APA – Accra (Ghana)
The orders issued by the Economic Community of West African States to its standby force to restore constitutional order in the Niger Republic is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that the Economic Community of West African States has ordered its standby force to restore constitutional order in the Niger Republic.
The President of ECOWAS, Omar Alieu Touray, made the declaration while reading the resolution of ECOWAS on the Niger coup at the ECOWAS Extraordinary meeting in Abuja on Thursday.
It also called on the African Union, AU, partner countries, and institutions to support the resolution taken by the sub-regional body.
ECOWAS said all efforts made to dialogue with Niger Republic military junta have been defiantly rejected by coup leaders as they condemn the continuous detention of President Mohamed Bazoum and his family members.
The resolution partly reads, “Direct the committee of the Chief of Defence Staff to activate the ECOWAS standby force with all its elements immediately.
“Order the deployment of the ECOWAS stand-by force to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger.
“Underscore its continued commitment to the restoration of constitutional order through peaceful means.”
The newspaper says that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has addressed the concerns surrounding the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) GH¢60 billion loss incurred during the 2022 fiscal year, aiming to allay anxieties by asserting that there is no need for alarm.
The BoG has faced heightened scrutiny from opposition political factions and civil society organizations due to the substantial loss it sustained. The Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, took a stance on Tuesday, demanding the resignation of the Governor, Dr. Ernest Addison, and his deputies, attributing the losses to recklessness within the apex bank—an allegation rejected by the BoG.
The IMF has since posted a detailed explanation on its official website, shedding light on the BoG’s participation in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), a critical facet of the government’s strategy to reestablish macroeconomic stability and public debt sustainability.
The IMF clarified that the BoG’s involvement in the DDEP was intended to distribute the burden of the program among various entities, including government debt holders, financial institutions, banks, pension funds, and individuals.
The incurred loss, as per the IMF, has played a role in diminishing the BoG’s net equity to a negative value.
However, the IMF underscored that this occurrence does not hinder the BoG’s ability to fulfill its policy mandates and execute measures to steer inflation gradually towards its 8-percent target.
The IMF expressed confidence that the central bank’s income is anticipated to be sufficient for covering operational costs related to monetary policy.
Consequently, the IMF expects the BoG’s net equity to witness significant improvement over time, eventually returning to positive territory.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has said the analysis of the 2022 financial performance of the Central Bank by the Minority in Parliament without taking cognisance of the economic situation in the country is misleading.
It said the year 2022 was the peak of economic and social crisis in Ghana, a culmination of fiscal overruns and debt distress resulted in Ghana losing access to both international and domestic markets.
The BoG stated this in a statement it issued in Accra on Wednesday in response to claims by the Minority in Parliament that the BoG has been mismanaged.
The Minority at a press conference in Accra last Tuesday alleged that the BoG had been mismanaged and the Governor, Dr Ernest Addison and his deputies should resign.
It said rating agencies last year downgraded Ghana to the junk category with huge macroeconomic imbalances and the cedi depreciated sharply from GH¢6 to the dollar at the end of 2021 to almost GH¢13.1 to the dollar at the end of November 2022 until it came down to about GH¢8.57 to the dollar at the end of December 2022 (resulting in about 30 per cent on a year-on-year basis and averaged 31.13 per cent)
Similarly, inflation rose from an average of 12.62 per cent at the end of December 2021 to 54.14 per cent at the end of De¬cember 2022. These developments had a significant impact on the operations of the Bank and every other entity in the country,” the BoG stated.)
The newspaper says that a Garments and Textiles manu¬facturing policy and incentive framework that seeks to attract investment from United States (US) and other countries into the industry has been developed, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond, has announced.
At the opening of the US-Gha¬na business Expo 2023 in Accra yesterday, he said, the document, formulated with industry experts, would be outdoor in the last quarter of this year, after ongoing consultations were concluded.
He said the move was to make Ghana the new global hub for garments by taking advantage of the quest for cost-competitive sourcing destinations due to in¬creased manufacturing costs in top manufacturing hubs worldwide.
Organised by the American Chamber of Commerce Gha¬na, the US Embassy and other partners, the two-day Expo, on the theme “Leveraging US-Ghana trade relations for growth and prosperity” provided a platform to foster bilateral trade collaboration between Ghana and US.
It convened Ghana and US busi¬ness communities in Ghana, 40 exhibitors and a Global Diversity Export Initiative Trade Mission made up of diverse American businesses and experts.
According to factsheets made available at the event, the value of trade between the two countries hit an all-time high of $3.7 billion with exports from Ghana, being $2.7 billion.
Besides the garment industry, Mr Hammond said, the govern¬ment had stepped up support for the private sector, both domestic and foreign, to enhance produc¬tion and export capacity, particu¬larly in the manufacturing sector.
He advocated more trade and investments to boost the value of trade between the two countries to aid socio-economic development of both countries.
“We would like to see more export products from our shores into the U.S. market, the most lu¬crative consumer market globally. This can be achieved through in¬creased investment from the U.S., especially in respect of harnessing the considerable and largely un¬tapped U.S. market opportunities offered under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the Prosper Africa Initiative of the U.S. Government,” he said.
The US Under-Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Marisa Lago – U.S. De¬partment of Commerce, said there was enormous potential for increased commercial cooperation.
She said this was because Africa had one of the world’s fastest growing populations and the po¬tential to be the largest burgeoning free trade area, and people-to-peo¬ple and diaspora ties between the US and the nations of Africa.
GIK/APA
Ghana: Press spotlights orders issued by ECOWAS for immediate standby force against Niger junta, others
