Business24 Newspaper 30th August, 2021 by Business24 Online

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

China proposes ChinaAfrica Partnership Plan on Digital Innovation

Why can’t we learn from generations of failed energy policy?

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Gov’t rallies local insurers for AfCFTA business S G

Expert warns of rising cyber attacks By Benson Afful affulbenson@gmail.com

By Patrick Paintsil p_paintsil@hotmail.com

overnment is working with the Ghana Reinsurance Commission and other insurance firms to offer sustainable support to shippers seeking to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Anthony Nyame-Baafi, Technical Advisor on Multilateral, Regional and Bilateral Trade

A number of local insurers have expressed interest in the support mechanism to cover Ghanaian goods bound for the continental market against the risks of loss and damage.

Cont’d on page 2

BoG report shows rising staff involvement in bank fraud By Benson Afful affulbenson@gmail.com

he Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revealed a persistent trend of staff involvement in banking fraud in the country. The regulator attributed the steady rise in the phenomenon to the use of poorly remunerated temporary staff,

tanbic Bank’s Chief Information Security Officer, Albert Yirenchi Danquah, has advised Ghanaians to demand the protection of their information from service providers, as no one is immune to the devastating effects of cyberattacks. Cont’d on page 3

Prof. Quaynor wants AfCFTA to consider cryptocurrencies in digitisation drive By Eugene Davis ugendavis@gmail.com

rof. Nii Narku Quaynor, chairman of Ghana. com and regarded as the “father of the internet” in Ghana, has proposed that the continent incorporate emerging technologies such Cont’d on page 5

Dr. Ernest Addison is the Governor of the central bank.

Cont’d on page 3

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Editorial / News

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Editorial

Perhaps crypto could drive digitized payments for AfCFTA

he common intra-Africa trade platform has created the need for digital payment systems to facilitate cross-border trade. The goal of attaining socioeconomic development in the continent would require sustained focus on improving and deepening trade and ensuring stable resilient financial systems to back both trade and industry. Cash-based transactions are becoming increasingly riskier for trade and one of the things that government would have to look at will be to eliminate the transportation of bulk cash within the country. Cryptocurrencies and other forms of digital money has been tipped to fast track the adoption

of digitized payments for trade within the single continental market. Digital payment reduces risks, offer convenient means of payment to traders and stimulate transparent transactions. The conversation around payments is a big deal for industry, especially with several reports of local producers struggling to do transactions because of payments. It is quite unfortunate that despite the strides of digitalization, local producers who move their goods across the continent still prefer to trade and make payments in cash and bear the risks due to the challenges with bank-based transactions. Government will have to fast track the non-cash mechanisms

that will ensure easy, secure and cost-effective ways of payments under the AfCFTA. The Pan-Africa Payments System (PAPS) which has been lined up to drive digital payments in the single continental market must be given the need support by relevant financial bodies across the sub-region to succeed. Experts believe that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology offer a much stronger and trusted system that delivers both value and security. We urge financial sector actors to consider the possibility of embracing all the options for digital cash, including cryptocurrencies to ensure seamless, convenient and hasslefree payments for goods that will be traded in the AfCFTA.

Gov’t rallies local insurers for AfCFTA business Continued from cover

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at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, has said. According to him, a number of local insurers have already expressed interest in the support mechanism to cover Ghanaian goods bound for the continental market against the risks of loss and damage. “It has been observed that most of the imports that come to Ghana do not have insurance cover, with same for exports,” said Mr. Nyame-Baafi. “Once this arrangement comes, Ghanaian

produce for export to any of the African countries will be insured against all trade-related risks,” he told journalists at the 4th Ghana Insurance Awards in Accra. He said government has listed insurance as one of five core service sectors—in addition to finance, transport and tourism— that it will prioritise and promote to boost the nation’s participation in the AfCFTA. “Boosting these five core services areas is going to enhance services productivity across the continent because it is services that is leading the growth of all

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Minister of Trade and Industry, John Alan Kyerematen

economies within the region. Insurers who are well-versed in trade would be encouraged under this arrangement to expand their operations to other parts of the continent to take advantage of the market as other foreign insurers enter the domestic market,” Mr. Nyame-Baafi said. With the commencement of trade in goods in the single market since January this year, the trade expert advised insurers to design tailored and innovative products that will entice the business community to do business with them. “This will boost the local insurance industry because the more companies increase their productivity, the more the insurance cover will increase,” he said. Mr. Nyame-Baafi called for partnerships among insurers to enable them build their competitiveness to provide insurance coverage to big-ticket transactions. “What we see now is that more of them [insurance firms] do invite other players to insure bigger contracts as a risk-sharing mechanism. The more we see of these partnerships, the more the business community will become confident that they are in safe hands with their insured goods,” he noted.

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MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

BoG report shows rising staff involvement in bank fraud Continued from cover who undergo limited background checks, for sensitive tasks, and lack of corporate governance systems that help to ensure accountability, fairness and transparency “Staff involvement in the commission of fraud experienced a significant increase, especially suppression of cash,” said the BoG in its 2020 Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDI) Fraud report. The bank said 56 percent of reported fraud cases and 93 percent of reported cash suppression cases involved staff of the reporting institutions. It added that despite the numerous notices of caution sounded out to the banking industry, in almost every fraud report issued since 2017, the phenomenon continues to increase. “Fifty-six percent of fraud incidents reported in 2020 indicated the involvement of staff members of the reporting institutions, as compared to 51

percent of staff involvement reported in 2019. This may be a consequence of the absence of corporate governance structures in some sections of the banking sector, resulting in the lack of accountability and transparency in their activities,” the central bank said. Suppression of deposits accounted for 73.3 percent of all fraud incidents reported in 2020 and 76.8 percent of all fraud incidents reported in 2019. Suppression recorded the highest rate of staff involvement. In general, there were a total of 2,608 incidents of fraud in 2020 as compared to 2,311 fraud cases reported in 2019, representing a year-on-year increase of 12.9 percent. The value involved increased from GH¢115.51m in 2019 to GH¢1bn in 2020. The BoG said the notable increase in the value reported was as a result of high values recorded in attempted correspondent banking fraud (forgery of SWIFT advice). Even though the banking sector

did not suffer any losses from any of the correspondent banking fraud attempts, the regulator said it posed a reputational risk to some banks, whose staff were found culpable in two of the three reported incidents.

Losses incurred as a result of fraud stood at GH¢25.4m last year as compared to an estimated loss of GH¢33.44m in 2019, representing a 24 percent decrease.

Expert warns of rising cyber attacks Continued from cover Speaking at a public symposium organised by the Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana in partnership with digiCAP and the University of Cape Coast, he said the chances of online data breaches and cyber crimes are common due to the vast number of Ghanaians online. “About 50 percent of Ghanaians are online doing one thing or the other. Juxtapose this with the fact that according to Kaspersky, Ghana was the 78th most attacked country in the world relative to cyberattacks. This means people are busy in our cyber space and chances are that we are all potential targets,” Mr. Yirenchi Danquah said. He noted that in Ghana and in the West African sub-region, the motivation for cyberattacks is usually financial, making financial institutions the primary target for cyberattacks. He said: “Even though we may not hear frequently of reports of cyberattacks, they happen all the time, particularly with people trying to defraud others using digital means. I am sure we have

all received calls from strange numbers trying to defraud us. That is how common cases of cybercrimes have become now.” Mr. Danquah advised government to consider prioritising cybersecurity and funding for the execution of Ghana’s national cybersecurity strategy while at the same time building resilience and the foundational capability to protect national assets due to their vulnerability to cyberattacks. He also encouraged international cooperation with other countries to help minimise the incidence of cyberattacks. “A lot is happening to push cybersecurity to the fore. This is

evident in the passing of the Data Protection Act in 2012 and the Cybersecurity Act in 2020. The Bank of Ghana has also been very proactive in making sure that the financial sector is protected from cyberattacks. There is however a lot more to be done on both the national and individual level to make us more secure,” he added. For the citizenry, he advised that identity theft is on the rise and individuals should do their best to safeguard their Personally Identifiable Information (PII). PII is information that when used alone or with other relevant data can identify an individual. This may include full name, email address, date of birth, ID number,

etc. This information in the hands of a fraudster could lead to impersonation. “Imagine the police showing up at your door for a crime you did not commit just because a fake ID bearing your details was found at the crime scene. We should demand adequate security of our PII from service providers who request same,” he said. The symposium, which was held under the theme “State Ghana’s Cybersecurity: Should We Be Concerned?”, brought together key players from industry, academia and government to deliberate on Ghana’s cybersecurity and measures to be taken to ensure that Ghanaians are protected. Other panelists included Jacqueline Hanson-Kotei, Senior Manager, Enterprise Information Security & Governance, MTN Ghana; Paul K. Arhin Jr., Lecturer, Computer Science Department, University of Cape Coast; and Dr. Quist Aphesti Kester, Senior Lecturer at the Ghana Communication Technology University.

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

News

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

China proposes China-Africa Partnership Plan on Digital Innovation

r Deng Li, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister, has announced China's proposals for the ChinaAfrica Partnership Plan on Digital Innovation at the ChinaAfrica Internet Development and Cooperation Forum. The Chinese Foreign Ministry in a statement said the forum, hosted by the Cyberspace Administration of China, was attended by ministerial-level officials from African countries and the African Union Commission in charge of digital and telecommunications affairs, diplomatic envoys to China, Chinese and African scholars and entrepreneurs. Mr Deng said that Chinese President Xi Jinping has reiterated that China would explore broader cooperation with Africa in such new business forms as digital economy, smart city, and 5G at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 last year. The statement recalled that Mr Wang Yi, China State Councilor and Foreign Minister, made the proposal for China and Africa to cooperate in building a Digital Africa during his visit to Africa earlier this year. It said China is ready to

work with Africa to formulate and implement a China-Africa Partnership Plan on Digital Innovation. The statement said strengthening the digital infrastructure is to unclog the information artery of economic and social development and China would share its digital technologies with Africa to promote digital infrastructure connectivity. It noted that Chinese enterprises would be encouraged to work with their African partners to participate in digital infrastructure projects including; fiber optic backbone networks, cross-border connectivity and new-generation mobile communication networks. It said China would also help expand Internet access in Africa's remote areas to connect the last mile of the information network. The ministry said secondly, growing the digital economy to promote integrated development of digital technologies and the real economy and China would support Africa in raising the level of digitisation in the public and corporate sectors and promoting industrialisation by applying new technologies such as cloud

computing, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and mobile payment. It said China would strengthen e-commerce cooperation with Africa to bring more quality African products into the Chinese market, and leverage crossborder e-commerce to speed up the integration of Africa's information and industrial chains and promote digital education to overcome the "talent bottleneck" that constrains digital innovation. It noted that China would implement the "Talented Young Scientist Program", the "Cirrus Innovative Talent Exchange Programme" and other initiatives to step up ChinaAfrica cooperation on distance education and provide support for Africa in training talents in digital-related fields.

Mr Deng said China's initiatives are not empty visions that stayed only on paper and China would work with the African side to formulate and implement this partnership right away and strive for early harvests. He noted that with the support of the Chinese side, several fiber optic backbone network projects would be implemented. The statement said in eptember, the "African Products Online Promoting Season" and ChinaAfrica BDS Cooperation Forum would be held in succession. It said China would also work with Africa to make plans for the digital cooperation initiatives to be launched in the next three years, which will be included in the outcome document of the next Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting.

Prof. Quaynor wants AfCFTA to consider cryptocurrencies in digitisation drive Continued from cover as cryptocurrencies and block chain in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) digitisation drive. According to him, Africa loses billions from intra-regional trading in foreign currency, and he believes adopting an African Union coin to fund Africa’s Agenda 2063 will revolutionise the continent’s trading activities. Speaking virtually at the Africa Digital Forum (ADF), Accra edition, on the theme “The Digital Challenge, Africa’s Opportunity under AfCFTA”, he said “one forward-looking proposal is to take advantage of advances in cryptocurrencies and block chain and issue [the] African Union coin to fund Africa’s Agenda 2063, and we will trade only in African Union coin among ourselves.” Agenda 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for

transforming the continent into the global powerhouse of the future. It is the continent’s strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal for inclusive and sustainable development and is a concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, selfdetermination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance. Prof. Quaynor also stated that a good, stable and secure internet is a pre-condition for a successful AfCFTA. “AfCFTA will do well when there are lots of companies and government websites engaged in online commerce. These commerce and government websites require domain names, web hosting, e-commerce and payment tools,” he said. The Dean of the University of Ghana Business School,

Prof. Nii Narku Quaynor

Prof. Justice Bawole, speaking at the same event, bemoaned the mismatch when it comes to digital skills, arguing that there is a lot of mismatch as educational institutions are constrained in their ability to give digital skills. According to him, digital skills are critical to ensure the “young

ones are included and are able to take over from us”. He added that digital skills are not organic—as in they do not grow by themselves unless concerted efforts are made, through deliberate policy and environmental investment, to create them.

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

News

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Ghana to begin administering 2nd AstraZeneca shot tomorrow

he Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate has announced that the administration of the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine will commence on August 31, 2021, to September 4, 2021, across all the 29 Districts in the Greater Accra Region. Members of the general public who are eligible to partake in this exercise are people above 18 years who received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine between March 10, 2021, and March 29, 2021. "The general public is advised to bring along a valid national ID card and their COVID-19 Vaccination Card for the exercise," a statement issued by the Directorate said. "The Regional Health Directorate would like to urge all eligible persons to fully

participate in the exercise. "The general public is also encouraged to adhere to all

the COVID-19 safety protocols, especially the appropriate wearing of face masks and strict

social distancing measures, whilst at the vaccination centres".

SMEs to benefit from training programmes to boost growth

ome 90 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) will benefit from a Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) training programme to boost the growth and productivity of SMEs to create jobs. The programme, an initiative of Invest for jobs, a special initiative on training and job creation, to improve the business ecosystem in some selected sectors of the economy is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ. Mr John Duti, Team Leader

of Invest for Jobs, speaking at the launch of the Invest in Jobs project in Accra, said one of the key objectives of the Programme is to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of Ghanaian SMEs, as well as their job-creating capacities. He said owing to the huge contribution of SMEs to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product, there is the need to make them locally and internationally competitive and strengthen their resilience against external shocks, especially in times of crisis as currently with the COVID pandemic. A total of 60 growth-oriented

SMEs with high job-creation potential, would receive the SCORE training and another 30 would be trained in Business Continuity and Recovery. Mr. Duti said the programme is to promote job-creating growth of enterprises in Ghana and other African countries, hence interventions being implemented to help build a more enabling environment for investment by European enterprises in Ghana. It is also to increase the capacities of Micro Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) and improve the business ecosystem for the

automotive industry and other sectors. Mr. Kweku Odame-Takyi, Director-General of Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), said the programme complemented the Government’s industrialisation agenda as it sought to create a generation of productivity awareness operatives, develop cordial management and staff relationship, as well as ensured workplace safety and security as expected of the SCORE outcomes. He said the MDPI has joined the SCORE project in 2013 and has trained 250 enterprises, many of which have experienced increased productivity and profits. Mr Odame-Takyi commended the BMZ for joining and providing financial support as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) exited sponsorship. “As the German government is currently hosting our President Nana Akufo- Addo, I think our cooperation is well-grounded and in line with the existing cooperation between Ghana and the Federal Republic of Germany,” he said. He assured that MDPI and its implementation partners were committed to delivering on the Programme to promote enterprise competitiveness and sustainable decent jobs of SMEs in Ghana.

News

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

South Africa's Massmart to sell Game stores in Ghana M assmart, the owners of general merchandise Game stores in Ghana, have announced that it is selling all its outlets in West and East Africa to stop losses in that struggling business. Reuters reports that the decision comes after the secondlargest distributor of consumer goods in Africa reported a narrower half-year loss. The decision will lead to the sale of 14 Game stores in West and East Africa, four of which are located in Ghana. "The performance and the complexity in running those businesses is something that frankly we needed to address. We've commenced a formal sales process, we're currently in discussions with potential purchasers to take on those

stores," Slape told investors. Slape said the move will result in an annual profit before interest and tax improvement of 750 million rand ($50.24 million)

Game sales from the rest of the Africa stores fell by 18.6% in rand terms in the 26 weeks ended June, and by 5% in constant currencies, due to continued currency

weaknesses, Massmart with presence in 12 African countries said. Game reported a narrower trading loss of 347.3 million rand in the period. Through additional lower overheads, reduced Africa exposure and possible further store closures or disposals, Game will be in a break even position, Slape said. "But that is not enough. Achieving break even performance isn't going to be sufficient for us to be satisfied, we've got to really get Game back to a healthy level of profitability and performance," he said. Group chief financial officer Mohammed Abdool-Samad said he hopes Game will break even in the next 12 months.

Africa must strengthen democratic institutions for economic initiated to curb the trend. growth - AfDB President He noted that more than

frica must strengthen its democratic institutions if it is to experience sustained economic growth and effective national transformation, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has said. He said many institutional and governance deficiencies had for long hindered the capacity of African countries to build the level and density of productive activity for economic transformation. Speaking at a virtual public lecture over the weekend, Dr Adesina said African leaders must make its democratic institutions stronger to fight the numerous vices that hindered the continent’s economic progress. It was on the topic: “Integrity, Leadership and Stewardship for National Transformation in Africa,”Organized by the Network of Intercessors for Africa and the SALT Institute, and aimed at soliciting ideas for the transformation of Africa. Dr Adesina said: “To experience sustained economic growth and effective national transformation in today’s highly complex society, Africa must strengthen its democratic institutions. Leaders must demonstrate integrity and fairness to all sector of society to prevent conflicts and threats to

national stability and cohesion which in turn adversely affect economic growth.” He said, in some African countries, political power rested on proceeds from state capture, rent and corruption that had for decades, defied solutions and continued to generate persistent inequities. These vices, he explained, are responsible for much of the continent’s economic underperformance. “Poor governance and corruption erode state capacities. It makes it impossible to provide the adequate public services and it creates a sense of exclusion among the diverse people represented in many countries on the continent. “Which is why those in leadership positions must be accountable by declaring their performance achievements annually and transparently accounting for their expenditure. Furthermore, supreme audit institutions and auditors with integrity should verify such claims to ascertain their veracity,” he said. The AfDB President bemoaned the continent’s high unemployment situation and warned of dire consequences if immediate measures were not

30 million African youth entered the labour market, however, only enough jobs existed to absorb a mere three million, leaving the continent with a deficit of 10 million jobs to grapple with. This, Dr Adesina, explained needed serious attention and stringent measures including; investing more in Africa’s educational sector to provide quality education and capacity building opportunities that prepares the younger generation for the jobs of the future. “Singapore’s rapid economic growth and development was because their most important asset was their human capital and in fact the most important position in the Singapore’s government was not the Minister of Finance, was not the Minister of Industry, but rather the Minister of Education. Singapore spent $12.8 billion on education in 2018 and almost $20 billion dollars in 2020. Today, Singapore tops the global rankings in education, it’s spoilt with human capital powering the economy, driven by hightech industries, electronic manufacturing including; machineries, medical equipment, shipping and global financial

services,” he said. He added that: “Today, over 30 million young Africans enter labour market every year, but currently there are only enough jobs to absorb a mere three million, which means that annually Africa has a deficit of 10 million jobs. If not addressed seriously and strategically the social implication down the road can only be best imagined. “Therefore, we must put our money where our mouth is and invest in our most precious asset, that is, our young children and our vibrant youth. To do that, we must strategically build a new leadership partner that places the younger generation at the centre of our policy formulation and development agendas. “We have a responsibility to provide quality education and capacity building opportunities that prepare the younger generation for the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past.” GNA

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MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Ghana, Germany sign declaration to improve construction materials testing

he Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Herbert Krapa, has on behalf of government signed an Institutional Partnership Agreement for Germany and Ghana to collaborate on testing and standards development for construction materials and chemicals. The signing took place on the side-lines of the Compact with Africa Meeting in Berlin, Germany on August 27, 2021. The Joint Declaration of Intent ( JDoI) signed with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMWi, the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing for Germany (BAM)

and the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) for Ghana, seeks the common aspiration to foster the economic and trade cooperation between both

countries by implementing an Institutional Partnership between their government institutions. The JDoI was signed for the German Government by Mr Marko Wanderwitz, Parliamentary State

Secretary and Prof Dr Ulrich Panne, President of BAM whilst Hon Herbert Krapa and Prof Alex Dodoo, Director-General of the GSA signed for the Government of Ghana.

‘Back digitisation drive with financial literacy program’

he President of the African Entrepreneurship School, Mr Joshua Mensah, has called on the government to couple the digitisation of the financial sector with a vigorously planned financial literacy programme for the citizenry Mr Mensah explained that when the citizenry are equipped with financial education in the areas of saving, investment, insurance, mortgaging among other financial tools, it would help to bring wealth to the citizenry while digitisation reaps the various taxes for government. He was speaking at the maiden edition of the annual Financial Literacy and Education conference, which brought together about 100 business owners, organised by the Federation of Financial Educators and Organizations (FFEO) in Accra on the theme: “Reshaping the Future of Finance through Digitization.” The Conference aimed at contributing to the vision of the National Strategy on Financial Education for Ghana for citizens to have the knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to make prudent financial decisions for themselves, their families and their communities. Mr Mensah said as government was on its way to achieving its financial inclusion agenda, it would be necessary to educate the masses on various ways of managing their income towards growing financially independent

citizenry and build national prosperity. Embrace Financial Planning He urged the citizenry to embrace financial planning in all its smallest component – cash flow, investment, estate, insurance, children’s future, tax, and retirement planning, explaining that very few do take time to find out what comes in and what goes out of their hands each month. Further, he said savings and investing were two separate activities, clarifying that one has to do with expenditure while the other has to do with financial instruments, noting “Investment planning deals with the kind of instrument an individual should invest in to get the best out of his wealth”. Expounding on the retirement planning, Mr Mensah said to achieve a hassle-free retired life, there was the need to make prudent investment decision during your working life, thus putting your hard-earned money to work for you against the future. Launch of Sika Tse, a Financial Education Tool The President of AES launched a financial tool named ‘Sika Tse’ (Rich Person) to help train individuals, professionals, young people, both formal and informal actors as it assist them in answering questions on the use of their finances. The tool is aimed at build

their financial acumen as it tis characterised with all expenses in our daily lives. Among the benefits is that it can help in budgeting your revenue on key expenditure, helps to identify the things that consumes cash inflow, helps to increase financial knowledge of participants. Mr Mensah urged individuals to enroll to partake in the programme in Executive Certificate in Financial Education leading to becoming a Certified Financial Educator. He said it would that would help enrich their financial knowledge, hence becoming ambassadors of financial literacy and education agenda. Retirement and Government’s Plan The Education and Sensitization Expert at the Corporate Affairs Unit of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, Mrs Rosina Akrofi said pension contribution was necessary to prepare individuals in readiness for retirement. She explained that the firsttier pension and the second-tier

pension contributions were for the formal sector workers, while the third-tier contribution was for the informal sector. However, she explained that individuals in the informal could contribute through SSNIT informal. Mrs Akrofi said the third tier comprises Voluntary Provident Fund and Personal or Group Pension Scheme for contributors, who were self-employed in the informal sector. She said pension contribution amount in the informal sector was not constant like the formal sector and that a contributor could decide on any amount they could afford, noting a worker could join the pension contribution scheme if from age 15 years. Prudent financial mechanisms to attract loans Mr Robert Hertz Jackson, a Microfinance Expert from PHAnova Solutions has called on Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to put in place good financial mechanisms to help make their businesses credible enough to attract Bank Loans.

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MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Apple loosens its grip over App Store payments A pple settled a wide-ranging class action lawsuit with US app makers on Thursday, announcing changes to the App Store such as giving developers

more flexibility to advertise outside payment methods. The settlement will include US$100-million worth of payments to app makers ranging

from $250 to $30 000/developer. “To give developers even more flexibility to reach their customers, Apple is also clarifying that developers can use

communications, such as e-mail, to share information about payment methods outside of their iOS app,” the company said in a statement. The settlement between the Cupertino, Californiabased technology giant and US developers follows months of scrutiny of Apple’s App Store practices. Apple also has waged a legal battle with Epic Games, maker of Fortnite, over its policies. The company also said it would retain recent changes to the App Store search engine for the next three years. ‘Objective characteristics’ “At the request of developers, Apple has agreed that its search results will continue to be based on objective characteristics like downloads, star ratings, text relevance and user behaviour signals,” Apple said. The company is expanding the number of price points developers can offer and will publish an annual App Store transparency support about app removals.

Oil rally ends amid COVID-19 concerns, returning supply

il fell on Thursday for the first session this week as renewed concerns about demand amid rising COVID-19 infections cut short a three-day rally, and as Mexico restored some oil production. Brent crude was down 71 cents, or 1%, at $71.54 a barrel by 0939 GMT, having risen 1.7% on Wednesday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate oil was down 77 cents, or 1.10%, at $67.59 a barrel, after gaining 1.2% in the previous session. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that American crude inventories fell last week for a third consecutive week and overall fuel demand increased to the most since March 2020. But the demand picture is not entirely bullish. “For now, U.S. consumers appear to be shrugging off the spread of the Delta variant … However, it seems likely that we are near the peak in U.S. demand, which will act as a lid on oil prices,” Capital Economics said in a note. The return of output in Mexico, where a fire on Sunday on an

offshore platform killed at least five workers and knocked out a bit more than 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production, is also weighing on prices. Pemex had so far recovered 71,000 bpd of production and expects to add an additional 110,000 bpd within a few hours. More broadly, fresh COVID-19 outbreaks fuelled by the Delta variant of the coronavirus are raising concerns about the strength of the economic recovery

globally. “Push-and-pull factors have led oil prices to gyrate wildly in recent weeks. Looking ahead, the balancing of cyclical demand headwinds with structural supply tailwinds, leads us to remain neutral-to-bearish on oil prices for the rest of 2021,” said Ehsan Khoman, director at MUFG Bank. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech to the Jackson Hole economic conference on Friday

will likely offer few new hints about when the U.S. central bank may start reducing its massive asset purchases. Next week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet on Sept. 1 to decide its policy amid calls from the United States to add more barrels to the market to help the global economic recovery. Reuters

African Business

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Cameroon's main port city battles mounting flood peril

ouala was plunged into darkness, but cries pierced the silent night: the water was rising. Alerted by the neighbors, Hummel put some of his belongings to safety and hurriedly sent the children away. A few minutes later, the blackish liquid invaded the house. In mid-August, like every year during the rainy season, the informal neighborhood of Makèpè-Missoké was invaded by water in the heart of Cameroon's economic capital. Under the effect of global warming, floods are becoming more and more frequent in this port city of more than three million inhabitants, which is constantly expanding. "Burned out TV, burned-out refrigerator... Everything is wasted," sighs Hummel Tsafack, 35. "As soon as the thunder rumbles, we raise the beds. We are always afraid here. The water comes so quickly," agrees his neighbor François, in his fifties. He still has a bitter memory of the flood of the summer of 2020 that paralyzed the city and devastated the neighborhood. In his small house soaked with humidity, all the household appliances are out of order. On the floor, the concrete is dotted with a few holes. "This place, we've already cemented it seven times. Every time it floods, it

breaks and we have to start over." Population growth "We moved here because it was cheaper. We're not going to move," he warns. This precarious neighborhood is in a flood zone that cannot be built on. But residents continue to pile in, driven by the lack of space in a city with a population growth rate of over 5.5% per year. Each year, nearly 110,000 new city dwellers move into the megalopolis and the gap between supply and demand for available land is growing. Douala is prone to flooding with nearly 250 km of rivers and heavy rainfall averaging 4,000 mm per year. It is located at the mouth of the Wouri River, on a low coastal plateau, bordering the Atlantic Ocean and is influenced by the tides. Meteorological data for the last 20 years indicate a decrease in

rainfall, which masks an increase in extreme events, and very violent rain episodes, causing flooding. The temperature of the metropolis is increasing, as it is at the global level. According to the latest report of the UN climate experts (IPCC), coastal cities are in the front line of the climate crisis and risk being "wiped out by long-term flooding" and rising sea levels. According to the IPCC, floods will displace an average of 2.7 million people in Africa and flood-related costs could increase tenfold by 2050, to $60 billion a year, in the 136 largest coastal cities. Plastic waste In Makèpè-Missoké, plastic waste litters the river. "Look at all the garbage thrown away

by the residents. In addition to this, the soil is silting up and invasive plants are colonizing the riverbed. In case of heavy rains, the water overflows," explains environmental specialist Didier Yimkwa. To address the problem, the city has built about 40 kilometers of drains since 2012. Some atrisk, unsanitary and precarious neighborhoods have also been upgraded to allow access to city services, especially those for waste collection. But garbage and garbage are everywhere in Douala's poor neighborhoods, and the drains are often covered with plastic, preventing water from draining away. "It is estimated that 30% of waste is lost in nature," said Dr. Joseph Magloire Olinga, Deputy Director of Studies and Environmental Protection in Douala. At the same time, another program has developed a hydrometeorological observatory to collect reliable local data on rainfall and prevent the risk of flooding. The participation of the French Development Agency and the World Bank is essential, says Olinga, who is in charge of monitoring the "Douala, sustainable city" project. AFP

Tourists return to Egypt's resorts after months of restrictions

handful of tourists take photos of the great Egyptian pyramids. After 18 months of travel restrictions, tourists can once enjoy the beauty of ancient tombs. Tourism accounts for 9% of the country's GDP, but according to the tourism ministry, less than a quarter of the usual number of tourists visited Egypt in 2020 signaling a 55% fall in GDP. The industry had already suffered from instability in the country following the 2011 political unrest. But since the beginning of 2021, authorities have started to regain hope. The government made the vaccination of tourism workers in the South Sinai and the Red Sea governorates a top priority - that represents about 2 million people given the vaccine in the country's most visited resorts. COVID-19 restrictions for tourists are also relatively light:

a single negative PCR test upon arrival has been requested since July 2020. "Tourism is starting to recover. If we look at the pyramid or the Egyptian Museum, we will find a very large occupancy rate, whether from internal or external tourism, especially after receiving Russian tourism we began to see very large occupancy rate from external tourism in Sharm ElSheikh, Hurghada and also Marsa Alam," says Islam Fares, Director general of the union of Arab tourist guides. Ministry of Tourism statistics show a noticeable increase in tourist numbers: since the beginning of 2021, Egypt has welcomed 300,000 tourists every month. By April, this figure rose to more than half a million a month, around 50% of visitors prepandemic. "We look forward in the second half of 2020 (2021), and after vaccinations began around the

world and the arrival of Russian tourism at Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada airports, to recover a little bit until we reach the normal rates for the tourism sector," says Fares. In early August, Russia resumed flights to Egyptian Red Sea resorts, ending a ban that had

lasted almost six years. Moscow had banned direct flights to Egypt after the 2015 bombing of a Russian airliner shortly after it took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. AP

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

News

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Stakeholders meet on the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration in Africa

takeholders involved in the migration sector have met today to share their perspectives on a cohesive implementation of the Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular Migration (GCM) in Africa. The purpose of the meeting was to review the GCM’s implementation, discuss pressing challenges, share good practices and make recommendations to the first Africa Regional Review of the Global Compact for Migration taking place on 31 August and 1 September. About 100 stakeholders, including members of local authorities, civil society, business, academia, human rights groups, media and humanitarian bodies, attended the meeting. In her opening remarks, Ms. Thokozile Ruzvidzo, Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division, said: “The GCM offers us opportunities to boost migration benefits for migrants as well as for origin, transit and destination societies. While its adoption is a milestone, the GCM’s implementation remains

key.” She added: “This meeting allows us to reflect on the status of the GCM’s implementation by African member States since its adoption in 2018 from stakeholders’ perspectives. I urge all of you to continue your active engagement in ensuring the GCM’s vision of safe, orderly and regular migration is achieved in Africa.” The meeting comprised of two main activities with one focused on summary reports drawn from the four stakeholder consultations held since December 2020 while the other featured discussions

on the GCM’s implementation progress, challenges and good practices in Africa. Challenges In the reports and the discussion, stakeholders expressed that while advances have been made in implementing the GCM in Africa, the progress remains slow, with the COVID-19 pandemic undermining the momentum. They raised concerns over various aspects of migration, especially on human rights violations, border governance,

corruption, access to basic services, trafficking, missing migrants, detention, forced return and reintegration. Limited data, uneven commitment to the GCM, lack of legal identity and unawareness of regular migration pathways, stakeholders stressed, put migrants at greater risk and weaken better targeting of policies and programmes. They outlined a range of practices which governments could replicate to meet the ambitious vision of the GCM. These included migrant labour permits, training of border officials as well as the role of human rights commission in advocating with governments on behalf of undocumented migrants. In his address to the meeting, Mr. Jonathan Prentice, Head of Secretariat of the United Nations Network on Migration (UNNM), said: “Today’s consultation is an opportunity to focus on what impact the GCM has achieved in Africa to date, but it is also vital to identify what challenges still remain to be overcome to realize this cooperative framework.”

GNPC cuts sod for construction of GNPC Institute of Law and Governance at UCC Recounting the diligent He challenged the university

he Chief Executive of GNPC, Dr. K. K. Sarpong has cut the sod for the construction of the multipurpose GNPC Institute of Law and Governance at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in the Central Region. Speaking at the ceremony, Dr. Sarpong reiterated GNPC's commitment to providing

the necessary funding for the completion of the project but charged the contractor, consultant and the university to do their part to make the project a reality. “This project is expected to be completed in 24 months and we emphasise that you discharge it and give us value for money,” he noted.

discussions between the GNPC board and the university led by the immediate past Vice Chancellor, Professor Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, and Pro Vice Chancellor Dora Francisca EduBuandoh, he said “our vision is that the Institute for Law and Governance will open the door for research in petrol commerce and strengthen legal capacity in petroleum transactions”.

to take advantage of the project and work with the General Legal Council, so that UCC can become a center of learning for Professional Legal studies to serve those in the Western and Central region. The Vice Chancellor of UCC, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, thanked GNPC for the project and indicated that the project will host the UCC Faculty of Law, Institute for Oil and Gas Studies and the GNPC UCC Professorial Chair in Petroleum Commerce. He assured GNPC that the US$5million investment which the corporation is putting into the project will help train and develop the human capacity of Ghanaians for the benefit of the country. The Central Regional Minister, Ms. Justina Marigold Asaan, thanked GNPC for sponsoring such an important project and called on the contractor to employ artisans from the region to create jobs for the locals who are in dire need of job opportunities.

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Feature

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

The danger of “nothing to lose”

residents, generals, dictators, and ordinary people take big risks when they have nothing to lose, similar to a quarterback in American football throwing a so-called Hail Mary pass. But the consequences of such a strategy in politics, war, and business are usually more serious than the outcome of a football game. In the Middle East, for example, it has produced continuous conflict because the warring parties feel as though they have nothing to lose. The brokerage firm TD Ameritrade’s annual collegiate stock-market contest illustrates the incentives when there is “nothing to lose.” Each team begins with a paper allocation of $500,000, and a final cash prize goes to the team whose portfolio earned the highest profit in the space of a month. In 2015, students from Southeast Missouri State University beat 475 other entrants by turning $500,000 into $1.3 million. None of the winning students knew anything about finance, so how did they do it? According to the team captain, “We had nothing to lose. If we end up losing all $500,000, oh well. We basically just decided to be as risky as possible.” This go-for-broke approach exploited the rules of a contest that rewarded only the biggest gain, while ignoring all the losses. The students were protected against losing money, so they devised their strategy accordingly. This anecdote may sound trivial, but that same logic

is often followed by protagonists in real-world conflicts. For example, the pursuit of “unconditional surrender” during wartime can have catastrophic unintended consequences. When US President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued this politically popular demand during World War II, the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, told Hitler that now, “the Germans have nothing to lose and everything to gain” by continuing to fight. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allied commander in Europe and future US president, agreed with Goebbels. In November 1944, he warned the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington, DC, that the “enemy’s continued stolid resistance” comes, in part, from “Nazi propaganda which is convincing every German that unconditional surrender means the complete devastation of Germany and her elimination as a nation.” Hitler relied on that spin to motivate his troops for a desperate counterattack in December 1944 (the Battle of the Bulge), saying beforehand, this is “really a kind of Hun battle in which you either stand, or fall and die.” Hitler’s roll of the dice – his Hail Mary pass – did not change the outcome of the war, which was already lost. But it did produce the worst atrocity inflicted on US troops in Europe: the massacre at the Belgian town of Malmedy. A similar nothing-to-lose attitude drives the continued wars between Israelis and

Palestinians. In 1973, when Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir met Joe Biden, then the freshman US senator from Delaware, to discuss Israel’s security, she said, “don’t look so worried … We Israelis have a secret weapon. We have nowhere else to go.” More recently, Israel has felt it has nothing to lose in fighting Hamas, because the organization’s founding charter denies the right of the Jewish state to exist. Article 11 of the charter begins: “The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it.” And Article 13 fully closes the door on peace: “The so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement.” But Israel must also deal with Palestinians who just want a state of their own, rather than Israel’s destruction. As Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer at the United Nations, noted in response to the latest conflict in Gaza this past May, Israel has “failed in defeating Palestinian consciousness and in breaking apart our national belonging … We all stand at a crossroad.” At the same time, Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli vice prime minister and justice minister, wrote, “The two-state solution … seems as important as ever. Even if peace is

not around the corner, the point of no return is closer than ever before. We must not go there. The most important thing for now is to keep the road open.” In other words, beware of enemies with nothing to lose. Martin Luther King, Jr., a little over a year before he was murdered in Memphis, used a similar idea for avoiding armed revolution: “Riots grow out of intolerable conditions. Violent revolts are generated by revolting conditions, and there is nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of people who feel they have no stake in it; who feel they have nothing to lose.” In a world beset by new and old zero-sum conflicts, this lesson remains as timely as ever. William L. Silber, a former professor of finance and economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University, is currently a senior adviser at Cornerstone Research. He is the author of The Power of Nothing to Lose: The Hail Mary Effect in Politics, War, and Business (Morrow/Harper 2021).

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Aviation

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Qantas hopes to restart international service by year-end By Gregory Polek

n 80 percent vaccination rate among Australia’s citizens would trigger what Qantas calls a gradual reopening of international borders and allow for the airline’s reintroduction of service to markets with relatively high and increasing vaccination rates by December, the airline said Thursday. Australia’s vaccination rate now stands at 25.5 percent but recent trends have raised the confidence of government officials that the country will reach 80 percent by the end of the year. Qantas said the vaccination rates in the UK, North America, and parts of Asia make those destinations “highly likely” candidates for a December restart, while low vaccination rates in places such as Bali, Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City, and Johannesburg have prompted the airline to delay planned restart of service to April 2022. Under current plans, beginning in mid-December 2021 flights would connect Australia with socalled Covid-safe destinations, which would likely include Singapore, the U.S., Japan, the UK, and Canada using Boeing 787s and Airbus A330, while the airline deploys Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s for services to Fiji. Qantas added that it expects

higher demand post-Covid for non-stop between Australia and London. The airline said it might use Darwin—its main entry for repatriation flights—as a transit point alternative or supplement to its existing Perth hub given conservative border policies in Western Australia. Fleet plans call for five A380s returning to service ahead of schedule. The Airbus superjumbos would fly between Sydney and Los Angeles starting in July 2022, and between Sydney and London (via Singapore) beginning in November 2022. “The A380s work well on these long-haul routes when there’s sufficient demand, and the high vaccination rates in both markets would underpin this,” the airline said in a statement. Further plans call for Qantas to extend the range of its A330-200 to operate some trans-Pacific routes such as Brisbane-Los Angeles and Brisbane-San Francisco. The range increase involves some “technical changes” by Airbus, it said. Meanwhile, flights to Hong Kong would restart in February and the rest of the international networks of Qantas and low-cost subsidiary Jetstar would begin to open in April 2022. Qantas plans to take delivery of three Boeing 787-9s still in storage with Boeing during the airline’s 2023 fiscal year, while it takes delivery of its first three

Airbus A321LRs early that year. The A321LR’s extended range will free some Boeing 787s for redeployment in other markets, the airline said. All told, Qantas expects 10 of its A380s with upgraded interiors to return to service by early 2024, although timing depends on how quickly the market recovers. The airline has decided to retire two A380s. Ongoing repatriation and charter flights using A330s and 787s along with specific funding from the Australian government for crew training and engineering work to return idle aircraft to service will aid Qantas’ readiness to restart international travel, it added. “The prospect of flying overseas might feel a long way

off, especially with New South Wales and Victoria in lockdown, but the current pace of the vaccine rollout means we should have a lot more freedom in a few months’ time,” said Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce. “It’s obviously up to government exactly how and when our international borders reopen, but with Australia on track to meet the 80 percent trigger agreed by National Cabinet by the end of the year, we need to plan ahead for what is a complex restart process. “There’s a lot of work that needs to happen, including training for our people and carefully bringing aircraft back into service. We’re also working to integrate the IATA travel pass into our systems to help our customers prove their vaccine status and cross borders.

British Airways proposes short-haul unit based at Gatwick By Gregory Polek and Charles Alcock

ritish Airways on Thursday said it has begun talks with its unions over proposals for a dedicated short-haul operation at London Gatwick Airport (LGW), confirming a report published in the Wall Street Journal. The carrier, which operates as part of the International Airlines Group, would offer no further comment during the process. The British Airline Pilots Association confirmed that talks over employment terms for the planned new operation have started. “BALPA cautiously welcomes the decision to restart BA short-haul operations at LGW and create a number of much-needed new pilot jobs,” commented acting general secretary Martin Chalk. In April 2020, BA announced plans to cut more than 1,100 pilots from its payroll and make large

cuts to its Gatwick operation as part of a wider plan to respond to a serious loss of income resulting from the Covid pandemic. The reduction of Gatwick operations also resulted in large job losses among BA cabin crew, ground staff, and the wider airport workforce. Not all the jobs

immediately evaporated because a government-backed furlough program due to expire in October covers some staff. The confirmation of BA’s planned new operation comes a day after Gatwick said that public consultation will start on September 9 over plans to add

capacity by allowing routine use of its existing northern runway alongside its main runway. According to a statement issued Wednesday, the airport’s plan calls for repositioning the northern runway’s centerline further north by 12 meters (40 feet) for departing aircraft.

Feature

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

State of Ghana’s cybersecurity, should we be concerned?”

hana is ranked 78th most attacked country in the world in terms of cybersecurity, this was revealed at the maiden Industry-Academia symposium organised by the Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana (IIPGH) in partnership with DigiCAP.gh on Cybersecurity at the University of Cape Coast (UCC). The objective was to bring together industry players: educators, students, policymakers among others for an industry-academia dialogue on ICT development to create opportunities for the youth. This dialogue was dubbed INDAC-TED (Industry-Academia Tech dialogue). The DigiCAP project targets students and facilitators in public tertiary institutions and provides capacity building in practiceoriented ICT qualification programs as add-on measures to promote employment of young people after completion of their tertiary education programs. The University of Cape Coast is the first beneficiary of this program, and as part of its objectives, the project designed a quarterly symposium to create a platform that fosters closer collaboration between industry and academia. This quarterly symposium (QS) brings together ICT private sector, industry, and education providers, exchanging

information and discussing mutual activities. The QS has been established as a knowledgesharing event for people at a decision-making level in the field of ICT in Ghana. This maiden symposium discussed the state of Ghana’s cybersecurity, and why we should be concerned. The 2-hour blended (physical and virtual via Zoom webinar) program had experts in the domain from various sectors sharing knowledge and engaging the participants in relatable discussions. The Executive Director of the Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana, Mr David Gowu, gave a brief welcome address, and pointed out why the need for such program – bringing academia and industry together, which is in line with the organization’s objective. The guest speaker, Albert Yirenchi Danquah, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Stanbic Bank delivered a full presentation on the topic, and Madam Audrey Mireku a representative from the National Cybersecurity Center joined via Zoom on behalf of the National Cybersecurity Advisor, Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako, to deliver a short statement on the new Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038). The guest speaker addressed the difference between Information Security and Cybersecurity,

Cyber Fraud and Cyber Crime. He looked at data breaches, cyberwarfare, Malware, and its variants. He also gave an overview of Ghana’s cyberspace, noting 15 million total Internet users in Ghana currently, with over 8 million active social media users. Why should we be concerned? In January 2015, there were reports about Ghana government websites targeted by hackers; bank software hacked with amounts of money stolen; banks in Cameroon, Congo (DR), Equatorial Guinea, and Ghana, hit by multiple hacking waves. There have also been a series of Mobile Money (MoMo) fraud cases over the years, and now bank accounts linked to MoMo accounts are high fraud targets. The energy, transportation, telecommunication, and financial industries are critical infrastructure at risk. Academia and Research Institutes are not left out of cyberattacks, just as the Government and its agencies. As Ghana moves towards a fastgrowing digital economy, it becomes very necessary to have structures and policies in place to safeguard the digital space and to have a trusted digital society. Hence, these questions must be answered to strengthen policies, people, and processes as technology evolves.

• To what extent do we have the foundational capabilities and practices in place to protect our critical assets? • How effective are we at monitoring and detecting cyber incidents? • Can we effectively respond to and recover from a cyber incident? The National Cybersecurity strategy hinges on Governance, Risk Management in National Cybersecurity, Preparedness and resilience, Critical Infrastructure and services, Capability and Capacity building and awareness-raising, Legislation and Regulation, International cooperation. Ghana’s cybersecurity Act 2020 is to regulate cybersecurity activities in the country; promote the development of cybersecurity and provide for related matters. It further seeks to require or authorize the taking of measures to prevent, manage and respond to cybersecurity threats and incidents, to regulate owners of critical information infrastructure, to regulate cybersecurity service providers, and to make consequential or related amendments to certain other written laws. Also, Ghana’s Data Protection Act came into force in 2012 to protect the privacy of individual

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MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 and personal data. Data protection is about safeguarding our fundamental right to privacy by regulating the processing of personal data: providing the individual with rights over their data and setting up systems of accountability and clear obligations for those who control or undertake the processing of the data. Cyber Directive for Critical Infrastructure This image shows Ghana’s c y b e r c r i m e /c y b e r s e c u r i t y incident reporting points of contact Cybersecurity is a collaborative effort. Staying safe digitally requires safeguarding all categories of data not only from theft and damage but also from exploitation and abuse. This includes sensitive data, personally identifiable information, protected health information, personal information, intellectual property, data, and governmental and industry information systems. Your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) [phone number, email address, date of birth] is valuable - It can be used for identity theft to commit crimes in your name; Ask questions, be angry enough about what and how your PII is used; Let's demand our service providers to protect our information; Practice personal cyber hygiene. In his last remarks, the guest speaker stated Ghana is not immune to cyberattacks and

the effects could be devastating. Ghana is on the right track, but a lot more needs to be done. Other speakers were Jacqueline Hanson-Kotei, Enterprise Information Security & Governance, MTN Ghana; Paul K. Arhin Jnr, Computer Science Dept, University of Cape Coast; and Dr. Quist-Aphesti Kester, Head of Computer Science Department, Ghana Communication Technology University (GCTU). These experts addressed the issues at length and had a very interactive session, moderated by Mary Bawa, Broadcast Journalist, ATL FM. Prof. Rosemond Boohene, University of Cape Coast (UCC), HoD, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development, was in attendance. She gave her brief statement on the need for such timely program to discuss issues around cybersecurity. Hanna Schlingmann, the Project Manager, AFOS Foundation, digiCAP.gh, reiterated the need

for a personal cyber-hygiene and raising awareness. She clarified that digiCAP is an abbreviation for “Digital Capacity” which empowers individuals and institutions to thrive in the digital era. In the same vein, Mike Loose, AFOS Foundation, International Management Adviser, Germany, also pointed out the extent of havoc cyberattacks can cause, giving examples from Germany and around the world. He added, the topic was right and well delivered. The Director of Operations, IIPGH, Kafui Amanfu, in his closing remarks urged private organizations and stakeholders to be much concerned about such symposiums and to take bold steps in supporting subsequent events to drive the conversation to larger and diverse groups. He encouraged participants to take the knowledge and information shared and learned from this event to their various organizations and locations to ensure a more secure and overall safer information

society for all. DigiCAP.gh is an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) project financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and implemented by AFOS, a German Foundation for Entrepreneurial Development Cooperation. This quarterly symposium is a branded service product of IIPGH, supported by DigiCAP.gh in collaboration with UCC, and potentially at least one education provider in ICT in Ghana. Throughout implementing the DigiCAP.gh project, the QS shall develop and be positioned for enhancing networking among ICT stakeholders in Ghana and attract other stakeholders (education providers, private and public sector agencies, individuals, etc) to take an active role not only during the QS but a range of mutual activities. With the University of Cape Coast being the first beneficiary of this quarterly symposium, we hope it would draw other educational institutions on board. Educational institutions must be interested in such initiatives to foster the needed discussions between industry and academia. As a capacity-building organization, IIPGH is always ready to engage stakeholders through such platforms to shape and impact policy. Author: Richard Kafui Amanfu – (Director of Operations, Institute of ICT Professionals, Ghana) For comments, contact richard. amanfu@iipgh.org or Mobile: +233244357006

Energy

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Why can’t we learn from generations of failed energy policy?

he book of Ecclesiastes says “There is nothing new under the sun.” That was thought to be written over 2,500 years ago, and certainly there are things that are new under the sun since then — but human nature is not one of them. This includes our continual collective failure to learn from history, both ancient and recent. Back in 2010 I gave an entire presentation called “Deja Vu All Over Again?” which described how many of the arguments being made about energy then had already been made —and proved wrong — in the 1970s. Amazingly, many proposed energy and climate policies today appear to demonstrate that past lessons have been forgotten or are being ignored. These policies are likely to once again fail or prove not to be cost-effective, only to repeated a generation from now. As Bullwinkle the Moose used to exclaim: “Next time for sure!” In the tradition of spitting into the wind, here is a short list of suggestions for avoiding the endless repetition of bad energy policies: Don’t choose technologies: In the early days of environmental regulation, it was thought that the government should simply

mandate the use of specific control equipment, such as scrubbers for power plants to remove sulfur dioxide from their emissions. This was known as “best available control technology,” and it was found that not only were there methods other than equipment or technology that could reduce emissions (switching to low sulfur coal, for example), but by the time the government had approved any given technology it was likely to be obsolete. Yet now, governments are mandating ‘zero emission vehicles’ which don’t fully eliminate emissions and are a particularly expensive approach to fighting climate change. Don’t Work Backwards: To me, the best scene in “Who Killed the Electric Car?” was when the California regulator said it wasn’t his job to promote electric vehicles, it was his job to reduce air pollution. But to all too many, electric vehicles are promoted without regard to the actual goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Notably, hailing the sales surge of BEVs in China completely ignores the dominance of coal in power generation in that country, which greatly reduces the benefit of BEVs. Spending money on

additional imports of LNG would probably cut emissions much more cheaply. Set Goals not Actions: One of the biggest lessons of the last four decades was in the reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions, which was originally planned as requiring scrubbers under the rubric of ‘best available control technology’ as mentioned. It was eventually realized that technology wasn’t the only approach and that the government designating a given technology as the best was flawed. Instead, by mandating reductions through whatever method, emitters had the incentive to find the best overall approach and the cost of reducing sulfur emissions proved much less than expected. Governments should not set prices: Many experts have bemoaned the repeated failures to analysts to produce reasonable long-term energy price forecasts, but while private companies have regularly made bad forecasts, they do not set prices. Governments, however, often do although with less regularity at the present than in the 1970s. Some governments tried to determine natural gas prices in past decades (England, France, the U.S.) and generally found

they overpaid, believing the false notion that nonrenewable resource prices need to rise over time. Still, in the U.S., state regulators often approve prices in long-term contracts for renewable projects based on expectations of rising prices, and a number of governments set ‘feed-in-tariffs’ for power generated by renewables at absurdly high levels, having to later back off when the expense proved unbearable. Don’t pay above-market prices for some supplies: Regulated markets, and especially those where price controls are used, have often seen governments and regulators decide that high prices for some supplies was acceptable if they could be averaged in with cheaper supplies. This caused a major problem with natural gas markets in the 1980s (England, France and the U.S. among others), when demand weakened and the average price climbed to (politically) unacceptable levels. The same thing was seen more recently in countries like Germany, where high feedin-tariffs for renewables saw investment soar, which seemed a success except it meant average

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21 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20 prices (for consumers) surged, causing a backlash. Governments are bad at setting prices, so they shouldn’t try: A famous Soviet-era joke (probably told by President Reagan) went thusly: Joseph Stalin wakes up in a hospital, surrounded by Soviet officials and doctors, who inform him that it is the year 2050 and that not only has Soviet medicine brought him back to life, but all of the world is now Communist except for New Zealand. Why not New Zealand? He asked. Well, he’s told with a shrug, somebody has to tell us what prices are. Most people have now forgotten that for years, oil and gas prices in the United States, Canada, and many other countries were set by the government, and the effect was generally detrimental, encouraging more consumption and discouraging production. The phased decontrol of natural gas prices, where the

MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

concept was to encourage, for example, drilling for ‘deep’ natural gas, proved a nightmare, creating a decade-long surplus. Government-negotiated prices for imported natural gas from Canada, Mexico and Algeria were equal to roughly five times the current price for gas (adjusted for inflation) and the contracts had to be renegotiated or abandoned. Yet now, there have been repeated attempts by governments (including some state governments in the U. S.) to encourage renewable energy by setting ‘feed-in-tariffs’ or prices for solar and wind power that proved to be far too generous. The past is not predictive of the future: Many assume that trends once set in motion are never reversed. (This is particularly a problem for physicists, I think, because it is generally true for physical laws.) The past failures of renewable energies to live up to expectations should not have been taken as evidence that

they never would. In that vein, it could be argued that the poor performance of nuclear power (compared to early optimism) could be reversed as new designs, such as Small Modular Reactors, could prove to be both cheaper and more palatable politically. It’s complicated: The public space tends to be dominated by simplistic slogans such as ‘No Fossil Fuels!’ which ignore the complexity of the situation. Two decades ago, the ‘landfill crisis’ was all the rage and there was an immediate call to ban disposable diapers as a major component of America’s trash. However, careful analysis showed that cotton diapers were not really better for the environment, needing lots of energy to produce, collect and clean. Similarly now, many in the public push for measures that are not necessarily costeffective, or even effective at all, based on slogans they hear, websites they see, or supposedly expert speakers they listen to.

(Yes, I ended a sentence with a preposition, I’m a rebel.) If you wonder if you are guilty of this sin, read Tom Nichols’ The Death of Expertise and consider if you recognize yourself. I am a Distinguished Fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation and President of Strategic Energy and Economic Research. I spent nearly 30 years at MIT as a student and then researcher at the Energy Laboratory and Center for International Studies. I then spent several years at what is now IHS Global Insight and was chief energy economist. I've been president of the US Association for Energy Economics, I serve on the editorial boards of two publications, and I've had my writing translated into six languages. My book, "The Peak Oil Scare and the Coming Oil Flood" was published in 2016 by Praeger.

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MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

Cultivating flowers promotes well-being

he cultivation of flowers and plants in general, is critical to promoting the general wellbeing of humans. This is because besides being pivotal to sustaining the ecology, indulging in horticulture holds potential for immense financial returns. Madam Esther Cobbah, Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Communications Africa Limited (STRATCOM), said this when she spoke on the topic, "Sowing Seeds", as part of activities to mark the on-going Ninth Garden and Flower Show, in Accra. She said with the earth currently facing the negative effects and potential results of global warming, promoting a green environment, through enlightening people on its benefits was of prime essence. Madam Cobbah said the show basically sought to promote a greener and healthier environment through education and urged individuals and organisations to come on board to promote a greener environment. A number of exhibitors the

Ghana News Agency spoke to, were happy with the gains of the show. Mr. Pharnel Atsitsogbe, a flower exhibitor, said he had made some good sales through the show, and encouraged those who missed

this one to participate in the next show. Mr. Gideon Dapaah, Director, Uncle Gere's land Scaping, commended organisers of the show and said, it had afforded him a great opportunity to market

his plants. Organised by STRATCOM Africa, the show ends on Sunday, August 29, with an awards night to celebrate individuals and organisations in the horticulture industry.

Institute of Directors Ghana inducts new members

he Institute of Directors (IoD) Ghana has inducted 36 new members

including; four fellows at a virtual event. The inductees who had

gone through their orientation comprised heads of agencies and institutions including; the new Inspector General of Police. Dr Mike Eric Juru, President of IoDZimbabwe, a special guest of honour, admonished the new members to be advocates of good corporate governance and lead by example. “You must lead by example bringing to bare the practice of good corporate governance at your various organisations,” he added. He said they should employ good corporate governance services as well as bring to bear their skills and competences, adding that, that was the only way to achieve organizational growth and development. “You should employ creative and innovative strategies in your dealings

to achieve sterling organizational growth,” he added. Mr Juru advised them to engage in continuous learning to stay relevant in today’s evolving corporate world. Mr Rockson Dogbegah, President of IoDGhana, congratulated the new members for their successful induction into the Institute after going through all necessary requirements and urged them to be good ambassadors of the Institute to reflect in their decisions and actions. Dr George Akuffo Dampare, the Acting Inspector General of Police, who was inducted as a fellow of the Institute, thanked them for their induction and called for their support to be successful in their new roles. “I would like to thank the leadership of the Institute for the goodwill message of congratulations to us on our induction and would wish that they continue to support us in our new roles,” he added.