The extraordinary ECOWAS Summit holding in Ghana on Tuesday and the recent downgrade of Ghana’s credit rating from B to B-negative by the international ratings agency, S&P Global dominate the headlines of Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that the West African leaders are arriving in Ghana this morning to participate in an extraordinary ECOWAS Summit.
The summit, which will be held at the Presidential Villa at Peduase, near Aburi in the Eastern Region, will discuss ways of helping to resolve the governance crisis in Mali.
The report added that Presidents S.E. Patrice Talon of Benin, Roch Marc Christian Kabore of Burkina Faso, Jorge Carlos Fonseca of Cabo Verde, Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire, Adama Barrow of The Gambia and Alpha Conde of Guinea are among the Heads of State and Governments of ECOWAS, who will attend today’s meeting at Peduase.
Others are Presidents Maro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau, George Manneh Weah of Liberia, Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger and Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Presidents Macky Sall of Senegal, Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone and Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe of Togo.
According to the report, the one-day summit will also have all the stakeholders in the Mali crisis in attendance.
The newspaper says that the Ministry of Finance has described as unfortunate the recent downgrade of Ghana’s credit rating from B to B-negative by the international ratings agency, S&P Global.
It said in a press statement issued yesterday that while it recognised that the downgrade was widespread — affecting other countries worldwide — it found it disturbing that rating agencies would choose that path at a time when countries, including Ghana, were battling an unprecedented crisis.
“It is very unfortunate that rating agencies will choose to downgrade our countries in these unprecedented times,” the statement, issued by the Public Affairs Department of the Ministry of Finance, said.
“As the South African Revenue Services Commissioner recently argued: ‘While we understand the underlying factors that are pointed out by the ratings agencies, we think that during such a time of crisis, when the whole world is recalibrating and redefining its economic status, for any downgrades to be issued during this time is like kicking us when we are down’.
“We, therefore, call on rating agencies to seriously consider freezing any rating actions during global pandemics such as the COVID-19,” it added.
The Graphic also reports that the Electoral Commission (EC) has opened online nominations for presidential and parliamentary aspirants for the December 7, 2020 elections.
The Commission has also fixed the filing fee for presidential aspirants at GH¢100,000 and that for parliamentary aspirants at GH¢10,000. The figure for the presidential aspirants is a 100 percent increase over the 2016 filing fee while that of the parliamentary candidates did not see any change.
The EC Chairperson, Mrs. Jean Mensa, who announced this at the Let the Citizens Know Series in Accra yesterday, said the Commission would receive completed forms from the aspirants from October 5 to 9, this year.
She explained that unlike previous elections where political parties manually picked forms, the EC had uploaded the nomination forms and the guidelines for completing the forms on its website for political parties to download and fill.
Mrs. Mensa said each political party would be provided with a unique password that would allow them access to the nomination forms.
The Times reports that Ghana’s football legend Asamoah Gyan may finally announce his international retirement after he missed out of the leadership role in the senior national team, Ghanasoccernet reports.
Ghana’s top scorer was elevated to the position of General Captain ahead of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
Gyan, now regarded as a “common floor member” might just go ahead and quit playing for the national team in what could be a bitter exit.
The former Sunderland and Al Ain hero was Black Stars captain from 2013 to 2019 when Kwesi Appiah stripped him of the armband and handed it to Andre Ayew.
Gyan initially quit the national team with immediate effect, but was ordered to reconsider his decision after receiving a phone call from Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
If he goes ahead to hang is boots, he holds the record for the most goals scored by any Ghana international. He has 109 goals from 51 matches.
GIK/APA