Kofi Ahovi

Ghana is in urgent need of securing new terms for an additional GHC123 billion (US$11.18 billion) domestic debt to fulfill the requirements for the next tranche ($600m) of the US$3 billion IMF loan, as the country grapples with its most severe economic crisis in decades. To meet the deadline set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ghana is focused on restructuring its domestic debt and engaging in negotiations with external creditors. The debt includes domestic dollar bonds, cocoa bills, pension funds, and amounts owed to the central bank. In February, the country completed the first phase of its domestic debt exchange, with an impressive 85% of eligible bondholders participating. However, attention has now shifted towards securing new terms for the restructuring of the remaining debt by the end of June. Meanwhile, the Government has reached an agreement with banks to restructure GHC15 billion (US$1.36 billion) worth of locally issued US dollar bonds and cocoa bills. Sources with...

 Sources within the Finance Ministry have revealed that Ghana is poised to convert cocoa bills worth GHC 8.1 billion into a new bond carrying a yield of 12%. This move marks a significant departure from the 32.22% yield witnessed on the last issuance of cocoa bills in February. The conversion of cocoa bills into the new bond forms a key component of the government’s multifaceted approach to securing new terms for its outstanding domestic debt, which amounts to GHS 123 billion. This restructuring initiative is crucial for Ghana to meet the eligibility criteria and qualify for the forthcoming tranche of $600 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The country’s debt composition encompasses diverse financial instruments, including domestic dollar bonds, cocoa bills, pension funds, and amounts owed to the central bank. As part of the broader debt restructuring strategy, the government has also reached an agreement with domestic banks to convert GHC 6.9 billion worth of dome...

  The Bank of Ghana has temporarily suspended the foreign exchange (forex) licenses of Fidelity Bank and First National Bank (FNB) for flouting forex regulations in the country.  In a public notice, the central bank said the license suspension is for one month – from  Thursday, June 29 to July 28, 2023. The two banks have also been fined 1000 penalty units each for the offence. One penalty unit is GHS12, so 1000 penalty units is GHS12,000. BoG said the two banks breached sections 3.4, 3.5, and 3.9 of the Ghana Interbank Forex Market Conduct rules. Section 3 of the Ghana Interbank Forex Market Conduct is on Market Rules. Sub-section 3.4 is on Indicative Quotes; 3.5 is on Trade Reporting on Platforms; while 3.9 is on Fixing of Official Exchange Rate. Here is what the specific laws said: 3.4 Indicative Quotes Licensed Foreign Exchange Dealers (LFXDs) are required to update indicative quotes for buying and selling US dollars at regular intervals, on the Reuters and Bloomberg ...

The Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, has indicated that the government is making efforts to replace deteriorated bridges in the country to “open up communities which hitherto were cut off due to water crossing points.” He said already, 50 Czech steel bridges with a total span of 1,500 metres secured through Messrs Knights A/S were being fixed across the country. Of the 50 bridges which were provided through support from the Czech government, 34 had been launched while 10 were substantially completed and ready for use.  The 10 include the Okwenya and Community 12 bridges  This came to light when the minister led a delegation to the Czech Republic at the invitation of Messrs Knights A/S to discuss the progress of the installation of 50 steel bridges in Ghana by Knights A/S, funded with a Czech export credit facility. The Roads and Highways Minister is also in the Czech Republic to negotiate for an additional 100 steel bridges. Amoako-Attah mentioned some of th...

  The African Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) has provided $10 billion funding towards the establishment of an adjustment fund to cushion countries under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The AfCFTA Adjustment Fund will support African countries and their private sector firms to effectively participate in the new trading environment established under the AfCFTA. The fund, which is being established by the AfCFTA Secretariat with support from the Afreximbank is a directive from the African Union (AU) Summit of Heads of State and Government and the AfCFTA Council of Ministers responsible for trade. The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, who made this known at the opening of the 30th Afreximbank Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Accra yesterday, stated that the fund would help African countries to effectively adjust to AfCFTA tariff removals and prepare them to participate in the new trading regime. Afreximbank is also collaborating with the AU ...

  Award winning actress, Yvonne Nelson has revealed that she aborted a pregnancy for Sarkodie in 2010 after a short relationship. According to her, she took the decision following Sarkodie’s decision not to take responsibility of the child. Narrating the incident on pages 88-95 of Chapter eight of her new book, “I am not Yvonne Nelson” launched at Peduase Lodge on Sunday, June 18, 2023, Yvonne said Sarkodie and his manager at the time accompanied her to a clinic at Mamprobi to get the foetus removed. That was after a failed attempt with pills recommended by a friend. In the book, she stated that she went to meet Sarkodie at Tema, who was still living with his mother.   I sensed the intensity of his emotions when I broke the news to him. I could hear his heart pounding, and when he finally found his voice, he faltered. His message was, however, unambiguous. He didn’t want the pregnancy. That would damage him and his career. The only option was to get rid of it. “Sarkodie was a ...

  An attempt by an 80-year-old woman to separate a fight between her son and the wife has resulted in her death. She was reportedly shot to death by her son, who went inside the room in the heat of the altercation, returned with a gun and shot her. Named as Wuni Tuunaaba, the incident happened last Thursday at Guabulga in the West Mamprusi Municipality in the North East Region.  She has since been laid to rest in line with Islamic religion. The suspect, Wuni Haruna is in police custody. What happened? Confirming the incident, the Assembly member of the Guabulga Electoral Area, Bugri Gabriel told Graphic Online’s Mohammed Fugu that there was a misunderstanding between Haruna and his wife at about 7pm last Thursday [June 15, 2023]. Haruna’s mother reportedly intervened in a quest to restore peace. Haruna reportedly rushed to the room for a single-barrel gun and shot the mother dead."I got a distress call from a family member that someone had shot the mother dead. The suspect sai...

  One of the conditions the country will have to fulfill in exchange for its new and direly needed $3 billion Extended Credit Facility programme being provided by the International Monetary Fund is a review of the government’s ongoing gold for oil initiative. The review forms part of ongoing updated safeguards assessment being carried out to provide additional support for the review of the Bank of Ghana Act. The Fund is concerned that the initiative lacks fiscal transparency and its benefits are not worth the lack of financial transparency that accompanies it. Certainly, this is a concern critics have raise locally but the government also points to the gains of the programme since the commencement of the initiative in January. Petrol prices at the pump have fallen considerably, and instructively the start of their fall coincided with the commencement of the initiative. Indeed, the architect of the initiative, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said the strategy had the potential t...

Shareholders of Access Bank (Ghana) Plc have commended the efforts of the Board of Directors, Management and staff of the bank for its strong performance in the 2022 financial year. The commendation was given at the 15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank held in Accra. At the meeting, shareholders noted that the bank’s performance signalled strong signs of sustained growth and resilience, despite credit impairments relating to the country’s sovereign-debt issues. Access Bank Ghana recorded over 35 per cent growth in its balance sheet size from GH₵7.455 billion to GH₵10.835 billion during the 2022 financial year while its operating revenue went up by 38 per cent from GH₵832 million to GH₵1.150 billion. The bank’s Loans and Advances also witnessed a 41 per cent growth from GH₵1.167 billion to GH₵1.645 billion, and total deposits by 60 per cent from GH₵4.623 billion to GH₵7.399 billion. Challenges The Board Chairperson of Access Bank (Ghana) Plc, Ama S. Bawuah, said that although m...

  Not all the changes of the past two years are here to stay. But one area that has transformed is customer communications. Every output from every customer communications management system is a customer experience, and each of those experiences is part of a customer journey – and that journey has changed. A digital-first, personalised approach is expected, and the ‘new’ ways of working are no longer new. Consumers have more power than ever, and businesses will need to accept and embrace this to attract and, more importantly, retain them. Not only that, much of the digital transformation that took place at the beginning of the pandemic were short-term measures. In a world of unpredictability, businesses now need to look at removing these sticking plasters and replacing them with future-proofed solutions.  Digital first, not digital only   The circumstances surrounding the pandemic prompted a digitisation of business processes, including customer communications. Indeed, di...

  After declining for the first four months of the year, the consumer price inflation has resumed an upward trend again, increasing from 41.2 per cent in April to 42.2 per cent in May.   Last month’s inflation was driven by food inflation which increased from 48.7 per cent in April to 51.8 per cent.   Non-food Inflation, however, decreased from 35.4 per cent in April to 34.6 per cent.   Inflation for locally produced items was 36.2 per cent while that of imported items was 43.8 per cent.

  The Deputy Minister of Energy, Herbert Krapa, says there is the need for mining firms to transition to the production and utilisation of clean energy in their processes. Krapa said that at the Mining and Energy Summit and Exhibition which was held on the theme; “Harnessing Mining and Energy Potential for Sustainable National Development”. We must ensure that we are contributing our quota to reducing global green-house gas emissions and even more importantly, we must achieve de carbonisation, energy access, energy efficiency for the mining industry,” he stated. The deputy minister also called on industry players to collaborate with the government to help mitigate any emissions that came out from the production of energy. Leveraging natural resources The deputy minister said while it was important to leverage the country’s natural resources for development, this must be done without harming the environment. He said the country must focus on how it could power the mining industry su...

  Large scale gold production hit an all-time high of 3.1 million ounces in 2022, the Ghana Chamber of Mines has reported. The figure represents an increment of 13% over the 2021 figure of 2.7 million ounces. Speaking at the Ghana Chamber of Mines Annual General Meeting in Accra on Friday June 9, 2023, the President of the Chamber, Josuah Mortoti noted that a combination of fresh output and expansion of production at existing large-scale mines drove the large-scale sector’s contribution to national gold output from 2.7 million ounces in 2021 to 3.1 million ounces in 2022. The country’s overall gold output including production from small scale miners increased from 2.8 million ounces in 2021 to 3.7 million ounces in 2022, representing an increase of 32%. The chamber’s producing member companies contributed 3 million ounces of the large scale gold output with the remaining 35,421 ounces declared as being attributable to non-Chamber member large scale mines. In the preceding year, the...

 Ghana’s Minister for Finance, Honourable Ken Ofori-Atta, and his delegation attended Day one of MTN Group’s Capital Markets Day in Johannesburg, South Africa. The accompanying delegation included Reginald Yofi Grant, CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and Solomon Asamoah, the CEO of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) who participated in the panel on Ghana's economic health, prospects, and opportunities at the event.  The first day of the Capital Markets Day afforded MTN investors the opportunity to better understand the market dynamics across the Group footprint, with speakers unpacking the key drivers of these markets and sharing some of the challenges and opportunities. Key speakers for the event included the Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Dr. Rashim Cassim, CEO of South Africa’s Energy Council James McKay, Standard Chartered Bank’s Head of Research: Middle East and Africa, Razia Khan and Bismarck Rewane who is the Managing D...

  All is set for the maiden Ghana Automotive Summit 2023 being organised by the Automobile Assemblers Association of Ghana on the 27 June 2023, at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) Grand Arena. The Summit is on the theme: “Creating A New Economic Backbone for Ghana and The Sub-Region,” and will present the opportunity for leading experts and industry professionals in the sector to discuss the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the automobile industry. The summit will concurrently run along an exhibition of over 20 vehicle models locally assembled in Ghana by the members of the AAAG. “We are delighted to host this maiden summit, which will explore the future of the automobile industry and the technologies and innovations that will shape it. This will provide us the opportunity as a country to discuss the issues and opportunities impacting businesses and the automobile industry as a whole,” the AAAG President, Mr Jeffrey Oppong Peprah emphasised. The AAAG ...

Canon’s new report, The Future of Filmmaking, notes four shifts in the industry that go beyond tech. Amine Djouahra, B2C BU Director, Canon Central & North Africa explores these four fundamental forces driving change in the industry. As we are nearing the end of the first half of 2023, we have all become more comfortable with change and disruption. Whether it is the pandemic, environmental factors, unstable global economic conditions, or tech evolution, we have learned to bounce back quickly. One industry that has had to be particularly agile during the past few years is the filmmaking industry. Canon’s new report (written in conjunction with The Future Laboratory) – The Future of Filmmaking , reveals the industry’s efforts to be a catalyst of change that inspires the creative industry to transform its narrative and to shine its spotlight on topics that will be significant in shaping the future of our world, and that of the African continent. Interestingly, the report sheds light o...

The writers Rising from the ashes of three disastrous decades of deglobalisation, extremism and world war, our two institutions were built on the idea that thriving international trade goes hand in hand with global prosperity and stability. On balance, the post–World War II record has been impressive.  Today, fewer than 1 in 10 of the world’s people are poor, a fourfold reduction since 1990, as low- and middle-income countries have doubled their share of global trade. Pivotal to this leap in global income is a twentyfold increase in international trade since 1960. Yet, the tide is turning against economic interdependence and international trade.  Trade restrictions and subsidies increased after the global financial crisis, and tensions escalated further as governments responded to the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine by scrambling to secure strategic supply chains and rushing into trade-distorting policies.  Taken too far, these measures may open the door to alliance-...

  With the advent of sustainable finance, banks, in particular, take into account environmental, social and governance considerations when making decisions for financing projects. In addition to this, it has become commonplace for banks to make commitments to principles, which govern their financing activities by being signatories to the likes of the Equator Principles and the UN Global Compact.  All these give banks a relatively new sense of responsibility and positive public perception well beyond what any early watcher of banking would have envisaged. For me, this is a seismic shift but banks still need to do more and I say this considering that the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require a lot more effort to be attained. Banks by the very role they play have much more influence and as such can be a greater force for good. This is why the issue of fighting climate change and securing more sustainable economic activities must be championed by banks ...

  Government treasury bill (T-Bills) auction for this week has been oversubscribed by GH¢3.90 billion as investors cash in soaring interest rates on government dated securities. This accounts for a 15 per cent increase in over subscription, indicating investment appetite for higher yields even though, many experts have cautioned against high interest of government dated securities. Government targeted to raise GH¢2.08 billion from the sale of both its 91-and 182-day bills but ended up receiving GH¢2.4 billion for this week’s auction. The week-on-week yields on the government dated securities witnessed an overall approximated increase of 0.73bps and 0.98bps from 20.4 per to 21.1 per cent and 22.9 to 23.9 across the 91 and 182-day bills respectively over the past week. Interest rates on government securities have begun to tick upwards even after the government has secured 600 million out of the three billion International Monetary Fund (IMF). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in ...

  The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has reiterated the urgent need to utilize the country’s mining resources for socio-economic development. He said it could not be denied that the country had in the past not done very well in negotiations for the extraction of its mineral resources. Some of our policies and contracts have, unfortunately, resulted in extraordinary profits to mining companies at the expense of the country. “We had, until recently, failed to put in place a proper framework that will ensure that we benefit optimally from these resources,” he stated. The minister said that at the opening of the 5th Mining and Energy Summit and Exhibition, which was held on the theme: “Harnessing Mining and Energy Potential for Sustainable National Development”. He said the country’s over-dependence on the export of raw minerals had also denied it of the benefits that accrued from these minerals across the value chain. He noted that other actors in the ext...

 World Oceans Day 2023 is observed on 8 June every year, to raise global awareness about the importance of the ocean in our lives and the ways through which we can protect it. The theme of this year's United Nations World Oceans Day is 'Planet Ocean: Tides are Changing'. Indeed, the tides are changing and we need to sustainably use our ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem. Our development approach should be to promote economic opportunities, but also protection and development of more intangible 'blue' resources such as traditional ways of life, carbon sequestration and coastal resilience in order to help vulnerable communities mitigate the devastating effects of poverty and climate change. We need to promote the environmental and ecological sustainability of the use of our ocean resources. However, an important challenge is to understand how to better manage the many aspects of oceani...