The report that Ghana and Mozambique have condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and called for an immediate end to the hostilities that are having a debilitating impact on economies around the globe, especially Africa is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that Ghana and Mozambique have condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and called for an immediate end to the hostilities that are having a debilitating impact on economies around the globe, especially Africa.
“We both condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and call for an immediate cessation, as its effects, together with the ravages of COVID-19, are proving to be devastating to the entire world, particularly for those of us on the African continent,” President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said.
The President made the condemnation yesterday when he addressed a joint press conference with the visiting Mozambican President, Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, at the Jubilee House in Accra after bilateral discussions by the two and their delegations.
Mr Nyusi, who arrived in the country last Sunday night on a state visit, arrived at the Forecourt of the Jubilee House yesterday morning and was led to the Saluting Dais by the Director of State Protocol, Samuel Kumah, for the National Salute and the playing of the two national anthems.
The two leaders exchanged pleasantries, and after official photographs, went for a tete-a-tete and later joined their delegations for bilateral talks.
President Akufo-Addo said the two countries also agreed that current world circumstances demonstrated the urgent need to pull back on the global agenda and demand the reform of the United Nations.
The newspaper says that Ghana is positioning itself to become the mining hub of Africa, where all mining and related activities, as well as various linkages, will be centred and take place.
In furtherance of this, the country is already implementing a policy and legislative framework towards a mining industry which substantially retains the full value chain of the industry — from exploration, to mining, refinery, smelting and downstream production to support and financial services.
This came to light in an interview with the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, at the just-ended global conference in Cape Town, South Africa, dubbed: “Mining Indaba”.
Expatiating further on the ambitious African agenda, the minister said the 2014 mining policy was undergoing a major review for a clear legislative framework that would assure the state, its citizens and the investor community of a win-win situation.
To firm up the move, Mr Jinapor said, Ghana had also embarked on a series of major bilateral discussions with mining giants across the globe, including Rand Refinery, AngloGold Ashanti, Australia, American and Nigerian partners, towards achieving the set objective.
“We want Ghana to become a launch pad, so we can provide expertise and services. Essentially that is the President’s vision; that is, what we are working to achieve — what he is in the process of transforming Ghana into,” Mr Jinapor disclosed.
According to him, within the framework of linkages, the Lands Ministry was placing a lot of emphasis on enhancing local content in mining operations.
The Graphic also reports that the African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched a $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production plan to help Africa produce food to avert a looming food crisis arising from the Russia/Ukraine conflict.
The plan, which has received the approval of the board of directors of the bank, is expected to provide 20 million farmers with improved seeds and fertilisers, as well as other farm inputs.
The plan is to help farmers produce 38 million tonnes of food, worth $12 billion, annually.
The President of the AfDB, Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina, disclosed this at a press conference in Accra yesterday.
The media interaction was to open the 2022 Annual Meetings of the AfDB, being held in Accra from yesterday, May 23 to Friday, May 27, this year.
Dr Adesina said the food to be produced included 11 million tonnes of wheat, 18 million tonnes of maize, six million tonnes of rice and 2.5 million tonnes of soybeans.
He said the Russian/Ukraine conflict had led to new challenges for Africa, especially in terms of high energy prices, high fertiliser prices and the disruption of food imports.
“With about 30 million tonnes of food imports, especially wheat and maize, that will not be coming from Russia and Ukraine, Africa faces a looming food crisis,” the AfDB President stated.
The Ghanaian Times says that Ghana’s public debt stock remarkably shot up by ¢40.1 billion to ¢391.9 billion as of the end of March 2022, the Summary of Economic and Financial Data by the Bank of Ghana has revealed.
The increase in the debt is due largely to exchange rate fluctuation and to some extent borrowings from the domestic market. In the first quarter of 2022, the cedi assumed a free fall to the dollar, but its depreciation was halted in April 2022, following monetary measures by the Bank of Ghana.
However, in relation to the Gross Domestic Product of the country, the debt was estimated at 78 per cent. This is slightly lower than the 80 per cent recorded in December 2021.
According to the figures, the debt inched up by GH¢20.5 billion in January 2022 and subsequently ¢19.7 billion in February 2022.
In terms of the domestic debt, it went up by GH¢8 billion in the first quarter of 2022 to ¢189.9 billion in March 2021. This is equivalent to 37.8 per cent of GDP.
Also, the external component of the total public debt shot up to $28.4 billion (GH¢201.9 billion) in March 2022, from $28.1 billion in December 2021. From the figures, clearly one can deduce that there were no borrowings from the external front in the first quarter of this year.
The debt-to-GDP ratio of the external debt is however approximately 40.2 per cent of GDP.
The cedi component shot up by ¢31.9 billion in the first three months of 2022, primarily due to the decline in the value of the cedi to dollar during the period.
On the other hand, the financial sector resolution bond went down to GH¢14.6 billion in March 2022, from ¢14.9 billion recorded in December 2021. This is equivalent to 2.9 per cent of GDP.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had in its April 2022 Fiscal Monitor predicted Ghana’s debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of 84.6 per cent in 2022.
GIK/APA