Ghana: Press focuses on President’s plea for insecurity in West Africa to end, others

APA – Accra (Ghana)
President Akufo-Addo’s plea to West Africans to reject all forms of military takeovers within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) jurisdiction is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is asking West Africans to reject all forms of military takeovers within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) jurisdiction.
The president says the unconstitutional way of changing governments across the sub-region should not be tolerated.
The President’s admonishment comes a day after media reports suggest an attempted military takeover has occurred in Niger.
Speaking at the 176th Independence Day celebration of Liberia, President Akufo-Addo said insecurity in West Africa must come to an end to help drive the needed development.
“It is incumbent that we all stand together in our generation to defeat the menace of coups and guarantee the peace and stability which are essential to the rapid economic development of our areas which is the surest way to banish poverty in our time and in the same vein, we must reiterate our commitment to democratic governance in the ECOWAS space and reject all unconstitutional changes of government.”
It was reported on Wednesday that presidential guards in Niger had seized President Mohamed Bazoum and blockaded his residence, as well as key ministries in a coup attempt.
Despite fears of a coup attempt, no shots were heard.
The African Union (AU) condemned the soldiers’ actions, saying they are “unacceptable”.
The newspaper says that the government has been urged to come out with a comprehensive plan to support agriculture to address the soaring food prices in the country, some economic, governance and agricultural experts have said.
That, they said, would help address the growing hardship in the country, largely influenced by increasing food prices, reduce borrowing and address the infrastructure deficit hampering the development of the country.
Food inflation according to data from the Ghana Statistical Service rose to 54.2 per cent in June 2023, the highest in several years.
The Director of Research at the Institute of Economic Affairs, Dr John Kwakye; Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante, and the Executive Director of Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Dr Charles Nyaba, reached by the Ghanaian Times for their expectations of the 2023 Mid-year budget review, also called on the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, to come out with measures to improve revenue mobilisation to control the growing public debt, increase investment in capital expenditure and reduce corruption when he presents the Mid-year budget review to Parliament.
The newspaper reports that the Bank of Ghana, in the first half of the year, has been able to build $1 billion in reserves, mainly coming from its gold purchase programme and settlement of short-term liabilities.
Consequently, the country’s Gross International Reserves (excluding encumbered assets and petroleum funds) improved to $2.35 billion, equivalent to 1.1 months of import cover, compared with $1.44 billion (0.6 months of import cover) recorded at the end of December 2022.
The Bank’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme was launched in June 2021, with the key objective of shoring up the bank’s foreign reserves by purchasing domestically produced gold and converting the same into foreign assets (monetary gold).
Since the inception of the programme, a total of 7.73 tons of monetary gold, valued at approximately $480 million, has been added to reserves well ahead of the target of doubling the gold holdings in five years.
The decline in total export earnings was due to lower earnings from crude oil. Higher gold and cocoa export earnings moderated the losses.
Crude oil exports dropped by 41.3 per cent to $1.7 billion, driven by lower production volumes from the Jubilee and TEN fields and a decline in world prices.
Gold exports, on the other hand, increased by 14.2 per cent to $3.5 billion.
Dr Addison said the trade surplus, together with lower outflows in the investment income from lower external debt service payments due to the debt standstill, resulted in a current account surplus of $849.2 million, compared with a $1.1 billion deficit recorded a year earlier.
“Similarly, the capital and financial account recorded reduced net outflow of $897.3 million, on the back of lower outflows in the financial accounts,” he stated.
The newspaper says that a renowned film director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Oldfilm Productions, Peter Sedufia, has asked governing film authorities, such as the National Film Authority (NFA,) not to implement laws and policies that will cripple the progress of the sector.
Although he acknowledged any sector without proper regulations and guidelines would breed indiscipline and lack of coordination.
However, in the bid to ensure proper structuring and regulation, the relevant authorities should not initiate policies likely to stall the progress of the film industry.
Speaking as a panel member at the third Graphic Showbiz Forum hosted at the Multichoice office in Accra on Tuesday, July 25, Mr Sedufia said he was privy to some of the laws and even though most of them were not functional at the moment, some were likely to cripple the industry when they became operational.
“Every sphere of the human race needs regulation to ensure order. When there are no guidelines, everyone will do what they like, so putting these laws in place will help have a working system that is going to propel the industry to the state we all desire.
“If there is no regulation, no one knows what is happening, and no one answers to anyone. However, there should be directions so that people will know the industry is regulated, which will encourage them to invest.
“While these policies are beneficial, it has to be mentioned that they should not be barriers to the growth of the sector. I have had conversations with the leadership of NFA about their proposed policies/laws and hope that they don’t rather cripple us,” he said.
GIK/APA