President Akufo-Addo’s declaration that Ghana’s economy is in crisis and the report that the country will, tomorrow, assume the presidency of the United Nations (UN) Security Council for a month are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that Ghana’s economy is in crisis.
According to him, “so many malevolent forces” such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the aggravation caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine have contributed to the downturn in the country’s economic fortunes.
President Akufo-Addo made this known on Sunday during his address to the nation on the country’s economic challenges which have forced the government to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so,” President Akufo-Addo said.
“I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time”.
He was hopeful that the country would seize the opportunity presented by the crisis to revive the economy.
“But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy,” he said.
He was hopeful that the government would reach an agreement with the IMF before the end of the year.
“I urge us all to see the decision to go to the International Monetary Fund in this light. We have gone to the Fund to repair, in the short term, our public finances, and restore our balance of payments, whilst we continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal of constructing a resilient, robust Ghanaian economy, and building a Ghana Beyond Aid.
“I am able to report to you, my fellow Ghanaians, that the negotiations to secure a strong IMF Programme, which will support the implementation of our Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth and additional funding to support the 2023 Budget and development programme, are at advanced stages, and are going well.
The newspaper says that Ghana will, tomorrow, assume the presidency of the United Nations (UN) Security Council for a month.
As President of the Council, Ghana will hold a high-level debate on ‘Threats to International Peace and Security’ on November 10, 2022, to be chaired by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The debate will be on the theme: “Counter-terrorism in Africa – An imperative for peace, security and development”.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration said within the month, Ghana would seek to build consensus in the council and across the UN on the need to ensure that peace operations took into consideration the changing security landscape.
That, among other things, meant addressing underlying causes and drivers of conflict, linked to the growing youth bulge and poverty, it said.
Giving further details, the statement said the high-level (Heads of State) debate sought to focus attention on ongoing counter-terrorism measures in Africa and how best the Security Council would support that effort, including through adequate, predictable and sustainable financing.
“The debate will also look at how the Security Council could work with regional arrangements to address the terrorism menace,” it added.
It said the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, would deliver a statement, while there would be briefings by the African Union Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat; the EU Representative (President of the European Council), Charles Michel, and the President of the International Crisis Group, Comfort Ero.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Ghana generates 0.84 million metric tonnes of plastic waste annually, with less than 10 per cent recycled while 9 per cent leaks into the ocean, Mrs Cynthia Asare Bediako, Chief Director of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) has disclosed.
She said this had raised public concern about waste in the environment and had become a major issue due to aesthetic, environmental and health challenges they presented.
Mrs Bediako made this known on Friday at a community durbar at La Dade-Kotopon Municipality of the Greater Accra Region to sensitise residents about the menace of plastic waste.
The event was on the theme “Creating awareness and prioritizing stakeholders needs for sustainable recovery was also used to mark “World Cities Day”.
She said despite efforts to bring the situation under control, plastic waste management in households and communities remained a huge challenge because plastic littering in the environment was extremely high.
The chief director said the exiting strategies and related activities on the ground to deal with the problem were inadequate due to the high volumes of plastic waste generated daily, adding that waste composition on waste alone was 17 per cent of all domestic waste currently.
Mrs Bediako said that the threat to the environment had reached alarming proportions, saying,” the severity of the problem is tied to the visibility of plastic waste, especially the fact that plastic blocks gutters, causing flooding resulting in the spread of diseases cholera and malaria.”
According to her, the uncoordinated approach to its management at the community level coupled with low awareness of the in-come generating potential through recycling and other uses, called for expedited action and effective measures on the ground.
Mrs Bediako said it was, therefore, important to support and upgrade the waste management infrastructure and set of regulations and enforcement, that would help higher and circular business models.
The newspaper reports that fresh inflows of dollars are being injected into the foreign exchange market as part of measures to stop the continuous fall of the Ghana Cedi, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.
In addition, he said the Bank of Ghana was enhancing its supervisory action in the forex bureau market and the black market to flush out illegal operators and ensure that those permitted to operate legally abide by the market rules.
“Government is working with the Bank of Ghana and the oil-producing and mining companies to introduce a new legal and regulatory framework to ensure that all foreign exchange earned from operations in Ghana are, initially, paid to banks domiciled in Ghana to help boost the domestic foreign exchange market,” he said.
The President announced this in a televised address to the nation on the state of the country’s economy last night as part of interventions by his administration to restore order in the forex market.
He said the Central Bank had taken a decision to enhance its gold purchase programme, and had given its full commitment to the commercial banks to provide liquidity to ensure the wheels of the economy continued to run in a stabilised manner till the IMF programme kicked in.
“I am confident that these immediate measures designed to change the structure of our balance of payment flows and sanitise the foreign exchange market to ensure that the banks and forex bureaus operate by international best practices, together with strengthened supervision, will go a long way to sanitise our foreign exchange market, and make it more resilient against external vulnerabilities going forward,” he said.
The recent turbulence on the financial markets, he explained, was caused by low inflows of foreign exchange, and was made worse in the last two to three weeks by the activities of speculators and the black market.
“An anonymous two-minute audio message on a WhatsApp platform predicting a so-called haircut on Government bonds sent all of us into banks and forex bureaus to dump our cedis, and, before we knew it, the cedi had depreciated further.
“All of us can play a part in helping to strengthen the cedi by having confidence in the currency, and avoiding speculation. Let us keep our cedi as the good store of value it is. To those who make it a habit of publishing falsehoods, which result in panic in the system, I say to them that the relevant state agencies will act against such persons.
“Indeed, some steps have been taken to restore order in the forex markets and we are already beginning to see some calm returning. We will not relent until order is completely restored,” he said
President Akufo-Addo assured the public that no individual or institutional investors, including pension funds, would lose their money in government treasury bills or instruments as a result of the ongoing IMF negotiations.
GIK/APA