Business24 Newspaper (March 2-2020)

EDITION B24 | 13

| MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

|

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

Chaos looms at ports over UNIPASS takeover

BOST eyes capital market ….as legacy debt is reduced from US$640m to US$50m

By Eugene Davis

The Bulk Oil Storage & Transportation Company (BOST) has set its sight on raising additional funds from the capital market to turn around its fortunes.

BOST, which is mandated to hold strategic stocks of petroleum products for the country and ensure an efficient distribution regime through its network of storage and distribution infrastructure, has been saddled with huge debts over the past half-decade.

MORE ON PAGE 2

By Dominick Andoh

Ghanaian importers and clearing agents have expressed displeasure about government’s decision to abrogate the contracts of the two existing Single Window operators—GCNet and WestBlue- and hand over the country’s single window operations to Ghana Link and its overseas partner CUPIA Korea to run a new system christened UNIPASS effective March 1.

According to them, this act by government will not only create chaos at the port but erode all the gains made since the introduction of the paperless port regime championed by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

Despite the improved revenue generation and seamless clearing of goods at the ports, made possible by the two existing vendors, the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, in a letter dated 26th February 2020, directed freight forwarders, clearing agents and other stakeholders in the country, to use the UNIPASS system to clear their goods from Sunday March 1, 2020.

Portions of the letter suggest that the government is willing to incur the cost of abrogating the contracts of the two existing vendors.

GCNet’s contract ends in 2023 while that of West Blue expires at the end of 2020.

“In a confirmation letter dated 5th of December 2018, govern-

ment respectfully requested you to submit for discussion the terms of transition. We note that your firm is yet to submit the terms of transition you will find satisfactory.”

“In view of this government would be making payment that takes into account the unspent years of your contract and also ensures the best value of the public money,” portions of the letter read.

However, the stakeholders have warned that this decision will cause serious problems for government and all stakeholders, explaining that the UNIPASS system is untested.

They have therefore asked government withdraw the letter with immediate effect, stating

Lending rates will fall ‘soon’ —BoG Governor

“If we do not do this right, there is going to be pure recipe for chaos; there will be a serious disruption.

The government must withdraw the letter immediately, UNIPASS is not ready”

By Patrick Paintsil

The decision of the Bank of Ghana to have banks in the country shore up their capital base barely two years ago was to get them in a more resourceful position to lower their lending rates in the near term, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, has said.

Mr. Edward Akrong

MORE ON PAGE 2

MORE ON PAGE 2

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

FEATURE

FEATURE

HOW 5G PROMISES TO REVOLUTIONIZE FARMING

SAVINGS – THE MOST DIFFICULT AND YET NEEDFUL

Over the next several years, superfast 5G mobile networks promise to shake up a variety of industries, particularly those on the cutting edge, including technology and automotive... MOREONPAGE16

Saving has been the bedrock of most successful and wealthy families who have thrived on their fortunes and even succeeded in passing their wealth on to future generations... MOREONPAGE22

INTERNATIONAL MARKET

*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)

2

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

| THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

News/Editorial Lending rates will fall ‘soon’ —BoG Governor continued from page 1 “We believe that over time reforms and recapitalisation should provide a strong basis for enhancing competition and efficiency in the sector, which will help lower lending rates,” he said in an interview captured in the Oxford Business Group’s The Report 2020.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG), in accordance with Section 28 (1) of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930), revised upward the minimum paid-up capital for existing banks and new entrants from GH¢120 million to a new level of GH¢400 million from the effective date of December 31, 2018.

The aim of the recapitalization, according to the BoG, was to “further develop, strengthen and modernise the financial sector to support the government’s economic vision and transformational agenda”.

Also responsible for the directive were the high non-performing loans (NPL) and the relatively high level of exposures in a few banks, as per the governor’s assertion.

Banks’ lending rates remain an albatross on the necks of borrowers, especially with private sector businesses that have continually lamented the harsh impact of the high cost of credit on their bottomline.

From a high of 33percent in 2016, the rates have dropped to between 22 to 24percent as at December 2019 but it still remains high, with the policy rate pegged at 16percent.

Characterising the high lending rates in the banking sector is the relatedly high ratio of non-performing loans (NPLs), which quite impressively, has seen some decline over the last couple of years.

Banks’ NPL ratio stood at 18.2percent in 2018, it declined further to 17.3percent in October 2019 and subsequently ended the year at 13.9percent.

According to the central bank governor, the development could further strengthen the banks to cut down their lending rates even further.

“In addition, the gradual reduction in NPLs through loan write-offs, ongoing recovery efforts and the strengthening of banks’ risk management systems should help reduce risk premiums and further lower lending rates,” Dr. Addison said.

He added: “We anticipate that with macro stability and a reduction in NPLs, banks will be in a better position to lower lending rates and increase credit.”

Editorial: Enough of the port politics The directive by government that UNIPASS should take over the country’s single window operations at the ports effective March 1, 2020, comes after serious questions were raised by various stakeholders about the potential disorder at the ports and its impact on revenue.

The good counsel by the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) and policy think-tank, IMANI, that cancelling the contracts of the existing vendors—GCNet and WestBlue—would result in the payment of millions of dollars

in avoidable judgement debt has been ignored and a political decision made.

Indeed, the letter directing all importers and exporters to use the UNIPASS system, authored by the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, suggests that the government is willing to incur the cost of abrogating the contracts of the two existing vendors.

GCNet’s contract ends in 2023 while that of West Blue expires at the end of 2020. The question then is: What is so urgent that government would simply not respect the sanctity of their contracts and allow them to run their full term?

Again, why totally abolish a tried and tested system, which took years to perfect and has led to increased revenue from the ports, in favour of a system yet to be fully tested?

Why foist a totally new system on freight forwarders and other stakeholders without the appropriate training?

These questions beg for answers, but no matter how government tries to explain, tax payers are going to be burdened.

The simple fact is that, aside GCNet and WestBlue who ought to be compensated, based on the deal signed with UNIPASS by the Trade Ministry, if UNIPASS’ contract is

not allowed to go ahead, they are also entitled to millions of dollars of tax-payer funded compensation.

From the forgoing, Business24 holds the view that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who has led the paperless port agenda, should call a meeting between the Senior Minister, GCNet, WestBlue, and UNIPASS to resolve these issues.

We are not able to mobile enough taxes as a country, so the little realized should not be expended on such needless potential judgement debts.

BOST eyes capital market continued from page 1

The company, as at 2017, owed product suppliers and related parties US$624 million. This has, however, been reduced to US$ 50million under the current management.

The oil storage company, on the back of its improved debt position, is now looking to be self-sustaining and turn to the capital market, on its own balance sheet, in the years ahead.

“So our first priority is that government should help our legacy debt, clean our balance sheet so we can go to the market and borrow on our own terms and use it to turn around the company.

“But if the government is magnanimous enough and can get us the money, we will definitely pay back. We

Mr. Edwin Provencal, Managing Director of BOST

don’t want free money, we will pay back the money to government,” Mr. Edwin Provencal, Managing Director of BOST, told Parliament’s Committee of Government Assurances during a visit by the Committee to the company’s site at Tema.

“We are grateful the Committee came, we do not need money from the government, what we need from the government is to take measures to clean our balance sheet, one of them is to help us pay our legacy debts.

“The other is to give us comfort letters or guarantees for financial institutions or investors who want to come in to support us, if government decides to find money for us we will be very grateful,” the Managing Director of the state-owned company added.

Chairman of the Government Assurance Committee, Collins Owusu Amankwah, indicated the company has done well to reduce the huge debt it inherited and backed management’s call for capital injection.

“We realize that in terms of total installed fuel capacity, they have managed to bring it up to the standard of 2017. So, for us members of the Committee

when we toured the facility and had the briefing session, what we can say is that the current management led by Mr. Provencal has done a good job which requires government support,” he said.

Ranking member of the Committee, Dr. Rashid Pelpuo, also called for the recreation of the company to benefit all Ghanaians. “I think, essentially, we need to recreate BOST, we need to start making money out of BOST. Over the years the losses we have experienced are unacceptable.

I am happy to hear that management has decided to stop the losses and they are going to begin to produce and get profits. That is good news and to do that they don’t want money from anybody, they want to have credibility so they can borrow on their own balance sheet.”

Chaos looms at ports over UNIPASS takeover continued from page 1 “UNIPASS is not ready”.

President of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), Mr. Edward Akrong, in a separate interviews with journalists said: “UNIPASS system it’s all a mess because even we tried the URL and it was not working, not to talk about other challenges we have had with their so called superior system.

“If we do not do this right, there is going to be pure recipe for chaos, there will be a serious disruption. The government must withdraw the letter immediately, UNIPASS is not ready” He quizzed “What is broken that you would want to fix? There is absolutely no problem with the current system. You have over 10, 000 to 15,000 declarants hitting your system at the same time, so there has to be serious stress test to

make sure that they can withstand all that pressure. So far, we have not seen any report to say that all these stress tests have been done.

Failed Piloting Importers who were at Takoradi port on February 21, 2020 for the piloting of the UNIPASS system were left disappointed.

This is because Ghana Link and its overseas partner CUPIA Korea could not demonstrate and successfully pilot their acclaimed newly-built superior system.

“No training or piloting has been done. We were told some piloting was done in Aflao but I can tell you that it did not happen and Takoradi the same thing,” Mr. Akrong stated.

No Superior System It has emerged that Ghana Link and its foreign partner, CUPIA of Korea Customs Service claim that they have a new superior

single window system is a mirage, as per its contract with Government of Ghana, it will rather need Ghana Community Network Service Limited (GCNet) and West Blue Consulting to handover their systems to them before they can start operations.

This means that without GCNet and West Blue, UNIPASS cannot operate or function.

GCNet threatens Shut Down Meanwhile GCNet has threatened to shut down its system and head straight to court to demand an estimated US$120million in judgment should the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) go ahead to implement the new UNIPASS trade facilitation system at the ports.

The figure includes, among other things, the cost of demobilizing the company’s technological systems and physical infrastructure across the country.

The stance of the company, this paper has gathered, was in re-

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

Subscribe: thebusiness24online/subscribe Copyright @ 2019 Business24 Limited. All Rights Reserved.

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

sponse to a letter from a senior government official seeking to buy out GCNet out of their current contract with government, which is due to expire in 2023, in order for GCNet to hand over its tried and tested system to UNIPASS. “We are currently at the crossroads for doing the unthinkable in the country’s ports; we have invested into so much into technology, created so much employment opportunities and consistently helped to shore up revenue from 2002 till date.

“It does not augur well for a country that is looking for investments, if it cannot respect the sanctity of contracts,” a source said.

The source disclosed that, the moves by UNIPASS is a clear indication that they have no ‘superior system’ but is only seeking to profit from what the two main Single Window service providers, GCNet and WestBlue, have done over the years.

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

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

3

NEWS

WAPCo announces successful completion of pipeline cleaning exercise The West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) has successfully completed the cleaning and inspection of its 20’’ offshore pipeline from Badagry in Nigeria to Takoradi in Ghana.

The Internal inspection of the 569 km offshore pipeline was completed on Sunday February 23, 2020, almost one month ahead of the scheduled completion date of March 20, 2020.

A significant amount of data was successfully gathered during the inspection and will be analyzed over the next couple of months to further provide critical insights and assurance of the overall integrity of the pipeline to support WAPCo’s continuous optimal operations.

Following the successful cleaning and inspection of the offshore pipeline, WAPCo is resuming the transportation of gas to its customers in Benin, Togo and Ghana.

In Ghana WAPCo is currently transporting natural gas to its Takoradi Regulating and Metering Station only. Gas transpor-

tation to its Tema Regulating and Metering Station will commence after the completion of ongoing expansion works under the Takoradi to Tema

Interconnection Project (TTIP) expected to be operational in March 2020.

WAPCo is grateful to its stakeholders for the show of support

during the cleaning and inspection exercise that allowed us to safely and efficiently execute the work plan ahead of schedule.

“WAPCo is particularly grateful and wishes to say thank you to the following who have played significant and commendable roles in ensuring the success of the cleaning exercise; Ghana Ministry of Energy, Nigeria Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Benin Ministry of Energy Water and Mines, Togo Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Volta River Authority (VRA), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Chervon Nigeria Limited (CNL), Shell Overseas Holding Limited, Societe Togolais de Gaz, Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC), Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNGC), Schlumberger, DSV- Rosen and others,” the company said in a press statement.

With the completion of the pipeline cleaning and inspection exercise, WAPCo is better positioned to offer reliable and improved service to its customers in Ghana, Togo and Benin in their effort to provide a greater access to affordable and reliable power for economic growth.

Urgent Focus on Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries needed-- World Bank Urgent action is needed in countries impacted by fragility, conflict and violence (FCV) to end extreme poverty globally, the World Bank Group has said.

As crisis situations become increasingly protracted - with dire impacts on people and economies - the World Bank Group has released an FCV, which for the first time, systematically brings a full suite of financing and expertise to address these challenges in both low-and-middle income countries.

On the current trajectory, by 2030 up to two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor will live in fragile and conflict-affected countries, according to a World Bank report.

Bucking the overall trend of a global decrease in extreme poverty, these countries are seeing sharp increases, threatening decades of progress in the fight against poverty. Fragile and conflict-affected situations take a huge toll on human capital, creating vicious cycles that lower people’s lifetime productivity and earnings and reduce socioeconomic mobility. One in five people in these countries are deprived of money, education and basic infrastructure simultaneously. And the number of people living in close proximity to conflict has nearly doubled in the past 10 years.

“Addressing humanitarian crises requires immediate support and long-term development approaches,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass. “To end extreme poverty and break the cycle of fragility, conflict, and violence, countries need to ensure access to basic services, transparent and accountable government institutions, and economic and social inclusion of the most marginalized communities. These kinds

of investments go hand in hand with humanitarian aid.”

The World Bank Group now emphasizes working before, during, and after crisis situations to tackle poverty. It emphasizes prevention by proactively addressing the root causes of conflict - such as social and economic exclusion, climate change and demographic shocks - before tensions turn into full-blown crises. During active conflict, it focuses on building institutional resilience and preserving essential services like health and education for the most vulnerable communities.

The strategy also emphasizes long-term support to help countries transition out of fragility, including private sector solutions, such as scaling-up investments

in small and medium enterprises that are essential to create jobs and spur economic growth.

It addresses the cross-border impacts of FCV, for example by focusing on the development needs of both refugees and host communities.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of the extreme poor live in fragile and conflict-affected countries, and fragility and conflict have a destabilizing effect across borders. In response, the World Bank has been scaling up its support to FCV countries in Africa through the International Development Association (IDA).

Over the past three years, IDA commitments to FCV countries in Africa nearly doubled from about $6bn in IDA17 to $11bn so far in IDA18. In the next three

years, the World Bank will invest over $7 billion in the Sahel.

In fragile contexts across the region, the focus has been on delivering services and improving the wellbeing of the most vulnerable, particularly women in insecure areas, and addressing the drivers of fragility.

In Somalia, mobile money has helped provide cash payments to families affected by drought and provided the government with e-payment solutions to expand service delivery.

In the Central African Republic, the LONDO program (<stand-up> in Sango) is providing temporary employment to the most vulnerable and increasing families’ incomes and well-being. In Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and other coun-

tries, Geo-Enabling for Monitoring and Supervision is helping improve the monitoring and impact of projects.

This institutional shift is backed by increases in financing, both through the World Bank’s General Capital Increase and through the recently approved replenishment of IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, which included over $20 billion for FCV. The Bank and IFC will also make key operational changes, such as deploying more staff and resources to countries impacted

by FCV and partnering with a range of international and local actors. IFC and MIGA have also committed to significantly increase their support to private sector investments in economies impacted by FCV.

4

| THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

5

FEATURE

The Legality of Freight and Related Charges—My Two Pence Contribution (Part 1)

By Adam Imoru Ayarna

For many shippers and consignees, freight and related charges or quotations maybe an enigma. In this article, I will try and demystify the art of shipping to assist you understand and appreciate your freight and additional freight related charges and insight.

An Ocean freight charge or quotation is much more than just a sea shipping service price list.

In the simplest terms, a freight quotation/charge is a summary of charges levied/charged by a carrier for the movement of cargo from Point A to Point B against the cargo being shipped.

In addition, the quotation/ charge is typically a combination of multiple costs such as ocean freight rates, surcharges, fees, various adjustment factors, rules, exceptions and exclusions as per the tariffs set out by the carrier.

A freight quotation may be divided into 3 groups as below: Pre-Carriage, Carriage and On-Carriage. For each group, a list of common fees are provided below. All depending on the mode of transport such as Door to Door, Port to Port and other associated services involved, a shipper or consignee will end up paying many other charges.

But ultimately the consignee pays all the charges.

There are many activities that happen in a containerized shipment prior to the container being delivered at the port for export.

Pre-Carriage is the term given to any inland movement that takes place prior to the container being loaded at a port of loading onto to a vessel.

Such activity can take place at the same location as the port of loading, or at a location close to the port of loading.

SOME COMMON FEES & CHARGES Chassis Utilisation: A fee charged for the use of a chassis in conjunction with the shipping container to facilitate overland transportation from the shipper’s door to port.

Fuel Surcharge: Fuel Surcharge applicable for the transport prior to ocean shipment.

Wharfage: A Charge assessed by a pier or dock owner against freight handled over the pier or dock or against a vessel management company using the pier or dock.

Packing charges: A fee that may be charged by a 3rd party warehouse for the packing of the cargo into the container at their premises.

If cargo is packed directly at the shipper’s premises, then this charge will not be applicable in the contract.

Documentation charges: Charges that may be applicable for the preparation of export documentation such as Certificate of Origin, Export Permits, Licenses and such.

Customs Clearance: A fee paid to the customs broker for arranging your customs clearance.

Some pre-carriage activity may be carried out either by the carrier using road or rail modes (Carrier Haulage) or by the mer-

Adam Imoru Ayarna

chant using road or rail modes (Merchant Haulage).

OTHC-Origin Terminal Handling Charge: This is an additional cost, on top of the sea freight, charged by the shipping company for handling of containers at the container terminal before containers are being loaded onboard a vessel. Examples include but not limited to the unloading of the container from truck, stacking area and transport from stacking location to just below the crane for loading onto the vessel.

Carriage: Is the term given to the actual movement of the cargo on sea by the shipping line from the port of load to the port of discharge.

There are literally hundreds of carriers around the world offering services globally. Depending on the contract of carriage and the service type mutually agreed between the carrier and the shipper, each carrier will have their own applicable charges in their shipping service pricelist.

Ocean Freight Rate: Is for only movement of container from Port A to Port B. Base Rate: The cost of shipping a container from one point to another. Rates fluctuate frequently based on a number of different factors.

BAF- “Bunker Adjustment Factor”: Is charged to compensate vessel managers or lines for fluctuating fuel costs. Sometimes called “Fuel Adjustment Factor” or FAF. ISPS- International Security Port Surcharge: relates to charges for security of the vessel and container while at the port.

Some port Authorities/Managers levy this charge against the vessels.

Low Sulphur Surcharge: Charged for the use of fuel that has lower emission. Coming out of the IMO 2020

Terminal Handling Service – Origin: THC charged for the export move being Terminal Charges incurred at the port of origin.

BL Fee - Bill of Lading Fee: A fee charged by the shipping line for the processing of the bill of lading on behalf of the client.

Export Service: Service fees that maybe charged by the Ship agent On-Carriage via sea to other inland sea port (if applicable) Documentation fee: - Destination - Delivery Order or Release Fees at destination Terminal Handling Service – Destination: THC charged for the import move,being Terminal Charges incurred at the destination port.

EBS- Emergency Bunker Surcharge: A surcharge added to the cost of freight to cover fuel costs.

EIS- Equipment Imbalance Surcharge: A surcharge on an ocean freight rate, levied by shipping lines, to recover costs related to removing large quantities of empty containers from a country or countries where there is no or little exports use for those containers that had been previously imported into those places.

The charge is usually a flat rate per container, and it is not necessarily applied in all trades or at all times, rather it is only applied when such trade imbalances necessitate large expenditure on shifting empty containers from one place to another.

Environment Fee Destination: Environmental surcharges imposed by the destination port.

Covers various contingencies such as hydrocarbon spill cleanup costs and other mandated fees. In Ghana however this could be related to the charge levied Shipping Lines by Ghana Maritime Authority which is based on the vessel gross tonnage.

ERR - Emergency Rate Restoration: A surcharge added to the cost of freight to cover unexpected increases in shipping costs within a window.

ERS -Equipment Repositioning Surcharge: A fee imposed when a shipper requests that the carrier make empty containers available that must be moved from one location to another by the carrier.

GAS - Gulf of Aden Surcharge: Used to compensate shipping lines for additional costs incurred when transiting through the Gulf of Aden. To compensate shippers for additional costs including crew risk compensation, cancellation of economical speed, and redeployment of vessels.

GRI- General Rate Increase: Used to describe an across–the– board tariff rate increase implemented by conference members or individual lines based on market forces (demand/supply) and applied to base rates.

Hazardous Surcharge: A surcharge imposed for shipping hazardous materials or goods.

ISF - Importer Security Filing: A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulation requiring importers and vessel carriers to provide data electronically to CBP for in-bound ocean shipments. Also known as 10+2.

BAF - Bunker Charge: An extra charge sometimes added to vessel freight rates; justified by higher or fluctuating fuel costs.

Also known as Fuel Adjustment Factor or FAF. CAF-Currency Adjustment Factor: A charge, expressed as a percentage of a base rate that is applied to compensate ocean carriers of currency fluctuations.

Cargo Data Declaration Fee: A surcharge assessed for the additional costs of declaring cargo

information in advance to the European Union authorities as required for authorities to evaluate any potential security and safety threats.

Port Dues: Fees charged by the harbour authority on ships using the port`s facilities.

OWS - Over Weight: When cargo exceed the acceptable weight for carriage Surcharge. However, with the advent of SOLAS on weight this is still relevant but limited. Key is for the shipping line to be made aware of the overweight all towards safety of the vessel and crew at sea.

Piracy Surcharge: A charge assessed to compensate shipping companies for increased costs associated with avoiding piracy and hijacking.

PSS- Peak Season Surcharge: Is very dependent on demand and supply on a sea trade route.

Mostly when volumes outweigh available vessel space.

PCS-Port Congestion Surcharge: Applied by shipping lines to cover losses caused by congestion and idle time for vessel serving that port. Lines have the right to impose a surcharge on the freight to recover revenue lost. It is normally calculated as a percentage of the freight. Because each day is a huge cost to the vessel, and, waiting beyond three days continuously in a specific port will call for this charge to be implemented to reduce the daily cost burden on the shipping line through no fault of the shipping line.

SCS - Suez Canal Surcharge: Used to compensate shipping companies for additional costs incurred when transiting through the Suez Canal.

SES - Special Equipment Surcharge: When special equipment such as flat racks etc are requested for shipment by a shipper/consignee.

Detention: A penalty charge against shippers or consignees for delaying carrier’s equipment beyond allowed time.

Demurrage applies to cargo; detention applies to equipment.

If you store a container at the port beyond free days, then demurrage and detention apply.

If you keep a container for too long on any other premise (not on the port’s premises), then only detention applies.

Additional charges may include the following: Accessorial Charges: Charges that are applied to the base tariff rate or base contract rate, e.g., bunkers, container, currency, destination/delivery.

AI - All Inclusive: Is that the cost of transportation includes all the additional fees provided for under the conditions of carriage. This all in relates to only the ocean freight related cost and does not necessary include origin and destination charges.

The erroneous thinking that All-inclusive implies that all related charges is very wrong.

Even in an All-inclusive rate quotes, there is qualification of that all-inclusive.

Adam Imoru Ayarna is the Vice President of the Shipowners and Agents Association of Ghana (SOAAG), the umbrella body of shipping lines trading in Ghana

6

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

| THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

MARKETS STRUCTURE

USDCAD

•

AB=CD Harmonic pattern

PREVIOUS/FORECAST •

USDCAD, failed to push further down with retracement only up to aboout 38.2% fibonacci

•

Expecting bull rally to continue to about 1.35904 price region in anticipation of a formation an AB=CD harmonic pattern

** Current price @ time of analysis: 1.34491

EURUSD

STRUCTURE •

Bullish shark pattern, abc Corrective wave

PREVIOUS/FORECAST •

The Euro continued after the formation of the bullish shark pattern begun its rally to the upside

•

Expecting termporary sell in formation of wave b to about 1.09450 price region followed by buy continuation to around 1.12400 price region.

**current price @ time of analysis: 1.10451

STRUCTURE • Bearish Maximum Bat Harmonic Pattern

GBPUSD

PREVIOUS/FORECAST •

GBPAUD formed a bearish harmonic Maximum Bat pattern with PRZ around 1.9800 price region

•

Expecting sell to around 1.92960 price region

**current price @ time of analysis: 1.97775

ADVICE TO BE PROFITABLE IN TRADING Why do people fail in the forex market?

You would be demotivated when you hear the fact that the failure rate in the forex market is more than 95%. Yes. Most of the people who try their hand in the forex market, get out of it even before completing one full year.

It doesn’t mean that it is really tough to make it in the forex market. And also, there is no need to crack thousands of hard puzzles to open the door of treasures.

If you go through the analysis by experts, it reveals that there is a pattern in the way people approach, and do execute in the forex market. And get the same results!

At the instance you realize it, you would also be the one who accepts the realities. Eventually, you will move ahead and do the needful to be in the earning club.

“Not Following The Market” You’ve learned forex trading.

Well. Beware! It’s not like driving your new car, and it doesn’t have steadfast results. With the top gear and the right acceleration, there is no guarantee to get the right speed.

While trading, you should listen to the market and adapt yourself to it instead of being stubborn with your ideas. That’s the right way to surf the tides in the forex sea.

“Not Having The Passion” Forex market is not available in common places to fall in love at first sight. But to be successful and prosper as a trader, one has to develop a real interest in it during learning and executing the

knowledge. Otherwise studying the market and analyzing the factors to place your trades would become a tough job. Then quitting in midway is a SURE thing to happen.

“Not Seeing The Reality”

Moreover, it further helps you to sustain in the market, and you could make winning trades subsequently.

Market Watch;

By Agyei Samuel Ofosu

Happy Trading!

In the forex market, success means no 100% win. It’s a combination of ‘WINS’ and ‘LOSSES’, and keeping your losses at a minimum is the key. All successful traders still incur losses, and (it’s part of the game). Without realizing it many “newbie traders” set unrealistic expectations and burn their energy down. Be informed, and you should not let a streak of failures to let you down and you should devise your strategies to face the failures.

“Overtrading” Aiming unrealistic high profits, trading addiction, and trading beyond the investment potential led the traders to indulge in overtrading. When you form your trading strategy, you have to take your capital into consideration. Relying on leverage, with the aim of making a big profit, is not advisable as it would eventually lead to the closure of your trading account.

Trade addiction is doing forex trade just for the sake of trading without realizing the need for it.

This overtrading, which is incompatible with the capital you have also causes failure.

“Not Having A Proper Forex Plan” Doing forex trade, without a plan is like gambling and incurring a loss is an event to occur, sooner or later. Then, you should trade with the proper risk-reward ratio, which helps you to approach each trade with the right portion of your capital as an acceptable loss.

Louis Boah, CEO of Gold Forex Institute www.goldforexinstitute.com Call: (+223) 302906626 | Email: customerservice@fxgoldtrading. com GFI services include: Forex training & mentorship for (but not limited to) individuals, hedge fund institutions, and money and asset managers.

Pro Chart Analysis MAM/ PAMM Premium Signal (With Entry & Exit price) Premium Floor Trading Seminars & Online Webinars

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

7

8

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

| THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

F E AT U R E

The coronavirus is crushing business.

Could insurance lessen the blow?

When the coronavirus outbreak started picking up speed in January, multinational corporations were quick to institute employee travel bans and temporarily shutter offices in China, where the outbreak began.

Now, weeks into a global crisis that has sickened over 80,000 people and killed 2,700, companies are looking beyond dayto-day coping mechanisms to protect themselves as the financial toll of the outbreak starts to become apparent.

A big question they’re asking is whether insurance could help them foot the bill for expenses related to the outbreak. The answer, like so many aspects of the coronavirus, isn’t totally clearcut.

Business, interrupted Many companies have business interruption insurance, according to Renee McGowan, chief executive officer in Asia for Mercer, the global human resources consulting firm, but “most often it relates to property” and the losses incurred via damage from catastrophic events like tornadoes, earthquakes, and fires— not epidemics.

In fact, historically there has been a “widespread exclusion of infectious diseases” from property and casualty insurance policies—which includes business interruption—by insurers in the U.S. and Europe, said Frank Yuen, senior analyst at Moody’s Investors Service in Hong Kong.

If policies don’t explicitly exclude epidemics, there’s some wiggle room on whether losses from coronavirus-related interruptions are covered by policies; those determinations are made during the claims process.

Therefore, business interruption claims might increase because of the coronavirus, Yuen said, but the direct financial impact to insurers will be “manageable.”

Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality SE has received “very few claims” relating to the coronavirus so far, said Mark Mitchell, Asia-Pacific CEO. The insurer’s standard policy for business interruption is triggered by physical property damage, Mitchell said, so plant closures caused by the outbreak, for example, would not be covered.

AGCS expects “minor claims exposures,” and it estimates, based on previous outbreaks like SARS and Zika, that its losses will not exceed “a low double-digit million Euro amount.”

Mitchell added that contingency policies generally do not cover event cancellations caused by an outbreak of communicable disease, unless a government authority orders the cancellation.

A spokesperson for another provider, Zurich Insurance Group, said it is “still too early... to discuss any potential claims related to the coronavirus.” “[The coronavirus] could impact the business interruption component of some property policies,” the Zurich spokesperson said, but like AGCS, Zurich’s policies tend to “require physical property damage to trigger

business interruption. Based on what we know today, we don’t expect this to have a significant financial impact to the company.”

Despite the difficulty, it’s easy to see why firms might be looking to offset the cost of the coronavirus outbreak.

SARS, a comparable coronavirus that broke out in China in 2002, hit China’s economy hard in the short term, but it recovered quickly, and the global impact was small. In 2000, China accounted for 1.2% of global trade and 3% of world GDP growth. China now accounts for nearly one-third of world GDP growth and made up 33% of global trade in 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported, using data from the World Bank. Given China’s outsize role in the global economy and consumer marketplace, some firms have already issued warnings about how their financial performance will suffer amid the outbreak.

McGowan said that today’s “global connectivity”—increased cross-border trade, travel, and supply chain reliance—makes the current outbreak “different to what we’ve experienced in the past.”

For businesses and insurers alike, there’s no roadmap.

“Even SARS did not have very long-term disruptions to business, so there are very few studies in terms of how much [an epidemic] leads to business disruption claims.” Yuen said.

An “act of God” Businesses looking for another source of protection may turn to more obscure “force majeure” clauses that exempt companies from being penalized for neglected contractual obligations due to events outside their control, like wars and natural disasters.

But like business interruption insurance, making the case that force majeure clauses apply to epidemics might be a stretch.

It’s uncommon for such clauses in contracts to “expressly list a public health emergency,” according to a report by global risk consulting firm Control Risks.

Instead, the clauses typically apply to “acts of God” like earthquakes, floods, and war. A

business could argue that an unexpected disease outbreak falls into this category but would have to make the legal case that the outbreak made it impossible for them to fulfill their contract.

The government-backed trade agency in China that issues force majeure certificates, which indicate a business cannot fulfill contract agreements because of disruptive events outside its control, issued 3,000 certificates in the first three weeks of February.

The certificates went to domestic Chinese companies and Chinese subsidiaries of multinational like a car parts manufacturer in Zhejiang province and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), one of the largest oil companies in China.

But the certificates don’t guarantee a force majeure claim will succeed.

The Control Risks report said companies should be “cautious” invoking it because of the coronavirus, since even with a government-issued certificate, the other party can dispute the claim.

CNOOC, for instance, said the outbreak has hampered its ability to accept contractual shipments from several oil companies. Two of the oil companies, Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell, rejected the claim, meaning they do not accept that the outbreak is preventing CNOOC from fulfilling its agreements.

Total and Shell may seek compensation if CNOOC does not ultimately accept the shipments.

World Bank bond

As the coronavirus epidemic nears pandemic status, additional resources could emerge to help countries and businesses alike.

The World Health Organization has issued mixed messages on whether it will ultimately declare the coronavirus a pandemic. The World Bank, meanwhile, has its own set of criteria that will trigger a relatively new tool: its pandemic-catastrophe bonds.

Launched in 2017 in response to the devastating Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016, the bonds trigger when an outbreak passes specific thresholds for size, growth rate, and cross-border spread. They will release funds when deaths from a disease surpass 250 in a first country and 20 in a second. As of Thursday, deaths totaled nearly 2,800 in China, and Iran, the country with the second-highest toll, had reported 19.

The bonds’ payout is designed to “help the world’s poorest countries respond” to a pandemic, according to the World Bank website. Once the bonds’ money is available, eligible countries must submit a request for funds.

China, where the majority of coronavirus cases are occurring, wouldn’t qualify for funds in the event of a payout because the assistance is intended for poorer countries, and China’s gross national income per capita is above the cut-off.

Preparing for a pandemic The World Bank scheme was set up to help governments in

A man and a child walk by a closed Apple Inc. store on Feb. 20, 2020 in Shanghai, China. Fearing the virus outbreak, Apple closed all stores in China on Feb. 1; many have since reopened.

the event of a pandemic, but insurers are starting to look into pandemic insurance policies too, according to the German reinsurer Munich Re, which partnered with the World Bank to launch the bank’s pandemic bond in 2017. “[T]he insurance industry has tended to keep away from epidemic risks in the past,” Munich Re notes on its website, but since 2016’s Ebola and Zika outbreaks, “it is now looking at ways to develop valuable solutions for this business field[.]”

The growing number of epidemics prompted Munich Re to launch an epidemic risk insurance policy in 2016 and partner with insurance broker Marsh, a sister company of Mercer, to expand into pandemic-specific insurance that covers both pandemics and epidemics.

AGCS, for its part, does not provide risk insurance specifically for epidemics or pandemics, and spokesperson said the company’s policies related to outbreaks do not differentiate between the two.

“Historically, it’s been a type of insurance that is fairly rare,” McGowan said of pandemic insurance. Indeed, pandemics themselves are rare. The most recent one—the only one so far this century—was the swine flu in 2009. If coronavirus goes that route, it could cost the global GDP $1 trillion, according to Oxford Economics.

Despite that estimate, “it’s very hard to really gauge the impact [of pandemics] on a business,” in part because of inadequate historical data, said Yuen. So if insurers sell pandemic coverage, they’re doing so without reliable data, meaning they charge high premiums to account for the unknowns.

The coronavirus outbreak, however, has the potential to change the existing market in that it could provide more data for future policies.

“What might be interesting is the uptick we may see after [the coronavirus outbreak] in companies who are specifically looking for more pandemic insurance coverage,” McGowan said.

At this point in the outbreak, though, companies that do not already have pandemic insurance will find it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. As McGowan put it, “Effectively you’re trying to insure the house when it’s already burning.” fortune.com

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

9

BANKING

Electronic payment platform for public transactions soon

By Patrick Paintsil

An electronic platform to receive payment for transactions relating to the provision of goods and services by state agencies will be operational in few weeks, Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu, has disclosed.

In an interaction with a local radio station in Accra, she said the payment platform will help reduce corruption, enhance transparency and improve domestic revenue mobilization.

“This platform will ensure that when a citizen pays for goods from any government agency it will go directly to the agency. We will receive notifi-

cation that the payments have been made and received; and notification about when the service will be delivered,” she indicated.

Already, some public agencies such as the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Passport Office have such payment platforms, she said.

According to Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful, the government remains committed to using technology to enhance its work.

“For those who have applied for passports, that is already rolling out; it’s going to be replicated across governments and that, for us, will also reduce

corruption and enhance transparency and give the Finance Minister more visibility on the quantum of internally-generated funds,” she explained.

According to the communications minister, Ghana will become the hub of technology in Africa in the next two years.

She indicated: “It’s quite a revolution which is ongoing because within the next two years, we’ll see Ghana as the go-to place of all IT and showcase the way for a digital economy thriving, as we host the Continental Free Trade Agreement, which will be powered

by IT,” she is quoted as saying.

Remove risk premium from credit rating for African economies –Akufo-Addo

Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the time has come for the removal of the “Africa Risk Premium” from the credit rating structure for African economies.

Additionally, with the co-operation of all, Nana Akufo-Addo noted that Africa can successfully stem the $50 billion illicit flow of capital.

“As a start, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD’s) new ini-

tiative that would require multinationals to pay tax in countries where they have commercial, not jurisdictional, presence is a welcome one. We must be vocal in defence of our objectives,” Nana Akufo-Addo stated.

The President said these last Thursday at Chatham House, home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, at s speaking engagement on the theme: “Financing for Sustainable Development in Africa”.

Two-thirds of extreme poor live in conflictaffected countries–World Bank Report By 2030, up to two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor will live in fragile and conflict-affected countries, according to a World Bank report released last Friday.

“Bucking the overall trend of a global decrease in extreme poverty, these countries are seeing sharp increases, threatening decades of progress in the fight against poverty. Fragile and conflict-affected situations take a huge toll on human capital, creating vicious cycles that lower people’s lifetime productivity and earnings and reduce socioeconomic mobility.

One in five people in these countries are deprived of money, education and basic infrastructure simultaneously. And the number of people living in close proximity to conflict has nearly doubled in the past 10 years”, the report reiterated.

The report said in sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of the extreme poor live in fragile and conflict-affected countries, and fragility and conflict have a destabilising effect across borders.

In response, the World Bank has been scaling up its support to fragile, conflict and violent (FCV) countries in Africa through the International Development Association (IDA).

Over the past three years, IDA commitments to FCV countries in Africa nearly doubled from about $US6 billion in IDA17 to US$11billon so far in IDA18.

In the next three years, the World Bank will invest over $7

David Malpass, President , World Bank Group

billion in the Sahel Region.

“Addressing humanitarian crises requires immediate support and long-term development approaches,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass.

“To end extreme poverty and break the cycle of fragility, conflict, and violence, countries need to ensure access to basic services, transparent and accountable government institutions, and economic and social inclusion of the most marginalised communities. These kinds of investments go hand in hand with humanitarian aid.”

The World Bank Group now emphasises working before, during, and after crisis situations to tackle poverty.

It emphasises prevention by proactively addressing the root causes of conflict — such as social and economic exclusion, climate change and demographic shocks — before tensions turn into full-blown crises.

During active conflict, it focuses on building institutional resilience and preserving essential services like health and education for the most vulnerable communities.

The strategy also emphasises long-term support to help countries transition out of fragility, including private sector solutions, such as scaling-up investments in small and medium enterprises that are essential to create jobs and spur economic growth. Classfmonline.com

10 | THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

11

T E C H N O L O GY

Huawei releases Huawei ICT Academy Program 2.0 set to develop 2 million ICT professionals At the Industrial Digital Transformation Conference-Live, Huawei officially released the Huawei ICT Academy Program 2.0.

Through this program, Huawei aims to develop 2 million ICT professionals and popularize digital skills over the next five years by collaborating with universities.

This is part of Huawei’s digital inclusion initiative, TECH4ALL, which is intended to expand the benefits of digital technology to everyone, everywhere. Huawei will set up the Huawei ICT Academy Development Incentive Fund (ADIF), with a total investment of at least US$50 million over the next five years.

2013 saw the establishment of the Huawei ICT Academy program, under which Huawei has provided quality courses and support services to universities/ colleges to help them train teachers, establish and optimize ICT majors, improve the curriculum system, and build standard labs.

Huawei ICT Academy also introduces Huawei’s ICT technologies and products to students in universities around the world, encourages them to participate in Huawei certification, and develops innovative and application-oriented technical talent for society and the global ICT industry. Since 2015, Huawei has partnered with more than 600 international universities to set up Huawei ICT academies, helping the universities improve their ICT teaching abilities and train more than 1500 teachers.

To meet new requirements and challenges, the Huawei ICT Academy Program will enter the 2.0 phase in 2020. According to its

five-year plan, Huawei will develop 2 million ICT professionals and continuously update its school-enterprise cooperation solutions in cutting-edge technologies, such as 5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

To achieve this goal, Huawei will set up the Huawei ICT Academy Development Incentive Fund (ADIF), with a total investment of at least US$50 million over the next five years. This fund aims to help ICT academies operate stably by the following four actions: 1. Providing teaching experiment equipment for cooperative universities to improve students’ practical skills.

2. Training teachers through

ADIF, providing free exam vouchers to encourage students to take Huawei’s certification exams, and setting up an education fund to reward excellent teachers and students.

3. Holding the Huawei ICT Competition to provide a platform for students to communicate with their peers and show their talents.

4. Cooperating with partners on ICT Talent Job Fairs to help students find jobs and promote efficient matching between talent supply and demand.

Hank Stokbroekx, Vice President of Enterprise Service, Huawei Enterprise BG, said that, Huawei will continue to establish more ICT Academies. Every year, we

will build 600-1000 Huawei ICT Academies. By doing so, we aim to benefit more university teachers and students in the digital world, enable more people to enjoy equal and high-quality education, enhance digital skills, and inject fresh impetus into the industry.

The launch of Huawei ICT Academy Program 2.0 marks a new stage of Huawei’s talent ecosystem development. In the future, Huawei will deepen cooperation with all parties in the ecosystem, increase investment, and accelerate the construction of an allround, full-cycle sustainable talent ecosystem to fuel the digital transformation of industries.

Facebook Cancels Annual F8 Developer Conference Over Coronavirus Facebook Inc. canceled its annual F8 Developer Conference over concerns about Covid-19, commonly referred to as the coronavirus, according to a blog post.

The conference, scheduled for May in San Jose, California, has become a flagship event in the technology community in recent years, and Facebook uses F8 to provide updates on the company’s product lines. In the past, the social network has announced new products at F8, like its dating service in 2018, and even teased far-reaching projects, like a brain-to-computer interface or augmented-reality glasses.

Facebook says it’s considering other ways to give developers and investors information, possibly through “locally hosted events, videos and live streamed content,” the company wrote in the blog post on Thursday.

F8 is the latest major tech event to be scrapped amid concerns about the spread of the deadly respiratory virus, which has killed more than 2,800 people and infected more than 82,400 worldwide. Mobile World Congress, a global technology conference in Spain scheduled to kick off this week, was also canceled. Bloomberg

Why Samsung’s Galaxy s20 is the best phone to buy right now 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.

Forbes

12

| THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

13

AV I AT I O N

Emirates wins multiple medals at the Business Traveller Cellars in the Sky 2019 Awards Emirates’ stellar wine programme was recognised at the Business Traveller Cellars in the Sky 2019 Awards held in London yesterday.

The airline picked up multiple awards including 2 Gold awards, 2 Silver awards and a Bronze award for its carefully curated wine lists. The awards include: Gold Business Class Fortified - Dow’s Colheita Port, 1992, Douro Valley, Portugal First Class Fortified - Vin de Constance Klein Constantia 2013, Constantia, Cape Town, South Africa Silver Business Class Rosé - Whispering Angel 2018, Côtes de Provence, France First Class Red - Les Forts de Latour, 2005, Pauillac, Bordeaux, France Bronze First Class Fizz - Dom Pérignon Vintage 2002 – Plénitude 2, Champagne, France The winning wines represent Emirates’ varied offering which

come from 12 of the main wine producing regions including France, Australia, South Africa and Portugal. The Emirates wine strategy is to buy exceptional wines at the earliest opportunity and let them mature to allow them to express their full potential before serving them on board its aircraft. Emirates’ wine cellar, located in France, is the largest of any airline and currently holds 7.4 million bottles of fine wine, some of which will not be ready for serving on board until 2037.

Emirates also recently launched its new set of wines for the Emirates Vintage Collection, a selection of the finest bottles from its cellar in France.

These exceptional wines are exclusively served in First Class on selected flights and for a limited period of time.

Emirates was awarded a Bronze award in the First Class Fizz category for Dom Pérignon Plénitude 2, 2002. Dom Pérignon has been a mainstay in its First Class wine lists for over 28 years and Emirates is the number one global partner of the maison. Over the years, Emir-

ates has served several Dom Pérignon vintages, some made available to Emirates as global airline exclusives. .

The Business Traveller Cellars in the Sky Awards recognise the best wines served in first and business class on board airlines around the world. Emirates’ careful wine selection and procurement strategy are highlighted on The Wine Channel on ice – its award-winning inflight entertainment system.

Ethiopian Wins ‘International Air Cargo Marketer of the Year’ Award

Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services, Africa’s largest network cargo operator and multiaward winner, has won the ‘International Air Cargo Marketer of the Year’ Award at the 2020 STAT International Award for Excellence in Air Cargo which was held from 25-27 February, 2020 in Mumbai, India.

Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services won the award for its valuable contribution to the air cargo industry in a highly competitive and one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

Commenting on the award, Ethiopian Group CEO Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam, remarked, “We are honored to have won the ‘International Air Cargo Marketer of the Year’ award which bears testimony to our leading cargo and logistics services in Africa and different parts of the world, catalyzing multi-facet-

ed growth in all the regions we serve. We have been investing heavily in facilities and freighters which enabled us to continuously expand our services and deliver safe, secure, dependable and competitive cargo and logistics services worldwide. The award will spur us to further excel in our operations.”

Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services has built the largest cargo terminal in Africa with a capacity of close to 1 million tons annually. It delivers cargo services spanning across 57 international destinations in Africa, the Gulf, Middle East, Asia, North Americas, Latin America and Europe with 10 B777F and two B737F aircrafts. In the 2018/19 fiscal year, Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services uplifted a total of 432,417,404 kg cargo.

Nina Öwerdieck named new Chief Financial Officer of Brussels Airlines Nina Öwerdieck, will join the Management Board of Brussels Airlines as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective July 1, 2020.

Nina Öwerdieck, currently Head of Finance at Lufthansa German Airlines, will lead the different teams of the Brussels Airlines CFO department-- Human Resources, Finance & Controlling, IT, Legal, Compliance & Audit, Procurement & Facility Management as well as the PMO team responsible for the project lead of the airline’s restructuring plan “Reboot”.

After many years of growth without sufficient profitability, Brussels Airlines is indeed reviewing its way of working to gain in efficiency and to structurally reduce costs. The Reboot plan aims at an EBIT margin of 8% as of 2022.

Nina Öwerdieck can look back at a vast experience within the aviation industry. During her 13 years at Lufthansa Technik, the maintenance division of Lufthansa, she held several important functions at the Finance & Project management Department. From Head of Divisional Controlling to Head of Central Controlling, Öwerdieck profoundly shaped Lufthansa Technik’s financial landscape until 2014.

In 2014, Nina Öwerdieck started a new career at SWISS, where she was in charge of Controlling, Financial Steering and Risk Management. In her role as Head of Controlling, she supported the airline’s integration into the Lufthansa Group hub airlines’ matrix organization and designed the group-wide

new Controlling concept, including a new process-oriented Controlling setup.

In 2017, Öwerdieck joined Lufthansa German Airlines as Head of Finance and Member of the Lufthansa Airlines Executive Team, positions she currently still holds. At the largest business unit in the Lufthansa Group, her responsibilities include the Controlling, Procurement, Accounting, Financial Steering and Risk Management departments. Next to challenging internal processes, she plays an important role in supporting strategic change projects and in fostering lean methodologies and continuous improvement.

“We very much look forward to welcoming Nina Öwerdieck to the Management Board of Brussels Airlines. The world of finance has no secrets for her.

With her in-depth knowledge and expertise in guiding businesses through changes and financial improvement programs, she is the right person to join forces with the Brussels Airlines management and lead the airline to a sustainable future.”

Etienne Davignon, Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of SN Airholding said.

Dieter Vranckx, CEO of Brussels Airlines added that: “I am very happy that Nina accepted to be part of our Management Board. She is a perfect fit to our team and Brussels Airlines. Her long career within the Lufthansa Group and her financial know-how in the aviation sector is of a real benefit for our Belgian airline which is currently embedding into the Lufthansa Group network airlines.”

14

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

| THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

E N E R GY

The True Price of Carbon

By Gernot Wagner

For decades, economists have been wrestling with how best to weigh the current cost of emissions reductions against costs that will come years or even centuries from now. But a consensus has proved to be elusive, because traditional economic models don’t treat atmospheric carbon like an asset.

At the center of many policy challenges is a contest between “realists” and “radicals.” That’s true of the ongoing Democratic primary race in the United States, for example, and it has long defined the climate-change debate. Will incremental policies such as a modest carbon price save us from disaster, or does climate change call for a more revolutionary approach?

Attempts to answer this question typically rely more on gut feelings and political instincts than on rigorous analysis. The debate also often features a generational divide between youthful idealists and seasoned moderates. Just recently, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin dismissed criticism from 17-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg by suggesting that she take a class in economics.

As the science of navigating tradeoffs, economics can indeed help one make decisions under circumstances defined by binding constraints and pervasive uncertainty. In theory, at least, economists have the tools to determine the costs and benefits of cutting carbon emissions.

Yet getting that calculation right has haunted the profession for decades.

In 2018, William D. Nordhaus of Yale University was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering ef-

forts to determine an optimal carbon price. The logic of his approach, and of the standard carbon-pricing model generally, appears impeccable: quantify the anticipated damages from climate change and then compare those to the costs of cutting emissions today. But this is easier said than done. The inertia of the climate system implies that most damages will accrue in the distant future – decades or even centuries hence – whereas the majority of emissions-reduction costs will be incurred today.

Moreover, there is an inherent asymmetry in how benefits and costs are tallied. With large uncertainties on both sides, the problem calls for heroic extrapolations and outright guesswork. In calculating benefits, however, only “known knowns” have traditionally made it into the headline figure, whereas the bias goes the other way in the case of costs: the rapid progress made in clean-energy technologies is largely ignored, despite its likely cost-abatement effects.

These biases haven’t stopped economists from offering confident benefit-cost analyses.

Nordhaus has famously done so with a model requiring fewer than 20 main equations.

He concludes that each ton of carbon dioxide emitted today should be priced at around $40.

By contrast, in a massive report published in 2006, Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics calculated that the price should be more than $100 per ton in today’s dollars.

The substantial gap between the two estimates reflects two different approaches to discounting: that is, how much society values (or ought to value) its future. Nordhaus begins with an annual discount rate of around 4.25%, which he then re-

duces slightly over time, whereas the Stern Review sets the discount rate at 1.4%, thereby placing a greater emphasis on future damages relative to today’s mitigation costs.

These analyses were both massive undertakings, given the global scale, distant time horizon, and level of uncertainty involved. Yet neither approach accounts for the possibility of irreversible planetary-scale tipping points, such as the permanent melting of Greenland’s ice sheet or the bleaching of coral reefs. As the late Martin L. Weitzman of Harvard University argued at the time, the Stern Review was “right for the wrong reasons.”

Weitzman’s work emphasized climate tail risks that could potentially dwarf any standard benefit-cost analysis. While he went to great lengths to show that, by definition, extreme, truly catastrophic outcomes were unlikely, he believed that the potentially massive consequences of such events should drive our decision-making.

Hence, throughout his career, Weitzman steadfastly declined to estimate an optimal carbon price. In Climate Shock, the 2015 book he and I co-authored, we went only so far as to say that, owing to the uncertainties involved, the carbon price of around $40 emerging from a standard benefit-cost analysis at the time should be used as an absolute lower bound.

So, how should one approach the problem instead? Traditional economic models largely ignore how climate risk interacts with the state of the economy.

But what if investments in emissions reductions followed the same logic used by professional asset managers? There is a good reason why investors put

money into bonds despite their average returns falling well below those of stocks: bonds are less risky. Thus, even when the economy is faring poorly, some investments will still pay off.

In Climate Shocks, one of our main characters is Robert Litterman, a former top risk manager for Goldman Sachs who was shocked to find out how standard benefit-cost analyses of climate change were treating risk and uncertainty. Together with Kent Daniel of the Columbia Business School, Litterman and I set out to build a simple

Gernot Wagner

“…each ton of carbon dioxide emitted today should be priced at around $40. By contrast, in a massive report published in 2006, Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics calculated that the price should be more than $100 per ton in today’s dollars.”

climate-economic model that takes seriously the basic insights from the financial industry.

Unlike the Stern Review, which simply selected a discount rate ex cathedra, we made the discount rate an outcome rather than an input in our approach.

Treating atmospheric carbon as an “asset” (albeit one with negative payoffs), we calibrated a carbon price, following the methods used by the finance industry to price assets. In the end, no matter how hard we tried, we could not get the price of carbon below $100 per ton.

Meanwhile, other analyses have come up with carbon prices ranging from $200 to $400 or more per ton. But even if one stipulates that the price should be $100 per ton, that would translate into around $0.90 per gallon (3.8 liters) of gasoline – a charge at the pump that would feel more like a revolution than like a modest policy measure.

Even so, the likely public reaction does not make the number “wrong,” or even particularly radical. Economics may be about tradeoffs, but planetary physics provides a hard budget constraint that even – or especially – economists cannot evade. In this context, the true radical ignores physics and continues hiding behind wholly inadequate benefit-cost analyses that all but dismiss the obvious risks of a quickly warming planet

Gernot Wagner (www.gwagner.com) teaches climate economics at New York University. He is the co-author, with the late Martin Weitzman, of Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet (Princeton University Press, 2015). Copyright: Project Syndicate

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

15

16

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

| THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

F E AT U R E

Coronavirus crackdown: How companies like Ernst & Young are going to extremes to avoid infections Companies are growing increasingly concerned as the coronavirus spreads across the globe—and are taking new, more extreme precautionary measures to mitigate its impact on their employees.

Professional services firm Ernst & Young instituted new preventative protocols on Wednesday, this time in the U.S. as well, prohibiting employees from attending “not-client-critical” external events of more than 100 people, and also requiring employees to request to attend “client-critical” events of over 100 attendees, according to an internal email viewed by Fortune. To boot, the company, which employs 284,000 people globally, is requesting employees cancel or postpone (until April) any internal meetings of more than 25 people (from different offices), instead requesting employees conduct meetings via video or other remote meeting channels.

Ernst & Young told Fortune that while these details stand as guidelines, the company is asking employees to check with their risk managers regarding particular meetings or events of larger size.

For some employees like Chris Petryk, an attorney working on a contract for EY based in Secaucus, New Jersey, the email came as a surprise. “My eyes and ears perked up,” he recounts to Fortune. Petryk has been following the virus closely since the outbreak began, but was taken aback at the severity of the precautions.

“That an email like that is going out to all American employees of a company that size as severe

and serious as [the email] was [was surprising],” Petryk says.

“I think people [are] more concerned about [cancelling meetings and travel] than the actual virus.”

In addition to new meeting and event protocols, EY expanded its travel ban on outward and inward travel until April 1 to or from South Korea, Japan, and areas in Northern Italy. According to the email, employees who have traveled in the aforementioned areas (plus China, Hong Kong, and Macau indefinitely) are being instructed to self-quarantine for 14 days, at least until April 1. Ernst & Young told Fortune in a statement that “The safety and wellbeing of all EY people, clients and communities remains our primary concern,” and that EY is “monitoring this situation closely and will be updating guidance as developments warrant” in ac-

cordance with local government and WHO guidelines.

Apart from EY’s new intensive measures, Nestle SA and L’Oreal SA both instructed employees to avoid traveling for business altogether until mid-to-late March.

At Amazon, the company confirmed to Fortune that additional precautions are being put in place, including employees being asked to self-quarantine and work from home if they are or have been traveling in areas in Asia and, now, parts of Europe. An Amazon spokesperson told Fortune that the company is continuing to provide “precautionary advice to our employees in line with health and safety guidelines provided by the WHO and regional health authorities like the CDC.” Still, others like IBM are operating on a more country-specific basis, as the company told Fortune that it is “complying with

local governmental regulations concerning travel, having our employees work from home where recommended and deciding on our participation in large meetings and trade shows on an individual basis.” IBM has also restricted travel to and from China and Milan, Italy, and is en masse encouraging employees in China, Japan, South Korea and northern regions of Italy to work from home, in accordance with local authorities in those regions.

Coca-Cola Co. and Kraft Heinz Co. are limiting employee travel from affected countries as well, and others like German power company RWE AG are also cancelling large, nonessential external or internal events.

A hard hit?

In terms of impact, those like Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial, are more concerned about the ripple effect of additional corporate travel bans. “[For] the individual companies who are adjusting their travel schedules for their employees, … it is not a big deal, but the airlines, the hotels …

This is a really big deal for the travel and hospitality space,” Cox tells Fortune.

That space has been hit hard in recent weeks, as airlines like United Airlines have suspended 2020 guidance, with its stock trading down around 18% for the week. To wit, hotel company Marriott International announced Thursday that the company anticipates a roughly $25 million hit to its monthly fee revenue due to coronavirus impact.

But for investors watching companies’ growing concerns, Cox notes: “To the extent that companies are making these decisions, ... I think those serve to do nothing more than put at bay the risks of a conflagration of [risks tied to coronavirus spreading].”

UBS Wealth Management’s Michael Crook, head of Americas investment strategy, sees a risk in continued restrictions. While he doesn’t think the majority of companies dealing with internal travel or quarantine restrictions will feel too much impact, uncertainty is still the key factor.

“The longer that these restrictions and lack of willingness to travel persists, the bigger impact we’ll see,” Crook tells Fortune.

“Not only industries that are in the travel industry, but supply chain problems. There are a lot of follow-on effects there.”

Concern mounts as virus spreads Corporate concerns are seemingly only increasing as new cases surface, including a confirmed case in the U.S. that popped up in California on Wednesday night, which possibly might be the first case of “community-spread” coronavirus, or an infection that was not directly tied to travels in China or contact with those who had.

President Trump said during a press conference Wednesday that it was “not the right time” to institute more restrictions on entry to the country, but that “we may do that.”

So far, the virus has reportedly infected over 82,000 people worldwide.

How 5G promises to revolutionize farming Over the next several years, superfast 5G mobile networks promise to shake up a variety of industries, particularly those on the cutting edge, including technology and automotive. But 5G, the wireless successor to today’s 4G, may also revolutionize the farming industry, which has long been slow to adopt new innovations.

Wireless sensors connected through 5G could monitor field conditions and detect when crops need watering, pesticides, or fertilizer, experts say. It could also help with tracking livestock and guiding agricultural drones and self-driving tractors.

“5G has the potential to have a transformative effect on the global economy through a number of different verticals, and farming certainly is one of the most prominent ones to consider,” says ABI Research analyst Leo Gergs.

The end result for agriculture, in theory, would be improved crop yields and higher-quality produce. But actually making the promise a reality is unlikely to be quick or easy.

While major wireless carriers Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are racing to install 5G, they’ve so far only focused on metropolitan areas because of their high concentration of potential cus-

tomers. It’ll take years before their 5G networks are widely available in rural areas, meaning most farmers will have to wait.

“5G will probably not have a tangible impact of farming for three to five years,” says Bill Morelli an analyst with IHS Markit.

Many farmers have already installed sensors in their fields that are connected using 4G, which operates at up to 100Mbps. In comparison, 5G speeds of up to 10Gbps are expected. The difference allows for faster connectivity between devices along with

allowing more devices to connect to a single cell tower.

“Sensors are already used in farming to measure and report upon environmental conditions such as rainfall, water content, nutrients in the soil and ground temperature,” says Simon Forrest, an analyst at Futuresource.

Upgrading to 5G could increase the impact of the technology by improving connection speeds and allowing for devices to more effectively communicate.

For example, it would allow farmers to install more sensors to track more data points and

help them run their operations more effectively.

One of the big questions is over the impact 5G will have on agricultural jobs. Unskilled labor could see the biggest impact, according to analysts.

Currently, there are 2.1 million agricultural workers in the U.S., according to ABI Research, with the average farm employing about 45 people. Those numbers will fall over time as farmers add more technology, according to Gergs.

“5G will change the nature of jobs in farming and agriculture

substantially,” Gergs says.

By 2035, the number of agriculture jobs is expected to shrink to 1.78 million, Gergs says. At the same time, farms will only employ an average of 27 people.

But Morelli is unsure that more technology, including 5G, will actually impact the number of farm jobs overall. He acknowledged that different roles will be in higher demand, likely data analytics and farm management, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a lower headcount.

“Smart agriculture in general is about allowing farmers to be more informed and efficient, it’s not specifically about eliminating jobs,” Morelli says. “There will likely be some transition, as with any technology transition.”

Whatever the case, the stakes are high. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the planet will need 70% more food in 2050 than it did in 2009 because a rising global population.

Advancements in farming will be a big contributor.

“Technology must be applied to the problem,” says Forrest.

“Connectivity is essential, and therefore 5G in agriculture is inevitable.”

Fortune

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

17

18

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

| THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

A DV E RTO R I A L

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

19

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

20 | THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

AU TO M O B I L E

2021 Mercedes E-Class Teaser Shows Off A Lot

It doesn’t appear the cancelation of the Geneva Motor Show is slowing down automakers.

Hours after the announcement came that there’d be no Geneva show amid the Coronavirus outbreak, Mercedes dropped another teaser for the refreshed E-Class. It was supposed to arrive under the bright auto show lights, but that’s not the case anymore. The new teaser shows off glimpses of the car that, if stitched together, would nearly reveal it in its entirety. Though Mercedes hasn’t been too quiet about the car either.

The teaser video, posted to the company’s Facebook page, gives us sweeping shots of the grille, thrilling close-ups of the badges, and seductive pans across the greenhouse, headlights, and more. Much of the

car should look familiar. This is a mid-cycle refresh and not a thorough redesign. That means while Mercedes continues to drum up excitement for the new E-Class, not much is changing with the new model, at least on the outside.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen of the new E-Class, either.

Countless spy photos revealed a mild mid-cycle refresh with all the staples of such an update – tweaked grille, reworked headlights, and a redesigned front and rear bumper. The taillights get some love, too.

Inside, there are even fewer changes with Mercedes updating the steering wheel and installing Merc’s latest MBUX infotainment system. Mercedes teased the E-Class last month, revealing a model that looks like the current one.

There’s a lot more happening

underneath the sheet metal.

The new E-Class will offer several hybrid options, including both hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants. Details about the powertrains remain under lock and key, but we do know the mild-hybrid model will offer 268 horsepower (200 kilowatts) from its 2.0-liter engine.

A bigger 3.0-liter six-cylinder making 362 hp (270 kW) is coming.

Without the Geneva Motor Show to host Mercedes, the international press, and the public, Mercedes will likely resort to revealing the new E-Class online through a livestream event. It’s certainly not as flashy or exciting as attending the show in-person, but the cancelation isn’t stopping the auto industry. The short teaser video concludes with “Coming Soon.” (motor1)

Hyundai halts work at Korean plant after worker tests positive for coronavirus

Hyundai Motor shut down a factory in South Korea on Friday after a worker tested positive for the new coronavirus.

The factory in Ulsan builds the Palisade, Tucson, Santa Fe and Genesis GV80 crossovers.

The closing dealt a fresh setback to Hyundai, which has gradually resumed production at local plants hit by a Chinese parts shortage in the wake of the virus outbreak.

South Korea has the most infected people outside China, affecting companies like Samsung and Hyundai. South Korea on Friday reported 256 new cases, bringing the total number of infected to 2,022, as the world prepared for a global recession.

“The company has also placed colleagues who came in close contact with the infected employee in self-quarantine and taken steps to have them tested for possible infection,” Hyundai Motor said in a news release.

The automaker said it was disinfecting the factory. It did not say when production would resume.

Ulsan is less than an hour from Daegu, the epicenter of outbreak in Korea.

Hyundai operates five car factories in Ulsan, which has an annual production capacity of 1.4 million vehicles, or nearly 30 percent of Hyundai’s global production.

Hyundai employs 34,000 workers there in the world’s biggest car complex.

A factory run by Hyundai supplier Seojin Industrial had been closed after the death of a virus-infected worker there. It reopened on Wednesday.

South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics shut down a phone factory in the southeastern city of Gumi over the past weekend after one of its workers tested positive. It resumed production on Monday.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s top carrier, Korean Air Lines, said on Friday it would cut the number of flights to the United States in March, as part of a plan to cut its global capacity by 11 percent that month.

It plans to check temperatures of passengers traveling to the United States before boarding and said it would not allow anyone with a temperature higher than 37.5 Celsius to fly.

One of its flight attendants who served the Incheon to Los Angeles route has tested positive for virus. Reuters

Simon Briceno Joins Jaunt Air Mobility to Lead Urban Air Mobility Dev. Simon Briceno Joins Jaunt Air Mobility to Lead Urban Air Mobility Dev. Jaunt Air Mobility today announced that Simon Briceno, Ph.D., is joining the staff as Lead in Urban Air Mobility development and will head Jaunt’s operational initiatives with Uber Elevate and our global network of aerospace and infrastructure partners.

Dr. Briceno formerly served for eight years as Transformative Aviation Concepts Division Chief at the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Briceno, who is also an active pilot has led numerous research programs with NASA, the FAA and industry in the study of air mobility operations concepts design, autonomous systems, as well as aviation safety and certification. He specializes in the development of advanced design methods to assess electric vehicle technologies in emerging Urban Air Mobility (UAM) aviation markets and developing methods for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) autonomous path planning.

“The addition of Dr. Briceno to the Jaunt Air Mobility team is further validation of Jaunt’s leadership position in Urban Air Mobility and the company’s commitment to meeting the highest requirement standards in advancing the successful development of the global

Urban Air Mobility intermodal eco-system,” said Kaydon Stanzione, CEO of Jaunt Air Mobility. Mr. Stanzione added, “With his years of aviation research experience at the highest levels and his depth of knowledge in transformative flight and Urban Air Mobility, Dr. Briceno is an

important addition to the Jaunt team.”

Dr. Briceno noted, “I elected to join Jaunt Air Mobility because they are not only developing the safest, quietest and most operationally efficient, all-electric VTOL aircraft for the UAM mission, but their focus includes developing the complete Urban Air Mobility eco-system. This allows me to apply my years of experience and research directly to Jaunt’s business model.”

Dr. Briceno received his BSME from Syracuse University and his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He spent 12 years as a Senior Research Engineer at the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory at Georgia Tech.

He has conducted several landmark Urban Air Mobility studies and has authored over 70 technical papers.

Jaunt Air Mobility LLC is a transformative aerospace company focused on developing an all-electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Jaunt Air Mobility is the pioneer and world-leader in Reduced Rotor Operating Speed Aircraft

Simon Briceno

(ROSA™) design and development. ROSA™ technology is the metamorphosis of the best features available from helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes. We design and build piloted and autonomous flying aircraft that improve how people and packages seamlessly move within urban, suburban, and rural environments. The Jaunt eVTOL provides the highest levels of operational efficiencies, reduced noise, safety, and community acceptance. Jaunt was named an Uber Elevate partner in 2019.

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

21

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

22 | THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

F E AT U R E

Savings – The Most Difficult and Yet Needful Culture to Cultivate 3. Spend Less than You Earn

By Enoch Vanderpuye enoch.vanderpuye@fbnbankghana.com

Saving has been the bedrock of most successful and wealthy families who have thrived on their fortunes and even succeeded in passing their wealth on to future generations. It is everyone’s responsibility to provide for one’s everyday needs.

Therefore, saving is the most important decision to make for a stress-free future. Saving is indeed a life saver, pivotal for retirement planning and it guards against unforeseen challenges that could put a strain on one’s finance.

Secrets to Saving Most people have found it extremely difficult to put something away for the rainy day. But as long as there is life, the need to save cannot be toyed with.

Thanks to the shrewd and astute people who have succeeded in mastering the art of saving, a number of secret strategies have been developed and could be employed by anyone who aims to cultivate the culture of saving.

Here, three of these key secrets are expounded: 1. Budgeting It is often said that one cannot decide where to adjust and

make cuts in spending or where to find extra cash to save if they are unable to account for how their money is spent. Put plainly, one needs to identify the problem and then find solutions to it. You need to determine which daily expenses to cut in order to save. And this is where budgeting comes in.

2. Paying Yourself First This is, perhaps, more difficult than it sounds. The natural inclination at the end of the month is to pay off all bills before thinking of apportioning a percentage of what is left into one’s savings account. But experts proffer a different and, albeit, more rea-

sonable method, which is to pay yourself first. One needs to develop a plan where you think of saving just like paying your routine monthly bills. This way, money meant for savings is treated with the same level of importance as that which is meant for paying your bills. One sure way to be successful at this is to set in motion a standing instruction on your account that automatically causes for a percentage of your funds to be deposited into your savings account before you even have a chance to spend it.

To make the savings count for something in the long run, keep saving in order to benefit from compound interest.

Most people will struggle to abide by this rule but it is the golden rule of saving. More often than not, we let the demands from family and the wider society have the better of our earnings and thus the propensity to overspend to meet these demands become inevitable. But once this becomes a recurring habit and a routine, one begins to descend into an unending loop of debts which spirals into a helpless debt-laden life. Thus the need to save becomes a secondary consideration. Truth is – if you cannot abide by this holy grail of savings, you cannot save!

Benefits of Saving Several benefits abound in being committed and dedicated to a culture of saving because it guarantees a bright future. Indeed, the more money you save, the more control you have in the future. Often times, people have complained of not being able to quit their jobs because they have nothing to go home with. But the fact is, if you have saved enough, you are more likely to skip the daily struggles at work and avoid the risk of a nervous breakdown as a culminant effect of stress. Then there

is the guarantee of peace of mind for those who have saved enough or developed a positive saving culture. The regular 3:00 am contemplations on how to pay the next bill or rent are all too real for those with little or no savings. But as you accumulate savings, your daily financial worries diminish proportionally and your peace of mind is guaranteed. Top of all these benefits is the comfortable old age you enjoy if you cultivate a positive savings culture during your working life. The time when you are unable to afford some of the things you previously could pay for with ease, when you are able to take care of health issues or when your family is not around or cannot provide for your daily needs, is the period when you realise the need for saving. Suffice to say, no one has to live to regret not saving during his/her productive years.

The Bottom line Undoubtedly, saving is one of the most difficult personal venture to undertake in everyone’s life but the benefits of developing this positive culture far outweigh the benefits one gains from the present pleasures of being a spendthrift. Save, because it is needful.

Italy’s New Affliction Prof. Paola Subacchi

Having long been saddled with a sluggish economy, Italy is now faced with a recession. Along with Germany’s economic slowdown and the uncertainty of Brexit, the country’s COVID-19 affliction is further grim news for Europe.

Northern Italy currently is the center of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe. So far, 17 Italians have died as a result of the new coronavirus, and 650 have been infected. Schools in the region have been shut, universities have suspended lessons, companies have asked their staff to work from home, and many theaters, cinemas, and bars are closed. The virus caused the cancellation of the last two days of the Venice Carnival, which attracts thousands of visitors every year. And the area south of Milan, where Italy’s first COVID-19 cases were reported, is under quarantine.

Epidemics are not new in Northern Italy, which was at the center of trade routes throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In fact, Venice was the first city to develop methods to contain and treat virulently contagious diseases. Back then, the authorities isolated people with symptoms in lazarets (ships permanently at anchor and used for quarantine) on islands outside the city, and restricted the movements and interactions of healthy Venetians during a 40-day quarantine period.

Evidence is mixed as to whether these measures were effective. Milan lost almost half its population to the plague in 1630, and Venice lost approximately 30%. But the mortality rate could have been much high-

er had the authorities not fought the contagion the way they did.

Modern medicine and healthier living standards have greatly reduced the frequency of epidemics, significantly slowed the pace of contagion, and slashed mortality rates. The overall mortality rate from COVID-19 currently is around 34 per thousand, with elderly people and those with health problems being most at risk. Epidemics in early modern Northern Italy, by comparison, had mortality rates of 300-400 per thousand.

The big question now is whether the Italian authorities’ COVID-19 containment measures are commensurate with the scale of the problem, or too draconian. Moreover, are these steps dictated by genuine public-policy goals, or mainly by political considerations?

Managing critical risks and strengthening resilience are key public-policy objectives. An outbreak of a highly contagious

flu in a densely populated area needs to be contained even if the mortality rate is negligible, because an epidemic will cause hospitals and health-care systems in many areas to collapse.

And, as with financial crises, it is always better to prevent a crisis than to confront one, because the latter entails huge economic, social, and political costs.

Ex post measures aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19, such as quarantines and travel bans, don’t seem to work in our age of mobility and economic integration. After the United States government announced at the end of January that it would temporarily refuse entry to foreign nationals who had recently traveled within China, Italy’s government banned direct flights to and from China.

But this measure – adopted in response to pressure from the populist right-wing League party – will create tensions with China, a major trading partner that

buys about $16 billion worth of Italian exports each year. Nor does the flight ban solve the problem of monitoring indirect arrivals to Italy from China.

The ban may rebound on Italy in other ways, too. Its European neighbors, for example, may be tempted to impose entry bans on Italians in order to appease popular anxiety and anti-foreign sentiment. Already, the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has urged France’s government to suspend the Schengen Agreement and introduce border controls with Italy. And earlier in February, the Austrian authorities briefly blocked trains entering the country from Italy.

Epidemics affect different countries in different ways, and national policymakers must tailor their responses accordingly.

At the same time, governments should coordinate measures aimed at protecting health-care workers and vulnerable individuals and countries. The lesson from Italy so far is that a lack of coordination among local governments, coupled with political fragmentation, puts all containment measures at risk by encouraging more people to leave the worst-affected areas.

Many university students, for example, have already returned home from Northern Italy. So, containment measures in one place may succeed only in shifting the problem elsewhere.

The current expectation is that the COVID-19 virus will continue to spread within Italy and throughout the rest of Europe.

Although the numbers remain tiny – there currently are only 41 confirmed cases in France, for example – the panic level is high enough to open the door to potentially restrictive measures.

Given today’s poisonous po-

litical climate, can we be sure that governments will not introduce measures that override existing legislation and restrict individual rights and freedoms?

Might people infected with the COVID-19 virus lose their right to health treatment when abroad, for example? Or might they be prevented from returning to their own country, as US President Donald Trump announced would be the case for infected Americans overseas? In that respect, the COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted the absence of an international legal framework to deal with pandemics.

Meanwhile, the outbreak will have a significant impact on the Italian economy, and likely tip it into recession. Northern Italy is the country’s economic engine, with per capita GDP of approximately €35,000 ($38,000) – compared to the national figure of €28,000 – and a 67% employment rate (against 59% nationwide). But major trade events such as the Milan Furniture Fair have been canceled or postponed, business trips have been scrapped, and uncertainty is rife. Furthermore, virus-related cancellations are already hitting the country’s tourism industry, which accounts for 14% of GDP. Having long been saddled with a sluggish economy – real GDP grew by just 0.2% in 2019 – Italy is now faced with a recession.

Along with Germany’s economic slowdown and the uncertainty of Brexit, the country’s COVID-19 affliction is further grim news for Europe.

Paola Subacchi, Professor of International Economics at the University of London’s Queen Mary Global Policy Institute, is the author, most recently, of The Cost of Free Money. Copyright: Project Syndicate.org

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM |

23

BUSINESS24 | MONDAY MARCH 2, 2020

24 | THEBUSINESS24ONLINE.COM

NEWS

Universities must lead development agenda – Prof. Gordon African universities have been charged to design programmes capable of producing critical thinkers and innovators to manage the continent’s natural resources for development, Professor Chris Gordon, a former Director of the Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, University of Ghana has said.

He noted that over the years, African tertiary institutions, failed to produce graduates with problem solving skills needed to effect the change required to drive development across the continent.

He therefore urged the universities to ‘chart a new path’ of training and developing the continent’s human resource that would be capable of effectively managing, efficiently utilising the natural resources.

Prof. Gordon made the call at the third Lecture of the late Professor Alex Adum Kwapong Series tagged “Nature Speaks” in Accra.

The lecture, which was chaired

by Mr. Charles B. Josob, the Namibian High Commissioner to Ghana, was on the theme: “Innovation, Transition and Disruption in Natural Resource

Management: The role of the African University.”

He said we must build new breed of human resources, who would be able to tackle emerging developmental and environmental issues, to drive development beyond the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) year target, 2030.

“Our graduates are not flexible, because we do not train them to think widely, think outside the box and this is also because most of the things forced on Ghanaians and Africans at large and taught by African uni-

versities do not have our cultural aspects.

“The African University must create nature based, holistic and sustainable solutions to emerging developmental and environmental issues, develop African led solutions to encompass the intersection of technology, environment, and governance rooted in the socio-cultural setting and that would make these acceptable to African countries,” he said.

Prof. Gordon urged the universities to develop high quality faculty that was committed to

Community 2 Shell Service Station Goes Solar

ivo Energy Ghana, Shell licensee, has reopened its second solar-powered Shell service station in the country.

Located at Tema Community 2, the station is the second after Airport City Shell to be powered by solar energy to reduce the company’s carbon footprint and ensure energy efficiency in its operations.

The Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana, Mr. Ben Hassan Ouattara, said the initiative is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 13 and the company is committed to developing a number of solutions to reduce energy usage and impact on the environment.

“We work hard, in partnership with Shell, to develop

more efficient products that reduce our impact on the environment. Our Shell FuelSave improves combustion, boosts efficiency and saves fuel. Shell lubricants, 5W30 and 5W40 are also made from base oil created from natural gas with virtually none of the impurities found in crude oil”, he said.

Reopening the station, Mr. Ouattara said the new Community 2 Shell service station, which models the company’s growth and modernisation plan, has a two-pump island canopy with a modern lube bay, a semi-automatic car wash and a tyre centre.

Additionally, the station has the new shop format welcome to provide a warm, delightful

and modern shopping experience to its customers. It also has the welcome bakery under the management of Bakeshop Classics, to provide customers with quick breakfast, snack and other exciting products.

Mr. Ouattara reaffirmed Vivo Energy’s commitment to constantly providing an exceptional retail experience at Shell service stations, reaching more people with better products and services.

The Chief Inspector, Director, IM and HSSE at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Mrs. Esther Anku, commended Vivo Energy Ghana for setting and maintaining high standards in the industry, which is evident in its operations.

research, develop key employment skills for students through provision of co-curricular activities and opportunities, among others.

“African universities must be drivers of development by promoting science, technology and innovation, understand how to change behaviours and invest in human development with emphasis on women and youth as well as vulnerable people,” he explained.

He also urged African Governments to make adequate funds available to all universities to enable them to develop programmes, conduct research and deliver on their mandate.

Mr. Senyo Hosi, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, who was a discussant at the lecture also urged students to have a renewed mindset as well as attitudes to make them competitive in the world of work.

He also expressed the need for tertiary institutions and industries to collaborate to develop programmes and graduates with the requisite employable skills for the job market to reduce unemployment and facil-

itate growth and development.

“Africa is looking at 100 million youth joining the work force unemployed between now and 2030 and Ghana has a big share because unemployment is our biggest challenge, but how can you have such a situation when you actually sit on a 30 per cent of the world’s remaining natural resources?,” he quizzed.

The lecture organised by the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) and the University of Ghana, was in honour of Professor Kwapong, first Ghanaian Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana and first Vice-Rector of the UNU. It also sought to serve as a platform for interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder exchanges of views, knowledge and ideas and to raise awareness on natural resource management, and promote an understanding of the importance of evidence-based information and decision-making.

The lecture had in attendance dignitaries of the Diplomatic Corps, Researchers, Academia, industrial players and students, among others. GNA

Nine suspected cases of Coronavirus in Ghana test negative—Dr. Ofosu

Dr. Anthony Ofosu, the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), says the service has put in place systems and measures to protect the country against the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19).

He said the country has recorded nine suspected cases of the virus, but that all the suspected cases were tested negative of the virus.

Dr Ofosu said this at the 2019 Upper West Regional Annual Performance Review Conference of the GHS which was aimed at assessing the health sector performance. It was also to enable the sector players to identify gaps in health service delivery and to chart strategies towards bridging those gaps to improve service delivery to the people while sustaining the gains made over the years.

Representatives of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, ( JICA), UNICEF and Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) among others attended the three-day conference held under the theme: “Improving maternal and new-born care through quality healthcare delivery”.

Dr. Ofosu identified training of Port Health staff to screen passengers at the Kotoka International Airport and training of medical teams at the Tema and Ridge hospitals to handle suspected cases of the COVID-19 patients as some of the measures being taken to prevent the

virus from entering and spreading in the country.

He said all Regional Health Directors are on the alert regarding the COVID-19 virus and they have activated and trained rapid response teams against the virus with some isolation centres identified. On other issues, he said although the country has made great strides in reducing maternal and neonatal deaths, the slow pace of the reduction pose a threat to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal on health.

The 2019 Peer Review Report for the Upper West Region, presented at the conference, pegged the doctor-population ratio at one doctor to 14, 310 people in 2018 and one doctor to 13, 000 people in 2019 as against a national target of one doctor to 7,500 people.

Dr. Ofosu said they would create incentives for critical health officers who accept posting to deprived areas or establish a rational system for posting staff to deprived areas in order to revamp the sector and to surmount the numerous challenges in the sector.

Kuoro Abu Diaka Sakube Ninia, who chaired the function, said reducing maternal mortality depended, not only on increasing access to healthcare but also improving the quality of the care that was delivered.

“Our purpose here today and any other purpose of which assessment and evaluation is to be done, must seek to improve the quality of clinical care and to improve utilization of that care”, he said. Kuoro Ninia said there is the need for health service providers to check their attitude towards clients and urged them to be professional in the discharge of their duties. GNA