(Business Ghana 08/16/17)
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Monday disclosed that the nation lost $680million dollars in 2014 alone equivalent to two per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as revealed by the Institute for Social Statistics and Economic Research (ISSER). He said the four years of power crisis led to a loss of more than three billion dollars in economic activities and in the process thousands of Ghanaians lost their jobs. He said the debilitating power crisis brought many small and medium-scale enterprises to their knees, which was induced by the mismanagement of the energy sector by the previous government. President Akufo-Addo made this known at the opening
(Bloomberg 08/16/17)
Ghana’s central bank approved a deal that will see Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd. take over the deposits and selected assets of UT Bank Ltd. and Capital Bank Ltd. after the two lenders failed to meet capital requirements. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP will sell the rest of the assets to settle liabilities, Raymond Amanfu, head of banking supervision at Bank of Ghana, said by phone on Monday. UT Bank and Capital Bank’s licenses were revoked “due to severe impairment of their capital,” the central bank said in an emailed statement. “Their continuous operations would’ve jeopardized not only their depositors’ funds, but also pose a threat to the financial system,” Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison told reporters Monday in the capital, Accra. The...
(Ghana Web 08/16/17)
The Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia, says government would in the coming days officially inaugurate the Ghana International Trade Commission (GITC) to deal with unfair trade issues and enhance the competitiveness of the local private sector, and contribute in making the ten key industrial transformation agenda a reality. Speaking at the National Policy Summit on Trade and Industry Tuesday, he said Ghana International Trade Commission (GITC) would provide for the regulation of the international trade of Ghana in conformity with the rules and regulations of the world trade system. “The Commission would look into complaints brought forward by the private sector in such matters as, subsidies of imported products by foreign governments; dumping of imported products into the domestic market; tariff...
(Spy Ghana 08/16/17)
Ghana would soon enjoy the privileges under the Continental Free Trade (CFTA) Agreement, the Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia said on Tuesday. The Africa CFTA’s objective is among other things create single continental market for goods and services with free movement of business persons and investments and expand intra-African trade through better harmonization and coordination of trade liberalization and facilitation regimes. Experts say Africa has not done much in liberalizing and promoting trade amongst member countries. Trade between African nations remains low compared to other parts of the world. In 2000, intra-continental trade accounted for 10 percent of Africa’s total trade, and increased marginally to 11 percent in 2015. Trading amongst members of the European Union, for example, amounted to 70...
(Spy Ghana 08/16/17)
Former President Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings has called for a paradigm shift in the fight against corruption, to ensure that it does not create undue hardship to the people. He said corruption had eaten so deep into the fabric of the society that the quest to clean up seems to rather create hardship instead of reducing the cost of living. Former President Rawlings made the call in a keynote address at a lecture organised by the University of Ibadan Alumni Association (UIAA), at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti in Nigeria. The lecture, which was delivered by Dr Makanjuola Owolabi, a Senior Nigeria Air Force Officer, was on the theme: “Leadership with Character.” He said: “A new way may have to...
(BBC News Africa 08/16/17)
Former Ghana midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng is once again without a club after ending his contract with Spanish club Las Palmas by mutual consent. Las Palmas cited "irreversible personal reasons" for the decision. The 30-year-old had a contract with the La Liga side until 2020 after signing for them a year ago following a six-month absence from the sport after leaving Italy's AC Milan. He scored 10 goals in 28 appearances at Las Palmas including one on his debut. Boateng has previously played for Hertha Berlin, Tottenham Hotspur, Borussia Dortmund, Portsmouth, Milan, twice, and Schalke. Read more at: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40950433
(Xinhuanet 08/14/17)
Ghana's central bank announced here early Monday it had revoked the operating licenses of two local commercial banks, the UT Bank, a publicly listed bank, and the Capital Bank. Its decision, according to a press release, is due to the extreme insolvency of the two banks which are not able to meet their obligations to customers. "UT Bank and Capital Bank were deeply insolvent, meaning that their liabilities exceeded their assets, putting them in a position not to be able to meet their obligations as and when they fell due," the statement read. Despite repeated agreements between the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and UT Bank and Capital Bank to implement an action plan to address these significant shortfalls, the statement...
(Bloomberg 08/14/17)
The U.S. will probably maintain its current levels of aid to Africa despite President Donald Trump’s proposals to slash funding, according to Bill Gates, the world’s richest man. Trump said in May his government would no longer allocate funding for family planning, a move that has the potential to undermine aid programs in the poorest countries in the world. However, with Congress in control of the budget, it’s unlikely that all cuts proposed by the Trump administration will go ahead next year, Gates said in an interview in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital. “It’s quite clear that they won’t make those drastic cuts,” Gates said. “I’m hopeful they won’t make any cuts at all, but that’s still subject to...
(Reuters (Eng) 08/12/17)
The Bank of Ghana said the yield on its weekly 91-day bill rose to 12.62 percent at an auction on Friday, from 12.35 percent at the last such sale on Aug 4. The bank said it had accepted 580.42 million cedis ($130.48 million) worth of bids out of the 627.57 million cedis tendered for the paper, which will be issued on Aug 14. For full details, click here: here%201550.pdf ($1 = 4.4480 Ghanaian cedis) (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; editing by Andrew Roche)
(Citifmonline 08/12/17)
The first batch of Ghanaian Pilgrims for the 2017 Hajj pilgrimage have finally left the Tamale Airport for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Four hundred and thirty out of 506 were airlifted to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Friday after the first flight scheduled for Thursday August 10 failed. Background Vice President, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia under whose supervision the National Hajj Board operates at a pre-departure Durbar in Tamale touted the 2017 Hajj activities organization as unique. He boasted that government had paid off the accumulated debt piled by the previous Hajj Board. According to him, 425 fully paid pilgrims could not make it to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia yet their monies were not refunded. He said...
(Ghana Web 08/11/17)
Quoting the Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Tove Degnbol, he said: “These companies would rather lose an order than become involved in the endless game of paying and being required to pay even more.” “I can tell that American companies feel the same way. And the problem confronting foreign investments also stymie foreign assistance,” Mr Jackson said at the opening of the Ghana Good Corporate Governance Initiative round table in Accra yesterday. He, however, stated that there were more American businesses waiting in the wings to invest in Ghana to create opportunities for trade and bring the much needed jobs. But he said there was a caveat: “Businesses want to ensure that the money they invest will not go to...
(APA 08/11/17)
More than 500 Ghanaian pilgrims have left for Mecca on Thursday night to perform their annual religious pilgrimage, APA learns here on Friday. The pilgrims flew directly from the Northern city of Tamale to Mecca and about 3000 pilgrims are expected to be flown from the city in subsequent days to Mecca, thereby reducing the usual congestion at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra. Reports say that out of 500 pilgrims, the Government of Ghana would bear the full cost of 452 pilgrims, who could not make the trip to the holy land last year, but paid their fares. They were seen off by Ghana's Vice President Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia at the Tamale Airport, who asked the pilgrims to avoid...
(APA 08/11/17)
After heated agitations between workers of the state-owned Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the government over sale of the company, the deal has been signed sealed, APA has learnt here on Friday. This came to light when the Minister of Energy Mr Boakye Agyarko in his inauguration of the Board of Directors of the ECG on Thursday charged the Board Members to hand over all assets of the company to the private investor. This is as a result of Ghana securing a grant of US$498.2 million from the Millennium Challeng Account from the United States of America for the concession agreement which span 20 years of lease of the ECG. He said the funds would be disbursed over five...
(APA 08/11/17)
The Ghanaian press on Friday focused on the advice of President Nana Akufo Addo to chiefs who are involved in illegal mining popularly called galamsey. The Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times, The Chronicle all focused on the story with the Graphic reporting that President Nana Akufo Addo took his campaign against illegal mining to the Central Region on Thursday with blunt call on chiefs to stop providing support to illegal miners. The newspaper continued that President Akufo Addo pointed out to the chiefs that it was no secret that some of the chiefs were involved in illegal mining, adding that the fight against the menace would only succeed if the chiefs work hard to support the government. "I can't stand before...
(Graphic Online 08/11/17)
Former President John Mahama has used his electoral defeat to urge Kenyans to keep the peace amidst fears of post-election violence. Mr. Mahama was briefing the Kenyan media as Head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission that monitored Tuesday’s general elections in the East African country. “It is not easy to lose an election [because] it can be very disappointing,” he told the journalists while presenting interim statement on behalf of the Commonwealth Observer Group to Kenya. Early results put the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta of the Jubilee Party ahead of his arch rival Raila Odinga of the National Super Alliance. Kenya's western city of Kisumu, saw some protests on Wednesday after the opposition said the electronic voting system has been hacked...
(Graphic Online 08/11/17)
An amount of GH¢500 million has been paid by the government to settle part of its indebtedness to service providers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The payment leaves the government with GH¢700 million of its total indebtedness of GH¢1.2 billion to the service providers. A Deputy Minister of Health, Mr Kingsley Aboagye Gyedu, made this known when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo paid a visit to the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Takoradi last Wednesday. The visit was part of a three-day tour by the President to the Western Region. Mr Gyedu, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai, also announced that $10 million withheld by development partners had been released to further redeem the...
(AFP (eng) 08/10/17)
The skull of an infant ape buried by a volcano 13 million years ago has preserved intriguing clues about the ancestor humans shared with apes -- including a likely African origin, scientists said Wednesday. A previously-unknown creature that shared an extended family with the human forefather, had a flat face like that of our far-flung cousin the gibbon, but did not move like one, its discoverers wrote in the journal Nature. They named it Nyanzapithecus alesi after "ales" -- the word for "ancestor" in the Turkana language of Kenya, where the lemon-sized skull was unearthed. The sole specimen is that of an infant that would have grown to weigh about 11 kilogrammes (24 pounds) in adulthood. It had a brain...
(Reuters (Eng) 08/09/17)
Ghana's annual consumer price inflation fell a third consecutive time this year to 11.9 percent in July from 12.1 percent the previous month as the local cedi currency stabilized, the statistics office said on Wednesday. The major commodity exporter is aiming to narrow inflation to 11.2 percent by the end of the year to restore economic stability under a three-year assistance programme with the International Monetary Fund. July's index was the lowest since September 2013, acting government statistician Baah Wadieh told a news conference in Accra. "Exchange rate has been fairly stable most of the year and transport inflation is easing.
(Business Ghana 08/09/17)
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has begun a special exercise to ascertain compliance with the directive for proper loan classifications as part of measures to halt the rising non-performing loans. The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison told the Graphic Business on the sidelines of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) news conference in Accra on July 24 that an asset quality test of the banking sector revealed that the banks were not properly classifying their loans. A Non-Performing Loan (NPL) is the sum of borrowed money on which the debtor has not made his scheduled payments for at least 90 days. A nonperforming loan is either in default or close to being in default. “So going forward,...
(Business Ghana 08/09/17)
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has stressed that the laws of Ghana indicate that citizens and not foreigners are the only ones allowed to engage in small scale mining. President Akufo-Addo has, therefore, urged Ghanaians not to act as front-men for foreigners in activities solely reserved for Ghanaians, adding that “let us abide by our laws.” To this end, President has outlined his government’s proposal to strengthening the small scale mining industry through the Multilateral Integrated Mining Project (MMIP). The MMIP, according to President Akufo-Addo, will be the first holistic approach in combating illegal mining in Ghana, reduce illegal small scale mining (galamsey) to the barest minimum and find alternative livelihoods for those involved. President Akufo-Addo made this known on...