The report that public universities are likely to begin formal lectures on Monday following the vote by the National Executive Council of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) to suspend its seven-week strike is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that public universities are likely to begin formal lectures on Monday following the vote by the National Executive Council of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) to suspend its seven-week strike.
Subsequent to the NEC action, the local branches of the 15-member UTAG are voting to accept or reject the decision to suspend the strike, a process which will take five days.
The authorities of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) said lectures would however start tomorrow, while the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) chapter of UTAG had, at its meeting yesterday, voted to reject the NEC decision to suspend the strike.
But for the NEC meeting, the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) would have resumed academic activities last Thursday, as the university issued a timetable for the resumption of academic activities after the Accra High Court had ordered the striking lecturers to call off their strike and return to the lecture theatres.
Other local chapters of UTAG have between now and Friday to decide which side of the NEC decision they stand, but some management members of selected public universities told the Daily Graphic that they would firm up their calendars to begin academic activities.
Following overwhelming appeals from student groups, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, eminent leaders, among others, the NEC of UTAG last night voted to temporarily suspend the seven-week strike.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, the President of UTAG, Prof. Solomon Nunoo, said the NEC had, at an emergency meeting last Monday, resolved to heed the pleas and suspended the strike till March 4, this year.
That, he said, was to enable the association to engage with the government over poor conditions of service of university teachers.
The newspaper says that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has projected a decline in cocoa prices between January and March this year relative to the same period last year.
The central bank said cocoa beans exports to the international market from Ghana and West Africa in general would also be lower than what pertained in the same period last year.
It attributed the projected fall in cocoa arrivals and prices to fears that the global economy would be weakened by the third wave of the COVID-19.
The bank’s projection, which was contained in its January 2022 Monetary Policy Report, raises concerns that the country could be on its way to suffering its first revenue decline from cocoa in three years this year.
The third largest foreign exchange earner, revenue from the ‘golden pod’ has been on an upward trajectory since 2019. It ended 2019 at US$2.28 billion but rose to US$2.33 billion in 2020 before peaking at US$ 2.85 billion last year, according to BoG data.
The amounts grossed from the crop were as a result of favourable prices and quantities produced.
The central bank’s report, published on February 15 by its Research Department, examined the revenue prospects of the country’s three major foreign exchange earners – cocoa, crude oil and gold.
West Africa, mainly Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, supply about 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa, with Ghana’s being of premium quality.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the government on Monday inaugurated a National Employment Coordination Committee to formalise the informal economy.
The Committee will estimate job creation potential of government policies and interventions and support the Employment Ministry to institute an automated Labour Market Information System.
The committee comprising representatives from 38 Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and chaired by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, is also charged to harmonise the impacts of employment policies, programmes and projects for maximised outcomes and provide policy oversight for the employment sector working group.
In order to manage the employment sector effectively, Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, said there was the need for a concerted effort to monitor and coordinate the productive sectors, and generate timely reports to guide decision makers.
He said the Employment Ministry was faced with difficulties in its efforts at harmonising activities of the sectors.
That had, therefore, resulted in difficulties in coming up with credible employment figures or data, establishing forward and backward linkages and consolidating the impacts.
Mr Baffuor-Awuah said the committee was expected to meet a national job target, sector job target, commission impact assessment of key government policies, establish an Employment Sector Working Group and when the need arose, commission a sub-committee to complete specific tasks for consideration of members.
The newspaper says that the German government has pledged its commitment to substantially support the country’s budget to boost domestic revenue.
Together with the Finance Ministry and the Local Government Ministry, the German government has introduced a system for enhancing collection of property rate in about 120 Metropolitan and Municipal areas.
Disclosing this at the 2022 Ghana Economic Outlook by Ghanaian-German Economic Association. Deputy Head of Mission, Helge Sander, said Germany is supporting Ghana substantially to increase its domestic revenue.
“Germany is supporting Ghana substantially to register high domestic revenue. You might know that together with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Government, we have introduced the system especially for collection of property rates in more than 170 districts of Ghana and all metropolitan areas.”
“In some areas, it has led to internally generated funds by more than 100 per cent beyond the amount some MMDAs receive from the central government”.
Mr Sander, however, urged government to improve the business climate in the country, calling for a review of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act 2013, Act 865.
This he believes will boost Foreign Direct Investments into the country.
“The amendment of the GIPC Act is still high on the agenda of the businesses as it will ease acquisition or leasing of lands. Customs procedures are still high on the list of concerns of the companies (foreigners) as well as the local content and local participation legislation in the extractive sector which partially violates the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative. There are issues in the mining sector, power and energy.”
Meanwhile, President of the Ghanaian-German Economic Association, Stephen Antwi, has urged government to resolve issues such as the Electronic Transaction Levy and the Benchmark Value policy, which he describes could impede private sector growth.
“Our members are going through challenges; how do we scale over these challenges. That is the question that we want some guidance from our presenters.
“Internally in Ghana, what has been some of the things to address private sector concerns and to encourage private sector growth? We have economic challenges including high inflation, high state debt, but then there are things that are hitting us straight,” he said.
GIK/APA