APA – Accra (Ghana)
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s charge to the Ghana Chamber of Mines (GCM) and other stakeholders to expedite work on the listing of mining companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has asked the Ghana Chamber of Mines (GCM) and other stakeholders to expedite work on the listing of mining companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
He said such a move would ensure that the capital requirement for investment in the mining sector was raised locally to help retain the value of the country’s natural resources.
The President also said the listing of mining companies on the GSE would facilitate the government’s vision to build a buoyant mining sector by raising local mining giants.
Again, he said the move would ensure that the country leveraged the full potential of the natural resource endowments for sustainable development.
The President made the call when he opened a two-day natural resources management national dialogue organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) in partnership with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources in Accra last Thursday (May 11).
The dialogue, which brought together policy makers, experts, captains of the mining industry and other stakeholders, discussed the challenges confronting the mining, land and forestry sectors and proffered solutions to the challenges.
In his keynote address to the participants, President Akufo-Addo said it was worrying that although the extractive sector had been the largest tax base of the country for several years, “we have not benefitted, optimally, from these resources, due to our overdependence on the export of raw products.”
He said the real value of those resources lied in value addition, which was why it was important for companies to list on the GSE to generate capital locally for investment.
The newspaper says that the financial services sector, banks especially, is set to receive a major boost of a total $350 million to operationalise the Financial Sector Stability Fund, a senior government official have revealed.
The fund is made up of $250 million from the World Bank and $100 from the African Development Bank.
The recent Creditor Committee co-chaired by France and China granting of financial assurance to the country has thus paved the way for the IMF to finally approve Ghana’s three-year budgetary support programme of $3 billion.
In an interview with the Graphic Business, Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, said the approval of the IMF programme would unlock the much needed financing from development partners.
He said the government was at an advanced stage of discussions with the World Bank for a US$250 million facility to support the establishment of the Financial Sector Stability Fund which was aimed at supporting banks who were hardly hit by the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
The government is also in discussions with the African Development Bank (AfDB) for another US$100 million to support the establishment of this fund.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Paris Club yesterday agreed to establish the Official Creditor Committee (OCC) under the G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments, to seek financing assurances from bilateral creditors.
“The Paris Club has today established the OCC, co-chaired by China and France with the granting of Financing Assurances, Ghana is now ready to go to the IMF Board,” Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, announced on his Twitter Page yesterday.
He thanked all the country’s bilateral partners for helping “Ghana reach this significant milestone.”
A joint statement issued yesterday, said “the creditor committee examined the macroeconomic and financial situation of Ghana, including its long-term debt sustainability, and its formal request for a debt treatment under the “Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI” endorsed under the Saudi G20 Presidency in November 2020, which was also endorsed by the Paris Club,” the statement said.
It said the creditor committee supported Ghana’s envisaged IMF upper credit tranche (UCT) programme and its swift adoption by the IMF Executive Board to address Ghana’s urgent financing needs.
The statement said the creditor committee encouraged Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to maximise their support for Ghana to meet its long-term financial needs.
“Consistent with their national laws and internal procedures, creditor committee members are committed to negotiate with the Republic of Ghana terms of a restructuring of their claims to be finalised in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), in accordance with the “Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI,” the statement said.
It said the creditor committee urged private creditors and other official bilateral creditors to commit without delay to negotiate with Ghana such debt treatments that are crucial to ensure the full effectiveness of the debt treatment for Ghana under the Common Framework.
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms Kristalina Georgieva, in a statement yesterday in reaction to the statement from the OCC posted on the IMF website, said “I welcome the statement from the Official Creditor Committee for Ghana on the importance of an IMF-supported economic program, together with its commitment to negotiate debt restructuring terms accordingly.”
The newspaper says that former President John Mahama says he will run the leanest, but most efficient government under the fourth republic if Ghanaians give him the nod to lead the country in the 2024 presidential elections.
The 2024 presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who is attempting a return to power for the third time said he would not appoint more than 60 ministers and deputy ministers.
He also pledged that he would work to abolish the payment of ex-gratia and cut out waste and ostentation in government when elected to return to power in next year’s general election.
The former president made these statement yesterday at the University for Development Studies in Northern Regional Capital Tamale where he delivered his post-election acceptance speech on Monday.
Former President Mahama on Saturday recorded a landslide victory in the NDC presidential primaries to emerge as the party’s torchbearer for the 2024 general elections.
He got 297,603 of the valid votes cast representing 98.9 per cent ahead of Kojo Bonsu who garnered 3,181 votes representing 1.1 per cent in a distant second.
Expressing concern about wanton corruption in the country, Former President Mahama said the government procurement was a major source of corruption and misappropriation of public funds.
He said his government would, among other measures, set up an Independent Value for Money office to scrutinise all government procurements above a $5 million threshold or as shall be recommended by Parliament.
He said the next NDC government would give anti-corruption state institutions unfettered space to operate, saying “The days of the clearing agent must come to an end on January 7, 2025.”
Additionally, he said, he would also set up a Commission of Enquiry to investigate the matter of looted state lands and make recommendations for resolving the vexed issue of expropriated Ga-Dangbe lands.
GIK/APA