Business Analyst - May 19

BUSINESS MARKET RATES
US$ 1 – GH¢7.52
GHANA STOCK MON, 16 MAY. 2022
Indices and Market Cap Level Previous Level Change % Change
GSe Composite Index 2,810.01 2,798.27 +11.74 +0.42%
GSe Financial Index 2,073.63 2,073.63 0.00 0.00%
GSe Market Cap (GhS 'mn) 63,883.61 63,760.71 +122.90 +0.19%
COCOA: US$2,473.00 per tonne
CRUDE OIL: US$104.6 per barrel
GOLD: US$1,851.99 per ounce
Thursday, May 19, 2022. Vol. No. 157
GH¢2.50
• Dr Mustapha Hamid
displaying the awards
• Nana Otuo
Acheampong,
Banking
Consultant
The Governor of
the Bank of
Ghana, Dr. ernest
Addison, has
promised that his
outfit will resolve to tame
inflation in order to reduce
the rising interest rates.
Though he admits that
the rising inflation rate has
come as a surprise because
of the recent increase in the
Policy Rate by 2.5 percent
which failed to control
prices of goods and services,
he’s confident he and his
team will find an
appropriate policy to address

Thursday, May 19, 2022
Russia-Ukraine War Update
EU pledges €300bn to
end Russian gas reliance
Talks over Azovstal evacuation
'very difficult' - Ukraine adviser
UkRAInIAn soldiers who were
holed up in the Azovstal
steelworks have this week
been taken to Russiancontrolled
territoryImage
caption: Ukrainian soldiers who were holed
up in the Azovstal steelworks have this week
been taken to Russian-controlled territory
The evacuation of the defenders of
Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol continues
but ongoing talks around the soldiers'
release are "very difficult", an adviser to the
Ukrainian presidency has said.
"The negotiations are very difficult
because people's lives are at stake,"
Mykhaylo Podolyak, adviser to President
Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, told
Ukraine's Radio nV.
"You see, Azovstal, Mariupol and the
Azov regiment - all Mariupol defenders are
very symbolic, and for Russia as well, in a
negative respect," he added.
Podolyak, one of Ukraine's peace
negotiators, also urged people commenting
about the evacuations to tread carefully,
saying statements in the Russian press were
"very aggressive... so let us treat this
carefully".
he mentioned "influential middlemen"
in the talks on the Azovstal evacuation but
did not name them.
"We will be able to tell you after the
operation ends," he promised.
Since Monday, nearly 1,000 Ukrainian
fighters have left the steelworks - the last
Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol - and
have been taken to Russian-controlled
territory, Russia's defence ministry said.
The police officer who lost his
family in one strike
"On 26 February, we were chatting at the
police station, and then we heard a loud
boom," recalls Ivan Simoroz.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine was two
days old and had quickly targeted towns in
the kyiv region as they looked to close in on
the capital.
"The ground was shaking, I started
calling each of my relatives, my wife,
brother, mother, father, grandma - they were
all out of reach.
"I realised something bad had
happened."
Six members of Ivan's family had
been killed.
President Biden says the United States
will work with Finland and Sweden in event
of any outside "aggression" which could
threaten national security while their nato
membership is under review.
The US president reiterated his support
for Sweden and Finland's bid to join nato,
saying it would "further strengthen our
defence cooperation" and benefit the entire
alliance.
The US is the latest country to offer
support to the two countries in the event of
any aggression, with several others offering
similar assurances.
Last week the Uk agreed a mutual
security pact with both nordic nations,
ahead of their decision to apply for nato
membership - a decision which has been
taken in the light of Russia's invasion of
Ukraine.
You can find out more about nato and
how the application process works here.
how nato has expanded since
1997
Members of Prague"s Russian
community take part in an anti-war
demonstration, 26 March 2022
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
Members of Prague's Russian
community protested against Russia's
invasion of Ukraine in a demonstration in
MarchImage caption: Members of Prague's
Russian community protested against
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in a
demonstration in March
The Czech government has approved a
programme to help citizens of Russia and
Belarus who have fled persecution in their
home countries.
The programme, called Civil Society, will
make it easier for the Czech authorities to
grant visas to Russians and Belarussians if
they can show they face persecution for
opposing undemocratic regimes at home.
Independent journalists and academics
were likely to be among those who could
take advantage of the programme, foreign
minister Jan Lipavsky said.
Belarussian opposition leader Sviatlana
Tsikhanouskaya recently appealed to the
Czech authorities on a trip to Prague to
provide protection for activists forced to flee
Belarus.
kremlin insider admits to
war 'difficulties'
It has been suggested the kremlin may
be preparing the Russian public for news
that it operation in Ukraine is not going to
planImage caption: It has been suggested
the kremlin may be preparing the Russian
public for news that it operation in Ukraine
is not going to plan
Another pro-kremlin voice has
admitted to "difficulties" in the war with
Ukraine, which Russia calls a 'special
military operation'.
But Rashid nurgaliyev, a deputy
secretary of Vladimir Putin's Security
Council, insisted Russia would achieve its
objectives - including the "denazification of
Ukraine".
It follows remarks by a retired colonel
and military analyst on primetime Russian
TV earlier this week, in which Mikhail
khodarenok warned "the situation [for
Russia] will clearly get worse".
Idrissa Gueye trends globally amid homophobia row
#WeAReALLIDRISSA is a top
global trend after people online
have been tweeting in support of
Senegalese Paris St Germain
football player, Idrissa Gana
Gueye, after he refused to play for
this team wearing a shirt with
numbers displayed in Pride
colours BBC Sports understands.
On Tuesday French clubs had
been invited to mark 17 May's
International Day Against
homophobia, Biphobia and
Transphobia.
Many of the tweets highlight
the 32-year-old's Muslim faith and
comment on the legality in the
West to criticise Islam or the
Quran but what they view as the
perceived lack of freedom to
oppose homosexuality.
however, the hashtag is also
being used to spread homophobic
content. Many online are angry
about Gueye's reported actions
and are calling it insulting and
homophobic.
homosexuality is illegal in
Senegal and punishable by prison
sentences of up to five years.
The French Football
Federation (FFF) has reportedly
written to Gueye to clarify why he
was absent from PSG's Saturday
match against Montpellier,
according to the AFP news agency.
They want him to issue and
apology, or say the rumours as to
why he missed Saturday's game
are unfounded.
The letter reportedly adds if he
did refuse to play he would be
"validating discriminatory
behaviour".
Meanwhile PSG said that they
were "very proud" to wear Pride
shirts.
Initially PSG boss Mauricio
Pochettino said only that Gueye
missed the game for "personal
reasons".

Thursday, May 19, 2022
We’ll tame inflation to
push interest rates down
• Continued from front
the rising inflation.
“It’s an issue which in a sense is
baffling to all of us. A year ago,
inflation in Ghana was near single
digit, particularly we were at 7.5% and
then we find ourselves a year later in
high double digits. It’s a very
complicated environment, as you
yourself are aware we have come out
of COVID-19. But Ghana, fortunately,
was able to weather the impact of
• BoG Governor assures
COVD well without recording highinterest
rates”, he told Bloomberg.
“This week, the MPC will be
meeting. I do not want to preempt
what the Committee will decide but I
think is a very complicated issue”, he
explained.
“As we said, inflation is nearly
24%. We need to take a position on
what to do with the current policy
rate at 17%”, he added.
The Ghanaian economy was
battered by the COVID-19 pandemic
but has since recovered swiftly, but
faces challenges from both domestic
and external pressures.
“It seems as if the economy has
picked up significantly with a
positive growth rate of 5.4%. At the
Central Bank, we have anticipated
this”.
“In november last year, we raised
the policy rate by 100 basis points
[2.0%], and then we were rather
surprised by the inflation rate which
came out later on. After that in
February [2022] in particular which
triggered the 250 basis points [2.5%]
adjustment in the policy rate”, he
pointed out.
Dr. Addison also added that the
Central Bank will continue to
support the Bank of Ghana to
stabilize the economy.
“The role of the Central Bank in
stabilising has been very clear. I
mean we have a limited set of
instruments trying to manage
liquidity and trying to manage
interest rates, and that is what we
have done in the last year or so.”
Inflation from producer
perspective hits 31.2%
• Signals rising cost of goods
The Producer Price Inflation (PPI)
rate for April 2022 hit 31.2%, from
29.3% recorded in March 2022.
According to the Ghana Statistical
Service, the month-on-month
change in the producer price index
between March 2022 and April 2022
was 1.1%.
This has a correlation with the
Consumer Price Inflation which has
been surging since the beginning of
the year.
Whilst the PPI in the Mining and
Quarrying sub-sector increased by
1.6 percentage points over the March
2022 rate of 33.6% to 35.2% in April
2022, the producer inflation for the
Manufacturing sub-sector, which
constitutes more than two-thirds of
the total industry, increased by 2.6
percentage points to 38.6%.
The utility sub-sector however
recorded a 1.1% inflation rate for
April 2022.
In April 2022, two out of the 16
major groups in the manufacturing
sub-sector recorded inflation rates
higher than the sector average of 38.6
percent.
Manufacture of coke, refined petroleum
products, and nuclear fuel
recorded the highest inflation rate of
76.1%, while the publishing, printing,
and reproduction of recorded media
recorded the least inflation rate of
2.6%.
The Petroleum Price Index also
went up to 76.1% in April 2022, signaling
the rising fuel prices at the
pumps.
For month-on-month, the manufacturing
sub-sector recorded the
highest monthly inflation rate of
1.6%, followed by the mining and
quarrying sub-sector which recorded
a rate of 0.4%. The utility sub-sector
recorded no inflation in the month of
April 2022.
“Manufacture of
coke, refined
petroleum
products, and
nuclear fuel
recorded the
highest inflation
rate of 76.1%,
while the
publishing,
printing, and
reproduction of
recorded media
recorded the
least inflation
rate of 2.6%.
NPA CEO gets
top Africa award
The Chief executive of the
national Petroleum Authority
(nPA), Dr. Mustapha
Abdul-hamid, has been
named among top 50 public
sector leaders on the
Africa Continent.
Dr. Abdul-hamid got
the coveted award on Friday,
May 13, 2022 at the
third edition of the Africa
Public Sector Conference &
Awards (APSCA) ceremony.
The award night celebrated
and recognised outstanding
state-owned
organisations, public sector
agencies, ministries and
leaders demonstrating excellence
in leadership, policy
innovations, service delivery,
inspiring
innovations and individuals
raising the benchmark
of excellence that leaded to
socio-economic growth
across Africa.
This year’s awards ceremony
was held in Accra
and saw 50 Chief executive
Officers (CeOs) from the
public sector across the
Continent being honored.
The nPA Boss was
grateful to the organisers
and promised to even play
a more pivotal role in positioning
the Authority as a
trailblazer in the downstream
sector.
“
This year’s awards
ceremony was held
in Accra and saw
50 Chief Executive
Officers (CEOs)
from the public
sector across the
Continent being
honored.

Thursday, May 19, 2022
THUMBS UP, BOG FOR
GUARANTEED FOREX
SUPPLY TO BDCS
IN the last couple of weeks, the Bank of Ghana
announced a raft of measures to help check rising
inflation and mop up excess liquidity in the system.
It further took a decisive decision to introduce
a foreign exchange forward auction for Bulk Oil
Distributing Companies (BDCs) in a move meant
to help stabilise fuel prices at the pumps in the
coming weeks and beyond.
The bespoke multiple-price forward FX
auctions are intended to minimise the uncertainty
of the future availability of FX and aid price
discovery especially for the general pricing
window within the downstream sector.
The Newspaper finds this intervention not only
apt but refreshing in view of the effect of the rising
fuel prices at the pumps on the general cost of
living.
To us, the bank has demonstrated its ability as
the sole entity in charge of monetary policy to
intervene in the market when necessary to
prevent further disruptions to economic activities.
In many instances, measures taken by the
government and its agencies to help address
teething problems have been blatantly abused,
rendering those measures ineffective in the
medium to long term.
We are, however, happy to note that based on
previous experiences, the BoG was quick to outline
a systematic process in order to ensure that the
BDCs follow through the various arrangements
made.
For instance, regarding the publication of
Foreign Exchange Auction Calendar, the bank
explained that it would publish an auction target
incorporating inputs received from the National
Petroleum Authority (NPA) for the foreign
exchange forwards on a bi-weekly basis.
It further noted that the target would be
published four days preceding the pricing window
for the downstream sector on the bank’s website
to enable market participants to plan adequately
while the announcement shall list the date and
time, auction volume target, settlement and other
relevant information.
The paper believes that the bank has clearly
demonstrated good faith, having listened to the
requests by the BDCs for that intervention.
Against this background, the Newspaper
would want to urge the BDCs to play their role by
ensuring that participation in the auction is
restricted to only actual members of the NPA
through their authorised licensed foreign
exchange dealing banks.
Without any shred of doubt, we are hopeful
that the persistent rise in the prices of petroleum
products at the pumps in the last couple of months
will now be a thing of the past as rightly pledged
by the Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of
Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD), Senyo Hosi (see front
page story).
When the public
ratifies your business
BY MAXWELL
AMPONG
There are many
definitions of
“success” when it
comes to owning a
business.
Good marketing begets
business. So does targeted
lobbying. So does nepotism.
The list can be long. But
customer recommendation
and good reviews are cheap
and effective ways that can
get your business to be the
preferred choice in your field.
BRAnD FAMILIARITY:
Familiarity is a very powerful
tool.
In the 1960s, a research
psychologist named Robert
Zajonc discovered that when
people are repeatedly
exposed to a certain stimulus,
they start to react favourably
to it.
he called it the Mere exposure
effect, and it works. It works really
well.
When MTn started out in
Ghana, it was really literally
everywhere you go in every sense of
the word. I literally couldn’t drive for
30 minutes without seeing
somewhere and somehow that
bright yellow box with the MTn
initials in it. That consistency I
believe played a vital role in them
being so ahead of the other telecom
companies in many respects. We
engage the brands that we trust. We
trust the brands that we’re familiar
with. We’re familiar with
what we see every day.
eXTRAORDInARY
CUSTOMeR SeRVICe:
human emotion is a very
important factor in what
we buy.
even when emotion
comes second, there will
be many others that will
give you the efficacy you
seek and at that point,
emotion jumps in again.
People like people they
like; it’s that simple.
People gravitate to those
that make them feel
warm. There’s a saying
that people will forget
what you did but never
forget how you made
them feel. That’s what
customer service is all
about.
Aim to build a
reputation for so good a
customer service that people will
want to pass by just to feel that
warmth. Build a reputation for being
the one guaranteed nice experience
in someone’s day. Adulthood is very
hard for the majority of people. They
end up projecting their frustrations
onto the people they deal with, and
that person can be you or your staff.
If you manage to not get sucked into
that air of negativity, you might
retain that client because guess
what: who else will deal with all of
their craziness. YOU! The answer
must be YOU!
COnCenTRATe On IMPROVInG –
RIGhT YOUR WROnGS: Perfection
is a journey, not a state.
Clients are human beings. They
do not like to feel played and
chances are you are not going to do
everything right every time. The
most important thing is that you
keep working at it.
Believe in mistakes. Believe in
avoiding them by learning about
and from other’s mistakes. But more
importantly, believe in working on
not making them twice.
Chances are that a majority of
clients will remain with your brand
if they know that you can steer your
boat right when it gets off its course.
A mistake only irritates in the
beginning. An unresolved mistake is
what breeds harsh sentiment and
bad reviews. Bad reviews spread
faster by the way because people like
to avoid loss and bad experiences. So,
whether the mistakes are your fault
or that of the customer, it’s your
fault that you couldn’t curate a
smooth experience for your
customer; think of it like that.
When we started, I was
notorious for apportioning blame
during a pitch, and for good reason. I
spoke to the team about it and they
fell in line with it perfectly. My
reasoning was, if the buck stops
with me, and I am wrong, then we
are all wrong. Better to demonstrate
a clear path to solving the problem
in order to salvage whatever trust is
left from the client.
One time, many many years ago,
we gave this disastrous first pitch
and when I say “we”, I mean I.
Whenever the prospective client
exclaimed at some misguided point,
one team member would apologise
for not doing enough research or
something like that and then
another will apologise for mixing
our facts and so on and so forth. If
we lost that business, it would have
been understandable. But after the
pitch, I gave the client a firm
assurance that I was going to handle
his account personally henceforth, I
apologised for the errors of my staff
(go figure!), took his advice on how
to run my team better (they always
do that), and then I totally aced the
next pitch alone (to demonstrate a
change).
I have expanded on 3 how’s.
Build brand familiarity, give
extraordinary customer care, and
work on accepting and improving
mistakes. There are others. Offer a
guarantee one way or the other and
do not fail to deliver on that
guarantee. Build home support
wherever your business is, for people
like to support their own, arguably.
have Loyalty Schemes. execute good
pricing strategies. Partner with
popular people to increase your
approachability. Utilise Social Media.
Provide Free WiFi (it’s a people
magnet in 2020). Create scarcity.
There are many other how’s.
here is where all that should be
headed: people should walk into
your office without question. Your
name should be the first they
mention instinctively when they
need the services you can provide.
You should have people come to you
for value, and for reliability.

Thursday, May 19, 2022
Banking consultant
lashes out at banks
ABanking Consultant,
nana Otuo Acheampong,
has lashed out at
banks for their continuous
charging of some
other fees contrary to directives
from the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
According to him, it was unfortunate
that some financial institutions
were still charging their
customers unfairly.
“They [the BoG] know from the
complaints they’re receiving
whether the banks or the financial
institutions are complying or not
so for them to have repeated the announcement,
indicates that they
are getting a lot of complaints.
They’ve already hinted that sooner
or later, they’re going to come out
with a league table of the institutions
and rank them in the ones
that receive the highest complaints
against those that get the lowest.”
…So the complaints department
is very active and for them to
have released this notice again, I’m
only suspecting that maybe a lot of
complaints have been going that
this directive is in place but the
banks are still charging the fees,”
• Over unfair charges
nana Otuo Acheampong bemoaned.
In June 2021, the Bank of Ghana
warned commercial banks and specialised
deposit-taking institutions
(SDIs) in Ghana to abolish unfair
charges in the banking sector.
In a statement, the Bank of
Ghana noted that seven charges are
being implemented by banks and
SDI which are deemed to be unfair,
inappropriate and detrimental to
the financial inclusion agenda and
the protection of customers’ interests.
These charges included Credit
Insurance Premium Overcharges,
Maintenance fees on Savings accounts,
Over the counter (OTC)
withdrawal charges, Change of
ownership of collateral documents,
Application of interest on penal
charges, Quotation of monthly interest
rates on credit facilities, and
Third-party deposit/withdrawal violations.
According to a recent statement
that sought to update Ghanaians
on the abolition of unfair fees,
charges, and other practices, the
Central Bank tasked customers to
report any suspicious or unapproved
charges from their financial
institutions.
It would be recalled that in
June 2021, the central bank warned
commercial banks and Specialised
Deposit-Taking Institutions in
Ghana to abolish some unfair
charges in the banking sector.
The directive was reiterated recently
by the Bank of Ghana with a
call on customers to report any suspicious
or unapproved charges
from their financial institutions.
PIAC commends some oil funding projects
• But calls for more action on other
The Public Interest and Accountability
Committee (PIAC) has reiterated its
commitment to carrying out its mandate
to ensure the prudent management
and use of petroleum revenues in
Ghana.
This follows an inspection of projects
executed with petroleum funds,
with some satisfactorily done, whilst
others poorly done.
The Committee’s latest activity in
line with its mandate took place simultaneously
in the Western north and
north east Regions from Sunday, 24th to
Friday, 29th April 2022.
In the Western north Region, the
Committee inspected the construction
of a 3-story Regional Coordinating
Council (RCC) Administration Block in
Sefwi Wiawso, the construction of three
Senior Staff Bungalows at Sefwi Wiawso
and a rural market in Amoaya in the
Bodi Constituency. The construction of
the RCC building received ₵10.5 million
from the Annual Budget Funding
Amount (ABFA) in 2020 and 2021.
Members of the Committee expressed
satisfaction with the project
which had been completed, commissioned,
and was in use.
The Committee also expressed satisfaction
with the senior staff bungalows
receiving a total of Gh₵1,779,660 from
the ABFA in 2020.
The project was reported to be 90%
complete with bungalows erected and
roofed, internal finishing virtually completed,
and external works ongoing. The
Committee however looked forward to
the expeditious completion of the project
for use by RCC.
Again, the Committee welcomed the
upgrading of the nalerigu - Gbintri road,
in the north east region which was allocated
₵20 million from the ABFA in 2020.
It was also inspected by the PIAC team
and officials of the Ghana highway Authority.
“Again, the Committee
welcomed the upgrading
of the Nalerigu - Gbintri
road, in the North East
region which was
allocated ₵20 million from
the ABFA in 2020. It was
also inspected by the PIAC
team and officials of the
Ghana Highway Authority.
In terms of projects that the Committee
called for urgent action to be
completed, they included the rural market,
situated in Amoaya, in the Western
north region which received ₵107,327
from the ABFA in 2020, but work had
stalled, and the construction of a 3-
Storey Administration Block for the
Council, located in nalerigu in the
north east region.
Construction commenced in 2019,
and the project was expected to have
been completed in 2021. Outstanding
works include painting, tiling, electricals,
and furnishing.
In both regions, the Committee held
regional public fora on the 2021 PIAC
Annual Report, which brought together
stakeholders from the traditional council,
religious groups, security agencies,
traders, and educational institutions,
among others to deliberate on the management
and use of petroleum revenues.
One of the issues raised was the fact
that most participants were unaware of
projects funded by ABFA. The participants
also called for more projects to be
executed with petroleum revenues.
The Committee, therefore, recommended
the labeling of ABFA-funded
projects for identification.

Thursday, May 19, 2022
Is Ghana considering
a return to the IMF?
Last Year yields on Ghana’s
sovereign Eurobonds on the
secondary markets climbed to their
highest level ever illuminating just
how expensive it will be for the
country to issue new dollar
denominated bonds, even as the
need to begin refinancing several
billions in previously issued
Eurobond debt becomes imperative
with repayment obligations in
2022. Economists and financial
experts both at home and abroad
are increasingly pointing to a
return to the International
Monetary Fund as the most
feasible way out of a huge dilemma
for the incumbent government
which however will loath to take
that option for political reasons.
TOMA IMIRHE assesses the
situation and examines
government’s options and the
implications for each.
JUST two and a half years after
Ghana rejected advice from
the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) to extend its
extended Credit Facility
programme - begun in 2015 and ended
in 2019 - the country’s fiscal difficulties
are making it to consider asking the
Fund for new financial support as its
debt continues to rise and an array of
international bond maturities loom on
the horizon.
The debt, which is presently a little
above Ghc335 billion, continues to rise,
with the inordinate fiscal deficits
imposed by the effects of COVID 19
offering little chance of reversing this
trajectory.
Consequently, technocrats within
the Ministry of Finance have started to
persuade their political appointee
bosses to at least consider turning to the
IMF as a cheaper source of financing
and as a possible advocate for cheaper
coupon rates on the country’s bond
issuances on international capital
markets.
So far the political appointees who head
Ghana’s economic management team are
publicly having none of this idea but
privately some of them are reportedly
beginning to take the suggestion seriously.
however even though they may see the
financial pragmatism in securing financial
breathing space from the Fund they fret that
it would come with demand management
economic policies that are diametrically
opposed to the expansionary supply side
policies that the incumbent government
believes in and which indeed had served it so
well before COVID 19 came and threw a
monkey wrench in the works.
The fiscal pressures created by the
economic impacts of COVID 19 have
accelerated Ghana’s public debt problems,
and the subsequent downgrade of the
country’s sovereign debt position is making
it harder to finance the public debt.
Although support from the IMF in the
form of a Rapid Response Facility last year
and increased SDR allocation this year have
softened the shock created by COVID 19, the
sheer size of the debt and consequent cost of
servicing it – which is taking half of
government’s tax revenues this year – are
making the requisite fiscal consolidation all
the more difficult to execute.
According to a Bloomberg survey, the
country may have to pay a higher premium if
it returns to the international capital market
next year to issue a eurobond.
Indeed, government now seems set to
abandon the issuance of US$1.5 billion in
green bonds which it had planned to do
during the second half of this year, primarily
because of the reticence being shown by
potential international institutional
investors during informal (non-binding)
discussions with government economic
management chieftains. Apparently the
investors who have shown interest in a
second international capital markets bond
issuance by Ghana in 2021 are tying their
subscription to coupon rates which the
Government pf Ghana considers too high.
Last year, Ghana’s credit-risk premium
soared to the highest since the start of the
Covid-19 pandemic ahead of next month’s
budget.
“Do they still have access to the
eurobond market at these levels?
Could they issue one at a
reasonable price?,” asks neville
Mandimika, an economist and
Fixed Income Strategist at
FirstRand Bank in Johannesburg.
“The answer seems to be no.”
Ghana has historically relied
on funding from the eurobond
market to fund expenditure.
But limited access to
international loans could force the
government to supply
more debt locally, which
would be detrimental to cedi
yields as banks and institutions
already own about 80% of the
financial instrument.
Ghana’s dollar bonds are the
worst performers this month in a
Bloomberg index tracking
emerging-market hard-currency
debt, with a decline of 5.8 percent.
The 2025 yield jumped 153 basis
points on Monday, 18th October, 2021, the
most in a day on record since the debt began
to trade in April 2021.
It climbed a ninth consecutive day on
20th October, 2021 by 4.0 basis points to 11.28
percent, the highest on record.
“At this point they need to present a
credible plan B on how they fund the budget
in the absence of eurobond issuance,” says
Mr. Mandimika.
“In a worst-case scenario where debt is
growing amid a global risk-off mood, Ghana
may have to head back to the IMF.”
It is instructive that this scenario is
already – albeit reluctantly – being
considered in Accra as well.
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr.
ernest Addison, speaking at the Ghana
economic Forum has called for a fiscal policy
in next year’s budget that will create a more
credible path towards fiscal or financial
sustainability.
According to him, this is important for
the country’s quest to accelerate its economy
rapidly but remain financially sound.
“The 2022 budget should be used to reset
fiscal policy to create a more credible path
towards medium term fiscal sustainability.
This would be an important building block to
establish and entrench credibility, a key
component to stability”.
Interestingly, several past
administrations in Ghana have hidden
behind the IMF to implement necessary but
unpopular fiscal initiatives such as tax hikes
and subsidy removal. Recent introduction of
new taxes and levies in the 2021 budget have
been met with widespread protests among
the populace including demonstrations on
the streets of Accra.
Up till now, premium investors have
demanded to hold the country’s debt rather
than US Treasuries, which has climbed 144
basis points in October 1st, 2021 to 910 basis
points on Tuesday, 19th October, 2021, the
highest since May 2020.
But an impending rise in both coupon
rates and secondary market yields on US
treasuries is in the offing as the US Federal
Reserve Bank has announced its intention to
taper its bond buying programme as a
precursor to ending its monetary easing
policy introduced last year to prop up
economic activity in the face of the slump in
economic activity imposed by COVID 19 and
its requisite socio-economic restrictions
introduced to curb the spread of infections.
As economic activity and consequent
economic growth increases in the US and
other countries in the western hemisphere,
inflation is also on the rise and monetary
tightening is inevitable sooner or later, the
only question still unanswered being the
timing of the impending interest rate hikes.
This will be troublesome for Ghana
which will have to imminently begin
refinancing its foreign debt, consisting
primarily of the eurobond issuances it has
engaged in annually since 2013 and for
which maturities will begin falling due in
September 2022. Around the middle of the
previous decade the coupon rates demanded
by investors on Ghana’s sovereign dollar
denominated bond issuances rose to a peak
of 10.25 percent, the highest on any issuance
by a sub Saharan country. While part of such
debt has since been refinanced through bond
buy backs using the proceeds of cheaper
issuances over the past four years, there are
still substantial amounts that will fall due
during this decade and hopes of refinancing
them with relatively cheap fresh bond
issuances made possible by the monetary
easing dispensation are now receding.
The country’s revenue fell short of target
by 12 percent to Ghc34.3 billion (US$5.66
billion) in the first seven months of the year
and may continue to do so, putting pressure
on its economic growth outlook.
economists from Redd Intelligence,
Renaissance Capital and Capital economics
who spoke to Bloomberg are already

Thursday, May 19, 2022
forecasting annual economic
growth to stay well below the
target of 5.1 percent in 2021.
Indeed, after President nana
Akufo-Addo had announced a
second quarter growth rate of 8.9
percent to the international
investment community , the
Ghana Statistical Service came
up with a much more sedate
growth rate of 3.9 percent. The
huge discrepancy has been
swept under the carpet but this
has left a feeling of
disappointment. After all it was
the BoG’s promising early data
in the form of a year on year 33.1
percent rise in its Composite
Index of economic Activity for
May that had raised expectations
of sharp economic growth in the
first place, which had left the
President’s hugely exaggerated
growth statistic to go
unchallenged when he had
made it.
however even a 3.9 percent
growth rate for the second
quarter, coming on the back of
the first quarter’s 3.1 percent is
impressive under the
circumstances imposed by
COVID 19; sub Saharan Africa as
a whole is expected to grow by a
significantly slower 3 percent.
On the downside though, the
2nd quarter performance lowers
the expectations that
government will achieve its full
year growth target of 5.1 percent
(revised upwards marginally
from 5.0 percent at the mid year
budget review). Indeed the BoG’s
CIeA, after peaking at 39.4
percent growth, has been
declining since mid year, to 20.2
percent for June and 20.0
percent for July, creating the
possibility the economic growth
rate may not accelerate further –
or even decline.
Slower-than-anticipated
growth will also make it harder
for Ghana to fund its budget
deficit, which is expected to
return within the legislated
threshold of 5% of Gross
Domestic Product by 2024, after
breaching it last year.
Analysts have also expressed
worry about the widening credit
spreads that raise questions
about the country’s debt
trajectory.
By the end of July this year
Ghana’s public debt stood at
Ghc335.9 billion, up from
Ghc263.4 million a year earlier
and Ghc291.6 million at the start
of this year. This is equivalent to
US$57.9 billion. It also amounts
to 76.4 percent of Gross Domestic
Product, up from 68.7 percent a
year earlier and 76.0 percent at
the turn of the year.
This again confirms the
unsustainability of Ghana’s
public debt trajectory, even
without COVID 19 having added
considerably to the problem.
On the upside though the
debt owed on the issuance of
Financial Sector Resolution
Bonds has declined to below
Ghc15 billion for the first time
since the 4th quarter of 2020,
standing at Ghc14.9 billion as at
July this year.
The strategy of the
incumbent government in this
regard is basically the same as its
predecessors; refinance
maturities through new
borrowing while taking enough
to finance the inevitable yearly
budget deficit. There is no end
game in place for reducing the
debt – and debt servicing
requirements which now take up
half of the state’s annual public
expenditure. The closest to that
is the ploy used in the road
shows government embarks on
when seeking subscribers to new
bond issuances: that new
oilfields will be discovered and
developed which will ultimately
generate the revenues needed to
pay down the state’s
indebtedness.
International bond investors
have seen through this for years;
having noticed that Ghana’s debt
is expanding even faster than its
oil revenues. So far however bond
investors have not been overly
concerned knowing that Ghana
is a responsible debtor and that it
generates more than enough to
pay the interest and other fees
which means it can go on
refinancing its debts for a long
time to come without stress to
the investors. But this means
demanding an increasing risk
premium and Ghana’s
government is becoming
“Debt
affordability
remains Ghana’s
main credit
constraint and
has continued to
deteriorate since
2020, driven by
both the declining
revenue share
and a higher
interest bill,
reflecting greater
recourse to
borrowing to
fund spending,”
Moody’s notes.
increasingly reluctant to keep
pace with these demands
International credit rating
agency, Moody’s has been
warning that Ghana will find it
inordinately expensive to borrow
to run its economy due to a
decline in revenue and an
increase in interest costs.
In its latest assessment of
the Ghanaian economy, Moody’s
which currently ranks the
country B3 with a negative
outlook, explains that Ghana has
high exposure to external
financing.
“The negative outlook
reflects the rising risks that the
pandemic poses to Ghana’s
funding and debt servicing due
to its exposure to shocks from a
high dependence on external
financing,” says kelvin
Dalrymple, Vice President –
Senior Credit Officer, at Moody’s.
According to Moody’s, the
challenge now for Ghana is to
implement an austere budget by
limiting spending or find
cheaper loans to finance the
deficit left by its reduction in
earnings.
“That said, our outlook could
turn stable if the government
limits the potential increase in
its funding needs or confidently
show it will be able to get
sufficient funding at moderate
costs, when needed,” Mr
Dalrymple explains.
Again, he points out that the
Ghanaian economy, is more
diversified than nigeria’s oildependent
one and could
rebound faster if it reduced its
exposure to foreign borrowing.
“Debt affordability remains
Ghana’s main credit constraint
and has continued to deteriorate
since 2020, driven by both the
declining revenue share and a
higher interest bill, reflecting
greater recourse to borrowing to
fund spending,” Moody’s notes.
The rating agency adds that
it will upgrade the country’s
outlook to stable if efforts are
made by government to ease
financing pressures in the
economy either through
increasing revenue or finding
cheaper sources of debt.
“We would likely change the
outlook to stable if we conclude
that financing pressures were
abating, either through
increasing evidence that the
government is able to limit the
increase in its funding needs or
confidence that it will be able to
secure sufficient funding at
moderate costs”.
It adds : “a stabilisation and
reduction in Ghana’s debtservice
ratio would ease
refinancing risks and support an
improvement in its debtaffordability
metrics. The
implementation of measures
that would arrest the rise in
direct and contingent debt and
provide confidence that the debt
burden will fall would also
support a return to a stable
outlook. Ultimately, as current
pressures dissipate, the
improving trends evident prior
to the coronavirus shock would
likely emerge.
Government is looking to
expand kits revenues by roping
the vast informal sectior into the
income tax net but this will take
time and government will
inevitably balance its needs for
informal sector economic actors
taxes against the need for their
votes at the next general election
in in 2024.
This makes the possibility of
cheaper funding of the public
debt all the more attractive and
the cheapest source available is
the IMF.
To be sure, there are clear
potential benefits. Firstly, IMF
financing is much cheaper than
commercial financing through
international bond issuances
and properly negotiated, could
offer longer tenors too. Secondly,
and just as importantly, Ghana
in an IMF programme would be
more attractive to international
bond investors which would
translate into more willingness
to invest in new bond issuances
and lower coupon rates on such
new issuances too. Both of these
factors could prove crucial as
Ghana enters a most precarious
era with regards to its economic
management.
To be sure the IMF would be
only too happy to take Ghana
into its fold through a new
medium term programme
similar to the extended Credit
Facility that the country went
through from 2015 to 2019.
But conversely the
incumbent government would
be loath to return to an IMF
programme that emphasizes
demand management over
supply side economics and that
thus contradicts its core beliefs,
more so when its expansionary
policies had worked so well until
COVID 19 had unavoidably
thrown Ghana’s economic
performance askew.
This creates a veritable
dilemma for government.

Thursday, May 19, 2022
Using the EITI Standard
to combat corruption
Lessons from Transparency
International’s mining
research in five countries
eXeCUTIVe SUMMARY
The oil, gas and mining sectors are
some of the world’s most corruptionprone
industries.
1 The renewed focus on combatting
corruption within the extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (eITI)
provides an opportunity to make
significant changes to benefit the lives of
people in resource-rich countries.
Accountable Mining Programme
Transparency International’s
Accountable Mining Programme
complements existing efforts to improve
transparency and accountability in
extractive industries by focusing
specifically on the start of the mining
decision chain: the point at which
governments grant and award mining
permits and licences, negotiate contracts
and make agreements. The Programme’s
research aims to identify the
vulnerabilities to corruption in the way
the licensing process is designed and
implemented.
Requirement 2.1: Disclosure of the
legal framework Requirement 2.1
obligates implementing countries to
disclose a description of the framework
governing the extractive industries. The
key lessons from the country case studies
are:
• Political instability and unrest can
distort the functioning of the legal
framework that governs the licensing
process by establishing temporary or
alternative arrangements which
potentially allow questionable mining
deals to be made behind closed doors.
• Political donations, particularly
during elections, can influence the design
of the legal framework and decisionmaking
process in favour of the donor.
Recommendations: Actively
disclose any changes to mining laws and
arrangements that are intended to
replace the process set out in the legal
framework; require disclosure of
donations from extractive companies to
enable public scrutiny of improper
influence on laws and decisions.
Requirement 2.2: Disclosure of the
licence allocation process Under
Requirement 2.2, implementing countries
must disclose a description of the process
for transferring or awarding licences, as
well as the criteria used to make the
decision, information about the licence
recipients and any material deviations
from the framework.
The key lessons from the
country case studies are:
• Ineffective coordination among
different government departments and
agencies can mean that the process as
described is significantly more complex
in implementation. This creates potential
for bottlenecks in the process and noncompliance
with evaluation criteria
which can be exploited through
corruption to expedite licence
applications.
• Low institutional capacity is a red
flag that may result in material
deviations from the technical and
financial criteria in the process set out in
the legal and regulatory framework.
Lessons learned and
recommendations for resource-rich
countries Transparency International’s
Accountable Mining Programme research
in over twenty countries found that
transparency and disclosure measures
are critical to combatting corruption
risks. however, transparency alone is not
sufficient to combat corruption. As the
paper demonstrates, additional measures
need to be taken for transparency to
make an effective contribution to anticorruption
efforts.
The paper shares key lessons and
recommendations from the Programme’s
case study countries, and are applicable to
all resource-rich countries, including
those that are members of the eITI.
• Political interference in defining
the terms of reference, the qualification
criteria or in the selection of suitable
applicants can give favoured companies
an improper advantage and undermine
the integrity of the licence allocation
process.
Recommendations: Improve
“
Political instability
and unrest can distort
the functioning of the
legal framework
that governs the
licensing process
by establishing
temporary or
alternative
arrangements which
potentially allow
questionable mining
deals to be made
behind closed doors.
coordination and communication
between government departments
responsible for the licensing process;
increase expertise and funding of
licensing agencies; and strengthen
checks and balances on decision-making.
Requirement 2.3: Maintenance of a
publicly available licence register
Requirement 2.3 specifies that
implementing countries must maintain a
publicly available register with detailed
information about the licences granted.
The key lesson from the
country case studies is:
• Gaps in the licence register mean
that key details about who has been
granted a licence, where and for how long
are hidden from public view, allowing
corrupt dealings and favouritism to go
undetected. Recommendation: keep the
licence register easy to access, complete
and up to date to allow members of the
public to view critical details about
licences granted.
Requirement 2.4: Disclosure of
contracts and licence agreements
Contract and licences entered into or
amended from 1 January 2021 must be
disclosed to comply with Requirement
2.4.
The key lesson from the country
case studies is:
• Lack of access to licence
agreements limits the ability of citizens
to scrutinise the adequacy of the terms
and conditions, and to detect and hold
companies to account for any actions that
do not comply with fiscal, social and
environmental obligations.
Recommendation: ensure the full
text of licence agreements, including
their terms and conditions is publicly
accessible.
TRAnSPARenCY
InTeRnATIOnAL USInG The
eITI STAnDARD TO COMBAT
CORRUPTIOn
• eITI MSGs should prioritise
systematic disclosure to ensure that
relevant, up-to-date information needed
to help prevent and detect corruption is
transparent and readily available on an
ongoing basis, not just reported on a oneoff
basis each year.
• eITI MSGs should require
disclosure of political donations by
extractive companies and recipients
within the framework of the eITI.
• eITI MSGs should consider capacity
building activities on the legal
framework among implementing
officials and accountability actors as a
critical step towards combatting
corruption in the licensing process.
• eITI MSGs should establish and
resource a technical working group that
may involve relevant actors from
different government departments to
improve government coordination
(including land, environment, water
resources, forestry etc.).
• eITI MSGs should map out the key
elements of the anti-0corruption legal
framework in their country such as
corruption offences, authorities
responsible for investigating and
prosecuting corruption, the penalties and
how these apply to the licensing process.
eITI Multi-Stakeholder Groups
(MSGs) responsible for implementing the
eITI in their country can use the eITI
framework to reduce corruption in the
extractive sector.
This is the executive Summary of a
discussion paper by the same name
authored by Michael Odei erdiaw-kwasie
and Lisa Caripis.

Thursday, Tuesday, May March 19, 2022 1, 2022
THE WORK PLACE
How to boost
employment in Ghana
A new report by the World Bank
provides a detailed analysis of
Ghana’s troubled job market and
goes on to examine the options
for how to restructure macroeconomic
efforts to create direly
needed new jobs at all levels. The
Business Analyst reproduces an
edited version of the
recommendations presented by
the World Bank
Policy directions
IF Ghana is to successfully
transform its economy and
boost its labor market
performance, it will require a
steadfast, multi-angle
perspective, well-programmed macro
and micro development policy actions,
and multi-sector interventions.
Six strategic directions are
recommended to strengthen Ghana’s
economy and labor market:
i.Identify and nurture economic
activities and enterprises with the
potential for jumps inproduct
complexity;
ii.Strengthen the participation of
enterprises in global value chains;
iii.harness the potential of digital
technologies and proactively adjust to
the changing world of work;
iv.Increase and enhance the
participation of women, youth, and the
poor and vulnerable in the labor
market;
v.Improve human capital in the
current and future workforce; and
viDesign systems and
interventions to be resilient and
responsive, to protect the economy
and labor market against disasters and
shocks.
Interventions at the macro and
micro levels, and across multiple
sectors, will require coherent and
coordinated efforts across multiple
government ministries and agencies.
It will also be crucial to secure
effective private sector and civil
society participation in the design,
implementation, and monitoring and
evaluation of policies and
interventions.
Identify and nurture economic
activities and enterprises with the potential
for jumps in product complexity
The Government of Ghana is taking steps
to bolster its industrial sector through
programs such as One District One Factory
(1D1F), an initiative meant to spur a “massive
nationwide industrialization drive, which
will equip and empower communities to
utilize their local resources in manufacturing
products that are in high demand both locally
and internationally.
As of July 2020, the 1D1F program had
more than 70 factories in production, with
additional ones in various stages of
construction.
In pursuing potential investors for 1D1F
sites, the government should consider
targeting enterprises operating in the priority
sectors identified in the World Bank’s Ghana
CPSD 2017. Countries are more successful in
diversifying when they move into production
that requires similar knowhow and builds on
existing capabilities. This adjacency approach
to export diversification can facilitate small
gains in the near term for Ghana. But for
larger gains, the country would need to
consider making strategic bets, that is,
coordinated long jumps into strategic areas
with future diversification potential. Given
Ghana’s current exports, some of the sectors
with high potential for new diversification
are industrial machinery and plastics. The
country’s recent production of oil and gas in
commercial quantities opens the way to
developing associated industries such as
petrochemicals and fertilizer, which can be
targeted for export.
Given strong linkages with the rest of the
domestic economy, these industries can also
produce broad spillover benefits. A number of
organically occurring clusters in Ghana
appear to hold export promise and could
benefit from targeted government support.
These include a light manufacturing cluster
in Suame-Magazine and a furniture cluster in
kumasi. In Suame-Magazine, more than
10,000 micro and small enterprises and
workshops are estimated to have set up
operations, including in automobile parts
production, retail, automobile repair services,
and metalworking.
The government would need to address
constraints to enterprise development and
success in general. enterprises surveyed in
Ghana’s Brong Ahafo region often cited the
lack of of business services and technological
support as key constraints to business
success.
In other surveys, enterprises frequently
identified their main constraints to business
success to be access to financial capital, land,
and infrastructure services (electricity, water,
and information and communications
technology) and a reliable supply of
infrastructure services.
Strengthen the participation of
enterprises in global value chains
The growth of global value chains (GVCs)
“In pursuing
potential investors
for 1D1F sites, the
government
should consider
targeting
enterprises
operating in the
priority sectors
identified in the
World Bank’s
Ghana CPSD 2017.
brings both opportunities and challenges for
countries.
GVCs break up the production process
across countries, allowing enterprises to
specialize in a specific task suited to their
capabilities, but these chains also place a
strong premium on trade logistics.
Ghana has succeeded in entering into
global value chains in horticulture. To further
agriculture development in the country, the
Government of Ghana should prioritize
public investments in infrastructure,
particularly in areas with high agricultural
potential, such as the northern Savannah
ecological Zone (nSeZ) (including the Afram
Plains), which is seen as critical to sustaining
Ghana’s agricultural growth.
“Industries without smokestacks,”
primarily the agro-processing sector, offer
opportunities to create productive, gainful
employment, capture more value locally
(instead of having raw products processed
outside the country), increase exports, and
reduce post-harvest losses for farmers and
traders. Most of the off-farm work involved in
agro-processing tends to be in trade services,
including logistics to move processed
products to markets. Importantly, many
young people may find employment in the
“post-processing” sectors (including
packaging, logistics, and marketing services)
to be more attractive than farming. The use of
inclusive value chain development (iVCD),
which links farmers to buyers and other
stakeholders through contracts, can help
reduce risks for and facilitate connections
between players in the agro-processing sector.
iVCD arrangements allow buyers (processors)
to secure higher volumes of better-and moreconsistent-quality
agricultural products
needed to access markets or to operate
processing plants at scale. Farmers,
meanwhile, get access to credit, gain
agronomic knowledge, and reduce their
production, price, and market risks. Contracts
can be bilateral or involve multiple parties,
and can be informal or formal. Depending on
the scope of a contract, farmers may remain
self-employed or become quasi-wage workers,
with the processor or marketing agent
stipulating production modalities, as is
common in poultry and pork contract
farming.
For Ghana, the iVCD model might offer a
promising option given the prevalence of
informal self-employment, primarily in
agriculture. Specifically, Ghana should
consider the iVCD model for cash crops
grown in rural areas in the north.
harness the potential of digital
technologies and proactively adjust to the
changing world of work
The so-called Fourth Industrial
Revolution, or Industry 4.0, is characterized
by growth in the use of connected,
autonomous systems and smart technology
in production processes. This trend is set to
revolutionize manufacturing and lead to
major economic disruptions, creating new
winners and losers around the world. The
Government of Ghana should take deliberate
policy action to ensure that the country
adopts Industry 4.0 technologies if its
industrial sectors are to remain competitive.
At the same time, policy makers need to be
sensitive to the fact that Industry 4.0 is
expected to lead to employment losses and
declines in labor demand as enterprises adopt
labor-saving technologies.
Technologies that underpin Industry 4.0
are leading to an increasingly serviceoriented
labor market characterized by the
sharing economy. The sharing economy is a
system of peer-to-peer exchanges or rentals
facilitated through a digital intermediary.
Digital platforms can be used to access
many goods and services, from ordering and
delivering meals, clothes, or groceries; to
hiring personal assistants or contingent
workers; to utilizing Internet-based
scheduling. Adoption of the sharing economy
is highest among youth. The Government of
Ghana should encourage the growth of the
sharing economy and the creation of
enabling platforms by youth, and support
collaborative innovations and
commercialization of platforms through
hubs.
Digital platforms can help to
expand productive, gainful work
opportunities in Ghana.
Projections suggest that the country’s
labor market will continue to be dominated

Thursday, May 19, 2022
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Ghana’s US$450 billion
SDG investment offer
Over the next 10
years, Ghana aims to
offer investment
opportunities to
private enterprise to
the tune of nea rly
US$450 million in
order to bridge its
financing gap
towards meeting the
sustainable
development goals.
TOMA IMIRHE
documents the
framework for
Ghana’s biggest
invitation to private
capital to date.
PReSIDenT of the
Republic, nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo has
announced that over the
next 10 years the country
will offer investment opportunities
to the local and international
investment communities to the tune
of US$450 billion.. he made the
declaration to an audience of global
CeOs last week when he launched
the Ghana Financing Roadmap for
the realization of the 2030 United
nations Sustainable Development
Goals.
“ Ghana is a prime, ripe
destination for doing business”
asserted the President. “We are
ranked as the most stable political
environment in West Africa, and
the best place to do business in the
Region. We have established strong
democratic institutions and
systems to ensure good governance
and the rule of law in our country.
And we are blessed to have an
entrepreneurial and dynamic youth
population, who are very savvy with
technology and innovation."
With Ghana’s Financing
Roadmap estimating a financing
gap of some US$450 billion over the
next decade to 2030, the President
has stressed that this is nearly
US$450 billion business and
investment opportunity for the
private sector.
he has thus extended an
invitation to the private sector,
domestic and foreign, to take full
advantage of the huge SDGs-related
business opportunities that
currently exist in Ghana, in the
areas of infrastructural
development, agriculture, industry,
energy, health, communications,
education and water and sanitation.
he indicated to the CeOs
gathered that the Ministry of
Finance is preparing a pipeline of
bankable SDGs initiatives which
will form the basis for a catalogue of
well-propared, commercially
attractive projects.
Work, he added is also ongoing
to develop an SDGs Investor
Platform, that will provide market
intelligence on investment
opportunities in the country and
related impact data to identify and
increase SDGs-aligned investments.
“One thing that is clear is that
the pandemic has not only
heightened our challenges, but it
has also created new ones, and
exacerbated the financing gap that
we face in the implementation of
the SDGs," he said.
The President continued, "And,
it is, further, abundantly clear to me
that, if we are going to be successful
in our endeavour, the key
considerations will be the scope,
scale and quality of partnerships
that we establish with the private
sector, and how smart and
innovative we are in mobilizing
financing and private investments
to support implementation of the
Goals"
To this end, President Akufo-
Addo reiterated his determination
to enhance government’s
partnership with the private sector
to unlock innovative and
sustainable financing to bridge the
SDGs financing gap, which has been
identified in Ghana’s Financing
Roadmap, which he has launched.
The Country Financing
Roadmap (CFR) has been drawn up
by the Government of Ghana, in
partnership with the World
economic Forum’s Sustainable
Development Investment
Partnership (SDIP). It is a countryled
initiative to formulate an action
plan to unlock greater financing
towards achieving the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) through
public-private collaboration. This
government-led initiative serves to
quantify the financing gap,
identifying and developing
strategies to bridge the gap for
immediate and longer-term
national development priorities in
line with the SDGs, by formulating
joint action plans to attract greater
investment.
The aim is to catalyze private
financing for SDGs at scale, while
improving the long-term
competitiveness of the country.
The CFR’s purpose is: –To serve
as an impartial platform, raising
awareness of the conditions needed
to unlock greater sustainable
financing ;To stimulate dialogue on
regional and thematic financing
agendas for greater impact ;To
create alignment among a diverse
set of players and reduce
inefficiencies for a more supportive
ecosystem to mobilize financing
towards meeting national
sustainable development priorities;
To inspire concrete action and bring
forward new sources of capital to
the sustainable financing agenda
The value proposition of the
CFR is flexibility and adaptability to
prioritize country needs and
leadership to: Facilitate greater
private-sector perspectives in
shaping national development
priority financing discussions and
solutions ;Generate a multiplier
effect across existing initiatives
under a common agenda by
fostering synergies across different
sectors and types of stakeholders
(public, private, domestic and
foreign); and to Create
opportunities for replication across
other countries, regions and
markets.
"Against the backdrop of the
huge financing gap, perhaps more
than ever, we need a stronger,
mutually beneficial partnership
with the private sector. This is
because it is you, in the private
sector, who generate the wealth,
which provides the means for our
economic and social investments,"
Presidentb Akufo-Addo asserted
while launching Ghana’s CFR.
Already the President Akufo-
Addo administration has begun
implementation of its ambitious
Ghc100 billion Ghana COVID 19
Alleviation and Recovery of
enterprises Support (Ghana CAReS)
programme. The three year
programme aims to attract Ghc70
billion in private investment capital
to add on to Ghc30 billion in public
spending. The strategy is to leverage
on private capital to boost economic
growth as government itself is
constrained by the urgent need for
fiscal consolidation in the face of an
inordinate fiscal deficit and
consequent increase in the public
debt beyond the generally accepted
public debt sustainability threshold
of 70 percent of Gross Domestic
Product.
But the CFR is a much bigger,
much more ambition initiative,
effectively serving as a fully fledged
national development plan
complete with its financing needs
and how they are to be met.
. The process for assessing
implementation of programmes
aimed at achieving the SDGs has
shown clearly the size of the
financing gap.
Total funds budgeted for the
implementation of the SDGs in 2019
was Gh¢ 51 billion (US$9.3 billion),
representing 73% of total
government expenditure The
US$9.3 billion budgeted for the SDGs
by the Government of Ghana and
other public domestic sources
represented around 92% of the total
funding for SDGs in Ghana in
2019.In terms of the SDG cost and
financing gap.
The total cumulative 10-year
cost from 2021 to 2030 of achieving
the SDGs is estimated to be $522.3
billion, averaging around $52.2
billion per year and the total
cumulative 10-year SDG financing
gap is estimated to be $431.6 billion.
For 2021 alone, this gap is
around $43 billion. The SDG cost and
additional financing needed to
achieve the SDGs by 2030 were
estimated by the Institute of
Statistical, Social and economic
Research (ISSeR) of the University
of Ghana, with the support of the
Ministry of Planning (in 2020), the
SDG Advisory Unit, Office of the
President, UnDP and kPMG.
As the largest financier of the
SDGs, the Government of Ghana
cannot meet this gap alone. It is
therefore taking proactive steps to
address the SDG financing gap,
including undertaking this CFR
initiative.
"We are determined to build a
prosperous nation, and, as we seek
to do so, we will not relent in our
commitment to fiscal discipline, our
pledge to dismantling any obstacles
to private investment, our
determination to ensuring a
progressive investor-friendly
business landscape, our resolve to
enhancing social investments, and,
critically, our vision of building a
Ghana Beyond Aid, with the private
sector at the fulcrum," the President
asserted..
President Akufo-
Addo reinforced the commitment of
Government to join "hands with all
of you to forge strong and beneficial
partnerships, leveraging our relative
strengths, and mobilizing the
financing needed to address the
critical development challenges
that our country and, indeed,
humanity and our planet face. And,
in so doing, we shall ensure that we
Leave no One Behind".

Thursday, May 19, 2022 PAGE 11
Sub-Saharan Africa: One Planet,
Two Worlds, Three Stories
This is a press release from
the International Monetary
Fund following its recent joint
annual general meetings with
the World Bank and the release,
last week of its latest Regional
Economic Outlook on Sub Saharan
Africa, both done in Washington
DC
Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to
grow by 3.7 percent in 2021 and
3.8 percent in 2022 – a welcome
but relatively modest recovery,
suggesting that divergence with
the rest of the world will persist over the
medium term.
• The crisis has highlighted key
disparities in resilience between countries
in sub-Saharan Africa and has also
exacerbated preexisting vulnerabilities
and inequality within each country.
Moreover, food price inflation threatens to
jeopardize previous gains in food security
and exacerbate social and political
instability.
• As the pandemic continues,
authorities face an increasingly difficult
policy environment, with rising needs,
limited resources, and difficult tradeoffs.
Saving lives remains the top priority, but
there is also an urgent need for spending
prioritization, revenue mobilization,
enhanced credibility, and an improved
business environment.
• International solidarity
and cooperation remain vital,
not only on vaccination but also
on addressing other critical
global issues, such as climate
change.
Washington, DC: Sub-
Saharan Africa’s economy is set
to recover in 2021 – a marked
improvement over the
extraordinary contraction of
2020. This rebound is most
welcome and primarily results
from a favorable external
environment, including a sharp
improvement in trade and
commodity prices. In addition,
improved harvests have lifted
agricultural production. Yet, the
outlook remains highly
uncertain as the recovery
depends on the progress in the
fight against COVID-19 and is
vulnerable to disruptions in
global activity and financial
markets, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its
latest Regional economic Outlook for Sub-
Saharan Africa.
“As sub-Saharan Africa navigates
through a persistent pandemic with
repeated waves of infection, a return to
normal will be far from easy,” stressed
Abebe Aemro Selassie, Director of the
IMF’s African Department. “In the absence
of vaccines, lockdowns and other
containment measures have been the only
option for containing the virus.
“At 3.7 percent this year, the recovery in
sub-Saharan Africa will be the slowest in
the world—as advanced markets grow by
more than 5 percent, while other emerging
markets and developing countries grow by
more than 6 percent. This mismatch
reflects sub-Saharan Africa’s slow vaccine
rollout and stark differences in policy
space.
“Real per capita income is expected to
remain close to 5½ percent below precrisis
trends, with permanent real output losses
ranging between -21 percent and -2
percent. The non-resource-intensive
countries are growing at a much faster
rate than resource-rich countries—a
pattern that precedes the crisis and has
been amplified by recent events,
highlighting fundamental differences in
resilience. non-resource-intensive
countries have a more diverse economic
structure, which helps them adjust and
recover faster. Commodity price increases
have also helped some countries, but these
windfall gains are often volatile and
cannot substitute more enduring sources
of growth. Furthermore, differences in
fiscal space also help to explain crosscountry
differences in the current pace of
recovery.
“Widening gaps between countries
“
“As sub-Saharan
Africa navigates
through a
persistent
pandemic with
repeated waves of
infection, a return
to normal will be
far from easy,”
stressed Abebe
Aemro Selassie,
Director of the
IMF’s African
Department.
have been accompanied by growing
divergence within countries, as the
pandemic has had a particularly harsh
impact on the region’s most vulnerable.
With about 30 million people thrown into
extreme poverty, the crisis has worsened
inequality not only across income groups,
but also across subnational geographic
regions, which may add to the risk of
social tension and political instability. In
this context, rising food price inflation,
combined with reduced incomes, is
threatening past gains in poverty
reduction, health, and food security.
“Furthermore, increasing debt
vulnerabilities remain a source of concern,
and many governments will have to
undertake fiscal consolidation. Overall,
public debt is predicted to decline slightly
in 2021 to 56.6 percent of GDP but remains
high compared to a pre-pandemic level of
50.4 percent of GDP. half of sub-Saharan
Africa’s low-income countries are either in
or at high risk of debt distress. And more
countries may find themselves under
future pressure as debt-service payments
account for an increasing share of
government resources.
Against this backdrop, Mr. Selassie
pointed to a number of policy priorities.
“The difficult policy environment that
authorities faced before the crisis has been
made more demanding by the crisis.
Policymakers face three key fiscal
challenges: 1) to tackle the region’s
pressing development spending needs; 2)
to contain public debt; and finally, 3) to
mobilize tax revenues in circumstances
where additional measures are generally
unpopular. Meeting these goals has never
been easy and entails a difficult balancing
act. For most countries, urgent policy
priorities include spending prioritization,
revenue mobilization, enhanced
credibility, and an improved business
climate.
“The recent SDR allocation has boosted
the region’s reserves, easing some of the
burden of authorities as they guide their
countries’ recovery. And rechanneling
SDRs from countries with strong external
positions to countries with weaker
fundamentals could help to bolster the
region’s resilience.
“On COVID-19, international
cooperation on vaccination is
critical to address the threat of
repeated waves. This would help
prevent the divergent recovery
paths of sub-Saharan Africa and
the rest of the world from
hardening and becoming
permanent fault lines, which
would jeopardize decades of hardwon
social and economic progress.
“Looking further ahead, the
region’s vast potential remains
undiminished. But the threat of
climate change—and the global
process of energy transition—
suggest that sub-Saharan Africa
may need to adopt a more
innovative and greener growth
model. This presents both
challenges and opportunities, and
it underscores the need for bold
transformative reforms and
continued external funding. Such
measures may not be easy, but
they are key prerequisites of the
long-promised African century.

Thursday, May 19, 2022
BACK
PAGE
Current fuel reserves can
last four weeks — NPA
The national Petroleum Authority
(nPA) has allayed fears
of imminent shortage of fuel
following reported shortage of
petrol and diesel at some filling
stations.
The Authority said though some oil
marketing companies recorded shortages
at some of their outlets, there was
no shortage of petroleum products in the
country as speculated.
It said as of Monday, May 16, 2022, the
quantity of diesel available could ‘feed’
the country for up to four weeks while
the quantity of petrol in the country's reserve
could last for about six weeks.
According to the head of Communications,
nPA, Mr Mohammed Abdulkudus,
said there was no need for panic.
he said the Authority had put adequate
measures in place to ensure constant
supply of fuel to meet the demands
of consumers.
Related story: Petroleum price buildup
debate: Transport, chemical unions
call for removal of taxes on fuel
"Between now and the next four
weeks we can't ran out of diesel in
Ghana," he assured.
Mr Abdul-kudus said per the nPA's
schedule, importers were allowed to import
fuel into the country on quarterly
basis, adding that the schedule for the
last quarter would end in June, 2022.
"We work according to schedule. We
don't want at a time where there would
be too much fuel in the system or less oil
in the system. So we have given them
(the importers) the period where they are
supposed to come and discharge," he
said.
Related story: no kerosene shortage -
TOR assures the public, but users complain
of scarcity
"This particular quarter ends in June.
We have available vessels ready to supply,
including what is already in the system,
which is enough to satisfy the people of
Ghana," Mr Abdulkudus added.
Motorists last week expressed fear
that the country had been hit by fuel
shortages following reports that some
filling stations had ran out of the commodity.
Analysts have warned that the ongoing
Russia-Ukraine war could lead to
scarcity in petroleum products as more
countries applied economic sanctions
against Russia- the third-largest oil producer,
accounting for about 11 per cent of
the world’s crude oil supplies.
Ban on export of maize, soya
beans extended to Sept. 2022
The Ghana Government has extended the
ban on the exportation of maize, rice, and
soya beans from April 13, 2022, to 30th September
2022.
In January, the President, nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo issued an executive
approval for a temporary restriction to be
placed on maize and soya bean export.
The directive was part of measures to
ensure food security and increase local
poultry and livestock production.
Subsequently, the Plant Protection and
Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD)
has stopped issuing phytosanitary certificates
for the export of both commodities.
This follows a directive from the Ministry
of Trade and Industry (MoTI) to restrict
their export to ensure the
availability of the product, whose production
is subsidized.
A recent statement indicated that the
President has again approved extending
the temporary ban on the export of grains
for a period of six (6) months, effective 1st
April 2022 to 30th September 2022.
On account of this directive, the Ministry
of Trade and Industry said consequential
action is being taken to ensure
strict enforcement at all Metropolitan,
Municipal, and District
Assemblies(MMDA’s).
“Accordingly, we kindly request your
Ministry to issue the required directives to
MMDA’s to take the necessary action with
the involvement of the DISeCs to disseminate
information and intensify the monitoring
of trucks carting grains from market
centers to neighbouring countries,”
the Ministry stated.
Meanwhile, it urged that prompt action
is taken at all times with the involvement
of the security agencies to give full
effect to the directive of the President.
Background
Data available from the World Integrated
Trade Solution (WITS) indicates
that the export of maize from Ghana
amounted to 250,147 kilograms (kg) in
2019.
It also reported that the export of flour
and meals of soya beans from the country
was 54,500kg for the same period.
Information available also indicates
that Ghana imports about 200,000 tonnes
of maize annually to augment the 3.2
million tonnes of local maize production
yearly.
Data suggests that there has been a
tremendous increase in the export of
soya beans from Ghana, resulting in competition
among exporters, while creating
shortages of the commodity, which is
used by the livestock and the poultry industries.
The shortage also leads to price hikes,
which eventually make it expensive for
local processing.
The production of soya bean, which is
currently being subsidized by the government
under the Planting for Food and
Jobs initiative, is to ensure its availability
for processing and use as animal feed by
the domestic industry at a cheaper cost
to boost local livestock and poultry production.