The declaration by President Akufo-Addo that in the face of the global economic challenges, with their impact on the country, the government has taken difficult but necessary decisions to bring the economy on track is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said in the face of the global economic challenges, with their impact on the country, the government has taken difficult but necessary decisions to bring the economy on track.
He said details of the decisions would be announced on Thursday, saying “the times call for difficult decisions”.
“I don’t think that there’s anybody in Ghana who would expect today that things can be just so easily resolved as they are. Some of them are due to the way the world economy is working and its impact on us,” the President stressed.
President Akufo-Addo made the announcement when the Chairman and members of the Council of State conferred with him at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday as part of the council’s routine interactions with the President.
After opening remarks by the Chairman of the council, Nana Otuo Siriboe, and a response by the President, the meeting moved into camera.
President Akufo-Addo assured the council that the Finance Minister would brief the members during the closed-door meeting.
He announced that after the usual quarterly Cabinet retreat which was held last week, it was decided that the Minister of Finance should brief the nation on the specific measures the government had taken to put the ship of state on a better keel.
The newspaper says that experts in the financial technology (Fintech) space have urged the government to see electronic (e) transactions and services as a gold mine for credible data to increase revenue generation and aid development planning.
They said the increasing consumption of E-services led to the processing and storage of data on spending, revenue generation by firms, location and general business activities of both consumers and companies that were necessary for proper tax policy formulation and national planning.
Given that efforts to expand the tax net and finance development had been hampered by the lack of credible data on the consumption and revenue generation patterns of businesses and the populace, the specialists in digital strategy and execution, technology planning and law said e-services could become the game changer when used well.
Speaking on how to utilise digital transactions to improve the economy at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting on e-services on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, the experts, however, warned that care should be taken not to burden the sector with taxes, as that could undermine its growth and mute its benefits to the economy.
The experts who articulated the views included the Country Manager of Visa Ghana, Adoma Peprah, who chaired the event; a digital strategist, Fred Frimpong; a financial technology professional, Francis Appiah, and a Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Ghana, William Kofi Owusu Demitia, all panelists.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Bank of Ghana (BOG) has reversed three reliefs it introduced to cushion banks and the economy against the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic.
They are the increase of the Cash Reserve Ratio to 12 per cent, reset of the Capital Buffer to the pre-pandemic levels of three per cent to make Capital Adequacy Ratio to a total of 13 per cent, and the provision of rate of loans in the Other Loans Exceptionally Mentioned (OLEM) category is reset to pre-pandemic levels of 10 per cent.
Effective April, the stimulus package the BoG introduced in the heat of the coronavirus in 2021 for universal banks to make capital available and to reduce the cost of capital as part of policies to prop up the economy, would cease.
The Governor of BoG, Dr Ernest Addison, announced this at the BoG Monetary Policy Committee press conference on Monday, and said the move was to stem rising inflation and depreciation of the Cedi.
The MPC held its 105th meeting, last week, to deliberate on recent macroeconomic developments and assess emerging risks to the inflation and growth outlook also deliberated on recent global and domestic developments and how these have impacted macroeconomic conditions since the last meeting.
The cedi since the beginning of the year has come under intense pressure, due in part to, the Sovereign credit rating downgrades of Ghana by Fitch and Moody’s and exit of some offshore investors in domestic securities.
That, the BoG has “caused the exchange rate to overshoot its long-term trend.” Ghana and the Netherlands yesterday opened political consultations on matters of mutual benefit for both countries.
The newspaper says that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed to that effect seeks to enhance cooperation between the two countries in areas of Security and Defence, Migration and Development, Trade and Investment, Agriculture, Science and Technology.
Others are; Environment and Climate Change, Education, Culture and Training and improving cooperation within the United Nations (UN) System. The Chief Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration (MFARI), Ramses Cleland, and the Deputy Director, Sub-Sahara Africa Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Ms. Martine Hoogstraten signed the agreement respectively.
In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Cleland stressed the long-standing diplomatic relations between Ghana and the Netherlands across various sectors of the economy.
He mentioned trade and investment as a major area of interest where Ghana exports to the Netherlands primary and semi-finished goods including cocoa beans, cocoa butter, cocoa paste, cocoa powder and crude petroleum, whereas imports from the Netherlands comprise refined petroleum, poultry meat, excavation machinery, packaged medicaments, among others.
For instance he indicated that Ghana recorded a balance of trade from 2016 to 2019 with a trade surplus of $406 million dollars in 2018.
GIK/APA