APA – Accra (Ghana)
President Akufo-Addo’s visit to South Africa to feature at the Democrat Union of Africa (DUA) Annual Forum in Johannesburg is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that President Akufo-Addo will deliver the keynote address at the Forum, which is scheduled to be held from April 26-30, 2023, in Johannesburg.
He was accompanied by the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kwaku Ampratwum, Member of Parliament for Mampong and officials from the Presidency and Foreign Ministry.
President Akufo-Addo will return to Ghana on Sunday, April 30, 2023, and, in his absence, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, shall, in accordance with Article 60 (8) of the Constitution, act in his stead.
The newspaper says that the National Communications Authority (NCA) has deactivated 6.1 million Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards that have not been registered with a Ghana card since the inception of the mass sim registration exercise.
The deactivated sims belong to subscribers that had completed only stage one of the registration process.
The Director General of the NCA, Mr Joe Anokye who made this known today at a press briefing in Accra said about 11 million more active but unregistered SIM cards would be deactivated by the end of May this year.
“One of the things to note is that active mass sim registration for existing SIMs is coming to a close and as mentioned earlier, we have about 11 million SIMs which are yet to begin the registration process, these subscribers have up to the end of May 2023 to complete their SIM registration or have their SIMs deactivated from the network,” he said.
The Graphic also reports that the credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings has downgraded Ghana’s Long-Term Local-Currency (LTLC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to restricted default (RD) from ‘CCC’ due to missed payments on certain local-currency bonds issued prior to the domestic debt exchange programme (DDEP).
The downgrade reflects missed payments on bonds that were not tendered or held by ineligible entities for participating in the domestic debt exchange.
The government recently announced that it would resume payments on local-currency bonds issued before the domestic debt exchange.
However, only coupon payments on the two-year note that matured on 20th February 2023 and the 20-year note maturing in 2039 have been made, and the principal payment on the former note is still outstanding.
Fitch is concerned about whether missed payments will be settled for all categories of holders of ‘old bonds’ or only for specific categories.
Fitch has downgraded the issue rating of five local-currency bonds issued before the debt exchange to ‘CC’ from ‘CCC’ and has withdrawn the rating on these securities due to limited information and uncertainty regarding the timely servicing of the securities issued before the domestic debt exchange.
Fitch expects that financing assurances, which will pave the way for an IMF Board approval of the ECF arrangement and for a new debt sustainability analysis to be published, will not be provided before the end of 2Q23.
The Ghanaian Times says that the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has targeted the planting of 10 million trees nationwide during this year’s Green Ghana Day.
Slated for June 9, the exercise which will be held on the theme, “Our Forests, Our Health”, would be funded with a GH¢2.5 million allocation from government and donations from individuals, corporate groups and organisations.
This year’s target is 10 million short of the 2022 target, which was set at 20 million.
Explaining the rationale for the reduction at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel A. Jinapor, said the move was to enable the Ministry commit more resources and efforts into nurturing trees planted within the past two years.
He noted that the past two editions saw the planting of 31 million trees across the country which included an excess of six million of the targeted number.
So far, the Minister said field assessment report showed that on the average last year, there was a 72 per cent survival rate as compared to 81 per cent in 2021.
“It is for this reason that this year, we have revised our target downwards to10 million trees. This will give us space to devote some resources and attention to the trees planted over the last two years, while not losing momentum on our quest to restore our degraded landscape,” he stated.
Mr Jinapor said although adequate measures were put in place to ensure the survival of all trees planted, some external factors including rainfall patterns, wildfires and soil fertility accounted for the survival rate recorded.
He indicated that the survival rate showed that there were about 23 million trees nationwide to be nurtured.
The newspaper reports that Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has invited investors from Austria to take advantage of Ghana’s economic and political stability to invest in the country.
Speaking at the B2B session with the Austrian delegation led by the Federal Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, in Accra under the auspices of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Vice President reiterated Ghana’s commitment to strategic partnership with the private sector and enhanced efforts for industrialisation and productive transformation to achieve sustainable economic growth.
He said Ghana was open for business and was eager to forge mutually beneficial rewarding relationships with Austria.
“As Ghana and Austria seem to forge stronger bonds we have to sustain such relationship through improved technical and science-based education, technology and also address unfair trade relations among others,” he stressed.
He noted that the Austrian Federal Chancellor’s participation in the business forum was a demonstration of the commitment of the Austrian government to enhance collaboration between private and public sectors of the two countries for mutual benefits.
He noted that Ghana had a stable political environment, strong democratic culture, safe and happy people underpinned by freedom of expression.
“In the volatile West Africa, Ghana is ranked as the most peaceful country and the second most peaceful country in Africa,” he emphasised.
He also noted Ghana had educated and competitive and trainable labour force which should motivate the Austrian investors to consider investing in Ghana.
He observed the timing for the meeting was auspicious as the devastated effects of COVID 19, climate change and ongoing energy and food crisis had demonstrated the need for increased global collaboration.
“These global developments had amplified protection and distortions of supply chains with ramifications for economies on the continent including Ghana,” he stated.
Dr Bawumia however noted that Ghana had initiated steps to bounce back stronger.
“Ghana had its fair share of these burdens and is making concrete efforts to bounce back stronger,” he stressed.
GIK/APA
Press spotlights President Akufo-Addo’s visit to South Africa, others
