With its strategic positioning as a market leader in the delivery of top-notch drone surveying and mapping services, Axis Drone Surveys has been in operation since 2019.
The economic areas of agriculture, health, urban planning, infrastructure, mining, and energy are all affected by these services.
The business sees the need for drone technology in various sectors and offers quick, precise, safe, and highly affordable solutions.
Additionally, Axis has a flawless safety record and has received the proper certification from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) as needed by law.
Axis Drone Surveys’ service offerings are tailored to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Its Recent projects have tackled the SDGs of Climate Action, No Poverty, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and Sustainable Cities and Communities.
The company has made significant contributions to the energy sector by working with institutions that deploy electricity to rural communities both in Ghana and Liberia. In the agricultural sector, Axis Drone Surveys collaborates with developmental institutions to create project monitoring, audit and evaluation systems for farm project financing.
Axis has grown organically over time through client referrals and recommendations.
However, challenges are inevitable for a young start-up especially in its budding stage.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on its business growth and operations. Nevertheless, through innovation and improvisation the company was able to explore new avenues for revenue generation, such as the mining sector.
According to Goldman Sachs Research, the global drone business market opportunity was worth $100 Billion between 2016 and 2020. This projection is steadily growing with key opportunities being created in drone manufacturing and sales, drone services and drone training.
Ghana is a significant player in the African drone space because it currently has the largest drone delivery network in the world.
This has created a conducive environment for young Ghanaians to excel in the industry.
Axis Drone Surveys recognizes the importance of technology in economic transformation. With that focus, the company facilitates mentorship programs for the youth in partnership with academic institutions such as Open Labs.
The business hopes to develop new collaborations and have a greater impact on Africa and the world. Ultimately, the company aims to RESHAPE AFRICA WITH DRONE DATA
According to the Global Crypto Adoption Index released by US blockchain analysis company Chainanalysis, the first two quarters of this year saw a greater global adoption of cryptocurrencies than the same period in 2019 and 2020.
The Chainanalysis index was dominated by emerging economies, with the top four adopters being Vietnam, the Philippines, Ukraine, and India. Pakistan came in sixth, Brazil came in seventh, and Thailand came in eighth.
According to the research, demand has held steady in emerging areas despite a deterioration in public opinion toward cryptocurrencies in industrialized nations during the current bear market.
Adoption drivers
With rising US interest rates and inflation weakening many fiat currencies around the world, cryptocurrencies and the decentralised exchanges on which they are traded allow users in emerging markets to limit exposure to macroeconomic pressures and ease transaction flows.
Long touted as a hedge against inflation, cryptocurrencies as an asset class have seen one of the largest declines since the second half of 2021 when inflation ramped up globally, prompting many banks and financial institutions to question this premise.
The number of unbanked citizens – those without access to checking or savings accounts, credit cards, loans, mortgages or other traditional financial products – fell from 1.7bn in 2017 to 1.4bn in 2021, according to the World Bank.
In Morocco, Vietnam, Egypt and the Philippines, more than 65% of the population is unbanked, according to data from UK research platform Merchant Machine. Three of these countries were among the top-15 on the Chainanalysis index.
Regionally, 50% of citizens in the Middle East and Africa are unbanked, while South and Central America average 38%, Eastern Europe 33% and Asia Pacific 24%. Meanwhile, 94% of citizens in Western and Central Europe are considered banked.
Given these disparities in financial inclusion, it is unsurprising that citizens in emerging markets are driving the adoption of cryptocurrencies and decentralised exchanges – which Chainanalysis maintains is more important than the overall volume of holdings, trades or even price.
Weighing risk and reward
Last year, El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender; President Nayib Bukele pledged to build a ‘Bitcoin City’ as a tax haven for crypto investors, including an airport and residential and commercial areas.
However, Bitcoin’s subsequent price crash – it fell from US$47,000 to less than US$20,000 in the 12 months after El Salvador adopted it as legal tender – has raised questions about these plans and El Salvador’s ability to cover US$1.6bn worth of sovereign bonds due in 2023 and 2025.
Nonetheless, several African nations are continuing to encourage the use of cryptocurrencies to drive financial inclusion.
The Central African Republic adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in April, and the continent’s four largest economies – Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa – also have the largest number of cryptocurrency holders in Africa.
Zimbabwe, for its part, has installed a Bitcoin ATM managed by Golix, the country’s first and largest cryptocurrency exchange – and the only place in the country where citizens can buy or sell US dollars for Bitcoin.
Citizens skirt government bans
One major risk to the long-term viability of cryptocurrencies is the potential for governments to curtail trading because of their use for illicit payments.
Last year, China instituted a ban on cryptocurrency mining and trading. Eight other countries, including Egypt and Morocco, have similar bans in place, while 42 countries have implicit bans on these activities.
Even so, China was the 10th-largest adopter of crypto and Morocco the 14th, according to the Chainanalysis index. In the case of China, many citizens are skirting the ban and government, reportedly, is not enforcing it strictly.
The country has however encouraged the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that leverage blockchain technologies, as long as they are traded on regulated exchanges.
Most NFTs are bought and sold with cryptocurrencies, driving adoption in Central and South Asia as well as Oceania.
NFT marketplaces were cited as a major reason for India’s big jump in the Chainanalysis rankings, including FanCraze – a platform that sells cricket NFTs and has financial backing from US venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.
Blockchain-backed, play-to-earn (P2E) gaming is another major draw for new cryptocurrency adopters, most notably in top-ranked Vietnam.
Despite the high-profile hacking and subsequent collapse earlier this year of the NFT online video game Axie Infinity, which was created by the Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, many in South-east Asia are turning to new, locally developed P2E options.
More sustainable mining
Another fundamental concern about cryptocurrencies – the energy cost of mining – has become more acute in the light of recent energy shortages and supply chain disruptions due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The energy required to power the Bitcoin network varies according to volume of mining and transactions; but at the time of writing its annualised electricity consumption was estimated at 92.7 TWh according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, which is roughly equal to the annual electricity consumption of Pakistan.
There are however developments underway to make cryptocurrency mining more sustainable by using renewable energy. These have coalesced this year around the so-called regenerative finance movement, an effort to merge the growth of Web3 technologies like blockchain with measures addressing the climate crisis.
In September, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a report about the climate and energy implications of cryptocurrency in the US, which identifies Web3’s capacity to support technologies that monitor or mitigate climate impact.
Cryptocurrency miners themselves are also innovating to reduce the environmental impact of their activities. For instance, while Norway is already able to mine cryptocurrency using renewable energy due to its surplus of hydropower generation, Norwegian company Kryptovault is recycling excess heat from Bitcoin mining rigs to dry chopped timber.
The fourth biennial scientific conference of the College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana opened in Accra yesterday[September 28, 2022], with a call on Ghanaian public to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols in order not to be overtaken by events.
The Chief Executive Officer of Promasidor Ghana, Festus Tettey, who made the call, said the public appeared to have become complacent with the pandemic, and were no longer vigilant.
“A few places of business still provide hand sanitisers, while most don’t provide hand-washing logistics. Let us not become complacent in adhering to all the necessary precautions that we have learnt to follow,” he advised.
The three-day conference — attended by professionals and experts in the health sciences — was dubbed: “COVID-19 pandemic to date: the uncertain path ahead”.
Mr Tettey said it was possible to slow down and prevent the spread of the pandemic and any new diseases that the country might encounter, stressing, however, that the onus was on everyone to take personal responsibility by adhering to the protocols.
Health system
He pointed out that COVID-19 had become a feature of the health system, and that it was important that people learnt to live with it.
“Despite the strides made globally and in the country in combating the pandemic, the path ahead is still unclear. Indeed, as recently as last month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned of more dangerous COVID-19 variants.
“This come on top of other viral disease outbreaks such as Monkeypox. All these facts support the assertion that the path ahead is uncertain.
Let us not be complacent in adhereing to all the necessary precautions in our everyday lives,” he added.
Mr Tettey said the outbreak of COVID-19 affected the economy, including supply chain disruptions that had led to massive costs to businesses.
Poor vaccination
The Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research, Innovation and Development of the University of Ghana, Prof. Felix Ankomah Asante, said it was serious that about 68 per cent of the country’s population were reported not to have been vaccinated against the health crisis.
He urged the conference to deliberate on why Ghanaians were behaving that way towards the vaccination, pointing out that if the country was able to achieve 100 per cent coverage immunisation of children under five in certain areas, it should be possible to achieve same for the whole population.
Prof. Asante gave the assurance that the university would continue to provide the enabling environment to conduct high quality research to address the needs of the country.
He disclosed that the university, through its office of research, innovation and development, hoped to review its current research areas towards ones that promoted innovation; re-orient its research towards addressing global challenges, and for its faculty to train the next generation of scientists and researchers.
Prof. Asante explained that malaria research would, for example, be broadened to include COVID-19 and non-communicable diseases, while considering the use of artificial intelligence in the research strategy.
The Provost of the College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana, Prof. Julius Fobil, said conferences of the college were one of the several ways it sought to promote its research, provide services and address the health challenges of the nation and the global community.
The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has urged government and business to work together to create a stronger economy that will support employment and shared prosperity.
The AGI thought that closer cooperation between the public and commercial sectors would help the nation’s industrial development while also reducing the negative effects of COVID-19 and the spillover from the Ukraine and Russia War.
Mr Joseph Garbrah, the Chairman of the AGI, at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the Western and Central branches of the Association, said the private sector was a key engine in the country’s growth agenda and must be given the needed attention through well-tailored policies and programmes.
The meeting hinged on: “Levering Public-Private Collaboration to accelerate Sustainable Industrial Development,” sponsored by the EU Investment Promotion and Business Linkages Project.
Mr Garbrah said the much talked about sustainable industrial development should revolve around leveraging the private-public sectors, finance, and investment by companies and corporations.
“More largely it should be about leveraging resources, skills, and knowledge that the private sector can bring to the table to support and implement sustainable industrial development,” he said.
Mr Francis Osei Kusi, a Business Development Linkages Expert, urged members of the AGI, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be investment, export and Linkages ready through the right governance and best business practices.
He said the country could boast of many entrepreneurs but lacked well thought out business sustainable plans into the future.
“Most businesses have the wife and husband as the board with no proper structure…I remember my days with the Commercial Bank and the many businesses we helped in this region but, today, looking back, I can count only a few surviving,” Mr Kusi said.
He, therefore, encouraged them to develop their businesses to transcend generations.
Mr Seth Twum Akwaboah, the Chief Executive Officer of the AGI, encouraged the SMEs to develop the “eyes and nose” for investment opportunities and fully take advantage of them.
The AGI would continue to work to meet the needs of the business community through effective national and international engagements, he noted.
Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, the Western Regional Minister, reiterated the need for effective collaboration to develop innovative solutions for challenges facing companies.
He said the Government was working hard to deploy appropriate technologies and innovations in favor of businesses.
Some participants at the AGM said the revival of the Tema Oil Refinery must be a matter of concern to the government to reduce fuel costs for businesses.
They called for tax exemptions to encourage subnational start-ups to create employment.
On Monday, September 26, 2022, a delegation from the International Monetary Fund is scheduled to land in Ghana to begin formal loan request negotiations with the government of Ghana.
According to a report from Reuters, the negotiations would be focused on the policies and changes that the IMF might support as part of a program of economic assistance for Ghana.
Once an agreement on a program is reached, Ghana hopes to receive $3 billion from the Fund over the course of three years.
To get the cash in the first quarter of 2023, the government expects to wrap up negotiations by the end of this year.
The IMF officials are expected to be in the country until October 7, 2022.
Meanwhile, Government has routinely explained that recent economic headwinds are attributable largely to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the banking sector clean-up.
The rippling effect has been an increase in the cost of living, record high inflation rates and downgrades of the economy by rating agencies such as S&P and Fitch – a situation which has dealt a heavy blow to government’s ability to access the international capital market.
The Cedi has also been on a free fall compelling the Bank of Ghana to resort to hiking its monetary policy rate to deal with the situation.
The worsening economic situation compelled the government in July to initiate contact with International Monetary Fund for an economic support programme.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Wednesday advocated for a more inclusive and effective global financial system that meets Africa’s liquidity and debt sustainability needs.
Addressing the 77th annual high-level debate of the United Nations General Assembly, he said the present global economic downturn, which has left many African economies in turmoil, was a pointer that the continent needed a stronger influence on the global economic order.
The high-level General Debates of the UNGA77 opened Tuesday, September 20, 2022 with the theme, “A watershed moment: Transformative solutions to interlocking challenges.” It would end on Monday, September 26.
Reinforcing his point, the President noted that the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the Russian war in Ukraine, had seen inflation rates surging a record four times higher in several African countries, including Ghana, making the cost of food very unaffordable, especially for the urban poor.
“Moreover, the spillover from central banks raising interest rates to combat inflation has been severe beyond borders, as global investors pull money out of developing economies to invest in bonds in the developed world.
“This has led to depreciating currencies and increased borrowing costs; meaning we need to raise and spend more of our own currencies to service our foreign debts in US dollars.”
President Akufo-Addo pointed out that making matters worse, was credit rating agencies that had been “quick to downgrade economies in Africa, making it harder to service our debts.”
He emphasised that the international financial architecture was skewed significantly against developing and emerging economies like Ghana, saying, “the tag of Africa as an investment risk is little more than, in substance, a self-fulfilling prophecy created by the prejudice of the international money market, which denies us access to cheaper borrowing, pushing us deeper into debts.”
“It has become clear, if ever there was any doubt, that the international financial structure is skewed significantly against developing and emerging economies like Ghana… The avenues that are opened to powerful nations to enable them take measures that would ease pressures on their economies are closed to small nations.
“The financial markets have been set up and operate on rules designed for the benefit of rich and powerful nations, and, during times of crisis, the façade of international co-operation, under which they purport to operate, disappears.
“These are the savage lessons that we have had to take in, as the world emerged from the grip of the coronavirus to energy and food price hikes, and a worldwide rise in the cost of living. The necessity for reform of the system is compelling,” he stressed.
Touching on the theme of the 77th session, President Akufo-Addo stated: “We do not have the luxury of being able to pick and choose which big problem to solve.
None of them can wait; the economic turbulence requires urgent and immediate solution; the turmoil and insecurity in many parts of the world require urgent attention; and so does the need to tackle the problems posed by climate change.”
“A watershed moment, indeed, it is, and history will judge us harshly if we do not seize the opportunity to make the changes that will enable us deal with the many problems we face,” he told the gathering.
Many of the speakers at the Assembly focused their debates on the war in Ukraine, the soaring energy and food prices, climate action and ending COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the president, the conflict, which broke out in February 2022, made an already bad position even worse for African economies, which were just beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic’s consequences.
Akufo-Addo claimed that the conflict directly affected Africa, particularly in the field of food supplies, which in turn, significantly, caused inflation.
“Two years ago, a pandemic of disease caused by an unidentified, hostile virus and a catastrophic worldwide economic pandemic brought our world to a crashing halt.
No longer were only underdeveloped countries concerned about large budget deficits.
“By 2021, COVID-19 had pushed Africa into the worst recession for half a century. A slump in productivity and revenues, increased pressures on spending and spiralling public debts confronted us without relent,” he submitted.
On the specific case of the Russian invasion, even though Moscow insists it was a military operation, Akufo-Addo stated: “As we grappled with these economic challenges, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine burst upon us, aggravating an already difficult situation.
“It is not just the dismay that we feel at seeing such deliberate devastation of cities and towns in Europe in the year 2022, we are feeling this war directly in our lives in Africa.
“Every bullet, every bomb, every shell that hits a target in Ukraine, hits our pockets and our economies in Africa. The economic turmoil is global with inflation as the number one enemy this year,” he added.
Goverment has routinely explained that recent economic headwinds are attributable largely to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the banking sector clean-up.
The rippling effect has been an increase in the cost of living, record high inflation rates and downgrades of the economy by rating agencies such as S&P and Fitch – a situation which has dealt a heavy blow to government’s ability to access the international capital market.
The Cedi has also been on a free fall compelling the Bank of Ghana to resort to hiking its monetary policy rate to deal with the situation.
The worsening economic situation compelled the government in July to initiate contact with International Monetary Fund for an economic support programme.
Ghana is said to be targeting an amount of US$3 billion over three years from the International Monetary Fund once an agreement on a programme is reached. The new amount requested as a loan was double the government’s initial target of $1.5 billion.
Government hopes to complete negotiations by end of the year in order to receive the funds in the first quarter of next year.
The country is at the present facing a number of economic challenges which has been caused by both internal and external factors such as the depreciation of the cedi, revenue generation constraints, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fallouts of the Russia-Ukraine war, among others.
While the major cause of these factors may be debatable, the Public Enterprises Minister believes Ghana can adopt a number of measures which can propel the Ghanaian economy.
“How can we export Gold, bauxite, manganese, coal, timber, oil etc. and go broke and continue to find ourselves in this situation?” the Member of Parliament for Effia constituency wondered.
He also called for a rethink of the educational system in order to ensure it moves beyond just theory and rhetoric, to achieve much more in order to improve economic development by leveraging on vast natural resources.
Read the full statement below:
REORGANIZING AND RESTRUCTURING OF GHANA’S ECONOMY – WHAT THE YOUNGER GENERATION SHOULD BE TAUGHT
Good morning, folks. For the past three to four days, I’ve had an intense engagements with my “A’-Level Classmates on our WhatsApp platform. It’s been an interesting and productive interaction. I learnt that what we’ve been taught early days in school is what we continue to believe in our current stations in life, in spite of real-world evidence pointing to the contrary. The question below came up from the engagements and I would like to share my response to the question with you;
THE QUESTION:
Joe, let me ask this ignorant question. Maybe it’ll give you the opportunity to expand your ECONS 101 lecture.
How can we export Gold, bauxite, manganese, coal, timber, oil etc. and go broke and continue to find ourselves in this situation?
1. TIMBER: Do not expect a country that cut and sell big trees in the 21st century to be a rich country. Cutting and selling trees called timber from natural forest is primitive. Note that the country that buys the trees (timber) and processes them into wood products and sell back to the primitive economy will be the rich country.
2. BAUXITE: Don’t expect a country that scoops a type clay from the ground and sell in the 21st Century to be rich. The country that buys the clay and refines it into alumina and then to Aluminium and then produce Aluminium products from it will be the rich country and the one that export the “mere clay” called bauxite will remain poor.
3. GOLD: A country that digs the ground and looks for a certain type of rocks that bears gold and then uses poisonous chemicals like cyanide, arsenic and mercury to search for unrefined gold and sell it is doing a primitive job. The country that buys the unrefined gold, refines it, assays it, and produces high valued jewels or uses the gold as reserves to back its currency will be the rich country. The one doing the primitive job of mining the gold will perpetually be poor.
4. OIL: A country that doesn’t have its own capital to risk and explore for its own crude oil and when it finds one, appraise it by itself and finance the development of the crude oil production facilities and then produce and sell will be the poor one. On the contrary, the country that can raise tha risk capital which is used to search for oil and can also raise the capital required for developing the production facilities will be a richer country than the country which merely has the crude oil under the sea/ground but cannot bring it out by itself.
5. MANGANESE: Manganese is also a type of rock we mine and sell these rocks primitively just like we were doing during Guggisberg’s time in the 1920s. Manganese is used to produce a variety of important alloys and to deoxidize steel and and as desulfurizer. It is also used in dry cell batteries. Further, Manganese is also used as a black-brown pigment in paints. Of all these industrial uses of manganese, we do not carry out a single one here as a country. If you ask even tertiary students in Ghana the uses of manganese, they wouldn’t even know. Meanwhile, primitively, we still dig the grounds for the rock and sell and expect to be rich. Unfortunate
6. COCOA: Kofi, you didn’t add cocoa but let me say that a country that clears the bush, plants a tree, waits for three years or more for the tree to bear fruits and then go through a laborious series of tasks to crack the pods, dry the beans, bag the beans and haul them to the ports to sell to other countries to process them in few days and rather sell at higher values, is just doing a primitive economic activity. You can’t expect to be rich.
7. From the points 1 to 6 above, you realize that we are in this world today in 2022 (Two Thousand and Twenty Two Years) after the death of Christ) still largely undertaking SLOW, PRIMITIVE AND LESS VALUED ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES and using the little proceeds of foreign exchange to import FAST FACTORY PRODUCED ITEMS like petrol, diesel, phones, cars, Aluminium products, electrical products, electronic products, bottles, computers, Tyres, drinks, aboboyaa , motor cycles, chocolate drinks, photo frames, clothes, paints, footwears, steel, automobiles, air conditioners, machine tools, pizza and other food items, etc, etc.
8. Unfortunately, we expect to be a rich country from our primitive economic activities. Your cedi will continue to fall saaaa until you understand what President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is doing through the Alan driven 1D1F program and Vice President Bawumia driven Ghana Card and Digitalization program to solve pretty much robustly and “permanently” the unemployment and frequent country-broke, frequent IMF, and the weak cedi we have always had.
9. Our education system and our old economists should stop teaching we export this, we export that and all that primitive economic stuffs and psyche all of us to move in the direction of high value economic activities like factory production, service deliveries and technological innovations and deployment. I’m personally sick and tired of hearing we export this, we export that when the exports are just clay, rocks, metals, beans, and some crude liquid.
10. This is what we should use the over 500 FM stations in Ghana to teach ourselves and deploy or educational facilities to achieve. Mindset changing time is here, KOFI.
Thanks for the question!
HON JOSEPH CUDJOE
MP FOR EFFIA CONSTITUENCY
MINISTER FOR PUBLIC ENTERPRISES
According to him, businesses needed to pick up after the COVID-19 hiatus, and the NBSSI was giving small and medium-sized business owners technical training and strengthening their capacity so they could improve their management skills.
Mr. Bukari was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Bolgatanga in response to what opportunities had been made available to businesses to rejuvenate after the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said Micro and Small Enterprises (SMEs) were the backbones of the country’s economic development and therefore government ensured that the NBSSI was equipped to carry out its mandate to support them.
He said NBSSI was collaborating with its partners to provide non-financial and technical support to equip the SMEs to sustainably develop their businesses and improve incomes.
The Government of Ghana, in 2020 provided stimulus packages to SMEs under the COVID- 19 Alleviation Project and Business Support Scheme (CAP BUSS) to mitigate the difficulties businesses suffered under the pandemic.
Many women in business, in the region, benefited from the project.
In 2022, a second phase of the COVID- 19 response programme is being rolled out to further enhance economic recovery, with a grant from the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) grant Programme, Government, and the World Bank under the Ghana Economic Transformation Project for SMEs nationwide in the various Sectors of the economy.
The NBSSI is a non-profit public sector organization under the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and the Presidential Special Initiatives under the Business Advisory Centers (BACs) established by Act 434 of 1981 with a mandate to promote the growth and development of Micro and Small Enterprises in the Country.
A spell binding performance by a South African musician has got the attention of R&B singer John Legend after he challenged musicians to record a verse for his latest song.
Mthandazo Gatya added “an African touch” as he called it, to Legend’s Nervous hit.
The American singer had posted a video of himself on TikTok singing a verse from his hit song and cueing others to join in.
Gatya, according to many fans, created the magic that Legend was looking for. Watch below:
“Thank you all for making sure John Legend sees my duet, great news is that he loved it and replied,” Gatya tweeted.
His verse, sang in his native Zulu, quickly became the fans’ favourite attracting more than one million views. Others urged Legend to end the challenge because there was a clear winner.
Gatya, a well known Amapiano artist, gained fame for a song widely shared online during South Africa’s lockdown to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were recently blamed by the Fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, for the current economic circumstances in Ghana.
She argues that because these two issues have had a big impact on other economies, Ghana’s economic difficulties cannot be attributed to the country’s government’s misguided policies.
However, Isaac Adongo’s response to the crisis suggested that the Bretton Woods institution sent the wrong message when it blamed these two outside sources for the economic catastrophe.
The Bolgatanga Central lawmaker further accused the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration of colluding with the IMF to paint a false narrative of Ghana’s true economic situation.
“It is dishonesty for people who have profited from propaganda; people who have come to power on the back of the deception of the Ghanaian people that going to IMF defines incompetence, to now be turning around to say that we should not have that debate. Didn’t Dr. Bawumia describe John Mahama with unprintable words for taking Ghana to the IMF?.”
The NPP should hang its head in shame for putting us here, I want to say.
They want to now engage in double-talk by collaborating with the IMF through PR.
The IMF has a dossier from 2019 that indicates the country was headed in the wrong way, therefore the truth is that they have mismanaged the economy, he emphasized.
Upon reaching an agreement on a program, Ghana is reportedly looking to receive $3 billion from the Fund over the course of three years.
The latest loan request was for $2.5 billion, which was double the previous $1.5 billion goal set by the administration.
He claims that the argument over whether or not the nation’s economy is strong enough to support aid from abroad is pointless and should not be promoted.
Kweku Kwarteng’s remarks are in response to the Minority’s worries on the IMF’s assertion that the Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic have severely harmed Ghana’s economy.
“Is this a point worth responding to? This whole discussion about Ghana subscribing to the IMF for the 17th time because of COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine war – do we genuinely believe that for the sake of our country, this is a question we should be addressing? Won’t it be brilliant to be debating who has a better strategy to make this 17th appearance at the IMF the last for the country”, he quizzed on Eyewitness News.
Responding to criticisms of the IMF’s assessment of Ghana’s economy, Director of the Communications Department at the IMF, Mr. Gerry Rice re-emphasized that Ghana’s plight has been worsened by the Russia-Ukraine war as it had already injected a lot of fiscal power into the pandemic.
This is a point Kweku Kwarteng corroborates, and called for a rather more healthy discussion on the development to find a lasting solution to the country’s heavy dependence on the IMF.
“Why are we preoccupied with this? What kind of discussions do we want to have about the economy right now? I believe that our economy has been challenged but as we grow, we should learn and begin to have discussions that will make this 17th appearance, the last one. Why can’t we put those fundamental issues taking us to the IMF on the table? Why turn the debate into a blame game? Let’s correct things and focus on having helpful debates”.
Ghana is before the IMF to help the country navigate the economic crisis it finds itself in, which was worsened by the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The country is seeking a $3 billion package from the fund.
Additionally, he has worked for the IMF in a number of departments in places including the Middle East, Central Asia, and its African Department, mainly in Ghana and Mozambique.
Before joining the IMF, Dr. Leandro Medina worked as an international consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank, participating in Portfolio Review and Policy Dialogue missions to Argentina and Uruguay.
Dr Medina comes to the position at a time that Ghana is seeking US$3 billion from the fund to help stabilize the economy which has been impacted by both internal and external factors such as the depreciation of the cedi, revenue generation constraints, the COVID-19 pandemic, Rausia – Ukrain war and among others.
Following that, between July 6 and July 13, a delegation from the Fund led by Carlo Sdralevich traveled to Ghana and spoke with pertinent parties.
Kristalina Georgiva, the IMF’s managing director, recently stated that her organization is committed to reaching a deal with the Government of Ghana before the end of this year.
She continued by saying that so far, positive negotiations for a potential economic support program had taken place with Ghanaian officials.
Wu Zunyou, the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) epidemiology department, issued a warning against “skin-to-skin contact with foreigners” in a post on Weibo.
The message sparked debate, with some calling it racist.
Comments on the original post have since been disabled from the platform.
“In order to prevent possible monkeypox infection and as part of our healthy lifestyle, it is recommended that 1) you do not have direct skin-to-skin contact with foreigners,” said Mr Wu on his Weibo page on Saturday.
In addition, Mr Wu also called for locals to avoid skin-to-skin contact with recent travelers who had returned from abroad in the last three weeks, and with strangers.
He posted the comments a day after the southwestern city of Chongqing reported its first case of monkeypox in an individual who arrived from abroad. It is not clear if the individual was a Chinese citizen or a foreigner.
“This is very inappropriate [to say]. At the start of the pandemic, some foreigners stood up and [defended us] by saying that Chinese people are not viruses,” wrote one commenter.
“How racist is this? What about the ones like me who have been living in China for almost ten years? We haven’t seen our families in like 3-4 years due to borders being closed,” wrote another user on Weibo, who appeared to be a foreigner.
China has imposed some of the world’s toughest Covid measures since the start of the pandemic, which have included snap lockdowns, border closures, mandatory testing, and travel restrictions.
The monkeypox virus, which is transmitted through close contact with infected people, animals, or contaminated materials, usually causes symptoms such as fever, headache, and rashes.
Around 90 countries where monkeypox is not considered endemic have reported outbreaks of the viral disease, which the World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency.
There have been more than 60,000 confirmed cases and some non-endemic countries have reported their first related deaths.
He said this while delivering the keynote presentation at the Ghana Bar Association’s annual bar conference.
“In recent times, we have been witnessing significant difficulties in the management of the national economy, largely as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy, which has been exacerbated by the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We will do so again. In fact, in the last quarter of 2021, the recovery from COVID-19 appeared to be on course, when our economy grew by seven percent (7%), only for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the first quarter of this year to exacerbate our challenges. We will overcome them,” he said.
However, the President emphasized that the fundamental commitment to addressing these issues within the bounds of fair procedures and democratic institutions must endure.
And I am convinced that we will overcome these obstacles, God willing,” Akufo-Addo said.
When consumers were stuck inside during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, there weren’t many places to spend money. So they turned their attention to technology, scooping up new gaming consoles, monitors and PCs that made living and working from home a bit easier.
Now, as people return to offices, gyms and restaurants and rethink their spending as inflation starts to bite, sales of gadgets are taking a hit — as are the companies making the chips that power them.
What’s happening: Nvidia (NVDA), which warned earlier this month that its sales were dropping due to weaker gaming revenue, shared earnings on Wednesday. The firm posted revenue between May and July of $6.7 billion, up 3% from one year ago but down 19% from the previous quarter.
“This was a challenging quarter,” Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress told analysts. “Macroeconomic headwinds across the world drove a sudden slowdown in consumer demand.”
Gaming revenue was dinged in part due to a decline in cryptocurrency mining that relies on Nvidia’s chips. Matt Bryson, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, told me that the downturn was tied to the pullback in crypto prices, which has chilled enthusiasm in the sector, and to changes in how the digital coin ether is produced.
Revenue of data center chips reached a record last quarter, but wasn’t as high as the company would have liked given supply chain disruptions.
Looking ahead: The situation isn’t due to improve any time soon. The company said that revenue for its current quarter would come in around $5.9 billion, down 17% year-over-year, and that its gaming business would continue to retrench. Shares are off more than 3% in premarket trading on Thursday.
Nvidia isn’t the only company in the industry that’s run into trouble. Last month, Intel (INTC) posted a surprise loss, pointing to the “sudden and rapid decline in economic activity.”
The firm forecast a sharp drop in PC chip sales this year as top customers tried to clear out existing inventory, a sign they’re expecting lower demand for products.
“This weakness is pervasive across the semiconductor industry for companies that sell into either the PC space … or into the handset space,” Bryson said. “It comes back down to the consumer.”
Problems are spread across markets, too. A report by analytics firm Canalys published on Thursday found that PC shipments from China fell by 16% in the second quarter, the worst decline in nine years.
On the radar: Providing chips for data centers has been a huge revenue driver in recent years, as cloud offerings from companies like Google and Amazon have taken off. But there are concerns that Big Tech firms could pull back spending on this front if other parts of their businesses run into trouble.
The fear, Bryson said, is that if companies spend less on Google ads, or Amazon customers don’t order as many items, those giants of the tech world (and the stock market) may turn more conservative.
His question: “Will the struggles of the consumer ultimately affect them?”
What Biden’s student debt relief plan means for the economy
President Joe Biden’s student loan plan is a potential game changer for Americans drowning in debt. But what will it mean for the economy at a moment when policymakers are losing sleep over high inflation?
The latest: Biden announced Wednesday that his administration will forgive $10,000 for borrowers who make less than $125,000 per year. Low-income graduates who went to college on Pell Grants will receive up to $20,000.
This debt relief will give tens of millions of borrowers some breathing room at a time when the cost of living has skyrocketed.
That said: The cancellation of student debt is being paired with a plan to lift the freeze on federal student debt payments beginning in January 2023. That means many Americans who haven’t had to pay down student loans since March 2020 will have to begin doing so, hurting their budgets.
According to economists, this policy combination means the overall impact on the economy and prices will be minimal, my CNN Business colleague Matt Egan reports.
“The end of the moratorium will weigh on growth and inflation, while the debt forgiveness will support growth and inflation,” said Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. “The net of these cross-currents is largely a wash.”
Moody’s estimates that the combined impact will reduce real GDP in 2023 by 0.05 percentage points, drive down unemployment by 0.02 percentage points and cut inflation by 0.03 percentage points. In other words, a drop in the bucket.
“We’re talking about a really small impact,” said Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “But for individuals this makes a big difference.”
The political fight over ESG is heating up
ESG is a wonky acronym for finance professionals. But in red states, aligning investment decisions with good environmental, social and governance practices has become a political football, putting Wall Street on the defensive.
This just in: Texas agencies could bar BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, and nine European firms — including UBS and Credit Suisse — from doing business in the state after its comptroller on Wednesday found that the companies were boycotting the energy industry, breaking a new law intended to protect the fossil fuel sector.
“The environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) movement has produced an opaque and perverse system in which some financial companies no longer make decisions in the best interest of their shareholders or their clients, but instead use their financial clout to push a social and political agenda shrouded in secrecy,” Comptroller Glenn Hegar said.
BlackRock (BLK), which manages about $20 billion for public funds in Texas, criticized the decision by officials to politicize state pension funds, which it said would impact financial returns for retirees.
It’s not just Texas. This week, Florida passed a resolution directing the state’s fund managers to ignore ESG factors when making investment decisions.
My takeaway: ESG investments have struggled this year, since many funds have a lot of exposure to tech names that have been hammered hard by the market sell-off. But when I speak with investors, many say they have no choice but to consider how companies in their portfolios are tackling issues like the climate crisis, since this could have a big impact on future returns.
Defending these decisions could become trickier should ESG become increasingly ensnared in America’s culture wars. But broadly speaking, firms are unlikely to change tack.