The report that Ghana’s inflation rate has surged to a four-month high in March amid a decline in the currency, leading to increased prices of imports like fuel and food is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that Ghana’s inflation rate has surged to a four-month high in March amid a decline in the currency, leading to increased prices of imports like fuel and food.
The inflation rate for March rose to 25.8 percent, marking a 2.6 percentage point increase from February 2024, where it stood at 23.2 percent.
This upward trend also affected food inflation, which climbed from 27.0 percent in February to 29.6 percent in March. Non-food inflation for March was reported at 22.6 percent.
Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim disclosed this information on Wednesday, April 10, highlighting the significant rise in inflation rates for both food and non-food items between February and March 2024.
“In the month of March 2024, rate of inflation stood at 25.8%, year-on-year inflation relative to 23.2 % recorded for the month of February 2024. This indicates that we have a seen a surge in the rate of inflation by 2.6%, increasing from 23.2% to 25.8% for the month of March 2024.”
“Disaggregating this for the food and non-food perspective, the rate of inflation for food was 29.6% relative to non-food 22.6%. Both food and non-food inflation have seen a 2.6% increase in its rate of inflation between February and March 2024,” he stated.
While there was a slight decrease in inflation in February compared to January, with figures dropping from 23.5 percent to 23.2 percent, the trend reversed in March, pushing the annual inflation rate to 25.8 percent.
The newspaper says that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has signed into law the Wildlife Resources Management Act, 2024 (Act 1115), with the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, describing it as a boost to effective management of the country’s wildlife resources.
The Act, which was sponsored by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and passed by Parliament on July 28, 2023, was assented to by the President on March 1, this year.
In his reaction, Mr Jinapor said apart from being a key milestone in the management of the country’s wildlife, the presidential assent to Act 1115 had ensured the consolidation of all laws relating to wildlife and protected areas.
“The previous legislation, enacted over 50 years ago, was not in tune with current international best practices for wildlife protection and management, and did not provide a proper legal framework for the implementation of the Forest and Wildlife Policy, 2012, the Forestry Development Master Plan (2016-2036), and other national and international frameworks that guide sustainable resource management, all of which were adopted years after these laws were passed,” he explained.
Wildlife and protected areas were previously regulated by the Wild Animals Preservation Act, 1961 (Act 43), the Wildlife Conservation Regulations, 1971 (L.I. 685), and the Wildlife Reserves Regulations, 1971 (L.I. 710).
Meanwhile, the Wildlife Resources Management Bill has been pending for over 15 years as it was previously laid before the fifth, sixth and seventh Parliaments until it was eventually passed by the Eighth Parliament on July 28, 2023.
The Damongo Member of Parliament (MP) further described the assent to Act 1115 as a new dawn for the effective management of wildlife and protected areas in the country.
The Ghanaian Times reports that a summit aimed at identifying tourism potential and investment opportunities for job creation and economic development in Ghana has been launched.
Organised by the David Douglas Leadership Forum (DDLF) in partnership with the Office of the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II (President of Ga Traditional Council), it is also aimed at exploring the tourism potential that can stimulate econom¬ic growth, create jobs and enhance overall community development.
Speaking at the launch in Accra on Monday, Mr David Douglas, the Chief Executive officer of DDLF, stated that the event was to unite diverse stakeholders with a focus on fostering peace, investment and tourism in Africa.
The event, to be held from April 15 to 17, 2024, is a convergence of visionaries, change-makers of peace, security and investments from within the continent of Africa and the diaspora.
This year’s Summit will serve as a vital platform for stakeholders to foster collabo¬ration and identify investment opportunities, as well as tour¬ism potentials that can drive economic growth, job creation, and overall community devel¬opment.
“From its inception a couple of years ago, the primary ob¬jective of the summit has been to cultivate a positive and inclu¬sive environment, inspiring and empowering individuals and communities, vis a vis nations, and by extension, the entire continent of Africa, to con¬tribute to a future marked by peace and security, prosperity and sustainable development,” he stated.
Mr Douglas said community, political and business leaders would be given the opportu¬nity to showcase their unique potentials and engage investors to explore possibilities for industrialisation and economic growth.
He said the summit would host more countries in Africa, such as South Africa, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo and Republic of Benin.
Others are Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda, and Niger.
The newspaper says that the Global Media Alliance (GMA), a leading media and communications company, concluded its celebra¬tion of International Women’s Month with a meaningful Corpo¬rate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative aimed at empowering young women.
As part of their commitment to gender equality and empow¬erment, GMA organised a visit to the African Science Academy (ASA).
The African Science Academy is a girls-only Advanced Level school for Maths and Science.
Founded in 2016 by the Afri¬can Gifted Foundation, it targets girls across Africa who have outstanding potential in Maths and Science.
They are trained in Maths, Fur¬ther Maths and Physics as well as Robotics and Computer Program¬ming.
This is to enable them for ca¬reers in Engineering, Science and computing amongst others.
The CSR project dubbed ‘Find¬ing Her Voice’ trained the young girls on personal branding, public speaking and leveraging social me¬dia to grow their personal brands.
The training sessions, led by industry experts from GMA, focused on empowering young women with communication skills, leadership development, and strat¬egies for navigating professional environments.
The interactive workshops provided valuable insights and practical tools to help the students at ASA unlock their potential and confidently express themselves.
Touching on personal brand¬ing, the co-host of Happy FM Morning Show, Fati Shaibu-Ali, emphasised that personal brand¬ing was not only about dressing well and how one looked, but also about how individuals carry them¬selves and being experts in their chosen fields.
The Project Lead for e-pro¬ductions under the Global Media Alliance Group took the students through public speaking and urged them to start small by practising with their colleagues to build up their confidence in public speak¬ing.
GIK/APA