The report that indigenization of the Ghana Nation¬al Gas Company (GNGC) is saving the compa¬ny US$3 million every month and reinvesting same into other sectors of the company since 2018 is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Ghana Nation¬al Gas Company (GNGC) says it is saving the compa¬ny US$3 million every month and reinvesting same into other sectors of the company since 2018.
This is made possible by the complete indigenisation of the company; the process of managing the operations, engineering and all other facets of the company by Ghanaians.
“The indigenisation of the op¬erations saw the change in hand of the driving seat of all assets owned by GNGC from SINOPEC to local engineers who had shadowed the Chinese and acquired the expertise in running the installed facilities.
“At a point, the company had about 200 Chinese engineers work¬ing at the plant site. This translated into a wage bill of approximately US$3 million in salaries to these foreign counterparts on a monthly basis.
“This colossal savings in the operational expenditure in the company’s finances provided a huge fiscal space for the company to channel such revenue into other productive and strategic areas of the company,” the GNGC said in a statement copied the Ghanaian Times in Accra.
The company was established in 2014 with a loan facility from the China Development Bank and designed and constructed by Chinese company, SINOPEC International.
The facility was to be ran by SINOPEC engineers and under¬studied by Ghanaian engineers to obtain the necessary hands-on knowledge on operating the plant from their SINOPEC counter¬parts.
The newspaper says that more than 26,000 Ghanaians in need of cornea transplant risk losing their vision due to the absence of a law to back the harvesting of tissues locally.
Drafted last year, the Human Organ and Tissue Bill to allow for organ and tissue donation, as well as transplantation in the country is yet to be passed into law.
The law is expected to be a game changer in Ghana’s healthcare delivery, seeking among others to not only create a national authority to oversee and regulate organ-tissue donation and transplantation, but protect the rights and interests of donors, recipients and their families while ensuring ethical and legal standards around such procedures to meet the growing demand in the country.
At a stakeholders’ summit or¬ganised by non-profit organisation, HCP Cureblindness, in partnership with the Ophthalmological Society of Ghana (OSG) to push for the immediate passage of the bill, the Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, said that law was crucial to promote eye health in Ghana.
He said of the 250,000 visually impaired population in the country, 11 per cent were attributed to cor¬nea defects, describing the condi¬tion as a “silent epidemic”.
“The cornea plays a crucial role in vision, unfortunately, diseases, injuries and infections can damage this delicate tissue leading to irre¬versible blindness,” he stated.
Dr Nsiah-Asare noted that the lack of public awareness on corneal transplantation, insuffi¬cient donor pool and inadequate infrastructure to easily facilitate the process remained a challenge.
The Graphic reports that the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) to make raw materials available for industries throughout the entire year.
The agreement is expected to empower industries to fully venture into massive processing of agricultural produce to reduce imports, create jobs and establish a ready market for farmers.
This means that the two parties would collaborate under the agreement to promote the development of both industries and the agricultural value chain in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GCX, Tucci Goka Ivowi, signed the MoU on behalf of the commodity exchange, while the President of AGI, Dr Humphrey Ayim-Darke, signed for the association.
It was witnessed by the CEO of AGI; Seth Twum-Akwaboah, AGI Chairman in charge of Agribusiness; William Agyei-Manu, and other officials from both the GCX and the AGI.
Mrs Ivowi expressed her satisfaction with the partnership, saying it would pave the way for the two parties to work together for the benefit of the country.
She said the parties would hit the ground running with the full implementation of the agreement.
“From the exchange perspective, we have started with maize, soya beans, sorghum, cashew and rice. We add commodities since we have storage facilities available, and that is why collaboration with the private sector is so important,” she said.
The newspaper says that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana will hold its 117th Regular Meeting from Wednesday, March 20, 2024, to Friday, March 22, 2024, to review developments in the economy.
According to a notice posted on the bank’s website, the meetings will conclude with a press conference on Monday, March 25, 2024, to announce the decision of the committee.
A key consideration will be the monetary policy rate which is currently pegged at 29 per cent having been reduced by 100 basis points from 30 per cent.
The bank, in explaining its decision for reducing the policy rate, premised its decision on two key developments: external buffers and inflation.
For instance, the central bank said the country’s external buffers had increased, providing support for exchange rate stability.
Improved forex inflows from the International Monetary Fund External Credit Facility (IMF-ECF) disbursements, receipt of the cocoa syndicated loan, and expected funding from the World Bank’s Development Policy Operations were expected to improve foreign exchange inflows.
In addition, the bank said its gold for reserve programme, repatriation of foreign exchange from the mining and oil companies, and reduction in debt service payments would further support reserve build-up and improve the external sector outlook.
Headline inflation declined sharply by more than 30 percentage points in the course of 2023. It said several factors supported the disinflation process, namely the tightening monetary policy stance throughout 2023, favourable international crude oil prices which led to stable ex-pump prices and transportation costs and relative stability in the exchange rate.
It said the latest forecast at the time suggested that the disinflation process would continue, and headline inflation was expected to ease to around 13-17 per cent by the end of 2024, before gradually trending back to within the medium-term target range of six-10 per cent by 2025.
GIK/APA