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    [From the left] Thomas Abanga (CEO of Abanga Farms & Food Systems), Selma Ashipala Musavyi (Namibia High Commissioner to Ghana), Dr. Benjamin Sasu (Head of Food Safety), Mrs. Chariti Gbadawo (Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration) ), Prof Bani (Board Chairman, Abanga Farms and Food Systems) and Clarence Zamuee (MEATCO Rep)

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    Gov’t still plans on tabling a legislation to compel banks to lend to the Agric sector – Agric Minister

    Financial transactions will be allowed even without Ghana card from 1st July – GAB assures

    Enterprise Group PLC records 37% rise in revenue in 2021

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    Losses due to fraud in banking sector in 2021 up by 144%; hits GH¢61m – BoG report

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    Financial transactions will be allowed even without Ghana card from 1st July – GAB assures

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    #CitiBusinessFestival: How the country can take advantage of the “Ghana Opportunity”

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    GHASALC laments drop on number of digital transactions following e-levy

    Italy’s top producers of agro-tech products explore opportunities in Ghana

    Gov’t to commence talks with IMF for bailout

    Financing agric sector alone not enough to grow it – GIRSAL CEO

    We’re not charging E-levy on merchant accounts – GRA

    Gov’t still plans on tabling a legislation to compel banks to lend to the Agric sector – Agric Minister

    AfCFTA Secretariat calls for accelerated dev’t for key infrastructure in Africa to boost trade

    Financial transactions will be allowed even without Ghana card from 1st July – GAB assures

    Enterprise Group PLC records 37% rise in revenue in 2021

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    [From the left] Thomas Abanga (CEO of Abanga Farms & Food Systems), Selma Ashipala Musavyi (Namibia High Commissioner to Ghana), Dr. Benjamin Sasu (Head of Food Safety), Mrs. Chariti Gbadawo (Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration) ), Prof Bani (Board Chairman, Abanga Farms and Food Systems) and Clarence Zamuee (MEATCO Rep)

    Ghana’s Abanga Farms & Food Systems and Namibia’s Meatco in big partnership

    Gov’t still plans on tabling a legislation to compel banks to lend to the Agric sector – Agric Minister

    Financial transactions will be allowed even without Ghana card from 1st July – GAB assures

    Enterprise Group PLC records 37% rise in revenue in 2021

    Prices of petrol, LPG to fall by 4% in first pricing window of July – IES

    Losses due to fraud in banking sector in 2021 up by 144%; hits GH¢61m – BoG report

    ASTM International pledges support for Ghana’s petroleum industry

    NIB MD laments cost of borrowing for private sector

    Finance professionals urged to develop strategies to boost ESG-driven business environment

  • TECHNOLOGY

    Financial transactions will be allowed even without Ghana card from 1st July – GAB assures

    Losses due to fraud in banking sector in 2021 up by 144%; hits GH¢61m – BoG report

    BoG, CSA deepen collaboration to fight cyber threats

    Dr. Bawumia unveils Ghana’s first Tier IV data centre

    ADB pioneers in global remittance services in Ghana [ARTICLE]

    Introduction of GhanaPay complements efforts to capture the unbanked into digital payments ecosystem – Veep

    #CitiBusinessFestival: How the country can take advantage of the “Ghana Opportunity”

    Chamber of Telecommunications calls for more investment into Technology to improve livelihoods

    Citi Business Festival: Address lack of financial data challenges using MoMo – Rufai Abdul Majeed

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    Ivory Coast is set to receive $26.1 billion worth of development finance from 4 lenders, the EU and France

    Gulf central banks, Bank of England raise policy rates after Fed hike

    US Fed meets inflation surge with 75bp hike

    As Nigeria’s inflation rate accelerates to 17.71%, the World Bank warns millions could face extreme poverty

    Modern airline tickets design with flight time and passenger name. Plane tickets vector pictogram. Airline boarding pass template. Vector illustration. The concept of air transportation

    Ticket prices to rise following B.A schedule change on Accra-London-Accra route

    Bawumia calls for more AfDB support as African economies battle global challenges

    Stringent measures needed to deal with illicit financial transactions in Africa – Akufo-Addo

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Ken Ofori-Atta writes: Africa deserves more help for COVID-19

October 12, 2020
in FEATURES, Top Stories
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Ghana confirmed its first two COVID-19 cases on March 12; imports from Norway and Turkey. Africa has since recorded more than 1.5 million cases and counting, though in terms of infections and deaths, we have fared better than most regions. Perhaps this is because of our youthful population, the natural social distancing of outdoor living and experience with infectious disease management — helped by good leadership.

Our economies, however, have not been spared. Across the continent, governments are facing falling revenues, rising expenditures, increasing debt distress, and significant reversals in development indicators. In an omen of what is to come, Zambia now appears headed for the continent’s first pandemic-related private debt default. The human costs are tremendous. Up to 39 milliom people are expected to slip below the poverty line.

The past six months have brought laudable interventions from multilateral institutions and the G20 countries. The G20 moved quickly to establish a debt service suspension initiative, which has secured deferrals of some US$5.3 billion in debt service payments. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved more than US$25 billion in emergency funding to Africa, and the World Bank fast track COVID-19 programme is providing US$160 billion.

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As we approach the World Bank and IMF fall meetings this week, much more needs to be done. The IMF’s lending capacity should be doubled to US$2.5 trillion. European countries have some US$260 billion in special drawing rights for which they have little use and could easily lend on to African countries. The US is opposing the issuance of new SDRs altogether.

Meanwhile, China is negotiating with Africa on a country-by-country rather than continental basis, which is blocking progress. That makes western creditors reluctant to offer concessions for fear that released resources will simply be transferred to Beijing. Some of China’s state-owned financial institutions are not officially included in the G20 debt suspension.

Still, China is an important partner in Africa’s infrastructure development, with more than US$148 billion of loans to the continent. Private creditors and the Institute of International Finance, which represents banks and insurers, have remained conspicuously silent, even as the predicted defaults start.

African finance ministers have asked for an extended debt standstill of two years; US$300 billion in highly concessional new financing over three years to accelerate economic recovery; the structuring of a credit enhanced special liquidity and sustainability facility to make it cheaper and easier to access the capital markets; and a debt relief and cancellation programme for vulnerable countries.

That may sound like a lot, but on a global scale, African demands are a drop in the bucket. The G20 countries have already spent more than US$10 trillion on recovery and economic stimulus packages for their own economies. Africa’s request is less than three percent of what OECD countries have spent so far to safeguard their own economies from the pandemic.

Where is the fierce urgency for change in a global event of this scale? We must all ask, as does the parable of the good Samaritan in the Bible: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

We must use this opportunity to engineer a tectonic shift of the global financial architecture. That requires ambitious reforms to address fundamental inequities in the global financial system. Africa continues to pay an unsustainable risk premium of some 600-800 basis points for its debt and insurance, costing Africa more to borrow than it should. This is not justified by Africa’s modest record of default. In addition, each year US$50 billion in illicit financial flows leaves the continent, an indictment as much of western investors and financial centres as of African corruption.

African nations cannot wait for others to act. We must take the lead by establishing a secretariat to co-ordinate the varied interest groups and centres of power to propose a restructuring of the global financial architecture. That body must then seek to work with the G20, World Bank, IMF and UN, to make it fit for purpose for
Africa and other developing countries as we navigate the post-COVID-19 recovery. Africa is not asking for charity. It is asking for equity.

The writer is Ghana’s Minister of Finance and outgoing Chairman of the Development Committee of the IMF and World Bank.

Source: Ken Ofori-Atta
Tags: AfricaCoronavirusKen Ofori Atta
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