added, “currently, there is no data to support claims that a person has gotten pregnant at such an advanced age beyond 70 years and above what I have come across.”

According to him, scientific research undertaken locally put the average ages for menopause of Ghanaian women, especially southerners, between 42 and 52 years.

“So, most women will fall into that bracket,” and outliers who will have their menopause pretty early, after 40 years. And added that after menopause women are not able to conceive naturally. 

Advanced technologies that have come to aid women to conceive at older ages are recent inventions and did not exist at the time, with regards to the claim under review.”

Based on these, he concluded that it is almost impossible physiologically while no data also exists to support such a claim at the moment. 

World’s oldest person

According to the Guinness World Records, the oldest person living (female) is Kane Tanaka, from Fukuoka in Japan. She was born on January 2, 1903.  

At the time her age was verified, on February 12, 2020, she was 117 years and 41 days. This means she is currently (as of August 18) 118 years and 7 months and 24 days.

How credible is this claim?

The Guinness World Records remains one of the common platforms to verify such unique claims. As noted by Wikipedia, “it is a reference book published annually, listing world records both of human achievements and other extremes of the natural world.”

Criteria for determining a record title

Each record title in the Guinness World Records is scrutinised and meets some specific requirements including measurability (can the claim be measured objectively? what is the unit of measurement?), and verifiability (can it be proven and will there be accurate evidence available to prove it?). 

It is only when a claim meets the above conditions and some others that Guinness World Records is able to approve its accuracy. 

Human life expectancy

Definition – According to the World Health Organisation,  “the average number of years that a newborn could expect to live if he or she were to pass through life exposed to the sex- and age-specific death rates prevailing at the time of his or her birth, for a specific year, in a given country, territory, or geographic area.”

According to research by the University of Washington, the number of people who live past the age of 100 has been on the rise for decades, up to nearly half a million people worldwide.

It, however, asserted that there are “far fewer “supercentenarians,” people who live to age 110 or even longer,” while noting that the oldest living person, Jeanne Calment of France, was 122 when she died in 1997. 

The research went further to confirm the world’s current oldest person as the 118-year-old Kane Tanaka of Japan.

Conclusion

Given the limited data on the life expectancy of Ghanaians in the 20th century, as a means to thoroughly verify the claim, in addition to the absence of any documentary proof by the claimant, it would be inconclusive to say Amodzie is the oldest person in the world.   

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) officially launched its investment summit dubbed, “Spark up”, on August 3, 2021, at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra. 

The Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, Mr Yofi Grant, in his opening remarks said, among other things, that Ghana is the second country in Africa, following Egypt, to receive the highest foreign direct investment.

“…And for all our size and all that, we were the second-highest recipients of foreign direct investments in Africa after Egypt which is a much bigger economy, but on a per capita basis, Ghana is way ahead of all the other countries on the continent… As I said, in 2020, our FDI was 2.7 billion which is about a 140% increase of what we had recorded the preceding year in 2019 of $1.1 billion. The second half results this year is also extremely encouraging because, despite the fact that the pandemic has gone through a first wave, a second wave, and in some countries, a third wave, we have already been able to attract some over 830 million US dollars in foreign direct investments…” Mr Grant said between 23:30 minutes to 25:08 minutes into the video.

Defining FDI inflows and outflows

According to the World Bank, “FDI net inflows are the value of inward direct investment made by non-resident investors in the reporting economy…FDI net outflows are the value of outward direct investment made by the residents of the reporting economy to external economies. Outward direct investment is also called direct investment abroad.”

Now, we fact-check three claims identified in Mr Grant’s speech.

Claim 1: Ghana had the second-highest foreign direct investment in Africa, following Egypt in 2020.

According to the World Investment Report, 2021, South Africa recorded the second highest foreign direct investment in Africa for the year 2020.

As Mr Grant stated, Egypt retained its position as a leading receiver of FDI in Africa. It remains the highest receiver of FDI in Africa, despite a 16% decline in FDI to Africa in 2020, according to the World Investment Report, published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Coming in second after Egypt is South Africa who recorded $3.1 billion in FDIs in 2020 as indicated in the World Investment Report (pg 42). Some other African countries were able to attract noticeable FDI’s in 2020 with Ethiopia and Nigeria both coming in third with a recorded $2.4 billion in FDI. Mozambique also came in fourth with $2.3 billion in inflow. 

Ghana, on the other hand, recorded $1.9 billion in FDI in 2020 according to the World Investment Report thus coming fifth in Africa.

Thus, South Africa, not Ghana, had the second-highest FDI inflow in Africa for the year 2020.

Claim 2: Ghana recorded $2.7 billion in FDI in the year 2020.

As stated in the World Investment Report, Ghana recorded $1.9 billion in FDI in 2020, not $2.7 billion as claimed by Mr Grant.

According to the World Investment Report (WIR) 2021 (pg. 41), published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in June 2021, Ghana recorded an FDI inflow of $1.9 billion in 2020, a 52% decline in the 2019 FDI of $3.9 billion.

This is contrary to the $2.7 billion stated by Mr Grant.

Dubawa contacted GIPC and was informed that the claim made by the CEO, Mr Grant, was right. We were referred to the GIPC Full Year 2020 report as proof. 

The report sourced information from the World Investment Report (WIR) as did Dubawa. However, we found that the data presented in the GIPC report was slightly different from the WIR’s sourced from the UNCTAD website. 

Paragraph two of the report states that Ghana came in third in 2020, following Egypt and Nigeria who recorded FDI of $5.5 billion and $2.66 billion respectively. The paragraph is in itself contrary to what was stated by Mr Grant at the Spark up workshop, where he stated that Ghana was second and not third. 

Contrarily, pages 40 and 41 of the WRI indicates that Egypt recorded $5.9 billion in FDI while Nigeria recorded $2.4 billion and Ghana, $1.9 billion all in 2020. 

Dubawa has reached out to the World Bank to corroborate the claims but is yet to receive feedback from the organisation regarding FDI in Africa, especially Ghana, for the year 2020.

Claim 3: Ghana recorded $1.1 billion in FDI in 2019

According to the 2020 World Investment Report and data from the World Bank, Ghana recorded approximately $3.9 billion in FDI for the year 2019.

In 2019, Ghana recorded approximately $3.9 billion in FDIs as indicated by the World Bank and the World Investment Report 2020.

Ghana’s FDI for 2019 was much higher than the $1.1 billion claimed by Mr Grant.

Conclusion

Although Ghana has performed remarkably well, considering the pandemic and its related effects on the economy, the country did not record the second-highest FDI inflow in Africa. Additionally, Ghana did not record $1.1 billion and $2.7 billion in FDI for the years 2019 and 2020 respectively.