The Finance Minister’s assertion that country’s ability to realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and meet the climate action commitments is heavily dependent on the strength and health of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the country’s ability to realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and meet the climate action commitments is heavily dependent on the strength and health of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs,) the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has said.
He said MSMEs employed more than 80 per cent of the workforce and generate about 70 of the national output.
Opening the Virtual 2022 Accra SDGs Investment Fair in Accra, Mr Ofori-Atta, said the government would support the development of sustainable MSMEs and the transition of existing MSMEs to more sustainable business models.
“The Accra SDGs Investment Fair is one of the ways we seek to do this,” he said.
Mr Ofori-Atta said, the circumstances of the last three years had highlighted how critically interdependent “we are as a world.”
“While we have always had a certain sense of this interdependence as globalisation evolved; the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, with their subsequent rippling effects across sectors and international borders drove home this reality,” Mr Ofori-Atta, stated.
The Minister of Finance said with less than eight years to realise the 2030 Agenda, there was the need for the government to intensify its partnership with the private sector to redirect resources towards the areas of development which had far reaching impacts in the sense of touching more lives and over a much longer time scale.
“This means re-engaging the private sector about developing and investing in interventions that not only are economically and commercially viable, but even more critically those that are environmentally and socially transformational,” Mr Ofori-Atta, stated.
The newspaper says that the Minister for Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has reiterated government’s plans of stabilising the economy on the back of the global economic crises.
According to him, at a time when the world was dealing with a cost-of-living crisis, rising energy prices and supply-demand imbalances in several commodity markets occasioned by the geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, government was keen on instituting appropriate measures that would lead to the transformation of the economy.
He said this on the #PatrioticSpaces, a live virtual conversation platform on social networking site, Twitter last Wednesday.
Speaking on the topic “Progressing amidst Global Crises”, Mr Nkrumah said, while emerging challenges had largely impacted Ghana’s economy, government was unrelenting in stabilizing the economy and sending it back to its 2019 levels.
“There are a lot of investments going into enterprise. The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) is pumping a lot of money to support young businesspeople while industry is also flourishing. We are opening more export channels so that we can earn more foreign exchange. The plan is to stabilize the economy and invest in the growth driving sectors of the economy.
“These are the key initiatives that will ensure that we can get economic activities up and running. Once economic activities are running, productivity is high and people start earning decent incomes and are improving their quality of lives,” the Minister said.
In doing so, the Minister said government would continue to invest in the real sectors of the economy particularly in sectors such as agriculture, industry, and youth entrepreneurship and aggressively push its export promotion agenda by hand-holding non-traditional exporters to stimulate higher export of Ghanaian commodities.
This, he said, would create more jobs, increase people’s income and at the same time, help turn the economy around and push Ghana back to the path of prosperity.
The Graphic reports that Ghana’s leadership in the rule of law on the African continent has been acknowledged by the newly appointed Attorney-General of the United Kingdom, Michael Ellis.
Speaking at a meeting with Ghana’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, in his office at the House of Commons in London, UK, last Thursday, Mr Ellis also praised Ghana for the strength of its justice system.
Mr Dame had been the guest of Cambridge University for its 39th Annual Symposium on Economic Crime, at which he had given an address on September 5, 2022.
It was the first official meeting Mr Ellis, who had been appointed as Attorney-General by the new Prime Minister a day before, held with any guest.
The two Attorneys-General discussed issues bordering on economic crimes, reforms of the criminal justice system to achieve speedy and efficient delivery of justice, the application of the death penalty, the roles of their offices in the drafting of legislation in their respective countries, as well as other matters of mutual concern to Ghana and the UK.
Mr Ellis acknowledged efforts by Ghana to reform its criminal jurisprudence through the introduction of plea bargaining, a move driven by the efforts of the Attorney-General.
He expressed the hope that the reform would be implemented efficiently to achieve the expected goals.
The UK Attorney-General expressed his deep appreciation for the position taken by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Describing the President’s position as exemplary, he said it underscored the status of Ghana as a strong voice on global issues.
Mr Dame expressed his appreciation for being the first guest of the UK Attorney-General on his first full day at work.
The newspaper says that a Book and Reading policy is in the offing to address the needs of the country’s book industry and promote reading among the public.
The policy, which is at the draft stage and being spearheaded by the Ghana Book Development Council (GBDC), is expected to address pertinent issues, such as copyright, matters of professionalism, among others, for a vibrant and sustainable industry that adequately contributes to the development of the country.
In view of that, the council has commenced stakeholder engagements to seek inputs into the policy, which is expected to be ready by December 2022.
Last Friday, one of such engagements was held in Accra, at which representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Ghana Institute of Languages, the National Development Planning Commission, the Bureau of Ghana Languages, the Ghana Library Board, the Ghana Publishers Association, among others, were in attendance.
Speaking with the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the event, the Executive Director of the GBDC, Ernesticia Lartey Asuinura, said over the years, there had been attempts by successive governments to develop a vibrant domestic book industry to serve the needs of the country.
She said the goal of the policy was to develop the book industry to promote indigenous authorship and publishing of all genre of books and also ensure an efficient system for book production and distribution.
Additionally, she said, it would strengthen coordination and collaboration among stakeholders, enhance human capacity, promote the habit of reading and support the establishment and growth of libraries at all levels.
GIK/APA