Business24 Newspaper 21st May, 2021 by Business24 Online

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

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NO. B24 / 198 | NEWS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

MONDAY FRIDAY MAY MAY21, 3, 2021

Ghana misses out on US$558.1m G20 debt relief

Edward Ashong-Lartey

GIPC moves to ensure an even spread of FDIs By Patrick Paintsil p_paintsil@hotmail.com

he Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) says it has begun the profiling of existing investment opportunities across all districts in the country to serve as a guide to potential investors and Cont’d on page 3

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

By Nii Annerquaye Abbey abbeykwei@gmail.com

overnment has missed out on the opportunity to save nearly US$560m in debt servicing costs after it elected not to take part in a debt relief initiative for lower income countries badly hit by the pandemic. The Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), championed

by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, was established last year by the Group of 20 (G20) countries to enable poor countries temporarily defer their debt service payments to official bilateral creditors—that is, rich-country creditors—and instead channel the savings to the fight against Covid-19. According to the World Bank, Ghana could have postponed

the payment of US$558.1m in external debt service liabilities to official bilateral creditors between May 2020 and December 2021 had it signed up for the initiative. In an interview with Business24, an economist and fellow with think tank Imani Africa, Dr. Theo Acheampong,

MF: Africa needs $285bn GEPA says courting to fight off pandemic investment into transport to boost trade impact Page 5

Page 7

SEC to license credit rating agencies By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

he Ghanaian securities market will soon have credit rating agencies (CRAs), as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued draft guidelines for their operations in Ghana, almost

Cont’d on page 2

How to vaccinate every country – World Bank chief writes Page 15

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Editorial / News

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

Editorial

GIPC’s plan to spread out FDIs plausible and timely

oreign investors wanting a conducive and ready space to invest their monies tend to look out for prime areas to set up a business as has been the practice over the years. They cannot be faulted because, as business people, they would want see their investments yield the needed returns and impact. The desire for prime areas to do business has seen an overconcentration of foreign-owned projects in specific regions or places that are deemed to be ripe for business whilst other parts of the country cry for economic life. The state investment promoter, GIPC, having

identified the disparity, has set out to undertake an extensive profiling of opportunities in regions or areas that have recorded very low numbers of foreign investments. Serving as a guide to potential investors, the profiling exercise will facilitate a fairer distribution of economic activities nationwide, which will in turn open up other parts of the country for growth. Evidently, FDI projects abound in three regions namely Greater Accra, Ashanti and Western but same cannot be said of the remaining 13 regions. We see this move from the GIPC to be very plausible and

timely because it will promote wealth sharing and churn out the needed jobs for the youth in these parts of the country. The socio-economic benefits of spreading foreign investments could be seen in a drastic decline in rural urban migration with reduced pressure on the capital towns or towns that are flooded with most of these investments. We see this to be a smart intervention from the GIPC. An even space for trade and job creation is one means by which the nation can fast-track its recovery from the harm of the pandemic. This is indeed a step in the right direction.

Ghana misses out on US$558.1m G20 debt relief Continued from cover

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said notwithstanding the benefits of the initiative, government was justified in not taking part. “I don’t think Ghana not participating in the DSSI scheme is necessarily a bad thing. In any case this is just debt which is deferred or kicked down the road and not reprofiled or restructured, the latter being more important for many countries,” he explained. “The DSSI, at the time it was rolled out in the early days of the pandemic, came with a lot of concerns by some countries and market players, such as restricted access to borrowing in commercial markets or increase in debt servicing costs due to likely credit rating downgrades for countries like Ghana who like to issue Eurobonds,” he added. Another economist, Courage Martey, who is a senior analyst with Databank, the asset management company, said participating in the G20 initiative would have had unpleasant consequences for government’s fiscal operations. “We need to understand that if a country applies for debt service suspension, that would definitely have an adverse impact on its sovereign credit rating. The rating agencies would definitely

Dr. Theo Acheampong

downgrade your credit quality, and that would lead to a punitive cost of issuing new bonds.” According to Mr. Martey, government probably weighed the potential savings from the DSSI against the potential DSSIinduced spike in borrowing cost. “If government plans to issue new debts, then signing up for the DSSI may not be an optimal decision, because the subsequent spike in borrowing cost could offset the potential saving from the DSSI. If government had signed up for the DSSI before going on to issue the 2021 Eurobond, the coupon rates secured would have been very punitive and wouldn’t have yielded any economic benefit

for a market access country like Ghana,” he added. With Ghana classified as being at high risk of both external and overall debt distress, Dr. Acheampong urged government to instead explore the G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments, beyond the debt service suspension programme. In his opinion, the framework is a much longer-term solution for dealing with debt issues considering its objective of coordinating debt reprofiling and restructuring by both official and private creditors—thus extending the scope beyond the modest debt deferral available under the DSSI.

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

GIPC moves to ensure an even spread of FDIs Continued from cover also part of efforts to ensure an even distribution of projects and foreign investments. The move by the state investment promoter, according to its Director of Investor Services Division, Edward Ashong-Lartey,

would tackle the seeming overconcentration of projects in certain parts of the country to the detriment of other regions. “Some regions attract more investors than others and this is based on a number of factors; so, what we are doing as a centre is to compile the list of investment

opportunities in the various regions. Working with the district assemblies, we want to showcase the business opportunities that exist in other parts of the country to open them up to investments,” he said at a media training on GIPC’s activities and projects in Accra. “Once we begin to market the opportunities and companies start coming in, we are sure to get

Yofi Grant, CEO GIPC

the numbers [of foreign projects] going up in other parts as well,” he added. The centre seeks to leverage that same strategy to drive investment to other critical sectors that have the potential to push the growth of the nation. “Some sectors are more attractive to investors than others basically due to the initial capital outlay or what they may have to go through to establish a business in that sector,” Mr. Ashong-Lartey indicated. In line with this strategy, Head of Research at the GIPC, Eugenia Okyere, said the centre will this year embark on an investor sensitisation tour to regions that have recorded low investments over time. The rationale, she said, will be to collate projects in strategic sectors that could be of interest to investors -- citing tourism which holds huge prospects to the development of the Northern parts of the country. “Through the regional sensitisation, we will identify specific investment projects and opportunities to both first-time investors and existing businesses that may want to diversify the operations in new areas of the economy,” she noted.

SEC to license credit rating agencies Continued from cover a decade after declaring its intentions. The draft regulations, which were issued this week, will facilitate and standardise the establishment and operation of credit rating agencies in the country. Already, the Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM) is working closely with the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the Ministry of Finance, and the SEC to facilitate the establishment of a local credit rating agency. According to Courage Martey, a senior analyst with Databank Research, introducing a local credit rating agency would be very critical in credit risk assessment and risk classification of local corporate issuers or borrowers. “Firstly, a credit rating agency would develop a systemic and standardised method of risk assessment and classification of local corporates into various risk categories. This information

Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, Director-General, SEC

would be very useful to investors in determining the appropriate risk premium and interest rates to charge on capital invested in potential issuers and borrowers,” Mr. Martey said. Typically, credit rating agencies, such as Fitch and Standard and Poor’s, are responsible for rating corporations and their debt issuances. This allows investors to determine how risky

a corporation and its debt are before making an investment purchase. With the imminent introduction of CRAs in Ghana, market analysts are expecting that over time domestic interest rates will better reflect the risk associated with an issuer in the market. “We expect this local rating agency to have a more localised perspective and rating model that

is better suited to our domestic economic conditions, as opposed to the straightjacket approach you find with the international ratings agencies,” Mr. Martey said. He further mentioned that the rating of indigenous firms could also open the financing window for them to raise capital beyond the domestic market, which would help dilute and, most likely, reduce the weighted cost of borrowing for indigenous firms. The SEC guidelines extend to foreign credit rating companies that wish to issue ratings for Ghanaian securities and entities. Among the criteria for eligibility is that the foreign company must have an established branch or subsidiary in Ghana; the group as a whole must be subject to external regulation that imposes appropriate standards on the operation of the CRA; and those standards should be followed by the branch or subsidiary in Ghana and adequately enforced by the home regulator.

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

News

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

GEPA says courting investment into transport to boost trade By Eugene Davis ugendavis@gmail.com

he Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) says it is courting investment into the transport and logistics sector in a bid to improve the economy’s infrastructure to support trade

activities. The success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which kicked off in January this year, depends on efficient transport infrastructure within and across African countries, said Agnes Gifty AdjeiSam, Director for Marketing and

Promotion at GEPA. The authority is therefore working with partners to attract investment into Ghana’s transport sector in order to reduce the delays and cost of transporting goods, she added. Speaking at a virtual investment seminar organised by the Ghana

President Akufo-Addo inspects a railway line, one of the critical means of transport that the Ghanaian government is investing heavily in

High Commission in Pretoria in collaboration with its Lesotho and Seychelles Consulates, Mrs. Adjei-Sam said GEPA is promoting government’s 17 priority products under the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS), which envisages a growth in NonTraditional Exports (NTEs) from US$2.8bn in 2020 to US$25.3bn in 2029. These products comprise processed cocoa, cashew, horticultural products, processed oil seeds, fish and fishery products, textiles and garments, sugar, natural rubber sheets, aluminium products, articles of plastics, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel products, automobiles and vehicles, industrial salt, machinery and components, and industrial starch. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) estimates that AfCFTA will boost intra-African trade by 52.3 percent once import duties and non-tariff barriers are eliminated.

IES refutes Eni’s position on gov’t unitisation directive By Benson Afful affulbenson@gmail.com

he Institute for Energy Security (IES), a think tank, says oil major Eni’s reason for not complying with government’s directive on unitisation of the Sankofa and Afina fields, a year since the directive was given, is not based on the petroleum laws of the country. Government in 2020 directed Eni and Springfield to unitise their two fields—Sankofa and Afina—as one field for production. According to the IES, Eni claimed that there was no dynamic or hydrocarbon communication between the Afina discovery and the Sankofa field. “However, the institute’s review of the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act, 2016 (Act 919) and the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) (General) Regulations, 2018 (L.I 2359), the laws that regulate unitisation in Ghana, show that dynamic or hydrocarbon communication is not a requirement for unitisation,” said Nana Amoasi, the Executive Director of IES. Buttressing the institute’s position with the law, he said Section 34 (1) of Act 919 specifically provides that “where an accumulation of petroleum extends beyond the boundaries

of (straddles) one contract area into one or more contract areas, the Minister in consultation with the Commission may, for the purpose of ensuring optimum recovery of petroleum from the accumulation of petroleum, direct the relevant contractors to enter into an agreement to develop and produce the accumulation of petroleum as a single unit.” From this provision, Nana Amoasi, added, the only requirement for unitisation in Ghana is for an accumulation to extend from one contract area into another. The IES said the Jubilee Field when discovered in June 2007 was found to be straddling two contract areas—Deepwater Tano (DWT) and West Cape Three Points (WCTP), operated by Tullow Ghana and Kosmos

Ghana respectively—and was thus unitised and approved for development in 2009. It warned that Ghana will lose about US$6bn in extra oil revenue annually if Eni and Springfield fail to comply with the unitisation directive from the Energy Ministry. Currently, the production of oil from the Sankofa fields, a block operated by Eni, rakes in revenue of US$2.1bn. However, according to the energy think tank, if the two oil producers unitise the Sankofa and Afina fields, they could generate up to US$8.4bn in revenue, an increase of over US$6bn. “The state stands to derive upwards of US$8.4bn from the unitisation of the Sankofa and Afina fields, as opposed to US$2.065bn that it will derive

from the production from the Sankofa fields, assuming no incidence of unitisation,” the IES said. The institute said its analysis established the fact that unitisation will lead to maximum economic benefits for the state and all the parties involved in the production of the unitised accumulation. These benefits would be derived from, amongst others, sharing of development facilities, which naturally drives down costs and ultimately improves economic returns, it added. “Ghana’s laws make provision for the concept because it prevents physical waste, prevents economic waste, and protects correlative rights (fair shares) of the parties to the contract areas. Both physical and economic waste would have direct economic impacts on the country, through lower revenues from reduced ultimate recoveries and higher tax deductions or higher cost recovery by the licensee, thus reducing the country’s share. Also, if the contractual benefits, like production shares, taxes and royalties to be paid to the country by the different licensees are not uniform, the country may well have a direct financial interest in stopping waste from, say, a higher-royalty region to a lowerroyalty region,” the institute said.

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

International

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

IMF: Africa needs $285bn to fight off pandemic impact

ovid-19 threatens decades of progress by African countries on towards becoming advanced economies, and world finance leaders have been warned the continent needs huge investment in the coming years. International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva told a summit in Paris that an additional $285bn by 2025 will be needed to respond to the pandemic, . But this figure would need to roughly double in order to fund the investments needed to boost growth and return the continent to its income convergence trajectory with the world’s richest countries, she added. The pandemic caused Africa’s GDP to shrink by 1.9%, and although the IMF projects global growth to reach 6% in 2021, it only predicts 3.2% in Africa. “This is a dangerous divergence,” said Georgieva. “It ought to be the reverse: Africa needs to grow faster than

the world – at 7-10% – to meet the aspirations of its youthful populations and become more prosperous and more secure.” The $285bn figure would cover vaccine rollouts; spending to support sectors of the economy and prevent permanent ‘scarring’; and ensuring adequate

buffers are put in place, such as reserves. This is at the low end of the IMF’s estimates: if further economic shocks occur, it could rise as high as $485.9bn. Such shocks would take the amount needed to return Africa to convergence from $518bn to

$719bn, according to a note (pdf download) published by the fund. Raising the money will require “transformational domestic reforms”, Georgieva said, as well as debt relief, concessional loans and an international tax agreement that gives a “fair distribution” of revenues. “For instance, digitalisation can improve tax administration and revenue collection, and the quality of public spending,” she said. “And with radical transparency, Africa can tap into new sources of finance such as carbon offsets.” But the IMF is concerned that without external external financing (from both public and private sources) will leave governments needing to embark on deeper fiscal consolidation, which reduces near-term growth. The note warned of a “vicious circle” with authorities’ ability to pursue productivity-boosting investment hampered, “leaving them trapped on a path of low growth and high debt”. Publicfinancefocus.org

European Commission proposes ‘optimistic’ corporation tax reforms

he European Commission has unveiled plans to reduce corporate tax competition between EU countries with a single rulebook for the whole bloc, but could face opposition from certain member states. Plans unveiled this week would effectively stop governments competing with each other with low tax rates and offering sweetheart deals to companies in a so-called ‘race to the bottom’. Officials hope the new system, to be fleshed out by 2023, will reduce compliance costs, minimise tax avoidance and give governments the resources they need to rebuild the economy after Covid-19. “Taxation needs to keep up to speed with our evolving economies and priorities,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, who leads the Commission’s work on the economy. “Our tax rules should support an inclusive recovery, be transparent and close the door on tax avoidance. “They should also be efficient for businesses big and small.”

Details released so far outline the creation of a common tax base, where profits are allocated and taxed between member states based on a formula. The commission said the current system operates as a drag on competitiveness, with high compliance costs for businesses that operate in more than one EU country. This is not the first time the EU has attempted to reform corporation tax: efforts to create a common system in the bloc failed in 2011 and 2016. The commission said the ongoing negotiations led by the

OECD, with consensus on a new international tax system expected in the coming months, should give its plans momentum. But this is “too optimistic”, according to Zach Meyers, research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think-tank. “The OECD proposals will probably not eliminate tax competition between member states, so some member states will probably continue to hold out on an EU-wide proposal that hinders their ability to use tax policy to attract investment,” he said. “The timing is odd, because an

agreement at the OECD is surely not far away. “The Commission might have thought that, once the outlines of the OECD agreement are known, and we can see clearly who’s won and lost, it might be even more difficult to find EU-wide consensus.” Countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg, which have long faced accusations of being tax havens, are likely to oppose the scheme, said Meyers. Indeed, Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe in a radio interview this week said he has “significant concerns” about the proposals. “The commission hasn’t said they want to eliminate tax competition by setting a uniform EU-wide corporate tax rate, but that won’t be enough to avoid disagreement,” said Meyers. “I think they could end up pursuing more achievable goals such as more tax transparency, for example.” Publicfinancefocus.org

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

News

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

Solidaridad ends Next Generation Cocoa Youth Programme

olidaridad West Africa, lead implementer of the Next Generation Cocoa Youth Programme (also known as MASO), has formally closed the programme through a series of engagements in programme communities and districts. MASO was a five-year programme implemented between January 2016 and December 2020 and focused on providing viable career options for the youth in cocoa-growing communities in Ghana. It was part of the Youth Forward Initiative funded by the Mastercard Foundation and implemented by six consortium members, made up of Solidaridad, Aflatoun International, Ashesi University, Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited, Opportunity International, and the Ghana Cocoa Board. The programme has created a critical mass of young entrepreneurial cocoa farmers, as well as youth-led professional service providers within the Ghanaian cocoa landscape. Over 13,000 young men (57%) and women (43%) in 341 cocoagrowing communities in the Ahafo, Ashanti, Central, Oti,

Volta, Western, and Western North regions enrolled in the programme, with over 9,500 of them equipped with relevant tools and skills to take up cocoa farming and related businesses. More than 4,100 youth have established cocoa farms totalling 1,458 hectares while others were involved in setting up 449 service centres. These professional service providers and cocoa farmers are contributing to the development of the cocoa sector through climate-smart agronomic practices that improve productivity and avoid deforestation. Since 3 May 2021, Solidaridad

has been engaging with stakeholders in 341 programme communities in 11 beneficiary districts to take stock, reflect on the results achieved and lessons learned as part of activities to close out the programme. In Dzolopuita in the Ho West district of the Volta region, where one of such engagements was held, Regional Director for Solidaridad West Africa, Isaac Kwadwo Gyamfi, said the MASO programme demonstrated the business case for cocoa farming and related businesses and, thus, motivated many youth to venture into the trade. He, however, called on stakeholders, particularly

landowners and financial service providers to prioritize access to land and finance for youth who have interest and skills for cocoa production but struggle with these resources. “As an organization that implements many other youthfocused interventions in the cocoa and oil palm value chains across our operations in Côte d’ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, Solidaridad looks forward to applying lessons from the MASO programme to enhance the lives of other young people in the subregion,”, said Isaac Gyamfi. He thanked the partners and stakeholders for the support and encouraged the beneficiaries to continue to apply the knowledge and skills to improve their livelihoods. The District Chief Executive of the Ho West District Assembly, Ernest Victor Apau, commended Solidaridad for supporting the assembly’s drive to curb ruralurban migration by sustaining the interest of the youth in cocoa farming through the creation of many job opportunities in the district. He also pledged the assembly’s continuous support to ensure that MASO beneficiaries contribute to the development of the district.

Rotary Club of Tema Community 25 donates learning materials to schools

he Rotary Club of Tema Community 25 at its just ended Back to School Donation Project distributed over 3,000 pieces of learning materials including exercise books, pen and pencils to selected schools. The schools include Old Ningo

Presbyterian A & B, Old Ningo District Assembly (D/A) ‘A” & “B”, Lekpongunor Presby Basic Schools, Ngmetsokorpe D/A as well as Lekpongunor D/A basic schools. According to Director of Service Projects for the club, Baptista Gebu, “as problem-

solvers we see a world where we unite as people and take action to create lasting change – across the globe and in our communities.” The Director of Service projects in her engagement with the pupils highlighted the relevance of education and cautioned the pupils to take

their education seriously. Mrs. Baptista further educated them to consider education as the key to success. The Charter President of the club Eugene Nii Bortey and Assistant Governor Frank Ankamah took turns to encourage the pupils. Present were the some members of the school’s Parent Teachers Association (PTA), the School Management Committee and Unit Committee Members. The Rotary Club of TemaCommunity 25 was chartered on July 3, 2020 with its Charter Ball celebration held on September 12, 2020 at the Tema Rotary Center at Tema Community 6. Rotary’ mission is to provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through our fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders. Rotary is made up of three parts: our clubs, Rotary International, and The Rotary Foundation.

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

News

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

Small business owners to receive investment readiness help through the ABCD hub

he African Business Community Development (ABCD) Hub will select the first batch of small businesses into its Accelerated Business Development Institute to participate in an Investment Readiness Program. The ABCD Hub, is gearing up to hold its first pitch event on 5th June, 2021 at the Headquarters of OYA Capital Management, Accra. The event, is the pinnacle in a series to be held by the Hub, as it qualifies the first class of 2021 for the Hub’s Business Development Institute’s investment readiness program. This event is expected to attract about 50 attendees in-person (observing COVID-19 protocols) and over 200 participants online, connecting important stakeholders involved in Ghana’s small business ecosystem. Hub graduates can qualify for funding from eager conscientious Black investors from the USA, Canada, and the Black Diaspora globally who want to feel connected to Africa and give back through helping to build Ghana through investment. The team of judges at the pitch

event includes professionals from across the globe who will select businesses for the program. Participants will receive management support from experts, solid strategic planning, and investment readiness support to enable them reach the next level to scale, create jobs, and get to the enterprise level. The Hub’s ultimate goal is to create job creators who will employ our youth with living wage career positions. Prior to the pitching event on 5th June, 2021, the Hub will have two briefing sessions to provide more information, after which applications will be opened for the pitching event. The briefing sessions would be held as follow; The ABCD investment readiness program interest meeting – for businesses (Virtual) will be held on 18th May, 2021 between 7:00pm to 8:00pm and in-person and virtual on 22nd May, 2021 between 10:00am – 12:00pm at OYA Management Capital, Accra Interested persons can register for both events on https:// abcdhub.org/events/ Nataki Kambon, the Executive Director of the ABCD Hub,

believes that entrepreneurs have the power to change the world because they innovate to make lives better, they create the jobs that allow billions to provide for their families, and they can use their profits and resources to positively influence what kind of world we live in. As a small business consultant, Nataki has helped a range of clients from commercial contractors, tech firms, retailers, medical facilities, professionals, and even rocket scientists launch, operate, and scale. Through the ABCD Hub, she seeks to use the pitching event and the

Investment Readiness Program as platforms to help transform conscientious Black business owners into the communitybuilding entrepreneurial leaders needed for Black economic empowerment and selfdetermination. The ABCD Hub is an ecosystem where conscientious Black stakeholders and vetted viable Black-owned businesses meet to profit together through expanding markets, creating jobs, and sustainably building and improving the everyday lives of our youth, our people, our communities and our economies.

Egyptian African Business Association holds Agriculture Day By Baptista S. Gebu – EABA Ghana Representative

he Egyptian African Business Association – EABA recently organized its maiden African Agriculture Day Conference on the theme: “Modern agriculture – better economy”. This hybrid African Agriculture Day 2021 conference was organised from the EABA headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. This virtual event brought together about 15 agriculture experts from countries such as – Egypt, Ghana, Tunisia, Cameroon, Botswana, South Africa, Uganda and Kenya connecting to discuss best practices and current trends, among others, that African governments, entrepreneurs and investors can adopt to support and promote better economy for the African continent. The Chairman of EABA, Dr. Yousery El- Sharkawai, an international economic consultant on his opening remarks said the conference will serve as an enabling platform for participants to identify and network with

exporters and importers from Africa in promotion of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement or harnessing the one African market agenda for all Africans. Ten recommendations were put forward as blue print to helping African countries and governments maximise benefits from Agriculture potentials form the continent. EABA is a non-profit organisation representing the Egyptian African Business

Association with membership comprising businessmen and women in Egypt and Africa to serve the business community. The business body will on June 1, 2021 organise the African Women’s conference on the theme: “The role of the African Woman in promoting interregional trade post-covid-19”. Speakers for this conference include: Dr. Amani Abou- Zeid, the African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy & ICT; Ing. Abir Leheta, Head of the

African Women’s Committee, Chairman and CEO of Egytrans; Mrs. Baptista S. H. Gebu, the ViceHead of the African Women’s Committee, C.E.O of FoReal HR Services, and EABA Country Representative for Ghana among other speakers. Interested business professionals can reach out to their website and social media sites to freely register and participate in this conference.

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

Feature

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

Promoting digital skills for a digital economy

hana’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Sector has progressed over the past two decades. Digital technologies are at the forefront of development and provide a unique opportunity for countries to accelerate economic growth and connect citizens to services and jobs. Among the main sectors of investments in Ghana, 65% is for ICT, 8% for communications, and 27% divided for public administration. Ghana took an important step forward in embracing the potential of competitive markets to generate growth and innovation in the sector—this requires skills and local participation to promote the development of value-addition and job creation. However, although the appreciable strides, the growth has seen a lot of challenges, including a lack of required digital skills. The Ministry of Communications and Digitalization has the core responsibility of initiating and developing national policies aimed at achieving cost-effective information and communications infrastructure and services, for the enhancement and promotion of economic competitiveness. The Ministry is made up of the various agencies and bodies that assist with implementing policies related to the operational and regulatory framework. These agencies, aim at identifying, promoting, and developing innovative technologies, standards, guidelines, and practices among government agencies and local governments, as well as ensuring the sustainable growth of ICT via research and development planning and technology acquisition strategies to facilitate Ghana’s prospect of becoming a technology-driven,

knowledge and values-based economy. To complement the efforts of these agencies, the Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana (IIPGH) seeks to foster and strengthen local resources and building stronger confidence in the human resource capacity in Ghana and beyond, to help create firm foundations for the digital economy to thrive. It is working to encourage digital skills training to support governments, businesses, and individuals to participate more fully in the digital economy. Local participation promotes the development of valueaddition and job creation using local expertise, products and services, and their retention in the country. It also develops local capacities in the industry value chain through education, skills transfer, and expertise development, transfer of technology and know-how, and active research and development programs. Local participation increases the capability and international competitiveness of domestic resources and businesses, thus sustaining economic development. The Institute of ICT Professionals, Ghana, therefore, is a professional body aiming to influence policies and the development, standardization, and delivery of ICT across Ghana and beyond. Over the period, as part of its capacity-building agenda with a focus on early start from age 6, the institute embarked on training children and the youth in digital skills, from basic to advanced levels. This is done through workshops and webinars, instructor-led online tuition, and in-class sessions. In the bid to tackle the identified digital skills gap in the country, and to catch up with

digital technologies and devices, it is important to focus on teaching children and the youth digital skills, to enhance their productive skills in the formal and informal economy. According to cenfri.org, in Ghana in 2018, 25% (2.6 million) of informal sector jobs required some level of digital skills, and this is expected to increase to 45% (5.4 million) in 2030. The informal economy, where 80% + of African youth earn their income, is a social media economy operating on mobile phones: to function on the social media platforms and use digital payments requires basic consumer digital skills. Life in today’s digital world revolves around basic consumer skills. One needs digital skills to handle information (access and manage), needed to use digital devices, communication applications, and networks; find news online, find files on a device; filter, process, analyse, interpret, and evaluate data. To interact with family, friends, and customers, you need to have basic skills for social media messaging, and basic transactions; digital marketing and cloud computing; managing remote devices and mirroring devices; implementing organizational communication platforms. To create content, you need skills to create social media posts and basic office application processing; digital graphic design and desktop publishing; mobile app development; or digital innovation-based business models. To solve problems, you need skills to access services of digital platforms; use data analytics software; software troubleshooting; or integrating digital solutions with business models. To be safe, you need skills to create passwords and scan for

viruses; manage firewalls and file encryptions; develop firewalls and access protocol design; guide organizational digital security and access protocols. With the potential of digital technologies to expand access to markets and opportunities, helping to invest in digital development is an important aspect to reduce poverty and inequality. According to the World Bank, research shows that a 10% increase in mobile broadband penetration in Africa would result in an increase of 2.5% of GDP per capita. In a post-COVID-19 environment, digitalization efforts will accelerate across the globe. This means we must possess the right skills, tools, and environments for that. Preparing for the jobs of tomorrow, innovation is radically changing the nature of work— new jobs are emerging, others are evolving. To compete in the digital economy, we will need to prioritize education and build the digital skills of our workforce. We need to invest in people. It is, therefore, necessary to encourage and expand digital skills education for children and the youth. The Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana welcomes other organizations to collaborate to build a digitally literate economy. It is also the Institute’s aim to partner government and businesses for new areas of job creation for ICT professionals and the youth; advocate for the deepening of local participation in the ICT sector; and promote practical skills for innovation, research, and development. Author: Richard Kafui Amanfu– (Director of Operations, Institute of ICT Professionals, Ghana) For comments, contact richard. amanfu@iipgh.org or Mobile: +233244357006

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

Feature

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

How to vaccinate every country

By David Malpass

he COVID-19 pandemic will not truly end until everyone has access to vaccines, including people in the poorest countries. Worldwide vaccination offers the best hope for stopping the spread of infections, saving lives, and protecting livelihoods. People cannot reach their potential until they can again study, work, travel, and socialize in the confident knowledge that they are safe from COVID-19. Distributing vaccines more widely is thus an urgent necessity. The pandemic has worsened inequality by hitting the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest. In developing countries, women, children, the poor, and informalsector workers have paid an extremely high price as COVID-19 took away livelihoods, closed classrooms, and prevented urgent social spending. Delays in starting vaccination rollouts in developing countries are deepening global inequality and leaving hundreds of millions of elderly and vulnerable people at risk. I continue to urge countries with sufficient vaccine supplies to release their additional doses as soon as possible to developing countries that have delivery programs in place. Some countries have gone well beyond vaccinating their most at-risk citizens. But many others have yet to receive any doses, much less administer them widely to the vulnerable. Many of the poorest countries have limited vaccination capacity, and will require several months to immunize a large share of the most at-risk groups. This illogical approach – using

limited vaccine supplies in a handful of countries while lowand middle-income economies wait indefinitely for doses – doesn’t make sense for anyone. More lives will be lost, global economic growth will be more unequal, and even countries with high vaccination rates will be more at risk from novel coronavirus variants than they would be if developing countries had greater access to vaccines. The longer it takes to achieve broad vaccination of the vulnerable, the higher the risk of extreme poverty in 2021 and 2022, which in turn will invite future health and social crises. Conducting a large-scale vaccination campaign is a major undertaking for any country, but the logistics are particularly challenging for countries with limited resources and fragile health systems. The ongoing COVID-19 disaster in India and the surge of infections and deaths in Latin America are grim reminders that the pandemic is as bad as ever for many of the world’s poor. A successful global vaccination effort must stand on three pillars. First, countries with an adequate vaccine supply should immediately release doses to the vulnerable worldwide. This may mean exercising options and guiding vaccines to other countries, or making clear to manufacturers that they can quickly send supplies without exposing themselves to legal risk. Or it could involve actually fulfilling funding commitments to the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility set up by the international community to allocate doses equitably to poorer countries. The World Bank already

has board-approved financing available in 22 developing countries, with several dozen more expected by mid-year under the fast-track process we used for emergency COVID-19 assistance in 2020. This $12 billion can facilitate rapid vaccine deployment through national health systems and pay for vaccine purchases and shipments if needed. Standardized, transparent contracts that arrange for fair and equitable distribution are crucial. If vaccine supplies pass through COVAX, which envisions immunizing the most vulnerable 20% of countries’ populations, World Bank financing can be used to help with distribution and to purchase additional supplies to vaccinate more people. Second, we need greater transparency regarding contracts between governments, pharmaceutical companies, and organizations involved in vaccine production and delivery so that financing can be directed effectively, and countries can plan for receipt and deployment. This is also critical to enable the private-sector investments that will be needed to expand supply. In that spirit, this week the World Bank is launching a comprehensive online portal that provides easy access to information about our projects, including individual countryfinancing operations. The portal will also incorporate what has been learned from vaccinereadiness assessments we helped undertake with over 140 countries over the last half-year, working closely with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund, the World Health Organization, and

UNICEF. Thus, the Bank’s online portal is also an invitation to vaccine manufacturers, purchasers, and intermediaries to follow suit, and another plea to those controlling the supply of approved vaccines to release them to safe, wellfunded deployment programs. The third pillar is increased vaccine production. The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group’s private-sector arm, has invested over $800 million in health care, including in vaccine manufacturers. And it currently has another $1.2 billion in the pipeline through the Global Health Platform, a $4 billion financing mechanism created to help meet the immediate need for vaccines, medical equipment, and health services. The IFC is actively engaging with governments and companies on early-stage development of commercially viable pharmaceutical manufacturing projects, including for COVID-19 vaccines. The pandemic has overwhelmed health systems worldwide, even in the most developed countries. We must now strengthen them, not just to cope with the vaccination effort, but also to prevent and treat COVID-19 and ensure the full range of essential health services. The global COVID-19 vaccination campaign will be the largest in history – unprecedented in scale, speed, and complexity. Our goal must be to carry it out as quickly, broadly, and safely as possible; learn from what worked and what didn’t; and boost preparedness and resilience for future crises.

FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021

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FRIDAY MAY 21, 2021