News
Bolt Marks World Earth Day
Let’s get something straight: Bolt is a huge fan of Earth Day!
And since 22nd April every year is dedicated to environmental courses and dubbed Earth Day, we at Bolt are excited to mark this day!
It is as part of this love for mother earth that SeedBolts, a partnership between Bolt and Seedballs Kenya plans to plant over 11 million tree seeds in different areas across Kenya where natural afforestation is low to avert the emissions from Bolt rides and Bolt Food deliveries.
Whether it’s encouraging people to plant more trees or use less plastic, anything to increase global warming awareness and reduce carbon emissions is a hit in our books. The truth, however, is that at Bolt, every day is Earth Day!
For us, it starts with our drivers. You’ll notice that most of them use fuel-efficient cars averaging in the region of 35 miles per gallon for city and highway driving. That’s kinder on the environment than the average car owner’s fuel efficiency.
Secondly, Bolt drivers generally don’t idle their engines. Why would they, seeing as they just need to park and wait for their next rider to call them through the app? In fact, idling has been proven to be a major source of pollution. Even though the car is still, the fact that the engine is still running means that harmful carbon is being emitted into the air. That’s the difference that technology makes.
Third, we can’t speak highly enough about the benefits of ride sharing apps like Bolt. Hailing a Bolt means that the number of cars on the road potentially reduces by one. So, where we have a whole city that’s accepted Bolt as part of the public transport system, riders are able to move from point of pick-up to destination without the need to have their own vehicles. This collectively reduces the carbon footprint of the city, leading to cleaner air, a healthier population, and a more protected environment.
And what about traffic? The fewer the number of cars on the road, the quicker we’ll all get to our destinations. And that’s great for the environment as well. It means that there are lower carbon emissions while cars jam up in traffic. And frankly, it leaves us all with fewer stressed drivers and passengers.
Finally, with Bolt’s push globally to move to more electric car models, the future is indeed green. It’s only a matter of time before Ghana begins to catch up with the electric car revolution, and Bolt will be right there leading the push.
We must admit that as Bolt, we are proud of our green credentials, but we know that more needs to be done to save the planet. As Earth Day approaches, we’re doing our bit – not just one day in the year, but every day.
By David Nikoi Kotei
The writer is the Country Manager of Bolt in Ghana
The 30th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Media Awards has celebrated three decades of recognising excellence and contributions to journalism and national development, while highlighting the media’s role in Ghana’s democracy.
Marking the milestone, Philip Osei Bonsu of the Multimedia Group emerged as the GJA/P.A.V. Ansah Journalist of the Year.
The Ghanaian Times’ Benedicta Gyimah Foley won the Best Feature Reporting, Print category, alongside other journalists recognised across various media platforms.
Other winners included Nathaniel Attoh, Best in Sports Reporting; and Godwin Asediba of Media General, Best in TV Documentary; Doreen Ampofo of GBC, Best in Radio Documentary; and freelance journalist Nii Adjei Mensahfio, Best in Online Documentary.
Daniel Kwabena Mantey was adjudged Best in TV Feature, while Clinton Yeboah of Luv FM won Best in Radio Feature, with Gilbert Azeem Tiroog of GNA taking Best in Online Features.
For news reporting, Mohammed Fugu of the Daily Graphic won Best in Print News Reporting, Nabil Ahmed Rufai, a freelance journalist, Best in TV News Reporting; Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman of EIB Network, Best in Radio News Reporting; and Timothy Ngnenbe of the Daily Graphic, Best in Online News.
The ceremony, held in Accra last Saturday on the theme, “Celebrating Excellence, Advancing Media Freedom and Combating Hate Speech in the Digital Age”, was attended by President John Dramani Mahama as the special guest of honour.
Also in attendance were the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Christian Tetteh Yohuno, among others.
In his address, President Mahama announced a GH₵10 million allocation in the 2027 national budget as seed capital for the reactivated Media Development Fund to support journalists’ welfare, professional development, investigative reporting and safety training, with additional corporate contributions expected.
Mr Mahama, also urged media practitioners to uphold professionalism and accuracy by avoiding sensationalism, unsubstantiated allegations and the deliberate pursuit of scandals, while promptly correcting inaccurate reports and apologising when necessary to maintain public trust and professional standards.
On journalists’ safety, he assured that the government would continue to act against attacks on them.
By Stephanie Birikorang
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
Today, I focus on the theme of Ghanaian/African migrants in Finland and economic empowerment, a move away from the topic of personalities or groups and their accomplishments within the Ghanaian community in Finland that I have been writing on.
In recent times, African migrant associations and Finnish institutions are organising meetings or forums and help people seeking employment to meet employers or build professional networks to achieve economic empowerment.
Such forums are usually open to their members and anyone of African descent.to get into the Finnish job market.
Competences
Researchers and experts say entrepreneurship or self-employment has great potential to offer a route for migrants, including highly-educated ones, to participate in and contribute to the local economy.
Competences, including knowledge and knowhow, opportunities, and social capital such as family support, language, etc., are necessary to boost the entrepreneurship endeavour.
Competence in the official Finnish or Swedish languages is undoubtedly a key quality to improve employment prospects, especially for migrants since the overall unemployment among migrants could be higher than in the mainstream Finnish population.
There could also be particular privileges which may be the provision of the right information for potential entrepreneurs or job seekers.
Barriers and stress factors
Although language has a huge potential to contribute positively to entrepreneurship possibilities, studies have shown that some of the major stress factors are language problems, finances or economic capital among African migrants.
Other barriers or challenges may be how to grow the business venture or its sustainability.
Thus, migrant communities can generally be highly vulnerable to language barrier, lack of information, the nature of the work of migrants in professions where working from home is not possible.
Migrant associations, social networks, and information
By their activities, migrant associations are doing much to educate and create awareness as well as enhance economic empowerment through migrants’ entrepreneurship or self-employment and enhance opportunities.
Such associations and institutions become networks that create an important social capital as well as outlets for sharing and gaining information or knowledge. Also, it will all be for societal good if such activities are able to help reduce stress and anxiety in the migrants’ entrepreneurship endeavours.
As I keep pointing out, Finland is committed to the integration of migrants into the Finnish society. A number of research studies from surveys and other in-depth enquiries have shown a trend of increasing efforts to integrate African and other migrants into the Finnish society.
Public agencies, migrant associations and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Finland have been publishing information to help educate people, which is also good for their wellbeing.
Generally, migrant associations formally create awareness among their members and other migrants usually in collaboration with some Finnish institutions, and are thus an important tool for several migrants to be positively active and to get their interests and claims heard.
As I wrote previously, the role of migrant associations acting as bridge-builders for the integration and inclusion of migrants through participation in the decision making process and by acting as a representative voice is highly appreciated in Finland. Thank you!
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
