The report of measures instituted by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to help the country recover from the ravages of COVID-19 is one of the leading stories in te Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says Ghana is instituting measures to help the country recover from the ravages of COVID-19.
He acknowledged that the world is going through difficult times and “Ghana is no exception.”
“There is no country in the world that is escaping the ravages of both Covid-19 and also the impact of the Ukraine [invasion] but what you need to look at, where are the elements being put on the ground that look beyond the Covid and beyond the Russian Ukraine war? I think that you will find that in Ghana.”
In an interview with the BBC’s Peter Okwoche, President Akufo-Addo said that he does not know an economy in the world that is currently doing well.
He said the recovery programme that Ghana have is that which is considered “very credible. And it is what is going to give us [Ghana] the opportunity to come out of this period a stronger economy, and it is that future that we’re looking at, when we’re attracting people.”
The BBC journalist had asked President Akufo-Addo in London, where he had gone to launch the programme; “Destination Ghana”, that if he looked at the Ghanaian economy at the moment, “you know its doing, I mean, let’s just be honest, it’s doing terribly.”
Responding, President Akufo-Addo disagreed: “Well, not terribly,” the President said.
The newspaper says that the value of mobile money (MOMO) transactions took its decline to a new level in January when it opened 2022 lower than it closed 2021.
The amount of money sent and received on the phone-based platform fell from GH¢82.9 billion in December 2021 to GH¢76.2 billion in January, the lowest since August last year.
Data from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) showed that the balance on the MOMO float also fell to GH¢9.4 billion in January 2022 from GH¢9.7 billion in December 2021.
The decline between January and December was the heftiest over the past five months.
It was more than eight per cent – equivalent to about GH¢6.7 billion – according to the central bank’s summary of financial and economic data that was released ahead of its last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting last month.
The drop in the value in January followed a similar decline in December relative to November 2021.
In an earlier interview, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Mobile Money Limited, Eli Hini, had told the Graphic Business in February that the decline in the value of transactions reflected trends in December.
Mr Hini said unlike previous years when transactions on MOMO witnessed increased activities, last December was unusually slow.
“This December was not our usual December. We all know that December is always a busy month, full of activities on MOMO, but that was not what we saw,” Mr Hini, whose company controls the biggest market share in that space, said at the time.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says it is unlikely that government will be able to achieve the GH¢ 6.9 billion target set for the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy).
According to him, the many delays and hurdles experienced in parliament before the E-levy bill was passed would affect the ability of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to meet the target.
President Nana Akufo-Addo yesterday signed into law the E-Levy, paving the way for the collection of the levy, which the Finance Minister says will commence in May this year.
Responding to a question by Citi Business News, Mr Ofori-Atta blamed the opposition in parliament for the delay in the passage of the E-Levy.
“How is it possible to achieve the GH¢ 6.9 billion target when the opposition has stopped you for four months? It’s likely we will not get all the GH¢6.9 billion.”
“But depending on the efficiency of the system it is possible, because when you calculate these things you make some marginal provisions to cater for any pluses or minuses. So we’ll endeavour to get there,” he added.
The newspaper says that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) projects to sell a total of $350 million dollars to authorised dealers in the second quarter of this year, in the Foreign Exchange Forward Auction in a bid to shore up the Cedi.
A notice posted on the BoG’s website yesterday, said the planned sale of the forex to authorised dealers was in accordance with its Foreign Exchange Forward Auction Guidelines.
The BoG said the move was expected to boost the supply of dollars on the market to help improve the stability of the local currency.
The Cedi in the first two months of the year has come under pressure against its international peers, due among others, to the repatriation of profits of some multinational companies.
The Central Bank bids were invited as per the prescribed format to purchase the United States dollars against Ghana cedis, separately on each auction date.
GIK/APA