Ghanaian press spotlights 38.1% inflation rate for September, others

APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report of the drop in Inflation rate from 40.1 percent in August to 38.1 per cent in September dominates the headlines of Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that inflation for September has dropped to a 12-month low of 38.1 per cent, down from the 40.1 per cent recorded in August.
Last month’s inflation was driven by alcoholic beverages, tobacco & narcotics and food and non-alcoholic beverages, with both divisions recording an inflation rate of 49.4 per cent.
This was followed by personal care, social protection and miscellaneous services (49.2%); furnishings and household equipment (44.9%); clothing and footwear (32.5%); health (31.3%); and recreation and culture (30.1%).
The rest are housing, water and electricity (28.6%); transport (25.9%); information and communication (21.1%); restaurants and accommodation (19.5%); and education services (11.3%).
The insurance and financial services division recorded the lowest inflation rate of five per cent.
Ghana’s economy has been battling with high inflation, with inflation reaching a 22-year high of 54.1 per cent in December 2022.
Inflation began a downward trend in January 2023, consistently declining to 41.2 per cent in April 2023. It, however, started inching up again in May, hitting 43.1 per cent in July.
The newspaper says that the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council says it is looking forward to increasing its presence in the country over the next 12 months.
It said it had put plans in place to bring an international audience of businesses to the country to look at opportunities that existed.
The move, it said, was to step up trade and investment between Ghanaian businesses and their international counterparts.
The Chief Executive Officer of the CEIC, Rosie Glazebrook, said that at a press conference in Accra yesterday as part of her two-day working visit to the country.
The CEIC, which is the business arm of the Commonwealth, is an organisation of over 2.4 billion people across 56 countries with a combined Gross Domestic Product of nearly $15 trillion and a combined wealth of over $50 trillion.
Among other things, its objective is to promote trade and investment across the various countries.
Ms Glazebrook indicated that the organisation worked across the 56 countries of the Commonwealth and that it was an independent network of nations where there were huge opportunities to share expertise, trade and investment opportunities.
“We have 12 hubs across the globe, including one here in Ghana. We recently opened one in Cameroun and we also have hubs in Nigeria and Kenya which covers East and Central Africa among the 12 which range from Australia to the Caribbean.
“Africa is a hugely important market for our organisation because we really want to support businesses and work in collaboration with partners such as the Africa Continental Free Trade Area as well as with others,” she said.
The Ghanaian Times reports that a $20-million factory established for the production of shoes for the Ghanaian and international markets was inaugurated on Tuesday.
The project, initiated and funded by World Shoe Inc, an American-business organisation, is located on the premises of Akosombo Industrial Company Limited (AICL), formerly Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL) in the Asuogyaman District in the Eastern Region.
The factory, which has the capacity to produce five million EVA plastic shoes in a year, will employ about 1,050 people.
Inaugurating the factory, the Paramount Chief of the Akwamu Traditional Area, Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, said the establishment of the factory would help create jobs for the youth
That, he said, would help improve the socio-economic conditions in the traditional area and the standard of living of the people.
According to Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, the factory fitted into his vision of ad­dressing illiteracy and poverty in the Akwamu Traditional Area, stressing empowering the people of Akwamu economi­cally would help accelerate the development of the area.
The President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), World Shoe Ghana Factory, Dr Emmanuel Manny Ohonme, said about $20 million had been invested in the factory.
He said the factory was expected to produce five million plastic shoes a year for the local and international market, such as America and Europe.
The President and CEO said the shoes were being produced from EVA plastic, which has health and anti-microbial prop­erties to promote the health of users.
In addition, Dr Ohonme said the shoes were produced from biodegradable materials which would degrade in fifteen years after the use of the shoe.
The newspaper says that the Director of Elections and IT for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Edward Omane Boamah, says the party will assist the Electoral Commission (EC) to resolve its frequent network breakdowns in readiness for the 2024 general elections.
According to the former Communications Minister, this action would be done with a “patriotic zeal” for immediate remedy.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Dr Omane Boamah said the network breakdowns that occurred during the 2023 limited voters’ registration exercise would not be tolerated.
He said any assistance the NDC could offer the EC to ensure that Ghanaians vote in their numbers without any hindrance would be offered.
“Moreover, we’re pursuing the root causes of the regularly irregular breakdown of the EC’s network system because we strongly believe these “network breakdowns” pose a major threat to our democracy if allowed to recur during elections 2024. We shall, with patriotic zeal, assist the EC to troubleshoot the problem(s) for immediate remedy,” he said.
Dr Omane Boamah alleged that the EC failed to achieve its target for the limited voters’ registration exercise.
He thus advised the EC not to be intransigent on issues concerning the 2024 elections.
GIK/APA