Kofi Ahovi

  The Bank of Ghana has posted losses totaling GH¢60.81 billion for the 2022 financial year.  This compares to a profit of GH¢1.23 billion recorded in the 2021 financial year. The losses were as result of government’s domestic debt restructuring activities, the depreciation of the local currency, among others. The BoG’s audited financial statement for 2022 which was released yesterday (July 28) indicated that as at 31 December 2022, the total liabilities of the central bank and its subsidiaries exceeded its total assets by GH¢54.52 billion. The decline in the Group’s net worth position was attributed to the impact of the Domestic Debt Exchange Program (DDEP) and impairment of some assets of the Group.  This was specifically due to the Impairment of Government of Ghana securities holdings of GH¢48.45 billion which was occasioned by the DDEP; Impairment of loans and advances granted to Quasi-government and financial institutions amounting to GH¢6.12 billion; and the depreci...

  Ghana International Bank (GHIB) has facilitated an Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment (EWRA) training programme for over 50 bankers across Ghana, Gambia and Sierra Leone. EWRA is a comprehensive statement for financial crime risk management at an enterprise level with the purpose of helping you identify, assess and analyse key business risks—and minimise negative business impacts if those risks come to pass. The three-day workshop organised in Accra aimed to deepen banks' knowledge of EWRA from a financial crime perspective. It also formed part of GHIB's comprehensive plan to work closely with banks in the African sub-region to implement robust financial crime risk management systems. The Chief Banking Officer of GHIB, Ophelia Atttobrah, explained to the media that the bank had observed that Enterprise Risk Assessment (ERA) was a key deficiency for many of the banks, hence the training. In line with our vision to be the most compelling UK bank that focuses on Africa, we deemed i...

The 2022 Auditor General’s report has uncovered that more than GH¢1.8 million of the funds released to compensate poultry farmers affected by the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu) disease could not be accounted for. The amount represented 90.41 per cent of the GH¢1.9 million released by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to pay compensation to farmers who lost the birds between 2015 and 2018 to the disease. The Ministry of Finance released an amount of GH¢1,999,768.10 for the payment of compensation to farmers affected by the outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza disease from 2015 to 2018. “We noted that only GH¢191,730.00 was paid to 10 farmers, leaving GH¢1,808,038.10 unaccounted for,” the 2022 Auditor General’s report on public accounts of ministries, departments and agencies disclosed. The auditor general therefore recommended that the chief director of the MoF should recover the uncounted amount from the chief director of the Ministry of Food and Agricult...

  The Auditor-General has indicted the board and management of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for procurement breaches worth more than $145 million. It followed the inability of the power distributor to adhere to the Public Procurement Act in signing 50 contracts to procure 862,750 meters and its accessories between 2016 and 2021. Consequently, the company did not consider value for money in the process of procuring meters by ensuring competitiveness and transparency. Though the meters procured were taken through rigorous testing to ensure that specifications were met, ECG did not take steps to explore the possibility of getting meters of the same specifications at lower prices from other manufacturers other than the ones in its database. The breaches were uncovered in the 2022 Performance Audit Report of the Auditor General on the Management of Meters by the Electricity Company Limited released on July 27, 2023. The Auditor-General commissioned the audit to ascertain how E...

 INTRODUCTION Right Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament, I stand before you, on the authority of His Excellency, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to present the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2023 Financial Year. Today’s presentation is in fulfilment of Section 28 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) and Regulation 24 of the Public Financial Management Regulations (L.I. 2378). I respectfully request that the entire 2023 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review document is captured in the Hansard. United for Progress Mr. Speaker, eight months ago, I presented the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government- ‘NKABOM’ Budget. At the time, the economy was going through a very difficult period amidst unprecedented global turbulence. Mr. Speaker, eight months ago, I presented the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government- ‘NKABOM’ Budget. At the ti...

Former Black Stars coach, Charles Kwablan Akonnor, has described as inaccurate claims by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, that he was paid $100,000 after the termination of his contract. At a press briefing last Wednesday, the minister admitted that the state still owed both Akonnor and Serbian coach, Milovan Rajevac, but alluded that the ex-Black Stars skipper did not go empty-handed but was paid $100,000 as part of his exit package. But in a quick rebuttal, Coach Akonnor said the minister got it all wrong because he knew exactly how much he was paid. I never received the kind of money the minister mentioned. I don’t want to put out how much they paid me but it was not $100,000 as the minister said,'' an upset Coach Akonnor told Graphic Sports from his Germany base last Thursday. The 47-year-old former 1860 Munich and Wolfsburg midfielder said upon the termination of his contract, he was paid some cedis and was asked to convert it to dollars using the Bank of ...