Ghana: Press focuses on leveraging digital tech to combat corruption, others

The call by Vice President, Dr Alhaji Maha¬mudu Bawumia, on the anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies in Africa, to leverage digital technology to combat cor¬ruption is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Vice President, Dr Alhaji Maha-mudu Bawumia, has called on the anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies in Africa, to leverage digital technology to combat corruption.
He said: “In an age of sophisti¬cated artificial intelligence, enabled cybercrime is for anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies to invest in digital forensics and tools that will enable our various coun¬tries track, trace and disrupt the entire corruption value chain”.
The Vice President made the call at the 14th Commonwealth Regional Congress and Annual Regional Conference of Anti-Cor¬ruption Agencies in Common¬wealth Africa, currently underway in Accra.
The four-day event, is being organised by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), under the theme: “Strengthening Institutions and Promoting Trans¬parency: A Means of Fighting Corruption in Commonwealth Africa.”
It is being attended by more than 120 delegates from anti-corruption institutions from 21 Common¬wealth countries.
Dr Bawumia, who delivered the keynote address under the theme: “Forging partnerships: Blueprint for forensic investigations and asset recovery in Commonwealth Afri¬ca,” said with the right digital tools and its use, anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies could defeat the worst forms of public corrup¬tion, including the networks that underpinned them.
The newspaper says that the country’s year-on-year inflation rate fell to 25.0 per cent in April from 25.8 in March, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has announced.
Month-on-month inflation between March and April this year stood at 1.8 per cent.
Data made available to the Gha­naian Times in Accra on Wednes­day on the Ghana April 2024 Con­sumer Price Index and Inflation by the GSS attributed the marginal fall in the April inflation rate to the drop in food inflation rate.
Food inflation rate, the data said, fell by 2.1 per cent to 26.8 per cent in April from 29.6 per cent in March.
Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses, ready-made food and other food products, fish and other sea foods, fruits and nuts, sugar, confection¬ery and desserts recorded inflation rates of 39.5 per cent and 27.2 per cent, 29.6 per cent, 27.7 per cent, 27.1 per cent respectively, which were above the national average of 26.8 per cent.
Also, fruits and vegetable juices, coffee and coffee substitutes, tea and related products and cocoa drinks also recorded inflation rates of 33.1 per cent, 39.5 per cent, 59.3 per cent and 63.4 per cent respectively.
Cereals and cereal products, milk and other dairy products and eggs, oil and fats, water and soft drinks recorded inflation rates of 15.4 per cent, 19.7 per cent, 18.4 per cent, 8.9 per cent, 25.5 per cent respec­tively below the national average of 26.8 per cent.
Non-food inflation, the data revealed, increased by 1.5 per cent to 23.5 per cent in April from 22.6 per cent in March.
Under the non-food inflation, the data said restaurants and accommodation, personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services, health, recreation, sport and culture recorded inflation rates of 33.9 per cent, 31.9 per cent, 31.2 per cent, 28.7 per cent respectively above the national average of 23.5 per cent.
The Graphic reports that Climate change and illegal mining, popularly known as Galamsey, are the greatest threats facing the production of cocoa, Ghana’s leading foreign exchange earner.
In a panel discussion hosted by Graphic Online on its YouTube social media network, dubbed “Your Ghana, My Ghana’, the experts said changes in rainfall patterns and global warming render planning in the cocoa sub-sector challenging, while indiscriminate prospecting for gold illegally by artisanal miners also affect the cultivation of the cash crop.
The two-member panellists, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, and the General Secretary of the Ghana Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU), Edward Kareweh, discussed cocoa production in Ghana and its attendant issues on the theme: “Will Cocoa be part of Ghana’s future”.
Mr Aidoo lamented that even though the nation’s greenhouse emissions and carbon footprint were practically insignificant, global warming had adversely affected rainfall patterns making planning for the crop extremely difficult.
“At times when we don’t expect rains, they come. When you want rains, they don’t come. That’s for the cocoa. In 2020, the whole of June, July and August there was no rain at all.
Then from October ending, November, December, January and February, it was raining. Can you imagine? January, February and it was raining as if we were in June, July,” he recalled.
On the issue of “galamsey”, the COCOBOD CEO stressed that the emboldened activities of the perpetrators had rendered many water bodies surrounding cocoa farms unsafe for farmers.
“We commissioned the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) to do a pre-appraisal assessment for us and in the report they brought, almost all the rivers were contaminated, and you cannot use that milky muddy water to do anything with coco
The newspaper says that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cautioned countries like Ghana, which still have inflation above its central bank’s target range, to continue to maintain a tight monetary policy.
The fund indicated that although inflation in such countries may have been on a consistent decline in recent months, it was still too early to relax their monetary policy rates.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the IMF Division Chief for Africa, Luc Eyraud, said Ghana and countries who find themselves in this position could pause on increasing the policy rate, but added that it would be too early to reduce them.
Headline inflation in sub-Saharan Africa has been declining since reaching its peak in November 2022, with the situation varying across countries.
Based on the latest available data from February 2024, roughly a third of the countries still face double-digit inflation, largely due to significant currency depreciations and, even among countries with a marked decline in inflation, only a select few have reduced policy interest rates over the past 12 months, with the majority opting to continue tightening or maintain elevated policy rates, even after inflation has passed its peak.
In Ghana, the economy has been battling with high inflation, with the rate reaching a 22-year high and a peak of 54.1% in December 2022.
In response to the rising inflation, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana kept a tight monetary policy stance by consistently increasing the policy rate to 30% by the end of 2023.
GIK/APA