President Akufo-Addo’s speech in Dubai that Ghana has moved away from the dark days of uncertainties that clouded its path towards progress and prosperity is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says Ghana has moved away from the dark days of uncertainties that clouded its path towards progress and prosperity.
According to the President, the last 29 years of democratic governance under the 4th Republic have generally been the period of the greatest economic growth in Ghana’s history.
Delivering a statement on “Ghana Day” at the ongoing Dubai Expo 2020 yesterday, President Akufo-Addo noted that “Our engagement at the Expo is themed on opportunity, because we are a nation of unquestionably attractive opportunities.”
For President Akufo-Addo, Ghana is today the safest country in West Africa, is the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in West Africa, and is ranked 3rd in the Ease of Doing Business Index in West Africa.
“We are the new commercial capital of Africa by virtue of our hosting of the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), we are the 2nd largest cocoa producer in the world, we are the largest producer of gold in Africa, we are endowed with considerable deposits of bauxite, iron ore, manganese, lithium, oil and gas, diamonds, and timber, and we are geographically closer than any other country to the centre of the planet,” the President added.
“We are a country where investments are secure and protected under a governance system where an independent judiciary upholds the rule of law and respect for private property rights,” he said.
Stressing that Ghana is “Ready for Business,” President Akufo-Addo noted that Government is determined to build a business-friendly economy that will enable Ghana get to the stage where the exploitation of the opportunities that are available will help her build an optimistic, self-confident and prosperous nation.
“Indeed, prior to the onset of COVID-19, Ghana, in 2017, 2018 and 2019 that is during my first term in office, recorded annual average GDP growth rates of seven per cent making our economy one of the fastest growing in the world at the time. At the height of the pandemic, in 2020, we were, indeed, one of the few countries to record positive growth,” he said.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has initiated a process to measure how much the country lost through Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in the export and import trade sector over the last 21 years (2000 -2021).
IFFs involve illegal movements of money or capital from one country to another that are illegally earned, transferred, and/or utilised to, among other things, evade tax.
With support from the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the exercise would estimate the losses and the loopholes to enable the country to take specific action to block them.
The assessment is being done in accordance with guidelines developed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
As part of the process, a five-day workshop was yesterday opened in Accra and online to engage stakeholders on the exercise whose report is expected to be released by the end of June, this year.
A report of the high-level panel on IFFs estimated Africa’s loss in IFFs at more than $1 trillion over the last 50 years, a sum nearly equivalent to all the official development assistance the continent received during the same period.
UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report 2020 also notes that Africa could gain $89 billion annually by curbing IFFs while the continent’s resource-rich countries are particularly more prone to IFFs.
Currently, there is no specific data on how much Ghana losses through IFFs.
Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the workshop, the Deputy Government Statistician, Dr FaustinaAinguah, said the first draft of the report would be released by the end of first half of the year.
She said assessment would boost the government’s Ghana Beyond Aid agenda by helping the country block activities that drain the country’s resources given that various reports had established that IFF hinder the capacity of developing countries to address their developmental needs.
Dr Ainguahsaid the workshop would involve presentations, discussion and the adoption of best practices and procedures geared towards generating the estimates.
She affirmed the service’s commitment to the exercise, promising to disseminate a comprehensive report which would help guide national development.
The Graphic reports that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has cautioned the public against dealing with cryptocurrency exchange platform, “BitCash Currency Exchange” which claims to have approval from the central bank.
According to the BoG, it has not licensed such an entity or any other cryptocurrency exchange platform.
A statement dated March 8 and signed by the Secretary, Sandra Thompson, said: “This fraudulent scheme does not reward investors as promised.
“The general public is encouraged not to engage in such activities and to report such illegal operators to Bank of Ghana,” it said.
It said unsuspecting recipients of such messages who click on the hyperlink or forward such messages compromised the safety of their funds, their WhatsApp accounts and other social media profiles, as well as those of friends and family on their contact list.
The BoG, has, therefore, advised the public to delete such messages upon receipt and desist from forwarding them to others and also remove any member(s) on social media platforms from whom such messages are received as their accounts may have been compromised.
Again, it has urged the pubic to verify with the BoG or other relevant authorities, the licensing status of persons or entities, prior to depositing funds with them or patronising their services.
The newspaper says that historically, women have always been the spine that holds Ghana’s economy in place. Doubting this will be denying the reality of things, at least from the Ghanaian perspective.
Regardless of the fact that women’s roles and participation in economic activity have been defined along socio-cultural lines, women continuously make huge strides in different endeavours that keep making significant contributions to the Ghanaian economy.
Available data show that women account for approximately 50 per cent of the labour force and are found in almost all kinds of economic activities in agriculture, industry and services.
Women are also known to be the main actors in Ghana’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector – a sector that is known to be the anchor on which Ghana’s economy hangs.
SMEs represent about 92 per cent of businesses, largely within the private sector, and contribute about 70 per cent of Ghana’s gross domestic product (GDP).
In terms of formal sector employment, they account for just over half of all full-time employment, with the percentage likely much higher in the informal sector.
Within the Ghanaian SME sector, women hold a huge sway. According to the World Bank, 44 per cent of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Ghana are owned by women. On the African continent, apart from Uganda, Ghana has the most women entrepreneurs according to the 2019 MasterCard Index of Women Entrepreneurs.
GIK/APA