The government’s stance on the use of home-grown solutions to deal with economic recovery issues and the MoU signed by the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) with the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) to forge a stronger relationship across the stock markets and the economies of both countries are some of the trending stories on the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has reiterated government’s stance on not seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, IMF, despite the current economic challenges.
Mr Ofori-Atta says the government will consider home-grown solutions to deal with the difficulties because the country has what it takes to recover from the issues facing the economy.
The government, despite harsh criticisms has on multiple occasions stated that the most prudent measure in the face of Ghana’s ailing economy is not to go back to the IMF but rather raise revenue domestically, while cutting down on government expenditure.
Speaking at the Minister’s Press Briefing in Accra, he said government will keep introducing more measures to raise revenue domestically.
“We are members of the fund; there are two major points of interventions that we have from the fund. One being the advice that we get because of the phenomenal expertise that the fund has and then secondly, these programme interventions which bring us some resources.
We have committed to not going back to the fund because in terms of the interventions and policy we are right there, the fund knows that we are completely in the right direction. The issue is, validating the programmes that we have put in place and then, in my view, supporting us to find alternative ways of financing or re-financing our debt, reprofiling it,” he said.
The newspaper says that the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana (UG) has urged government to reintroduce the road toll system as part of its fiscal consolidation measuresat a forum.
It said the tollbooths should be reinstated with an efficient electronic-pass system to address congestion in some parts of the country’s roads.
The Forum was held on the theme: “Harnessing Stakeholder Engagement and Feedback for Research Impact” and it provided a platform to discuss the successes and challenges of Ghana’s economy and ways to boost the economy through a nonpartisan lens.
The Ministry of Roads and Highways on Thursday, November 18, 2021, closed all tollbooths across the country following a directive by the Ministry of Finance in Parliament.
Meanwhile government is targeting to achieve a fiscal deficit of 7.4 percent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022 as against the projected 12.1 percent for 2021 in a bid to salvage the economy.
Consequently, it has introduced a few economic policies including the imposition of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) to strengthen domestic revenue mobilisation and reduce borrowing.
According to Professor Quartey, the outright removal of road tolls put government in a bad light because it sent wrong signals to private investors who wished to partner government in other projects.
He insisted that the tollbooths should be reopened and effectively and efficiently operated. Professor Quartey observed that Ghana’s economy suffered turbulent moments in the first quarter of 2022 owing to an array of developments both internally and globally.
The Graphic reports that riding on the historical linkage between Ghana and Jamaica, the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), has signed a historic memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) to forge a stronger relationship across the stock markets and the economies of both countries.
This is the first time such an agreement is being signed with a Caribbean exchange and it presents enormous opportunities for both exchanges.
The step towards the MoU was occasioned by an earlier Regional Investment and Capital Market Conference in January 2022.
Formalising the partnership through the signing of the MoU, the Managing Director of the JSE, Dr Marlene Street Forrest said the move would further cement linkages across markets, while also strengthening South/South diaspora connections.
“This relationship with Ghana is very strategic to us as we pursue our 2025 vision to expand our borders for growth and sustainability.
“We believe this partnership can ensure wealth creation and further development of our markets from the frontier to emerging markets,” she stated.
Africa, like the Caribbean, is the new frontier for development and attracting a lot of interest and investments across the globe.
Ghana and Jamaica alike have a growing and educated middle class with high demand for services.
Stock exchanges, therefore, have to position themselves as critical economic development agents to seize the opportunities this trend presents.
Commenting on the MoU, the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh said such partnerships with exchanges in other regions would help promote the sharing of best practices and knowledge transfer, which were critical to the development of capital markets.
The newspaper says that celebrated Ghanaian Music Director and multi-instrumentalist, Kwame Yeboah, says until the right people are hired to manage the country’s music industry, it might eventually collapse.
He explained that the country’s music industry has no structure, making it difficult to operate effectively and efficiently. This he believes also hinders the progression and development of artistes.
He said currently musicians who have numerous works to their credit barely make anything from the Ghanaian music industry as the system for claiming royalties was deeply flawed.
“I have other systems which I get paid from but I don’t get any money or airplay from Ghana which is not good,” Yeboah said.
“How about the others who have no other streams or systems they make money from? We all need to make some returns and it is high time a system is out in place in Ghana to ensure that.”
Relating the situation to the royalty system in the United Kingdom (UK), he said every corner bar pays a little for playing songs of artistes elsewhere.
“If any bar was paying a cedi whenever they play music, artistes could earn something for their development. They can make enough to produce high quality music instead of always going to the same small place and suffering criticism for producing bad sound as compared to Beyoncé etc.”
Because all these measures have not been instituted, Kwame Yeboah insists “the entire system has not been enabled to function effectively, hence becoming a ticking time bomb which will one day crash and burn.”
He advised musical bodies to put in place monitoring systems to monitor bars, radio stations and outlets who use the works of artistes for commercial purposes.
GIK/APA