Business24 Newspaper 23rd October, 2020 by Business24 Online

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FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

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FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

Ghana’s nontraditional exports to ECOWAS jump 12.8 percent T

BoG makes strong case for womencentric financial products By Patrick Paintsil p_paintsil@hotmail.com

he second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi, has challenged banks to design financial products that are suited to the peculiar needs of women entrepreneurs to fully harness their contribution to the creation of jobs and wealth for national growth. Cont’d on page 3

UK Export Finance to increase investments in Ghana Source: GEPA

By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

hana’s non-traditional exports (NTEs) to the ECOWAS market increased by 12.8 percent in 2019, data from the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) have revealed. In 2019 Ghana exported US$836.51m worth of NTEs to the ECOWAS market, consisting mainly of manufactured products. The

earnings represented 28.9 percent of the country’s total NTE receipts. NTE exports to the ECOWAS region recorded US$741.66m in 2018 and US$617.24m in 2017. GEPA associated the rise in exports with the implementation of the ECOWAS protocol on originating industrial products, which allows products manufactured within the bloc to enjoy duty-

ECONOMIC INDICATORS EXCHANGE RATE (INT. RATE)

free and quota-free access to the internal market. The protocol, known as the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, has given a major boost to Ghana’s export of manufactured products to ECOWAS, the authority asserted. As of 2019 there were about 625 manufacturing companies with more than 1,000 products registered under the scheme.

BRENT CRUDE $/BARREL

POLICY RATE

14.5%

NATURAL GAS $/MILLION BTUS

GHANA REFERENCE RATE

15.12%

GOLD $/TROY OUNCE

OVERALL FISCAL DEFICIT

11.4% OF GDP

PROJECTED GDP GROWTH RATE AVERAGE PETROL & DIESEL PRICE:

0.9% GHC 5.13

K Export Finance (UKEF), the UK government’s export credit agency, has placed its market risk appetite for Ghana at £1.5bn, which should support more investment and trade between the two countries, the West Africa regional representative of UKEF, Steve Gray, has said.

Cont’d on page 2 INTERNATIONAL MARKET

USD$1 =GHC 5.7027

By Eugene Davis ugendavis@gmail.com

CORN $/BUSHEL COCOA $/METRIC TON COFFEE $/POUND:

Cont’d on page 3 Follow us online:

$41.26 2.622 1,922.57 329.50 $2,339.27 $109.65

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NEWS/EDITORIAL Editorial / News

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14 2020 2020

EDITORIAL Editorial

Pay before boarding order needs a rethink

Women entrepreneurs need access to finance

The new directive for all condition for boarding of flights country� s COVID-19 testing passengers to pay for their to KIA.” regime. COVID-19 test online before their T h e n e w d i re c t ive , h a s The CPA� s Chief Executive arrival at Kotoka International however, been described by Officer, Kofi Kapito, said in as Airport has been meet with airlines as detrimental to the much as the government want to resentment by airlines and renewed efforts to stimulate curb imported cases of the passengers. demand for air travel, given that respiratory disease, it must not omen may generally the needs of women. entrepreneurs with mentoring At a time when passengers are cash payments remains the burden the passenger but charge do as much work as This paper is pleased to hear and is enough businessto cover nurturing their still coming to terms with the predominant mode of payment what men 900� but they often the BankGhanaian of Ghana is leading cost opportunities. for most travelers. and not to profit from the US$150 � GHC mandatory payment testdone. upon theAneffort earn less for for COVID-19 same work to promote The Second Deputy Governor airline operatorgender who passenger. arrival at KIA, the new directive wishes to remain anonymous, “Look aroundbank AfricaMrs. and Elsie you When it comes to the informal inclusive financial services of the central has generated more debate. told Business24 that “The cost is see that what is paid in Ghana sector, a lot more businesses are with an exercise to solicit Addo Awadzi speaking at for the Passengers travelling to Ghana already too high and now this the test is the highest. Why owned by Tuesday, women who struggle launchthat of be�the product said new policy is data also from going banks to be should ” will from September 15 demographic to capital boostonline their set for the severity of harm done imp l eJanuary m e n t e next d . Tyear h e rto e assist a r e with beaccess required to tomake He also raised questions about hundreds of Ghanaian traders payments for the mandatory businesses. the bank’s decision-making why by the pandemic thecoronavirus Noguchi Memorial who travel to buy goods to retail Institute CO D - 1 9 with, t e s t research a t K o t ohas k a efforts. ToV Istart to informal businesses, Absa for Medical Research of International Airport prior to in the country. the University ofhandy Ghana, was not revealed that nearly 70 percent But even before the central Emerge comes as it would boarding of their flight, a “Most of them don� carry any made handle testing forthe a of completes its t initiative, go a to long way the to alleviate d iwomen r e c t i ventreprenuers e b y F r o do n t not i e r bank electronic payment cards to be reasonable fee but rather a H ebank a l t h Caccounts. a r e � t h e Indeed, c o m p a 85 n y Absa of a product pain that women have amid able tohas paylaunched online. They should contract given to a felt foreign contracted to carry out the percent of private jobs are SMEs that should bring good news to the pandemic. have the flexibility to pay cash company to do what Noguchi antigen test at KIA--to all airlines when they arrive.” could adequately handle. which contribute 70percent of women business owners. This paper believes that Absa’s on Friday has revealed. The Absa Consumer Protection Business24 likethe to urge Ghana’s GDP, half of which are The Emerge has seen the product is a would step in right B y t h e n e w d i r e c t i v e , Agency � CPA� has also raised a flexible approach that allows owned by women. to bridge the gender gap direction but considering how “Passengers are required to show need critical questions about the passengers to either pay online This means that the majority in access finance for women many women entrepreneurs are proof of payment to airlines as a relativelytohigh cost of the or cash on arrival. of women entreprenuers are with bespoke offerings that out there, their efforts would missing out of the potential to address both the financial and need to be complemented by seek financing to unlock their non-financial needs of women other financial institutions. businesses’ potential. This entrepreneurs to drive their Even as we wait for the other CONTINUED FROM COVER problem is not helped by the growth and productivity. financial institutions to except that the desired outcomes are outbreak had transformed their structures to the new way of fact there are not many financial The Absa Emerge is designed theteam challenge, Business24 would achieved and the economy operations, the bank chiefs working in order to maximise products out there tailored to to address the needs of women like to say Ayekoo to Absa. brought back on track.” responded that the immediate efficiencies of digital banking, Mr. Awuah� s remarks were response was to enforce remote and ensure less-paper operations reinforced by majority of the top working while realigning workers� and requirements for social distancing. In the long run, these bank executives who responded roles. measures may result in possible While the majority, 69 percent, to the survey. The respondents layoffs for some whose jobs of respondents indicated that advised the Bank of Ghana to increase stakeholder consultation remote working will become a become automated,” the report in order to propose more permanent option going forward, said. Commenting on the findings of there was general consensus that beneficial policies. the new norm will ultimately lead the survey, which was on the This, they said, will help ECOWAS marketofisworkers the secondThe African Continental Free “The new normal� banks� whose theme Continued from cover and extent to the shedding estimate the timelines response to (AfCFTA), COVID-19”, which PwC� s jobs havefor become automated. largest Ghana’s NTEs, Trade Area to which the policies of the Country Senior Partner, “ M o s t b a n k s i n t e n d t o is The ECOWAS market available. still has with Burkina Faso, Togo will kick off in January 2021,Vish regulator will remain Ashiagbor, cautioned that for permanently incorporate remote Senegal as the top three expected to boost intra-African an untapped Som e r e s p opotential n d e n t s sworth i m p l y and working as an option available to workers that survive the digital destinations. with leading economies thoughtUS$518m that therefor was the need staff based on their roles. 12.5� of trade, about Ghanaian p ro g re s s i o n , t hey h ave to for detailed Exports to Burkina Ghanatheir projected exporters to guidelines explore. from the banks upgrade skills to to realise remain confirmed that theyFaso have like government and Bank of Ghana US$217.57m 2019, net positive trade gains and With a population of recorded relevant. already begun and willincontinue on the implement ation of to realign the job roles and Togo US$199.59m, andwork to improvements in welfare about 370 million and a GDP to measures put in place to curb the Senegal US$85.24m. through the initiative. estimated US$615bn, the impact of theatpandemic.

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COVID-19: Banks deferred GH¢3bn in loan repayments

Ghana’s non-traditional exports to ECOWAS jump 12.8 percent

In their view, clear guidance was missing, and though this could be shared during stakeholder consultation, they could not fully embed the new policies in operational strategy without a detailed documented directive. Post-pandemic banking When asked by the audit firm about how the pandemic� s

Source: GEPA

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FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

BoG makes strong case for women-centric financial products Continued from cover “Despite their immense contribution to job and wealth creation, women entrepreneurs lack access to finance with only 31 percent of women owning bank accounts, according to research. This means that a lot of economic activities are going outside the sector and yet they don’t have access to credit; this is actually an opportunity that must be explored by the banking sector to drive economic transformation,” she said. Mrs. Addo Awadzi who was speaking at the launch of Absa Emerge, a womencentric product by pan-African bank, said the central bank is poised on improving access to gender inclusive financial services, with an exercise to solicit demographic data from

banks set for January next year to assist the bank’s decisionmaking efforts. She said most formal businesses in the agro, textiles and hospitality sectors are largely driven by women in addition to driving the informal sector. The lack of access to capital, she said, hinders their overall impact on the economy and to livelihoods. “Women contribute immensely to the nation’s development as they dominate the entrepreneurial space. Eighty-five percent of private jobs are SMEs which contribute 70 percent of Ghana’s GDP, half of which are owned by women,” she further underscored. With the severity of harm done by the coronavirus pandemic to informal businesses, Mrs. Awadzi indicated that Absa Emerge comes handy as it

would go a long way to alleviate the pain that women have felt amid the pandemic. “This is a momentous milestone in Ghana’s banking industry; women, especially those in informal businesses, have been mostly affected by the pandemic largely because most of them had no bank account. With this product, Absa has not only seen the need to bridge the gender gap in access to finance for women but with bespoke offerings that address both the financial and non-financial needs of women entrepreneurs to drive their growth and productivity,” she noted. According to Business Banking Director at Absa Grace Anim-Yeboah, the Absa Emerge has been carefully designed to address the needs of women entrepreneurs with mentoring

and business nurturing opportunities. It seeks to empower womenled businesses for sustained financial growth, guarantee excellence customers service and expand business network, with free financial and business advisory services as well the chance to participate in international business trips. “This is a solution that truly helps women entrepreneurs to balance it all. As a forwardlooking bank, Absa sees the gaps in access to finance for women as an opportunity to promote inclusion and unlock economic growth for women. “Today, we are deepening our commitment to shaping role in our society, helping to create a brighter future for Ghana,” Ms. Anim-Yeboah, said in her remarks.

UK Export Finance to increase investments in Ghana Continued from cover Market risk appetite is the willingness of investors to bear financial risk, with the expectation of generating a potential profit. Speaking at a virtual seminar on Doing Business with Ghana under the auspices of the UKGhana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC), Mr. Gray stated that his agency is keen to support any viable export business from the UK to Ghana. UKEF support falls broadly into two categories: support for overseas buyers and support for UK exporters. Support for overseas buyers involves providing attractive financing terms for overseas buyers of UK goods and services, while support for UK exporters entails providing protection against the risk of nonpayment by an overseas buyer, helping to raise bonds required

Steve Gray is upbeat about investment opportunities in Ghana.

under an export contract, and granting assistance to satisfy working capital requirements. He said UKEF’s supplier

credit guarantee supports the purchase of capital goods and services worth $0.5m-U$20m by Ghanaian companies.

To qualify for the credit, he urged companies to ensure good corporate governance and transparency as well as good management of their accounts. The CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant, said government has set aside GH₵600m to support SMEs and also offered guarantees to enable large businesses raise financing to revamp their enterprises. He said government has set up incubation centres across the country to support SMEs and aims to formalise all businesses. The Doing Business with Ghana seminar was held to showcase the opportunities for investment and address the challenges that UK businesses face in doing business with Ghana.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

News

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

NBSSI set to launch additional fund for SMEs By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

he National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) will at the end of this month launch an additional fund to provide support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) battling the effects of COVID-19, the Executive Director of NBSSI, Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh revealed. Mrs. Yankey-Ayeh made this known during the Accra Regional Annual General Meeting of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI). The Executive Director mentioned that at the end of this month, NBSSI in collaboration with the World Bank will launch a US$20 million SME High Growth Fund, which is aimed to further sustain the SMEs sector amid the difficult times created by the pandemic. The fund is expected add up to the already existing and disbursed funds to the sector during the pandemic. Further to this, Mrs. YankeyAyeh confirmed that so far,

the NBSSI has successfully disbursed about GH¢400 million out of the GH¢750 million Coronavirus Alleviation Programme Business Support Scheme (CAP BuSS) to 200,000 applicants. However, she noted that the beneficiaries were selected out

of about 800,000 applications, who received between GH¢900 and GH¢250,000 under the Anidaso and Adom special loans. These businesses cut across sectors such as healthcare and pharmaceutical, manufacturing, agric and agri-business, water and sanitation, tourism and hospitality, education, textiles and garments, commerce, and

Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, Executive Director, NBSSI

Vivo Energy demonstrates the need for continuous safety improvement

ivo Energy, the panAfrican retailer and marketer of Shell and Engen-branded fuels and lubricants, has held its annual Safety Day, reinforcing the importance of Health, Safety, Security, Environment & Quality (HSSEQ) at Vivo Energy. Safety Day is an opportunity for all employees and contractors at Vivo Energy to refocus on the importance of HSSEQ. The theme of this year’s event: “Safety: Action Matters”, invited employees and teams to look back at why safety is important to them and explain how they have changed behaviours, systems and processes to improve HSSE in their workplace. In July, Christian Chammas, the Group CEO, invited all employees to submit examples of safety improvement initiatives. Nearly 400 entries were submitted, demonstrating how much Vivo Energy employees care about safety.

service. The CAP BuSS is a special fund set up by the government to cushion micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Initially, government set up the special fund with a seed capital of GH¢600 million and subsequently made an addition of GH¢150 million.

The leadership teams from each of Vivo Energy’s markets then selected the best example of safety improvement from their own country, and these have been showcased and shared across to Group to demonstrate how Action Matters in safety, encouraging colleagues to adopt these HSSEQ improvement initiatives in their own markets. Commenting on Safety Day, Grant Bairstow, Head of HSSEQ for the Vivo Energy Group said: “Safety is an integral and essential part of everything we do at Vivo Energy and remains an absolute priority across the business for our staff and contractors. Given many employees have been working from home as a result of COVID-19, and have spent less time in the workplace, it is particularly important for Safety Day 2020 to engage employees on HSSEQ matters.” In addition to employees sharing their safety improvement initiatives, each market has

developed a programme of activities to remind their employees to focus on HSSEQ, culminating in physical and virtual events this week. The Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana, Ben Hassan Ouattara added: “Our ultimate ambition as a Company, is to achieve a world-class safety culture, where HSSE is fully integrated into the ways of working for all staff and contractors at Vivo Energy. Whilst safety is embedded across the company our annual Safety Day provides a moment for all our teams to stop; reflect on how action matters; and ensure we are doing everything we can to achieve our aim of ‘Goal Zero’ – no harm to people and minimising our impact on the environment.” As at End September 2020, Vivo Energy had achieved 4238 Goal Zero days and the company hopes to end the year without any major recordable incident.

Vivo Energy’s first priority has, and always will be, the health and safety of our people, our customers, and the communities where we operate – a priority made more challenging by the impact of COVID-19 across the world this year. Commenting on Vivo Energy’s HSSEQ response to COVID-19, Bairstow concluded: “At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we acted quickly and decisively, implementing a range of preventive and protective health and safety measures across Vivo Energy. As a supplier of essential products in our markets, we maintained supply at both our retail sites and to commercial customers. We continue to ensure that the appropriate personal protective equipment is available and that stringent additional screening, cleaning procedures and facilities continue at our sites and depots to limit the risk of infection.” Vivo Energy continues to work hard to achieve its HSSEQ goals in order to make continued progress in becoming Africa’s most respected energy business.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

Feature

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

The sherrif security indicator By Sherrif Issah Background As an Information Security Professional, I have taken a keen interest and followed closely the global reports of the Unisys Security Index (USI), for the past 4 years. Findings from the past few years have been very intriguing and insightful. The USI researches into the most critical security issues faced by people around the world (excluding African countries). It does so by asking respondents in online surveys to indicate their level of concern about 8 different security threats. The 8 security threats are bankcard fraud, disaster/ epidemic, financial obligations, identity theft, national security, online transactions, personal safety, and viruses/hacking. The last 4 reports (2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020) have seen identity theft and bankcard fraud top the list (extreme concern to the respondents) in 1st and 2nd positions, respectively. Personal safety has also been at the bottom of the chart (8th position) for 3 consecutive years, except in 2020, when it moved to 5th position due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Disaster/Epidemic has always been within the last 3 positions (6th – 8th) for 2017, 2018, and 2019, except in 2020 when it moved to the 3rd position due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Detail findings of the past 4 reports can be found in table 1. With the level of consistency in the findings of the past 4 reports, I have always been pondering whether the findings can be generalized: especially in the case of Africa and Ghana in particular. In order to answer this question, I was highly motivated to conduct similar research in Ghana, termed: The Sherrif Security Indicator (TSSI). Thus, TSSI is the Ghana version of the USI.

Table 1: USI findings from 2017-2020

of the 8 underlisted factors poses the greatest danger or harm to you?” The factors were bankcard fraud, disaster/epidemic, identity theft, inability to meet financial obligations, national security, online transaction fraud, personal safety, and malware/ hacking. The survey commenced on 28th August 2020 and was closed on 20th September 2020. The result from the survey was automatically analysed by Microsoft forms. It must be noted that, contrary to USI, no demographic data were collected as part of this study. Results Out of the 256 respondents, majority of them indicated that bankcard fraud and personal safety were of extreme importance to them. Bankcard fraud and personal safety were ranked 1st and 2nd respectively. The respondents were least concerned about online transaction fraud and malware/ hacking; which were ranked 7th and 8th respectively. Figure 1 shows the detailed findings. It must be noted that, the details in figure 1 concentrate on the

Methodology The maiden version of the TSSI (v.1.20) was conducted via an online survey. The survey was designed with Microsoft forms and shared with persons resident in Ghana via WhatsApp. Out of the over 1,000 persons targeted for this study, 256 responses were received. The respondents were asked, “which

Figure 1: Findings from TSSI v1.20

responses that pose the greatest danger to the respondents. Analysis Although numerous analysis can be drawn from the findings; especially in juxtaposition with the USI, this article concentrates on a few of them. The findings indicate that bankcard fraud and personal safety pose the greatest threats to the majority of the respondents, whilst malware/ hacking and online transaction fraud are of least concern to the respondents. The respondents’ view on identity theft is in sharp contrast with all the findings of USI. Identity theft has been topping the USI findings for 4 consecutive years but finds itself in the 6th position in TSSI. The vast disparity between the top 2 and the last 2 factors clearly demonstrates the magnitude of the respondents’ concerns. Since the last 3 (6th, 7th, and 8th) factors: identity theft, online transaction fraud, and malware/ hacking respectively, are all information/cyber security related threats; it can be deduced that; majority of the respondents consider information/cyber security as least concern to them.

Conclusion The views of persons resident in Ghana on the 8 security threats are at variance with all the USI findings. The influence of COVID-19 on the TSSI findings may not be significant. As the majority of respondents regard bankcard fraud as the greatest security threat to them, financial institutions need to ensure the security of payment cards. This can be achieved by conducting continuous awareness for customers, and implementing the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS); in line with the Bank of Ghana Cyber and Information Security Directive. My sincere appreciation goes to all the respondents in TSSI, and Unisys Corporation for its consistent effort in sharing knowledge with the world through the USI. Author: Sherrif Issah – (IT GRC Consultant | PCI-QSA | Trainer @ Digital Jewels Ltd. | Editorial Board Member, Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana) For comments, contact author mysherrif@gmail.com | Mobile: +233243835912

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

Feature

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

Are virtual events a threat to conference tourism? Part 1 By Philip Gebu

he new normal is bringing a lot of changes into our society and the way things are done. Change is inevitable and no society has remained static. I remember attending a symposium addressed by Professor Nii Quaynor. He said some twenty year ago, when he pioneered the establishment of the internet in Ghana, many people never believed we will be where we are today. The good old professor is known as “Africa’s father of the internet. He has been at the forefront of web development across Africa. Through his great works today, he has become the first African to be elected to the board of ICANN, the internet corporation for assigned names and numbers. He’s also played an important part in launching the African Network Operators Group and AfriNIC, the African internet numbers registry. He has also been inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame, lauded as an instrumental figure “in the early design and development of the internet.” Thanks to the good work of the Professor we are enjoying the internet and all the benefits it brings to our lives and business. What’s app today is a well-known app in Ghana used by many to connect with friends, colleagues and business partners. This is one of the many apps that are downloaded and used through the internet. The revolution has been enormous and as predicted, technology is going to ensure many jobs and businesses are cut out of the system. With the 5th generation mobile network, 5G enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices. 5G wireless technology is meant to deliver higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds, ultra-low latency, more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, and a more uniform user experience to more users. Higher performance and improved efficiency empower new user experiences and connects new industries. Last week I joined a virtual meeting organized by the Ghana Mission in the UK. I must say it was a very well organised meeting and even though I couldn’t see the number of participants online, I still believe it was well patronized. I was due to attend a convention in the US but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was held virtually and was a great success. Nowadays, plenty of business is done virtually. Our historic mindset around conferences is that we board a plane to a conference, bring our business cards, and prepare ourselves for a week of keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and networking events that enable us to spread the word about our own products and services, while collaborating with other marketers

who might have useful tools or suggestions of their own. We all have been used to physical meetings and interactions, however in recent time since the advent of the COVID-19, many meetings are being held virtually which could be a bid threat to conference tourism which has been held physically in the near past. Participants had to purchase tickets, book accommodation and after the conference mostly partake in some tours. However, with virtual conference gaining grounds, many participants may not eventually travel and that could post a big threat to hoteliers. Let us not think this cannot be and believe that, when COVID-19 is no more, everything will return to normal. Some things have become the new normal and will remain as such. Just as the internet revolution was deemed not to be possible some twenty years back, it has happened and is changing our lives today. The earlier hoteliers begin planning and diversifying their investments, the better it will be for them. What are virtual events Virtual events, in its simplest definition, are events held online. Virtual events use web-based platforms to connect dozens to thousands of attendees from across the globe and often include interactive engagement features such as polling, Q&A, chat boxes, etc. Some of the top virtual event providers include Digitell, Evia, Intrado, ON24, Zoom, GoToMeeting and more. In 2020, there will likely be a rise of virtual conferences. Virtual conference benefits There are plenty of major benefits to hosting a virtual conference. For one, it can lower the price of admission, enabling smaller businesses with limited budgets to purchase tickets to your conference and offer their own unique insights. It also lowers the cost your business would have to pay for conference space, on-hand staff, catering, security, and much more. Additionally, it allows people from across the globe to interact with each other without needing to spend exorbitant amounts on flights and hotels. Imagine how much easier it is for marketers from India, Ireland, Australia, and the U.S. to collaborate virtually, rather than trying to gather inperson. It also may help you attract high-demand speakers who don’t have the time to commit to an inperson conference, but are happy to share industry takeaways via a quick video call or pre-recorded presentation. Additionally, an online conference enables you to create a product — recordings from your conference — that you can continue to share and use as a lead generation tool for months and years after the initial live launch. And, finally, there’s the obvious: sometimes unforeseen

circumstances can make in-person conferences in certain locations simply impossible. Emily Raleigh, HubSpot’s Marketing Manager of Brand and Strategic Partnerships, provides some advice if you suddenly find yourself shifting your in-person event to a virtual one: “If you are shifting from a live event, try to add extra value to the viewers who are now tuning in online. Do an extra session. Offer more Q&A time. Give an extra special offer. Find creative ways to add extra delight moments.” Additionally, Raleigh mentions, “Virtual events can easily lose one of the best benefits of live events: human connection. To mitigate that, keep the event engaging and get the audience involved.” Indisputably one of the greatest beneficiaries of the online migration of conferences has been the environment. A recent review estimated that the amount of carbon dioxide generated by each researcher through conference travel ranges from 0.5 to 2 metric tons. Staggeringly, the total carbon footprint of the world’s estimated 7.8 million researchers each traveling to one conference a year is equivalent to that of some small nations. In contrast, organizers of two fully virtual conferences in the U.S. estimated that their total carbon emissions were less than 1 percent of a traditional “fly-in” event. Leveling the Field Relocating conferences online has also made them accessible to a larger and more diverse audience. Traveling and prolonged home absence have long raised problems for people with children or disabilities. Similarly, financial and visa restrictions prevent many from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and specific countries from attending international meetings. Removing these barriers associated with travel has instantly rendered many conferences more inclusive. While the 2019 European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna attracted just over 16,200 participants, the online 2020 General Assembly registered over 26,000 individual users. Since virtual conferences scale much better than in-person counterparts, it has been relatively easy to accommodate all these extra attendees. To kindle social interactions amongst participants scattered across continents and time zones, conferences are bringing new apps into play. “Braindate” and “Brella” match profiles uploaded by attendees and suggest private video conferences to discuss shared interests. Such matchmaking apps not only reintroduce the networking opportunities sought by conferencegoers but may even lower the barrier for more introverted or junior members to reach out to the superstars in their field.

Other conference organizers have been using the ability of online platforms to randomly split participants into groups to foster more mixing, rather than watching attendees automatically gravitate towards renowned names. Behind the Scenes Conference moderators are also finding other silver linings to the virtual format, which have opened up new possibilities in panel discussion and Q&A sessions. At the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, held online this year in April, attendees were asked to vote in real time on questions submitted through a chat channel. Aside from improving the wording and airing of more insightful questions, this also drew a larger audience into actively participating throughout the discussion sessions. Panel discussions can also be better controlled in online conferences. Professor Russ Altman, one of the chairs of the Stanford University–organized COVID-19 and AI Virtual Conference in April, revealed that messaging between moderators on a separate channel helped finesse discussions in real time. “For example, we had one panelist who we thought was contributing a little bit too much,” he said. Through a “backchannel conversation” moderators jointly decided to ask questions that would engage the other, less vocal panelists. The above reiterate the fact that things are changing and many people are accepting the change. This are all part of the new world order, the internet of things and so on. as we explore the possible effect on the future of conference tourism most especially to our hoteliers in Ghana, I will be glad to hear from you and also provide your views to this increasing change sweeping over the world. Philip Gebu is a Tourism Lecturer. He is the C.E.O of FoReal Destinations Ltd, a Tourism Destinations Management and Marketing Company based in Ghana and with partners in many other countries. Please contact Philip with your comments and suggestions. Write to forealdestinations@gmail. com / info@forealdestinations. com. Visit our website at www.forealdestinations. com or call or WhatsApp +233(0)244295901/0264295901. Visist our social media sites Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: FoReal Destinations.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

News

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

Ofori-Atta pleads with rich countries to extend suspension debt servicing By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

inance Minister Ken OforiAtta is calling on rich countries to consider extending the moratorium on debt servicing from poorer countries. Mr. Ofori-Atta made this call as he ended his tenure as chairman of the joint ministerial committee of the boards of governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Finance Minister urged the G-20 countries to not only extend their Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) by two years, but also re-examine the scheme. Stressing the importance of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) in giving fiscal space to economies, the Minister said: “since its endorsement, many of the poorest countries

Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister

have worked closely with official bilateral creditors. The moratorium has been a critical liquidity intervention to save much needed resources to tackle the crisis before us.” “The crisis is threatening to

reverse years of development gains and throw hundreds of millions of people back into poverty,” the Minister asserted. To help developing countries deal with the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,

the G20 launched the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which freezes low-income countries’ external debt service payments to official bilateral creditors until the end of 2020. The Minister explained that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a tipping point where critical action must be taken to avert imminent disaster. “A lot has been said within the last eight months about what is upon us and what needs to be done to ensure a just and inclusive recovery for all; but a lot more needs to be done,” he added. The pandemic has resulted in the largest global economic contraction of the last eight decades, overwhelming health systems, disrupted productivity, exacerbated job losses, reduced incomes, and threatens global food security particularly for the most vulnerable.

President of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana honoured for exceptional service

he U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recognized the contribution of Professor Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, President of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana, to the work in sickle cell disease. On 14th October, Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department, Admiral Dr. Brett P. Giroir, awarded him the Assistant Secretary of Health Exceptional Service Medal during a meeting of the Sickle Cell Disease Global Coalition Steering Committee. Prof. Ohene-Frempong is the first civilian recipient of the Assistant Secretary of Health Exceptional Service Medal. The award signifies the outstanding contribution of Professor Ohene-Frempong on behalf of the many people living with sickle cell disease across the world. The civilian medal is awarded for exceptional achievement to the cause of public health and medicine, and it is the highest civilian award from the Public Health Service which includes all health divisions of the Department of Health and Human Services. In accepting the Award, Prof. Ohene-Frempong said “I am humbled by this award and accept it as an encouragement to

continue our work on behalf of people with sickle cell disease. This award is very meaningful not only because it recognizes our work, but especially because it brings attention to people affected by a global disease that deserves more recognition and increased support. Although the public health and personal issues of sickle cell disease remain inadequately addressed in many countries especially in Africa, increasing organizational support and interest in development of new medicines and cure continue to give hope to people with sickle cell disease and their families”. He expressed his appreciation for the award saying, “I am grateful to Admiral Dr. Brett Giroir for this Award and I humbly accept it on behalf my mentors, colleagues, and people with sickle cell disease and their families who have taught me and contributed to any success achieved. The ASH Exceptional Service Medal will encourage me to pursue further our mission to improve the health and save lives of people with sickle cell disease”. Presenting the award, Admiral Dr. Brett P. Giroir stated “Prof. Ohene- Frempong deserves this award many times over. I want this award to bring light to his singular

Professor Kwaku Ohene-Frempong

accomplishments as a physician, scientist, and humanitarian, but also to the cause of people living with sickle cell disease around the world. His diligent advocacy, clinical expertise and visionary leadership serve as an inspiration for the Global Coalition and the sickle cell community”. Prof. Ohene-Frempong has served on many professional organizations, boards, and committees dedicated to finding a cure for sickle cell disease. He conducted important research including the first multi-center clinical trial of hydroxyurea therapy in children with sickle cell disease in the United States. He developed the first public

health programme for screening newborns for sickle cell disease in Africa. With assistance from the Brazilian Government, this was scaled up into a national programme. In 2010, Ghana launched the National Newborn Screening for Sickle Cell Disease with Professor Ohene-Frempong as the Programme Coordinator. He is now Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, and Director Emeritus of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is also President of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana and a founding member of the Global Sickle Cell Disease Network.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

Feature

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

Africa’s WTO moment

By Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu

he selection of the World Trade Organization’s next director-general has entered its final phase, with two candidates left in the running: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance and economy minister and a former managing director of the World Bank, and Yoo Myung-hee, South Korea’s trade minister. In view of the WTO’s current challenges, Okonjo-Iweala is the better choice. The WTO faces two major crises: an institutional crisis caused by the great-power rivalry between the United States and China, and a crisis of globalization – of which the WTO, as the overseer of global trade rules, is a major symbol. Sino-American trade tensions have paralyzed the organization, with the US blocking the appointment of new judges to its appellate body, which rules on trade disputes among member countries. Moreover, the COVID-19 crisis, another source of great-power tension, has prompted many firms to consider reshoring production in order to reduce their reliance on pandemic-hit Chinese suppliers, thus disrupting the global supply chains that are critical to world trade. If chosen to head the WTO, Okonjo-Iweala has the leadership credentials to restore relevance to a broken organization. The WTO needs a tested global leader who is well versed in the role of trade in development, rather than a trade bureaucrat who might lack the broader view. With her experience at the World Bank (where the US and China are major players) and as a reformist finance minister in Nigeria, the Harvard

and MIT-educated Okonjo-Iweala has a rare combination of political leadership skills and proven technocratic competence. The WTO needs a leader who can build consensus, because the organization’s design doesn’t allow for top-down leadership. And Okonjo-Iweala has the gravitas to build bridges between the US and China, on the one hand, and between the WTO and Africa, on the other. Despite being widely regarded as the world’s next frontier for investment and development, Africa is essentially an onlooker in the world trading system, accounting for a meager 2% of global exports. Although the continent is a growing market for the products of globalization, it does not benefit much from world trade, owing to its limited presence in globalized value chains. Instead, Africa trades mainly in agricultural goods and natural resources, whereas most world trade is in manufacturing and services. Africa needs to trade with the world on the same basis that other regions do, but the global trading system is keeping the continent underdeveloped. In particular, industrialized countries levy low tariffs on imports of African raw commodities, but higher ones on finished African goods – higher, in fact, than for similar goods imported from other regions. Today’s world trade is thus rigged against Africa. To help redress this imbalance, the WTO’s special and differential treatment provisions for least-developed countries should permit African governments to provide temporary tariff protection for infant domestic manufacturers within WTO rules. We could call such necessary and temporary measures “smart protectionism.”

More generally, it is time to make the WTO work for all member countries, not just for the great powers or countries whose global economic success was built on trade protectionism but now seek to “kick away the ladder” for developing economies. This structural rebalancing, which will expand the global sphere of prosperity, is best mediated by a WTO leader who is not from a major trading power. Furthermore, African countries currently do not use the WTO’s dispute-settlement system, because they are too weak to take on donor countries, whether Western powers or China. So, Chinese products, for example, have been “dumped” in African markets with no consequences. Okonjo-Iweala has the skills to build a consensus on giving Africa a fairer shake in the global trading system. Much will also depend on the outcome of the US presidential election on November 3. President Donald Trump believes that China has gamed global trade to the detriment of US national interests, while China thinks America has rejected the WTO’s rules-based regime. Resolving this tension will require both powers to find the political will to compromise. It will also require a global development leader such as Okonjo-Iweala, who has served on international development commissions with current and former heads of government, to facilitate a rapprochement. But regardless of who wins on November 3, the COVID-19 pandemic will inexorably weaken globalization as the US and other countries seek to shorten and localize supply chains. Meanwhile, the importance of world trade to human

development will again become apparent when billions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines become available, most likely sometime in 2021. As chair of the board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, OkonjoIweala has played an important leadership role in negotiations to make vaccines widely available in developing countries. The WTO’s predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, was originally conceived as part of the post-World War II Bretton Woods system, but weak domestic political support in the US delayed its establishment. The International Monetary Fund has been headed since its founding by Europeans, and the World Bank by Americans. This realpolitik blocked Okonjo-Iweala’s bid to lead the World Bank nearly a decade ago. It is past time to eliminate such a spoils system, and for the developing world finally to have its chance. And in Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria and the world have a highly competent candidate to lead the WTO. About the author

Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, is a senior fellow at the Council on Emerging Market Enterprises at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

Feature

FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

The forklift truck drivers who never leave their desks

uring the pandemic, many of us have relied on having goods delivered to our homes more frequently than before. But as Covid-19 spreads easily, the warehouses dotted along the world’s supply chains have become potential hubs of disease transmission, says Elliot Katz, cofounder of Phantom Auto. The solution, he suggests, is to reduce the number of people working in those environments. Take forklift operators, for instance - with remote-control technology they can now work off-site, controlling their machines from afar. “We have customers today where we are fully remotely operating those forklifts from remote locations,” says Mr Katz, whose firm has equipped a string of new clients with these systems in recent months. Phantom Auto’s technology is now installed in around a dozen warehouses in the US and Europe, he adds. Some see this concept, teleoperation, as a stepping stone between traditionally driven vehicles and the truly autonomous ones of the future. But is it safe to drive a large truck or forklift device from miles away? And is it more economical than having a trained driver or operator on site? When it comes to remotecontrolled vehicles, teleoperation generally involves kitting out a car or truck with cameras and other sensors that feed information to a remote operator in a separate building. Multiple monitors provide a wide field of view so the operator can see what is around the vehicle. Generally, driving control is enabled by a joystick or

steering wheel and pedals on the floor. Some of the warehouses using Phantom Auto’s technology fence-off the space where the remote-controlled forklifts work, says Mr Katz and the forklifts are also fitted with microphones so the operator can be warned should something be about to go wrong. “If someone is behind that forklift and says, ‘Hey, you’re about to hit me,’ the operator can hear it just like he’s sitting on the forklift,” says Mr Katz. Among the other firms working in the teleoperation space is US start-up Teleo. It specialises in retrofitting construction equipment so it can be driven remotely. It has just started a trial at a quarry for an unnamed client. In this case, Teleo has adapted a large-wheeled loading vehicle so it can be controlled from an office on site. In the future, a driver could sit in the office and remotely control a variety of vehicles nearby. That might mean fewer people would be employed on-site overall but Teleo argues it makes the role safer for the driver. Besides, there aren’t enough heavy vehicle drivers to meet construction industry demand at the moment, asserts Teleo co-founder and chief executive Vinay Shet. “We believe by converting an effectively hazardous job like this into an office job, we should be able to attract a wider pool of people,” he explains. Some argue that taxis and rideshare vehicles ought to be teleoperated, that way drivers could activate and remotely steer vehicles to customers when needed, rather than having to drive around a particular area of

a city just hoping that someone will request a ride. But the idea of vehicles driven like this is controversial for some. There’s always the possibility a terrorist, for example, might try to hack such a system and use a teleoperated car or truck to kill people. Mr Katz and Mr Shet both say their firms have thought about this scenario and add that their engineers have introduced various steps to make a cyberattack harder. For example, by encrypting communications between teleoperator and vehicle, requiring authorisation of drivers and automatically shutting down vehicles should they lose access to a reliable communications signal. No-one can guarantee that such a system will never be hacked, though, points out Christian Facchi at the University of Applied Sciences, Ingolstadt. He and colleagues have studied the technical limitations and security risks of teleoperated vehicles. “We have to reduce that risk,” he says, referring to the prospect of a terrorist incident. Companies should make it as difficult as possible for this to happen, he argues, adding that standards governing the security of teleoperated vehicles should probably be set by a public body rather than firms themselves. However, Dr Facchi does think that teleoperated vehicles may prove more immediately useful than autonomous ones. This is also Mr Shet’s position: “We can deliver a product today, not 10 or 15 years in the future.” And teleoperation could even accelerate the development of fully autonomous vehicles - so hopes the US military. A project at the US Army Research

Laboratory involves using human teleoperators to train a wheeled reconnaissance robot how to drive across tricky terrain or hug the outline of a building as it scouts for danger in enemy territory. “We’d like to be able to deploy a robot kilometres in front of the soldiers… to sort of provide that information, the intel we could send back before the soldiers have to enter that ground,” explains researcher Maggie Wigness. Staff training the devices steer them just like they would a small remote-controlled car. “If you know how to use a video game controller, you can pick it up,” says Dr Wigness. An artificial intelligence system then gradually learns how to drive the device itself, based on data from these manually controlled experiments. So far, the system has been trialled at US Army facilities including the mock town training area at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. In specialised environments where risk factors like pedestrians and communications interference can be more tightly controlled, remote-operated vehicles are already coming into use. But on public roads, such vehicles face plenty of challenges. For one thing, it’s pretty difficult to guarantee a 100% reliable communications signal across a wide area, says Dr Facchi. What happens if the signal cuts out just as the driver is remotely steering the vehicle around a busy corner, with pedestrians about to step on to a zebra crossing nearby? “In an area where you have very bad network coverage,” says Dr Facchi, “it might be a bad idea.” BBC

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