Press spotlights nationwide revenue mobilisation exercise of ECG, others

APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report of the nationwide revenue mobilisation exercise of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to recover all unpaid bills amounting to GH¢5.7 billion from its customers is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is embarking on a nationwide revenue mobilisation exercise from today to recover all unpaid bills amounting to GH¢5.7 billion from its customers.
The exercise, which will last for a month, targets domestic users, businesses, organisations, ministries, departments and state agencies for power already consumed from 2022 to February this year.
“The target is 100 per cent and the plan is to get everyone who owes to pay, so we are not leaving anyone out, not even my home, if it is found out that I owe,” the Managing Director of ECG, Samuel Dubik Mahama, told the Daily Graphic in an interview ahead of the exercise.
Last week, the ECG announced that it would embark on a revenue mobilisation exercise from March 20 to April 20, 2023, to recoup all debts owed by all categories of customers, including state owned enterprises (SOEs).
Consequently, the company was temporarily closing down all its administrative offices to deploy its staff to be collectors on the field during the one-month period.
However, the engineers, technical staff and the operations, as well as the customer care units, are to be at work to attend to customers.
Per a copy of the deployment of members of the task force shared with the Daily Graphic, the exercise would be operational in each district and the respective managers would lead their teams.
The newspaper says that the Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has been elected President of the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA).
He succeeds Senegal’s Marieme Ndoye Decraene, who has ended her tenure. The Executive Committee of the continental body approved Dr Abdul-Hamid’s nomination last week and the annual general meeting (AGM) last Thursday unanimously ratified the appointment at the 18th ARDA Week held in Cape Town, South Africa from March 13 to 17.
This is the first time a Ghanaian is leading the association and also the first time a petroleum downstream regulator is leading the body.
In submitting the nomination, Dr Abdul-Hamid’s sterling leadership and visible results in the Ghanaian petroleum downstream were considered.
Marieme Decraene, the immediate past President, African Refiners and Distributors Association, handing over to the newly elected President, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of the association, Annibor Kragha, said Dr Abdul-Hamid’s honesty and integrity in public life made him a suitable candidate for the top job.
As President, Dr Abdul-Hamid will be responsible for chairing and running the AGMs and the executive committee meetings of the organisation.
The ARDA is an organisation with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, but its operational office is in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
Founded in 2006, it is the first-ever pan-African organisation for the downstream oil sector, with members comprising African oil refiners, importers, terminal operators, major marketers, distributors and industry regulators who share a common interest in matters pertaining to the refining, as well as storage, distribution and regulation of petroleum products in Africa, according to its constitution.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Databank Research has predicted a slowdown in economic growth this year on the back of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
“Economic compression is inevitable under an IMF programme, we anticipate an economic slowdown from an austerity path chartered by an IMF deal and forecast growth between 2.3 per cent to 3.3 per cent in full year 2023, lower than the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 3.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2022,” Databank Research said in its February 2023 Report titled “In the woodland – Banking on the IMF to Discover Path”.
The government set the overall real GDP growth of 2.8 percent, Non-Oil Real GDP growth of 3.0 per cent, and end-December inflation rate of 18.9 per cent.
It said the slump in the growth rate would be influenced by agriculture, industry and services.
The report said, “We expect the agriculture sector to compress slightly, growing at 3.7 per cent, as increased illegal fishing operations and high feed costs continue to hamper the fishing and livestock subsectors”.
Databank Research said growth in the industry sector would be muted at one per cent as the manufacturing subsector was expected to contract due to high input costs and currency pressures.
“We foresee weaker growth of 3.5 per cent in the extractive sector due to the uncertain outlook for oil and gas as global geopolitical tensions continue to undermine the outlook for oil and gas. Again, a resurgence of COVID-19 in China, the biggest oil consumer, poses a downside risk to oil demand,” the report said.
The report said the services sector was forecast to grow by 3.9 per cent as elevated price levels would stifle consumer demand primarily in the trade and hospitality subsectors, while the debt restructuring would hamper the financial sector’s profitability and growth.
However, the report said the reduction in electronic levy to one per cent might entice more electronic transactions and robust data demand to drive growth in the ICT subsector.
The newspaper says that the governments of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire have pledged to co-ordinate and reinforce security operations at their borders to prevent activities that affect the quality of the Bia and Tano water resources.
Also, the two countries are to halt all illegal mining activities that lead to the pollution of the basins and share best practices and knowledge in mining and other necessary areas.
These were contained in a communique issued after a bilateral meeting between the two countries on the Bia and Tano trans boundary water systems.
A joint communique issued and signed in Accra by the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Ms Cecilia Abena Dapaah, and the Ivoirian Minister of Water and Forestry, Mr Laurent Tchagba, said all illegal mining activities that lead to the pollution of the two basins must be brought to an end “as a matter of urgency.”
According to the ministers, in spite of the mitigation measures that both countries have been implementing, the level of pollution of the two river basins was still beyond the normal standard.
The communique noted that reactivating and making permanent, the Joint Ministerial Committee and the Joint Technical Sub-committee to monitor pollution caused by illegal mining on the trans boundary river basins and also expand the committees to include other relevant sectors, was necessary.
GIK/APA