The implementation of the Bank of Ghana Gold Purchase Programme and the arrival of the last batch of consignment of agricultural machinery from the Brazilian government to help improve the agriculture sector are some of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that a roadmap has been developed for the implementation of the Bank of Ghana Gold Purchase Programme.
Consequently, the Economic Management Team, the Bank of Ghana, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Minerals Commission and PMMC on Tuesday met with the Ghana Chamber of Mines to that effect.
A statement issued by the BoG said under the roadmap it was agreed that to help shore up the foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank, starting the beginning of next month (September 1, 2022), the BoG would purchase a portion of the output of the gold mining companies on a continuous basis at world market prices but payment will be made in cedis.
“This will represent a significant and sustainable addition to Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves over time and strengthen the balance of payments,” the BoG said.
The BoG a couple of years ago embarked on the Gold Purchase Asset Programme to buy gold locally to shore up the country’s reserves and balance of payment.
A strong reserve position would strengthen the local currency, the cedi.
The newspaper says that the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, yesterday received the last batch of consignment of agricultural machinery from the Brazilian government to help improve the agriculture sector.
The consignment, received from the Brazilian government loaned at an estimated amount of $96m, is to complement government’s flagship agricultural campaign, “Planting for Food and Jobs”.
The agriculture implements include heavy combine harvester (wheeled), high horsepower tractors, tractor attached implements, tractor trailer (haulage), tractor mounted planting/ sowing equipment, chemical applicator and post-harvest equipment/crop processing, cereal sheller, rice cutter, power tillers, maize threshers.
Dr Akoto was in the company of the Editor of Ghanaian Times, Mr Dave Agbenu, the National Best Farmer, Mr Mashud Mohammed, Kadiri Osman, Greater Accra Best Farmer 2021, and Hannah Appenteng, Assembly woman for Ningo Prampram.
The sector minister after a tour to inspect the machinery in Accra stated that, “we are taking the last consignment of machinery from the Brazilian government under the More Food Programme, under which the Brazilian government loaned government of Ghana$96m in three tranches. What you see here this morning is the last tranche of the third tranche of the facility worth 30 million USD ,” he said.
He explained that the consignment, which were still being evacuated from the port, was essential as it would help improve harvesting, post harvesting and value addition, adding that, “it will also help the country achieve the goals of the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative which is hinged on the five modules namely food security, tree crop to diversify out of cocoa, greenhouse village, livestock and farm machinery modules.”
Dr Akoto said the machinery had attracted a subsidy of 40 per cent to support farming industry, saying this decision was made under the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government.
The Minister for Food and Agriculture noted that sustaining this growth would require mechanising “critical areas of the small holders activity”.
The National Best Farmer for 2021, Mr Mashud Mohammed, encouraged young farmers to invest in their work, especially agricultural machinery.
The Graphic reports that access to legal services by the ordinary citizenry has received a boost with the launch of two funds to enhance the justice delivery system.
The Legal Aid Fund, which will strengthen the financial capacity of the Legal Aid Commission (LAC) to discharge its duties effectively, and the Law Reform Fund, which will help the Law Reform Commission (LRC) undertake development projects and regular law reforms, will each have GH¢1 million seed money.
While the Legal Aid Fund was set up under the Legal Aid Commission Act, Act 977, the Law Reform Fund comes under the Law Reform Commission Act, 2011 (Act 822).
The objective of the Legal Aid Fund is to ensure the financial capacity of the LAC to efficiently and effectively carry out its mandate, while the objective of the Law Reform Fund is to help the LRC undertake projects for the development and reform of laws, develop human resource in law reform, among others.
The sources of both funds include money approved by Parliament, interest accruing from the investment of the funds, donations, grants and gifts
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who launched the two funds in Accra yesterday, also announced a GH¢100,000 personal contribution to each of the funds.
He said the funds were to ensure the financial capacity of the commissions to efficiently and effectively carry out their mandates.
The newspaper says that the boom in digital payment platforms and digital banking systems have come with its own risks and cost to the financial industry.
Latest figures from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) indicaties that the global financial industry loses about US$67 billion to fraud related activities annually.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) also reports that about US$1.6 trillion is laundered globally through banks each year for criminal enterprises and terrorist activities.
In Ghana, the situation is no different as the 2021 Banking and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) and Electronic Money Issuers (EMIs) fraud report issued by the Bank of Ghana indicated that the banking sector lost GH¢61 million through fraud and other banking malpractices in 2021.
The need for banks to, therefore, strengthen their anti-fraud systems and anti-money laundering systems has become more necessary than ever.
It is against this background that IT solutions company, CWG Ghana has committed to deepen its collaboration with financial crime risk management company, Clari5 to jointly help banks to combat enterprise fraud and money laundering.
In a media interaction, the Chief Executive Officer of Clari5, Rivi Varghese, who is on a business visit to Ghana, said the two institutions were committed to help Ghanaian financial institutions maintain their trust with customers.
He said Clari5 currently serves over 710 million accounts globally, operates in 24 countries and processes about 10 billion transactions each day.
He said the company was, therefore, ready to bring this expertise and experience to help Ghanaian institutions.
GIK/APA