The assurance by the International Monetary Fund that the deal with Ghana should be reached and finalised before the end of the year is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says a deal with Ghana should be reached and finalised before the end of the year.
Already, very constructive discussions have been held and the fund is determined to work with the Ghana government and the Ministry of Finance to ensure that an agreement is in place before the end of the year.
The Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, gave the assurance in a closed-door meeting with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday, September 5, 2022, on the sidelines of the Africa Adaptation Summit, a conference on climate change, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
“We understand the urgency and we will move as quickly as possible,” she told President Akufo-Addo.
Ghana is before the IMF for US$3 billion to help the country navigate through the hostile economic crisis in which it finds itself as a result of the adverse effects of the deadly coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Already, a delegation from the IMF, led by the Mission Chief for Ghana, Carlo Sdralevich, has visited Ghana and held initial discussions with the Ministry of Finance on a possible IMF-supported programme.
Describing Ghana as a “superb country”, Ms Georgieva said the country’s current economic challenges were not locally generated but were as a result of external shocks.
She said contrary to some narratives that Ghana found itself in the current situation due to the bad policies of the Akufo-Addo administration, the factors were exogenous.
“Like everybody on this planet, you have been hurt by exogenous shocks. First the pandemic, then Russia’s war in Ukraine. We need to realise that it is not because of bad policies in the country but because of this combination of shocks and, therefore, we have to support Ghana,” the IMF boss said.
The newspaper says that the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has said that the company’s current interest is to pursue processing and to develop artisanal processing of chocolate.
He indicated that the processing industry generated more revenue in cocoa across the world.
At this year’s Managers’ Conference organised by Olam Food Ingredients (OFI) Ghana Limited, a supplier of cocoa ingredients and the foremost exporter of cashew in the industry, Mr Aidoo encouraged the leadership of OFI to expand its processing facility — Olam Cocoa Processing at Kaase — or consider building a new factory in Accra.
He said the government had shown commitment to strengthen the industry through the rehabilitation of cocoa farms, the distribution of subsidised fertilisers to farmers, and the cocoa hand-pollination exercise, among other efforts.
Mr Aidoo said the benefits of cocoa to the health of society were many, and hence it behoved on stakeholders to ensure the sustainability of the crop.
He said the cocoa swollen shoot disease had affected a lot of farms in the Western North Region, and urged managers to be innovative in their teachings and interactions with farmers on good agricultural practices in promoting cocoa yield.
The five-day programme brought together over 400 managers from across the company’s operational areas, as well as industry players to discuss trends, challenges, and developments in the cocoa sector and how OFI could maximise its operations to increase value for its stakeholders.
It also discussed industry dynamics and best practices for a sustainable cocoa industry.
The event was dubbed: “To be the Change for Good Food and a Healthy Future”.
The conference ended with an Excellence Awards ceremony to recognise outstanding employees.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the interest rates hit the 30 per cent mark as Treasury securities sold a little above 30 per cent on the domestic primary market.
According to figures from the Bank of Ghana, the 91-day Treasury bill went for 29.04 per cent, about 0.44 per cent increase over the previous week.
That of the 182-bill traded at 30.22 per cent, compared with 29.94 per cent the previous week. The one-year bill however sold for 30.01 per cent, as against 29.5 per cent the previous week.
Singapore-based financial research firm, REDD Intelligence, had stated that the country is presently facing liquidity challenges, a situation causing rising interest rates.
The rising interest rates have boosted liquidity on the short end of the market.
According to the auction results, government secured ¢1.774 billion from the sale of the short term securities, about 2.9 per cent oversubscription. This is the 12th consecutive oversubscription achieved.
As usual, the 91-day T-bill was the most purchased, as investors bought a total of ¢1.448 billion. This was followed by the 182-day (¢218.66 million) and the 364-day bill (¢109.41 million).
Also, all the bids tendered were accepted.
Databank Research had reported that investor interest in Treasury bills continue to soar, as they take advantage of rising interest rates in the Treasury market.
This has been triggered by rising interest rates on the yield curve as investors focused on the short-term securities in the primary market for re-pricing benefits.
The newspaper says that the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum 2022 (ACTIF2022) has ended in Bridgetown, Barbados, with a commitment by participants to remove the scars of the past and build a commercial bridge towards forging a prosperous future for Africa and the Caribbean.
In the communique presented at the end of the forum, the partners pledged the concrete implementation of strategic partnership between the business communities in Africa and the Caribbean with the objective of fostering bilateral cooperation and engagement in trade, investment, technology transfer, innovation, transport, tourism, culture and other services.
The signing of the Partnership Agreement between Afreximbank and seven Caribbean States will usher in investments to concretise the commercial relations between the two regions, with an immediate focus on establishing an air bridge, and business to business match-making through the newly established African-Caribbean Business Council.
They stressed the critical importance of enhancing investment and trade for economic and social transformation in line with the Forum’s theme of “One People, One Destiny: Uniting and reimagining our future”.
The Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor MottleyMottley, said that key goals had been achieved through ACTIF2022, adding: “What matters is not so much the subject area, but the attitude and approach, one for collaboration and two for de-risking, that we come now to today’s moment to be able to deal with. And that is the importance of today’s inaugural AfriCaribben Trade and Investment Forum because it allows us to see how we can work together to unlock those very difficult issues that have only been made worse, regrettably by matters beyond our control.”
GIK/APA