The Graphic reports that the Sanitation and Pollution Levy of 10Gp per litre on petroleum products has accrued more than GH¢196.5 million as of the end of May this year, 15 months into its introduction.
The Sanitation and Pollution Levy of 10Gp per litre on petroleum products has accrued more than GH¢196.5 million as of the end of May this year, 15 months into its introduction.
The Provost of the College of Education at the University of Ghana, Professor Martin Oteng-Ababio, said notwithstanding the inflow, there was a bleak future for the country’s sanitation sector due to policy failures over the years.
For instance, he observed that although the government introduced 10 per cent Environmental Excise Tax (EET) on plastic manufacturers earlier in 2011 to mobilise funds to curb the plastic menace, there was no reliable information on how much had accrued to the fund and how it had been utilised to tackle the plastic menace.
The sanitation levy is targeted at raising funds for investment in sanitation sector infrastructure.
Prof. Oteng-Ababio made the observations during an inaugural lecture at the University of Ghana, Legon, dubbed: “Double standards, single purpose: deconstructing the fence wall for sustainable municipal waste management”.
Tracing the historical path of Ghana’s waste management systems from the colonial era till date while providing critical review of policy options, Prof. Oteng-Ababio said although there were over 136 waste policies in the country, those policies were largely “inappropriate, misplaced, irrelevant and harmful,” stressing that most of them were politically skewed.
“I consult for most of the big companies in the sanitation and waste management space. Anytime there is a change in government, they shiver because if you invest in waste management equipment and there are political issues, you are in trouble,” he said.
The newspaper says that Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said the ongoing economic crisis sweeping through the world must be a wake-up call to African countries to adopt a technological approach to development, especially as the continent seeks to rebuild and rise.
Addressing a high-level African Union-backed “BOMA” event, the Vice President cautioned against focusing on the short-term symptoms of the current crisis and forgetting the structural issues that the worst-hit countries are confronted with.
The Boma forum brought together global political and business leaders to deliberate on the progress of Africa towards Agenda 2063, the AU’s timetable for transforming Africa into a global economic force.
Vice President Bawumia said the twin factors influencing the global economic crisis – the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Ukraine conflict – have exposed gaps in the world’s economic and political architecture, which will affect Africa’s quest for growth if the continent does not act decisively to build technological industries that are more resilient to global economic shocks.
“The challenges that have beset the global economy may have been fuelled by temporary crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict. But these challenges are still a wake-up call to Africa that there are deep structural gaps in the global economic and political architecture that can frustrate its rise unless serious concerted efforts are made to plug them,” Dr. Bawumia told the forum.
Dr. Bawumia observed that plugging the structural gap will require the African continent to adopt the emerging data-driven, technological approaches to development, which would help create the right structure for African businesses and SMEs and connect them from isolation, to the world of business.
The Ghanaian Times reports that speakers at a colloquium in Accra have called for a change in the structure of the economy to promote economic stability of the country.
According to the speakers, a shift in the structure of the economy would help to address the perennial economic difficulties the country went through and forced the government to seek an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.
The speakers, Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; Dr John Kwakye, Director of Research at the Institute of Economic Affairs, Professor John Asafu-Adjaye, Senior Fellow and Head of Research at the African Centre for Economic Transformation and Tsonam C. Akpeloo, Chairman of the Greater Accra Region of the Association of Ghana Industries, were speaking at a colloquium dubbed 3 News Business Forum.
Organised by 3News, an online subsidiary of Media General it was on the theme “The Road to the IMF: Achieving Low Inflation and Macroeconomic Stability, The Way Forward.”
Mr Nkrumah said the current economic challenges facing the country were structural and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and not mismanagement, adding that the economic challenges facing the country had been exacerbated by the Russian-Ukraine war.
The Minister of Information explained that the government in 2020 had to spend more to procure personal protective equipment to save lives in view of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said the government expenditure did not match with revenue, indicating that the country’s Tax to Gross Domestic Product currently stood at 12 per cent which was below the Sub-Saharan average of about 16 per cent.
The Director of Research at the Ghana Institute of Economic Affairs, Dr John Kwakye, observed that the economic challenges could be attributed to exogenous and endogenous factors.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Exports and Promotions Authority (GEPA) Export School has held its maiden congregation in Accra graduating 19 students with level four Diploma in International Trade.
The one-year programme held yesterday is an online course piloted in partnership with the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Institute of Export and International Trade(IOE).
It is intended to equip export professionals as well as players in other sectors with proper export managerial, technical skills and trade capacity that enabled global competitiveness.
Aside the pioneering class, a second batch of 28 students are currently enrolled onto the second phase of the course.
Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Herbert Krapa who delivered the keynote address said government programmes such as the National Industrial Revitalisation Programme, One-District One Factory, interventions in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s) and the Export Development Programme presented opportunities to the graduates in a sector that was eager to build an ecosystem of experts.
He added that there was various multilateral and regional opportunities aided by the presence of the African Continental free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in the country and implored the students to explore them.
“Persons such as you who are graduating from the export school should be mindful of industrial strategies. You are graduating at a time when we are engaging the productive sectors of our economy and so it is for you to recognise the extra responsibility you carry because you are a pioneering class that is going to be a bedrock for a long time to come” he stated.
For the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GEPA, Dr Afua Asabea Asare, she said the School was instituted as one of government’s three strategic pillars under its National Export Development Strategy which GEPA was mandated as the lead agency to implement.
As part of the third strategic pillar which was to build and expand the required human capital for industrial export development and marketing, she said the school was established to provide capacity building initiatives to exporters.
GIK/APA