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US$500m tax demand holds up Anadarko-Total deal

Vicki Hollub, Occidental President and CEO

Kobina Tahir Hammond, MP. Adansi Asokwa

By Eugene Davis

The sale of multinational petroleum company Anadarko’s operations in Ghana to French oil company Total SA is being held up by a US$500m tax demand by the Government of Ghana.

While the government insists Anadarko must pay the amount

to pave way for the conclusion of the sale, Anadarko says it doesn’t owe the state any outstanding taxes.

Former Deputy Energy Minister, Kobina Tahir Hammond, who is also a Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa, told

Business24 that assessment of the transaction shows that Anadarko owes the state that much and ought to be paid up.

“What the government is saying very simple, pay our taxes and you can go. The asking

price is small (US$500m), pay up and you can go; but they (Anadarko) say they will not pay. I have their letters indicating that they will not pay.

“I think in one of the African countries they paid them the taxes they owed and paid Chevron too.

By our calculations they benefitted to the tune of US$4.5bn over the period that they have been here,” Mr. Hammond said.

Anadarko, according to the Legislature has been making US$1million per day since they started their operations in Ghana about 13 years ago, therefore the US$500million tax demand is not out of place.

“So, what we are saying is very simple, they have made so much--US$1m as profit per day for 13 years, you are going now, give us out of the 13years, one yearis that a bad deal? he asked.

Sale of Anadarko’s Africa operations Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is an independent exploration and production company that has interest in oil and gas fields in US,

High power tariffs threaten Ghana’s competitiveness

By Benson Afful

Ghana’s high average grid electricity tariff threatens the country’s competitiveness as an investment destination on the continent, the 2019 Ghana Energy Outlook has revealed.

Currently, the country’s tariff is about twice that of South Africa, China and India where most imports to Ghana originate.

“Most heavy or base metal industries including the underground gold mines would require on the average tariff less than 6 US cents per kWh to stay competitive with similar products imported.

“Light industries could go as high as 10 US cents per kWh to survive.

Thus, the prevailing energy tariff for industries are still on the very high side and any attempt to increase it could worsen the situation,” the report noted.

Ghana’s energy sector arrears and debt situation was about US$4 billion as at 2018. Power sector liabilities added GHc5.1 billion ($954 million), or 1.5% of gross domestic product, to Ghana’s debt in 2019.

“The power subsector debt alone is increasing by about US$100 million every quarter,” the report noted.

This was confirmed by the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Ad-

MORE ON PAGE 2

MORE ON PAGE 2

Ghana’s economy on right track—latest OBG report Mr. Cornock commenting ahead of the Ghana 2020 report launch said: “The introduction of several targeted programmes aimed at increasing local industrial capacity and boosting agricultural value added, reflects the growing role that industry and services were playing in this strategically important regional market.”

The Report: Ghana 2020 charts the role that the country’s three Eurobond offerings played as

By Kwasi Anku

Ghana’s rich resource base and diversification efforts has positioned the country as one of the fast-growing economies on the continent, Mr. Oliver Cornock, the Editor-in-Chief of OBG has said “Ghana’s economy grew by an estimated 7.5 per cent in 2019, driven largely by double-digit expansion in oil and gas GDP,” he said.

part of a broader, ongoing drive to stabilise the local currency and boost foreign exchange reserves.

It also tracks the progress made in reducing the deficit, which fell to 4.2 per cent of GDP in 2019, on the back of measures brought in to improve fiscal discipline and restore macroeconomic stability.

The extractive industries play a crucial role in Ghana’s economy, with gold and crude oil, its

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

PETROLUEM PRICE INDICATORS (AS OF 24 FEBRUARY, 2020) PBU effective 16th February 2020 (27 January - 11th February 2020 averages) FX Rate (Commercial Banks Average) (USD/GHS) Crude Oil (USD/BBL)

Estimates for PBU effective 1st march 2020 (12 February 26th February 2020 avergaes)

% CHANGE

5.5344

5.3985

-2.46%

55.69

57.29

2.87%

Petrol (USD/MT)

536.77

541.57

0.8%

Gasoil USD/MT)

503.38

503.68

0.06%

LPG (USD/MT)

446.67

416.18

-6.82%

JET/KEROSENE (USD/MT)

542.65

529.91

-2.3%

Fuel Oil (USD/MT)

397.02

376.27

-5.23%

*PBU - Price Build-Up

top exports in value.

OBG examined the positive impact that 1.5billion barrels of newly discovered oil was expected to have on the economy, adding to reserves estimated at 660 million barrels in 2018.

It also explored the development underway in the mining and quarrying sector, which contributed US$4.2 billion to the economy in 2018, up 13.3 per cent year-on-year, buoyed by higher commodity prices,

growing global demand and support from the government.

In addition, OBG considers the digital drive underway in Ghana, as the mobile money market gains momentum and more public services move online.

One of the chapter’s highlights was a roundtable, in which industry leaders share their thoughts on a range of topical issues related to Information MORE ON PAGE 2

INTERNATIONAL MARKET

FEATURE MAKING CLIMATE ACTION EVERYONE’S BUSINESS Global emissions are reaching record levels and show no sign of peaking. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying, and we are starting to see the life-threatening impact of climate change on health risks to food security... MOREONPAGE6

*EXCHANGE RATE (INT. RATE)

USD$1 =GH¢5.4575*

BRENT CRUDE $/BARREL

EXCHANGE RATE (BANK RATE)

USD$1 =GH¢5.4500*

NATURAL GAS $/MILLION BTUS

*POLICY RATE

16%*

GOLD $/TROY OUNCE

-1.57 ($53.38) 0.02 ($1.82) -7.10 ($1,642.90)

GHANA REFERENCE RATE

16.11%

CORN $/BUSHEL

*INFLATION RATE

7.8%*

COCOA $/METRIC TON

PRODUCER PRICE INFLATION:

13.3%

COFFEE ¢/POUND:

+2.15 ($110.65)

SUGAR ¢/POUND

-0.20 ($14.54)

91 DAY TREASURY BILL INTEREST RATE

14.6898%

Business24 Limited , Tel: +233 030 296 5297 / 024 337 6878 Advertise: 024 429 9168 Subscribe for ePaper : thebusiness24online.com/subscribe

-0.20 ($374.50) -67.00 ($2,739.00)

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BUSINESS24 | FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28, 2020

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News/Editorial High power tariffs threaten Ghana’s competitiveness continued from page 1

Editorial: Cost of power must come down!

For Ghana to stay very competitive and attract investors, government must take conscious effort to reduce the cost of electricity tariffs in the country.

Currently, the country’s tariff is about twice that of South Africa, China and India where most imports to Ghana originate.

This will encourage more importation of goods into the

country and subsequently put pressure on the country’s local currency as, it will cost less to import than produce in the country.

The Business24 believes that as the country seeks to remain one of the best destinations for investors, it will be prudent to make electricity relatively cheaper for industry.

A report by the Energy Commission on the country’s Energy Outlook revealed that most heavy or base metal industries including the

underground gold mines would require on the average tariff less than 6 US cents per kWh to stay competitive with similar products imported.

Light industries could go as high as 10 US cents per kWh to survive.

Thus, the prevailing energy tariff for industries are still on the very high side and any attempt to increase it could worsen the situation The paper believes that this trend should not be encouraged to continue, especially when the govern-

ment has also been championing an industrialization policy that seeks to establish a factory in each of the districts across the country.

Power is very key to the success of this policy, and Busienss24 encourages the government and stakeholders in the energy sector to as a matter of urgency solve the continues increase in electricity tariffs to enable the country to remain competitive.

Ghana’s economy on right track—latest OBG report continued from page 1

do in his recent State of Nation Address (SONA) that the country paid nearly US$1billion for unused power in two years, as a result of the many ‘take or pay’ contracts signed in previous years.

“The five years of energy crisis led to the signing of what can only be described as various contracts that have landed our country with a huge financial burden. The take or pay contracts resulted in the country being saddled with expensive excess power and our having to pay nearly $1billion in 2018 and 2019 for power we do not need.

We are working to find a way out to ensure a reliable power supply at a cost that makes it competitive in the sub-region.”

The President said.

According to the report, most of the debts have been due to short-term loan contracted by the power producers culminating in the ‘take or pay’ and the distribution utilities’ inability to collect adequate revenue to cover their operations.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta said earlier this month that the country will use as much as US$1 billion of the proceeds of a recent $3 billion Eurobond sale to restructure Ghana’s deals with independent power producers.

In order to address the chronic debt challenges and to facilitate equitable distribution of all cash collected in the power sector value chain using the end user tariff as a basis, the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM) concept was instituted in 2016.

It was to be implemented through the development of a formula, for adequate distribution of revenue to all stakeholders in the power sector value chain. Ever since, the CWM has still not been operational.

Communication Technology. Mrs. Souhir Mzali, the Group’s Regional Editor for Africa, said that Ghana was also well placed to take advantage of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as it advances, having moved earlier than some other countries in the region to upgrade and extend its port infrastructure.

“Hopes are high for the part that the AfCFTA will play in accelerating regional integration and intra-continental trade, even though there are many challenges that need addressing ahead of its implementation,” she said.

The Group’s Regional Editor for Africa said as a key player in the region and host nation of the secretariat, Ghana could expect to be at the forefront of the drive to develop the world’s largest trade area.

The report marks the culmination of almost nine

months of field research by a team of analysts from Oxford Business Group and the publication assesses trends and developments across the economy, including those in macroeconomics, infrastructure, banking and others.

It has been produced in collaboration with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and the Association of Ghana Industries with contributions coming from Temple Investments, PwC and B&P Associates.

The report also contained a viewpoint by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, together with a detailed sector-by-sector guide for investors, which also features a wide range of interviews with other high-profile personalities, including: Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Ghana; Ernest Addison, Governor, Bank of Ghana; Kevin Okyere, CEO, Springfield Group; Edmund Poku, Managing Director, Niche Cocoa; and Kojo Aduhene, CEO, LMI Holdings.

US$500m tax demand holds up Anadarko sale continued from page 1 Gulf of Mexico, East and West Africa, Algeria, China, Alaska, and New Zealand among others.

Last year, the decision to sell its high quality but less strategic African operations-- Algeria, Ghana, Mozambique and South Africa--to Total S.A for $8.8 billion was part of the process for the acquisition of the company by Occidental Petroleum Corporation.

Anadarko has been operating in Ghana since

2006 and owes 24 percent of the West African country’s first oil field, Jubilee Field, discovered in 2008. It also has 17 percent stake in the Tweneboah-Enyera-Ntomme (TEN) oil and gas project, which poured its first oil in August 2016.

Anadarko is estimated to have realized to US$4.4 billion from its operations in both fields so far. The Ghana Revenue Authority, which part of the team assessing the Anadarko-Total S.A. deal, notes that it translates into about US$1million per day for the number of years the oil giant has been operating in the country.

Editorial: LIMITED To advertise or make enquiries info@thebsuiness24online.com Tel: +233 030 296 5297 / 030 296 5315.

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Dominic Andoh: Editor Eugene Kwabena Davis: Head of Parliamentary Business & Commodities Benson Afful : Head of Energy & Education Patrick Paintsil : Head of Maritime & Banking Eliezer Mensah: Head of Production Marketing: Alexander Lartey Agyemang: Business Development Manager Ruth Fosua Tetteh: Deputy Business Development Manager

Gifty Mensah: Marketing Manager Irene Mottey: Sales Manager Edna Eyram Swatson: Special Projects Manager Events: Evelyn Kanyoke Snr. Events Consultant Finance/Administration Joseph Ackon Bissue: Accountant Ampomah Akoto: Director of Operations

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NEWS

Move to regulate importation of used cars gain momentum

By Eugene Davis

A new bill, the Customs (Amendment) Bill, 2020, aimed at checking the importation of accident or used cars into the country, has been presented and read for the first time in Parliament.

A Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei-Asare, presented the Bill which was read and laid officially before the House.

Further to that, the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, has referred the Bill to the joint Committee on Finance and Trade/Industry for consideration and report.

The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, noted earlier that the Bill is to help create an enabling environment and the market for various vehicle manufacturing companies, which have pledged to set up assembling plants in Ghana.

Various vehicle manufacturing companies such as Nissan and VW have firmed up plans to set

Abena Osei-Asare –Deputy Minister for Finance

up assembling plants in Ghana to serve the Ghanaian market and other West African countries. With no significant car assembling plants, used and salvaged automobiles are the single highest imports of the country. Top five (5) import goods in descending order are vehicles, machinery, electronics, cereals and plastics.

Average annual import of vehicles since 2018 has averaged

US$1.85billion—of which used vehicles (5-10 years old)—constitute about 70 percent.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, who is also the Majority Leader in the 275-member legislature, announced government’s intention to ban the importation of used cars which are 10 years old and above, as a prerequisite to ensure the entry of VW, Nissan, Toyota, Renault and Sinotruck two weeks ago.

Business24 sources say, despite the initial firm interest shown by the named automobile companies in establishing assembling plants in the country, the stark statistics of imported used cars made them request for action to be taken as a pre-requisite to their entry in order to ensure there is market for their products ahead of their scheduled production date.

Currently, importers of used cars, which are 10 years and above are made to pay a fine in addition to the duties on the car as determined by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)—Customs Division– computation.

GOIL releases high-grade fuel onto the market

Ghana’s leading oil marketing company, Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) has released onto the market, a high-grade petrol fuel type, known as Super RON 95 for the benefit of the Petrol consuming public.

The high-grade Petrol, Super RON 95 has since last week been selling country-wide at all of the company’s over 400 service stations at the same price.

According to Marcus Deo-Dake, Head of Fuels Marketing of GOIL, with this game-changing development, consumers no longer need to pay a higher price for any high petrol grade specification, saving the consumer significant amounts of money.

He revealed that with the release of the petrol stock, all consumers will benefit from a high-grade petrol that significantly boosts the performance of all engines and keeps engines clean of carbon deposits.

“RON 95 is the highest specification of fuel we have today in Ghana and every Ghanaian must take advantage of it. It makes your car last longer because it ensures efficiency of the engine,” he said.

The Executive Director of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers-Ghana (COPEC), Duncan Amoah commended GOIL for introducing the higher grade of fuel onto the market with no extra cost to consumers.

eCampus wins National Pitch Competition VRA, Pencils of Promise renovate Nkwakubew Presbyterian Primary School

By Eugene Davis

Ghanaian start-up company, eCampus powered by Cecil Senna Nutakor, has emerged winner of the Ghana National Pitch Competition and will have the opportunity to compete with hundred others at the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2020 slated for 24-26th March in Dubai, UAE. The winner of the AIM competition is expected to pocket a cash prize of US$50,000. eCampus is an application that enables students to learn, practice and do research on digital gadgets like mobile phones and computers.

Speaking at the Ghana National Pitch Competition in Accra, where six Ghanaian start-ups pitched their ideas in front of a jury, Mr. Nutakor expressed his excitement on winning the competition and to represent the country at the AIM 220.

He noted that he will take advantage of the opportunity and work hard to win the AIM prize in order to make the country proud. The Director of Investor Services at Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Ben-

jamin Ashong-Lartey, encouraged the contestants to put their best foot forward as they aim for the ultimate prize.

The Ghana event was organised as a prelude to the Global Business Pitch in Dubai,UAE and forms part of Ghana’s preparations to participate in the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2020.

The key objective of the Pitch Competition is to discover Ghanaian start-ups with huge potential to expand and to penetrate the global market.

The winner of the National Pitch Competition in Ghana will be fully sponsored by organisers of the AIM 2020 to pitch and compete with about 100 start-ups for the grand prize of US$50,000.

The Annual Investment Meeting(AIM), an initiative of the UAE Ministry of Economy is one of the leading platforms for Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) and the largest global investment gathering of corporate leaders, policy makers, businessmen, regional and international investors, entrepreneurs, leading academics and experts showcasing up-to-date information,

strategies and knowledge on attracting FDI. It aims to connect businesses and countries willing to engage in sustainable partnership with investors.

Among the start-ups that competed for the sole ticket for the international event included Talents-in-Africa, Divine Brainz, Green Way, Service Hub Trimester Save, Naspa Auto Spa Service, e-Campus.

Cecil Senna Nutakor with E-Campus emerged winner and will represent Ghana at the international event

A dilapidated 57-year-old primary school in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region has been renovated by Pencils of Promise, a non-Governmental Organization (NGO), and the Volta River Authority (VRA).

The twelve-unit classroom block of the Presbyterian Primary School at Nkwakubew, built in 1963, has weathered into a desolate pavilion, and was in 2018 captured among priority projects to be supported under the VRA’s Resettlement Trust Fund. Pencils of Promise, an international education support organization, has undertaken a five-year memorandum of understanding with the VRA to improve upon education in its resettlement communities and bore 70 per cent of the GH¢423,000.00 project, which included sanitation facilities.

Mr. Freeman Gobah, Country Director for Pencils of Promise, at a handing over ceremony on Wednesday, counted the project among the biggest the organization has executed in its seven-year presence in the country. He said it was the fruit of a successful collaboration among the organization, the VRA, and the community, and asked the latter to revel in the edifice, and maintain it to serve generations to come.

“Today we have completed the project. The school is now yours and you must help maintain it,” the Director said, and cautioned against using the facility for non-academic purposes, especially by the public.

Justice Emmanuel Nana Antwi-Barima, Board Chairman of the VRA Trust Fund, also asked the school and the community to ensure that the fa-

cility was kept to standard. He said the Board, since its inauguration in April 2018, has been working on improving upon social interventions in VRA’s resettlement areas and would carry the partnership with Pencils of Promise through all 52 communities.

Mr. Thomas Ampem Nyarko, Member of Parliament for Asuogyaman, said the partnership between Pencils of Promise and the VRA was “promising and would yield good results,” praising the NGO for helping revive communism in areas it operated. He advised students, teachers and parents to ensure the facility helped produce the desired academic improvements, saying “a classroom block is not done in itself unless it contributes in improving academic performance”.

Mr. Samuel Kwame Agyekum, District Chief Executive for Asuogyaman, said the importance of education has led to government effort to ease the financial burden attached to schooling, hence the need for all parents to make their wards reap the benefits.

He said the Assembly has committed to rehabilitating health facilities and school buildings in the District. The school has a total student population of 437, with 17 teaching staff. Mr Francis Akpator, the School Head, said the lifespan of the school building had been expanded and appealed to stakeholders to address the structural integrity of its kindergarten block and provide the children with some playing material.

School furniture including 55 dual desks, furniture for teaching staff, ceiling fans, and two 10,000-liter capacity water storage tanks, were also provided as part of the project. (GNA)

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FEATURE

Are Independent Central Banks Passé?

By Howard Davies

US President Donald Trump’s decision to nominate economist Judy Shelton for one of the vacant positions on the Federal Reserve Board has put the future of central bank independence back on the agenda.

Shelton has cast doubt on the desirability of, and legal basis for, Fed independence, saying last year, “I don’t see any reference to independence in the legislation that has defined the role of the Federal Reserve.” And she has argued for “a more coordinated relationship with both Congress and the President.”

If Fed policy were “coordinated” with Trump, then it is fairly clear who would be calling the shots.

Of course, one new Fed governor could not upturn decades of practice. But there are suggestions that if appointed, Shelton might replace Jay Powell when his term comes up for renewal in 2022, leaving a fox in charge of the chicken coop.

It is not only in the US that central-bank independence is under threat. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fired his governor last year, saying that “we told him several times to cut interest rates,” but he did not oblige. In India, the government asked the Reserve Bank to hand over some of its reserves, and

Howard Davies

Governor Urjit Patel resigned “for personal reasons,” and his key deputy followed soon after with a broadside directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration: “governments that do not respect central bank independence will sooner or later incur the wrath of the financial markets.”

Central banks around the world are worried by these straws in the wind. Otmar Issing, the first chief economist of the European Central Bank, has written of the “the uncertain future of central bank independence.” The ECB’s then-president, Mario Draghi, was moved to issue a firm defense of the concept before he left his post.

The Bank for International Settlements has noted “the extraordinary burden placed on central banking since the [2008 global financial] crisis,” and warned that central banks cannot deliv-

er on the expectations people have. Joachim Fels of Pimco has concluded that “the heyday of central bank independence now lies behind us.”

Are these prophets of doom correct? Will we soon see control of interest rates back in the self-interested hands of finance ministries? In the words of the song, was central bank independence just a silly phase we were going through?

I think not. The most recent global survey, by the economists Nergiz Dincer and Barry Eichengreen, though admittedly conducted in 2014, shows that there is still a “steady movement in the direction of greater transparency and independence over time (and) little indication these trends are being rethought.”

One might have some grounds for skepticism about the measures of independence they use – according to their model, Kyrgyzstan boasts the world’s most independent central bank – but they can find no cases where changes to legislation bringing the central bank back under political control have been implemented.

In the West, while Trump has huffed and puffed, he appointed Powell, a man with conventional instincts and a backbone.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resisted the temptation to appoint a Brexit supporter to the Bank of England and named

a veteran BOE insider, Andrew Bailey, who has independence in his bones. In the eurozone, a similarly neutral choice emerged as Draghi’s successor, and a change in the ECB’s status would require a new European Union treaty. The chances of that are vanishingly small. EU leaders show no indication of taking the risk of opening up the constitution to further referenda, as would be necessary in some countries. Furthermore, some of the political pressure for action has diminished. Trust in the ECB fell sharply after the eurozone crisis nearly a decade ago, but has recovered in most countries in the last couple of years. Even in Greece, the ECB is trusted more than the national government.

There has, it is true, been a change in political rhetoric.

After a long period in which governments resisted any commentary on interest-rate decisions, some have now become more vocal. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative leader in the House of Commons, dubbed Mark Carney, the outgoing BOE governor, a “second-tier Canadian politician” who failed to get a job at home, after Carney disagreed with Rees-Mogg’s economic judgment on the costs of Brexit. And Trump has characteristically weighed in with tweeted criticism of the Fed. Should central banks regard

this renewed disputatiousness as a bad and dangerous thing?

They may, if they wish, but I suspect they are pushing water uphill. We have moved into a less respectful age, which is not surprising, given the mistakes made by central banks (and others) in the run-up to the 2008 crisis. Instead of bemoaning the surge of comment and challenge, central banks need to raise their game, enhance their transparency, and get better at explaining and justifying their actions and decisions.

Andy Haldane, the BOE’s chief economist, has shown that much of what central bankers say is incomprehensible to all but a small proportion of the population. Only 2% of the population can readily understand the minutes of the Fed’s Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates, while 70% can understand a Trump campaign speech. That gap needs to be closed, and central banks should make their work more accessible to the public. Maybe a collective trip to Kyrgyzstan is in order to observe best practice in action.

Howard Davies is Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2020. www.project-syndicate.org

A COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan

By Larry Hatheway

The COVID-19 epidemic is accelerating, and as the new coronavirus approaches pandemic status, it is increasingly likely that the economic impact will be severe. Alongside intensifying public-health responses, governments must step in to mitigate the virus’s impact on growth, employment, and living standards.

There are three reasons to worry that COVID-19 will hit the global economy hard. First, regional and national travel restrictions will curb the flow of goods and services across borders and within countries.

This is already happening in China, where growth forecasts for the first half of 2020 are being slashed. As the world’s second-largest economy and home to much of the global supply chain, China’s slowdown is already being reflected in large US and European companies’ (reduced) earnings forecasts.

Second, increased uncertainty will translate into reduced “big ticket” spending by households and small businesses. Holidays and business travel are already being reconsidered, as evidenced by the 200,000-plus airline cancellations so far this year. Auto and home purchases will likely follow suit. Before long, businesses will put off investment in structures, plant, and equipment, creating major negative ripple effects across the world’s economies.

Third, sharp declines in global equity markets, if sustained, will harm the real economy.

Plunging markets stoke fear and uncertainty, reduce household

wealth, and therefore erode consumer spending. They also raise the cost of capital for firms, which means less hiring and reduced capital expenditures. In short, COVID-19 and the responses to it could easily lead to a global spending shortfall, which would soon be followed by mounting job losses, potentially pushing real economies everywhere to the brink of recession.

But governments have tools for fighting recession. Low inflation (below central-bank targets in most cases) means that monetary policy can be eased without raising concerns of overheating.

And ultra-low bond yields will allow governments in developed and many emerging economies to borrow and spend on stimulus measures. In any case, the policy response should be

flexible and reversible, in the event that the epidemic and its economic impact are less severe than feared.

So, what specifically should governments do? First, they must implement measures to stabilize commercial activity without delay. Corporate tax cuts, infrastructure spending, and other measures with delayed effects are ill-advised.

Tax holidays or reductions of payroll, sales, and value-added taxes have more to recommend them. The point is to boost disposable purchasing power within days – not months – by putting more money in the hands of middle- and low-income households, who tend to spend a greater fraction of their incomes. Wisely, that is what the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries

did during the 2008-09 “Great Recession” (though many economists, including me, would have preferred an even bigger stimulus package).

Second, even if the effectiveness of monetary policy has been diminished after a decade of low and even negative interest rates, the major central banks should announce fresh rate cuts and liquidity provisions. When fear strikes, the demand for money can spike. Central banks should make clear far in advance that they will meet or even exceed that demand. As former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi demonstrated at the height of the eurozone crisis, a stated commitment to do “whatever it takes” may well be the most powerful weapon in monetary policymakers’ arsenal.

Third, governments everywhere should adopt legislation to increase and extend unemployment benefits, at least temporarily. As with cutting regressive taxes, increased unemployment benefits will put cash in the hands of those most likely to spend it in the near term, providing a necessary offset to weaker spending elsewhere in the economy.

Moreover, in the case of the US, the federal government should authorize temporary block grants to states facing hard budget constraints, in order to avert near-term deficits that would require counterproductive tax increases or spending cuts. Again, this approach proved effective during the last recession, when federal transfers to states offset about one-third of state governments’ budget shortfalls.

Finally, all governments should immediately boost spending on medical services, which must be made available to those most at risk from the coronavirus: the elderly, the poor, and the marginalized – both in cities and remote, rural communities. Policymakers should immediately authorize spending for fleets of mobile medical units to reach those who cannot otherwise access proper care.

Yes, some commentators will fret about the fiscal consequences of tax cuts and increased government spending. But they will be wrong to do so. Low and falling bond yields mean that most advanced and large emerging economies have extraordinary leeway to borrow at little cost. Central banks are ready to hoover up any government debt that financial markets cannot absorb. Besides, emergency measures will be temporary, and subject to reversal after the crisis passes.

Deficits are tomorrow’s problem. The challenge today is to fight COVID-19 and its harmful economic effects. Not acting forcefully and immediately would be akin to letting the patient die just to teach him a lesson. Partisanship and zero-sum politics are no excuse for governments to shirk their fundamental obligations to citizens.

Indeed, if any good can come from this crisis, it is that politicians might finally find a way to set aside their differences and do their job.

Howard Davies is Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2020. www.project-syndicate.org

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F E AT U R E

Making Climate Action Everyone’s Business

BY INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, GHANA

GLOBAL EMISSIONS are reaching record levels and show no sign of peaking. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying, and we are starting to see the life-threatening impact of climate change on health, through air pollution, heat waves and risks to food security.

The impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere and are having very real consequences on people’s lives. Climate change is disrupting national economies, costing us dearly today and even more tomorrow. Climate change is everyone business. But there is a growing recognition that affordable, scalable solutions are available now that will enable us all to leapfrog to cleaner, more resilient economies.

The latest analysis shows that if we act now, we can reduce carbon emissions within 12 years and hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C and even, as asked by the latest science, to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Thankfully, we have the Paris Agreement – a visionary, viable, forward-looking policy framework that sets out exactly what needs to be done to stop climate disruption and reverse its impact. But the agreement itself is meaningless without ambitious action.

This message from the UN Climate Change Conference COP 25 was designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process.

Following agreement on the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement, a key objective was to complete several matters with respect to the full operationalization of the Paris Climate Change Agreement Climate variability and change constitute a major threat to national development and the growth of small and medium scale enterprises in particular.

Humans are able to thrive in a wide range of climate conditions, but we also know that climatic factors, and climate extremes, can have a strong bearing on economic performance.

Understanding and managing the link between climate and the economy is therefore an important facet of economic development.

As the most recent scientific research shows, urgent measures are required to reach the objectives set in the Paris Agreement— namely, keeping the increase in global average temperatures to well below 2°C. • For instance, by 2100, global sea level rise would be 10 cm lower with global warming of 1.5°C compared with 2°C. The likelihood of an Arctic Ocean free of sea ice in summer would be once per centu-

ry with global warming of 1.5°C, compared with at least once per decade with 2°C. Coral reefs would decline by 70-90 percent with global warming of 1.5°C, whereas virtually all (> 99 percent) would be lost with 2°C. • Every extra bit of warming matters, especially since warming of 1.5°C or higher increases the risk associated with long-lasting or irreversible changes, such as the loss of some ecosystems, • Limiting global warming would also give people and ecosystems more room to adapt and remain below relevant risk thresholds.

The good news is that some of the kinds of actions that would be needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C are already underway around the world, but they would need to be accelerated.

The effect of climate change is being experienced by all facets of life and in all the major sectors of the Ghanaian economy.

Disasters such as floods, rainstorms and strong winds are becoming more frequent than before. Many places have seen changes in rainfall, resulting in more floods, droughts, or intense rain, as well as more frequent and severe heat waves.

Addressing climate change issues in Ghana has gained traction in the agricultural sector.

However, businesses and industry have also been noted to be significantly affected by climate change.

At ICC’s Centenary Summit in May, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) issued a Declaration setting out a vision to shape the future of global business for the next century.

The Declaration includes an endorsement of the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C and commits International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to work towards mobilising business behind the 1.5°C target and net-zero emissions by 2050.

In line with this commitment, ICC is undertaking a number of efforts to help bolster climate action by business. One such action is the Chambers Climate Coalition pledge, which was launched at the 11th World Chambers Congress in Rio de Janeiro. By signing the pledge, chamber leaders around the world commit to take bold cli-

mate action.

That is why the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)— in its capacity as the UNFCCC Focal Point for business and industry—is calling on all governments to do their part to ensure that we meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. An important step in this regard was delivering the Paris Rulebook at COP24.

The Paris Rulebook —an implementing framework where Parties show how they plan on reaching the Paris Agreement targets— While more companies are committing to leadership on climate action than at any other time in history, implementing the Paris Agreement would provide greater certainty on long-term climate policies and required investments, thus allowing businesses to increase their investments in innovation, research, infrastructure, and new technologies and solu-

tions that will be essential to achieving the emission targets and ambitions of the Paris Agreement.

Adaptation, resilience and capacity building: Business sees the urgency of responding to the impacts of climate change that are already being felt and preparing for the future effects of climate change. Business is responding by developing technologies, products and services to adapt to the effects of climate change and by building resilience into business operations, supply chains, policies and risk management strategies. Business can be a key partner for adaptation and resilience planning, including for knowledge-sharing; modelling; research; technology development and transfer; finance; insurance; capacity building and public-private partnerships.

A number of African entrepreneurs are venturing into urban and peri-urban farming. We are talking about hydroponics in containers in Lagos and vertical farms using aeroponics in abandoned factories—space created by the shift from manufacturing to service-based economies. Food produced by these methods use less water, waste fewer nutrients and use no pesticides.

Global Stocktake: The Global Stocktake must enable a full review of the progress of the Paris Agreement. The Global Stocktake should be carried out by an external body that will develop a technical assessment of progress based on cited references. This should then be reviewed by all Parties to the Paris Agreement, leading to the development of a summary for policymakers, which will help to inform future Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which each Party is required to prepare, communicate and maintain under Article

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“Climate variability and change constitute a major threat to national development and the growth of small and medium scale enterprises in particular.”

4.2. Input from non-Party stakeholders must be encouraged as part of the primary technical assessment process.

Mitigation (Decision 1/ CP.21): Business strongly supports the development of guidance on the features of NDCs. It is essential that NDCs are clear, transparent and understandable to enable the private sector to evaluate and manage their current and future investments.

Business can contribute in this regard and help in the elaboration, assessment, improvement and implementation of NDCs. Common timeframes for NDCs should be strongly considered to assist planning, promote greater ambition and enhance the Global Stocktakes.

Transparency: The objective of the Transparency Framework must be regular, clear and comprehensive reporting and accounting linked with technical expert review. Some flexi-

bility will be necessary for certain developing countries. It is essential that the Transparency Framework enables the tracking of progress on NDCs. Overlaps between the UNFCCC’s existing measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system must be minimised to prevent “double-reporting” being required.

Response Measures— Just transition and decent jobs: The Paris Agreement takes into account the imperative of a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs in accordance with nationally-defined development priorities. In fulfilling these responsibilities, the optimum outcome will be achieved by effective engagement with business to ensure that policy decisions are tailored to country-specific, sector-specific circumstances, including the skills and re-skilling needed for a green economy. There is no single policy

template that can be applied in all circumstances. Just transition and decent jobs should be recognised in the NDCs. A number of international consumer goods companies operating across Africa including Diageo, Unilever, The Coca Cola Company, and Nestlé launched the Africa Plastics Recycling Alliance.

This Alliance aims to turn the current challenge of plastic waste in Sub Saharan Africa into an opportunity to create jobs and commercial activity by improving the collection and recycling of plastics.

Technology Mechanism Assessment: The current UNFCCC technology instruments for adaptation and mitigation of climate change should be expanded and developed further to achieve closer linkage of NDCs and technology needs assessments, develop more practical technology action plans and engage national designated entities more strongly on a global level.

Climate Finance (Article 9): The mitigation and adaptation strategies necessary to transition to a low-carbon economy and manage the impacts of climate change will require access to finance beyond ‘business as usual’. The private sector is a key partner in the development of the cooperative model proposed in Article 9 of the Paris Agreement. It will be necessary to design mechanisms to de-risk flows of private capital into climate change adaptation and mitigation investment opportunities, particularly in developing countries.

Market and non-market based approaches (Article 6): Business strongly supports the use of international market-based approaches and calls on Parties to complete guidance on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement through the Paris Rulebook.

Business stands ready to inform the process of identifying the best ways forward to build-up a framework for Article 6. ICC’s recommendations are outlined in “Business Views on Market Mechanisms—Articles 6(1) to 6(7) of the Paris Agreement” and include: • Building a framework for MRV of emissions that takes into consideration generally accepted existing international and national MRV frameworks1 and that is linked to the transparency framework being developed under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement.

• Creating ambition and predictability by developing comparable and measurable standards for emission reduction for NDC reviews so as to allow evaluation of mitigation actions, raise ambition and understand and avoid impacts such as carbon leakage.

• Consulting with experts of specific economic activities to establish further global emission reduction approaches on a sectoral basis.

• The rules must be clear and flexible to incentivise business participation while protecting environmental integrity and avoiding double-counting/

claiming.

Transaction costs must be minimised to encourage the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises.

• It is essential that Article 6 takes into account learning’s from the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation.

• As we prepare for key milestone events, including the Africa Climate Week in Kampala Uganda and UN Climate Change Conference COP 26 which will take place in Glasgow Scotland this year, ICC has been calling for greater climate ambition from both business and government – Climate action is everyone’s business.

Indeed, Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change indicates that the long-term goal of Ghana’s adaptation is to increase climate resilience and decrease vulnerability for enhanced sustainable development. One key policy area of the National Climate Change Policy of Ghana is disaster preparedness and response as a result of the need to ensure resilience for all facets of the sectors of the economy.

The Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), has disclosed The Government of Ghana is to commit an amount of $6.3 billion for the implementation of the Paris Agreement programmes aimed at reducing the country’s carbon emissions by 15 per cent within the next 10 years.

These documents were submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and that document serves as the commitment of the Government of Ghana to the UNFCCC. The document was also ratified

by Parliament The government was exploring various avenues, both locally and internationally, to raise the needed resources to undertake actions in seven priority areas, namely food, agriculture, energy, forestry, waste, infrastructure and disaster risk reduction Financial commitments are important for Ghana’s adaptation and mitigation efforts within the framework of the Paris agreement. Most of the plans for adaptation and mitigation in the Ghana NDC’s are overwhelmingly conditional and contingent on climate finance. Ghana’s target is subject to international support in the form of finance, investment, technology development and transfer, and capacity building.

There is no doubt that pulling out of this international agreement by U.S. will significantly affect the global efforts to mobilize climate funds to combat climate change and mitigate its effects. Finance is critical for implementing Ghana’s NDCs. Obviously the funds into the Green Climate Fund will be affected. It is therefore important that Ghana intensifies her efforts in mobilizing other options including private sector and domestic fiscal budgets to scale up her mitigation and adaptation needs.

The Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has joined global efforts aimed at mitigating effects of •

climate change across the globe by initiating another landmark project set to benefit even generations yet unborn.

Otumfuo has rolled out a comprehensive programme to plant over 100 million trees around river bodies in the Ashanti Kingdom for the next five years.

This, according to him, is his little contribution towards the global fight against climate change which continue to pose a serious threat to human health across the world.

Climate change has the potential to cost small business owners millions in damages, yet there is little knowledge on how small businesses are coping with the impacts of climate change. Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are particularly vulnerable because of their more limited capacities to absorb disaster losses.

ICC Ghana with the support of the BUSAC Fund is undertaking an advocacy action to create awareness on Climate Change and coping strategies for SME’s.

The purpose of the advocacy action is to create greater awareness of the menace of climate change and make this top of mind among the general public.

Indeed ICC Ghana recognizes that mitigation and adaptation actions require the collective effort of government, the private sector and society.

Some popular recommendation includes each citizen to plant a tree and a ban on single use plastic.

The objectives of the advocacy action include: 1. Identify adaptation measures and disaster preparedness activities by businesses to address climate risks.

2. Evaluate the effectiveness of government programmes that assisted in post-disaster.

3. Encourage government to provide the necessary framework for capacity building and awareness raising for businesses to incorporate mitigation and adaptation measures and develop the necessary climate strategies.

SMEs typically lack adequate resources to access information needed to guide their decision-making under new climate conditions, but targeted weather and climate information can help them understand particular business risks and opportunities. For example, businesses in rural communities can benefit greatly from early warning systems SMEs have the opportunity to provide products and services to meet consumer demand in a changing climate. Finding and producing products and services that help consumers build resilience, plus finding ways to better access new markets in general, can greatly help SMEs become more resilient and prosperous.

More companies than ever before are taking transformative climate action and the reason is simple: climate change is everyone’s business. A failure to mitigate the impacts of climate change would wreak catastrophic damage on things we all share —our common planet and the prospects for future generations.

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Africa’s Litigated Democracy

By Bob Baulch and Danielle Resnick

On February 12, the Malawi High Court upheld its original decision to nullify the country’s May 2019 presidential election, and decreed that the poll must be rerun within 150 days. Malawi has thus become only the second African country, after Kenya in 2017, to have had a presidential election annulled by the courts. But although the High Court’s ruling is a promising sign of judicial independence in one of the world’s poorest countries, the experience of Kenya suggests that rerunning elections may not necessarily restore faith in fragile democracies.

Malawi’s one-round presidential election was essentially a three-horse race, won by the incumbent Peter Mutharika with 38.6% of the vote. The result prompted widespread protests and a nine-month court case led by the opposition, which alleged that there had been massive irregularities, including the use of Tipp-Ex correction fluid to alter the results sheets.

The High Court’s annulment of the election nonetheless surprised many observers. Since 2016, opposition parties in Nigeria, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia have challenged election results in court, citing alleged irregularities. And even in Botswana, one of Africa’s most well-consolidated democracies, former President Ian Khama supported an opposition petition to the high court to overturn the result of the 2019 election that returned the incumbent Botswana Democratic

Party to office. But in all these cases, the courts upheld the original result.

By contrast, Kenya’s Supreme Court voided the country’s August 2017 presidential election and ordered a new vote after opposition leader Raila Odinga claimed that the electronic voting system had been hacked and rigged in favor of the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta. Although the Kenyan and Malawian elections featured different irregularities, a comparison of the two cases offers four useful lessons for other young African democracies.

First, while annulled elections need to be rerun relatively quickly to avoid lingering uncertainty and polarization, there also must be enough time to assess and effectively address weaknesses in the electoral process. This is essential to rebuild trust among the public and the candidates. The 2017 Kenyan ruling, for example, called for a new vote to take place within just 60 days; Odinga and his National Super Alliance ultimately decided to boycott it, because they believed that the country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission could not be sufficiently reformed in time.

Although Malawi has a 150-day window, the government needs to build the electoral commission’s capacity in order to boost both public confidence in the rerun and the legitimacy of the eventual winner. Mutharika also should have an incentive to support such efforts, given the degree to which the start of his second term has been marred by protests and challenges to the validity of his victory.

Second, the Malawi High Court recommended that the new

election take place under a 50%-plus-one majority system.

But while such a threshold can compel greater coalition-building among parties, force leaders to mobilize new constituencies, and provide winning candidates with more legitimacy than under a plurality system, it does not address the problem of electoral fraud. Indeed, Kenya’s 2017 court case was precipitated by claims that Kenyatta had not obtained enough votes to eliminate the need for a run-off – a common occurrence in 50%-plusone systems. And the court-contested elections in Madagascar and Zambia also took place under this system. If poor oversight by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) was at the heart of the May 2019 election irregularities, then changing the electoral system for the rerun risks increasing the pressure on this already overstretched body to tally votes correctly.

Third, the cost of African elections is high – Kenya spent the equivalent of a half-billion dollars on its two 2017 presidential contests, for example – and international democracy-assistance for elections in sub-Saharan Africa has fallen from $223 to $58 million over the last decade. Malawi’s government allocated $42.5 million for the May 2019 elections, less than the MEC had requested, while donors invested only $1 million in a United Nations Development Programme basket fund to support the Commission. Last week the government announced the allocation of $39.6 million for the re-run of Malawi’s presidential elections, with the first round on May 19. The level of foreign support for the re-run is still unknown.

For their part, donors in Mala-

wi and elsewhere in Africa tend to provide episodic democracy assistance that swells during election years but wanes during the crucial interim period when electoral commissions would most benefit from institutional strengthening. Donors therefore should consider more consistent interventions to support these bodies.

Finally, electoral reruns can exacerbate political polarization.

Despite the opposition boycott, Kenya’s repeat presidential election in October 2017 was marred by violence. Likewise, Malawi experienced an upswing in violence prior to the May 2019 elections and its equally contentious 2014 contests. The Malawian authorities should strive to avoid another escalation of unrest before this year’s election rerun, especially in urban areas where (as in Kenya) support for the opposition is higher.

The fact that African opposition parties increasingly turn to the courts when they lose elections indicates that perceptions of judicial independence are improving. This does not occur in countries where executive power is unconstrained, such as the Congo, Gabon, or Cameroon. In fact, judicial restraint of Malawi’s executive has been surprisingly strong over multiple administrations, including in 2014, when the High Court ruled that then-president Joyce Banda’s attempt to nullify the election results was unconstitutional.

But frequent recourse to the courts can undermine trust in the electoral process and indicates that basic democratic mechanisms are not functioning properly, potentially dampening voter turnout. Although

Bob Baulch

Danielle Resnick

Malawi has now held six multiparty elections, its citizens’ support for them is surprisingly among the lowest in Africa. As the country prepares to vote again, restoring faith in the electoral process will be critical.

Bob Baulch, a senior research fellow in the Development Strategy and Governance Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute, leads IFPRI’s Country Strategy Support Program in Malawi. Danielle Resnick, a senior research fellow in the Development Strategy and Governance Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute, leads IFPRI’s Governance theme. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2020.

2020: A New Year of opportunities for African Youth in Tourism It’s the beginning of another decade and as the phenomenon has been for some time now, global tourism trends are fast changing. Travelers are becoming more choosy and smarter about the kind of experience they want to have at destinations; their tastes and preferences are gradually shifting and at the heart of it all, technology is playing a significant role in simplifying traveller’s choices.

Beyond this however, the human component that ensures that the traveller gets real experiences at their destination of interest cannot be overlooked.

It’s good to have information about destinations and sites online which can be accessed by anyone who wishes to visit these attractions. However, once they are on the ground, they require human interactions to fully enjoy the experiences and appreciate the stories and history around them.

The latest estimates published on International Youth Day by the UN last year puts the population of youth in Sub-Saharan Africa at 211 million, a figure expected to increase by more than 89% by 2050.

The World Travel and Tourism Council assert that tourism is responsible for one out of ten jobs globally, and with the in-

creasing numbers in the youth population, the sector is surely the continent’s trump card for economic transformation.

When all the oil is dried up, the mines depleted and other resources exhausted, with its high multiplier effect, this sector will create millions of additional jobs in other sectors like agriculture, logistics, ICT, and banking.

The challenges of today’s Africa especially within the employment space can be resolved by actively engaging the teeming youth in the sector that guarantees an inexhaustible source of livelihood.

While the bigger goal is to rope in as many as possible into the tourism sector, the few who are engaged in tourism needs to empower themselves with skills and build their capacities

to ensure they remain relevant.

In these times, when conversations on sustainable tourism have become rife and highly pertinent, it is important that young people engaged in tourism are drawn into these discussions to solicit their input; given that they are the future – they make sustainability germane in the first place.

Goal one and eight of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seek to eliminate poverty and ensure decent work and economic growth respectively by 2030. These are goals that will require the expertise of the youth in Africa to achieve. These goals can only be realized with a youth population that is empowered, gainfully employed, financially secure and knowledgeable about their environ-

ment well enough to contribute to its growth and sustainability.

Again, tourism provides a fertile ground for all these to thrive.

With various developments over the past year in the various segments of the tourism sector, especially within MICE (Meetings Incentives Conferences, Exhibitions), there is an armada of opportunities for employment in this sub-sector alone and is one the youth can take advantage of. Lately there are many programmes out there to help upgrade one’s knowledge and capacity in the tourism sector.

Notable among them is the unique platform the UNWTO World Tourism Students League for human capital development.

According to the organization, The UNWTO World Tourism Students League, run within the UNWTO Academy, seeks to create an innovative environment to empower and motivate travel & tourism students to get involved with happenings within the industry.

Participants in this programme will get real-time experience from the tourism industry by creating and presenting innovative solutions for the challenges that the sector is facing nowadays. Challenges will be aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, placing an

emphasis on Goals 8, 12 and 14, in which tourism is featured and will match the SDGs requirements. The ultimate goal of this initiative is to bring young people together and build their capacities in the tourism sector as they go through monthly challenges to determine a winner.

Nonetheless, a myriad of opportunities exist in other fields whether one has acquired formal education or not.

Whether one is involved in the clean environment campaign, making souvenirs or providing informal tour or sight guide services by virtue of one’s acquaintance with the destination, one is a part of the larger circle of youth who are helping shape Africa’s tourism The challenge this year is to double efforts in whatever field one finds oneself as a young person to push the worthy agenda of promoting tourism and encouraging travel on the continent. Current efforts will not just benefit the present day generation, but also create a more livable and vibrant Africa for the younger generation who will come after the current generation.

Samuel Obeng Appah is the Content Editor for VoyagesAfriq Travel Magazine

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Infested Gizzard Saga: Poor coordination among 3 key institutions to blame The heads of Food and Drugs Authority, Veterinary services and Customs Laboratories at the Port of Tema have admitted, that there exist lack of proper coordination through information sharing among them, which is a possible and major cause of the growing concern of unwholesome food products making their way into the country and eventually been consumed by the citizenry.

The admission comes on the back of three containers containing contaminated gizzard which were cleared from the port by Perez Foods Limited in February 2019.

According to the Veterinary services it received an alert from the Brazilian embassy on 27th February, 2019 but received a confirmation letter from the embassy on 3rd April 2019.

The head of veterinary division of Port of Tema, Dr. Stephen Bonnah, explained the actions he took when he first got the alert.

“A letter was sent to GPHA, GRA and National Security indicating that there is a container containing contaminated gizzard so they should retain it,” he clarified.

Solomon Agampim, head of Import and Export Control Department of FDA, revealed when the first containers were cleared from the Port.

“On 9th January, 2019 the first container was cleared. On the 28th January 2019 the second container was also cleared and on the 12th of February 2019 the

third container was cleared,” he disclosed.

Speaking on Eye on Port’s live interactive programme, the Head of Import and Export Control Department at FDA, Solomon Agampim and the head of veterinary regulatory division at the Port of Tema, Dr. Stephen Bonnah admitted that lack of information sharing could hamper their work.

The Food and Drugs Authority, Customs division of the GRA and the Veterinary services explained their respective roles played in releasing the infested gizzard episode.

The Chief Revenue Officer in charge of Customs Laboratory at Tema Port, Joseph Eric Owusu said his outfit allowed for the clearance of the containers from the port because of the green light it received from the FDA. He said there was no need for

customs to question or re-examine the approvals given by the FDA. “After physical inspection, the authority that has to give us greenlight in this context is FDA. After FDA gives us the greenlight then we have to release the containers,” he stated.

However, the Head of Import and Export Control Department at the Food and Drugs Authority, Solomon Agampim said his outfit did not err in giving customs the green light because the cargo had passed compliance stage, which meant that all requirements had been satisfied.

“Compliance cannot be given without import permit. Customs cannot do compliance for an FDA products if we have not given them a permit. So why did Customs give compliance to these infested containers without an import permit.

I should rather ask him,” he stated.

But could this seeming tension

Port’s Veterinary Services wants to be restored on JIMIS platform

The head of Veterinary Regulatory Division at the Port of Tema, Dr. Stephen Bonnah is calling for the veterinary services to be brought back onto the Joint Inspection Management Information System Platform ( JIMIS).

This according to him, will enable the veterinary services perform its mandate of examining animal products that come into the country effectively.

Currently, the JIMIS platform is made up of the Customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana Standards Authority and the National Security.

Even though the FDA is playing a lead role in the examination of animal products on the platform, Dr. Bonnah believes that is not enough because the veterinary services per international practices need to examine all

animal products that come into the country.

Speaking live on Eye on Port’s interactive programme, Dr. Bonnah said it will be easier for the veterinary services to share alerts on the platform with other state agencies if they are brought back on the platform.

Dr. Bonnah said even though it falls within the mandate of the veterinary services to examine animal products that come through the Port, in the case of three containers containing infested gizzards which were cleared out of Port of Tema, his outfit couldn’t discharge its mandate because they are not part of the joint inspection management information system which allowed for the release of the containers.

He said they were also not invited by FDA to examine the cargo.

“The veterinary services were

not part of all the examination of the gizzard. The items were supposed to be released on JIMIS and the veterinary services are not part of this platform,” he revealed.

But speaking on the same programme, the head of Import and Export Control Department at the FDA admitted that his outfit has not been inviting the Veterinary Services since the introduction of the JIMIS platform.

He said they only take food products for scientific analysis only when they have doubts about their unwholesomeness.

“When you still have doubt about an inspection then you can invite the other agencies that is imbedded on the JIMIS platform or else we do the same thing as the other agencies do,” he disclosed.

The Chief Revenue Officer in charge of Customs Laboratory at Tema Port, Joseph Eric Owusu said if the Veterinary services is placed back on the JIMIS to collaborate with the FDA it will go a long way to ensure optimum efficiency.

“The absence of the veterinary services I can see has created some level of pains in the vet, so if they are to be restored to get them effectively collaborate with FDA that will be it,” he said.

It will be recalled that three out of four containers containing infested gizzards where cleared out of the port of Tema and sold to the public at various markets.

between the FDA and Veterinary services be the reason why the later didn’t share the alert from the Brazilian Embassy on the contaminated gizzard with the former.

According to Solomon Agampim, after physical inspection of the three containers there were no traces of contamination, hence, their approval for its release in the joint inspection management information system platform.

“When these containers came we inspected them and they were physically okay. The FDA also inspected the physical state and it was excellent. The FDA has the copy here to prove. There was no deterioration and other physical signs of spoilage,” he stated.

He also admitted that none of the three containers were sampled for analysis.

“We have a mini lab and randomly we take sampling there but there was no sampling for these containers. Like we usually do; we take sampling from every fifth container. It is risky to take sampling from each container.

None of these three containers was the fifth or tenth container so we did not take sampling from them,” he disclosed.

Dr. Stephen Bonnah, Head of Veterinary Regulatory Division at the Port of Tema said after it had been detected later that the containers were infested, he outfit stormed the premises of the importers who confirmed that the infested gizzard had already been sold out.

“We got to know the importers so we wrote to them and traced back. According to the importers the contaminated gizzard were already sold and were no longer in their stock,” he stated.

On the issue of the fourth contaminated container, the Chief Revenue Officer in charge of Customs Laboratory at Tema Port, Joseph Eric Owusu also revealed that the importer after paying all his duties was informed by the supplier that the goods are contaminated, hence, did not proceed to clear it.

“The importer received an alert from the supplier that the container containing the gizzard is infested with salmonella. When you read the full text of the alert it appears that the supplier was not certain. It was after the importer had paid and was to proceed that he received the alert and had to hold on,” he disclosed.

The agencies also admitted that though the importers of the containers of the infested gizzards possessed Veterinary Health Certificates from the country of origin, they didn’t have import permit from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture which meant that, ordinarily the containers shouldn’t have gone through compliance let alone have them released by Customs.

In the end all the agencies could not explain why an importer who doesn’t have import permits can still have his or her cargo pass compliance and subsequently released into the country.

ICS: Coronavirus costing shipping industry US$350m per week

The impact of the outbreak of the coronavirus is estimated to be costing the shipping industry USD 350 million a week in lost revenues, according to the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).

The virus outbreak is having a significant impact on the shipping sector and the industry is working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure that guidelines for industry and governments help limit the spread of the virus, whilst maintaining international trade. As such, the ICS

Secretary General, Guy Platten, is leading a delegation of industry leaders to meet with WHO in Geneva and discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the industry.

ICS estimates that more than 350,000 boxes have been removed from global trade as a result of the outbreak.

As informed, global supply chains continue to suffer, and issues remain around the quarantining of ships at ports, crew changes, and ensuring the health of seafarers and passengers.

“We have proposed a collaboration with WHO to evaluate and refine best practices regarding managing health threats in a shipboard environment. The cruise industry, in particular, has highly advanced practices and procedures and we are looking for practical ways to adapt those to broader maritime applications. We hope this effort will help provide some additional clarity and consistency for shoreside authorities when addressing ships during a health emergency,” Platten said.

“Our thoughts are especially with the Chinese people and the maritime industry is standing ready to be a powerful engine that helps them recover when this situation improves.”

ICS has been advising all members to closely follow the WHObacked guidelines on how to limit the risk of infection.

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Government more than doubles funding for mental healthcare The Government has increased funding for mental healthcare from GH¢6 million to GH¢15 million.

The funds are expected to be released by March and distributed among the Mental Health Authority (MHA) and the three psychiatric hospitals to run their operations.

Dr. Akwasi Osei, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the MHA, said the amount to be received constituted about half of the Government’s allocation to the Ministry of Health for Goods and Services.

The situation, Dr. Osei said, indicated that the Government had become more sensitive and aware to the complications of mental illness to society.

He was speaking at the launch of a research report on: “Exploring the Role of Traditional Mental Health Centres and their Impact on Promoting Quality Mental Healthcare and Human Rights in Ghana’ in Accra.

The research conducted by the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC) and Mind Freedom Ghana sought to understand the impact of mental healthcare and services provided by Traditional Mental Health Centres (TMHC) and Traditional Health Providers (THP).

Dr. Osei said Ghana is gradually extending mental health services nationwide as a lot of steps have been taken to decentralise and make mental healthcare community oriented.

“Ghana now has about 40 psychiatrics in the public health sector, therefore, the Mental Health Authority, together with the Ghana Health Service would work together to ensure that every region has one psychiatrist,” he said.

The Authority, he said, would use the TMHC as frontline informal community mental health workers to enable them to provide better services and bridge the gap between the informal and formal care.

Dr. Osei said, this year, a National Mental Health Review Tribunal would be established in Accra with representatives from all over the country to address concerns of persons who are wrongly admitted in mental

Small businesses to showcase technology projects in Paris to manage healthcare in Africa Small business owners in the technology sector won’t just present their advancements at Viva Tech but will additionally have an opportunity for an investment partnership with Sanofi, a leading pharmaceutical company.

Health and medical technology innovators in South Africa will showcase their creations at Afric@Tech’s annual conference to global investors and tech leaders at Viva Technology in Paris.

The entries to the Afric@Tech challenge officially closed on 21 February 2020. Small businesses in the technology sector will not only present their technologies at Viva Tech but also gain access to an investment part-

nership with Sanofi. This will be done through a system of coaching and mentoring.

Small business owners in the technology sector won’t just present their advancements at Viva Tech but will additionally have an opportunity for an investment partnership with Sanofi, a leading pharmaceutical company.

All African countries will participate in the challenge. This contest is aimed at identifying, rewarding and accompanying the best start-up businesses in their goal of changing practices in the health sector in the whole of Africa.

Sanofi country chair, Thibault Crosnier Leconte said, “This is the third year that we’ll be host-

ing Afric@Tech at Viva Technology and we’re excited with the sophisticated level of entries we’ve received from South Africa’s tech innovators. We’re proud to say that out of several African countries that enter the challenge, South Africa has emerged with one winner and several qualifying contenders for each year that we’ve hosted Afric@Tech.”

Chosen businesses will have the option to go to the Sanofi in Africa Lab in Afric@Tech. They will display their projects before a jury and will have the option to showcase their solutions before the audience of VivaTech.

This annual technology event will take place from 11 June 2020 until 13 June 2020.

NHIA pays service providers over GH¢ 91 million in claims The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has for the first two months of 2020 paid more than GH¢ 91 million to credentialed service providers to enable them to continue to give healthcare care seekers the required attention.

A total of 4,292 service providers, who submitted their claims vouchers on time benefitted, a statement from the Directorate of the NHIA Corporate Affairs Department said.

The service providers are made up of 2,993 public health facilities, 1,038 private health facilities, 228 Mission health facilities and 33 quasi-Government health facilities.

The public health facilities, according to the statement, received GH¢ 49, 845,207.91, representing 69.7 per cent of the payments; while the private service providers received GH¢ 26,033,139.75, which is 28.3 per cent.

Mission health facilities (CHAG) also received GH¢ 15,173,008.28 representing 16.5 per cent; whereas Quasi-Government service providers received GH¢ 846,565.84, which forms 0.9 per cent of the total payments made so far.

The statement said last year, GH¢857 million was paid as

claims to service providers, adding that, beneficiaries now received their reimbursements in an average of six months in arrears; instead of the usual over 12 months.

The four NHIA Claims Processing Centres across the country, it said, had put in place more efficient measures to speed up the vetting and payment process to ensure that NHIS members received quality healthcare.

The National Health Insurance

Scheme (NHIS) was set up by government in 2003 (with ACT 650) to provide financial risk protection against the cost of basic health care for all residents in Ghana. In 2012, the Scheme was reviewed with ACT 852.

Since its introduction, it has over the years grown to become a major instrument for financing health care delivery in Ghana. It is the financial mainstay of more than 4,600 credentialed healthcare service providers, accounting for more than 85 per cent of funds that flow into healthcare facilities to treat NHIS members, the statement said.

“The Scheme is credited with improvements in the healthcare-seeking behaviour of many people in Ghana, who now tend to seek medical attention earlier than before, thereby avoiding unnecessary deterioration in their health conditions.

“More people are visiting various NHIS credentialed health institutions across the country on account of the Scheme.

“In fact, the NHIS in November 2019, recorded the highest active membership since its inceptionand is still growing,” the statement said.

health hospitals.

He expressed the hope that the mental health levy would soon be established to enable the Authority to function effectively.

The research report indicated the traditional mental health centres and practitioners played a significant role in the provision of mental health services.

Traditional centres addressed the spiritual, physical and the socio-cultural needs of clients as well as provided a holistic way of addressing ailments in a culturally appropriate manner, he said.

The report said the traditional care providers are highly accessible in rural areas and their modalities for healing and dealing with difficult sickness-

es are more preferred than the bio-medical health facilities.

Ms. Cynthia Nimo Ampredu, CEO of Human Rights Advocacy Centre, urged the MHA to identify clear areas of collaboration between the orthodox and traditional mental health care providers.

She said there is an urgent need for mental health service providers to develop specialised and preventive treatment services bearing in mind the factors that heightened vulnerability to mental illness.

Ms. Ampredu also encouraged traditional mental health care providers to build their capacities to enable them to provide the right standard of care and support to their patients. (GNA)

Facebook bans ads promising a cure to the Coronavirus

Facebook will begin taking down any ads that promise a cure for the coronavirus, as the platform battles the rapid spread of conspiracy theories and fake cures—including drinking bleach to cure the disease—that have erupted in panic and confusion over the epidemic on social media.

A Facebook spokesperson told Forbes it will remove ads for products “that refer to the coronavirus and create a sense of urgency, like implying a limited supply, or guaranteeing a cure or prevention.”

The spokesperson added that, for example, “ads with claims like face masks that are 100% guaranteed to prevent the spread of the virus will not be allowed.”

Health experts warn the spread of misinformation, fake cures and conspiracy theories about coronavirus can actively cause harm and undermine trust in government institutions. “We need a vaccine against misinformation,” said Mike Ryan, head of the WHO health emergencies program, in a meeting this month.

A number of false cures have spread on Facebook in the past few months, including one claiming that drinking bleach can cure the virus, according to FactCheck.org.

Facebook already said in January it will outright remove posts flagged by global health organizations and local health authorities with

potentially harmful false cures or prevention methods for the coronavirus.

But the company also said last month it won’t remove other false claims about the virus, opting instead to factcheck, demote them in the news feed and point users to reliable information from the World Health Organization.

Key background: Facebook has struggled to contain disinformation since the 2016 election and has faced criticism for not removing ads from politicians that contain lies. But misleading or untrue medical claims have been a particularly thorny issue for the platform. Facebook banned misleading ads about vaccines last year, but private Facebook groups have become hotbeds of medical misinformation, and some ads expressing skepticism about vaccines haven’t been taken down. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that Facebook shouldn’t be an arbiter of truth, and company policy is to be usually reluctant to remove posts and ads at all.

More than 81,000 people globally have been infected with the virus as of Wednesday, and more 2,700 have died.

The World Health Organization hasn’t declared the virus a pandemic, but Europe, the Middle East and the U.S. are preparing for an outbreak as cases outside China continue to surge.

- Forbes

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MINING

Golden Star Announces Extension of Gold Hedging Program Golden Star Resources Ltd has announced that it has extended the discretionary gold price protection program (the “Hedging Program”) previously announced in August 2019.

While the Hedging Program was initially established to provide gold price protection for the projected production from the Prestea Mine over a 12 month period commencing in August 2019, the Company has extended the Hedging Program to cover the projected production from the Prestea Mine through to the end of 2020.

The Company has entered into zero cost collars on an additional 12,600 ounces with a floor price of $1,500 per ounce and a ceiling of $1,992 per ounce. The additional positions will mature at a rate of 4,200 ounces per month from

October to December 2020.

Together with the existing zero cost collars, the Company currently has gold price protection in place for 45,933 ounces at an average floor price of $1,427 per ounce and an average ceiling price of $1,816 per ounce.

According to Andrew Wray, CEO of Golden Star, “Extension of the gold price protection program to the end of 2020 has secured an attractive floor and ceiling price for the period.

These hedges cover the estimated production for Prestea to the end of 2020, a period during which we expect to continue to execute on our plans to improve the operational performance of the asset.” (GSR)

Nigeria’s government licenses two gold refineries -Mines Minister

Nigeria’s government has licensed two gold refineries to produce the metal for export and for the central bank to hold in its reserves, the mines minister said on Wednesday.

Minister of Mines and Steel Development Olamilekan Adegbite told reporters in the capital, Abuja, that licences

had been issued and the central bank would be the main off-taker, holding some of the gold in its reserves.

“We have licensed two refineries in Nigeria. They will refine gold and of course produce bullion that the CBN [Central Bank of Nigeria] can buy at international prices,” he said. He said one of the refineries was in Abuja, which is in the centre of the country, and the other is in the southwestern state of Ogun.

Adegbite did not provide any further details.

The announcement is part of a pattern in Africa where until 2012 there were only a handful of gold refineries, but as many as 26 are now either operating or under construction across 14 countries to process metal produced by informal diggers, according to a Reuters survey of public reports.

Nigeria has largely untapped

deposits of 44 minerals including gold, iron ore, coal, tin and zinc, in more than 500 locations. But most of the mining is artisanal and the absence of gold refineries means value typically has not been added in the supply chain.

The country’s first gold refining licence was issued in 2018 to local firm Kian Smith Trade & Co and the company has said it expects to begin operations in 2020, having failed to start last year.

Earlier this month, Adegbite said Nigeria expects its mining sector to grow to 3% of GDP within the next five years from just 0.3% currently as the government seeks to diversify Africa’s largest economy away from its reliance on crude oil sales.

Gold, lead, zinc, limestone and coal are among seven strategic minerals Nigeria has identified for investment. (Reuters)

Anglogold Ashanti endorses dealing in securities by a prescribed officer In terms of JSE Listings Requirement 3.63, AngloGold Ashanti gives notice that a prescribed officer, Graham Ehm, has dealt in securities of the Company, after having received clearance to do so in terms of JSE Listings Requirement 3.66.

The shares sold by the prescribed officer was to settle taxes related to vested shares awarded in terms of the The transaction was carried out on 25th February,2020, with the nature of transaction including On-market sale of shares, Class of security Ordinary Shares.

The number of shares sold was 23,702 , with price per share 325.6031, value of transaction (excluding fees) 7,717,444.6762.

Nature and extent of interest Direct, beneficial Prior clearance to deal obtained.

First bauxite cargo from Chalco’s Boffa mine arrives in China The first cargo of bauxite shipped from Aluminum Corp of China Ltd’s Boffa mine in Guinea has arrived in China, a spokesman for the company, which is also known as Chalco, said on Thursday.

The 55,000 tonne cargo arrived at the port of Rizhao in eastern China’s Shandong province on Wednesday after leaving Guinea in early January, local media reported.

Bauxite is a rock refined to make alumina, which is then used to make aluminium metal Chalco’s alumina refineries in Shandong “have basically all resumed work” amid the coronavirus epidemic that has disrupted industrial production in China, the spokesman for the company said.

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NEWS

Heathrow third runway ruled illegal on climate grounds The U.K. Court of Appeal has ruled that the government’s plan to build a third runway at the country’s largest airport is illegal on the grounds that it ignored climate change commitments.

In the court’s landmark decision, judges expressly cited the 2015 Paris Agreement as grounds for the ruling.

In their summary, the judges said: “The Paris Agreement ought to have been taken into account by the Secretary of State in the preparation of the ANPS [Airports National Policy Statement] and an explanation given as to how it was taken into account, but it was not.”

Ignoring the Paris Agreement, the judges said, was “legally fatal” to the plan.

The court further noted that: “The issue of climate change is a matter of profound national and international importance of great concern to the public— and, indeed, to the Government of the United Kingdom and many other national governments, as is demonstrated by their commitment to the Paris Agreement.”

By using the Paris Agreement as the legal basis for its decision, the Court of Appeal’s ruling could have far-reaching implications for other large-scale

projects in the U.K., which last year passed a law that it will cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

The ruling was met with scenes of jubilation outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where activists and politicians who have been campaigning against the runway popped bottles of champagne to celebrate the victory.

Heathrow, one of the world’s

largest airports by passenger footfall, has been planning for a new runway since at least 2006, when the then-Labour government backed plans to expand the airport. Since then, the plans have gone through a series of changes and setbacks up until 2018, when the Conservative government gave the current plan the green light.

But that decision was challenged by the not-for-profit

South Africa Raises Funds for State Airline to $1.1 Billion

South Africa almost doubled the level of funding for the national airline to 16.4 billion rand ($1.1 billion), cash that will go toward supporting a restructuring plan for the technically insolvent carrier.

The bailout will be used to service and pay debt previously guaranteed by the state over the “medium term,” Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said in his budget speech in Cape Town on Wednesday. The amount compares with 9.2 billion rand earmarked for South African Airways in October.

“It is the very sincere hope of many that this intervention will lead to a sustainable airline that is not a burden to the fiscus,” Mboweni said.

SAA has been a drain on the National Treasury for several years and has racked up losses of more than 32 billion rand over the past decade. The government placed the airline in a local form of bankruptcy protection late last year, and administrators have set about reducing costs by closing routes and considering asset sales.

While the planned shuttering of multiple domestic routes at the end of this month has drawn opposition from President Cyril Ramaphosa, the government intends to respect the authority of the business-rescue process, according to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.

“As a stakeholder and somewhat of a creditor, we have a

view, but obviously we’ll be stupid to put forward a view that brings another collapse,” he said in an interview Thursday with news website News24.

Mboweni has often stated his reluctance to support SAA while faced with bigger problems such as the $30 billion of debt owed by state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. In Wednesday’s speech he recycled an earlier reference to the airline as a ‘Sword of Damocles’ -- or an ever-present threat.

In addition to cash from the Treasury, SAA was last month given access to 3.5 billion rand from the state-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Bloomberg

organisation Plan B, which takes legal action against decisions that contribute to climate change. Launching its case against the runway scheme, Plan B said: “On the one hand there is the U.K. Government’s policy to expand aviation, one of the most polluting forms of transport. On the other there is its policy on climate change.

It can have one or the other but not both.” The case began in March 2019.

Heathrow said it would appeal today’s decision.

“We will appeal to the Supreme Court on this one issue and are confident that we will be successful. In the meantime, we are ready to work with the government to fix the issue that the court has raised,” a spokesperson said.

Reaction from campaigners to the ruling was joyful. Will Rundle, head of legal at Friends of the Earth, said: “We are delighted with the Court of Appeal’s ruling, which goes to show the massive importance of the legal system to check the clear abuse of state power by government, such as in this case.

“Shockingly, this case revealed that the government accepted legal advice that it should not consider the Paris Agreement when giving the third runway

the go-ahead. The Court has said very clearly that was illegal.”

Rundle highlighted the groundbreaking nature of the case, saying: “This judgment has exciting wider implications for keeping climate change at the heart of all planning decisions.”

Meanwhile, John Sauven, Executive Director of Greenpeace UK, said: “Boris Johnson should now put Heathrow out of its misery and cancel the third runway once and for all. No ifs, no buts, no lies, no u-turns.”

It is not yet known whether the government will continue to support the plan in its current form, though in 2015, nowPrime Minister Boris Johnson famously promised to “lie down in front of the bulldozers” to prevent the runway from being built.

Other prominent Conservative voices have criticized the ruling.

In a tweet, former chancellor George Osborne said: “Judges kill off Heathrow 3rd runway and Britain getting the modern air transport infrastructure we need, despite the elected Parliament voting for it overwhelmingly.

Presumably this is the kind of overreaching undemocratic judicial activism Boris wants to curb ... or perhaps not” (Forbes)

US donates US$600,000 to further developing countries’ trading capacities

The United States contributed USD 600,000 (CHF 590,000) in 2019 to help developing and least-developed countries (LCDs) participate effectively in global trade negotiations.

This donation will finance training workshops for officials from WTO member governments to help them deepen their understanding of multilateral trade rules and strengthen their negotiating capacity.

Over 2,800 workshops have been organized since the WTO’s DDA Global Trust Fund was created in 2001.

Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said: “This donation from the United States will help enhance the ability of developing countries and LDCs to participate actively in trade negotiations. I thank the United States for its sustained generosity.”

The US Ambassador to the

WTO, Dennis Shea, said: “The United States places great importance on ensuring that WTO obligations are implemented so that the benefits of open and transparent trade regimes can be realized by all our traders.

We are pleased to continue our longstanding support for the Global Trust Fund.

It is a signal of our commitment, both bilaterally and multilaterally, to support effective, targeted, and demand-driven technical assistance.

By pooling resources with other donors within the Global Trust Fund, we are ensuring that all available resources are properly leveraged, and programmes are designed for the widest possible participation among developing and least-developed countries of the WTO.” The United States has donated just over CHF 20.5 million (over USD 21 million) to the DDA Global Trust Fund over nearly 20 years.

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NEWS

Star Alliance welcomes Thai Smile Airways as connecting partner Star Alliance welcomed THAI Smile Airways as a Star Alliance Connecting Partner at an official ceremony held in Bangkok.

The auspicious occasion was celebrated with a traditional Thai performance at THAI Airways International headquarters in the presence of member airline representatives.

THAI Smile became the second Connecting Partner of Star Alliance. The Connecting Partner Model was first introduced in May 2017 allowing airlines to connect to the Star Alliance network without becoming a member airline.

This collaboration is the first of its kind in Thailand. THAI Smile offers more than 396 weekly flights to 32 destinations in nine countries and regions. As a Connecting Partner, the airline will extend the Star Alliance network by ten new destinations.

Passengers travelling on any itinerary, which includes a transfer between certain Star Alliance member airlines and THAI Smile on a single booking, will enjoy comforts such as passenger and baggage through check-in.

In addition, customers who hold Star Alliance Silver and Gold status in any Star Alliance member airline’s frequent flyer programme will enjoy a tailored set of privileges. Currently, such privileges are available on eligible connections between THAI Smile Airways and Austrian, Lufthansa, SWISS, and THAI Airways International.

Star Alliance CEO Jeffrey Goh, said: “Our Connecting Partner model was introduced three years ago to offer airlines an attractive way to connect to our global alliance network without requiring full membership, and we are continuing to expand the model to provide customers with more travel options. I am pleased to welcome THAI Smile Airways today as a Star Alliance Connecting Part-

ner, from which customers will benefit through greater connectivity and enhanced services in Asia.”

Charita Leelayudth, CEO of THAI Smile Airways, said: “Today marks an important milestone for THAI Smile Airways, and we are delighted to become a Connecting Partner.

It brings tremendous value to our customers and the region we serve and is a strategic step that positions THAI Smile Airways as an important regional player.”

“We are committed to delivering exceptional travel experiences to new generations of travellers at affordable prices with seamless connections to our parent company Thai Airways International (THAI), a Star Alliance member. Our focus remains on strengthen-

ing THAI’s route network for the highest cost-efficiency and competitiveness,” Mrs. Leelayudth added.

Mr. Sumeth Damrongchaitham, President of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited, congratulated THAI Smile Airways and said that becoming a Star Alliance Connecting Partner will elevate THAI Smile Airways’ competitiveness and will also enhance the reputation of Thai airlines in the international market.

“This is in line with the directive of the Thai Ministry of Transport to connect Thailand to the world. With its service excellence and highly efficient personnel, THAI Smile Airways is a subsidiary airline that makes us proud and helps us stay competitive in the international market. “As for our

future plans, THAI Smile Airways will be further developed as a leading regional airline that flies domestically in THAI’s stead and as a networking flight operator,” said Mr. Damrongchaitham, THAI President.

He asserted that THAI Smile Airways, with its ‘Thai hospitality’ services, is comparable to and has the same standards as THAI. Star Alliance continues to evaluate potential opportunities for future Connecting Partners.

Connecting Partners are carefully assessed for their fit into the existing Star Alliance network. Shanghai based Juneyao Airlines was the first airline to become a Connecting Partner in May 2017.

GSA facelifts Hamile Truck Park to facilitate transit trade

The Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA) has facelifted the construction of the Hamile Truck Park as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility and commitment to facilitate and promote transit trade.

The construction of the facility was at the behest of the Hamile Border Security Committee (BORSEC) when the GSA visited the border post during one of its transit trade stakeholder engagements.

The one-acre size truck park located in Hamile, a border town in the Upper West Region, will serve as a rest stop for transit truck drivers who haul goods between Ghana and the landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

The park which used to be muddy and dusty in the wet and dry seasons respectively, has now been graded and levelled with pavement blocks for the convenience of the drivers and other transit trade stakeholders.

At a brief ceremony, the Kumasi Branch Manager of the GSA, Mr. Emmanuel Kwarteng on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Authority, handed over the facility to Mr. J. D. Anaman, Customs Officer-In-Charge of the Hamile Border.

He re-echoed the GSA’s commitment to promoting Ghana’s corridor as the preferred transit trade destination and mentioned the Authority’s quarterly fact-finding trips on the corridor, periodic engagement of truck drivers on road safety and traffic regulations among others as testaments.

British Airways to remove plastic from flights by the end of 2020 British Airways has announced a new target to remove more than 700 tonnes of single-use plastic on board its flights in 2020, amounting to more than a quarter of a billion individual items of plastic and equivalent to more than 30,000 suitcases full of single-use plastic, even more than the number of bags customers check in with the airline at Heathrow on an average day.

The airline has already rolled out initiatives to remove 25 million individual items of single-use plastic on board each year, equivalent to 90 tonnes, and has now set itself an ambitious target to increase this by more than 700%.

British Airways has been working closely with its suppliers to identify alternatives to single-use plastic items, and this year it will replace as many as possible with recyclable or re-usable items or items from sustainable sources.

To date, the airline has achieved the following plastic reductions: Swapped plastic stirrers with

bamboo alternatives; Reduced plastic packaging on Club World amenity kits; Swapped plastic wrapping for all bedding and blankets for paper wrapping (currently being rolled out across all cabins); Removed plastic wrapping on headsets and instead placed these inside paper charity envelopes in World Traveller cabins; Water bottles on board are made from 50% recycled plas-

tic; and removed inflight retail plastic bags.

The target also includes finding alternatives to single-use plastic cutlery, tumblers, cups, toothpicks and butter packaging on board. The airline described the process of making these changes as complex, with a significant amount of research required to ensure that the alternative products sourced are credibly sustainable, offer the same hygiene

levels as their plastic counterparts and do not outweigh the items they replace.

Kate Tanner, British Airways’ Customer Experience Manager said: “Our customers have told us that they want to see these changes and we’re pleased to have made real strides in our journey to becoming more sustainable. We’ve spent a long time researching how to make sustainable changes without causing environmental impact elsewhere. For instance, we are looking at the amount of water and detergent needed to wash metal cutlery and how often it needs to be replaced versus using plastic or bamboo cutlery.

“We’ve looked at how we ensure blankets and other items can be kept clean without a plastic covering and the lifespan of all the new items compared to the existing ones. Some potential replacement options may be heavier, which would then have an impact on the weight of the aircraft and therefore on our emissions, so we must ensure

we are making the right choices on all replacements.”

The airline has a team of more than 170 War on Waste cabin crew champions who promote best practice among crew and identify potential new initiatives to improve waste reduction and recycling practices on board.

British Airways says it now expects its suppliers to offer sustainable alternatives as standard and will be making continual changes to its onboard products as they become available.

To mark the new target British Airways commissioned eco-artist Sarah Turner to create a giant suitcase made from a thousand pieces of waste plastic, including 160 spoons, more than a dozen plastic stirrers, drinks lids, plastic wrap, bubble wrap, catering dishes and covers and bottles. The sculpture, which represents the 30,000 suitcases worth of plastic waste being removed, is currently on display at British Airways’ Headquarters near Heathrow.