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African leaders say health reforms are key to economic recovery //MORE ON PAGE 2
African Development Bank approves US$1.5 bn facility to avert food crisis The African Development Bank Group’s Board of Directors on Friday approved a $1.5 billion facility to help African countries avert a looming food crisis. With the disruption of food supplies arising from the Russia-Ukraine war, Africa now faces a shortage of at least 30 million metric tons of food, especially wheat, maize, and soybeans imported from both countries.
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mPharma targets 10,000 cervical cancer screening in Ghana, Nigeria
GCB will support tourism related business - MD //MORE ON PAGE 5
By Eugene Davis
Ghana to hold second biennial West Africa capital market conference //MORE ON PAGE 3
mPharma, a Ghanaian health tech start-up is aiming to become a better global citizen with the provision of free cervical cancer screening for 10,000 women in Ghana and Nigeria. Current estimates indicate that every year 2797 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 1699 die from the dis- ease. Cervical cancer ranks as the 2nd most frequent cancer among women in Ghana and the 2nd most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age. Pharmaceutical companies harbor a high degree of social responsibility through the products (medicines) that are made available to the general public. Access to these products can make the difference between life and death.
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Ghana Standards Authority marks World Metrology Day with spotlight on digitization //MORE ON PAGE 8
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Let’s take healthcare lessons from the pandemic The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the dire state of healthcare in various African economies and also highlighted the need for aggressive investments in strong health systems and pharmaceuticals industry. Despite the rushed actions of various governments to keep up with health demands brought about by the pandemic, there is still much to be done and most of the knee-jerk interventions must be strengthened as we seek to build resilience in the post-pandemic era. Reforms in healthcare have become even more critical as we seek to shift towards preventive health delivery across the continent. Key among these measures will be the complete digitalisation of health delivery systems across the continent backed by an efficient pharmaceutical value chain that is guided by regulatory agency. One critical area of attention is vaccine production, a weakness that has been well exposed by the pandemic with the recent vaccine wars placing most economies in difficult
conditions. It has been estimated that Africa will need about US$66billion to fund its healthcare demands. Some experts have recommended the need for private funds to ensure that most African nations could own their public and private health enterprises to address the health concerns of its youthful population. The healthcare situation in Ghana leaves much to be desired with myriads of challenges hampering access to quality and affordable care. It is therefore welcoming that the leadership of the continent is working out strategies and policies to tackle these longstanding bottlenecks to efficient and effective delivery of healthcare across Africa. As a continent, we cannot depend solely on external sources for vital drugs and healthcare innovations to be able to build a healthy continent that is poised for robust growth and economic transformation, especially as we have witnessed with the politics around the Covid vaccines.
African leaders say health reforms are key to economic recovery
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Amadou Hott, Senegalese Minister of Finance, says Africa had to go through the COVID-19 crisis to realise the importance of investing in strong health systems and pharmaceutical companies that can produce medicines locally. He was speaking during a round table discussion on, “the Future of health and Economic Resiliency” at the ECA Conference of Ministers (CoM2022) in Dakar, Senegal. Mr. Hott said that the Senegalese President, Macky Sall, had made implementation of strong health reforms a top priority, allocating 200 billion FCFA to tangible reforms. The first phase involved coming up with health guidelines under four pillars: the governance to bring about paradigm shift; a businessoriented model which is result based; improved renumeration; complete digitalization of the system and an efficient pharmaceutical value chain that is guided by a pharmaceutical regulatory agency. The planning phase was followed by concrete measures that included: mobilizing 10% of health expenditure from the private sector; hiring more and better qualified health personnel; investing in pharmaceutical companies to producing medicines locally and overhauling the whole health infrastructure that dates from independence. Algerian minister of pharmaceutical industry, Lotfi Benbahmed, said his country has put in place health regulations to ensure that all drugs are produced locally. “We are advocating to buy medicines produced in Africa and
when there is a health crisis, we can have easy access to drugs. One of the reasons we have no vaccine for Malaria is because we are not able to produce the vaccine in Africa. We have made great strides, now three out of four drugs are manufactured locally, and this generates revenue and prevents losing local health expertise that tend to go and work abroad when there are no employment opportunities”. The State Minister of Planning, Ministry of Finance and Planning of Uganda, Amos Lugoolobi said “We also must address the question of how best to help the under-privileged population to have access to proper health systems”. “Africa has a young population that we can turn into riches, but this also means since the population is young, we must invest into a significant young rate of human capital in education and health. In Uganda the biggest government budget is human capital. This leads to challenges such as malaria, we need to come together to eradicate malaria. Africa needs to invest more on prevention, which will help Africa. We need to put in place right fiscal strategy in tax collection and monitoring to generate resources. This is the way forward and we can learn from Egypt and other Africa countries who have started improving their tax systems”, she added. Amadiou Dialllo from Africa Solidarity Fund spoke about funding of health project in Africa and the link between health and economic growth. “66 billion dollars is needed for
health funding in Africa, we need to catalyze private funds to ensure that our countries have ownership of private and public health enterprises, and these efforts should be part of economic growth and health creation”. The United Nations perspective was given by UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima. She informed the meeting that twenty years ago the Abuja declaration promised to put 20% of their budget in heath and improve health facilities. Unfortunately, little progress has been made and the crisis has forced the continental to face reality and the impact of lack of action on the poor segment of the population who are forced to pay for health care. The event concluded with a call for youth employment in the health sector. Achaleke Christian Leke, Executive Director for Local Youth Corner in Cameroon, whose organisation produced hand sanitizers and masks from prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic, said “Over 100 000 hand sensitizers were distributed for free during the crisis to the government, youth should be the answer to Africa’s rising need for innovative health solutions”. The session brought together a panel of eight including Ministers of Health, pharmaceutical experts, the UNAIDS and Youth entrepreneurs to discuss post-covid19 health strategies and share best practices from countries that are already implementing tangible health reforms that are already changing the economic spectrum of their respective countries.
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ECA outlines key path for African sovereign debt liquidity and sustainability at the Com2022 //continued from page 1
African farmers urgently need high-quality seeds and inputs before the planting season begins in May to immediately boost food supplies. The African Development Bank’s $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility is an unprecedented comprehensive initiative to support smallholder farmers in filling the food shortfall. The African Emergency Food Production Facility will provide 20 million African smallholder farmers with certified seeds. It will increase access to agricultural fertilizers and enable them to rapidly produce 38 million tons of food. This would be a $12 billion increase in food production in just two years. African Development Bank Group President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said: “Food aid cannot feed Africa. Africa does not need bowls in hand. Africa needs seeds in the ground, and mechanical harvesters to harvest bountiful food produced locally. Africa will feed itself with pride for there is no dignity in begging for food…” The African Emergency Food Production Facility has benefited
from stakeholder consultations, including those with fertilizer producers and separately with African Union agriculture and finance ministers earlier this month. The ministers agreed to implement reforms to address the systemic hurdles that prevent modern input markets from performing effectively. The price of wheat has soared in Africa by over 45% since the war in Ukraine began. Fertilizer prices have gone up by 300%, and the continent faces a fertilizer shortage of 2 million metric tons. Many African countries have already seen price hikes in bread and other food items. If this deficit is not made up, food production in Africa will decline by at least 20% and the continent could lose over $11 billion in food production value. The African Development Bank’s $1.5 billion strategy will lead to the production of 11 million tons of wheat; 18 million tons of maize; 6 million tons of rice; and 2.5 million tons of soybeans. The African Emergency Food Production Facility will provide
20 million farmers with certified seeds, fertilizer, and extension services. It will also support market growth and post-harvest management. The African Development Bank will provide fertilizer to smallholder farmers across Africa over the next four farming seasons, using its convening influence with major fertilizer manufacturers, loan guarantees, and other financial instruments. The Facility will also create a platform to advocate for critical policy reforms to solve the structural issues that impede farmers from receiving modern inputs. This includes strengthening national institutions overseeing input markets. The Facility has a structure for working with multilateral development partners. This will ensure rapid alignment and implementation, enhanced reach, and effective impact. It will increase technical preparedness and responsiveness. In addition, it includes short, medium, and long-term measures to address both the urgent food crisis and the long-term sustainability and resilience of Africa’s food systems. Dr. Beth Dunford, the African Development Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, said: “The Africa Emergency Food Production Facility builds on lessons learned from the African Development Bank’s Feed Africa Response to Covid-19 program.
That program has provided a strategic roadmap to support Africa’s agriculture sector and safeguard food security against the pandemic’s impact.” Over the past three years, the Bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation initiative has delivered heattolerant wheat varieties to 1.8 million farmers in seven countries, increasing wheat production by 2.7 million metric tons, worth $840 million. Long-term sustainability to wean Africa off wheat and other food imports A five-year ramp-up phase will follow the two-year African Emergency Food Production Facility. This will build on previous gains and strengthen self-sufficiency in wheat, maize, and other staple crops, as well as expand access to agricultural fertilizers. The five-year phase will deliver seeds and inputs to 40 million farmers under the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation program. In April, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Adesina to a select Steering Committee of the Global Crisis Response Group. The U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations recently invited Adesina to make a presentation about the African Emergency Food Production Facility.
Ghana to hold second biennial West Africa capital market conference Ghana, through the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will hold the second edition of the biennial West Africa Capital Market Conference (WACMaC) in Accra. The event scheduled for Tuesday, May 24, 2022 is on the theme: “Deepening and strengthening the capital markets across West Africa through effective regulation.” It will enable capital market operators and investors to discuss ways of integrating the market in the sub-region. In a statement announcing the conference, SEC said it was orginising the event in collaboration with the West Africa Securities Regulators Association
(WASRA). Other issues that would feature during the conference include sustainable finance and regional development, innovative finance and technology in an integrated market. Private equity and venture capital in Small and MediumSized Enterprise (SME) financing in Africa as well as deepening West Africa’s capital markets would also be discussed during the conference. The statement said the conference was to enable citizens and market operators in the West African countries to be able to operate and buy shares and securities in other countries within the sub region.
T h e Conference would be graced by dignitaries including Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Ghana, Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, and Rev Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, DirectorGeneral, SEC. Mr Lamido Yuguda, Chairman of the West Africa Securities Regulators Association (WASRA) and Director-General, SEC, Nigeria, Ms Nezha Hayat, Chairperson of the Africa and Middle East Regional Committee would also attend the event.
WASRA, established in 2015, is an association of capital market regulatory institutions comprising Nigeria, Ghana and Regional Council for Public Savings and Financial Markets (CREPMF). CREPMF is made up of countries including Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Burkina Faso, Benin Republic and Niger.
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mPharma targets 10,000 cervical cancer screening in Ghana, Nigeria By Eugene Davis
According to Sophia Baah, the COO and VP of the company, the initiative shows that the company is involved in action that consider the well-being of society by offering financial support and managing various sustainable projects, targeting social and economic issues, leading public health awareness campaigns, and investing in health projects. In a press engagement at the company’s office in Accra, she disclosed that out of the 10,000, they have undertaken 3,000 screening and plans to 6,000 in Ghana and 4,000 in Nigeria. To tackle cervical cancer burden in Africa, the main challenges are late-stage disease presentation, lack of screening and therapeutic infrastructure, lack of awareness and limited resources, and for the VP at mPharma, coming on board to conduct these screening aligns with the company’s vision. “Our goal is to have an African good health and we have to partner with government to do, if there is a willing partner to sit down and talk then I will not rule
it out.” mPharma serves over 2m patients annually and has over 310 mutti pharmacies, and are dotted in nine African countries. mPharma also plans to grow its community (Mutti) pharmacies across eight markets in Africa to be the first point of care for patients. The startup’s Mutti pharmacies are essentially mini-hospitals offering a wide-range of services, including medical consultation, diagnostic and telehealth services. All these while increasing access and affordability to quality medication. The startup has now set out to activate more Mutti pharmacies to widen its reach and to build out its tech-infrastructure as it readies itself for the next phase of growth after raising $35 million in a Series D round. mPharma was originally founded in 2013 by Rockson, Daniel Shoukimas and James Finucane to manage prescription drug inventory for pharmacies and their suppliers, retail pharmacy operations and to
provide market intelligence to hospitals, pharmacies and patients. They are building Africa’s largest and most impactful healthcare company, and also using proprietary software, Bloom to transform thousands
of pharmacies into primary care providers. Through its QualityRx program, they provide financing towards renovating community pharmacies to make them convenient spaces for patient care.
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GCB will support tourism related business - MD The Managing Director of GCB Bank PLC, Mr. Kofi Adomakoh, has given assurance to support the tourism sector of the Ghanaian economy towards the realisation of the sector’s potential. He said the tourism sector has the potential to rake in more funds for the economy and that GCB would offer the necessary support to help the sector to flourish and generate more jobs for Ghanaians. Speaking during a courtesy call on the Management of GCB Bank PLC by the Executives of the United Kingdom-Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC) in Accra, Mr Adomakoh said the Bank would extend financial and technical support to individuals and companies operating in the sector to transform tourism business and activities in Ghana and beyond. The meeting attended by Steve Ababio and Gina Arthur, authors of the “Chasing Waterfalls,” tourguides and notebooks, was a follow up on the successful launch of the books and documentary in
April this year. Present at the meeting were Mr Samuel K. Aidoo, Executive Director, Wholesale and Investment Banking, Mr Eric Coffie, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer (CDMO), Mr Emmanuel Kojo Kwarteng, Head of Corporate Affairs and Mr Kofi Osei-Asibey, Executive Business Manager. GCB Bank in its commitment to promote tourism and domestic businesses partnered the UKGCC to launch tour guidebooks, photobooks and exhibition designed to direct and give more information on Ghana’s waterfalls. The launch of the books and documentary was sponsored by GCB, Ghana’s largest bank. Mr Adomakoh stressed the need for stakeholders in the tourism sector to strategise to add value, promote and develop the tourism sector holistically.
The GCB MD noted that the partnership between Ghana and UK has been consolidated over the years and that the partnership between GCB and the UKGCC would help deepen the relationship for the mutual benefit of the two countries. Mr Sam Aidoo on his part, said GCB had clear offerings for Ghanaians abroad and the tourism industry as a whole. The Executive Secretary of the UKGCC, Ms Adjoba Kyiama,
expressed appreciation to the Management of GCB for maintaining a healthy relationship with the Chamber and also supporting tourism development. She said tourism offers a wonderful opportunity for the promotion of business activities and services in Ghana and the UK. A co-author of the Chasing Waterfalls, Steve Ababio, announced that their work covered 29 waterfalls in a period of six months.
AFDB AGM to provide opportunity to advance economic integration to respond to challenges— Ken Ofori-Atta Minister for Finance, Ken OforiAtta, has hinted that, the Africa Development Bank Group (AfDB) Annual General Meetings to be held in Ghana would provide an avenue for the continent to respond to its challenges. He noted that, 41 African economies were severely exposed to at least one of three concurrent crises which included rising food prices, rising energy prices and tightening financial conditions. The minister made this known when he addressed the media ahead of the upcoming 57th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the African Development Fund. Enumerating some of the challenges the continent faced, he said food prices were 34 percent higher than this time last year and have never been this high since the UN’s Food, and Agricultural Organisation started recording them. Again, crude oil prices had
increased by around 60 percent, and gas and fertilizer prices had more than doubled, global inflation rose to a decade high of 6.0 percent in February, causing many central banks to signal increases in interest rates, inevitably leading to higher debt servicing costs and the number of people experiencing hunger has increased by 46 million in Africa. “The spread and scope of these challenges require collective and coordinated action at the regional level if Africa is to overcome them” he said. The annual general meeting under the “Achieving Climate Resilience and a Just Energy Transition for Africa” will commence from 23rd to 27th May 2022 will be officially open by President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. The meeting among other things would have 30 indigenous industrialists and 5 FINTECHs to showcase their services and products and provide an opportunity to advance the
cause of economic integration to respond to Africa’s challenges. Participants at the meeting would include Ministers for Finance, Governors of Central Banks, Leaders of local and international Finance and Development Organizations. Others would be captains of industry, and civil society, 4 organizations from the 81 Member States of the AfDB; made up of 54 Regional and 27 non-regional member countries. Mr. Ofori-Atta noted that, Ghana now had an opportunity to host the Annual Meetings of the two main entities that made up the AfDB (the ADB and ADF) and that 3500 participants were expected to attend the meetings. He further conveyed the country’s gratitude to the African Development Bank for the numerous developmental projects Ghana had undertaken through its “enduring partnership with the bank”. These included the construction of the only four-tier Interchange in West Africa, the Pokuase
Interchange, to ease traffic and improve productivity, the construction of the Terminal 3 at the Kotoka International Airport to enhance travel experiences and promote connectivity, the construction of the AwoshiePokuase road, Fufulso-Sawla Road and parts of the Northern Corridor Roads to advance the exchange of goods and services and deepen economic integration. “We are also thankful to the AfDB for its support in establishing the Development Bank Ghana (DBG) and providing US$70million to complement the Government’s attempts at protecting lives and preserving livelihoods in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic” he disclosed. The press briefing was attended by the Minister for Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, a Deputy Minister for Finance, Hon. John Ampontuah Kumah, Officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Media.
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Forests and sustainable production and consumption Kofi Annan once said that “the world is not ours to keep. We hold it in trust for future generations”. This year, as we mark the Intentional Day of Forests, we are reminded of the importance of halting the continuous decline in forest resources. The theme for this year, “Forests and sustainable production and consumption” is apt as sustainable management and use of forest resources are key to combating climate change, and to contributing to the prosperity and well-being of current and future generations. Forests cover nearly a third of the earth’s surface and support the livelihoods of more than 1.5 billion people around the world. Yet, 80% of natural forests have either been cleared or degraded with the world losing over 12 million hectares of primary forests between 2019 and 2020. In Ghana, according to data from the Global Forest Watch, the country has lost an equivalent of 8% of total tree cover between 2002 and 2020. With the current annual deforestation and forest degradation rate of 2% equivalent to 135,000 hectares loss of forest cover – Ghana’s tropical forests continue to face the danger of depletion if efforts at sustainable management are not strengthened. The Government of Ghana is already taking bold and commendable steps to reduce forest loss through interventions such as the Ghana Cocoa and Forests REDD+ Programme, the Ghana Landscape Restoration
and Small Scale Mining Project and the Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project. These interventions advance the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 through forest restoration, sustainable production, and consumption of green commodities across Ghana. Ghana also joined over 100 world leaders who pledged to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030 at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. This pledge reiterates and reaffirms the role of forests in balancing greenhouse gas emissions and removals. It will also help in adapting to the impacts of climate change, in maintaining healthy ecosystem services, and thus ensure sustainable use of the earth’s forest resources. This landmark declaration is timely as the world is faced with an uncertain future according to a recent assessment report on the world’s forests. Driven by unclear land and tree tenure systems, and unsustainable agricultural practices, Ghana’s forest resources remain at risk. Cocoa production contributes between 54-77% of the country’s forest degradation. Initiatives like the Cocoa Life Programme being implemented by UNDP, Cocoa Board, Forestry Commission, with support from Mondelez International, are providing solutions by promoting sustainable agricultural production. Through the programme, farmers like Grace and Naomi are helping to restore
degraded forest reserves like the Ayum Forest Reserve by planting economic trees in degraded forest reserve land. Similarly, farmers like Moses and Ama are not only reaping the benefits of joining other farmers to plant over 1 million economic trees in their cocoa farms but are also contributing to efforts to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. Advancing sustainable production and consumption in forested areas will require turning declarations and pledges into concrete actions. These actions must respond to current and future challenges to drive the kind of transformative changes required to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. The actions must also be far-reaching and more inclusive in three key areas. First, promote green forestrelated commodities. With an enhanced and transparent approach to traceability of all green commodities, Ghana can unlock immense opportunities for people and the planet through sustainable production. Building on the work by the Ghana Cocoa Board in the cocoa sector, more can be done for other commodities such as shea and cashew. Second, support inclusive commodity platforms to ensure that no one is left behind when it comes to engagement and decision making. Commodity stakeholder platforms are a key avenue for effective multi-
stakeholder engagement. Bringing all actors -including women and youth - together on inclusive platforms should be explored to help address forest degradation across various supply chains and hold actors accountable to commitments. Third, strengthen partnerships with the private sector and local communities. In Ghana, the cocoa private sector has already made clear commitments towards sustainable production and consumption through the Cocoa and Forest Initiative (CFI), which has been an ongoing partnership with the Government. It is important that, such partnerships are strengthened, and communities are engaged to ensure that related actions are effectively monitored and reported on. In conclusion, if Ghana and other countries are to succeed in advancing forests and sustainable consumption and production, we must work to adopt sustainable agricultural practices, address land and tree tenure-related issues, and build collaborative platforms to ensure sustainable management of forests for people and for planet. As we hold the forests in trust for future generations, we will also be able to enjoy all the benefits from the air we breathe, to the food we eat and medicines we use. Sustaining forests will sustain our life and livelihoods on earth.
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Ghana Standards Authority marks World Metrology Day with spotlight on digitization The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) on Friday marked the World Metrology Day celebration with a spotlight on the important role of measurement in the digitisation process. World Metrology Day is an annual celebration of the signature of the Metre Convention on May 20, 1875, by representatives of seventeen nations. The Convention set the framework for global collaboration in the science of measurement and in its industrial, commercial and societal applications. Metrology as the science of measurement plays a central role in scientific discovery and innovation, industrial manufacturing and international trade, in improving the quality of life and in protecting the global environment. In a keynote address, Mr. Clifford Frimpong, Ag. Deputy Director-General Conformity Assessment of the GSA, said the Authority as the national statutory body responsible for developing, publishing and promoting standards in the country was embarking on a rigorous digital transformation of its operations
to improve on service delivery. He said the Authority had rolled out the GSA Core Operations (CoreOps), which is a digital platform designed to offer clients an amazing customer-focused, user-friendly experience, where the Authority’s operations were easily accessed by the public for effective and timely delivery of services. The GSA is committed to providing the highest levels of service to its clients, in line with the Government’s business facilitation policy, he said. Among other benefits, the introduction of digitisation provides real-time information to management and ensure efficiency in service delivery. “This platform is designed to improve work interactions and optimise the customer experience across the full-service delivery ecosystem. The three arms of Metrology – Legal, Industrial and Scientific Metrology, have been migrated onto the CoreOps platform. Mr Frimpong said the GSA, as custodian of weights and measurements, was working with the the German National
Metrology Institute to provide Ghana with a fit-for-future National Metrology Institute (NMI). The NMI Institute, when established, will be responsible for the establishment of national measurement standards and to provide measurement traceability, among others. The project aims to strengthen the capacity of the GSA to provide relevant metrological services that will meet the ever-increasing demand of industry and facilitate trade. Furthermore, it aims to enhance measurement capability to meet the requirements of the scientific community and strengthen consumer protection. “Technology has a lot of good things in stock. And it is time we seize the opportunity to make good use of it. I will urge all of us gathered here, including our stakeholders, to leverage on technology in our quest to adhere and promote accurate measurements,” he added. In his welcome address, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, a Board Member, said the theme “Metrology in the Digital Era,” was
chosen because digital technology is revolutionising the community and was one of the most exciting trends in society today. Indeed, more widely metrology, the science of measurement, plays a central role in scientific discovery and innovation, industrial manufacturing and international trade, in improving the quality of life and in protecting the global environment. It is recognised all the world over that accurate measurement improve the productivity and competitiveness of industries. He congratulated the staff of the GSA, especially those working in the field of metrology to ensure that everything all the world over from health, transportation and other sectors get the precision of measurement required to make life bearable. Dr Ampomah said the GSA was making a lot of progress in the field of digitization but much more needed to be done and urged staff to show a renewed commitment to the goals of the organisation to enhance growth.
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MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
GIPS workshop on specifications writing and bill of quantity slated for May 25 The Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply (GIPS) is organizing a capacity building workshop on writing of specifications and bill of quantity for members and the business community. The three-day workshop on the theme “Effective Development and Writing of Specifications and Bill of Quantity” comes off from Wednesday, May 25 to Friday, May 27, at the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Accra. The strategic training program has been designed to enhance the capacity and knowledge of both public and private procurement and supply professionals and practitioners in the writing of specifications and bill of quantity. It is also a continuous professional development training which will accrue credit hours for associate members (AGIPS) who will attend as part of their program of study to be upgraded to full membership (MGIPS). Courses to be covered under the three-day training will include: definitions and types of specifications; development of specification process; practical writing of specifications for
various items; elements of bill of quantities or technical drawings; and review of technical specifications prepared by specialists. Other topics are: understanding of goods in works specifications/ BoQ; using specification as a cost saving tool; the role of procurement specialists in the development and writing of specifications; stakeholder engagement and management; and case studies. The workshop will be facilitated by procurement and architectural professionals with in-depth knowledge and expertise in the writing of specifications and bill of quantity. The Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply is a central organization for professionals, practitioners and students of the procurement and supply chain profession in Ghana. It is dedicated to promoting high standard of integrity and probity in respect of the procurement and supply chain practice through the provision of a wide range of services that are beneficial to both members and the business community.
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The fight for press freedom is local By Jos Midas Bartman A macabre political thriller recently unfolded in the Philippine province of Palawan, an island known mostly for its rich biodiversity and pristine beaches. On May 9, Joel T. Reyes, the alleged mastermind of the 2011 murder of well-known radio broadcaster Gerry Ortega, ran again for governor. Had Reyes won, the possibilities for Ortega’s family to obtain justice for the killing would have dwindled. Fortunately for them, he lost. Although episodes like the Ortega murder might seem extreme, they are more common than many realize. Powerful authoritarian subnational elites such as Reyes, supported by a political milieu that often guarantees them impunity, pose the deadliest threat to journalists. Ortega was fatally shot after he publicly accused Reyes, Palawan’s governor from 2002 to 2011, of embezzlement. All members of the hit squad were soon arrested and subsequently confessed to the killing. But, despite strong evidence that Reyes ordered the murder, prosecutors refrained from indicting him. The middleman in the scheme, Rodolfo Edrad, implicated Reyes as the mastermind and was placed under witness protection. However, prosecutors found Edrad’s testimony to be uncorroborated. Prosecutors decided that text messages sent by Reyes to Edrad shortly before and after the murder – including one that read, “Hopefully, upon my return, the problem is over” – could not be used as evidence because they were “filed out of time.” A decade-long legal battle between Ortega’s family and Reyes ensued. A newly appointed
prosecutorial team accepted the text message as evidence and resumed the case, after which Reyes fled to Vietnam. Although a court of appeals later ruled that the second prosecutorial panel was illegitimate, a new bench of that same court ordered in 2019 that the trial should proceed. But the warrant for Reyes’s arrest, filed in 2021, was temporarily lifted, enabling him to campaign openly for the governorship. Meanwhile, Ortega’s family, their lawyers, and the Office of the Solicitor General have formally requested the Supreme Court to order Reyes’ immediate arrest – a step supported by global pressfreedom organizations. Whether Reyes is prosecuted soon has important implications for press freedom in the Philippines. The country currently ranks 147th in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, not least because of the lack of safety for journalists. Widespread impunity or partial impunity for their killings is a security concern for all journalists in the Philippines. Organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists have expressed concern about the potential effect on press freedom of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.’s recent presidential electoral victory. But for many journalists, especially in large, decentralized countries such as the Philippines, who holds power at the regional and local level matters just as much – or even more. In young democracies with relatively weak institutions, authoritarian subnational leaders can rule in ways some national-level autocrats can only dream of. Clientelism and patronage give them the means to win elections
and sometimes plunder public resources. This phenomenon has been evident for decades in the Philippines, where, to take just one example, the Osmeña family has enjoyed dynastic preeminence in Cebu province. But it occurs in other countries, too. In Mexico, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) had ruled the state of Veracruz for almost a century when Javier Duarte, the governor from 2010-16, became the party’s poster child for corruption after embezzling millions of dollars in public money. In such contexts, journalists like Ortega are democracy’s last hope. Authoritarian local leaders still care about their image, since a loss of face might lead central institutions to intervene. The cloning and distribution of fake versions of critical news magazines by the former state government of Quintana Roo in Mexico was a clumsy attempt to manage its image and silence dissent. The murder of journalists at the behest of such elites is a grimmer point on the continuum of repression. Without access to accurate, objective information, there can be no free and fair local elections. The fact that democracy is the only game in town at the national level is scant reassurance for those living in a state or province ruled by a local autocrat. In Veracruz under Duarte’s administration, for example, 18 journalists were murdered with nearly complete impunity, and state prosecutors have been accused of torturing a local sex worker into falsely confessing to the murder of journalist Regina Martínez Pérez. Unsurprisingly, both executive and judicial institutions are weak
in such settings – how else could these local authoritarian rulers emerge? In the Ortega case in the Philippines, allegations of bribery within the judiciary are rife. While it is difficult to uncover how and by whom a journalist has been murdered, assessing the exact intentions of local authorities during an investigation can be even tougher. One possible solution is to establish independent prosecutorial bodies to investigate murders of journalists and monitor local implementation of the United Nations guidelines for prosecutors on cases of crimes against journalists. But such efforts require political will from central governments. Another way to combat impunity for the murder of journalists is through increased efforts to investigate cold cases. The project A Safer World for the Truth – a collaboration between Free Press Unlimited, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders – is currently conducting such investigations. New findings can sometimes lead to these cases being reopened. For example, an investigation into the murder Pakistani journalist Zubair Mujahid resulted in the family – together with lawyers – filing a petition at the High Court of Sindh to reopen the investigation. National leaders who attack independent media – such as outgoing former US President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and Russian President Vladimir Putin – attract most of the attention. But, as at-risk journalists everywhere will confirm, the local struggle for press freedom and democracy matters just as much.
| NEWS
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
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ASR Africa and The Rebecca Foundation to construct school libraries The Rebecca Foundation has begun construction of a library in Kwahu Bepong in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region as part of its Learning to Read Reading to Learn initiative. The initiative seeks to inculcate the habit of reading among school children by providing them with the right ambience, adequate, interesting and relevant reading materials to enrich their knowledge. The Rebecca Foundation has already constructed eight libraries with two more under construction. The Kwahu Bepong Library project is a new collaborative endeavour with the ASR Africa Initiative, to construct eight more library facilities in various communities across the country, bringing the total number of Libraries constructed by the Rebecca Foundation, to eighteen. ASR Africa is an initiative of Nigerian industrialist and philanthropist Abdul Samad Rabiu, to give back to the African continent through the promotion of sustainable healthcare, education and social development. It will be recalled that in June last year (2021), the Rebecca Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) for a grant of $500,000 to support the Foundation’s education initiatives. The grant was offered by ASR Africa
following what it described as the Rebecca Foundation’s commitment to the welfare of women and children in the country and its adherence to good corporate governance and practices which have enabled the foundation to deliver infrastructure and services in the areas of education, health and women’s economic empowerment.
in 2017 the Foundation has been undertaking several programmes and infrastructural projects under its Learning to Read Reading to Learn initiative, to support government achieve the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong
Cutting the sod for the Kwahu Bepong facility on behalf of the First Lady Mrs. Rebecca Naa Okaikor Akufo-Addo who is also the Executive Director of the Rebecca Foundation, Director of Operations at the Office of the First Lady, Mrs. Akosua Newman said since its inception
learning opportunities for all”. She said the First Lady believes strongly that one sure way to improve access to and quality of education among children to enable them discover their full potential and prepare them for global market competition, is to empower them
with knowledge, which can largely be acquired by reading broadly. To this end, she said the Rebecca Foundation has also constructed primary schools and donated books to several school libraries across the country, as well as run a children’s reading programme on national television: “Learning to read Reading to Learn”; all aimed at encouraging reading among children as an avenue to knowledge acquisition. Mrs. Newman extended the Rebecca Foundation’s profound gratitude to the Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu (ASR) Africa initiative for supporting the Foundation to put up the library facility and stock it with rich reading materials, and urged politicians, traditional leaders and elders in the area to encourage their wards to patronise the library to acquire knowledge, when completed. She also thanked the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Kwahu South, Hon. Emmanuel Atta Ofori, and MP for Mpraeso, Hon. Davis Ansah Opoku for their assistance in ensuring speedy take-off of the project. Present to grace the brief ceremony were the DCE of Kwahu South, Hon. Emmanuel Atta Ofori, Director of the Ghana Library Authority Mr. Hayford Siaw, senior Dignitaries of ASR Africa, Traditional Leaders and Heads and students of beneficiary schools.
GITFiC 2022 slated for 23 - 24th May
The 6th Steering Committee for the 6th Conference on Trade & Finance will take place again in Ghana’s capital, Accra, on 23rd and 24th May, 2022 at the plush Alisa Hotel, North Ridge, Accra – Commercial Capital of Africa. The 6th Ghana International Trade and Finance Conference (GITFiC) 2022, seeks to update the evidence base of what is currently available in terms of reviewing the AfCFTA, data on digital trade, and in doing so, identifying potential options for estimating the value of Cross Border Payment & Settlement given the current data gaps. The 6th Conference will, this year, consolidate the conversation from the 5th Conference on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Role of Local Governance in helping with extensive sensitisation, education, and preparing the minds of the Business Communities within our Metropolitan, Municipal, and District localities.
The Vice President of VISA, MasterCard, Swift’s Senior Country Director for Western Africa, Chief Executive of Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Chief Executive of the Association of Microfinance Institutions in Kenya, and the Regional Head of Société Général in West Africa based in Abidjan makes up the first panel on day one for discussion. Theme: Towards an Effective and Efficient Mobile Money Transactional Penetrations in Africa; A Catalyst to solving Cross Border Payment & Settlement, an Anticipated-Barrier within the AfCFTA; - The Role of Financial Regulators and Stakeholders. The second day of the 6th Conference on Trade and Finance, christened; the Trade Minister’s Panel, will see some selected Trade Ministers within the continent joining the conclave. Theme: Measuring the Acceptability and Adaptation Level of the AfCFTA on the African Continent a Year after Implementation of the 1st
Phase;- Where do we stand in terms of Trade in Goods, Trade in Service, and Dispute Resolution Protocols (Policy Direction) with focus on the Role of Africa’s Local Governance Structures in preparing their various Business Communities to take advantage The final panel discussion on day 2 is on the theme: Leveraging on the pillars of Trade-Finance – A catalyst for Industrial Growth and Acceleration Post Pandemic; the Role of Payment, Financing, Risk Mitigation, and Access to Information. This panel will seek to address current woes facing industries due to the prolonged restrictions on the COVID pandemic, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and the post pandemic – the available finance options for industry. The Vice President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, the Head of Trade Finance at the African Development Bank, the Ivorian President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Special Advisor to the Ivorian President of the Federation of SMEs comprise the third panel. Special Invited Guests includes the African Union Economic Commissioner for Trade, Industry, and Mining. The Director General of the West African Monetary Institute will lecture on a special presentation on the entire scope of the
implementation of the Pan African Payment and Settlement System;- an undeniable critical component of the Continental Free Trade Area. The 6th conference will be attended by the diplomatic corps. They will represent their various countries and also contribute to the rich discussions. Representing Ghana’s Industry is Mr. Tsonam Cleanse Akpeloo; Greater Accra Chairman of the Association of Ghana Industries. Other participants include; the Ghana International Trade Commission, GUTA, Ghana Canada Chamber of Commerce et al. There are confirmed delegations from Kenya, Angola, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic et al. The two-days conference will be hosted and moderated by Mr. Prince Moses Ofori-Atta of Asaase Radio and Mr. Tajudeen Nasiru of the West African Monetary Institute (retired). The 6th Conference, in observing the COVID19 practical protocols laid down by the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Health, will strictly enforce all protocols to the latter. The Conference is strictly by invitation.
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| FEATURE
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
A new model for African health For many people, the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in under a year marked the beginning of the end of the acute phase of the pandemic. But not for Africa. Eighteen months after the first vaccines were approved, just 16% of the continent’s population has been fully vaccinated, owing largely to a lack of consistent international support in the acquisition and deployment of vaccines. African regional institutions, meanwhile, have been world leaders in responding to pandemic-related challenges at the local level. For example, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has played a pivotal role in coordinating a continental pandemic strategy. The pan-African Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Testing has substantially increased testing capacity in 43 countries, providing more than 90 million test kits. And the African Union has formed a partnership with the Africa CDC, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and the African Export-Import Bank to create a digital platform for one-stop procurement of medical supplies. But perhaps the most powerful example of Africa’s “common good” approach to the pandemic is the South African government’s partnership with the Africa CDC, the World Health Organization, and other stakeholders to expand low- and middle-income
countries’ capacity to produce their own mRNA vaccines. At a time when some pharmaceutical giants in rich countries are hoarding technology, such efforts fill a critical need. There has also been dynamic leadership at the national level, where “whole of government” approaches are proving highly effective. In Togo, for example, the information minister worked across departments – from the president’s office and the Ministry of Finance down to the post office – to build a digital cashtransfer program that provided urgent assistance to hundreds of thousands of people in its first two months. More broadly, Africa’s response to COVID-19 has demonstrated the power of collective intelligence for advancing the goal of “health for all” within and across governments. It has illustrated the value of innovation policies designed to advance the common good, rather than encouraging the pursuit of private profit and then asking the public sector to step in to fix predictable “market failures.” By identifying and working toward collective goals – like developing an African mRNA vaccine or increasing testing capacity – all countries on the continent stand to reap the benefits of new public goods. But Africa’s COVID experience has also demonstrated that coordinated public-sector innovation for the common good
is not enough. Countries also need fiscal capacity to make serious long-term investments in health and pandemic preparedness and response (PPR). G20 countries recently agreed to establish a Financial Intermediary Fund to close the $10.5 billion global PPR investment gap. Whether African countries will benefit from the FIF will depend largely on how it is designed over the coming months. If all stakeholder countries are involved in setting priorities collectively, the FIF could become a first-in-class innovative financing mechanism. In addition to greater global investments in PPR, we also need more robust national policy responses to address the structural conditions that led to the current crisis. Governments should stop thinking about health as a discretionary annual expenditure and start viewing it as a critical long-term investment in society and future prosperity. The ECA’s recent Conference of Ministers in Dakar, Senegal, offered an opportunity for African ministers of finance to rethink their policymaking roles. They should see themselves not only as guarantors of stability but also as active supporters of healthy and equitable societies. Efforts to curtail inflation, build reserves, and reduce debt must be balanced with greater investments in health and well-being. All ministries – not just those with “health” in their
name – should be encouraged to measure the impact of their policies against the collective goal of health for all. Elevating health for all as an overarching fiscal priority will require substantial external support, well beyond what even a properly designed FIF could provide. Health expenditures have been trending down in many low-income countries since the 2007-08 global financial crisis. It is thus imperative for African governments, international financial institutions, and ratings agencies to recognize health spending as a capital investment that contributes to economic stability, growth, and resilience, rather than as an unwelcome drag on a country’s debt-to-GDP ratio. That means not stigmatizing African countries with creditrating downgrades, or punishing them with odious interest rates when they take on new debt to fund essential services. It also means helping African countries move away from donor dependency in critical areas like health innovation, manufacturing, and production. We will need to change how we govern health innovation up front, to include issues like equity, access, and localization in the design of public-private partnerships. Only with a new model in which Africa owns its health investment can we achieve health – and thus prosperity – for all.
| FEATURE
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
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Has the ‘milk of human mercy’ dried up? By Eugene Davis
On my morning walk recently, the 6am news broke the story of a teacher at Goaso dipping the fingers of a nine-year-old girl living with her into boiling water. Narrating her ordeal, the girl said her guardian got angry with her because, famishing from constant starvation, she picked GH¢2 to buy herself food. The angry teacher accused her of stealing money, dipped her fingers into boiling water with the assistance of her daughter, then cut the blisters open with a razor blade! Doctors said the festered fingers have a 20 per cent chance of recovery. I asked myself, where is Shakespeare’s “milk-of-humanmercy” gone? Boil a hungerinflicted nine-year-old’s fingers because of GH¢2? ‘Manager’ My “Manager” left home around 5.30 am as she always does on her monthly trips to Makola Market! When at 9.30 am she had not returned home as she normally does, I started getting concerned. My concern was because the previous day, she had fallen unwell after a suspected foodreaction. Finally, around 10.20am, she arrived home. Before I could ask any question, she volunteered, “my car wouldn’t start after my marketing. It had to be jump-started!” When I said “thanks to the Good Samaritan,” she replied “the Good-Samaritan taxi-driver charged me twenty cedis!” “How? GH¢20 to jump-start a lady’s car?” I exclaimed! Where has the Ghanaian “milkof-human-mercy” I bragged about years ago gone? Could it be that I still live in the past where jumpstarting a lady’s car, or changing a flat tyre was cheerfully done as a responsibility/service to ladies? Kunle In the 1980s, as a student at the Command and Staff College, Jaji-Kaduna, Nigeria, when I told my friend Kunle that in Ghana, ladies were “not allowed” to fix their tyres when they had a puncture, he was incredulous/ dumbfounded! I pressed on that the first male driver who got to the scene stopped to offer assistance! I added, it was not uncommon to find two or three male drivers stopping to help. In some cases, where the lady’s spare tyre was found to be flat too, one male would drive to the nearest vulcaniser to fix the tyres. The grateful lady would say thank you and drive away happily!
Kunle would subsequently gleefully tell my story beginning with, “ei, Ghana n’awaoo (wonderful Ghana)! In Ghana, woman no dey remove taya (tyre) o!” (To wit, in Ghana, ladies do not remove tyres, to the disbelief of our colleagues.) Osei-Kyeretwie In fairness to Nigeria, I was also a beneficiary of such kindness in 1996. Driving home with “Manager” on completion of my two-year tour as a Directing Staff (lecturer) at my alma mater, the Command and Staff College, Jaji, my car developed a fault at the
departed for Lagos. Money! “Manager’s” Makola jump-start experience stoked my belief that, the love of money/greed has taken centre-stage in Ghana with all moral considerations relegated to the background. In my early years in secondary school, one of the early Speech Day plays was Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Pardoner’s Tale” in his book the Canterbury Tales. The title of the play was “Radix Malorum est cupiditas,” meaning “Greed or the love of money is the root of all evil!
worst possible place, a notorious armed-robbery zone between Abuja and Minna. A speeding Peugeot 504 which whisked by as I waved frantically, braked hard and reversed. A gentleman came out and asked in Twi, “wo ye Ghana ni?” meaning are you Ghanaian? He said my distinct camouflage uniform told him I was not Nigerian. When I responded affirmatively, he said, “ye woo me wo Kumasi! Me kor Osei Kyeretwie!” He was born in Kumasi and attended Osei Kyeretwie Secondary School. Four of them were driving to Lagos for a meeting. Timeconstraint notwithstanding, he left two colleagues with us, drove twenty kilometres back to the nearest village to get us a fitter/ mechanic. Apologising he could not stay with us, the “Good Samaritan”
In the play, three friends chanced upon a vault of gold in the countryside. Having decided to wait till nightfall to cart their booty home, they decided two would guard the gold while one went to the nearest village to buy food for their waiting period. Thinking of owning all the gold, the two guards decided to kill the food-buyer on his return. The food-buyer also decided to poison the two guards so he could have all the gold to himself. At the end of the play, all three friends lay dead on the stage, thus confirming the title! Values In recent times, in addition to losing values such as discipline, cleanliness, humility and respect for age, we have placed the love of money above all other considerations. Otherwise, how can a taxi driver who jump-starts a lady’s car demand GH¢20?
Probably as a retiree, I am oldfashioned and therefore steeped in the values of my childhood days where among others, insults could not be easily/freely dispensed. On TV News on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, one of the 6000 students whose courses had been deferred at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) for nonpayment of fees told Ghanaians that even though his parents gave him money for his school fees, he gambled with the money to make profit! He could therefore not tell his parents of his predicament. The university stated that some students “invested” fees parents had given them in Soccer-Betting and Uber transport. I n t e r e s t i n g l y, some Ghanaians said the students were simply being entrepreneurial! The gruesome Kasoa killing of an eleven-year old boy by two teenagers for ritual Sakawa purposes for money in April 2021 in still in court. How low we have sunk for the love of money! Emphasising the importance of leadership on a course in 1977, a colleague who was/ is a chief told us, “when fish begins to rot, it starts from the head!” There is the urgent need for leaders to lead by example to stem disrespect, corruption, galamsey and greed/love for money! That way, Ghanaians will save Shakespeare’s “milk-of-humanmercy” from drying-up, and learn from the older generation that, it is good to do good, and not charge a lady for jump-starting her car! Leadership, lead! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up! The writer is former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya & Council Chairman, Family Health University College, Accra. E-mail: dkfrimpong@ yahoo.com
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| AGRIBUSINESS
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
UN Security Council meeting: Agriculture is key to lasting peace and security, FAO says The head of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today called for greater funding for agriculture to ensure there’s available and accessible food in crisis situations, noting that conflict “remains the single greatest driver of hunger.” “My message today is more relevant than before: agriculture is one of the keys to lasting peace and security,” FAO DirectorGeneral QU Dongyu told a UN Security Council debate in New York entitled “Maintenance of International Peace and Security – Conflict and Food Security.” Despite its critical importance, Qu noted that only 8 percent of total funding for the humanitarian food security sector goes to agriculture. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine risks adding to the already rising number of people threatened by food insecurity around the world. In 2021, the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity rose to nearly 193 million, up 40 million from 2020, and is set to increase further this year, according to the Global Report on Food Crises. Afghanistan, Somalia,
South Sudan and Yemen are all facing risks of famine. The latest rise is the result of several factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis. However, conflict remains the single biggest contributor to global hunger. Between 2018 and 2021, the number of people in crisis situations in countries where conflict was the main driver of acute food insecurity increased by 88%, to just over 139 million, Qu said. The war between Russia and Ukraine, two of the world’s biggest suppliers of wheat and sunflower oil, has disrupted exports and logistics and seriously affected food availability. In addition, the increase in energy and fertilizer prices is putting the next global harvest at risk. According to FAO’s latest scenarios, the conflict could increase chronic undernourishment by an additional 18.8 million people by 2023. FAO’s role FAO reached more than 30 million people worldwide with emergency agricultural
assistance and resiliencebuilding programmes in 2021. In Afghanistan, for example, FAO supplied 3 million people with wheat cultivation packages that cost just $160 each and meet the staple cereal requirements for a family of seven for an entire year. In Ethiopia, despite access challenges, the seeds and planting materials provided by FAO and Agriculture Cluster partners allowed local farmers to produce 900,000 tonnes of food – fivetimes more than the humanitarian and commercial food supplies that entered the region. However, severe challenges remain. To prevent the acceleration of acute food insecurity trends in the coming months and years, Qu stressed the importance of expanding food production at the country-level by providing cash and critical inputs for cereal and vegetable production; as well as protecting livestock with treatments, vaccinations, feed and water. “Agrifood supply chains and value chains must be strengthened with the engagement of the public
and private sector in support of smallholder farmers and households,” he said. Qu also called on the global community to allocate new resources to sustain agricultural production in challenging contexts and to invest more in innovation and new technologies, especially in water management, and in more transparent market information systems. “Members urgently need to transform their agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life – leaving no one behind,” QU said. The meeting in New York was chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (the United States is the current holder of the rotating Security Council Presidency) and also saw the participation of UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, David Beasley.
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
| ADVERT
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| NEWS
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
| FEATURE
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Inculcating anti-corruption behaviour in children: Role of parents MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
By Dr Enyonam Canice Kudonoo Gone are the days when children were taught to respect all, be patriotic, work hard, participate in communal activities, as well as offer their time, energies, and talents to build their communities. Erstwhile, during school vacations, children actively participated in voluntary activities where they learned volunteerism — service to humanity and learned the tenets of good behaviour. Parents and the elderly in communities took on the responsibility of ensuring children conform to societal norms by correcting them when they went wrong and/or reporting their deviant behaviours to their parents for further disciplining. The “rod of correction” was effectively used to drive out the folly that lies in the heart of children as indicated in the Holy Scriptures. These actions were taken regardless of family affiliations with the notion of contributing towards building a good society with good citizens. Laziness was frowned upon, parents avoided over pampering and overindulging their children in superfluities that wasted funds and prevented them from gaining life skills. Children were taught to be content as discontentment could lead to greed, covetousness, and theft. Modernity
On the contrary, what do we see in our modern world today? Parents are extremely busy working for money. They leave the home very early and usually, return late, leaving the nurturing of their children in the hands of nannies and schoolteachers. Social media is the trending platform where children learn and practise immorality. Children choose celebrities with questionable morals as their mentors, thereby emulating their corrupt behaviours. Parents who acquired wealth through hard work, dedication, perseverance, and patience tend to indulge their children with the logic that they do not want them to endure hardship like the parents did. They also condone their bad behaviours with the same notion, consequently breeding corrupt attitudes in children, which includes disrespect for people of all walks of life. Modern-day children treat their house helps, security men manning their house gates, and the poor, among others, as inferior beings who do not deserve to be treated with dignity. Discipline In the past, teachers were accorded respect in communities to the extent that parents reported their children to them for correction. Today, teachers are treated with indignity. There have been instances where teachers
who dared to employ corporal punishments as a measure of correction had parents go to the schools to abuse them verbally and physically with society looking on. Interestingly, the same society attributes children’s bad behaviours to the nonperformance of the same teachers they prohibit disciplining their children. On the other hand, teachers have also become apathetic, seeking their own good to the neglect of the good of their students. They often neglect researching new knowledge and novel trends towards the upgrade of their teaching curricula and skills. The teacher’s role of seeing the good in children and helping them grow into productive citizens has been relegated to the background, which needs to be revived. What then must we do to bring to the present the good parental practices of the past, tailor them to address present needs, and start building a better future today? Parents Parents must create an atmosphere in their homes where ground rules are set based on globally accepted norms where children learn to respect other people regardless of age, status, ethnicity, stature and gender, among others. Children must be made to learn how to perform basic chores and, in the process, acquire basic life skills required
for survival. Volunteerism and patriotism are virtues that need to be imbued. Having a selfless spirit that seeks the good of all and ensuring that good is pursued always lays the foundation for character development. Parents must research the past, identify the positives of the past, improve upon them, and inculcate them in their children. Children need to be taught to be content with whatever their parents can afford for them and not envy what their friends’ parents have provided for them. Attention must be paid to ensuring the family income is effectively used to benefit all and not wasted through superfluity. Sharing and caring for each other in the home produces a cord of love that binds families together. Meeting together as a family to share weekly experiences and lessons learned on a designated day or evening creates an atmosphere of belongingness. Establishing good relationships with children makes correcting them easy; hence, facilitating the inculcation of values such as anticorruption behaviours in them. In conclusion, charity, they say begins at home. Parents must play their role to ensure the nurturing of good future citizens. The writer is a lecturer at Ashesi University
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| MARKET REVIEW
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW FOR WEEK ENDING - MAY 13, 2022 MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS Q3, 2021 GDP Growth
7.0%
Average GDP Growth for 2021
5.4%
2022 Projected GDP Growth
5.5%
BoG Policy Rate
17.0%
Weekly Interbank Interest Rate
18.05%
Inflation for February, 2022
23.6%
End Period Inflation Target – 2022
8.0%
Budget Deficit (% GDP) – Dec, 2021
9.7%
2022 Budget Deficit Target (%GDP)
7.4%
Public Debt (billion GH¢) – Dec, 2021
351.8
Debt to GDP Ratio – Dec, 2021
74.4%
STOCK MARKET REVIEW The Ghana Stock Exchange weakened for the week on the back of declines in share prices of 2 counters. The GSE Composite Index (GSE CI) lost 129.11 points (-4.80%) to close at 2,561.83 points, reflecting year-to-date (YTD) loss of 8.16%. The GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE FI) also lost 2.92 points (-0.13%) to close at 2,206.32 points, reflecting year-to-date (YTD) gain of 2.53%. Market capitalization declined by 2.12% to close the week at GH¢62,508.52 million, from GH¢63,859.57 million at the close of the previous week. This reflects YTD decrease of 3.08%. Trading activity registered a total of 631,248,142 shares valued at GH¢580,516,363.55 changing hands, compared with 10,671,215 shares, valued at GH¢10,716,327.61 in the preceding week. MTN dominated both volume and value of trades for the week, accounting for 99.88% and 99.87% of volume and value of shares traded respectively. The market ended the week with 1 leader and 2 laggards as indicated on the table below.
THE CURRENCY MARKET The Cedi marginally depreciated against the USD for the week. It traded at GH¢7.1163/$, compared with GH¢7.1132/$ at week open, reflecting w/w and YTD depreciations of 0.04% and 15.60% respectively. This compares with YTD appreciation of 0.51% a year ago. The Cedi appreciated against the GBP for the fourth consecutive week. It traded at GH¢8.7022/£, compared with GH¢8.7859/£ at week open, reflecting w/w appreciation and YTD depreciation of 0.96% and 6.61% respectively. This compares with YTD depreciation of 2.51% a year ago. The Cedi also appreciated against the Euro for the week. It traded at GH¢7.4001/€, compared with GH¢7.5280/€ at week open, reflecting w/w appreciation and YTD depreciation of 1.73% and 7.73% respectively. This compares with YTD appreciation of 1.57% a year ago. The Cedi further appreciated against the Canadian Dollar for the week. It opened at GH¢5.5235/C$ but closed at GH¢5.4975/C$, reflecting w/w appreciation and YTD depreciation of 0.47% and 13.75% respectively. This compares with YTD depreciation of 4.28% a year ago.
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
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| MARKET REVIEW
BUSINESS TERM OF THE WEEK
COMMODITY MARKET Crude oil prices rose up again on Friday but registered a third successive weekly loss on concerns that global demand will be hit by subdued economic growth. Brent futures traded at US$111.55 a barrel on Friday, compared to US$113.12 at week open. This reflects w/w loss and YTD gains of 1.39% and 43.42% respectively. Gold prices plunged for the week on the back of a resurgent dollar which scaled fresh 20-year highs. Gold settled at US$1,808.20, from US$1,883.50 last week, reflecting w/w and YTD decline of 4.00% and 1.12% respectively. Prices of Cocoa inched up for the week. The commodity traded at US$2,483.00 per tonne on Friday, from US$2,471.00 last week, reflecting w/w gain and YTD loss of 0.49% and 1.47% respectively.
GOVERNMENT SECURITIES MARKET Government raised a sum of GH¢1,248.67 million for the week across the 91-Day, 182-Day and 364-Day Treasury Bills. This compared with GH¢2,130.58 million raised in the previous week. The 91-Day Bill settled at 18.23% p.a from 17.88% p.a. last week whilst the 182-Day Bill settled at 19.26% p.a from 18.81% p.a. last week. The 364-Day Treasury Bill settled at 21.55% p.a from 20.65% p.a last week. The table and graph below highlight primary market yields at close of the week.
INTERNTIONAL COMMODITIES PRICES
Price Skimming: Price skimming is a product pricing strategy by which a firm charges the highest initial price that customers will pay and then lowers it over time. As the demand of the first customers is satisfied and competition enters the market, the firm lowers the price to attract another, more price-sensitive segment of the population. The skimming strategy gets its name from “skimming” successive layers of cream, or customer segments, as prices are lowered over time. Source: https://www.investopedia.com/ terms/p/priceskimming.asp
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CORPORATE INFORMATION CIDAN Investments Limited CIDAN House Plot No. 169 Block 6 Haatso, North Legon – Accra Tel: +233 (0) 26171 7001/ 26 300 3917 Fax: +233 (0)30 254 4351 Email: info@cidaninvestmens.com Website: www.cidaninvestments.com Disclaimer The contents of this report have been prepared to provide you with general information only. Information provided on and available from this report does not constitute any investment recommendation. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources that we believe to be reliable, but its accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed.
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NO. B24/317 | NEWS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
Lassa Fever Outbreak: GHS directs health facilities to always test suspected cases The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has directed health facilities nationwide to send suspected cases of Lassa Fever to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research for investigation. The directive followed a report received by the Service on outbreaks of Lassa Fever in some countries in the West Africa subregion - Liberia, Nigeria, and Togo. The step, according to a statement from the Service, signed by its Director General, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, had become necessary given the proximity of the affected countries both geographically and through travel. “… it is important that heightened surveillance is implemented to ensure the prompt identification and appropriate investigation of any suspected case,” it said. Lassa Fever is caused by the Lassa virus transmitted from Mastomys rats to humans
primarily through food or items contaminated with the rat faeces or urine. Human-to-human transmission can also occur to a lesser extent in instances of direct contact with body fluids, blood, and secretions of infected individuals. In line with the 3rd Edition
of Ghana’s Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) Strategy, the statement said the following case definitions were to be applied in suspecting and investigating for Lassa Fever. They were illness with gradual onset with one or more of the following – malaise, fever,
headache, sore throat, cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, myalgia, chest pain, hearing loss and a history of contact with excreta of rodents or with a case of Lassa Fever. A suspected case that was laboratory confirmed (positive IgM antibody, PCR, or virus isolation) or epidemiologically linked to a laboratory confirmed case, was considered as a confirmed case of Lassa Fever, the statement said. “All suspected cases of Lassa Fever should be investigated in line with protocols outlined in Ghana’s IDSR Technical Guidelines with strict adherence to infection prevention and control protocols,” it said. The statement admonished the Chief Executive Officers or leadership of the various regional health facilities to bring the directive to the notice of all relevant staff in their respective regions and facilities.
VP Bawumia commiserates with UAE leader in Abu Dhabi The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has called on new UAE leader, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi to commiserate with him and the people of the UAE, following the death of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE. The Vice President, earlier in the week signed a book of condolence at the residence of the UAE Ambassador in Accra, and also led a government delegation to the United Arab Emirates to convey a special message on behalf of President Akufo-Addo and the people of Ghana. At the meeting, Dr. Bawumia expressed condolences to the new ruler, the Nahyan family and the people of UAE for the loss of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, whom the Vice President spoke about in
glowing terms, and described his death as a great loss. Dr. Bawumia also used the occasion to congratulate Sheikh Mohammed on his assumption of office as the new President of the UAE. Ghana and the UAE enjoy great relationship and the meeting also discussed strengthening of ties and cooperation between the two countries. Present at the meeting included Dubai Crown Prince, His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and Deputy Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Ghana’s delegation included Deputy Chief of Staff Fawaz Aliu, Ghana’s Ambassador to the UAE Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan and Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Kweku Ampratwum Sarpong.
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