Press focuses on $1.43bn petroleum revenue earned in 2022, others

APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that the government received the highest petroleum revenue for a single year in 2022 since the start of petroleum production in the country in 2010 is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that the government received the highest petroleum revenue for a single year in 2022 since the start of petroleum production in the country in 2010.
Data from the 2022 Annual Report of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) showed that petroleum receipts for 2022 amounted to $1.43 billion, representing an increase of 42 per cent over the projected revenue for the year and 82.38 per cent higher than the receipts for 2021 of $783.33 million.
Apart from 2022’s $1.43 billion in receipts, government’s highest annual receipts from petroleum production have been $978.02 million in 2014 and $976.09 million in 2018, with 2016 bringing the lowest revenue receipts of $247.18 million since 2011.
The significant rise in revenue in 2022 was mainly due to the sharp increase in the price of crude oil on the world market, said to have been impacted by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Sharing findings of the 2022 PIAC Annual Report in Accra yesterday, the Chairman of the PIAC, Prof. Kwame Adom-Frimpong, stated that 2022’s $1.43 billion accrued to the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF) from royalties, Carried and Participating Interest (CAPI), Corporate Income Taxes (CIT), surface rentals and income earned on the PHF, compared to $783.33 million in 2021.
He explained that the increase in revenue could be attributed to favourable international crude oil prices which were higher than estimated prices.
The newspaper says that the Development Bank Ghana (DBG) has increased its loan book size to GH₵302 million since its establishment last year.
In the first quarter of this year, however, the bank has already disbursed an amount of GH₵57.2 to three participating financial institutions (PFIs) for onward lending to businesses in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
The Managing Director (MD) of the DBG, Kwamina Duker, who made this known said the move was in line with the bank’s agenda of spurring the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
“Our priority is to accelerate lending activities and we have committed to disbursing at least ₵600 million in loans for on-lending to SMEs this year,” he said.
Mr Duker was speaking at an event organised by the DBG and the Ghana Association of Banks (GAB) in Accra on the theme; “Ghana’s Medium-Term Outlook, Navigating through Economic Uncertainties and an IMF Programme”.
“In the first quarter of the year, we increased our lending portfolio by disbursing GH₵57.2 million to three PFIs for onward lending to businesses in the Agriculture and Manufacturing sectors, bringing our loan book size to GH₵302 million,” he said.
Additionally, he said the bank had provided capacity building for 644 local businesses, including 444 young entrepreneurs, and 52 staff from 13 financial institutions during the quarter.
The training, he said, focused on various aspects of business management, entrepreneurship, and specialised lending to improve the sustainability and growth potential of SMEs, as well as enhance the lending capabilities of PFIs.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), a revenue and assurance audit firm, recently held a stakeholder engagement with the Board of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to discuss a sustainable roadmap that both parties could take to accelerate revenue growth in the country.
The engagement’s goal was to improve good governance by promoting transparency and accountability in the government’s financial affairs.
During the meeting held at the SML Ghana’s office in Tema, Managing Director for SML Ghana, Christian Tetteh Sottie, stated that the meeting was at the back of an already fruitful relationship between both parties.
He added that the interaction would deepen the collaboration between SML Ghana and the GRA as they discuss challenges and prospects around the advancement and achievement of the country’s enhanced revenue mobilisation drive.
“This meeting with the Board is part of our mandate to deepen our synergies with the Ghana Revenue Authority, and by that, we took them through the detailed methodology of how SML Ghana is leveraging technology to improve the sector. When we do this, we are always on the same page and are able to communicate effectively as well,” he said.
The newspaper says that a Coalition of Media Organisations has called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to live by his principles on press freedom, and repeal sections of the 1992 Constitution that seek to undermine it.
The group argued that recent incidences of injustices meted out to journalists under his regime smacks of a subtle reintroduction of the criminal libel law, which was repealed in 2001.
The coalition made reference to the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775) and the Criminal and other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), which are being “weaponised” in recent times to “muzzle free speech.”
Comprising the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), Private Newspapers Association of Ghana, Ghana Community Radio Network and the Media Foundation of West Africa (MFWA), the coalition at a joint news conference in Accra, yesterday, called for the repeal of both laws to guarantee media freedom.
The president of the GJA, Mr Albert Dwumfour, reading a statement on behalf of the Coalition, cited the recent detention of Noah Nartey Dameh, a journalist with Radio Ada, for seven days, using the laws.
That, Mr Dwumfour noted, was one of many incidences of prosecutions against journalists and civil society activists since 2022, using the Electronic Communications Act and the Criminal Code, specifically Section 208 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
“As key stakeholders in the media sector, we are concerned about the use of these laws to arrest citizens and journalists and prefer criminal charges against them for press and speech offences, which are merely defamatory and for which civil remedies are available,” he stated.
Mr Dwumfuor said it was “ironic that a government presided by President Akufo-Addo, who is much vaunted as a human rights and press freedom champion, is supervising the surreptitious reintroduction of criminal libel through the use of the above-mentioned criminal laws.”
He said the posture of the President undercuts his once publicly expressed views on the safety of journalists and press freedom.
GIK/APA