The advice of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to female entrepreneurs to take advantage of the numerous opportunities created by the government, to better their lives and improve their businesses is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has advised female entrepreneurs to take advantage of the numerous opportunities created by the government, to better their lives and improve their businesses.
He said the Ghana Enterprise Agencies (GEA) through the Ministry of Trade, has been well resourced to render on its mandate of being the umbrella organisation for the coordination of business development services for entrepreneurs.
“In 2020, GEA, then National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), supervised the disbursement of GH₵ 302,001 to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) under the Government-initiated Coronavirus Alleviation Programme and Business Support Scheme.
As part of the broader measures to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government in partnership with the MasterCardFoundation and GEA, disbursed a total of Gh₵15,751,073.79 under the NBSSI/MasterCard Foundation COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience,” The President said.
President Akufo-Addo made this remark yesterday in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of the third biennial Ghana Women Entrepreneurship Summit (GWES 2022) and the launch of the Innovative Women Entrepreneurs Rise (WERise) Network in Accra.
It was organised by the GEA under the theme “Breaking Barriers, Accelerating Women-Owned Businesses” to address the challenges women entrepreneurs confront in their efforts to contribute towards development of Ghana’s economy.
The President said, over 65 per cent of GEA’s interventions targeted women, making it an institution with the welfare of women at heart.
He stressed that GEA, with the tacit support of it partners had rolled out innovative initiatives that were aimed at bolstering the growth of women-led and women-owned businesses.
The newspaper says that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is forecasting Ghana’s debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of 84.6 per cent in 2022.
According to its April 2022 Fiscal Monitor report, the country’s total debt was estimated at 81.8 per cent of GDP in 2021, higher than the 80.1 per cent, approximately GH¢351.8 billion quoted by the Bank of Ghana.
The fund also said the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio will increase from 84.6 per cent in 2022 to 88.4 per cent in 2026, before falling to 87.4 per cent in 2027.
But prior to that it will record relatively same debt-to-GDP ratio of 84 per cent in 2022 and 2023, and later surge to 85 per cent and 86 per cent in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
The rising debt may constrain government financing and as a result affect capital expenditure, unless government moves fast to shore up revenue, of which the IMF describes the future as promising.
The government will also have to intensify its expenditure rationalization programme to ensure there is value for money projects, whilst leakages within the system are blocked.
The fund is projecting Ghana’s tax revenue to GDP ratio to increase in 2022 to 16.5 per cent, from 14.7 per cent in 2021. This will be a vast improvement compared to the rates registered during the last 10 years.
In 2023 and 2024, the country’s tax-to-GDP ratio will, however, fall to 16 per cent and 16.2 per cent respectively.
Ghana’s public debt stock rose to ¢351.8 billion in December 2021, from ¢344.5 billion in November 2021, about 80.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Graphic reports that the city of Accra has been selected as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO’s) World Book Capital for 2023.
Cities designated as UNESCO World Book Capitals undertake to carry out activities with the aim of encouraging a culture of reading and diffusing its values in all ages and population groups in and out of the national borders.
Ghana is the fourth African country to have a city receive the title, after Egypt, Nigeria and Guinea.
Through the World Book Capital programme, UNESCO acknowledges the cities’ commitment to promote books and foster reading during a 12-month period.
Accra’s selection was done by UNESCO and advisory committees from major sectors of the book industry to promote libraries.
The announcement was made at a ceremony to commemorate the 2022 World Book and Copyright Day organised by the Ghana Book Development Council (GBDC) in Accra yesterday.
The commemoration was on the theme: “Reading to develop minds”, and attended by key players in the book industry and some schoolchildren.
It was organised in partnership with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, the Ghana Publishers Association (GPA), the Ghana Association of Writers, the Copyright Ghana and UNESCO Ghana.
The newspaper says that the Vice-President of Costa Rica, Epsy Campbell Barr, has advocated closer collaboration between tourism players in her country and those in Ghana to create a richer tourism experience that unites people of African descent.
She said as part of efforts to build the re-unification path of people of African descent and champion their cause, both countries needed to work together in the area of tourism to afford the current and the next generation of African descendants the opportunity to learn about their history and forge alliances into the future.
Ms Barr, who is the first Black female Vice-President of Costa Rica and Latin America, made the call when she visited the Nkyinkyim Museum in Ada last Saturday to learn about Africa’s journey to liberation as part of activities to wind up her five-day visit to Ghana.
“People of African descent are working a lot to build a better future that recognises justice and development and understanding our African history through arts, anthem and music and soul of the people should be harnessed through a platform of partnership between the two countries,” she said.
The Vice-President was in the company of the reggae/dancehall musician, Rocky Dawuni, her husband and other dignitaries from Costa Rica.
The Graphic also reports that 10 Ghanaian artists are exhibiting their works at the third edition of Sound Out dubbed Accra in Paris which opened in Paris in France.
Sound out is a platform provided by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) to enable artists to display their works as a way of exposing African art in order to boost their trade on the local and international markets.
The government of Ghana through GEPA paid for the freight of all the works of the artists from Ghana to Paris for the week-long event.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the French Embassy in Accra and the Ghana Mission in France are supporting the organisation of the exhibition.
The platform aims at acknowledging and celebrating home-grown art to inspire people who have chosen to follow their talent in the field of abstracts, colours, oils and brushes for business or leisure.
The works on display are a variety of art paintings, mosaic, ceramic and hand painted pottery, basket ware, bronze sculpture and woodwork.
GIK/APA