Press spotlights Cedi maintaining its resurgence momentum against US dollar, others

APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that the cedi continued its resurgence against the major trading currencies on the retail market last week is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that the cedi continued its resurgence against the major trading currencies on the retail market last week.
The local currency regained stability against the major trading currencies, with a 0.8 per cent appreciation to the US dollar.
It also gained 2.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent to the British pound and the euro respectively, according to investment bank, GCB Capital.
It said against the interbank reference rate, the cedi closed unchanged week-on-week.
It said in its weekly update that the cedi was trading at GH¢13.2 to the US$ and.
GCB Capital said the appreciation of the cedi was partly due to the continuous injection of liquidity by the Bank of Ghana to support the cedi.
It said the support came in form of provision of US dollars to bulk oil distribution companies (BDCs) for imports.
In that regard, it stated that the bank was expected to auction US$30 million to the BDCs at the next forward this week.
The newspaper says that high-powered inter-ministerial delegations from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana have met in Accra to find ways of protecting trans-boundary water resources, forest cover and land for mutual benefits.
Key among the discussions is finding long-lasting and sustainable solutions to the ripple effect of illegal small-scale mining in Ghana on trans-boundary water resources between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, which is said to be having adverse effects on potable water production and agriculture in Cote d’Ivoire.
Facts available to both countries have established that the Ivorians take their water supply from the Bia and the Tano rivers, but pollution resulting from illegal small- scale mining activities in the country is affecting the Abidjan Lagoon, which has become a big problem for the Ivorians.
The pollution also threatens hydro-power supply in Côte d’Ivoire because the Bia River hosts two of that country’s hydro-power generation dams.
The three-day transboundary meeting is co-hosted by the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, and the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor.
Other ministries on the Ghanaian side, represented by either ministers or deputy ministers, are Defence and Health.
The Ivorian delegation is led by the Minister of Water and Forests, Laurent Tchagba, and includes representations from its ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence.
In her welcome address, Ms Dapaah said the meeting was also to promote good neighbourliness because the two countries shared a lot in common.
“It has, therefore, become necessary that we hold this bilateral meeting to discuss issues around our water resources and, most importantly, arrive at decisions that will preserve our water bodies and other natural resources.
“We know certain parts are being well catered for, meaning being well kept, while the other part is being disturbed. We will not wait for more trouble to come. We want to nip them in the bud,” she said.
Ms Dapaah acknowledged that whatever happened to the Bia River would adversely impact hydro-power generation in Côte d’Ivoire.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Ministry of Finance has recommended new fees and charges for inputs in the revised Road Tolls Act to enable the restart of the collection of road tolls.
A letter dated March 10 by the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta and copied the Minister of Roads and Highways, said the recommendation commences the procedures, necessary to determine the toll foundation rates to be considered by the Ministry of Roads and Highways.
“We are by this letter sending the recommended rates for input by the Ministry of Roads and Highways to enable this ministry to finalise the schedule of fees under the upcoming Legislative Instrument,” it noted.
Per the letter sighted by the Ghanaian Times, there was a composite average increase rate of 88.05 per cent across board.
Heavy buses, for instance, would pay GH¢1.50 while cars would pay 50Gp instead of the proposed GH¢2 and GH¢1 respectively.
The letter stated that, it was the responsibility of the Minister of Finance, under Section 6 of Act 1080, to amend the schedules of the Act to include or exclude MDAs and/or adjust the fees and charges collected by MDAs for their services through a Legislative Instrument, when necessary.
In line with this, it said, the Ministry was through the recommendation, initiating steps to provide for foundational rates for tolling of roads and highways as part of the amendments of the Act, pending completion of the process to identify the roads and highways to be affected by the reintroduction of the road tolls as stated in the budget.
The road tolls were cancelled in 2022 after Mr Ofori-Atta read that year’s budget in Parliament, introducing the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) to rake up more revenue from a larger section of the public.
However, after revenue shortfalls from the E-Levy, the Minister announced a reintroduction of the tolls in the 2023 budget read on November 24, 2022.
The reinstatement of the road toll was one of the revenue-generating plans in the 2023 budget that Mr Ofori-Atta, submitted to Parliament.
The Finance Minister, in his speech, admitted that the suspension of road toll collection had hampered the government’s revenue generation.
He explained that, the government was struggling to deal with the decision made in anticipation of the passage of the E-levy.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) could gain 12 per cent return in 2023, a Databank Research report has revealed.
According to the report, the market would return to the positive trajectory after ending 2022 as the worst performing stock market in Africa.
“From the perspective of technical analysis of the stock market, we forecast the GSE-CI (GSE Composite Index) to close full-year 2023 at around 2,740 points, translating into an expected annual gain of 12.00% (±500bps),” it said.
It explained that most investors would favour stocks of high-quality companies with good fundamentals, defensive quality and reasonable pricing power.
These stocks, it said, could provide investors with consistent dividends.
Among these favourites are MTN Ghana and the Oil Marketing Companies.
The research firm also expects agro processing firm, Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP), to do well this year, continuing its good dividend payout history.
The stock market has since this year recorded about 1.46 per cent return in cedi term for investors.
However, in dollar term, the exchange has recorded a negative return. This is due to the year-to-date loss of the cedi to the dollar.
GIK/APA