APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Monday received credentials from envoys of five countries, including Canada and New Zealand, at separate ceremonies at the Jubilee House, Accra is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Monday received credentials from envoys of five countries, including Canada and New Zealand, at separate ceremonies at the Jubilee House, Accra.
Those who presented their credentials were Jean Matho Dore, Ambassador of the Republic of Guinea; Mohammed Shahdat Hossain, High Commissioner of Bangladesh; Martine Moreau, Canadian High Commissioner; Michel Ian Upton, New Zealand High Commissioner; and the Mauritanian High Commissioner, Mohamed Abdellahi Khattra.
President Akufo-Addo congrat¬ulated the new envoys on their appointment and assured them of Ghana’s continued support to fur¬ther strengthen bilateral relations with their respective countries.
He stated that Ghana was ready to engage in various areas that would mutually benefit both parties, and assured the envoys of the support of the country in the discharge of their duties and also wished them a successful tour of duty.
Mr Jean Matho Dore of Guinea recalled the long-standing relations between Ghana and his country, dating back to the pre-in¬dependence era.
He hoped the two countries would work together to en¬hance relations, and suggested a joint cooperation committee to strengthen ties between both nations.
The Canadian High Commis¬sioner, Martine Moreau, on her part, recalled the excellent rela¬tions between Ghana and Can¬ada, saying both nations shared standard views on a lot of values including democracy, the rule of law and peace and security.
She praised the leadership role that Ghana played to reinforce security regionally and interna¬tionally, and pledged to work to deepen the already strong ties between the two countries.
The rest of the envoys called for closer cooperation between their countries and Ghana and assured they would work to en¬hance their relations with Ghana.
The newspaper says that total of four new large scale mining companies are expected to start operations in the country within the next 24 months, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor has announced.
According to him, the new mines will comprise three gold mining firms and one lithium mining com¬pany and would boost the country’s mining receipts as well as create new employment opportunities for the youth.
The four, Ahafo North, Azumah Resources, Ewoyaa and Cardinal Resources will be located in the Ahafo, Upper East and West and Central Regions
Mr Jinapor disclosed this in Accra yesterday when he took his turn at the weekly Minister’s brief¬ing organised by the Ministry of Information.
He explained that Cardinal Resources which was a gold mining company in the Upper East would commence operations by the end of this year with other two coming on streaming in early part of 2024.
However, he said government had decided to jettison the old arrangements that guided mining in the country, stressing that “lithium is one of the green minerals and the approach by government is to jettison the old arrangements where resources are mined and the raw minerals are shipped out.”
Mr Jinapor said lithium like its other counterparts, cobalt and phosphate would not be treated like how we have treated gold and other resources but value would be added in order for the value to be increased.
Mr Jinapor said significant investments had been made in the redevelopment and expansion of existing mines.
“After reviving the Obuasi mine in 2019, the Bibiani mine, which had been dormant for seven years, has also been revived, and produc¬tion started in October last year,” he said.
The Minister explained that these investments would result in a significant increase in the country’s mineral production and govern¬ment revenue.
“To promote more investment in the sector, we are, currently, undertaking a general review of the Mining Policy adopted in 2014, and the Minerals and Mining Act which was passed in 2006, to align them with current developments in the mining industry,” he stressed.
Touching on the forest sector, he said timber and timber products export increased significantly from 302,183.046 cubic metres in 2021, to 343, 440.081 cubic metres in 2022.
This he noted represented an increase of 13.65 per cent and generated a total amount of €153,861,837.67. The Graphic reports that firms in the country say they feel less confident now than six months ago, the latest Africa Trade Barometer has found.
The second edition of the Africa Trade Barometer conducted by the Standard Bank Group to offer a comparative view of the enablers and challenges to trade facilitation across 10 key African markets further revealed that the slump in business confidence was driven by the perceptions around the economy.
The biggest contributing factor to the dip in confidence had been the high prices of products. Again, the low confidence is due to the perception of a poor performing economy due to the poor showing of the local currency, the Ghana Cedi.
The business confidence and the report found that firms that believed that the economy was stable were also more optimistic, while those who perceived the economy to be in a poor state were less optimistic. While industries are recovering from the effects of the pandemic and most believe that turnover will increase, there is still some concern about the long-term impact of the regulations imposed at the time of the pandemic and the aftermath of COVID-19, according to the Africa Trade Barometer report.
The report is one of the most comprehensive research on the state of trade on the African continent as experienced on the ground by real African businesses.
Qualitative and quantitative intelligence was gathered from 2,554 firms during August and September 2022 for the second issue. The interviewee companies represented small, big and corporate businesses across all 10 economies the study covered.
The intelligence is further enriched by third party sources including the World Bank, International Trade Centre, and the central banks of the initial 10 focus markets.
The newspaper says that Gold Fields, a gold mining firm, says it is gravely concerned about the political and economic environment in the country.
It held the view that the terrain has become more challenging especially with developments in the latter part of 2022 and the early part of 2023.
Consequently, the company said it was continuing to engage with government and through industry bodies to reiterate its stance on key fiscal matters
It indicated that “the process of claiming certain rebates relating to our development agreements has become more onerous.”
The concerns raised by Goldfields in a statement copied to the Graphic Business at the weekend comes at a time when the South Africa-listed gold miner has vehemently disputed tax payments demanded by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) after an audit.
The gold miner is, however, working with the tax authority to resolve the matter.
Gold Fields, which has three gold-mining operations in Ghana, said it could not disclose the size of the back taxes bill but was emphatic when it said it was “nowhere close” to the amount Ghana has demanded from mobile operator MTN.
The Ghana tax authority last month slammed MTN with a $773 million bill for back taxes after auditing it for the years 2014 to 2018. However, after fighting back that has been reversed.
The GRA audit of Gold Fields covered the period 2018 to 2020, according to a statement from the company but it is not clear what the outcome is presently as discussions continue.
Meanwhile, total production decreased by four per cent to 838koz in 2022 from 871koz in 2021 mainly due to decreased production at Damang, the company said in a release.
This was the result of the completion of the Damang pit cutback as well as decreased production at Asanko with the treatment of lower grade stockpiles due to the temporary cessation of mining activities in July 2022.
GIK/APA