Business

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, has inaugurated seven Technical Working Groups (TWGs) to spearhead the development of the country’s national programmes of action for Boosting Intra-African Trade (BIAT).

The BIAT framework will take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

The TWGs are expected to develop strategic programmes and activities that will help the government domestically address key constraints and challenges facing intra-African trade to allow the country to harness the full benefits of the AfCFTA.

The groups are made up of senior officials nominated to represent lead institutions mandated to facilitate the implementation of the AfCFTA.

They are expected to develop and support the implementation of the national action plan for BIAT.

A National BIAT Steering Committee, made up of the heads of the seven TWGs, has also been tasked to oversee the work of the TWGs.

Inaugurating the TWGs in Accra yesterday, Mr Kyerematen explained that it would not be possible to harness the benefits of the single continental market without conscious efforts geared towards increasing trade among member nations.

He said African Heads of State had adopted the action plan for BIAT as the framework to guide the implementation of the AfCFTA.

The BIAT covers seven priority clusters and include addressing inconsistent trade policies, inadequate facilitation of trade, enhancement of production capacity, trade-related infrastructure, availability of trade finance, trade information and factor market integration.

“The AfCFTA framework is only providing market access opportunity for African countries that have ratified the agreement to allow them to take advantage of the African market, but it doesn’t mean that once you have ratified the agreement, the benefits of the AfCFTA will automatically accrue to your country,” the Trade Minister said.

He said BIAT required the adoption and implementation of coherent trade policies at the national, regional and continental levels geared towards boosting trade among member nations beyond the legal framework of the AfCFTA.

In Ghana, Mr Kyerematen said, the outcome and findings of the working groups would feed into the national action plan for harnessing the benefits of the AfCFTA.

“You need an action plan that will identify the specific market information and products that are to be exported to different countries and you need all of these interventions to enable you to benefit, as a country, from the AfCFTA.

“So, by constituting these technical working groups, we are working towards identifying the specific proposals or recommendations in different thematic areas that will help Ghana benefit from the AfCFTA,” he said in an interview with the Daily Graphic after the inauguration.

He explained that the government’s main objective, and which is a priority, was to aggressively pursue industrial transformation policies and programmes that supported the private sector to add value to Ghana’s exports, develop capacity to effectively compete with imports and expand opportunities for job creation.

Source: Graphic

A seven member panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Chief Justice Anin Yeboah has fixed April 22, 2020 to deliver judgement in the suit against the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta on the issuance of a 2.25 billion bond.

This was after the apex court had refused an applocation from the Commissiin of Human Rights and Administrative Justice seeking for leave to amend their statement of case.

The panel which also include Justice Jones Dotse, Justice Sule Gbadegbe, Justice Baffoe-Bonnie, Justice Yaw Appau, Justice Gabriel Pwamang, Justice Samuel Marfu-Sau and Justice Prof Nii Ashie Kotey after hearing the parties said the application was irrelevant to the case.

The panel was therefore refused.

The suit was filed by Dynamic Youth Movement of Ghana

RELIEFS

The Group dragged the Finance Minister, CHRAJ and AG to the Supreme Court over CHRAJ’s investigations on the $2.25 Billion Bond issuance in March 2017.

The Group is demanding interpretation of Articles 284 , 286 and six other reliefs.

“A declaration that by going beyond investigations to make a pronouncement (of guilt or otherwise) on the 1st Defendant in respect of the allegation of breach of conflict of interest, the 2nd Defendant has contravened Article 287 of the 1992 Constitution.

The groupmis also seeking “A declaration that by interpreting Article 284 of the 1992 Constitution (as disclosed between paragraph 3 of page 127 and paragraph 3 of page 133 of the Report), the 2nd Defendant has contravened Article 130(1)(a) of the 1992 Constitution;

“… A consequential order that the content of the report as specified in reliefs (a) and (b) above be expunged from the Report.

DYMOG is also asking for “A declaration that the failure of the 1st Defendant to declare his shareholding interests in Data Bank Financial Services Limited, Data Bank Brokerage Limited and Data Bank Financial Holdings Limited to the Auditor-General before taking office as Minister of Finance, as found by the 2nd Defendant at page 120 of the Report, contravenes Article 286(1)(a) of the 1992 Constitution;

A further “declaration that the occupation by the 1st Defendant of the office of a director in Ventures and Acquisition Limited, a private company, while in office as the Minster responsible for finance without the due permission of the Right Honourable Speaker of Parliament on the grounds stated by the law, contravenes Articles 78(3) of the 1992 Constitution.

Source: Starrfm

Almost 100% of Ghana’s tax revenue goes into the payment of salaries for civil and public servants as well as used for interest payments, the International Monetary Fund has said.

The Bretton Wood institution also insists the government of Ghana is over-borrowing while tax revenue is below expectations.

This, according to the IMF, is what has brought Ghana to the brink of becoming a highly debt-distressed country.

The implications of being a highly debt-distressed country include higher cost of credit and a lack of fiscal space to finance capital projects among others.

Speaking at the Stanbic Bank/Graphic Business Breakfast meeting on Tuesday, 18 February 2020, the IMF Country Director for Ghana, Dr. Albert Touna Mama, said Ghana’s fiscal space keeps narrowing because of overborrowing, a situation that he describes as worrying.

“It’s a common misconception to think that that fiscal space is revenue and how much revenue that you can raise; I think that is a first I want to put out there…. Revenue, obviously is so much important and I will come to that. Fiscal space is bigger than that. And, in fact, borrowing or the capacity the government has to borrow is also part of fiscal space.”

He added: “Borrowing for government is completely normal, overborrowing is what is an issue for a country in general.”

“When you look at the situation for Ghana over the last few years, and when you look at what it is today, and you think about the fact that almost 100% of tax revenue goes between compensation for employees and interest payments…think about it; almost 100% of tax revenue paying civil servants and paying back on the debt the government incurred.

“By this measure of fiscal space, if you were thinking about tax revenue, there is no space to do anything about development. But when we look at the last few years, I think it’s fair to say that we have seen an increase in spending by the fact of you looking at the tax revenue, the fiscal space is quite narrow”, Dr Mama said.

He noted: “The question is: how was the government able to increase fiscal space despite the fact that it has a very narrow tax base. The key here, in my view, is that there is a virtuous cycle by which when you do the proper fiscal consolidation, when you have credit policies including the programme that we have with Ghana, you are able to craft some space to finance some spending.”

“Don’t get me wrong…right, as an IMF, we are unequivocal in the fact that the way to improve fiscal space in Ghana is about improving domestic revenue mobilisation and not borrowing, and, so, I want that to be our basis.”

Dr Mama outlined three ways to improve domestic tax revenue, which are; by improving tax administration, by improving tax compliance and by improving tax exemption.

Recently, the World Bank cautioned Ghana against excessive borrowing as the total debt stock of the country hit GHS214.9 billion.

“At the moment, Ghana is in the situation that World Bank describes as moderate-high risk of debt distress, so, of course, the country needs to be careful and the country is at the stage where things are critical. I am confident that the Finance Minister and his team are fully aware of that and some borrowing, which not totally a bad thing, but you have to borrow on the right terms”, the Country Director Frank Laporte said.

Interest payments on loans will cost the nation GHS22 billion this year. The nation is, however, targeting GHS67.07 billion as total revenue and grants for this year.

Source: classfmonline

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says it’s targeting some 70 percent in customer satisfaction by the end of this year as it moves to improve services for customers.

According to the Managing Director of the Company, Kwame Agyeman-Budu, the company has over the last five years achieved a steady improvement in customer satisfaction with the introduction of accessible customer oriented services.

“It is worth to mention here that, we have achieved a steady improvement in our customer satisfaction over the past five years and this is from 53.3 percent in 2014 to 63.7 percent in 2019. However, we target to achieve the accepted standard of 70 percent by the end of this year, 2020.”

Kwame Agyeman-Budu said this at the launch of the ECG Mobile Application dubbed “ECG Power” on Tuesday, February 18 in Accra.

The Managing Director said that the app was built and developed by a team of Ghanaian staff at the ECG and will allow some 2.8 million out of the 3.8 million customers of ECG to purchase prepaid and postpaid power at their own convenience.

“The mobile app was entirely designed in house by our Information Technology (IT) staff and we’re working hard to reduce cost and we have successfully run the app on a pilot bases for over a year and it has proven to be proven to be beneficial to the company,” he explained.

The Board Chairman of ECG, Kelly Gadzekpo, on his part, thanked the IT staff of the company for developing the entire infrastructure of the new mobile application.

Mr Gadzekpo added that an effective monitoring system has been instituted by the ECG to ensure that revenue generated by the App will be secured and guaranteed.

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia charged the management of ECG to improve its collection rate to help turnaround the fortunes of the country’s energy sector.

“If we don’t really handle this sector well, it can really create problems for your economy because the sector accounts for hundreds of dollars in bills and one of the biggest problems, why this has become an ‘Achilles heel’ for the sector, comes in the area of collection of revenue,” he indicated.

“If we produce power and we’re only able to collect less than 60 percent of the revenue it means we’ve lost 40 percent of the revenue and we’re going to put other players in the sector in trouble particularly in the generation, transmission and distribution of power to consumers so the issue of solving the collection problem at ECG is a major part of solving the problems in the energy sector,” he concluded.

Source: ghanaweb

The Electricity Company of Ghana has introduced a new shortcode; *226# for its non-smartphone users to recharge their prepaid credit digitally.

This comes on the back of the company’s efforts to provide convenience to its users various consumers across the country.

Other available payment options are for consumers on Smart Prepayment Meters, Mobile Money, Prepaid Top Up, Post Paid Meters.

Consumers can also get Consumption Information on their meters through the app.

The Vice President of the Republic, Dr Bawumia is expected to launch the ECG mobile app today, February 18.

More soon…

Source: Ghanaweb

The Securities & Exchange Commission, regulator of Ghana’s capital market operators are on the verge of agreeing with the various firms under their regulatory purview as to the new minimum capital levels that should apply, for them to retain their operational licenses.

Goldstreet Business has been reliably informed that the regulator and the regulated firms have agreed on a new minimum capital of GHc2 million for a fund management license and similarly GHc2 million for a stockbroking license. Hitherto, both types of activity required minimum capital of GHc100,000 for each.

However, since each type of activity requires separate capitalization, firms engaged in both – as is the case with most firms licensed by SEC – would require total capital of GHc4 million.

Goldstreet also learnt that SEC had wanted to raise the minimum capital for each type of activity to GHc5 million, meaning firms wishing to remain in both types of activity would have to cough up a minimum of GHc10 million but this was met with stiff resistance by many firms.

SEC has consequently agreed to GHc2 million for each activity as a compromise. However that compromise includes hiving off issuing house activities as a separate activity which requires separate capitalization. To this end it will be possible for a firm to be licensed as just an issuing house. So far, no minimum capital level has been set for issuing house licenses.

Despite this the leading investment banks will muster the requisite capital to continue engaging in all three types of activity. For instance, Kojo Addae-Mensah, the chief executive of the Databank Group, the biggest and oldest wholly privately owned investment banking group has assured that it will continue to do all three types of activity requiring SEC licensing, by meeting, or exceeding the total minimum capital requirements set for the new regulatory dispensation.

Investment banks that are part of much bigger financial services groups – such as Ecobank Development Corporation, part of the Ecobank Group, and Stanlib, part of the Stanbic Bank Group – as well as foreign owned, stand-alone investment banks, such as Renaissance Capital, can be expected to follow suit in this regard.

However, smaller, indigenously owned investment banks that are unwilling to merge or be acquired may be forced to discontinue product/service lines in which they are the weakest and which generate the least net revenues for them.

In November last year SEC revoked the licenses of 53 firms under its regulatory purview for reason of regulatory infractions or for reason of insolvency, which has vividly exposed the problem of undercapitalization in the industry.

Source: Goldstreetbusiness

Policy think-tank IMANI has petitioned government of Ghana to institute a probe into the 10-year Uni-Pass contract signed between the Ministry of Trade and Ghana Link Network Services Limited in collaboration with their foreign partners Customs Uni-Pass International Agency (CUPIA) of Korea Customs Services to introduce Uni-Pass to the ports system.

According IMANI, the 10-year deal with Uni-Pass in March 2018 to provide single window services at the country’s ports, although two existing companies GCNet and Customs World (West Blue) currently operate the nation’s existing single window system is “quite shallow and simplistic.”

In a report, the think-tank said “Contracts covering contracts of significant size complexity are expected to be sufficiently detailed to contain all relevant information within one document so it can show as clearly as possible all pertinent issues under consideration by the parties and also express the rights and responsibilities in sufficient detail.

“For a contract of the magnitude of the UNIPASS contract, the brevity is worrying, so is the lack of detail. The pronouncements and warranties seem to have been made without connection to any proof of ability to perform or lien in default.”

Read the full report below:

Source: thepublisheronline.com

Ghana stands a risk of losing the oil industry after 2023 if the sector is not saved, Deputy Energy Minister Mohammed Amin Adam has disclosed.

Citing Ghana’s oil production profile, he intimated that the contributions of all the three productions fields will peak and reach plateau levels of 230,000 barrels a day, after which it will begin to decline.

“…our oil production profile shows that the contributions of all the three producing fields will peak and reach plateau levels of approximately 230,000 barrels in 2020 this year. And maintain production levels up to 2023 after which production levels will begin to decline if no new fields are brought online… when production is declining, your oil industry is going away”

As a precautionary measure to prevent the oil industry from crumbling, Dr. Amin Adam revealed that government resorted to signing the deal with Aker Energy to boost the country’s chances.

We as a government are very responsible. We are not going to sit down for Ghana’s oil industry will go down or go away, we’re not going to do that,” he explained

He further noted that the deal with Aker Energy will enable the oil industry add 100,000 barrels of oil to the 230,000 which would be produced in 2023 to sustain productivity and opportunities.

“…if we have to provide incentives to ensure that this project is realised, so that by 2023 we’re adding 100,000 barrels of crude oil to the 230,000 we’re producing…. That is what the Aker project is going to bring on board… that will take us to over 300,000 barrels of oil…” Dr Amin Adam projected.

The opposition NDC recently called out government to bring to full disclosure details of the deal with Aker Energy on the production of crude oil for the country.

The alleged that the agreement with the oil exploration company was a rip off as the interests to be gained by Aker was outrageous.

In response, however, the Deputy Energy Minister insisted that government struck good deal with Ghana’s free interest renegotiated from 10 percent to 15 percent.
He also stressed that the local participation was doubled, from 2.5 percent to 5 percent.

Source: Ghanaweb