Stellar Development Foundation visits Accra For Ecosystem Meetup | Lemfi resumes trading in Ghana | Is Ghana's E-levy about to be abolished by Dr Bawumia (PodBites Ep. 43)

[00:00:00] Hey Global Garnier citizens, welcome to another edition of Pud Bites, our governor name

[00:00:04] of agent Daniels and welcome to the Sound of Accra Podcast.

[00:00:07] So today we're going to get through quite a few things so we're going to talk about

[00:00:10] the visit to Accra by Stella Development Foundation.

[00:00:13] We're also going to talk about Lemphi, their return to Ghana as they are once again allowed

[00:00:19] to trade and finally is Ghana's eLevy tax about to be abolished.

[00:00:25] Make sure you stick around to the end and we're going to get through all of these topics

[00:00:28] all right.

[00:00:30] Stella Development visited Ghana this week so on Tuesday 13th February the blockchain builders

[00:00:36] association in Ghana, so they hosted the Stella Development Foundation and this was a fantastic

[00:00:41] event I was there.

[00:00:42] I was invited by Eric Anand from Aya.

[00:00:45] You guys may recognize Eric from season five.

[00:00:48] He may recognize him from the conversation with series but anyway he co-hosted the event

[00:00:53] along with the Stella Development Foundation which is led by the manager director Dixie

[00:00:58] and Danel in Accra and this was a great event.

[00:01:03] So for those of you who don't know the Stella Development Foundation is a non-for-profit

[00:01:07] organization and they're based in San Francisco so what they do is they build a common financial

[00:01:12] platform which is designed to be open and accessible to everyone and the mission is to provide

[00:01:17] open source financial access for all.

[00:01:19] So of course they are part of the Stella blockchain itself.

[00:01:25] So if you go to Stella.org you'll find a bit more information we're trying to leave some

[00:01:29] links in the description below.

[00:01:31] So just as the incident allowed anyone to send an email or create a blog, Stella allows

[00:01:35] people to easily send, save and receive money without large fees or hassle.

[00:01:39] So the Stella blockchain also has a cryptocurrency for those you cryptohedred called XLM and it

[00:01:45] currently trades for about I'll say 12 cents so that could change as we are recording

[00:01:51] in February 2024.

[00:01:53] So in terms of what happened in the evening was really, really good evening so it was

[00:01:56] an event that included a fireside chat with the Stella leadership team alive Q&A from

[00:02:02] the community of blockchain enthusiasts, cryptoh enthusiasts such as myself and others

[00:02:06] from the tech industry.

[00:02:08] It had like founders, developers, investors and so much more people who were in the room

[00:02:14] but I'll say the room is probably about less than 50 people so it was a nice intimate event

[00:02:19] and we all got to learn more about what the Stella development foundation does and who

[00:02:23] they are and what their new mandate is and what their goals are for Africa.

[00:02:28] So luckily enough, Stella picked Ghana as the first country to visit out of free and Ghana

[00:02:34] of course remains a gateway to Africa and the next step is Lagos followed by Nairobi so I

[00:02:40] believe they should be in Lagos by now but anyway you can find out more information by

[00:02:45] checking out the Stella development foundation.

[00:02:48] Now Stella has great use cases in Ghana and in Africa including cross border payments,

[00:02:53] smart contracts and remittances so for those of you who are aware of how blockchain works

[00:02:57] usually every blockchain has their utility, has their benefit in terms of what makes it special.

[00:03:03] Okay so Lemphire returns to Ghana so Lemphire is allowed to trade again in Ghana after

[00:03:09] being forbidden by the Bank of Ghana due to a lack of official license to operate the

[00:03:13] country.

[00:03:14] Now this has been a few months in the making but now thankfully they can resume their services

[00:03:20] once again.

[00:03:21] Now this is what the country manager has to say who is precious Emma, Quattima Oduro she

[00:03:26] said we are grateful to stakeholders at the Bank of Ghana as well as our partners for

[00:03:31] the role in ensuring service frustration.

[00:03:33] We resume our operations with a better understanding and now we are better positioned to address

[00:03:37] the avoid needs of the Ghanaian market.

[00:03:40] So for those of you who aren't aware Lemphire is a remittance platform a bit similar to

[00:03:44] Tap Tap Send or World Remitt or Send Wave who are some of their competitors.

[00:03:50] Alright so this is the big one so is Ghana's elevy really about to end?

[00:03:55] Okay so for those of you who are keeping up with Ghana politics Dr. Bormia who are currently

[00:04:00] as the vice president of Ghana and he's going to run to be the main president of Ghana

[00:04:06] just like how Joe Biden was vice president to Obama and then eventually ran to become

[00:04:11] the main president of a few years today of America.

[00:04:14] So Dr. Bormia is running to be you know the president of Ghana and of course he represents

[00:04:20] the MPP party which is the national patriotic party I believe it is for the upcoming 2024

[00:04:26] elections in Ghana which should take place around November the summer time.

[00:04:30] And one of the statements he made was that he's promised to scrap elevy and the missions

[00:04:36] tax if he wins.

[00:04:37] Now everyone might be like wow this is great but some people may be seeing through this

[00:04:42] just to think that oh this is maybe just an incentive to get them to vote for him and

[00:04:46] others may just say if he takes these taxes away he can easily bring in another type of

[00:04:51] tax.

[00:04:52] We don't want to get too political on the sound of crap podcast but what do you guys

[00:04:56] think?

[00:04:57] What happened and what do you guys think you know is it's the right thing.

[00:05:01] You get into the comments let us know what you think over today's episode and of this

[00:05:05] conversation.

[00:05:07] So yeah so if they did abolish elevy I mean this would put 1% back into every Ghanaian's

[00:05:12] pocket that uses mobile money on a daily basis which is great and I believe with mobile

[00:05:18] money there is a certain amount that you can send without being taxed but I believe once

[00:05:23] you hit a certain threshold in terms of sending money and mobile money then that's when

[00:05:27] the 1% does kick in but before it was 1.5% but the government reduced it to 1% after

[00:05:32] the outcry from the public but yeah do check out our previous pod bites for more information

[00:05:37] on the elevy as we have explains in a past and yeah I mean as it is Ghanaian's it means

[00:05:43] land of tax and their flight center so this was certainly take some burdens away if

[00:05:46] this actually does happen however there is no promise of introducing our taxes into

[00:05:51] the future instead so we can only wait and see what happens if bombia is elected that

[00:05:56] is dr.

[00:05:57] bombia.

[00:05:58] So there you have it guys and that's this week's edition of pod bites short and sweet

[00:06:01] let us know what you guys think let us know what type of content you like to hear from

[00:06:05] us in the future did you like this I follow us on social media or the links are in the

[00:06:09] description below at the sound of a car for pretty much every single social media handle

[00:06:14] except pod accepts the tiktok at the sound of a car podcast for tiktok and yeah check

[00:06:21] us out on youtube you know and then if you want to reach out to us visit our website

[00:06:25] the sound of car dot com if you're the droppers on the email info at the sound of car dot

[00:06:29] com for more info and to get in touch with.

[00:06:34] I'm agent Daniels you guys have been amazing God bless take care and I'll catch you in the

[00:06:38] next one thank you