The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Communications Director, Richard Ahiagbah, has downplayed the growing discontent with the Akufo-Addo government, which has been reflected in polls and recent protests.
Speaking on The Point of View, Mr. Ahiagbah maintained that Ghana’s economic crisis has external causes because “the whole world is not going in the right direction.”
A recent poll by Global Info Analytics has indicated that 77 percent of Ghanaians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.
This comes amid crippling inflation and fuel prices that have left many Ghanaians frustrated.
But Mr. Ahiagbah remarked that “I think polling in this environment is biased, to begin with, because people’s emotions are in a certain place, so you are going to get a predictable outcome.”
“What is really of consequence is the effort and the commitment of the government that is in power who for some reason is caught up in this global economic downturn,” he added.
But responding to Mr. Ahiagbah on the show, the organiser of the recent ‘Ku Me Preko’ protest, Martin Kpebu slammed the NPP communicator’s remarks.
Mr. Kpebu told him: “don’t ever say that in public again because the more you say people are being emotional, the more people will come at you.”
“Our savings, your money in the bank or under your bed, over 60 percent of its value is gone, and you say people are being emotional?”
Charles ‘CK’ Akonnor discusses how someone did not want him at the helm of the Ghana national team and pushed for his sacking ahead of the 2021 Afcon.
WHAT HAPPENED: The tactician was fired on September 13, 2021, after the Black Stars suffered a 1-0 loss away against South Africa in Group G’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
The move happened about four months before the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations which was eventually held in Cameroon.
THE BIGGER PICTURE:
Milovan Rajevac was eventually appointed 11 days later, making a return to the team he had coached in 2010.
However, his stay was short-lived as Ghana performed poorly at Afcon and collected just a point in their group. The then 67-year-old was shown the door with Otto Addo taking his place.
The latter helped the Black Stars qualify for the 2022 World Cup.
Akonnor has now stated he was hurt by the changes, insisting there was foul play.
WHAT HE SAID: “[Being the head coach at the 2021 Afcon] was a dream but one way or the other, somebody shut it down, who that person is, I don’t know,” Akonnor told Joy Sports’ Prime Take.
“I wouldn’t say so [I would have done better than what Rajevac did], but I had a plan and if that plan had worked, maybe we would have done better than we did.
“At least, the FA should have allowed me to go to the Afcon and come back because my contract was even running out. I was hurt but I am better now.”
The 2022 World Bank’s Africa Pulse Report has ranked Ghana as the country with sub-Sahara Africa’s (SSA) highest food prices.
The report was released at the end of last month, October 2022, and indicated that domestic food prices have gone up by 122 percent since January this year.
Indeed, the country’s inflation has been rising to an all-time high of 37.8 percent for September 2022 – driven largely by food prices, according to data from the Ghana Statistical Service(GSS).
With many Ghanaians feeling the heat and cost of food prices running out of control, the situation is being exacerbated as the year-on-year inflation rate for September 2022 from the 16 administrative regions was almost 38 percent.
This means general price levels have soared in September 2022, higher than September 2021 as month-on-month inflation between August 2022 and September 2022 was 2 percent, according to the Ghana Statistical Service.
Correspondingly, panelists in the agribusiness sector during the 11th Ghana Economic Forum (GEF) cautioned Ghanaians to brace for more hikes in cost of food over the coming months.
The panel included Chairperson of the Agribusiness Association of Ghana Industries, Fatima Alimohamed, who disclosed that “there is a looming shortage of foodstuff and its associated high costs”.
The discussions were on the topic ‘Ensuring food sustainability and security: an analytical overview of the PFJ and implications for economic growth’.
Also, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has projected in its Finance and Development Journal that food import bills for some 62 vulnerable countries will hit more than US$25 billion this year, putting 1.7 billion people at risk of going hungry in the future.
A chunk of these 62 countries, according to the FAO, are African countries south of the Sahara.
The FAO said rising cost of fertiliser on the global market will negatively affect availability of rice and other staple foodstuffs for the entire 2023, and probably beyond.
The organisation observed that rice production and availability will slump to their lowest from 2023 due to increase in the cost of fertiliser, as prices of the cereal are starting to rise.
“These developments pose risks because rice is a key staple around the world, including sub-Saharan Africa,” the FAO indicated.
The plan by tgovernment to demolish all buildings built on the Sakumono Ramsar site has undergone a significant U-turn.
This will result in the regularization of all the landowners on the specified area.
Since the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, spoke with the impacted parties, the initial planned demolition of every building on the site has been postponed.
Outcomes of the stakeholder meeting on Sunday, November 6, 2022, indicated that the government is taking steps to regularize the structures at the Ramsar site.
“I want to say here and now that not a single building will be demolished.
“We will go through some processes of discussions, and we will have this kind of meeting again in about three weeks’ time by which time we would have had a clear road map,” he said.
It will be recalled that weeks ago, the Regional Security Council in the Greater Accra Region went ahead with its planned demolishing exercise at the site, bringing down a number of buildings.
The exercise was being undertaken as a result of encroachment on the state land by private owners.
It was also believed that the encroachment had, over the years, led to flooding in areas around the site such as Ashaiman, Tema and other adjoining communities.
Fitch, a leading provider of credit ratings, has stated that there is a prpbability that Ghana could default on its debt repayment.
The agency said that Ghana’s sovereign credit rating may yet face another downgrade closer to default.
Fitch, according to a report by myjoyonline.com stated that this could become an even more definite thing should Ghana’s talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3 billion package bring about a restructuring of the country’s debts.
Following the economic challenges faced by the country, Ghana began its formal negotiations for the extended credit facility programme with the IMF in September 2022.
It has been the hope of the government that this move would bring some stability in the economy, amid the rapid depreciation of the Ghana cedi and soaring inflation rates.
This was after cutting its 2022 discretionary expenditure by as much as 30%. However, this did not deter investors from dumping Ghana’s Eurobonds.
According to Bloomberg, Ghana was considering restructuring part of its 190.3 billion ($13.6 billion) of local debt, as part of the talks with the International Monetary Fund.
A committee was formed in October 2023 to solicit views from bondholders for a debt management strategy.
The United Nations has indicated its readiness to scale up support for Ghana under its newly-proposed Cooperation Framework.
Under a previously signed framework, a total of $440 million was expended in assisting the country towards achieving her developmental need.
However, in what he describes as “realignment,” the UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana, Charles Abani, revealed that the new framework (2022-2025) is expected to scale up assistance to over $500 million.
“This is a gross increase in the value that comes through the UN system into Ghana. The 261 (million) that we announced at the Global Citizens (festival) is the core part of that and that has been secured already.”
UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana, Charles Abani
“For the rest, we are in the motion of raising that fund, which backs my pledge that we stand ready to support,” Charles Abani told JoyNews.
In its report titled, ‘The Impact of the War in Ukraine on Sustainable Development in Africa’, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) noted that “Africa is facing a double crisis with the combined effects of the war in Ukraine and of the Covid-19 pandemic – now is a critical time for action.”
“It is time to intensify efforts and reframe development finance, strengthen resilience in African economies, and foster economic transformation as a key driver for change in Africa,” the report added.
Charles Abani [left] and Blessed Sogah
Commenting on the report, Charles Abani noted that the UN is collaborating with Ghanaian agencies to avert the impact of these exogenous factors hindering sustainable development.
“We need to ensure that we are investing in things that matter most. We should work more on strengthening Ghana’s institutions and the capacity of Ghanaians,” he stressed.
The United Nations is hopeful the government of Ghana will cooperate with its officials to successfully flesh out the cooperation framework.
President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Dr. Humphrey Ayim-Darke has told industries to be courageous and rally behind the measures outlined by the President to tackle the economic challenges.
He asked players in the industry to develop modalities to help circumvent the challenges.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday November 5, he said “Our case as an industry is, what are the remedies? It is necessary that at this stage we gather the courage as the president did and then from there, with what he has outlined as part of his proposed solutions, players in the space or actors in the various sectors of the economy should quickly rally around the said call and then develop modalities to circumvent the challenges.”
He added “What can we say are the source of hope? That there is light at the end of the tunnel, how quickly can we all come together and take charge and seek to rectify the destruction that has befallen us. This has been the position of AGI leadership.”
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-0Addo in his public address on Sunday October 30 said the success of the government’s efforts at diversifying the structure of the Ghanaian economy from an import-based one to a value-added exporting one is what will, in the long term, help strengthen our economy.
“We are making some progress with the 1D1F but our current situation requires that we take some more stringent measures to discourage the importation of goods that we can and do produce here.
“To this end, we will review the standards required for imports into the country, prioritise the imports, as well as review the management of our foreign exchange reserves, in relation to imports of products such as rice, poultry, vegetable oil, tooth picks, pasta, fruit juice, bottled water and ceramic tiles, and others which, with intensified government support and that of the banking sector, can be manufactured and produced in sufficient quantities in Ghana. Government will, in May 2023, that is six (6) months from now, review the situation. We must, as a matter of urgent national security, reduce our dependence on imported goods, and enhance our self-reliance, as demanded by our overarching goal of creating a Ghana Beyond Aid.
“Much as we believe in free trade, we must work to ensure that the majority of goods in our shops and market places are those we produce and grow here in Ghana. That is why we have to support our farmers and domestic industries, including those created under the 1-District-1-Factory initiative, to help reduce our dependence on imports, and allow us the opportunity to export more and more of our products, and guarantee a stable currency that will present a high level of predictability for citizens and the business community. Exports, not imports, must be our mantra! Accra, after all, hosts the headquarters of the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area.”
He added “as the French would say, l’argent n’aime pas le bruit, to wit, money does not like noise, sika mpɛ dede. Where there is chaos, where there is noise, where there is unrest, you will not find money. If you talk down your money, it will go down. If you allow some unidentifiable person to talk down your money, it will go down.
“The recent turbulence on the financial markets was caused by low inflows of foreign exchange, and was made worse in the last two to three weeks, in particular, by the activities of speculators and the Black Market. An anonymous two-minute audio message on a WhatsApp platform predicting a so-called haircut on Government bonds sent all of us into banks and forex bureaus to dump our cedis, and, before we knew it, the cedi had depreciated further. All of us can play a part in helping to strengthen the cedi by having confidence in the currency, and avoiding speculation. Let us keep our cedi as the good store of value it is. To those who make it a habit of publishing falsehoods, which result in panic in the system, I say to them that the relevant state agencies will act against such persons.
“Indeed, some steps have been taken to restore order in the forex markets and we are already beginning to see some calm returning. We will not relent until order is completely restored. The following actions have been taken thus far: 1) enhanced supervisory action by the Bank of Ghana in the forex bureau markets and the black market to flush out illegal operators, as well as ensuring that those permitted to operate legally abide by the market rules. Already some forex bureaus have had their licenses revoked, and this exercise will continue until complete order is restored in the sector;
“2) Fresh inflows of dollars are providing liquidity to the foreign exchange market, and addressing the pipeline demand; 3) the Bank of Ghana has given its full commitment to the commercial banks to provide liquidity to ensure the wheels of the economy continue to run in a stabilized manner, till the IMF Programme kicks in and the financing assurances expected from other partners also come in;
” Government is working with the Bank of Ghana and the oil producing and mining companies to introduce a new legal and regulatory framework to ensure that all foreign exchange earned from operations in Ghana are, initially, paid to banks domiciled in Ghana to help boost the domestic foreign exchange market; and 5) the Bank of Ghana will enhance its gold purchase programme.”
Ghana goalkeeper Richard Ofori on Saturday won his second trophy with South African giants Orlando Pirates.
Ofori joined the Pirates in October 2020 and has been their first-choice goalkeeper ever since.
He has become so important in the last two years that he now captains the team.
He wore the armband and led the team to victory in the MTN8 competition on Saturday.
Orlando Pirates won this year’s title with a 1-0 victory over AmaZulu, thanks to a stunning free-kick from Monnapule Saleng at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
The Buccaneers have won the competition for the second time in three years, their eleventh MTN8 championship overall.
“Special feeling and a great win. This win is for the fans. They have supported us every moment along the way and time for us to dedicate this trophy to them,” the 29-year-old said in a post-match interview.’
Ofori is expected to be in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup which starts on November 20. Ghana will play Portugal, South Korea and Uruguay in the group stage.
Ghana presented customised Black Stars shirts to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the UN headquarters on Friday, on the sidelines of Security Council meetings, where Ghana is President for the month of November.
Ghana plays in Group H with Mr. Guterres’ country, Portugal, on November 24 at the World Cup in Qatar.
“This jersey is a gift from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. I’m sure the value will go up when we win the World Cup,” Ghana’s Permanent Representative at the UN, Harold Agyeman told Mr. Guterres amid laughter.
In response, the Secretary-General said, “the colour of the jersey is just like that of (Portuguese club) Benfica, the team I support.”
Mr. Guterres told his staff to keep the shirt securely in case Ghana did, in fact, win the World Cup.
He was also presented with a wood and glass-framed shirt in white, autographed by the Black Stars players.
President Akufo-Addo is due to address the Security Council on November 10.
Ghana is using its two-year term on the council, which began in January this year, to bring the world’s attention to the root causes of insecurity in Africa, especially in the Sahel and West Africa, and press for innovations in peace-keeping mandates.
The current subject of all conversations in Ghana is increasing inflation and the fall of the cedi. Transport prices have been increased, with many Ghanaians complaining about incurring huge costs instead of gaining money when coming to work.
For weeks and months now, the value of the cedi has been decreasing constantly. As a result, everything is becoming more and more expensive. Currently, one dollar is going for 13.014 cedis. This is an improvement to the latest rate, but still, the general trend is going down.
The issue is carried mainly on the traders’ shoulders – they are the ones who people point their fingers at as soon as the prices rise. Many Ghanaians accuse them of taking advantage of the situation and adjusting their prices to margins which fit them best.
How does inflation really affect the country and its citizens? Are the traders surviving or do they need to close their shops? Samuel Eshun, host of e.tv Ghana’s ‘Fact Sheet’ show addressed the issue at hand with president of GUTA, Dr. Joseph Obeng, who shared his thoughts on the economic situation and the performance of the cedi.
“It is my wish that we do not speculate around the dollar in a negative sense again”, Mr. Obeng said.
He explains that this negative speculation is dangerous and leads to panic buying.
The GUTA president says the government need to inspire hope in the economy to turn this speculation in a positive direction.
Another danger, in his eyes, is people profiting from the situation by putting their money in the bank in one country and taking it back in another, knowing that the rate is “lucky” for them. To prevent this, Mr. Obeng claims the Bank of Ghana could have easily dropped a directive that stops people from doing so.
GUTA has also been proposing alternative currencies to ease the pressure on the dollar. However, out of all the recommendations which were presented by the president just last week, this was the only one that he refused.
Last week, there was a discussion on a replacement of finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta. Now, the party has issued a statement to the effect that the president has agreed with them that the finance minister must be allowed to complete the IMF negotiation and to ensure that the preparation for the budget is done. Obeng claims to be neutral to this decision as long as the finance minister, new or old, inspires an improvement in the economy.
The GUTA president confirms the fact that businesses are collapsing due to the weak performance of the cedi. In the beginning of this year, one dollar was still going for 6.2 cedis. Since then, the situation has gotten drastically worse. “Businesses are collapsing, and they are collapsing fast.”
To survive as a business, he says the prevailing rate has to be benchmarked. You have to apply wisdom to your trading. This kind of forecast is very important.” He explains that you cannot simply overprize yourself out of the competition, because the customers are smart and not robots. You need to adapt to the competitors and the market.
Dr. Joseph Obeng rejects allegations that him like other businessmen are taking advantage of the situation. “It is not true, and can never be true,” he said.
Obeng emphasizes that IMF is of utmost importance to the economy. “Everything is rallied around the IMF discussion for the future of this economy.” He explains that the country suffers from a serious structural problem. To solve this, he says, “We have to be able to pinpoint the areas that are making the economy suffer. We are in a deep hole. It is not about the money that is coming. It is about the highness and the voters who are going to swallow the money.”
In his opinion, it is important to communicate clearly to IMF on where Ghana’s problems lie.
When it comes to the government, Mr. Obeng wishes for pragmatic, outside-the-box thinking to bring a solution to the people. “It is the time of the crisis that brings the best of leadership,” he said.
In the GUTA president’s opinion, we can no longer make the pandemic or the Ukraine war responsible for the economic situation.
“We are in a global village, all of us have problems.” Ghana is one of those countries in his eyes, and therefore it needs to find out where the problem is and solve it.
The Registrar of the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, Dr. Kingsley Agyemang, has called on the leadership of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) to calm their members as it prepares to pay their scholarships.
According to him, the Secretariat has been working around the clock to make payments to all the students on their scheme.
“Ghanaian students studying on government scholarships should keep calm; these arrears are not something usual in our operations ever since we took over, and I can assure you, we are working around the corner to end,” he assured.
Dr. Kingsley Agyemang made this known when the leadership of NUGS paid a call on him to discuss, among other things, the issues of non-payment of scholarships to beneficiaries both at home and abroad.
The President of NUGS, Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo, who led the delegation, commended the Registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat for spelling out the challenges students on scholarships are currently facing.
“Students studying on the government of Ghana scholarship are crying. For close to a year, a lot Ghanaian students on local and international scholarships by the Government of Ghana through the Scholarship Secretariat have not disbursed students’ bursaries to them. This has made it difficult for the students to fund their education due to the challenges confronting them as a result of this situation,” he said.
He also indicated that some of their members have been receiving notices of eviction from their hostels and apartments, with many of them at high risk of being rendered homeless.
Dr. Kingsley Agyemang admitted being very aware of these challenges but was quick to say that the global financial crisis has also been greatly affecting its operations.
He, however, assured them that they would be attended to in the shortest possible time.
“We have commenced payments of fees and in some areas stipends are also being paid. We have been engaging both the institutions and students to ensure we continue to keep our students in school. Let us continue to work as faithful partners and calm your students down as we sail through these challenges together,” he said.
Speaking to the media, he stated that the activities of illegal miners also known as galamseyers are affecting the cost of treating water.
“In the short term, we will not get treated water at all, and we will have to shut down, most of the equipment will be destroyed.
“In the long term, agriculture will be affected, food security will be affected, and economic growth will suffer… It is a complete system
and our livelihood is on the line as well,” he said.
GWCL has for some time now lamented the dire impact of “galamsey” activities on the production of water. The Water Resources Commission disclosed that the volume of water that GWCL has in its possession is limited, as such, the country is already engaging external bodies for assistance.
“When we say Ghana is importing water, we often look at the physical importation, but on the face of it, that is already happening. We are importing labour and tools into our water supply mechanisms.
“Whatever we consume is produced with water and if you don’t develop your water resources, and then you import some country’s products, what you are importing is what they have done as far as their water development is concerned.”
On the other hand, managing director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Dr. Clifford Braimah has called on the government to take pragmatic measures to rescue the country’s water bodies to prevent the country from importing water.
“The cost is unbearable. We are resorting to more expensive chemicals to be able to reduce the process lost. The cost of treatment continues to go up.
“Our system is not made for wastewater, but for fresh water. If we do not take the issue of illegal mining seriously enough and address it, our systems may break down, and we may not be able to produce water for Ghanaians anymore,” he added.
Illegal mining remains a battle for the country, government in its attempt to rid the nation of the menace has launched a variety of initiatives, such as Operation
Vanguard and Operation Halt, yet illegal mining still continues.
On Friday, October 21, 2022, President Akufo-Addo placed a ban on the manufacture, distribution, and sale of Chanfangs, which is predominantly used for illegal
mining on riverbeds.
According to him, “We have increased significantly, the level of sanctions against people who engage in galamsey, today, Ghanaians who get involved will get a 15-year minimum sentence if convicted and foreigners will get as long as a 25-year imprisonment if convicted,” President Akufo-Addo stated.
Meanwhile, the deputy minister in-charge of Mines at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker has stated that in order to eradicate the canker, it is necessary to look at the main cause of the issue, thus the purchase of Changfans must be examined.
“Per the law that governs the small-scale mining sector, those who are in a way mobilizing, manufacturing or assembling Changfans are not allowed in any way.”
“Obviously, when these things are being manufactured or assembled, they are not going to be used for taxi purposes, they are obviously going to put them on river bodies, so why do we allow them to manufacture them in the respective communities and then transport them to the riverside? I don’t think we need to wait for that or the finality of the process before we take an action and if we tackle from the source these struggles will be curtailed,” he added.
Assin Central Member of Parliament, Kennedy Agyapong, has admitted that things are hard under the present economic conditions, especially so for businesses.
Without enumerating the specifics of his claim, the outspoken lawmaker called for decisive action by way of rethinking plans, policies and programmes to ensure Ghana is weaned off donations and external support.
Agyapong was speaking on the October 25 edition of Net2 TV’s Morning Show programme.
“Business is tough, the economy is tough. If I sit here and say it is otherwise, I will be lying. I must admit that things are tough.
“But there is hope and what we should bear in mind is that it is situations like this that births inventions and innovations,” he stressed.
He said Ghana needs to reset and recalibrate economic models because “everyone the world over is taking care of themselves and to that end, we cannot depend solely on donations and handouts. It is time to review our policies and programmes and be bold.”
He related to pragmatic policies citing the touted policies of Dan Lartey’s Great Consolidated Popular Party, GCPP, and the Acheampong era. “We should put policies in place to help us live as normal human beings created by God.
He also referred to a list of imports and how much it costs, advancing thus, “let us address the importation of certain goods, import substitutions and build more factories,” citing how the 1D1F projects can help build an export-oriented economy as compared to the import-dependent one Ghana is grappling with.
Later that morning, a group of NPP MPs held a press conference demanding the removal of the Finance Minister over his management of the economy and the hard times that citizens were facing.
President Akufo-Addo intervened and got a concession on two grounds, that the Minister be allowed to conclude initial talks with the International Monetary Fund and present the 2022 budget and see to passage of its appropriation.
The president has also addressed the nation on the economic challenges and how the government intends to tackle them.
The 33rd Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) awards, which just concluded, recognized the marketing-focused Postal and Courier Service Company of 2021 as ShaQ Express, a tech startup that is 100% owned by Ghanaians.
ShaQ Express, which has transformed the postal and courier industries, defeated the competition from its rivals to win the prestigious honors.
At the awards ceremony conducted over the weekend and organized by the CIMG, the company received a certificate and a commendation.
This year’s event brought together big players in diverse industries to celebrate their marketing efforts toward the economic growth of the country.
The citation said the prestigious award given to ShaQ Express was in recognition of the company’s excellence in strategic marketing, from marketing insights through effective formulation of marketing mix programmes that helped to create value for the market, thereby delivering excellent results.
The Managing Director of ShaQ Express, Anthony Owusu-Ansah, said it was an honor to be recognised by a giant institution like the CIMG in the young life of the company.
“This is a huge win for the business, and we would like to thank our customers. We are here because of them. They challenged us to go above and beyond, and we owe this to them,” he said.
By providing a seamless platform, ShaQ Express allows vendors and shops to sell and also gives the convenience to customers to shop from a variety of stores, order food and cakes and move packages from one point to another.
The businesss, which started in 2020 as a delivery business, offering swift, secure and reliable services to customers in Accra, has now grown into a technology startup built around marketplace and logistics.
It currently has an active user base of over 13,000 customers, operating in four regions, namely Greater Accra, Central, Northern and Ashanti regions with plans of expansion to the other regions in Ghana and certain African countries in the pipeline.
Electric bikes
The company deployed electric bikes in Accra earlier this year as part of efforts to operate in a sustainable manner and also to cut down on its recurrent expenditure, particularly fuel.
Although a burgeoning business with dozens of delivery companies in operation, not many courier operators use electric motorbikes, making ShaQ Express one of the first companies to do so in the country.
One of the daughters of Ghanaian President Akufo-Addo has denied receiving a government contract of $25m (£22m) to paint murals in parts of the capital, Accra.
Gyankroma Akufo-Addo said such allegations were a “complete fabrication being propagated by some shameless persons”.
She said the three sites painted by her Creative Arts Agency company were conceived, managed and financed privately.
“This project was not embarked upon to make profit, and there have been no lucrative contracts awarded for it,” she said in a statement.
She said she would seek redress in court against people and media houses that published falsehoods on the project.
Cabinet has approved the Ghana Space Policy and Implementation Plan that will enable the full operationalisation of the Ghana Space Agency next year.
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia announced this at the opening of the plenary session of the Group of Earth Observations (GEO) Conference in Accra on Wednesday.
The policy, he said, would support efforts by the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute to explore and harness the space industry for accelerated growth.
Space applications are essential tools for security, environmental monitoring, communication, disaster prevention and risk reduction.
Ghana is hosting a five-day GEO 2022 Week titled “Global Action for Local Impact” to explore ways to use accurate and timely data, technology and services to address environmental challenges.
The meeting was organised by the Group of Earth Observations Secretariat, in collaboration with a local organising committee, comprising the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ghana Statistical Service and the University of Energy and Natural Resources as well as the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute, ahead of the Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP 27) in Egypt next week.
The GEO is a global partnership that works to make Earth observations tools and services openly available around the world for better policy and investment decisions.
Vice President Bawumia noted that investments in Earth observations capabilities were growing and enabling the widespread application of environmental intelligence to tackle environmental challenges.
Despite the increased data availability than ever before, the Vice President said, many low- and middle-income countries were lagging in infrastructure, capacity, and expertise to tap into advances made in Earth Observations technologies.
“The Africa Union’s (AU) Agenda 2063, the continent’s blueprint which is aligned with the post-2030 Agenda, seeks to transform Africa through inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development.
“Fundamental to Agenda 2063 are the African Outer Space Programme and African Space Policy and Strategy that reinforce the continent’s vision to not only be a consumer in the global space arena but to become a producer and regulator of space products,” he said.
Dr Bawumia noted that through those initiatives, the AU was working to address the growing needs of African countries to harness space technologies and services, including Earth observations to drive policies and decisions to attain the agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He observed that recent heatwaves and wildfires in Europe and severe storms and floods unleashed in some parts of Africa, the Americas and Asia had contributed to severe destruction and displaced thousands of people.
“These events reinforce our resolve to continue working collaboratively to find innovative solutions to build resilient economies, secure food, and water systems, and ensure the sustainable management of our planet,” Dr Bawumia added.
The Vice President stated that the meeting presented a unique opportunity for Africa to renew her unequivocal commitment to deepen international collaborations and develop national EO capabilities to support socio-economic transformation for the achievement of the “Africa We Want” and the “World We Want”, as articulated in the agenda 2063 and post-2030 Agenda respectively.
Dr Bawumia said the intra north-south and rural-urban migrations contributed to urban sprawl and expanding informal settlements. Unplanned spatial expansion of big cities threatened economic efficiency, increasing social and environmental costs for urban commuting.
More also, natural resource depletion heightened by unsustainable mining, inadequate waste management and sanitation, make Ghana extremely vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation and threaten resilience and economic growth.
Therefore, he said, earth observation systems could easily be used to track, and in some instances minimise the negative impact of these environmental problems.
“In Ghana, for example, we are applying the products of the Digital Earth Africa programme to monitor landscape changes because of illegal mining activities.
“Developing an interoperable data ecosystem that combines Earth observations data with other data, including socio-economic data, citizen data, and statistical data, among others would be more meaningful and impactful,” the Vice President stated.
He stressed government’s development priorities with focus on economic transformation through value-addition to create jobs, reduce poverty, and enhance social inclusion while sustaining the integrity of the environment.
“Our medium and long-term development plans are underpinned by the “Ghana Beyond Aid” vision to change the mindsets of our citizens towards an increased reliance on internal resources plus private sector investment to lead economic transformation,” he said.
He was of the belief that application of digital technologies was fundamental to the achievement of the “Ghana Beyond Aid” agenda, with emphasis on the maximisation of resources, investments in agriculture, improved health, and industrialisation, enhancing critical skills and education as well as promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency.
“We are almost finalising a new Digital Economy Policy and a Digital Transformation Blueprint to position Ghana as the leader in ICT innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
The ongoing Ghana Digital Acceleration Project, he said, was expected to increase access to mobile internet and broadband services by encouraging private sector investment in last-mile connectivity in underserved and rural areas, with particular attention to women, persons with disabilities and the youth.
He observed that the fight against poverty, hunger, natural resource depletion and efforts toward a clean environment, and to achieve economic prosperity posed a serious risk without a safe and secured planet.
“We believe that this gathering offers Ghana and the rest of Africa the opportunity to catalyse increased use of Earth observations data, tools, and services to inform decisions for accelerated climate and sustainable development action,” he stated.
The government, he said, was working through bilateral and multilateral partnerships to put in place concrete actions to boost resource efficiency, establish a circular economy, mitigate, and adapt to climate change, mitigate disaster risks and halt biodiversity loss.
“We are also actively pursuing improved ways to harness the power of earth observations to support planning and decision-making in weather forecasting, measuring land-use change, monitoring coastlines, and monitoring and responding to disasters, including fires, floods, and earthquakes.
The Vice President called upon the GEO community to continuously invest in capacity development in low and middle-income countries to acquire the necessary technologies, knowledge and skills to access and use EO data effectively.
The Vice President said it was imperative that the GEO community continue working together to create the enablers for nations not only to access GEO data and services but use them to address identified development challenges.
“Ghana reaffirms her commitment to being an active member of GEO. I remain hopeful that the outcomes of this meeting will maintain the momentum and reassert the global call to leave no one behind,” he stated.
A former Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby has called for the dissolution of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) if it can’t regulate fuel price hikes to protect consumers.
Dr. Wereko-Brobby in an interview on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, November 1, added that the NPA must control the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to follow the laws on deregulation.
“There is a jungle market going on in fuel pricing. Deregulation works because we have set up windows for which price changes will be announced. There are two windows for every month. The NPA as the regulator is supposed to ensure that it announces what is known as maximum retail prices, so no consumer gets cheated by the Oil Marketing Companies.”
“But NPA has reneged on its duty and given it to COPEC which ironically is supposed to be representing the interest of the consumer… COPEC is now the chief cheerleader for marketing companies who keep announcing prices willy-willy. That is not the way deregulation was set up to go, it just keeps piling the pressure on [consumers],” Dr Wereko-Brobby told host Umaru Sanda Amadu.
Dr. Wereko-Brobby who is also a chief policy analyst at the Ghana Institute of Public Policy Options added that “yes Russia-Ukraine war is causing trouble, it has made oil prices go up, but the problem is that the government passes all the cost onto us consumers, so prices are adjusted to reflect the current global prices but the windfall profits nobody wants to talk about it and then somebody says I feel your pain, you cannot feel the pain of Ghanaians when you ride 60 strong SUVs to travel round the country.”
“NPA is the regulator, why do you call them regulators if you can’t do anything? Then dissolve them. Why do we call them regulators, they are to make sure that the interest of the consumer and the business are both protected, you can’t have it one way.”
Fuel prices shot up again on Tuesday, November 1, with diesel hitting GH¢23.49 per litre, while petrol jumped to GH¢17.99 per litre with Kerosene also selling at GH¢14.70.
The new prices took effect on Tuesday, November 1, 2022.
To say ‘times are hard’ in Ghana now will only be stating the obvious, and for President Akufo-Addo to have confirmed the same only reaffirms the fact that the country is faced with very trying times.
From the crumbling Ghana cedi against foreign currencies like the United States dollar to the ever-rising prices of fuel, the soaring food prices and general standards of living, truly, the country is not in normal times.
In his words, President Akufo-Addo has assured Ghanaians that he will turn things around just as, he added, he has done before.
“For us in Ghana, our reality is that our economy is in great difficulty.
“We are in a crisis; I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time,” excerpts of his address to the nation on Sunday, October 30, 2022, read.
But while the president sought to indicate that there has never been a time in history where so many forces have come together to affect the country, there actually has been such a time before.
In fact, in that ‘such a time,’ when Ghana experienced one of its toughest economic downturns, it has emerged that there are some spooky similarities between those two years: 1983 and 2022.
It has emerged that the same calendar used in 1983 is the same calendar that is currently being used in the year 2022. For more clarity, if you look at the calendar of 1983 and 2022, it is the same thing.
Even more interesting is the fact that 1983 in Ghana was a time of a great food drought, while in 2022, the country is experiencing harsh economic difficulties.
A mere case of coincidence? Well, let’s look at the striking similarities between these two years that history appears to be repeating.
About the 1983 drought in Ghana:
The following description of what happened in 1983 was written by Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng and first published on GhanaWeb on May 13, 2013.
The year 1983 perhaps was the harshest year in Ghana’s modern history.
The year 1983 did not start well. One of the harshest droughts was in progress. There had been little meaningful rain since 1981; that is, it has either rained little or the rain had come at the wrong place and time. The drought could not have come at the worst possible moment.
To understand the full import of what happened, a bit of history is in order. The most unsettled decade for this country has to be the 1970s, the years during which, for good or ill, the chickens of the Nkrumah overthrow in 1966 came home to roost.
Maybe the Progress Party government of Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia could have succeeded in its policy of rural development, but we have no way of knowing because it lasted only 27 months. In the meantime, it managed to sell off state assets in a manner that foreshadowed other economic controversies, some would say disasters, in the following decades.
In January 1972, Colonel Kutu Acheampong and his close friends staged a military coup and took over the country. They did not appear to have any development strategy, but they managed to infuse a sense of purpose and urgency around their slogan of “Operation Feed Yourself” and a mild form of pan-Africanism and Nkrumaist orientation, later to be described as “domestication” by the late Dan Lartey who was one of their civilian advisers.
In 1975, Acheampong’s closest comrades in their National Redemption Council government were demoted to a second tier of government in a palace coup staged by the most senior officers in all branches of the military. They formed the Supreme Military Council, still with Acheampong as head but without the esprit de corps he enjoyed with his demoted friends, who quietly left the centre stage of government.
The SMC had no policies except staying in power through some of the most disastrous economic crises we have ever known. This article is not the place to go into the details of those policies and their consequences, except to remind us that almost all sections of society rose up against the government.
Trapped and with nowhere to go, the SMC tried one last trick; this was the “Union Government” (UNIGOV), an ill-defined coalition of civilians, soldiers and police officers. A botched referendum was the last straw, and yet another palace coup overthrew Acheampong in 1978 and replaced him with General F.W.K. Akuffo, who was generally acknowledged to be a first-class military officer but untested as a political leader. He is the man who used military discipline and precision to lead Ghana’s switch from driving on the left to the right in 1974 without a single accident on the day of the change.
However, his attempts, first to continue the UNIGOV scam under a different guise and then absolve the military of blame, did not sit well with soldiers and civilians.
On June 4 1979, a fortnight before the first general elections in a decade, a group of young soldiers overthrew the Akuffo government as they successfully released a certain Air force officer from custody at the Special Branch headquarters where he had been held since leading a failed insurrection on May 15 that year.
That young air force officer, of course, was Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, who needs no introduction in this discussion. On the last day of the year 1981, Rawlings, who had retired from the military, led another insurrection to overthrow the Limann-led Peoples National Party government, which had been in office since the Rawlings insurrectionist gave up power three months after their coup.
Flt Lt Rawlings announced at the beginning of his insurrectionary regime that it was a “revolution”, and the revolution’s first year saw the country economically destabilised partly by the revolutionaries’ own activities and by international pressure. Squeezed by international commercial lenders, Ghana’s credit dwindled and disappeared. Our credit was not a lot to start with; Nigeria had to bring in truckloads of gifts, including toilet rolls, to soften our difficulties during Christmas! Understandably, life got very difficult for most citizens of this country.
In the meantime, as the lack of raw materials shut local production of everything, we could make ourselves there was no money to import anything and yet warehouses had been emptied by revolutionaries pursuing social justice.
The revolutionaries had a point, even if it was excessively expressed. Ghana could not continue on the path, whichever it was, that had driven us that far. The nation needed restructuring, and whether a political revolution was the ideal way to perform this all-out change in those circumstances still needs to be debated in this country. There is a Japanese proverb that says, “although the sign reads, do not pluck these flowers from this garden, it is useless against the wind which does not read”. The drought did not read the revolutionary script and deepened as 1982 turned into 1983.
There had been little notice in the Ghanaian media that Nigeria had given a very strict and final ultimatum in 1982 to foreigners there to “regulate” their stay or be kicked out early in 1983. It is difficult not to conclude that Nigeria’s actions were in some way retaliation for Ghana’s own eviction of foreigners, mostly Nigerians, some fourteen years earlier.
More than one million Ghanaians had to pack bags and baggage and head home. They came into an empty country. Food was scarce and disappearing fast, and although our “returnees” came with some nicely painted bags known as “Ghana Must Go” and many stories of atrocities, none brought a morsel of food to add to the national stock.
Ghana at present:
The government of Ghana 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, 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 targeting an amount of US$3 billion over three years from the Fund once an agreement on a programme is reached.
Government hopes to complete negotiations by the end of this year in order to receive the funds in the first quarter of 2023.
Information Minister Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah has warned Ghanaians of a possible war between China and Taiwan which he said has the possibility of having disastrous consequences on Ghana’s economy.
According to him, Ghanaians are not talking about the implication of this ensuing conflict but will say it is not affecting Ghana’s economy once it happens like some are doing for the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
“There is a 3rd problem coming, and if we fail to pay attention to it, it hits us, and people will deny it is one of the reasons for the challenges in the country.
“Do you know that China has extended the tenure of office for Xi Jinping by an extra five years? Read Xi Jipin’s inaugural speech. Somethings we fail to pay attention to these things. Xi Jinping said that he would not rule out taking over Taiwan.
“The issues between China and Taiwan are no different from the issues of Russia and Ukraine – where one country thinks the other country is part of his territory and attempt to use false to annex it. If China attacks Taiwan can you imagine the consequences, especially at this time that crude oil costs $94 per barrel and is set to rise again due to OPEC cutting supply,” he said in Twi.
Oppong Nkrumah, who made these remarks in an Asempa interview monitored by GhanaWeb, said that the media in other countries are seriously discussing the implication of the potential war, but the media in Ghana are silent about it.
“If indeed China attacks Taiwan, what will be the implications? So, if we are not seeing the implication of the Russia-Ukraine war on our economy, what are we saying about the implication of a potential war between China and Ukraine?
“If you turn in to other (foreign) media houses, they are discussing the implications of this issue, but we are not, and if it hits us, we will be saying it is not affecting our economy,” he reiterated.
The information minister made these remarks while answering a question on calls by some Ghanaians for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to apologise to Ghanaians about the current hardships in the country.
He indicated that the president admitted that the country is facing an economic crisis, and calls for him to apologise for it are immaterial.
Ghana will assume the rotating monthly Presidency of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, 1st November 2022.
During the month of November 2022, Ghana shall preside over the meetings of the Council (adoptions, debates, and consultations) and, under its authority, shall represent the Security Council in its capacity as an organ of the United Nations.
The Security Council, which is composed of 15 Member States, is the organ of the United Nations authorised by the Charter with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.
The responsibility of presiding over the Security Council comes at a time when international peace and security are threatened in several parts of the world.
The President of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hon. Shirley Ayorko Botwey are expected to be in New York during the period to participate in the meetings of the Security Council.
Key highlights of Ghana’s presidency are two signature events that will take place on 3rd and 10th November, as well as an exhibition of Ghanaian arts and a food tasting event.”
The Deputy Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, has stated that the Bank of Ghana is to blame for the Ghana cedi’s depreciation.
According to him, the printing of new notes is the reason the cedi has been falling in recent times.
He noted that when the money supply is high, the cedi keeps falling.
“The key issues have to do with the failure of the Bank of Ghana. The Bank of Ghana is entrusted with the responsibility for price stability. The Bank of Ghana has the responsibility to maintain what we call the Inflationary Targeting Framework, which is built around making sure that the government does not unnecessarily borrow from the Bank of Ghana to finance the budget,” he is quoted by citinewsroom.com.
Adongo stated that the Bank of Ghana has been printing more money in recent times in a bid to finance government expenditures.
“Last year, the Bank of Ghana lent to the government about GH¢35 billion. By May this year, it lent an extra GH¢22 billion. This has put a lot of money into the economy. These monies are monies that are chasing the dollar everywhere. Once there is so much cedi chasing the dollar, the dollar has to run faster to save itself. This is why we are here. The Bank of Ghana has failed in all forms, and I am surprised people are pushing for the sacking of Ken Ofori-Atta and not Mr. Addison. Both of them have teamed up to derail our economy and compromise our future,” he said.
The South African high commissioner to Ghana, Grace Jeanet Mason, has said her country is ready to adopt Ghana’s One District One Factory (1D1F) programme to enhance industralisation at the district level.
Mason said the 1D1F programme provides a great opportunity for a thorough industrialisation drive.
She said South Africa will continue to collaborate with Ghana to improve bilateral trade under the
The South African high commissioner to Ghana, Grace Jeanet Mason, has said her country is ready to adopt Ghana’s One District One Factory (1D1F) programme to enhance industralisation at the district level.
Mason said the 1D1F programme provides a great opportunity for a thorough industrialisation drive.
She said South Africa will continue to collaborate with Ghana to improve bilateral trade under the AfCFTA.
Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday (31 October), Mason said, “… when the president [Ramaphosa] was here [Ghana] in December, we had conversations on the successes that we see as South Africa in the One District One Factory (1D1F).”
“That is something, that we as South Africa, will then adopt as well to look at our district level, how we continue to industrialise because that is part of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).”
The high commissioner said South Africa will continue to leverage Ghana’s comparative advantage in agriculture for the growth of the continent.
“So those are the comparative advantages and opportunities that we will leverage, amidst the current economic situation,” she added.
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Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday (31 October), Mason said, “… when the president [Ramaphosa] was here [Ghana] in December, we had conversations on the successes that we see as South Africa in the One District One Factory (1D1F).”
“That is something, that we as South Africa, will then adopt as well to look at our district level, how we continue to industrialise because that is part of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).”
The high commissioner said South Africa will continue to leverage Ghana’s comparative advantage in agriculture for the growth of the continent.
“So those are the comparative advantages and opportunities that we will leverage, amidst the current economic situation,” she added.
Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has said he has always had the notion that President Akufo-Addo is empty ever since he, Asiedu Nketia, was a member of parliament.
According to him, due to Akufo-Addo’s arrogance, he failed to learn from former President John Dramani Mahama’s address which had solutions and proposals.
In a Facebook post, he indicated that President Akufo-Addo’s address on Ghana’s economy on October 30 was “nothing beyond the smoke”.
“I have always insisted that President Akufo-Addo is empty. I formed this opinion many years ago as an NDC Parliamentarian. He was representing the NPP in Parliament. Listen critically to him, and you will know he is full of smoke. Nothing beyond the smoke.
“President Mahama set the right tone in his brilliant address with solutions and proposals at the UPSA for Akufo-Addo to learn from. But arrogance and lack of capacity deprived him of the opportunity to drink from his predecessor’s fountain of wisdom,” he said.
He urged Ghanaians to join the NDC to vote against the NPP in 2024.
“But there’s hope! We have elections 2024 to win to rescue Ghana from this incompetent and clueless NPP government that is determined to use foul means, including violence, to steal the outcome of the elections,” he stated on Facebook.
As part of the measures to restore Ghana’s economy to prosperity, the government have outlined some steps to be taken to stabilise the economy by 2028.
This was outlined by the president during his address on October 30.
Here are some of the measures Akufo-Addo outlined
1. To restore and sustain debt sustainability, we plan to reduce our total public debt to GDP ratio to some fifty-five per cent (55%) in present value terms by 2028, with the servicing of our external debt pegged at not more than eighteen per cent (18%) of our annual revenue also by 2028.
2. We are committed to improving the revenue collection effort, from the current tax-revenue to GDP ratio of thirteen (13%) to between eighteen and twenty per cent (18-20%), to be competitive with our peers in the West Africa Region. The GRA is rolling out an extensive set of measures to support this enhanced revenue mobilisation. All of us must do our patriotic duty and support the GRA in this exercise.
3. We are aiming to restore and sustain macroeconomic stability within the next three (3) to six (6) years, with a focus on ensuring debt sustainability to promote durable and inclusive growth while protecting the poor.
4. We have decided to review the reforms in the energy sector, capping of statutory funds, implementation of the exemptions Act and a new property rate regime. We have decided also to continue with the policy of thirty percent (30%) cut in the salaries of political office holders including the President, Vice President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MMDCEs, and SOE appointees in 2023, just as we will continue with the thirty percent (30%) cut in discretionary expenditures of Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
5. we will review the standards required for imports into the country, prioritise the imports, as well as review the management of our foreign exchange reserves, in relation to imports of products such as rice, poultry, vegetable oil, tooth picks, pasta, fruit juice, bottled water and ceramic tiles, and others which, with intensified government support and that of the banking sector, can be manufactured and produced in sufficient quantities in Ghana.
6. We must, as a matter of urgent national security, reduce our dependence on imported goods, and enhance our self-reliance, as demanded by our overarching goal of creating a Ghana Beyond Aid.
7. We must work to ensure that the majority of goods in our shops and market places are those we produce and grow here in Ghana. That is why we have to support our farmers and domestic industries, including those created under the 1-District-1-Factory initiative, to help reduce our dependence on imports, and allow us the opportunity to export more and more of our products, and guarantee a stable currency that will present a high level of predictability for citizens and the business community. Exports, not imports, must be our mantra! Accra, after all, hosts the headquarters of the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
8. Enhanced supervisory action by the Bank of Ghana in the forex bureau markets and the black market to flush out illegal operators, as well as ensuring that those permitted to operate legally abide by the market rules. Already some forex bureaus have had their licenses revoked, and this exercise will continue until complete order is restored in the sector;
9. Fresh inflows of dollars are providing liquidity to the foreign exchange market and addressing the pipeline demand;
10. The Bank of Ghana has given its full commitment to the commercial banks to provide liquidity to ensure the wheels of the economy continue to run in a stabilised manner till the IMF Programme kicks in and the financing assurances expected from other partners also come in;
11. Government is working with the Bank of Ghana and the oil-producing and mining companies to introduce a new legal and regulatory framework to ensure that all foreign exchange earned from operations in Ghana is initially paid to banks domiciled in Ghana to help boost the domestic foreign exchange market; and
12. The Bank of Ghana will enhance its gold purchase programme.
An assessment of citizens’ experience on COVID-19 vaccinations shows that vaccinators spent a minimal of about ten minutes at vaccination centres.
Similarly, a look at Ghana’s compliance with the National Vaccination Deployment Plan (NVDP) also shows that access to COVID-19 vaccines among vulnerable groups and eligible persons as captured in the plan looks promising but can be improved.
The monitoring, done by SEND Ghana, with funding support from the Partnership for Transparency Fund also shows that the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among healthcare workers, teachers and persons with co-morbidities was impressive.
Madam Anita Awuku, Program Coordinator, SEND Ghana, who disseminated findings of the assessment in Accra on Thursday, said the monitoring showed that generally, satisfaction with the vaccination process was very high.
However, there were some appreciable gaps relating to educating clients on the COVID-19 vaccines, possible side effects and how to deal with it as well as screening for contraindication conditions to the vaccine.
The assessment indicated that majority of the vaccination centres made available hand hygiene facilities, including alcohol-based sanitizers and separated waiting areas for vaccine recipients to rest and be monitored temporarily for any immediate adverse effects.
It showed that vaccination centres observed strict observance to infection prevention and control measures during vaccinations sessions and all the centres were cleaned.
Vaccine carriers had enough conditioned ice packs and healthcare workers in most of the centres practiced hand hygiene.
The assessment recommended that the Ghana Health Service(GHS) convened refresher sessions for its staff on the NDVP.
It said the health directorates must be encouraged to sustain the vaccine uptake promotion efforts to contribute to the attainment of herd immunity.
“Health promotion efforts for the COVID-19 vaccination exercise and subsequent vaccination exercise should adequately address possible side effects and safety as these are key for vaccine uptake,” the monitoring report said.
The assessment asked the Ministry of Health and the GHS to take steps to increase Cold Chain Equipment (CCE) and vaccine logistics across districts.
A teacher union group known as All Teachers Alliance Ghana (ATAG) is describing the move by some teacher Unions to kick against the appointment of the new Director General of Ghana Education Service(GES), Dr. Eric Nkansah, as impulsive.
This comes on the back of the president’s appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as the new Director General of the Ghana Education Service.
According to the union, Dr. Eric Nkansah’s appointment is proper and timely.
Speaking to Citi News, the National Chairman of ATAG, Isaac Ofori said he believes that the new Director General has come to make room for “smart and capable young teachers who have been excluded from power structures and decision-making processes at the education service.”
Seven ministers are expected to appear before the house to respond to questions, which include urgent and oral questions.
The ministers expected to appear are the Minister for the Volta Region, Minister for the Interior, Minister for Food and Agriculture, Minister for Health, Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Minister for Railways Development, and Minister for Roads and Highways.
The ministers will respond to over 40 questions during the week.
Aside from that, motions may be debated and their consequential resolutions, if any, taken during the week.
The Business Committee urged Ministers of State to endeavour to attend the House to respond to questions whenever they are scheduled to do so.
Also, some presentations of papers are expected this week, which include the Annual Report of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission for 2020; the Reconciliation Report on the Petroleum Holding Fund for the year 2021; and the Annual Public Debt Management Report for the year 2021, among others.
Aside from that, motions may be debated and their consequential resolutions, if any, taken during the week.
The world’s top cocoa producers, Ghana and Ivory Coast, are boycotting meetings in Brussels of the World Cocoa Foundation on cocoa sustainability this Wednesday and Thursday (October 26 and 27).
Authorities in the two West African countries accuse multinational chocolate companies and traders of blocking measures to improve cocoa farmers’ incomes.
Ghana and Ivory coast’s grievances concern the Living Income Differential (LID) set at a standard of $400 per tonne and charged on top of world prices. The LID was introduced in 2019 to guarantee cocoa farmers a minimum price that would improve the income of farmers, many of whom live in poverty.
But commodity traders set a negative differential for the two nations at 260 dollars per tonne.
In July 2022 a further decision was taken to no longer sell their cocoa with negative country differentials.
Both countries account for about two-thirds of global cocoa production, but farmers in those countries earn less than 6% of revenues in a chocolate industry valued at more than $100 billion a year.
Arguing that farmers have always been given a raw deal when it comes to pricing, four civil society organizations in Ghana and Ivory Coast have thrown their weight behind the boycott.
The World Cocoa Foundation, a group representing 80% of the global market, says its 2022 meetings are to discuss steps to improve farmer pay, combat child labor and end deforestation linked to cultivation of the crop.
A comprehensive report that looked at equity and governance as far as the distribution of Coronavirus vaccines are concerned in Ghana has been launched.
Titled “Monitoring Compliance of Ghana’s National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP) and Citizens’ COVID-19 Vaccination Experience,” the SEND GHANA report assessed compliance of Ghana’s National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP) and the equitable uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines.
With a focus on how health workers and teachers in particular adhered to the protocols set out for the vaccination of Ghanaians, the report found that many people were satisfied with the processes and had little complains.
Speaking to the media right after the report was launched in Accra, the Deputy Country Director of SEND GHANA, Dr. Emmanuel Ayifah, explained that the challenges from the global impacts of the novel Coronavirus influenced this report.
“All of us know that 2020 was a bad year globally because of COVID, and Ghana as a country put in place certain measures to contain the spread of the virus. One key thing that was done, of course, was vaccination.
“So, what SEND GHANA, in partnership with PTF did, was to monitor the COVID vaccinations. We have what is called the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP), which is protocol that has to be followed, and so we sought to monitor to see to what extent health personnel at vaccination centers were actually following NDVP.
“Another was also to assess citizens who have gone to vaccinate, their experiences as to how the vaccination went; whether they were satisfied or otherwise, and once we did that, we also had to focus on certain specific groups: health workers and teachers,” he said.
He also explained that it had been established, from the report, that many beneficiaries of the vaccination in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions (where the findings were done), were averagely satisfied with the professionalism of health workers.
“You remember that during the COVID, health workers and teachers were prioritized in terms of vaccination. So, we wanted to also find out to what extent the vaccination did well. What we established, in terms of the findings and some key recommendations, was that generally, citizens we interviewed during the exit interview session, were very satisfied as far as COVID vaccination was concerned,” he added.
Dr. Emmanuel Ayifah further said that from the findings in this report, SEND GHANA has recommended to the Ghana Health Service to employ the use of a messaging strategy that aims at protecting people’s families and friends.
He said that with such a strategy, more people, like they did during the vaccination for the COVID-19, would be willing to participate.
The SEND GHANA report was done with funding support from the Partnership for Transparency Fund (TFP).
The report also looked at an assessment of citizens experiences, opinions and motivations for vaccinations; vaccination uptake among prioritized groups using data from COVID-19 vaccination database; the adherence to vaccination safety protocols; the distribution of cold chain and logistics; as well as the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among health workers and teachers.
The report also focused on eight districts in the Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions (four for each) and involved exit interviews from a total of 677 people between the ages of 20 and 60 plus years.
Pressure group Arise Ghana has announced its decision to demonstrate over the severe economic hardship visited on Ghanaians by president Akufo-Addo’s administration.
The group made the announcement to demonstrate in a statement jointly signed by Mr Rex Omar, Mensah Thompson, Bernard Mornah and Bobie Ansah.
The demonstration is expected to come off on November 15, 2022.
Below is the full statement:
“Arise Ghana observes with grave concern the current trend of severe economic hardship that has been visited on Ghanaians.
“We are of the view that such degree of suffering visited on Ghanaians are as a result of the recklessness, incompetence and greed of President Akufo-Addo, Ken Ofori-Atta and Dr Mahamadu Bawumia.
“Arise Ghana also notes with even greater concern the recent spate of insults thrown at Ghanaians at the mere attempt to complain about the severe economic hardship they are forced to endure under President Akufo-Addo, not only from the President himself but from his family and close acquaintances.
“Arise Ghana as the most vibrant pressure group that has led Ghana’s economic struggles in recent past deem it very important to yet again rise to the ocassion and bring some hope to struggling young people and the good people of Ghana.
“Arise Ghana, therefore, wishes to use this medium to announce its plans to lead a massive demonstration in the capital on 15th November 2022.
“Ahead of this massive demonstration, Arise Ghana will also engage various groups such as trade unions, labour groups, youth groups and other stakeholders.
“Again we want to use this medium to commend people like lawyer Martin Kpebu, Prof Ransford Gyampo, Prof Bokpin and others who have been fearless in pointing out the current crisis that we find ourselves in.
“We wish to assure them that they enjoy unflinching support from Arise Ghana and we shall stand with them through thick and thin.
“But finally, we wish to use this opportunity to call on young people of this country to remain calm as we prepare to provide them a platform where they can express their frustrations in a democratic manner.
“We also call on the Ghana Armed Forces to remain calm as we explore democratic avenues to put this country back on the path of prosperity and bring relief to the people.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has admitted that Ghana is currently going through an economic crisis which has brought untold hardships on many Ghanaians.
Speaking at a Standard Charted Bank event in Accra on Wednesday (October 26), Dr. Bawumia intimated that to get out of this current situation, Ghanaians must prepare themselves for more hardship because the government will soon commence implementing tough measures to help resolve the crisis.
The vice president went on to list the measures which he indicated the President Akufo-Addo, will soon address Ghanaians on.
Fiscal and debt sustainability
Dr. Bawumia indicated that the government would put together expenditure and tax measures that will ensure a reduction in government debts.
He said that these measures are being discussed as part of the ongoing discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and will soon be made known to Ghanaians.
“In Ghana specifically, we are dealing with an economic crisis that we have to address in different dimensions. The first and most important, which affects the confidence that we have in the economic system, is to make sure that we have fiscal and debt sustainability. This has been one of the areas where we are having discussions and negotiations with the International Monetary Fund about,” he said.
“Restoring fiscal and debt sustainability will no doubt is not going to be easy. It will require very bold, difficult, but firm decisions. And I think these are part of the discussions that we’re having with the IMF. I’m sure once those are concluded, it will be clear that it will not be and it should not be business-as-usual because we have to adjust to the new global and domestic realities,” he added.
Tightening foreign exchange regime:
Dr. Bawumia went on to say the government will also be looking at the foreign exchange regime, which he described as being very loose.
“We also have to look very clearly at our foreign exchange regime. It’s very clear that it is quite loose, and this is why we are going to be working to see how we can tighten the foreign exchange regime.
“When the President addresses the nation, hopefully by the end of the week, some of these details will be fleshed out in more specifics. But in broad terms, I think you cannot address the current economic crisis without addressing the fiscal and debt sustainability, without addressing the production side, without addressing the foreign exchange regime and what allows us to lose a lot of foreign exchange,” he said.
Digitalising Ghana’s economy
The vice president further stated that addressing the digitalizing needs of Ghana is very critical to resolving the difficulties in the country.
“But more importantly, if we are going to address this, this economy must be digitalized. And that is something we started since 2017 in earnest because no economy can really participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution without the digitalization of the economy,” he said.
Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has admitted that Ghana’s foreign exchange systems appear to be loose.
This he believes has contributed to the current economic challenges confronting the country.
He maintains that government and key stakeholders have to look at tightening the foreign exchange regime by reconsidering innovative ways of production.
Speaking at the Standard Chartered digital banking Innovation & Fintech Festival in Accra, the Vice President said government will present details of addressing this shortfall of the exchange rate in the coming days.
“It is very clear that our foreign exchange regime is quite loose, and that is why we are going to see how we can tighten our foreign exchange regime. In broad terms, you cannot address the current economic situation without addressing the fiscal and debt sustainability, production and foreign exchange regime.”
Dr. Bawumia underscored the importance of major policy changes in the wake of a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Once those [negotiations with the IMF] are concluded, it will be clear that it will not be, and it should not be business as usual because we have to adjust to the new global and domestic realities,” the Vice President said.
For one, he said the nature of production needs to change because Ghana has more trade surpluses and current count deficits, “which means that a lot of the foreign exchange that we are earning from our trade doesn’t stay in Ghana.”
Vice President Bawumia also said Ghana would be working to reduce import dependency to address Ghana’s forex problems.
Ghana’s global-worst depreciating currency has been noted as one of the main causes of inflation amid the current economic crisis.
Vice President Bawumia said the President would address the nation in the near future, where the government’s plan “will be fleshed out in specifics.”
“More importantly, if we are going to address this, this economy must be digitalized,” the Vice President added.
A former finance minister, Seth Terkper, has stated that no government has secured GH¢1 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to him, the highest the country has received from the Fund is GH¢3 billion when the country was declared as HIPC.
Speaking at the 11th Ghana Economic Forum on October 25, 2022, he said “the highest we have had by way of intervention and that was HIPC was 3 billion. No government ever got 1 billion to do a correction. The highest was GH¢950 million which we did and that came after 2017 to the current administration.”
He also stated that the notion that Ghana was doing well before 2020 needs to be re-examined.
Meanwhile, the Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Dr. John Kwakye, has stated that Ghana’s revenue targets have not been ambitious enough to rake in the expected revenue needed for development.
According to him, every country thrives on good policies and the ability to take advantage of resources, but, in Ghana’s case, both have been defective.
“As a country, we need both resources and policies to advance our development. For Ghana, we have lacked adequate resources, and our policies have also been defective in so many areas,” he said.
Unauthorized small-scale mining, also known as galamsey, has claimed the life of a young person in Ghana.
In a viral video, some miners were seen carrying a young man’s lifeless body from a galamsey pit in Enchi, a town in the Western Region’s Aowin-Suaman area.
The young man, who was probably in his mid-twenties, was seen being dragged out of the water in the pit by three men.
However, it is unclear whether he drowned or died from another cause.
As he was being dragged out of the pit, the mining equipment the miners were using could be heard working.
A man can also be heard in the video telling those handling the corpse to be cautious.
After he was drugged out, the men standing outside the pit took his body away.
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia says for Ghanato address her current economic crisis, it is imperative to restore fiscal and debt sustainability, limit import dependency and retain the chunk of her foreign exchange earnings.
He said, for instance fiscal and debt sustainability was one of the key issues the Government put on the table in the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.
“For us to address the current economic crisis, we have to take bold, difficult and firm decisions and adjust to the global and domestic realities,” Vice President Bawumia said this in a keynote address delivered at the second edition of Standard Chartered Digital Banking Innovation and FinTech Festival in Accra on Wednesday.
The Vice President underscored the need for the nation to be self-reliant with regards to the mode of production of basic consumer items such as rice, tomatoes and toothpicks, adding; “We have to reduce import dependency as a nation”.
“Our foreign exchange regime is quite loose, and we must tighten it. We must change the nature of production and trade services because most of our foreign exchange earnings on trade do not stay in Ghana and so we’ve been having recurrent account deficit,” Dr Bawumia added.
The two-day forum was on the theme: “Towards a Digital Economy; Positioning Africa as a FinTech Innovation Hub,” which attracted entrepreneurs, government officials, policymakers and financial and fintech experts across the globe to brainstorm on how to build robust digital economies in Africa.
He said it was also prudent to digitise the African economies to enhance financial inclusion and take advantage of the fourth industrial revolution.
Ghana, he said, was leading the way in Africa in terms of digitising her economy, noting that she reached a maturity stage in access to financial inclusion.
“Just this morning I was reading that Ghana has reached a maturity stage in access to financial inclusion at the ongoing MobileWorld Conference in Rwanda,” Dr Bawumia said, saying; “Ghana scored 100 per cent financial inclusion”.
He attributed the successes chalked in her financial inclusion journey to the various digital infrastructure, mobile money interoperability payment system, Universal QR Code, Ghana.gov payment platform and other policy interventions rolled out by the government.
Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, in an address, said the Central Bank in the past few decades had been at the forefront of implementing innovative policies to propel the country’s digital economy forward and promote efficient digital ecosystem anchored on robust interbank infrastructure.
He cited various legal and regulatory frameworks rolled out to promote mobile financial services including the enactment of the Payment System and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987).
Madam Mansa Nettey, the Chief Executive Officer of the Standard Chartered Bank, in her welcome remarks, said digital banking was at the core of ensuring effective and efficient services and, thus, outlined various interventions the bank had rolled out to meet its clients’ banking needs.
She commended the Bank of Ghana and Vice President Bawumia for the strategic role they had played in the country’s digital revolution.
Four worker unions in the public universities of Ghana have said their ongoing sit-down strike which began on Monday, October 17, 2022, to demand better conditions of service, will still not be called off.
The unions disclosed this in a statement issued on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, co-signed by the National President of UTAG Prof Solomon Nunoo, GAUA National President Dr Beth Ofei-Awuku, National Chairman of SSA-UoG Mr Isaac Donkor and National Chairman TEWU-Gh Mr Sulemana Abdul-Rahman.
According to the statement, the National Leaders of UTAG, GAUA, SSA-UoG, TEWU-GH, and FUSSAG “attended a meeting with the Employer on Wednesday, 19th October 2022, following an invitation by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).
“Unfortunately, the outcome of the meeting was not favourable as the Employer was adamant to restore the Vehicle Maintenance and Off Campus Allowances to the adjusted ex-pump rate of GHS10.99.”
It revealed that: “Later that afternoon, the National Leaders attended a hearing at the National Labour Commission (NLC) where the Commission further entreated the parties to continue engaging as per the directive captured in its letter dated 20th October 2022.
“However, considering the facts and evidence before it, the national leaders are of the considered opinion that the Commission should have had no difficulty in making a definite order against the Employer to pay amounts on figures agreed and established by convention.”
It added: “Thus, the National Executive Committees/Councils of the Labour Unions, at their individual meetings, resolved to continue with the ongoing strike action until further notice.”
Actor, politician and farmer John Dumelo has called for value addition in Ghana’s agric sector.
In his view, that is the way to go in order to make the local farmer competitive.
Speaking during the 3business agribusiness dialogue on Wednesday, October 26, he said “We have to look at adding value to our produce and also post-harvest losses.
“Most cocoa farmers haven’t tasted chocolate before yet we are the net exporter of cocoa.”
During the event, the 2018 National Best Farmer, James Boateng said Ghana needs to scale up its agricultural production.
He said there was a need to apply technology to scale up production.
He said “we are not even applying the little technology that we have.
“I don’t know why we can’t grow tomatoes and onions in Ghana to the extent that we buy from Burkina Faso. We have issues with logistics.”
He added “We need to look at our inputs. Ghana 2019 did quite well in terms of the provision of inputs and in turn, our maize production increased.”
For its part, former Managing Director of the Stanbic Bank, Naa Alhassan Andani observed that the agric sector of the Ghanaian economy and other parts of Africa has been exposed by global happenings.
He indicated that Ghanaians consume more than they produce locally. This means a lot more foreign exchange earnings is required to bring in additional food supplies to feed the people.
When the exchange rate is affected, he said, it means food supply is heavily affected thereby creating difficulties for Ghanaians.
“This event could not be happening at a better time and I hope our panellist will elevate the conversation to the level of state and to the level of global coordination.
“Agriculture is probably one gifted industry to Ghana, to Africa, not all of Africa, Ghana, . When the fundamentals are weak the exchange rate will expose you.
“On this one in agriculture the fundamentals are that everything we consume in this country, we consume more of our agricultural product in this country than we produce. Therefore for the surplus that you consume you have to bring from outside.
“What do you need? You need foreign exchange and when the foreign exchange is not there the fundamentals will expose you. So I think today’s Ghana and the world economy has exposed us in terms of the way we are organized in our agricultural sector.”
As the country’s economy continues to struggle and the cedi rapidly depreciates now might be the time to consider active local participation in the country’s extractive sector.
The Ghana mine workers union believes this is critical to checking the repatriation of funds from the country abroad which have contributed to the dire state of the country.
General secretary of the Ghana mine workers union, Abdul-Moomin Gbana stressed that increasing indigenous investment in the mining sector is critical to salvaging Ghana’s economy.
“If you look at the small-scale mining sector, you have about 80 per cent retention of receipts from mining, 20 to 25 per cent can go out for capital expenditure and other expenses and so clearly, if you look at the two algorithms then clearly, the small-scale mining is more beneficial”
“And so it means that if we increase our stake or if we are able to raise indigenous Ghanaians to participate actively in mining or the state increases its stake in these mining companies, what it does is the receipts that we generate will definitely come back into the Ghanaian shores and that we will be able to shore up our position as a country.” He added
The Ghana cedi for instance is facing tough times as it at some point last week traded at GHS15 to the dollar.
The local has depreciated significantly in recent months and at the beginning of the week, the cedi was noted as the world’s worst-performing currency.
That took its losses this year to more than 45 per cent.
The Ghana Union of Traders Associations GUTA for instance believes the challenge with the currency can partly be blamed on the repatriation of funds by multinationals in the country and has called for the regulation of their activities.
Mr Agbana spoke to Citi Business News on the sidelines of a workshop on the gold mining sector organized by Public Services International.
The two-day regional workshop on the gold mining sector was to identify tax incentive regimes in the sector and estimate the loss to domestic resource mobilization and, while learning from other experiences, provide information on the implication for resource sovereignty, public service development, jobs, and sustainable development.
President Akufo-Addo will meet the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament who want the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta be relieved of his duties.
The meeting will take place this evening, Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at 6:30 pm.
The NPP MPs argued that their attempts to get the administration take steps to assist their constituents in light of the failing economy had been ineffective.
Thus, on Tuesday, October 2022, the NPP organized a news conference to express their unhappiness and demand the resignation of Charles Adu Boahen the Minister of State for Finance, and Ken Ofori-Atta.
Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi, the Member of Parliament for the Asante-Akim North Constituency and spokesperson for the disgruntled Majority group, told the media on Tuesday that sacking Ofori-Atta and Adu Boahen will help restore confidence in Ghana’s economy.
“The recent development within the economy is of major concern to our caucus and our constituents. We have made our grave concern known to our president through the parliamentary leadership and the leadership of the party without any positive response.”
“We are by this medium communicating our strong desire that the president changes the Minister of Finance and the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry without further delay in order to restore hope to the financial sector and reverse the downward trend in the growth of the economy,” he added.
Several Ghanaians had mounted pressure on President Akufo-Addo to remove Mr. Ofori-Atta from office in light of the country’s current economic predicament, which has compelled government to seek support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The United Nations will sign a new Cooperation Framework with Ghana to provide the country with $500 million.
The UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, described as the most important instrument for planning and implementing UN development activities in Ghana, is set to be signed today and will be implemented over a three-year period.
A Director of the UN Operations in Ghana, Ifeoma Charles-Monwuba, who represented the UN Country Director at a health walk in Accra over the weekend, disclosed this in an interview with the media after the exercise.
The instrument outlines the UN development system’s integrated contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) along with a commitment to leave no one behind, to a fundamental and human rights-based approach, to gender equality and women’s empowerment, to building resilience and sustainability, and to strengthening accountability.
Anniversary
The walk was a platform to commence activities to mark the 77th anniversary of the formation of the United Nations on the theme: “Building on the 3Ss — Solidarity, Sustainability and Science — Towards a more Resilient Ghana”.
Participants were drawn from the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the Ghana Armed Forces, the Police Service, the Immigration Service, and the Prisons Service.
The walk started from the forecourt of the State House and took participants through some principal streets of Accra and back to the State House.
Ms Charles-Monwuba said the health walk was also to sensitise Ghanaians to the presence of the UN in Ghana and to demonstrate the collaboration between Ghana and the world body.
Collaboration
“It is also to demonstrate the collaboration and good hospitality the UN in Ghana has enjoyed from the Government and people of Ghana, and also for the health benefit of the exercise,” she added.
Other activities lined up to mark the anniversary included a debate by students, a flag-raising ceremony, and a reception for the diplomatic community and the host government.
Ms Charles-Monwuba said these were to showcase Ghana as a strong member state of the UN, and also to show that the UN was in Ghana to stay and serve.
The Director II of the Multilateral Relations Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Joyce Asamoah-Koranteng, urged Ghanaians to play their respective parts in raising the flag of Ghana.
The signing ceremony will be attended by the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the UN Resident Coordinator, and heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes, and the diplomatic community.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has reportedly banned nationals of Ghana and 19 other African countries from entering its capital city, Dubai.
Even though the reason for the ban was not stated, it was expected to start on Monday, October 24, 2022, according to DW Africa.
“The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a visa ban on nationalities from 20 African countries seeking to visit Dubai.
“Countries affected include Ghana, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria, Liberia, Burundi, Republic of Guinea, Gambia, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Benin, Ivory Coast, Congo, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, and Comoros. The ban takes immediate effect,” parts of a Facebook post shared by DW Africa on Monday read.
This is not the first time Ghana and other African countries have been barred from travelling to Dubai.
Emirates Airline announced on December 28, 2021, that eight African countries will not be accepted to travel to or through Dubai until further notice due to the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
The countries included: Ghana Angola, Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire and Ethiopia.
The Head Pastor and Founder of Glorious Wave Church International Prophet, Emmanuel Kobi Badu, has prophesied that a popular woman in Ghana who is currently being prosecuted will not be found guilty of any crime.
During a sermon in his church, Prophet Badu Kobi said that the state’s prosecution of the woman has no future.
He suggested that the enemies of the said woman should be well prepared because they would be haunted after her release.
“There is a certain woman in Ghana here, people are talking about her for the past few weeks. Whatever is happening to her, it has no future.
“Nothing will ever happen to her. Nothing, she will walk free. And when she walks free, enemies must stand well.
“What will happen after, what happened to her, it will turn and follow enemies. And it will not be easy for her enemies,” he said in a video shared by Kofi Radio, which was sighted by GhanaWeb.
Even though, Prophet Badu Kobi did not mention any name, social media users have claimed, the prophecy is about Evangelist Mama Pat, founder of Heavenway Champion International Ministry, Evangelist Mama Pat.
Evangelist Mama Pat, popularly known as Nana Agradaa, is currently being prosecuted for allegedly defrauding some of her church members.
An Accra circuit court has granted bail to the founder of Heaven Way Champion International Ministry, Patricia Asiedua, a.k.a. Nana Agradaa, in the sum of GH¢150,000 with three sureties.
Nana Agradaa is facing 7 charges, including defrauding her church members by false pretence in court.
She has, however, pleaded not guilty to her charges.
As part of the bail conditions, she is expected to provide three sureties, of whom one must be justified with a title deed.
She is also required to deposit her passport at the court registry.
Prior to this, Nana Agradaa was granted bail in the amount of GHC50,000 with three sureties in her first case.
As part of her bail conditions, Agradaa is supposed to report to police every Wednesday.
Background:
The Ghana Police Service arrested repented fetish priestess, Nana Agradaa, now known as Evangelist Mama Pat, on Sunday, October 9, 2022.
“The Police have arrested Patricia Asiedua alias Nana Agradaa following allegations of money-doubling scam levelled against her by some members of the public. The suspect is currently assisting police investigation,” a statement from the police said.
Nana Agradaa’s arrest comes on the back of allegations made by scores of her church members, who claimed that she had scammed them after an all-night service.
The former fetish priestess had advertised in a viral video that she was going to give out monies to people who would attend her all-night church service on Friday, October 7, 2022.
Things, however, did not go as planned for many of the people who attended the service as many of them cried foul that they had given out monies to her but she failed to keep to her side of the agreement.
She is eventually reported to have sent the people away from the church, prompting the alarms they raised online.
The police have since called on all persons who were affected by the supposed scam to report to the Accra Regional Police Command to help with the investigations.
The case involving Chinese illegal miner, Aisha Huang, has been adjourned to November 2, 2022, for case management.
In court today, October 24, 2022, Deputy Attorney General, Diana Asona Dapaah said her outfit has not been able to file all disclosures in the case.
She however said it is being worked on at the registry.
She requested, from the court, some time to file the processes.
The judge denied the appeal for bail requested by lawyers of Aisha Huang and said until there is an unreasonable delay in the case, he hasn’t changed his mind about the bail decision.
He said he was reliably informed that the Chinese interpreter has travelled out of Ghana and an arrangement was being made for another one.
The judge directed that the Registrar should ensure that a Chinese interpreter is made available at the next sitting and subsequent ones.
He again asked the prosecution to file their second batch of witness statements and serve same on the defence four clear days before the next date.
Ivory Coast and Ghana will not be attending the World Cocoa Foundation Partnership meeting scheduled to be held in Brussels from October 26-27.
The meeting which is the leading global conference on cocoa sustainability will miss the world’s two largest cocoa-producing countries due to pricing issues, Reuters reported.
Both Ghana Cocoa Board, COCOBOD, and Ivory Coast’s Coffee and Cocoa Council, CCC, have cited multinational chocolate companies resisting measures that aim to improve farmers’ income as the reason for their boycott.
According to the Head of Public Affairs for Cocobod, Fiifi Boafo, “The major chocolate brands have resisted and tried to find means to circumvent payment of the LID”.
Therefore, “the Chief Executive [Joseph Boahen Aidoo] is not attending the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) meeting in Belgium and none of the executives at Cocobod will be there,” he affirmed.
Boafo accused the multinational chocolate companies of waging a silent war against a farmers’ premium, the Living Income Differential, as a direct rejection will give them bad publicity.
Adding his voice, the Director General of Ivory Coast’s Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC), Yves Brahima Kone, also said he will not be in attending this or any other industry meetings.
He further stated that sustainability programmes launched since 2008 and aimed at tackling issues such as child labour have also benefited companies more than farmers.
Two premiums paid on Ghana and Ivory Coast cocoa beans to help alleviate farmer poverty have in recent years suffered massive discounts by chocolate companies, eroding the intended purpose.
The origin differential, an additional premium paid for the quality and reliability of cocoa beans and the Living Income Differential is a fixed amount of $400 agreed on for every tonne of cocoa sold by Ivory Coast and Ghana.
In July both regulators said they would no longer sell cocoa with a negative origin differential, fixing it at zero for Ivory Coast and at +20 pounds sterling ($22) per tonne for Ghana.
COCOBOD and CCC explained that some of the world’s major chocolate makers and cocoa traders are pushing for origin differentials as low as negative 200 pounds sterling per tonne.
“We are considering new ways to address this issue with the industry, including banning access to our cocoa farms for their sustainability programs,” The Director General of CCC said.
The World Cocoa Foundation Partnership meeting will be held from October 26-27 at The Hotel in Brussels, Belgium.
Dr Joel Agorinya, a psychiatrist at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, has advised the public to normalise seeking help for mental health issues.
He said there were a lot of people walking on the streets who had mental health issues but were shy to seek help even though there is help.
“There are patients who will invite you to their homes in Ghana to attend to them or those who would like to come to the hospital early in the morning around 5AM because they do not want to be seen entering the psychiatric hospital,” he said.
Dr Agorinya gave the advice when he trained selected member of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) and some Social welfare officials on mental health issues.
The training organised by Basic Needs Ghana, an NGO with a focus on mental health issues was supported by Ghana Somubie Dwumadie, a disability focused programme on mental health and the UK Aid.
The training is expected to enhance participants’ knowledge on mental health and to help them understand persons with mental health issues.
Dr Agoriyna said there was a need to desist from stigmatising persons with mental health issues and encourage them to seek help.
“Elsewhere, there is nothing shameful about seeking help for one’s mental health issues, you see some celebrities take to social media to announce that they have depression or they are taking a break to enable them go through rehabilitation,”
There is nothing shameful about mental health, it is also a kind of illness that can happen to anyone but in Ghana people tend to hide or sneak into the Psychiatric hospital whenever they need help,” Dr Agoriyna said.
He said that now psychiatry care has been decentralized and every health facility in Ghana, even the CHPS compound has someone who is a trained mental health care professional.
Dr Agoriyna said mental health care if not well handled could cost the country billions of dollars because people with mental health issues tend to be non-productive at work.
Estimating the cost of mental healthcare in Ghana, Dr Agorinya who had an interest in global mental health issues, said it could cost a family about GHS4000 monthly to provide care for their loved one with mental health issues.
He urged Ghanaians to stop stigmatising and abusing persons with mental health conditions, saying, “There is never any justification for abusing any person with mental illness.
AirtelTigo’s flagship promotion for 2022, ‘To Gu Me So Reloaded’, has come to a successful end, rewarding over 5,000 customers with cash prizes of over GH₵1,000,000. This makes “To Gu Me So Reloaded” one of the most rewarding promotions to hit the telecommunications industry in Ghana.
Two lucky winners were present at the Prize presentation ceremony held at the AirtelTigo Head office in Accra.
Benaiah Diallo Oppong, the overall grand prize winner received GH₵125,000, while Ruth Addison the second runner up received GH₵25,000.
The Grand Prize winner Benaiah Diallo Oppong described his winning of GH₵125,0000 as a life-changing amount of money to win in a promotion.
He disclosed that his initial thought when he was notified was the skepticism of the entire situation as it seemed unbelievable.
“As I have been presented with the cheque today, I am truly grateful to AirtelTigo for coming up with the ‘To Gu Me So Reloaded’ promo. They have really touched my life in a big way. I still feel like it’s a dream,” he said.
The second runner up Ruth Addison said, “to think that I recently bought this AirtelTigo SIM, dialed *500# to join the promo, and just by consistently using the service through calls, browsing and ATMoney here I am today a winner of GH₵25,000. This tells me that AirtelTigo is not selective of who wins, this a blessing and I want to thank God and AirtelTigo for the opportunity. I will encourage others who are not on the network to go get an AirtelTigo SIM and join the AirtelTigo family.
Presenting the prize to the winners, Director of Marketing at AirtelTigo, Isaac Boamah, congratulated the winners, saying, “we at AirtelTigo are excited to see that this promo has sufficiently expressed our appreciation to our customers for their loyalty, and we are glad that we have been able to touch the lives of many customers by showering them with lots of cash during the promo. Our customers should look forward to more innovative products and services for their call, data and ATMoney needs.”
The ‘To Gu Me So reloaded’ promotion was organized under the supervision of Gaming Commission of Ghana to provide a reliable and transparent method of selecting winners in weekly and grand draws with over 50,000 customers winning over GHC 1 million .
The Pharmaceutical Industry in Ghana has disclosed its decision to stop supplying drugs and medications to health facilities across the country on credit basis as a result of the instability of the Ghana cedi.
At a press conference in Accra Thursday, October 20, 202, the Pharma Industry noted that the decision which takes immediate effect will affect the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
The three major players in the sector, the Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy, the Pharmaceutical Association of Ghana, and the Pharmaceutical Importers and Wholesalers Association of Ghana stressed that the current depreciation of the cedi against the dollar has compelled them to change their approach to business.
President of the Pharmaceutical Importers and Wholesalers Association, William Adum Addo stressed that the instability of the Ghana cedi might affect the quality of drugs on the market.
“The effect of medicine prices will not only result in challenges with medicine availability and accessibility but most importantly the quality of life of Ghanaians because we all know health is wealth. They cannot afford the exorbitantly high cost of medicine … very soon a sizable number of industry players may be forced to fold up or lay off staff,” he said.
According to the Chairman of Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy, Harrison Abutiate, major players have had to cough up huge sums of money to import drugs and other materials needed for the production of medicines.
The groups urged the government to release all outstanding debts owed its members to prevent the shortage of products in the country.
For Ghana and rest of Africa to fully reap the benefits of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), there is the need to “strategically” move away from short term price-based buying to value and developmental based sourcing.
Strategic sourcing, according to Professor Douglas Boateng, refers to the ‘big picture’ element of supply chain management, with a prime focus on the entire benefits of sourcing to organisation, industry and society.
“There are many existing structural inefficiencies that have threatened the success of the Agreement but thankfully, we are gradually removing them. But this will not yield the intended results if we continue to stick to the old, and evidently flawed approach to the sourcing factors of production,” Professor Boateng stated in an extensive session with the B&FT.
Strategic sourcing has come into renewed focus following the advent of COVID-19, as individuals, companies and governments sought value pricing due to unprecedented disruptions to global supply chains.
Prof. Boateng, however, emphasised that whilst “maximizing” spending remains one of the principal goals of strategic sourcing, it does so by taking into consideration the total acquisition cost of ownership incurred over the medium-to-long term. “Strategic sourcing is not about the cheapest price, but rather about value pricing and attainment,” he re-emphasized.
According to Professor Boateng, oftentimes decision makers have been carried away by the notion that the best value for money purchase is the one where they pay the least amount of money upfront. However, the global evidence from extensive research and experience shows that, it is not necessarily the case.
Africa’s first-ever appointed Professor Extraordinaire for supply and value chain management, governance and Industrialisation, former non-executive chairman of the Public Procurement Authority and currently chairman of Ghana’s Minerals Income and Investment Fund also advised if Africa can focus on developing its supply chain infrastructure, it would not only allow for improved intra-continental trade but would see the region emerge as a major player in the global trade.
Already, the continent’s infrastructure investment deficit according to the African Development Bank will be as much as US$170 billion a year by 2025, with an estimated gap of around $100 billion a year with transportation networks being one of the areas in which this is most pronounced. Road networks in the continent’s 16 landlocked countries are woefully inadequate, coupled with poor port administration, and underdeveloped rail and waterway systems.
In addition to measures being undertaken to overcome some of these challenges, Prof. Boateng called for individuals, businesses and nations to think outside of their local and national contexts and to make use of enabling information technologies to foster continental networking and information flows.
“Large political and socio-economic issues need to be tackled as a collective to break down artificial trade barriers. In time, African economies can move away from country-specific initiatives to ‘Proudly African’ initiatives – for example, a product might be labelled ‘Made in Africa,’ produced in Ghana or South Africa or Kenya etc.
Through this, the definition of ‘buying local’ automatically changes to strategically sourcing continental-wide produced goods and services. Such a move has positive implications for AfCFTA,” Prof. Boateng explained.
He also recommended that strategic sourcing becomes a mandatory feature across the education spectrum as well as in the procurement policies of businesses and the central governments.
The rate of return usually in relation to loans, deposits and other financial investments is usually known as the interest rate. This rate of return is usually over a specified time period.
In Ghana, it is unlawful for financial institutions to quote interest rates as daily or monthly. The Bank of Ghana requires that interest rates be quoted per annum.
Interest rates are generally closely related to a concept known as the time value of money. This concept basically states that an amount of GH¢100 received today is worth more than the same GH¢100 to be received at some time later in the future. It closely follows the bird-in-hand argument and attaches more importance to current cash balance over future cash balance, all other things being equal.
Most people can relate to the well-known phenomenon wherein prices of goods and services change over time. In Ghana, prices of goods have generally risen since start of the year. This phenomenon is known as inflation. The opposite of inflation is deflation – a situation where prices of goods and services generally fall over time. Inflation weakens the purchasing power of your hard-earned cash, and thus it is important to take steps to preserve the purchasing power of your cash.
One way of protecting the purchasing power of cash is via interest rates. To compensate investors for the loss of purchasing power due to inflation, banks and financial institutions usually pay some compensation to investors. This compensation comes in the form of interest rates and is meant to cushion investors. Usually, this interest rate is higher than the inflation rate. The real return on one’s investment is thus the excess of the interest rate above the inflation rate.
The financial markets provide a platform for people who have excess funds to channel these resources to other people who need those funds. Generally, those with excess funds (lenders) prefer to lend for a shorter period, while those with deficits (borrowers) prefer to borrow for a longer period. If you have a bank account, you surely have at some point been a borrower or a lender.
Generally, if you apply for a loan and are able to adequately demonstrate your ability to repay, you benefit from lower credit risk premiums. Credit risk is the risk that you may default and thus not be able to pay back the amount you have borrowed or its interest. Based on the size of the transaction, you may be able to obtain some preferential treatment from the bank. This is called volume premium. A tenor premium relates to how much more or less you are charged on a loan depending on how long you want the cash for. Generally, tenor premiums increase as the tenor of the loan increases.
The rate charged by a bank on your loan may either be fixed rate or floating rate. As the names suggest, these rates may either remain unchanged or be changed regularly over the life of the loan. In a rising interest rate environment, it is always advisable to borrow at fixed rates since that will be less expensive compared to borrowing at floating rates.
In Ghana, regulators of the financial markets include the Bank of Ghana, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ghana Stock Exchange, the National Insurance Commission, and the National Pensions Regulatory Authority. It is thus crucial to engage in any form of business transactions only with entities that are licenced by their respective regulators.
Transacting with a regulated entity such as First National Bank, for example, affords you the opportunity to seek redress should you feel unfairly treated. A loan-shark on the other hand may not be subject to the scrutiny of regulators, and thus could treat you unfavourably.
There are two concepts that one needs to consider when looking at interest rates. First is the Monetary Policy Rate (simply referred to as the policy rate), which is the benchmark rate at which banks can borrow money from the Bank of Ghana. The current policy rate is 24.50 percent. The policy rate influences the Ghana Reference Rate (GRR), which serves as a reference for the interest rate that banks charge their customers on credit products such as home loans. The current GRR rate is 27.44 percent and is adjusted monthly. The interest rate on an investment is often referred to as the yield on that investment.
Generally, if you apply for a loan from a bank such as First National Bank, the bank will conduct an assessment of your ability to service the loan. Based on your perceived creditworthiness among other factors, the bank may decide to approve or decline your loan application. If you are successful with your loan application, the bank charges an applicable lending rate based on your risk profile, the amount involved, available liquidity and other factors.
The lending rate charged by the bank includes the reference rate (GRR) and a risk premium. The GRR is positively correlated to the monetary policy rate (MPR), so that one would expect the lending rate to go up when the policy rate goes up and vice versa.
Why are interest rates rising?
At the beginning of year 2022, the policy rate was at 14.5 percent while the 91-day Treasury bill rate was 12.5 percent. Currently, the policy rate is at 24.5 percent while the 91-day rate is 30.96 percent. Yields on the 182-day and 364-day T-bills have also risen, from 13.2 percent and 16.6 percent as at end of 2021 to 31.9 percent and 31.5 percent respectively.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana meets about six times a year and uses interest rates to manage inflation. Inflation is simply how much a weighted basket of goods and services – such as groceries and petrol – goes up from one period to another, usually a year. The changes are expressed in percentages, and since the Bank of Ghana’s inflation target is between 6 percent and 10 percent, the central bank seeks to ensure price stability by keeping inflation in this target band.
According to data from Ghana Statistical Services, Ghana’s consumer inflation rate is currently at 37.2 percent. The high inflation is due to several issues, mainly supply chain disruptions as a result of the Russian-Ukraine war which drove prices of crude oil and agriculture commodities upward; the cedi-depreciation against major trading currencies; and upward adjustments in the prices of utilities.
This means that it now costs more to transport goods and produce necessities such as food. Inflation thus reduces the purchasing power of your money.
Global developments – both economic and political – have also caused consumer inflation to go up, resulting in efforts by the various central banks to contain rising prices via increases in their policy rates. The Bank of England, US Federal Reserve as well as the South African Reserve Bank have all hiked rates on the back of inflationary concerns.
As a consumer, what does this mean for you?
If you have a floating rate credit facility – whether it’s secured or unsecured – and the interest rate goes up, your monthly repayment will go up as well. You will pay more for every new loan you apply for when interest rates rise. For example, a GH¢100,000 loan will cost about GH¢2,500 more per annum now that the reference interest rate has gone up by 2.5 percent. This will unfortunately limit your spending as goods costs more.
Below are some quick tips to manage the strain of rising interest rates on your pocket:
Keep track of what you spend. See where your money goes and if there are ways to cut back on some of the spending you don’t have to do. For instance, you could spend less on take-awaysand treats, and put that money toward your mortgage repayment or other credit.
Move your credit debit order as close as possible to the date you get your income. This way you’ll know that your debit order has been paid and won’t have to worry about keeping money aside for the rest of the month.
Food prices have gone up in the last few months, so look for ways to save money on food – like buying non-perishables once a month and creating a weekly menu from the pantry, then only buying a few fresh things every week.
The good thing about the interest rate cycle is that if you have savings such as emergency savings or you live off the interest from cash investments, the interest on those savings should also go up. This means that more interest will be earned, so more interest will be paid every month.
If you do free-up cash via the tips above or alternatively obtain the increase on interest paid on cash investments, think about using that to pay off any expensive credit that you may have or saving it for an emergency, or putting it toward your longer-term goals such as retirement savings. Save and invest with First National Bank with as little as GH¢100 and earn cool interest.
>>the writer is Head, Global Markets at First National Bank Ghana
UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana, Charles Abani
Charles Abani [left] and Blessed Sogah
