APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that the leader of the Israel Economic and Trade Mission to Ghana, Mr Yaniv Tessel, has said Israeli companies are ready to foster stronger ties and create opportunities for Ghanaian businesses for accelerated economic growth and development is oe of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that the leader of the Israel Economic and Trade Mission to Ghana, Mr Yaniv Tessel, has said Israeli companies are ready to foster stronger ties and create opportunities for Ghanaian businesses for accelerated economic growth and development.
He said the business interactions between the two nations could catalyse economic growth for their mutual benefit.
“Israel companies are already undertaking projects such as the Sunyani Water Project, facilitating the agro industry, cyber security and other security issues in the country,” he remarked.
Mr Tessel made these observations at the first Israel-Ghana Business Forum held at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel in Accra last Tuesday.
Delegations from eight Israeli companies, namely LR Group, Dekel Oil, Negev Mining, Data Harbor, Lesico Group, Netafim, A.D. CON Ltd and Migdal Limited took time to expatiate on their businesses and how Ghanaian businesses could tap into their expertise for a mutually beneficial relationship.
Mr Youval Rasin, the CEO and Chairman of DekelOil Agri Vision PLC, entreated Ghanaian Agric entrepreneurs to approach it for agricultural processing expertise, logistics and farming operations.
“Our multi-disciplinary team of experts are focused on building a multi-commodity agro-industrial company in Ghana and the West Africa sub region,” he noted.
The CEO of DataHarbor, Mr Oz Mizrahi, for his part, stressed a collaboration with Ghanaian data-analytics services companies on how to build the best data for the Fintechs, marketing, credit risk and smart pricing.
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC), Mr Yaw Amoateng Afriyie, said GIPC was well positioned to work with their Israeli counterparts.
The newspaper says that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been advised to take advantage of the Ghana Alternative Market to maximise growth and profits of their businesses.
The Head of Listing and New Products at the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Joyce Boakye, who made the statement at the Women Investment Summit Africa, said the Ghana Alternative Market (GAX), an innovative market operated by the GSE with focus on growing businesses, offered the platform for people to invest in SMEs and ensure their growth.
She said since the GAX was set up in 2013, only six companies had so far been registered on the market mainly because most SMEs were of the misconception that the Stock Exchange was far beyond the reach of their operations and required a difficult process to list on the market.
Ms Boakye, however, said the alternative market rather provided SMEs guidance and opportunity to raise their capital for their operations and encouraged businesses to take advantage of the GAX to grow and expand their operations as well as profits.
“Apart from the platform for investment, the GAX accommodates SMEs at various stages of their development, including start-ups and existing enterprises, both small and medium, providing them the visibility needed to thrive,” she said.
Ms Boakye also stated that although the GAX was open to all, it required a high level of standards and companies that were market ready.
Nonetheless, Ms Boakye said the GAX provided an incubation period to train companies and SMEs on the right structures such as book-keeping to keep them transparent and competitive for the global market.
The Women Investment Summit Africa was organised by the Oxford Africa Women Leadership Institute (OAWLI) under their women economic empowerment project dubbed the ShEconomy Africa Project.
The Ghanaian Times reports that a foundation christened Gladys Ayebea Hammond Foundation (GAHF) and aimed at promoting social mobility through sports amongst underprivileged children and young girls was launched last week Tuesday in Accra.
Social mobility refers to changes in a person’s socio-economic situation, either about their parents (inter-generational mobility) or throughout their lifetime (intragenerational mobility).
It was created to honour the memory of the late Mrs Hammond, an educationist and sports lover who was committed to ensuring equal access to education among children, especially girls.
The GAHF would promote its activities by organising annual hockey tournaments, setting up mentorship schemes, identifying young talent for further development, educational activities and scholarships.
Speaking at the launch, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GAHF, Mr Richard Hammond, said this year the foundation would mentor about 120 girls in all aspects of their life so they could contribute to the socio-economic growth of the country.
The girls, he said would be selected from six schools in Suhum in the Eastern region to be mentored over 10 years.
The newspaper says that the banking industry has returned to the path of profitability despite the lingering effect of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has said.
He said the data submitted by banks for the first half of 2023 showed a strong rebound in profitability in spite of the DDEP, which caused banks to incur huge impairment losses as a result of their holdings in government bonds.
“The banking sector’s profitability improved in the first half of 2023. Net interest income increased by 41.4 per cent to GH¢9.9 billion, relative to the increase of 12.4 per cent recorded a year ago. Net fees and commissions also grew by 30.6 per cent to GH¢2.2 billion, compared with 27.0 per cent over the same period last year,” Dr Addison stated this when he addressed a press conference in Accra on Monday to announce a new monetary policy stance after the 113th regular meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee.
He said the industry’s total assets as at June 2023 stood at GH¢242.4 billion, showing a moderation in growth of 21.2 per cent, and total borrowings contracted by 39.1 per cent to GH¢16.0 billion compared with GH¢26.4 billion a year earlier.
He said the industry’s profit-after-tax stood at GH¢4.3 billion, up from GH¢2.8 billion, representing a 51.4 per cent increase, and indicating that the strong profitability performance during the first half of the year translated into a higher return-on-equity of 37.6 per cent from 21.9 per cent in June 2022, and a higher return-on-assets of 5.5 per cent compared to 4.6 per cent in June 2022.
Dr Addison said the industry’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) for June 2023 stood at 14.3 per cent, higher than the revised prudential minimum of 10 per cent.
The industry’s NPL ratio, he said, deteriorated to 18.7 per cent in June 2023 from 14.1 per cent in June 2022, reflecting higher loan impairments and elevated credit risks.
On the re-capitalisation of banks, Dr Addison said all the 23 universal banks in the country have submitted their re-capitalisation plans to the BoG ahead of the deadline in September this year.
GIK/APA