The report of formal discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Accra towards securing an economic support programme that can inject up to $3 billion into the economy dominates the headlines Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that the country yesterday opened formal discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Accra towards securing an economic support programme that can inject up to $3 billion into the economy.
The government is seeking the support of the fund to prosecute a three-year programme called the Enhanced Domestic Programme (EDP).
A team from the IMF, led by its Mission Chief, Carlo Sdralevich, yesterday met with the government’s team, which included the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, in preliminary discussions meant to gather relevant data on the state of the economy to help inform the direction that the IMF’s support should take.
Daily Graphic sources said the discussions, which included key technical experts on the economy and other sectors, kicked off in the afternoon and were “going well”.
A meeting between the IMF team and the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, is scheduled to take place today as part of the data gathering process.
As of yesterday, the team had not scheduled any meeting with the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the sources said.
The sources said the support would likely run for 36 months, during which the IMF would be expected to guide the government to improve on the country’s external sector, reduce the debt to sustainable levels, narrow the fiscal deficit, regain and strengthen investor confidence and institute institutional reforms to strengthen the economy.
It would also seek to ease budget rigidities and strengthen monetary policy with the aim to consolidating the gains chalked up under the previous IMF programme, they said.
The newspaper says that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has launched a $10-million Ghana Tourism Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Grant for players in the hospitality and creative arts sector to enhance and expand their businesses.
The grant, which is a government of Ghana initiative supported by the World Bank, will assist 1,500 SMEs operating in the sector to modernise and improve tourist sites, restaurants, tour operations, event organisation and related businesses to become attractive and competitive.
Explaining the rationale behind the grant, President Akufo-Addo said it would be in three categories — COVID-19 relief support, SME support and site upgrade.
“These are intended to help transform the tourism sector to stimulate economic growth and create jobs,” he said.
He said in 2021, the government, through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, disbursed the Ghana cedi equivalent of $10 million to some 1,400 SMEs.
The President noted that the new grant would target 60 per cent of the women in the tourism and creative arts sector because majority of operators in the sector were female.
He commended the World Bank for supporting the initiative through the Ghana Tourism Development Project, adding: “We continue to value the partnership of the World Bank in our development journey.”
He explained that some 10,000 operators in the tourism value chain were being trained by the Ghana Tourism Authority under the Ghana Cares Obaatanpa Programme to improve their skills set in customer service delivery, which was vital to the growth of the sector.
The Graphic also reports that a six-member delegation from Zambia yesterday paid a visit to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to familiarise themselves with operations of the ministry.
Led by Zambia’s Minister of Mines and Minerals Development, Paul C. Kabuswe, the delegation focused particularly on issues relating to the mining sector in Ghana.
Speaking during a brief meeting, chaired by a Deputy Minister of Mines, George Mireku Duker, on behalf of the sector Minister, Samuel A. Jinapor, Mr Kabuswe said his visit to Ghana was to basically study Ghana’s small-scale mining sector, exchange ideas and learn best practices in the mining space.
He noted that for Africa to thrive and prosper through its own efforts and resources, there must be stronger and closer collaboration among African countries.
“We need to collaborate and share ideas to help harness our resources as Africans and liberate ourselves economically. This is because we are not yet economically powerful as a continent and so it is time to sit together and exchange views and not stay aloof,” he said.
Mr Kabuswe said Zambia had recently discovered gold and wanted to embark on very robust minerals exploration to ensure the gold did not end up in wrong hands.
He added that the Zambian government was mapping up the entire country to, among others, help understand the extent of mineral deposits in the country.
The minister noted that his country had taken the decision to clean up the licensing system.
“Mining starts at the licensing stage and if you don’t get it right from the beginning, you miss the point. Therefore, you must get it right from the beginning,” he explained.
The Ghanaian Times says that the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson, has stated that the British government, through the UK-Ghana partnership for Jobs and Economic Transformation (JET), is supporting the government to transform sectors of high potentials, including the garments and textiles industry.
She added that the programme was helping to create the policy environment to drive investments into those sectors to operate at their fullest potentials, generate wealth for the country and most importantly create the needed jobs for the people.
Speaking on Tuesday during a facility tour of the Volta Star Textiles Limited (VSTL) in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region, she said her team was helping to lead the discussions to identify the right investors for the factory in area of financing to enable the factory return to its former days of full operations and production.
The factory, whose fortunes had been dwindling in the past years, employed 750 workers instead of about 2,000 workers at full plant capacity.
Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said discussions were far advanced with UK investors who had expressed interest in revamping the facility to provide jobs for not only people of North Tongu area, but the nation at large for national transformation as workers of the factory came from across the country.
He said the factory, which sits on a 65 acres of land with about only 30 per cent workforce, was under utilised due to lack of capital injection, hence there was the need for space expansion to boost the industrialisation drive of the country.
He disclosed that the British High Commissioner had also indicated that the neighbouring Akosombo Textile Limited (ATL) would also feature under the British Trade Portfolio which they were seeking to increase under the new Ghana-UK trade agreement.
He expressed optimism that the strategic investors would soon arrive from Britain to help revamp the factory to create more jobs for the people.
Chief of Dorfo Traditional Area, Togbe Agbohla VI, said the collapse of the factory had had negative impact on livelihood in the community, especially women and children, forcing some to drop out from schools while the youth engaged in various social vices.
He appreciated Mrs Thompson for the visit to Juapong to assist in addressing the current unemployment challenges in the district and by extension the nation.
Togbe Agbohla VI and his elders pledged their support to assist the initiative by Mrs Thompson to help alleviate poverty in the area.
GIK/APA