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We dedicated a special issue to celebrating 30 years of Jay-Z’s singular impact on the culture since Reasonable Doubt, and the legendary rapper sat for a rare and no-holds-barred interview with @the_summerman gq.visitlink.me/7cyTDi

Jay-Z's Yankee Stadium concerts see 1.6M in ticket queue. Get the scoop: complex.com/music/a/jaelan…

JAŸ-Z in Conversation with @GQMagazine Special Global Issue.

This is so stupid.

@VK__AS Congratulations to you!

Yay! 🥳 Read more here; zenodo.org/records/191922…

sammy gyamfi on why it is problematic to rely excessively on sole sourced contracts.

This week, Ghana will table a historic resolution at the UN to recognise the transatlantic trafficking and enslavement of Africans as a crime against humanity. I’ve written to the government to ask whether they will support this and, if not, why?

Design responsibility lies primarily with the Ministry of Roads and Highways (and its agencies like the Ghana Highway Authority or Department of Urban Roads), not the contractor executing the build.

When over 75% of contracts are awarded through sole sourcing, it’s no longer an exception. It’s the norm. There is no “urgency” that justifies sole sourcing road construction at that scale. How do we know the state is getting value for money? How do we guard against political favouritism? The current government campaigned loudly against the abuse of sole sourcing while in opposition. Awarding over 75% of contracts this way between September and February is the very abuse they once condemned. As for the justifications, politicians will always come up with them. An extra couple of months to go through competitive tendering will not be the end of the world. Unless there is something improper to hide, all multi-year, multimillion-cedi projects should be subject to competitive tendering. Sole sourcing must be the exception, not the norm!

Egypt has inaugurated a 120 km Light Rail Transit (LRT) line connecting several new cities to the capital, Cairo.

All the Korle-Bu CEO had to say was: 'We apologise for this incident and are investigating thoroughly.' Instead he went straight to 'maybe it's AI-generated'? Leaders of such high offices need to be really careful about their choice of words. Shameful

Seems beating pep in a cup finals at wembley isn’t for everyone.

Congratulations to @ManCity 🩵 They beat Arsenal 2-0 at Wembley to win the EFL Cup 🏆

KD. BORN TO SCORE. 5TH MOST EVER. A look back at Kevin Durant's journey to 32,393 points!

Kevin Durant says it’s bigger then stats with Michael Jordan: “MJ is just bigger than the game. I mean, no matter who passes him in stats or who wins more, it’s going to be hard to win. Go 6-0. Even if you were to pass him in anything, just his impact on the sport and just culture in general is just too big.” (Via @boardroom)

SSNIT is beyond reform and we should stop pretending otherwise. Disband it! Transfer its AUM to reputable pension funds through a competitive process, and give contributors a choice over where their Tier 1 contributions go. We've delayed this conversation long enough.

😂😂😂

1. I just got reminded by @elliot_solution about an investigation I did years ago about SSNIT's IT platform, OBS, where I found that the contract sum was inflated by millions of dollars. 2. Elliot focuses on the fact that the IT manager was later prosecuted for, among others, totally forging his academic record (x.com/elliot_solutio…). Which is very interesting because it shows how poor attention to detail is in Ghana. Clearly, given how badly OBS was managed, the signs were always there? 3. The problem, of course, is that in Ghana, the elites focus on scandals & "corruption" when the real problem is their inability to invest any time to scrutinise policies & programs & push solutions to the problems at the root. "Corruption" is merely a symptom. By the time corruption actually manifests, many many things would have gone wrong long before. The deeper issue of why we can't nip corruption in the bud is policy-illiteracy, aka Katanomics. 4. Here is SSNIT again getting ready to splash almost $260 million on CENIT, a struggling power company that it owns. You will never hear any serious conversation about it anywhere. "Low-info elites," is what I call those who should be following & scrutinising such issues. 5. Re CENIT, SSNIT has barely made any money on the first power plant. After buying it for ~$91m and splurging more than $200m, it is doubtful that SSNIT has recovered even half that amount in a decade & half. 6. Because CENIT sits in an SPV structure, its books are opaque. But it features regularly in ECG debtor lists and one time it was flagged for dispatching virtually no electricity and relying on take-or-pay charges for income. 7. In no seriously managed fund would managers push to splurge another ~$260m on such an asset so another subscale plant can be built in Kumasi in a sector where the only buyer - ECG - constantly struggle to pay its bills. And preliminary investigations suggest that the plant may even be below spec. 8. In fact, if SSNIT was to follow the general investment guidelines in the pensions industry as set by regulation, it wouldn't be able to make further investments into CENIT because that would take it to roughly double the prudential limit. But SSNIT has long tried to operate outside the NPRA rules on the basis that it is special. 9. Now, I bring all this up to show that in a country where elites can't form a "critical policy audience" to dig into stuff like this & push back, how will focusing on "corruption" symptoms & shouting on radio about problems improve anything? 10. As we katanomists like to explain: "the devil is in the detail."

Women in Architecture 🖤 Mariam Kamara is one of the architects designing for people’s needs and their environment. Celebrating women who build with intention. 📍 Hikma Complex, Dandaji, Niger Design: Atelier Masōmī

BREAKING: UK Housing Secretary Steve Reed said US President Donald Trump is “capable of speaking for himself” after Trump threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran didn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. He added that Britain will not be dragged into the war but will protect its interests and work with allies to de-escalate the situation.