The commendation of Ghana’s exemplary contribution to peace and security in West Africa, as well as Ghana’s role on the UN Security Council by the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield has lauded President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for what she said is his exemplary contribution to peace and security in West Africa, as well as Ghana’s role on the UN Security Council.
“I have come to express our gratitude to Ghana for your leadership here in the region and also for your leadership in the Security Council and the close collaboration that we have been able to forge with your Permanent Representative to find solutions to the peace and security challenges that we face every day in the council,” she said.
Ms Thomas-Greenfield gave the commendation at a meeting with President Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House in Accra last Saturday.
She was in the country for two days, during which she participated in a forum on US Foreign Policy on Peace and Food Security in Africa in Accra last Friday.
Ms Thomas-Greenfield also travelled to the northern part of the country, where she interacted with farmers and the Northern Regional Minister, Shaani Alhassan Shaibu, in Tamale last Saturday.
The ambassador also praised the country’s solid relationship with the US over the years, saying: “Ghana has been a stalwart and steadfast partner to the US and we have very much appreciated the opportunity to work with you.”
She expressed the support of the US to the government in tackling security-related issues in West Africa through ECOWAS.
“We also want to express to you our strong support for your effort in dealing with the situation here in the region when you were the President of ECOWAS, the very tough decisions you sometimes had to take to deal with situations in the region, particularly as they related to Mali,” Ms Thomas-Greenfield added.
The newspaper says that the Ghanaian government has expressed disappointment with the downgrade of Ghana’s foreign and local currency from ‘B-/B’ To ‘CCC+/C’ with a negative outlook by S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor’s and informally known as S&P).
The credit ratings agency said the negative outlook reflects “Ghana’s limited commercial financing options, and constrained external and fiscal buffers.”
The S&P downgrade means currently the country is vulnerable to nonpayment and dependent on favourable business, financial and economic conditions.
S&P also indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine have impacted Ghana’s fiscal and external imbalances.
“Demand for foreign currency has been driven higher by several factors, including nonresident outflows from domestic government bond markets, dividend payments to foreign investors and higher costs for refined petroleum products,” it said.
S&P also added that Ghana’s inability to access Eurobond markets has affected the economy.
The Ministry of Finance in a statement issued on August 8, 2022, assured that the government will continue to be proactive in addressing the impact of these external and domestic headwinds on the economy and on the lives and livelihoods of Ghanaians.
“The Government is disappointed by S&P’s decision to downgrade Ghana despite the bold policies implemented in 2022 to address macro fiscal challenges and debt sustainability which have been significantly exacerbated by the impact of these global external shocks on the economy,” the statement said.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) yesterday deployed power visibility teams across the country to audit and check on the state of meters as part of efforts to clamp down on power theft and illegal connection.
The teams are expected to inspect power meters at both residential and commercial facilities.
One commercial facility at East Legon in Accra was disconnected and issued an appearance notice by the Accra East Region team for power theft and illegal connection.
The exercise followed the expiry of a month amnesty for all customers engaged in illegal connection to report it for rectification or face sanctions when caught.
The amnesty took effect from June 7 and ended July 20 to allow for correction of the illegality and fight power losses.
Speaking earlier at a brief ceremony in Accra to launch the deployment of the teams, Managing Director of ECG, Samuel Dudik Mahama, said the main focus of the teams were to help in recovering revenues for power consumed.
He explained that the meter audit would entail checks on the meter to ascertain whether it had been tampered with and assess its reading functionalities.
He stated that the checks would enable the power distribution company determine power delivered to a specific location and losses or revenue accrued within a specific period.
The newspaper says that Ghana has recorded 14 more cases of coronavirus (COVID -19), shooting up the country’s case count to 168,350 as at last Friday.
According to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) website monitored by the Ghanaian Times yesterday, 166,751 people had recovered from the disease.
The death toll is currently at 1,458 with no one in severe condition or critical state and the GHS has pegged the country’s active case at 141.
Routine surveillance conducted indicated 61,048 tested positive out of 494,394 total number of tests conducted, while 99,659 people tested positive through contact tracing out of 1,118,393 total tests done.
International travelers (KIA) tests showed that 7,643 people tested positive out of 879,799 tests conducted.
The service, therefore, said it had so far conducted 2,492,586 tests since the outbreak of the disease in March last two years with a positivity rate of 6.8 per cent.
On the regional case count, Greater Accra leads with 95,682 confirmed cases, followed by Ashanti with 22,519 cases.
Western has 8,655 confirmed cases, while Eastern has 7,425 cases.
The Service also said that Volta had 6,138 confirmed cases while Central had 5,903 cases.
GIK/APA