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FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
BUSINESS24.COM.GH
Friday December 15, 2021
NO. B24 / 288 | News for Business Leaders
GDP's days are numbered
WTO proffers solution to trade bottlenecks in landlocked developing nations See page 5
See page 7
300 companies await audit to enter AfCFTA market By Eugene Davis ugendavis@gmail.com
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he Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen, has disclosed that close to 300 companies have been chosen and are awaiting an audit by the ministry to give them the greenlight to compete in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) market. Africa's free trade area became a reality on 1 January 2021, promising to make it easier to do business across the continent. The idea is to create one of the Cont’d on page 2
Poor infrastructure and customs delays are among reasons why intra-Africa trade is so low
PIAC urges gov’t to diversify Free SHS funding By Benson Afful
affulbenson@gmail.com
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he Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) says government needs to diversify the funding for its flagship Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme, which currently over-relies on oil money, making its funding unsustainable. Cont’d on page 3
Speaker urges MPs to deepen channels of communication By Eugene Davis ugendavis@gmail.com
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he Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingford Bagbin, has urged lawmakers to continue to strengthen the channels of communication and foster dialogue to Cont’d on page 3
Cont’d on page 2 Cont’d on page 2
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Editorial / News
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
Editorial
Diaspora Africa leading the charge to transform the continent
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hana made a bold call to its diaspora to come home to help its economic liberalization and that noble request was one that warmed hearts. It was charge that rekindled a strong sense of hospitality from the nation to its diaspora and those from other sister African countries and drove up their desire to contribute their quota towards the development of Ghana. Since the call, the country has witnessed increased participation from the diaspora in every sphere of economic activities, especially in tourism, arts and culture where the infamous Year of Return project
was a marked success. The latest to join their capital, expertise and time to the renewed desire to aggressively transform the African economy is the African Diaspora Development Institute, which hopes to serve as the repository of information on Africa. Under the able leadership of the astute diplomat, Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao, the institute is marshalling a pool of investors with key knowledge and expertise across diverse fields of finance, agribusiness, healthcare and tourism et al to explore investment openings across the continent. Broadly, the seek to offer practical solutions to ages-long
problems of underdevelopment, unemployment and hugely untapped potentials of Africa’s economies through structured investments into portentous economic areas. In Ghana, the ADDI has teamed up with the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry on a project that will see its pool of investors pump in over US$100m to establish what will be called the Wakanda One City of Return. The expertise, wealth and winning mindset of Africa’s diaspora cannot be doubted and it is trite knowledge that the continent will need its sons and daughters abroad to drive its economic revolution.
300 companies await audit to enter AfCFTA market Continued from cover
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world's biggest free-trade areas, opening up a market of more than 1.2bn people, with a combined GDP of more than US$3 trillion (£2 trillion). This would create business opportunities and jobs across Africa while reducing the cost of some goods in the shops and markets. Appearing before Parliament on Wednesday to answer a question on plans the ministry has put in place to ensure that the private sector in Ghana harnesses
the benefits from the AfCFTA agreement, Mr. Kyerematen stated that companies have been lined up and are undergoing audit. “So far, about 300 companies have been selected, and the Ministry is undertaking enterprise-level audit to determine the specific types of support needed by these companies to enable them produce and enter and compete in the continental market. To facilitate trading under AfCFTA, the GRA has been designated
as the competent authority for issuing certificates of origin to cover exports under AfCFTA.” He further indicated that to ensure optimal participation by the private sector, the National AfCFTA Office has undertaken several consultations with stakeholders—both private sector and key public sector agencies— that have important roles to play to facilitate the effective participation of the Ghanaian private sector in AfCFTA trade. Under the trade deal, tariffs on 90 percent of goods will be phased out within 10 years. This is being done in stages and could take up to 2035, according to the AfCFTA Secretariat. Across the continent, just 2 percent of trade was with other African countries in the period 2015–17, compared to 47 percent in The Americas, 61 percent in Asia, 67 percent in Europe, and 7 percent in Oceania, according to UN trade agency Unctad. With a large and seamless market for goods, the free trade area is expected to attract more domestic and foreign investment, fostering industrial growth in the continent. This is one of the objectives of AfCFTA, which will be the world's largest free trade area by number of countries once it is fully operational.
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News
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
PIAC urges gov’t to diversify Free SHS funding Continued from cover The committee said currently, 50 percent of funding for Free SHS comes from petroleum revenue, adding that due to the volatile nature of petroleum prices, there is an urgent need for the government to look for alternative sources of funding for such a good social intervention programme. “If the oil money becomes the only source of funding, and in the future there is no petroleum funds, it becomes difficult for government to continue the programme. So, identifying other sources of revenue is key to the sustainability of the programme,” the committee said. Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta earlier this year told Parliament that the government has so far spent about GH¢7.62bn on the implementation of the Free SHS programme in the past five years.
He said GH¢4.18bn out of the amount, representing 54.76 percent, was sourced from the government of Ghana (GoG), while the remaining GH¢3.44bn,
representing 45.24 percent, came from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA). The policy, which is described as one of the biggest government
interventions in the country’s education sector, has benefitted about 1.2m students. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, during the launch of the policy in Accra in 2017, said the use of some of the country’s oil revenues to fund the policy is most appropriate.
Speaker urges MPs to deepen channels of communication Continued from cover ensure the country’s flourishing democracy thrives. Addressing MPs in Parliament
on Thursday, he pledged not to preside over a parliament aimed at “frustrating government business”, but added he would “equally not preside over a weak
House or be tagged as an errand boy of the executive arm of government.” “This House is fully focused in discharging its mandate and will
do so without any fear or favour, affection or ill will in ensuring the ultimate best interests of the Ghanaian people are served,” he said. The Speaker announced that he had agreed with the leadership of Parliament on the steps to be taken to complete the 2022 budget approval process. These include that the Minister for Finance comes before the House with an amended statement of the budget encapsulating the modifications and concessions made by the Minister. These modifications and concessions will then be adopted by the House and the revised document with the estimates will stand committed to the various committees of Parliament. He added that he was aware the committees had begun consideration of the estimates, but said it would be their responsibility to reconcile the revised estimates with what they have hitherto considered and submit a report for the consideration of the House.
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FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
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News
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
WTO proffers solution to trade bottlenecks in landlocked developing nations
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new WTO publication launched on 8 December, 2021 has highlighted the high trade costs faced by landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) due to their isolation from the world’s largest markets. The report recommends ways to address these trade challenges so that LLDCs can increase their participation in international trade and accelerate their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The study finds that landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) trade costs are 1.4 times higher than those of developing countries with a coastline. It also details LLDCs' vulnerability to climate change but notes the
benefits that trade in services and e-commerce can bring to
these countries. Director General
of
WTO,
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said: “Transit countries need to see trade facilitation as mutually beneficial. LLDCs need an effective connection to global markets and only transit states can facilitate this.” “In many cases, they can themselves provide important trade and transit related logistics services to surrounding countries, transforming them into land-linking trade nations,” she added. The WTO boss further stressed the need for establishing “partnerships between LLDCs and transit countries including information sharing of Customs systems, logistics and other transport services.
Metro TV picks 6 awards, MD attributes to rebranding
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anaging Director of Ignite Media Group, owners of Metro TV, Kayode Akintemi, has attributed the station’s success at the recent National Communications Awards to the rebranding agenda being executed by the company over the past few months. Metro TV was adjudged the Best Television Station of the Year. Its flagship programme, Good Evening Ghana, also won TV Programme of the Year, whilst the host Paul Adom Otchere, won TV Show Host of the Year, and Media Man of the Year. The Sports Journalist of the Year award went to Michael Oduro of Metro Sports whilst the last award to the conglomerate went to Pomaah Kyekyeku of Original 91.9 FM, as Radio Newscaster of the Year (Local). Touching on the transformation behind these multiple awards for the brand, Mr. Akintemi, indicated that these achievements can be attributed to the rebranding agenda that the new management embarked upon barely six months ago with the objective of positioning the group as a lead Pan-African media organisation on the continent and beyond. Adding that the rebranding has affected practically everything the organisation does as it has brought in some new sense of urgency in everything being done and everyone has seen a reason to put a hand on deck to ensure every task is achieved perfectly and within stipulated time.
“We are in a season where we are rebranding, pushing boundaries and doing some great new things. Our intention as an organisation is to do everything required to announce our new arrival as authentic, reliable, dependable and an organisation with integrity that is true PanAfrican Channel. “Since I took over as MD of the group in June, we have done everything necessary to reposition Metro Tv especially as Pan-African channel and we started working aggressively to remove all contents that did not sit well with our goal and introduced more robust programmes toward the goal,” he said. He emphasized that within a matter of two months, reviews and remarks from the public pointed to the fact that people have noticed the reformation going on and are quite impressed with the significant turnover. Furthermore, the MD reiterated that beyond infrastructure investment under the new management, there have been a massive continuous investment in human capital in terms of training and development of staff, as well as bringing on board more experienced personalities. Touching on competition in the media industry, he indicated that the dream is to grow beyond borders and become big on the continent like the CNN, BBC and Aljazeera, therefore it is not in competition with the other TV channels doing well currently on
the local terrain. “We have personnel just like the BBC, CNN, Aljazeera and others. And so, we can also do exactly what they are doing and even more if only we would put our hands on the equipment that we have got. So, we do not have a reason to be worried about competition with the current top two or three on the local market,” he said. Mr. Akintemi further stated that Ghana has always been regarded as the gateway to Africa and historical precedence showed how its first president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, lived for Africa and was known as the true champion of Pan-Africanism. Therefore, a true Pan-African channel is more befitting of Ghana than any other country.
However, he indicated that it first has to win in the country before it can move on to other countries on the continent, hence the agenda is to first win on the local market and be recognized as such before crossing borders. Metro TV, he said, will be building on partnerships and depend on collaborations with other top media organisations across the continent to deliver a true reflective content of what is happening in each state on the continent. The prestigious awards ceremony was organized by Rad Communications in partnership with the Ministry of Communication and Digitalization, under the theme; ‘Transforming Ghana’s economy through digitalization.’
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FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
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FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
AfDB approves line of credit of €70m and $24m equity investment to West African Development Bank
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he Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved a line of credit of €70 million and an equity investment of $24 million, to be granted to the West African Development Bank. The line of credit will support businesses in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, particularly in job-creating sectors such as agribusiness, renewable energy, health and information and telecommunication, which were drastically affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The €70 million forms part of a €150 million facility, which will be co-financed along with other development finance institutions. The $24 million equity investment is part of a capital increase transaction, which will allow the African Development Bank to increase its shareholding from 0.55% to 1%, and therefore retain its seat on the Board of Directors of the West African Development Bank. In addition, the African Development Bank will assist the West African Development Bank, through funding from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) to set up a technical assistance program to mainstream gender aspects in its project
review process and to promote women’s entrepreneurship. The project should help to create or consolidate at least 5,900 jobs
(including 2,000 to women). The facility is strongly aligned with three of the Bank High 5 strategic priorities, namely Feed
Africa, Industrialize Africa and Improve the quality of life of Africans.
GCB relocates Salaga branch G CB Bank Ltd has relocated its Salaga branch into a new business facility in the Salaga Market as part of its business transformation and offerings. Prior to the commissioning of the new branch, the former facility hosted the branch for 40 years. In a well-attended ceremony, the Head of Consumer Banking Department of GCB, Mr. John Adamah, reiterated the need to embrace the use of digital
channels in their banking transactions. Mr. Adamah stated that several communities and opinion leaders have been calling on the Management to establish new branches in their districts and communities. He explained that GCB has made huge investment in digitilising its processes, products and services making banking easily accessible to customers. He expressed his appreciation to the Management of the Bank,
former and present MCEs of the East Gonja Assembly for collaborating, facilitating and providing the space for the new branch premises. Commenting on the relocation, the Paramount Chief of Kpembe Traditional Area, Bangbange Ndefulso IV, expressed his sincere gratitude to the Bank for its contribution towards improving the socio-economic fabric of Salaga and its surrounding towns. “We have always known GCB as the best bank to serve our
people, its interests and even so, the nation at large. Today will serve as a historical marker just as it is an important precedence that an astute bank like GCB has become a national asset serving communities of all regions in this country even after 68 years of its existence,” the Kpembiwura intimated. “Our communal support is yours, and our collective identity is with you. Just as you have made it a point to engage staff who are community folks and share our common tongue, the Kpembi community will partner with you for life.” Also in attendance were Mr Muniru Muktar, Head of Customer Service, GCB, Mr Mohammed Mipo, Tamale Regional Manager, GCB, Mr. Richard Broni, the Municipal Chief Executive, Chief Superintendent Amos K. Yelisong, the Municipal Police Commander and NHIS Manager Mr. Joe Braimah, among others.
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News
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
Vodafone Ghana Foundation empowers PWDs with coding and robotics training
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odafone Ghana Foundation, the charity arm of Vodafone Ghana has trained eighty (80) Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) on coding and robotics to commemorate the 2021 International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The event formed part of the Foundation’s monthly ‘Birthday Stars’ initiative which seeks to execute monthly projects with birthday celebrants to mark selected international days, in line with the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, who graced the occasion as a December birthday celebrant highlighted Vodafone’s contribution in empowering individuals with disabilities. “Few years ago, as an organisation, we chose to employ people who can sign to assist a percentage of our customers who don’t have access to our call centre. I’m very happy with the training session and what I have seen today. This is the first time I have witnessed the goal ball game and we will do everything we can to support you,” she said. Participants were taken through several activities covered with coding, robotic studies
and website development. Additionally, December birthday celebrants; Ghanaian comic actors, Clemento Surez and OB Amponsah engaged them in an indoor game, the Paralympic goal ball. In an interview, the Head of Vodafone Ghana Foundation, Reverend Amaris Nana Perbi said, “We had over 80 different physically challenged people that we had to mentor groom and teach them to be conversant with the PC and technology. We were also able to have a recreational
time with them as they represent the national sports activities”. “This is very significant for us to observe the international month of disability with our monthly birthday stars activities that we do. This doesn’t end here, for instance, in the month of January, we are going back again for the International Day of Education and following with February, March, April. In May; Day for Girls Studies and Girls in Science, and then further on International Health Day. So this is something that has come to stay and no
wonder that we’ve got the best initiative and innovative award at the Excellence Sustainability Award,” he said. On her part, the Director in charge of Legal and External Affairs at Vodafone Ghana, Geta Striggner-Quartey, called for a collective effort to assist Persons with Disabilities. “We were happy to hear that, for instance, the Goal ball is something that we’ve been doing very well at and we just need more support. They need more support so that they can compete more effectively on international competitions. So we were really encouraged by this. We’ll be supporting them and we really want to reach out to the whole of Ghana to continue to support them so that they can actually partake in these international events and feel like they’re all part of us. The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is observed to promote the rights and well-being of people with disabilities at every level of society and development. Additionally, it also aims to raise awareness of the situations of persons with disabilities in all aspects of political, social, economic and cultural life.
Judges deepen knowledge on maritime law
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ustices of the Superior Courts of Ghana have been assembled in this year’s Maritime Law Seminar which is the premier event that provides the platform for judges to be abreast with knowledge on maritime law and new developments in this specialized discipline. The judges undertook subjects such as piracy and terrorism, transport documents used in international trade, and the arrest of ships, judicial sale, and distribution of proceeds. The ultimate aim of this program is to enhance judges’ capabilities during the adjudication of maritime related litigations. Held in Accra, the 2-day seminar, was organised by the Ghana Shippers Authority in collaboration with the Judicial Training Institute. The event however has since 2019 been changed from an annual event to a biannual event
in conformity to the Shippers’ Authority’s strategic direction. Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Shippers’ Authority, Benonita Bismarck, asserted that “maritime trade’s contribution to the nation’s economic development is very significant. As a result of this there has been deliberate efforts to ensure that players in this space interact frequently to ensure clarity of legal procedures locally and internationally. Also, clear institutional, professional and policy drive aimed at enhancing the development of the maritime industry in Ghana have been established.” Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, implored the judges to take advantage of such rare opportunities which are aimed at deepening the professional process of adjudicating maritime cases. Speaking on the side lines of the
seminar, maritime law expert and consultant, Dr. Emmanuel Kofi Mbiah called for a revision of the country’s law as far as maritime trade is concerned. “Our law at this stage is behind time because we haven’t revised the law in a very long time and a lot of changes have been made. The UK who we depended on for our law have changed, themselves. There is the need for law reform in this area. Some of our rules of procedure must change in
conformity with changing trends. Some of the things we have captured in our Court Acts, the Ghana Shipping Act, would have to be modified,” the Maritime lawyer articulated. On the 2nd day, the various judges visited the Port of Tema to have first-hand experience of port operations and developments as well as interact with management of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority.
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AfCFTA News
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
AfCFTA Secretariat, partners interact with key trade agencies at Aflao border
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epresentatives from the AfCFTA Secretariat, TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) and Borderless Alliance, in coordination with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) of Ghana have conducted a joint technical visit to the Aflao border to engage with the key agencies operating at the border. The visit was to discuss their priority needs towards enhancing free movement of goods and people across the Abidan-Lagos corridor, with an emphasis on Ghana’s borders. The visit followed an earlier mission in Togo, where the AfCFTA Secretariat organized a forum to assess the condition of the Abidjan-Lagos corridor. The technical visit included an interactive dialogue with representatives from key border agencies, led by Ghana Revenue Authority and Ghana Immigration Services and included other agencies such as the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA). Other trade related state agencies that were engaged
by the AfCFTA team were the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Department (PPRSD),
Veterinary Service Directorate (VSD) and Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA), the latter
doubling as host institution of Borderless Alliance in Ghana.
Ghana-South Africa Business Forum held in Accra G hana and South Africa have held a business forum aimed at building sustainable business ties and strengthening bilateral trades between the two countries. Yoofi Grant, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), in his remarks, highlighted opportunities that could be harnessed between the two countries. He said areas that could be targeted included automobile, manufacturing, energy, agro food, finance, infrastructure, among others. Mr. Grant noted that Ghana was resource endowed and was "centrally placed relative to the world which offered it a strategic opportunity for experts’ distribution and logistics." The two heads of the states of Ghana and South Africa were both upbeat over trade opportunities between the two countries.
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News
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
New dawn for TVET education in Ghana… as Bawumia launches Ghana TVET Service
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o v e r n m e n t ’ s determination to make Technical and Vocational Education a priority has received a major boost following the launch in Accra of the Ghana Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Service by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. This brings together all the technical and vocational programmes run by 19 different Ministries under the ambit of the Ghana TVET Service, with the Director General of the Service reporting to the Minister and Ministry of Education, like her counterpart, Director General of the Ghana Education Service and other agencies under the Ministry. The operationalization of the Service is also to ensure the smooth take-off of Government’s flagship programme “Free TVET For All”, under which all the TVET Institutions which are now captured under the Ghana TVET Service will be included in the next academic year’s (February 2022) Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) for selection by the Junior High School graduates. Performing the launch on Tuesday, 14th December 2021 at the Accra Technical Training Centre (ATTC), Vice President Bawumia recalled that before the Akufo-Addo government
assumed office in 2017, many challenges including the poor perception of TVET, the multiplicity of standards, testing and certification systems, and an informal TVET system that had been neglected and detached from the formal sector affected the quality of TVET delivery in our institutions. This made it difficult for the sector to become the key catalyst that could spur industrialization and decent job creation for the citizens of this country but Government, he assured, is tackling many of these issues. “This Government from 2017, as part of the President’s plan to transform the Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the country, has been streamlining the TVET Sector to ensure that the sector becomes a central force of our national development agenda. “One of many such initiatives to ensure this, is the establishment of the Ghana TVET Service. In 2017, Government formed a 15-Member Technical Committee with Membership from various Ministries and Agencies to establish the Ghana TVET Service. “After extensive work and national stakeholder engagement, the Committee presented a Draft Bill to Cabinet for approval in 2019. The draft was later sent to Parliament and assented to by the President of the Republic, H.E.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on 29th December 2020 as “PreTertiary Act, 2020 (Act 1049)”. The essence of Act 1049, Dr Bawumia explained, is to ensure that all TVET Providing Institutions under the 19 Ministries are realigned to the Ghana TVET Service. Hitherto, these TVET Institutions were under the umbrella bodies such as Ghana Education Service’s Technical and Vocational Education Division (GES-TVED); National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI); Opportunities Industrialization Centre Ghana (OICG); Gender, Children and Social Protection; Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS); Community Development Vocational Institutes (CDVI); Youth Leadership and Skills Training Institutes (YLSTI), Social Welfare Training Institutes, Farm Institutes and Technology Solution Centres; and the Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills (ICCES). While improving the capacity of the country’s educational sector to create a more robust TVET Service, it is equally important to focus attention on the professional and capacity building of the facilitators and teachers who will train the young people in the various Technical and Vocational Training Institutes, Dr Bawumia noted.
“Thankfully, the Ministry of Education has made significant progress with teacher professionalism to conform with global education standards. “I, therefore, urge parents of JHS graduates to counsel their wards to consider choosing TVET programmes since these programmes are designed to equip our SHS leavers with practical skills needed for the job market. Addressing the fears of parents and guardians who may have been worried about a possible truncation of the educational path of children who take the TVET path, Vice President assured: “There is the opportunity for those who complete their TVET programmes to continue from the National Proficiency levels through Certificate levels to HND, B.TECH, M.TECH to the Doctor of Technology level with the National TVET Qualifications Framework (NTVETQF), which the Commission is implementing for TVET.” The first Director General of the Ghana TVET Service, Mrs Mawusi N. Awity, pledged her outfit’s commitment to meeting the needs of the youth, saying “We will ensure the acquisition of skills by the youth and the elderly to enable them create jobs and help move our beloved Ghana forward.”
Ghana Chamber of Telecoms highlights plans for next decade
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hana Chamber of Telecommunications has outlined plans for the next decade to accelerate Ghana’s digital transformation. Speaking on the theme ‘leveraging on the gains in the past decade to accelerate Ghana’s digital transformation,” the Chief Executive Officer of the chamber, Ing. Dr Kenneth Ashigbey said in a media dialogue and soiree that “we want to leverage on what has happened in the past decade to be able to go into the next decade.” Highlighting on the areas to focus on in the next decade, Ing. Dr Kenneth indicated that the whole conversation around sim card registration now and the E-levy that is coming is a food for thought that we must leverage on. “Looking at what happens to us in the next decade, if we get sim registration really done
right such that we are all able to register our sims and if we do this e-levy thing or we don’t do it at all what the impact will become. What we all need to do is that we must work to ensure that we can do this in such a way that we can push Ghana’s digitalization agenda forward,” he opined He continued that another thing that need be looked at is the balance between affordability and sustainability. The good balance that we need between affordability, price of service and the increasing demand in terms of investment that we need to building these networks is another food for thought. Reflecting on the merger of airtel and tigo, he explained that “sometimes we look at this industry as the cash power forgetting that this is an industry where two people in the same strategic group have merged. “airtel and tigo would not have
merged for anything but for the margins. We have lost a lot of the PWAs that were given 4G license. What has happened to them now is something we need to look at in the next decade.” He added that “We cannot see this industry as a passion, it’s a difficult market that we are playing with and so we all need to look at the past to see how we can leverage on it to restructure the industry and to give it the necessary support to be able to drive the hope that we expect to see.” So far as digitalization is concerned where we have a lot of the growth in the data that we are eating up, Ing. Dr Kenneth disclosed that the people who are providing those services are not in this market. The OTTs, the googles, the Netflix and the likes do not sit in this market. They are not contributing to the expansion of the network but they are rather
taking all the revenues out. “The fact that we eat data more than we provide and its funding is an interesting conversation that we need to hold and then we also look at the issue of taxation.” Another thing I think we all in general, both the media and us as an industry to look at is AfCTA. I think we are doing a lot more on the product side but on the service side there is a lot of potential in that space. How do we let digital service become one of the major commodities that we can send out of Ghana to other African countries? I think we have lot of potential to do that. We need to get a lot more investment into the FINTEX spaces and all of that. The challenge abouit that I that how how does E-levy play in all of that? This is something we need to look at.
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Comment/Analysis
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
GDP's days are numbered
By Diane Coyle
H
ow should we measure economic success? Criticisms of conventional indicators, particularly gross domestic product, have abounded for years, if not decades. Environmentalists have long pointed out that GDP omits the depletion of natural assets, as well as negative externalities such as global warming. And its failure to capture unpaid but undoubtedly valuable work in the home is another glaring omission. But better alternatives may soon be at hand. In 2009, a commission led by Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, and Jean-Paul Fitoussi spurred efforts to find alternative ways to gauge economic progress by recommending a “dashboard” of indicators. Since then, economists and statisticians, working alongside natural scientists, have put considerable effort into developing rigorous wealth-based prosperity metrics, particularly concerning natural assets. The core idea is to create a comprehensive national balance sheet to demonstrate that economic progress today is illusory when it comes at the expense of future living standards. In an important milestone in March of this year, the United Nations approved a statistical standard relating to the services that nature provides to the economy. That followed the UK Treasury’s publication of a review by the University of Cambridge’s Partha Dasgupta setting out how to integrate nature in general,
and biodiversity in particular, into economic analysis. With the consequences of climate change starting to become all too apparent, any meaningful concept of economic success in the future will surely include sustainability. The next steps in this statistical endeavor will be to incorporate measures of social capital, reflecting the ability of communities or countries to act collectively, and to extend measurement of the household sector. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how crucial this unpaid work is to a country’s economic health. For example, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics intends to develop a more comprehensive concept of living standards that includes the value of such activity. Aggregate measures such as these can be useful for guiding important policy decisions in a manner consistent with familiar economic concepts. This approach also helps the conversation with finance ministry officials and business executives, whose support for a longer-term perspective regarding prosperity will be essential to bring about change. But many advocate thinking about economic success and failure in terms of well-being, a broader and fuzzier concept. The idea that policy decisions should focus on what ultimately matters in people’s lives is intuitively appealing. And a number of governments, from New Zealand to Scotland, have recently adopted explicit well-being policy
frameworks. This approach, however, raises even more difficult measurement questions. Well-being depends on many aspects of individuals’ life circumstances. To be sure, there is a large body of research in psychology and economics concerning how to measure wellbeing and analyze the factors that influence it. Often, the measurement involves surveying people’s satisfaction with their lives or their level of anxiety. For example, the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics has been tracking anxiety and depression throughout the pandemic. But while policymakers need some top-down, aggregate statistics to facilitate their decision-making, such indicators have limitations. For example, whereas the links between wellbeing and factors identified by econometric analysis – such as being employed or in good mental health – are intuitive, the causal connections are not well understood. A depressed person may benefit from therapy, as wellbeing advocates often urge, but decent housing might be even more effective. Public policy based on well-being thus still lacks a theoretical underpinning. Moreover, some policymaking contexts will require a more granular level of detail. Qualitative research – rather than largescale surveys with predefined questions – points to a wider range of considerations affecting well-being. For example, one recent UK study, co-produced by researchers and people
experiencing poverty, found that while basic material needs including health were important to well-being, autonomy and a sense of purpose mattered just as much. The top-down aggregate indicators devised by social scientists and statisticians cannot capture such findings. While time-intensive groundlevel research will not always be practical, it is important to keep in mind that the concept of well-being is much richer than most other economic indicators. Importantly, the comprehensive wealth and well-being approaches outlined here are complementary: the assets measured by the former provide the means to achieve the latter. Indeed, New Zealand’s policy framework makes this link explicit. What is exciting about these alternative approaches to assessing and measuring the economic success of a community or country is the amount of practical progress already made in defining concepts, creating metrics, and building expert consensus about the direction policymaking should take. Ditching GDP as the main gauge of prosperity was always impossible in the absence of broad agreement about what the alternative might be. And it will take many more years of work at the statistical coalface to develop a framework as sophisticated and well-embedded as GDP and related economic indicators. But the direction of change is clear, and the impetus to bring it about is powerful.
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AfCFTA News
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
Gov’t arranging specialised funding vehicle for AfCFTA business
S
enior Technical Advisor and Head of the National AfCFTA Coordination Office, Dr. Fareed Arthur, says his outfit is working with banks to set up specialised funds for private sector businesses that are seeking to explore the single continental market. “Before the close of this year, we are hoping to meet with a crosssection of financial institutions to discuss the workability and potential of creating special purpose vehicles to support trade,” he said in an interview with Single African Market. He added: “It’s something that’s in the plan and we hope that it should be able to start negotiations now and continue into next year.” Dr. Arthur said the structured funding will be directed to private sector where most traders do not have ready access to capital “If our businesses need to go to Africa, then we’ll have to find a way of supporting them with finance. This is money for trading, investments and building cross-
border value chains,” he added. According to Dr. Arthur, the special funding vehicle is part of its programmes to identify and support companies that have the potential to trade actively in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). To this end, he said there
have been engagements with public and private agencies and institutions that have something to do with exports. Dr. Arthur says he is impressed about the interest coming in from Ghana’s private sector businesses who are very upbeat about the single market
He said: “The Ghanaian private sector is very eager about the AfCFTA; they are very enlightened about what’s happening outside, particularly on the West African corridor. They are also interest in other market and so they’re always making enquiries which we think is a good sign.”
Wamkele Mene applauds Ghana govt’s support to AfCFTA Secretariat
S
ecretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, Wamkele Mene, has expressed gratitude to its host government for their continual support towards the seamless operation of the secretariat in spearheading the integration of the continent through trade. Addressing a gathering of ambassadors and high commissioners of the AU member states, he indicated that the support from Ghana government has been helpful to the significant and impactful to the business of the Secretariat. “Once again thank you the government of Ghana for the support that has been provided to make sure that the Secretariat takes off to a good start; we have been able to host meetings and drive the implementation of the AfCFTA amid the pandemic with the support of government,” he said. The AfCFTA Secretary General also thanked the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of the AU Member Countries for their
support in the year 2021 as well as the Champion of the AfCFTA and former President of Niger, His Excellency Mahamudu Issufu. Wamkele Mene seized the opportunity to highlight some progress made on some negotiated protocols so far as well as the permanent structure of the AfCFTA Secretariat. He said decision of the host country to set up a transitional
team has been very successful but indicated that there will be a permanent structure which will have 296 officers recruited over a four-year period across all regions of the continent, representing gender balance and language. Mr. Mene described the diversity of professional talents at the Secretariat as unique and exemplary. He said: “We have directors
from the East, West, North and Central Africa; we have Arabic, English, French nationals. We are the only organ in the African Union that has achieved this balance on the basis of competence. I’m not aware of other organ that has made such achievement within such a short period of time.” The AfCFTA boss hinted that going into the years ahead the Secretariat will consider innovative ways of resource mobilization to finance its activities in order to avoid unpleasant dependencies. “We have also made progress in resource mobilization; a larger part of our operational budget comes from member states of the African Union, with support from the European Union, GIZ, and the Danish government. These three donors in particular had already pledged their commitment to support the AfCFTA agenda even before the Secretariat was established. Looking ahead, it is possible for the trade secretariat to be self-sufficient in terms of resources,” he added.
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News
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
“Make Covid-19 vaccines available to all parts of the world”
“
I am a firm believer in the statement that ‘no one is safe until everyone is safe’. Let us help make vaccines available to all parts of the world, encourage our citizens to take the jab, and we would win the fight against COVID faster and together. These were the words of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo when he delivered an address to the European Union Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Delivering his speech, President Akufo-Addo stated that COVID-19 has posed the greatest test to humanity in the initial decades of the 21st century, in light of the ravages of the pandemic, which have affected all countries, rich or small. According to President AkufoAddo, the predictions of Africa going to be hit dramatically because of her relatively weak public health systems, with streets being littered with dead bodies, when the virus reached the continent, have not come to pass. “We were not given credit for quickly following the science as recommended, when many leaders in Europe were still fighting ideological battles, and
seeking to lay blame on the source of the virus, rather than uniting to fight it,” he said. The President continued, “At every stage, we in Africa, have been dismayed to discover that every attempt was being made to make COVID-19 also an African disease. Thus, the narrative emerged that it was not really that Africans were not dying from the pandemic, we had to be covering up the true level of infections”. With Africa caught up in the “vicious vaccine politics that engulfed the world”, he expressed gratitude “for the donations of vaccines through platforms such as COVAX, which was good enough to send its first consignment, anywhere in the world, to Ghana.” The unsavoury politics of vaccine nationalism the world is witnessing, President AkufoAddo reiterated, could, however, potentially derail global efforts made at containing the pandemic. “Till date, less than ten percent (10%) of Africa has been vaccinated, in comparison to the EU, for example, which, as at August, had vaccinated seventy percent (70%) of its population.
With countries on the continent still not being able to have sufficient access to vaccines in the requisite numbers, we, like the World Health Organisation, are worried that the phenomenon of hoarding vaccines will worsen even further, as countries begin to administer booster shots in response to the threat posed by the omicron variant of the virus,” the President said. He used the opportunity of the platform to reiterate the strong opposition of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which he is Chairperson, to the decision taken by countries, including those in the EU, to single out African countries for the imposition of travel bans. Omicron, according to the President, has been discovered in over forty countries, with reports indicating that this variant was present in the Netherlands way before it was discovered in South Africa. “The world should be grateful to the South African scientists, whose knowledge and expertise in genomic sequencing enabled them identify the new variant. Plaudits, not the condemnation of their peoples, should have
been their portion. Why is there not a travel ban imposed on the Netherlands, but against South Africa, one might ask?” the President Akufo-Addo asked. Whilst acknowledging the importance of Africa building up her health delivery systems to enable the continent withstand future crises, he told the EU Parliament that his government has launched Agenda 111, which seeks to build district hospitals in each district of Ghana where there is none, so that ordinary people can have ready access to medical care. In addition to this, he stated that Ghana has decided to set up a National Vaccine Institute, which will supervise the domestic production of vaccines across several sectors, including antiCOVID-19 ones, led by the private sector and business community. “We need to be self-reliant, and shed the image of beggars living on charity, aid and handouts, and make better and more intelligent use of our abundant natural resources, in order to pull ourselves out of poverty to prosperity. These are not new aspirations; they have simply been reinforced by the lessons of the pandemic,” he added.
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FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
15
Feature
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
The legal gift that keeps on grifting
By Katharina Pistor
T
he Christmas shopping season is upon us. Whether one is a believer or not, it is almost impossible to resist the lure to shop and give gifts at this time of the year. But the biggest gift givers are inanimate creatures without any capacity to believe anything. I am referring not to artificial intelligence but to the legal persons known as ordinary corporations. Corporations are currently doling out millions, if not billions, of dollars in year-end gifts. In the financial sector, bonuses are up 20-35% compared to last year, representing a merry-goround that puts several hundred thousand dollars, on average, into the pockets of every recipient. Yet while the amount of these gifts is sizeable, the greatest gift that a corporation can bestow is legal. By securing a new corporate charter, corporations can give their investors everything on their wish lists. Royal Dutch Shell is only the latest corporation making headlines for gifting a new charter to its shareholders, by moving its headquarters from The Hague to London. The company will ditch its royal title in return for extra cash for its shareholders. Two other Dutch corporations, Unilever and RELX (Elsevier), have already made similar moves. And, more generally, many merger transactions are, in fact, thinly disguised bargains for reaping the benefits of a different legal order. Where does the extra money for Shell’s shareholders come from? A possible source is the new legal and regulatory environment. The fact that
shareholder protections in the United Kingdom are stronger than those in the Netherlands arguably could give the company a boost. After all, past research on law and finance suggests that countries with better shareholder protection tend to have more developed financial markets. But extending this argument specifically to Shell’s move raises several objections. At the level of an individual company, there simply are too many variables in play for corporate governance to have a large effect on the outcome. Moreover, when applying the standard measure for the quality of corporate law – the (corrected) Antidirector Rights Index – the difference between Dutch and English law is not all that great. The real benefit for shareholders is not governance but cash, which is determined by the prevailing tax law. The Netherlands taxes both dividends and share buybacks at 15%, whereas UK tax law makes it possible to exempt buybacks, provided that a firm has a good tax lawyer on its side. For Shell and other major polluters that are just beginning the process of shifting from oil and coal to cleaner energy sources, keeping shareholders happy ultimately is more important than achieving a successful transition. As the Financial Times reports, energy executives and investors have come to a “quiet understanding… As companies invest less in oil, more money should flow back to shareholders when energy prices are high.” Moreover, Shell is using its exit from the Netherlands to put some distance between it and the Dutch courts, which reprimanded the company twice in the past year
for failing to meet legally required climate commitments that were touted by the company’s own public relations materials. So much for the idea that the private sector will lead the transition to a green economy. Where does this leave us? In short, polluters plan to butter up their shareholders with handouts and tax-avoidance schemes while their customers foot the bill for the energy transition, and while governments deal with the political fallout. Worse, the gift being lavished on shareholders is not a return on an especially good investment, nor does it bespeak some breakthrough in the energy transition. Rather, it reflects the cash-value of a legal arbitrage scheme that is designed to circumvent the laws of a democratic country – the same laws that breathe life into legal creatures like Shell and every other corporation in the first place. Given their legal pedigree, it is perhaps not surprising that corporations prefer to treat law like just another asset that can be exploited for profit. They routinely hunt for cheaper supplies and outsource production to countries with lower labor costs and weaker worker protections, so why not shop around for law as well? Legal arbitrage is often rationalized as a form of healthy competition that will push lawmakers to write optimal rules. But for whom should the law be optimized? Obviously, shareholders would prefer zero taxes, and polluters would prefer zero emissions standards. The tens of millions of people who are worried about their children’s future on a warming planet may
have different preferences. In 1811, the state of New York became one of the first states to adopt a free incorporation statute. This made it possible to establish a corporate entity without prior state approval, but it stipulated that corporations could be established only by natural persons and only for a specific purpose. The law excluded owning shares in other corporations, and thus implicitly barred company groups. A corporation had a limited lifespan of just 20 years, at which time it had to seek an extension of its charter or face liquidation. Lastly, corporations could accumulate no more than $100,000 ($2 million in today’s dollars) in capital. One gets a sense that the New York state legislature was afraid of what it was about to unleash: a world of legal creatures that it would have a hard time controlling. But even these wary lawmakers would be surprised by the extent to which today’s corporations have turned law into a money mint. If further evidence for this practice is needed, it can be found in the big law firms’ embrace of cash bonuses for their associates. Not so long ago, this practice would have been regarded as unseemly – damaging to their reputations and incompatible with their role as guardians of the law. Watching law firms openly compete for the highest payouts while being cheered along by the business press shows how far the commodification of law has progressed. It is the biggest gift of all. Copyright: Project syndicate
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FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
17
News
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
Mr Agyepong re-elected ESPA President
T
he Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies, Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, has been re-elected as President of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA) for the next two years. The re-election at the 5th ESPA Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Accra yesterday for 2022-2024 makes Mr Agyepong the only person to have held the position for the second time since its formation in 2001. The AGM, chaired by Mr Agyepong, saw other members such as Mr Danny Anang elected as First Vice-President, and Mr Williams Stanley-Owusu, Second Vice-President. The 5th AGM brought together all the regional chapters of ESPA. It was on the theme: “Public Private Sector Engagement for a more Sustainable Waste Management.” Mr Agyepong thanked members of the ESPA for renewing their confidence in him and pledged to work with the other executive members to make the association a formidable one. “Let me thank all ESPA members for the unflinching
support that you have given to the leadership of the association and for your tireless efforts in making this year’s Annual General Meeting a success,” he said. He urged members of ESPA to rally behind him and the executive to work together to make Ghana clean, great and strong “through our concerted effort.” The President of ESPA was full of praise for the President AkufoAddo Administration for creating an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive in the sanitation sector. “I am delighted to say that the
government of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has given true meaning to this mantra. Through His Excellency’s transformational leadership and relevant policy interventions, an enabling environment for the private sector to grow has been created,” Mr Agyepong stated. He also applauded the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Ms Cecilia Abena Dapaah, for her leadership and supportive role in the sanitation industry. “The government’s achievement in this sector is
unprecedented and historic and it is worthy of note that since independence, over 60 years ago, it is during this administration that Ghana has experienced massive environmental infrastructural improvement,” Mr Agyepong said. In a speech read on her behalf at the AGM, the sector minister said the ministry had secured a 65.5-acre land at Ayidan in the Ga South Municipality in the Greater Accra Region for the construction of a new engineered landfill following the decommissioning and re-engineering of the Kpone landfill site. She said the completion of the new landfill would take care of final waste treatment and disposal to augment the massive investment made by the private sector. Ms Dapaah added that the ministry was also constructing a waste transfer station at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), which would help address the problem of long haulage distance of members within the northern enclave of Greater Accra.
Gov’t prioritises acquisition of new buses for Metro Mass in 2022 budget
T
he Government of Ghana has prioritised revamping the Metro Mass Transit Limited (MMTL) with the acquisition of new buses. The move was captured in the 2022 budget estimates of the Ministry of Transport, the sector ministry under which MMTL operates as an agency. At a plenary sitting of Parliament on Wednesday, an estimated budgetary allocation of GH₵921,843,000 was approved for the Ministry of Transport and its subvented agencies to execute their programmes and projects for the 2022 fiscal year. Out of the amount approved, GH₵694,351,000 will be used by the Transport Ministry to finance assets, where it is projected that hundreds of new buses will be procured to revamp MMTL and other private sector operators. A Deputy Minister of Transport, Hassan Tampuli, who moved the motion on behalf of the sector minister, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, for the approval of the Transport Ministry’s budget estimates, told
Parliament that the move by government will help “improve transportation services in the country”. The remaining amount, he noted, will be used to finance goods and services and to pay compensation among others.
It is not clear the number of buses government intends to procure to revamp the publicprivate transporter. However, in September, the Managing Director of Metro Mass Transit Limited, Mr. Albert Adu Boahen, told journalists that his
outfit expects to receive 300 buses by the end of the first quarter of 2022 to revamp its operations. He said in order for MMTL to operate at an optimal level and improve on its profit, the 200 buses currently in operation need to be increased to over 900.
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FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
19
Feature
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
Imagining a global digital order
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lthough the digital revolution is now decades old, there still is no global digital economic order. Instead, there are competing visions of digital capitalism, predominantly articulated by the United States, China, and the European Union, which have been developing their models for many years and are increasingly exporting them to developing and emerging economies. Absent more global alignment, the world could miss out on promising technological solutions to shared problems. The question, of course, is what kind of alternative digital order is possible in today’s world. How can the internet be reclaimed to serve citizens, rather than dominant political and economic interests? Realigning the incentives that drive the digital economy will not be easy. Still, recent policymaking efforts reflect demand for new forms of governance. The OECD, for example, is leading an effort to tackle international tax arbitrage – a favored practice among US Big Tech firms. At the same time, US President Joe Biden has appointed industry critics to lead key institutions such as the Federal Trade Commission, and he has directed regulators to investigate the problem of undue platform power in digital markets. Similarly, the Chinese government has introduced a new Personal Information Protection Law and is presiding over a major domestic antitrust campaign to control the country’s exploding digital market. And the European Union, building on its landmark General Data Protection Regulation, has
advanced a more expansive ethics-led vision for governing data, digital markets, and artificial intelligence. Moreover, countries such as Spain and Germany are now targeting the data-extraction business model directly. Regulators and governing authorities around the world are considering how to redefine their AI and data agendas, foster the next generation of digital players, and shape global standards to fit their own respective visions. But if each of these jurisdictions’ main goal is to rein in overpowered digital platforms, there may be common ground upon which to build a more effective global digital order. EU and US digital authorities certainly don’t agree on everything. But they do share a vision of a more open and collaborative digital order. If they are going to align effectively behind this overarching goal, they need to understand what they are up against. Divergent visions for the foundational structure of the global internet have already put down deep roots. In the emerging “splinternet,” informational isolation is on the rise. People within different silos have fundamentally different views about facts and thus what constitutes truth. There is not even agreement on how to secure and coordinate key features of the digital architecture, such as GPS. Each jurisdiction has its own framework, be it China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, or Europe’s Galileo system. This fragmentation in the governance of digital and
informational power has been accompanied by rising illiberalism, with many countries pursuing more extensive social control and exploring new avenues for distributing propaganda. The cost of experimenting with new modes of digital authoritarianism has fallen significantly, because the basic tools are widely available and simple to use. Platforms like Facebook have effectively subsidized the cost – unwittingly, but not necessarily unknowingly – of conducting disinformation campaigns at scale. Building the tech stack (software infrastructure) needed to create a totalitarian system of surveillance and social control is now as easy as assembling the right apps. The digital order that has emerged in the absence of global coordination raises two critical concerns. The first is the digital side of major global challenges like climate change and pandemics, which exist independently of liberal or illiberal governments. Just as the effects of climate change will be experienced unevenly, the technologies needed for climate adaptation and mitigation – or for epidemic surveillance – will be unequally distributed. The second issue is the incompatibility of competing visions for future digital economies. Many developing and emerging economies are still deciding how to expand and govern their digital capabilities so that new technologies serve their broader strategies to achieve sustained economic growth. These two concerns need to be addressed together. If measures to improve access to technology
do not account for different local and national growth strategies, they may entrench an undesirable digital economic future, even if they promise progress against other issues such a climate change. Addressing these concerns together bears directly on the pursuit of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Whether it comes to public health, education, or climate change, seeking global alignment ought to rank higher on any country’s agenda than securing narrow geopolitical gains. But, of course, realists must acknowledge that the current competition between models for data control, hardware design, and platform governance will loom large in any multilateral negotiation on these issues. Given this, each of the three digital powers can come to the table with eyes open. Creating a more stable and coherent global digital order need not be about achieving full alignment between the three models. But failing to reflect on how and where these digital orders are incompatible may result in a race to the bottom rather than a race to the top. What matters in the short run is that there be a certain degree of interoperability in areas that touch on global challenges. After two years of living with COVID-19, all major powers and regions should recognize the importance of sharing certain kinds of data freely. They now must start identifying other areas of common ground. A new and better digital order is possible, but it will not make itself. Project syndicate
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FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW FOR WEEK ENDING DECEMBER 10, 2021
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WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW FOR WEEK ENDING DECEMBER 10, 2021
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BUSINESS24.COM.GH FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
NO. B24 / 288 | NEWS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS
MONDAY MAY 3, 2021
FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021
AfCFTA drives optimism among Africa’s CEOs despite COVID-19 uncertainty
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frican CEOS expressed optimism about their business and economic growth over the next 1218 months. A new survey of African CEOs from 46 countries conducted by PAFTRAC, the PanAfrican Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee, found that CEOs were confident that their businesses will grow in the next year. A majority are also optimistic about the economic outlook of their industry. In addition, 87% of respondents believe that there will be an increase in intra-African trade as a result of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. The CEOs believe that the global recovery led by greater demand will drive Africa's economic recovery. Interestingly, their positivity stems more from their faith in international and regional trade strategies and agreements such as enhancement of trading opportunities through AfCFTA, rather than as a result of national economic recovery strategies like ease of lockdown restrictions or better national business climate. Commenting on the survey, Pat Utomi, Chair of PAFTRAC, said, “The positive sentiment
expressed by survey respondents demonstrates the potential of the AfCFTA and the eagerness of Africa’s private sector to take advantage of the market access opportunities it offers. However, access to trade information, trade enabling infrastructure, and trade finance emerged as key constraints that need to be addressed to ensure that intraAfrican trade opportunities are exploited for the benefit of African SMEs. “One major advantage of AfCFTA is that it can enable aggregation across borders so that African countries can pool
products in volumes and quality that make them more competitive in global markets.” The respondents expressed strong faith in AfCFTA. Over 71% of respondents believe that the AfCFTA will encourage them to invest to grow their business regionally. More than half of respondents (57%) also believe that the AfCFTA will open up new markets to export regionally and provide the necessary frameworks to export more regionally (62%). The four top export destinations in Africa are South Africa (27%), Ghana (25%), Kenya (25%), and Nigeria (19%).
African CEOs said the key challenges they foresee, which will have a negative impact on Africa's economic recovery prospects, are a lack of access to finance (64%), the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic opportunities (61%) and a slow down or lack of public sector investment and expenditure (48%). Though the appetite for regional trade is strong, a majority of respondents placed access to trade finance and access to investment capital as the two biggest constraints when trading regionally.
Zoomlion donates GH¢50,000 to National Mosque Complex
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he management and staff of Zoomlion Ghana Limited has donated GH¢50,000 to the National Chief Imam as support for the National Mosque Complex project. The presentation was led by the Executive Chairman of the company, Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong. The donation was the climax of the annual thanksgiving service of the Jospong Group of Companies. It was to give thanks to God for His grace and mercies throughout 2021.
Published by Business24 Ltd. Nii Asoyii Street, Mempeasem East Legon-Accra, Ghana.
Mr Agyepong, who did the donation at the National Mosque at Kanda last Friday after the Jumma'ah prayer, said it was imperative to thank God for sustaining the peaceful atmosphere in the country where his outfit undertook most of its businesses. He said the Lord had been so good and wonderful to the people of Ghana, and, therefore, deserved to be praised and worshipped. The Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, who received the donation on behalf
Tel: 030 296 5297 | 030 296 5315 Editor: Benson Afful editor@business24.com.gh +233 545 516 133
of the Muslim community, expressed profound gratitude to the management and staff of Zoomlion. He prayed for the executive
chairman of Zoomlion Ghana Limited and the team of workers at the Jospong Group of Companies, asking for God’s blessings in their work.