The projection of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of a single-digit inflation rate of 8% for Ghana by the end of 2025, aligning with the government’s target for the same period is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecasted a single-digit inflation rate of 8% for Ghana by the end of 2025, aligning with the government’s target for the same period.
Ghana’s government aims to reduce the end-year inflation target from 23 percent to 15 percent in 2024, with further plans to reach a single-digit figure by 2025.
The country last achieved a single-digit inflation rate in 2021, standing at 9.97 percent. However, subsequent years witnessed a sharp increase, peaking at a 22-year record of 54.1 percent despite an initial target of 31.9 percent.
Presenting their World Economic Outlook Report at the ongoing IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings, the IMF paints a positive picture for Ghana’s economic future.
The IMF attributes the projected 8 percent inflation rate to the robust measures and progress made under the IMF programme.
The Bank of Ghana, in response, reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining an end-year target band of 15 percent plus or minus two percent for 2024. It anticipates continued disinflation processes and aims to mitigate underlying inflation risks through tight monetary policies.
Additionally, the IMF forecasts a substantial growth rate of 4.4 percent for Ghana in 2025, a notable increase from the 2.8 percent growth projected for 2024.
The newspaper says that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commissioned the first phase of the Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Plant (K1TPP) at Anwomaso in the Oforikrom Municipality in the Ashanti Region, with a call on the private sector to make use of government investments in the power sector in the region to promote industrialisation and economic growth.
He said Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, was known for businesses and expressed the hope that the private sector would reciprocate the government’s gesture by investing in the area to make use of reliable electricity supply.
“It is my expectation that these enterprises would expand and offer further employment opportunities to our youth,” President Akufo-Addo said at the commissioning yesterday.
The K1TPP is the decommissioned Ameri Power Plant which had been relocated to Kumasi to provide stabile power to the middle and northern belt of the country. The phase one of the plant has a capacity of 150 megawatts (MW).
The President said the commissioning of the plant was a demonstration of the government’s quest to provide sustainable electricity for the entire nation.
He said the government was committed to delivering affordable and reliable electricity to drive the industrialisation agenda of the country and “to position Ghana to become a net exporter of electricity in the ECOWAS region”.
Currently, the President said, Ghana’s national electrification rate was around 88.8 per cent, one of the highest on the continent, adding “the goal is to have full electricity access by the end of this year”.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Minister of Information designate, Fatimatu Abubakar, has asserted that nearly 30 per cent of radio stations established in the country collapsed within six months of operation.
This, according to her, was largely due to financial constraints these establishments face, adding that most radio and electronic media outlets are set up as non-viable entities.
Ms Abubakar made these observations when a delegation from the DW Academy called on her, at the ministry, in Accra, on Tuesday.
The visit was to ascertain how Ghana was positioning her media space, to deal with the growing global dynamics of artificial intelligence, and capacity enhancement programmes for media practitioners.
“A recent research indicated that 30 per cent of electronic media houses established in Ghana collapse within six months due to financial constraints. Generally, there is so much struggle within the media space, therefore, media houses can do with some support,” Ms Abubakar revealed.
She said government welcomed global organisations that desired to offer financial support and capacity enhancement for Ghanaian media outlets.
Ms Abubakar was upbeat about the soon to open African Regional Office of the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM), in Accra, which would offer financial support to media houses in the country.
She said government had already provided an office for IFPIM, which was undergoing renovation, and expected to be commissioned in a month’s time.
Ms Abubakar said the official opening of the office would enable media houses to apply for financial support from IFPIM, to bolster their operations and ultimately enhance media freedom in the country.
She noted that the huge number of media outlets in the country made it difficult for them to sustain their operations and provide better staff remunerations.
Ms Abubakar, however, highlighted government’s interventions over the past two years to support media outlets in the country.
She listed the media capacity enhancement programme that provided training in media ethics and professionalism, coordinated programme on safety of journalists and the public campaign against misinformation and disinformation.
The newspaper says that the United Kingdom’s British Museum (BM) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), yesterday returned to Ghana 32 negotiated royal objects, taken from the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi during the Anglo-Asante Wars of the 19th century, including items seized following the Sargrenti War of 1874.
Gold and Silver regalia among other items associated with Asante Royal Court, would be displayed at the Palace Museum, as part of a long-term loan commitment by the British Museum and V&A Museum.
The 150-year-old items, mostly golden royal regalia, on loan for an initial three years and renewable for another three, have 15 items from the BM and 17 from the V&A.
The arrival of the items in Ghana followed the final signing of official documentations, in London, two weeks ago by the Directors of the BM and V&A, Sir Mark Jones and Dr Tristram Hunt and the Chief Negotiator, Mr Ivor Agyeman-Duah, who represented and signed on behalf of the Manhyia Palace.
The return of the royal objects is in the context of the silver jubilee celebration of the enthronement of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who first opened the negotiations in May, 2023.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II would receive the objects and the specially designed Belgian cases, in Kumasi.
The subsequent closure of the Manhyia Palace Museum for three weeks would be for installation works and encasing of over 40 returned objects, including seven that have already been permanently released by the Fowler Museum of the University of California, at Los Angeles.
These would collectively constitute the star objects of an international exhibition that would be opened to the public, Homecoming- Adversity and Commemoration.
GIK/APA
Ghanaian press zooms in on IMF projection of single-digit inflation for Ghana in 2025
