The report that for the first time in about 60 years, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has purchased gold to augment its gold reserves and shore up the country’s foreign assets is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that for the first time in about 60 years, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has purchased gold to augment its gold reserves and shore up the country’s foreign assets.
The bank bought 280 kilogrammes of the precious metal this year under a historic gold purchase programme meant to double its gold reserves and supplement the traditional ways that the country has built reserves over the years.
t has since set aside GH¢200 million to be used to purchase 540kg of gold produced domestically this year.
Although gold purchase is a critical component of central banking across the world, the
BoG only returned to the business this year after exiting it around 1961.
It now aims to buy more than 17,500kg — about 17.54 tonnes — of the precious metal in the next five years.
Giving an update on the programme which took off in June this year, the Director of the Financial Markets Department at the BoG, Dr Steve Opata, told the Daily Graphic in Accra last Monday that the initiative had been successful and the bank was on track to hitting its target for the year and the next five years.
The newspaper says that ECOWAS capacity-building workshop is the latest in a series of capacity-building programmes to be organised for leaders of armed services in the region.
In attendance are heads of Armed and Defence services within the various member states.
Among the key issues to be discussed are regional institution for arms control management and administration and the key principles of arms transfer within the ECOWAS subregion.
Dr. Adamu explained that the capacity-building training was geared towards deepening the understanding of the security apparatus of the ECOWAS exemption process.
The Graphic also reports that Ecobank Ghana and People’s Pension Trust, have signed a digital-based partnership deal that allows both formal and informal sector workers contribute towards a secured retirement plan through their mobile phones.
The product, which is available on the Ecobank Mobile App, is primarily targeted at the millions of informal sector workers, who constitute about 71 per cent of Ghana’s workforce but are largely not on any pension scheme.
The Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, Mr Dan Sackey, said this new partnership is testimony to Ecobank’s avowed commitment to using digital technology to drive financial inclusion and create value for Ghanaians, especially the largely unserved and underserved informal sector.
He said the move highlights Ecobank’s dedication to growth, particularly through strategic partnerships.
This, he said, was a two-edged sword of ensuring financial inclusion to secure the long-term welfare of informal sector workers, and also unlocking and redirecting capital for long-term national development.
Mr Sackey recalled several other strategic partnerships Ecobank had entered into this year to make life better for Ghanaians while raising capital for national development citing the ground-breaking Pensions Back Mortgage Scheme with Enterprise Trustees, the Auto Loan Scheme with some automobile companies and the SMEs loan scheme with Proparco.
Mr Saqib Nazir, Chief Executive Officer People’s Pension said Ghana’s informal sector workers, who were largely underserved with financial services, formed part of the 400 to 500 million in West Africa and the two billion people globally who need financial services extended to them.
He said whereas the risk of extending financial services to the informal sector was high, there was also a huge potential of funds to be mobilised from that sector for national development when they were financially included while creating value and security for the contributors.
The Ghanaian Times says that the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) has received the greenlight to setup a unit that will enable it commercialise its researches and innovations, the sector Minister, Dr Kwaku Afriyie has disclosed.
The establishment of the unit, apart from focusing on the commercial application of research, technology and innovation of the ministry, would also help in developing a circular economy for the country.
“Through our institutions, we also do applied research like that of the universities, however, ours are geared towards commercial application.
In fact, I have been given the go ahead by the President to set up a commercial unit which will be equivalent to some of our institutes but they will be focusing on the marketing and commercial application of our innovations.
You do not expect Professors to suddenly become experts in marketing and so on and so forth,” he emphasised.
Dr Afriyie who disclosed this when he took his turn at the Wednesday edition of the ministers’ briefing in Accra yesterday said the MESTI was an enabler that share mandate with other ministries but tasked with policy, planning and legal matters.
He said government was leveraging on science, technology and innovation with emphasis on research for national development.
In this direction, he noted that the ministry was collaborating with other agencies including the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI), Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR), Ministry of Sanitation, Water Resources, Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD) and the Ministry of Education (MoE).
He said the Ghana National Research Fund was intended to promote applied research and commercialisation through the provision of support, including the development of infrastructure for research and innovation.
Dr Afriyie explained that through its industrial and applied research for development, the MESTI provided seedlings and seeds of cereals, legumes, coconut, oil palm, tubers and plantain for the various ecozones for planting.
GIK/APA