Ghanaian press focuses on drop in inflation rate to 41.2% in April
APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that inflation further dropped from 45 per cent in March to 41.2 per cent in April and the plan by Golden Exotics Limited to expand its operations and contribute to the development of communities surrounding its plantations are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that inflation further dropped from 45 per cent in March to 41.2 per cent in April.
This is the fourth consecutive month that the country’s inflation has dropped after almost two years of a continuous rise.
Food inflation dropped from 50.8 per cent in March to 48.7 per cent in April 2023, with non-food-inflation declining to 35.4 per cent in April 2023, from 35.4 per cent in March 2023
The newspaper says that Golden Exotics Limited (GEL) has launched its 20th anniversary with a commitment to expand its operations and contribute to the development of communities surrounding its plantations.
The company, which started with the planting of pineapples on a 700 hectare land, projects to hit a total banana plantation of 2,000 hectares by June this year.
It has plantations in Obom, near Ngleshi-Amanfrom in the Ga South Municipality; Kasunya, near Asutuare, in the Shai-Osudoku District, and Torgorme in the North Tongu District.
Over the years, the Managing Director of GEL, Benedict John Rich, speaking before launching the year-long anniversary celebration in Accra, said the development of the company had been underpinned by its commitment to sustainable policies, including decent work, respect for human rights of its employees, health and safety, respect for the environment, responsible sourcing and best international practices.
“For us, it is not enough to do things, unless we are doing them properly,” he said .
Since the company’s inception, Mr Rich said it had undertaken its corporate social responsibility in the areas of education, health, economic wellbeing, among others, in the communities where it operated and intended to revisit such projects during the anniversary year.
In 2014, he said the company commenced the planting of organic bananas, and at an average of 100 hectares per year it could now boast 600 hectares which was currently one of the largest in the world, while its conventional farms kept expanding.
In the past two decades, Mr Rich said the company had embraced technologies ranging from the use of smart phone and bar code scanners in the field, to drones, in the fields of precision agriculture and traceability of its products in line with commitment to remain productive and competitive.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Ghana has so far received financial support totalling US$536.3 million for the implementation of 12 projects to tackle the impacts of climate change.
Approved by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), five of the projects are in the form of capacity building, six are projects implementation and the other, a preparation facility.
The GCF is the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) designed to disburse new and additional resources to support developing countries to implement their climate change mitigation and adaptation activities.
Some of the projects are the US$54.5 million Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project and the $442,968 capacity building programme to sharpen the skills of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Ghana to support the country’s efforts in addressing global heating.
According to Foster Aboagye Gyamfi, Principal Economic Officer, Ministry of Finance, eight more projects, which were part of the 20 proposals submitted to the GCF by Ghana, were currently awaiting approval.
He was speaking at Accra yesterday during a capacity building workshop on Enhancing Climate Financing Access for the Agriculture Sector in Ghana.
The workshop is to enhance the understanding of participants on the procedures for accessing financial support through existing funding mechanisms such as the GCF and develops a priority list of high impact adaptation and mitigation projects to address Ghana’s development’s needs.
He noted that two of the six projects approved for implementation were national projects while the other four would serve the African region interests.
The newspaper says that Ghana and other African countries have been urged to create room for the private sector to manufacture and sell without any form of bureaucratic hurdle.
Additionally, the countries have been encouraged to invest and add value to its products in order to improve intra-Africa trade.
According to the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, this had become relevant because Africa’s share of world trade was less than three per cent and intra-Africa trade was 18 per cent.
She said this when she engaged the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in a conversation at its dialogue centre in Accra.
The event was under the theme “Making Africa Benefit from Globalisation.”
“Ghana is home to the AfCFTA agreement so this is a good place to talk. But before I say that, I say I am not at all happy with Africa’s share of world trade which is slightly less than three per cent and intra-Africa trade is only 18 per cent,” Dr Okonjo-Iweala said.
“We have room to do so much more. To trade more, we have to add value to our products, manufacture and sell more. We should thank our private sector people and try to create the room for them to be able to manufacture and sell, and not put bureaucratic hurdles in their way,” she added.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala noted that to do away with investment barriers in terms of intra-Africa trade, an agreement known as the investment facilitation agreement is currently being negotiated by the WTO of which she expects Ghana to be a part.
Aside the negotiation agreement, the Director General indicated that her outfit was partnering with organisations and agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide financial support for trade related infrastructure.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala noted that in as much as trade was usually considered as a contributing factor to climate change due to its logistics, it also formed part of its solution.
According to her, Africa was suffering the impact of climate change disproportionately despite contributing to only three per cent of all carbon emission in the world, hence the need to address the issue head on.
GIK/APA