Amenability of semigroups and their algebras modulo a group congruence

We investigate the amenability of the semigroup algebras ℓ1(S/ρ)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\ell^1(S/\rho)}$$\end{document} , where ρ\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\rho}$$\end{document} is a group congruence (not necessarily minimal) on a semigroup S. We relate this to a new notion of amenability of Banach algebras modulo an ideal, to prove a version of Johnson’s theorem for a large class of semigroups, including inverse semigroups, E-inversive semigroup and E-inversive E-semigroups.