TIG Post

Tag: International

  • Agumenu and others elected as Snr Research Fellows at Afro- Global

    Dr Donald Senanu Agumenu, an International Leadership Consultant, Peace Ambassador with the Universal Peace Federation, and a Leadership Advisory Council Member of the International Cities of Peace, USA, was elected as an Snr Research Fellow at the Centre For African Diplomacy and Global Engagement(Afro- Global) launched under the theme – Mobilizing Global Citizenship in Building Resilient and Inclusive Post-Covid Global Economy.

    The Centre aims to serve as a hub in providing cutting-edge scholarly research and training, as well as promoting public engagement on global policy issues using multidisciplinary perspectives and approaches to contribute towards the implementation of effective policies on various aspects of Africa’s global and diplomatic relations.

    In so doing, the Centre aims to build networks across Africa, focusing on key countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, and organizations such as AU, Ecowas, and the UN. The Centre will also identify areas of common African interest in relation to the rest of the world, and position Africa as a place of new and exciting opportunities for business and investment. The Centre will also offer practical training to public and private sector agencies in diplomacy, negotiation and contracts.

    The Guest Speaker of the event, Rt Hon Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana, emphasised the role of Diplomacy and International Relations at the legislature in deepening research and understanding of international affairs and legislative processes to be more resilient in championing emerging trends complexities within Africa and beyond. He reiterated the readiness of the Ghanaian Parliament to partner with the Centre for African Diplomacy and Global Engagement in shaping policies.

    In his inaugural address at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration on the theme, the Rt. Hon Speaker touched on the need to undertake critical research in diplomacy, climate change, complexities of Post- Covid-19, gender-based violence, vaccine passports etc as critical issues.

    He asserted that, global citizenship must be developed and harmonized around timeless values and principles of human dignity and sustainable institutions

    The membership of the Centre was drawn from diverse disciplines and professional backgrounds across the continent.

  • Ghana risks further downgrade if IMF talks include debt restructuring

    The international rating agency, Fitch may further downgrade Ghana’s creditworthiness status to RD to CC.

    According to a Bloomberg report, Fitch sees a higher than 50% chance of Ghana’s debt default.

    The report noted that the existing CC rating “means that default is probable, with a higher chance than 50%.”

    The Head of EMEA Sovereign Ratings, Jan Friederich noted that if talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led to debt restructuring, the country risks a further downgrade.

    “If a debt restructuring is part of the agreement with the IMF, then, in terms of default risk, that will supersede any benefit from the financing support that Ghana might get from the IMF,” Friederich is quoted by Bloomberg.

    Also, “a restructuring would likely lead to the relevant rating being placed in restrictive default,” he said. That rating is assigned to an issuer that, in Fitch’s opinion, “has experienced an uncured payment default or distressed debt exchange” on a bond or loan but hasn’t entered into bankruptcy or some other form of administration.”

    Meanwhile, Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that there will be no debt restructuring as talks with the fund progresses.

    Here is the full report by Bloomberg

    Ghana’s sovereign credit rating may be downgraded closer to default by Fitch Ratings should talks with the International Monetary Fund on a record new $3 billion funding package lead to debt restructuring.

    If that happens, Fitch would likely lower the country’s long-term issuer default rating to RD from CC, Jan Friederich, head of EMEA Sovereign Ratings, said in a phone interview.

    Ghana hopes to use fresh money from the IMF extended credit facility program under discussion to boost its finances and regain access to global capital markets. Investors have been concerned about the financial health of Africa’s second-biggest gold producer, whose public debt was 68% of gross domestic product at end-July, according to central bank data.

    “If a debt restructuring is part of the agreement with the IMF then, in terms of default risk, that will supersede any benefit from the financing support that Ghana might get from the IMF,” Friederich said from Hong Kong on Oct. 27.

    “A restructuring would likely lead to the relevant rating being placed in restrictive default,” he said. That rating is assigned to an issuer that, in Fitch’s opinion, “has experienced an uncured payment default or distressed debt exchange” on a bond or loan but hasn’t entered into bankruptcy or some other form of administration.

    The existing CC rating “means that default is probable, with a higher chance than 50%,” Friederich said.

    Default Risk
    In September, Moody’s cut its rating on Ghana’s long-term foreign debt to Caa2 from Caa1, citing macroeconomic deterioration which was “heightening the government’s liquidity and debt sustainability difficulties and increasing the risk of default.”

    Ghana began formal negotiations for the extended credit facility program with the IMF in September. The world’s second-largest cocoa producer sought help from the Washington-based lender after homegrown policies, including cutting 2022 discretionary expenditure by as much as 30%, failed to stop investors from dumping its Eurobonds. The currency depreciated at a faster pace and debt-service costs soared.

    When Fitch downgraded its assessment in September for the third time this year, it said there was a “high likelihood” that the proposed IMF support program would require some form of debt treatment, due to climbing interest costs and structurally low revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product.

    Fitch estimates that Ghana’s government faces interest payments this year equivalent to 44% of revenue, rising to slightly above 50% next year. That compares with a sub-Saharan African median of about 14%, according to the rating agency.

    Local Debt

    Bloomberg reported in September that Ghana was considering reorganizing part of its 190.3 billion cedis ($13.6 billion) of local debt, as part of the talks with IMF. A committee was formed last month to solicit views from bondholders for a debt management strategy.

    “We would be looking at which part of the debt will be affected,” Friederich said. “There are still open questions about what decisions they are going to make about the inclusion of local currency or foreign currency debt; we assume for the time being that both will be incorporated.”

    Ghana’s 2030 dollar bonds may be excluded from any restructuring because they were partially guaranteed by the World Bank, he said.

    Source: Ghanaweb

     

  • Fuel prices to go up further by 10% effective October 16 – COPEC

    Prices of petroleum products are expected to see a rise again beginning Sunday, October 16 as part of the adjustments for the 2nd pricing window of this month.

    Fuel prices across pumps within the country are projected to see an increase of an average of 10% for both petrol and diesel, according to the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC).

    From observed figures within the downstream industry, and forex movements, COPEC anticipates an average price escalation of about 10.12% for both petrol and diesel based on the increase in price of crude oil on the international market and the depreciation of the cedi.

    “Between the current window and the next window due, 16 Oct 2022, Crude oil price is observed to have seen an increase of 3.66% from $89.46 to $92.73 per Barrel, whilst the Dollar index has further gone up by about 4.08% from GHS10.21 to GHS10.627 per Dollar as per Government rate (Conservative figures) though actual market rates are quite higher currently,” COPEC observed.

    The corresponding international processed Petroleum prices for the next window averages as follows:

    Petrol: $964.75/MT (up by 15.72%)
    Diesel: $1,097.15/MT (up by 9.60%)

    Internally, the projected average price of both Petrol and Diesel for the next window are expected to be GHS13.77/L, showing a price jump of 10.12% over the current Mean fuel Prices for both products across the various OMCs trading.

    From observed data, Petrol, which is currently selling at an industry average of GHS11.06/L is likely to be sold at GHS12.38/L (11.88% higher) from 16 October 2022 whilst Diesel currently selling at an industry average of GHS13.95/L is likely to be sold at GHS15.16/L. (8.72% higher)

    For LPG, the international price is estimated to hit $618.34/MT (up by 3.81%); the price of LPG is likely to go up by 5.04% to sell around GHS10.21/kg.

    Considering no sudden jerks in Crude Oil pricing, that may lead to changes in Petrol, Diesel and LPG Prices on the International market, the Mean Ex-pump prices are expected to be within the projected figures by +/-2% as indicated below:

    Petrol: GHS12.12/L to GHS12.63/L
    Diesel: GHS14.86/L to GHS15.46/L
    LPG: GHS10.01/kg to GHS10.41/kg

    COPEC in a statement, therefore, implored the petroleum service providers to be considerate of applying the full force of the indexes in their pricing.

    It added: “We are without equivocation, mindful that, the projected figures are conservatively lower than what the actuals could be due to the continuous depreciation of the local currency.”

    It further admonished: “Government to do whatever it deems necessary, to ensure an urgent stabilisation of the cedi to the Dollar exchange rate in order to prevent pricing of petroleum products getting to an impending disaster as the effect of these steep increases in fuel prices cuts across all sectors of the local economy and to also further ensure some drastic reductions of some of the existing taxes and levies on Petroleum products to help ease the burden on consumers.”

  • PR and Globalisation: A look at the challenges and Opportunities for the industry

    One major social force influencing the future of public relations is Globalisation.

    Money, products, materials, information and people flow swiftly across national boundaries today than ever.

    Advances in technology have enabled and accelerated this flow and the resulting international interactions and dependencies.

    These technological advances have been especially pronounced in transportation and telecommunications. Improvements in transportation have made it possible for you, in mere hours, to travel distances that took your parents and grandparents months and weeks to cover.

    For Public Relations practioners as previously inaccessible audiences have become more reachable, and the internet penetrates all corners of the globe, many more brands and businesses are developing and implementing global strategies, so has it caused public relations practitioners to face serious challenges and make difficult choices.

    Thanks to the global reach of digital communications, crises can now spread easily. The Internet has made it possible for anyone with a cause to become a ‘Citizen Journalist”. It is becoming increasingly difficult for organisations to identify potential threats.

    Simply put, advances in communications allow us to know what is occurring in a country half-way around the world instantaneously.

    2020 has been a year of lessons for PR practitioners. we continue to see our roles and responsibility evolving. No longer just relationship builders and media relations, we’re molding our clients’ legacies with every picture, placement, and caption.

    So many brands have for example found success incorporating TikTok’s unique video meets text storytelling, there is one area of TikTok no brand wants to be. This is where tech-savvy teens and activist millennials share the “receipts,” screenshots, tweets, news articles, and other evidence that points to the need to “cancel” an individual, business, or other entity.

    Bad press is nothing new to the PR industry, but there is a key element to this situation. First, TikTok videos travel quickly. They can be downloaded easily and shared across social media. Additionally, TikTok “duet” and split-screen reactions allow for more people to join the conversation not to mention the ability to embed these reaction videos over on Instagram for cross-channel conversation.

    As trade expands globally, the most notable audiences drawing attention of public relations practitioners are in places such as Russia, China, India, Latin America, Europe and America. PR practitioners must overcome language barriers and social differences to practice culturally appropriate and locally acceptable public relations. This brings to mind the drink called ‘TruMoo’ chocolate this may just be a drink for many people but those of us in Ghana won’t patronise it because the name of the drink means excuse my language (asshole) in the Twi language. Same way Brazilian men will have a challenge buying a car named ‘pinto’ because its a slang for the male reproductive organ. This situation forced Ford to rebrand its Pinto car brand to Corcel meaning horse. If ‘TruMoo’ or Ford Pinto was made for only people living in their countries of origin, there wouldn’t be a need to rebrand. Differences in lifestyles, customs, values and cultures are not the only unique challenges. Unique aspects of local political, economic, and industrial structural also are challenges.

    Working in combination, these forces have given us a sense of interconnectedness and created a world of opportunities for public relations professionals.

    In our current digital communication space, bad press is not announced as a newspaper headline, but rather directly among users and consumers. Television, radio and digital articles are often late to the game, eventually “catch up” to many of the trends we see originating on TikTok and even reporting on these new trends as news.

  • WHO boss says ‘color of skin’ behind lack of help for Tigray

    The World Health Organization‘s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has suggested that racism is behind a lack of international attention being paid to the plight of civilians in Ethiopia’s war-shattered Tigray region.

    Calling it the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world”, with 6 million people unable to access basic services, Tedros questioned in an emotional appeal why the situation is not getting the same attention as the Ukraine conflict.
    “Maybe the reason is the color of the skin of the people,” Tedros, who is from Tigray, told a virtual media briefing on Wednesday. In April this year at a briefing, he questioned whether “black and white lives” in emergencies worldwide are given equal attention.

    Fighting between Ethiopian and Tigrayan forces have left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands facing severe food insecurity, according to Internal Displacement Monitoring Center.
    Last year, the crisis set a world record for displacements in a single year causing over 5.1 million displacements.
    WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan also hit out at an apparent shortage of concern about the drought and famine unfolding in the Horn of Africa, and the ensuing health crisis.
    “No one seems to give a damn about what’s happening in the Horn of Africa,” said Ryan, speaking at a virtual media briefing on Wednesday.
    The WHO called for $123.7 million to tackle the health problems resulting from growing malnutrition in the region, where around 200 million people live and millions are going hungry.

  • Financial sector reforms yielding positive results — Prez Akufo-Addo

    President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday inaugurated the new 12-storey eco-friendly headquarters building of the Cal Bank, a wholly Ghanaian owned bank, in Accra.

    The facility depends mainly on renewable solar power generated in-house, complemented by the national grid, while the water system for the building is from harvested rain and underground water.Precision AI Signals for Smarter Investing learn more

    In an address at the ceremony, President Akufo-Addo stated that enough evidence abound that the recent financial sector reforms were yielding positive results.

    He said as of the end of the first quarter of the year, total assets, deposits, loans and advances in the banking industry all saw positive growth, while the banks were well-capitalised, profitable, liquid and stable, with strong prospects for increased financial intermediation.