The support of the United Kingdom (UK) of 70 Husky armoured vehicles for security operations in the northern parts of Ghana and the appeal to African Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to implement policies that will enhance their rating to attract global investments with favourable terms are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that the United Kingdom (UK) is supporting Ghana with 70 Husky armoured vehicles for security operations in the northern parts of Ghana.
The UK Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford has arrived in Ghana to announce the new UK-Ghana defence deal.
Ghana has launched a public campaign on terrorism alertness dubbed, “See something, say something” as part of efforts to help deal with the terrorists threat in the West African sub-region.
Within the first quarter of 2022, the African continent has experienced about 346 terrorists attacks in various countries.
Out of these, 49 per cent of them have occurred in the West African sub-region.
This clearly indicates that the sub-region has become a hotbed for terrorism.
It is following this that the public campaign has been launched in Ghana for any person who notices anything unusual about the security situation, to inform the various agencies by dialing 999 (toll free) or use any of the security agencies phone numbers or social media handles.
The newspaper says that the African Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) have been tasked to implement policies that will enhance their rating to attract global investments with favourable terms.
This will help to support the development of the continent.
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, who made the call at the 2022 annual General Assembly of the Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI) in Accra on May 24, 2022, on the theme: “Unlocking Innovative resources for development finance: Agenda for African DFIs”, observed that DFIs all over the world complement government efforts through investments in critical sectors that promoted growth and development.
He noted that for effective financing of Africa’s development in the face of rising inflation and interest rates, soaring sovereign debt levels and low domestic revenue generation, African DFIs should seek to identify and unlock innovative resources by expanding beyond the current sources of funds.
In a keynote address read on his behalf by the Head of Banking Supervision Department of the BoG, Osei Gyasi, the Governor said in spite of the large number of Africa DFIs, access to global debt capital and loan markets continue to be dominated by a few leading ones due to innovations in credit enhancements and structuring.
The African DFIs, he said, needed to create a pool of bankable projects to attract private capital.
McKinney and company, he said, has estimated that Africa’s annual investment in power infrastructure would reach about $55 billion by 2025 from $33 billion in 2015.
Over the same period, annual investment in transport infrastructure, he added, would also need to increase to about $45 billion from $20 billion.
The Graphic also reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed the removal of all structures on watercourses as a key intervention to stop the perennial floods in parts of the country.
He has also charged metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) to ensure that, with immediate effect, every obstruction to the free flow of water, as well as developments along watercourses, is removed.
The President gave the directive when he commissioned two dredgers and marine equipment by Dredge Masters Limited (DML), a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of companies (JGC), on May 25, 2022.
The equipment, which adds to the €54-million investment the company has made in marine equipment, has the capability of dredging up to 16 metres deep and also carrying out large-scale reclamation.
The IHC Beaver 50 dredgers can undertake mega projects at ports and harbours, reservoirs and dams, reclamation of land from the sea, environmental and climate change mitigation works, flood control activities, among others.
President Akufo-Addo said to ensure that the directives were strictly complied with, a monitoring unit had been established at the Jubilee House that would be reporting directly to him on the progress of implementation of the measures.
“I am, thus, putting all MMDCEs on notice. You will be held accountable for any breaches that result in damage from flooding. As the President of the Republic, I will not allow the selfish acts of a few to jeopardise the collective future of the rest of us,” the President said.
The President said MMDCEs were to ensure the strict adherence of developers to the planning laws of the country and sanction staff who had to issue permits for structures to be built on watercourses to serve as a deterrent to others who sought to engage in that act.
The Ghanaian Times says that new figures from the Bank of Ghana have shown that Ghana’s total balance of trade recorded a surplus of US$1.33 billion in the first four months of this year.
This, according to the Central Bank’s Summary of Economic and Financial Data, is equivalent to 1.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The surplus recorded is higher than the US$1.1 billion recorded in the entire 2021.
The figures which summarise Ghana’s economic activities in the month of April stated that Ghana’s total exports increased to US$6.1 billion as of April 2022.
This was a 34 percentage points increase from the US$4.5 billion recorded in March.
The increase in the trade balance can be attributed to the increase in the price of crude oil on the world market and an increase in gold production in the country.
The BoG data further revealed that gold dominated the total value of exports, recording US$1.87 billion in April this year, up from US$1.4 billion recorded in March.
Oil followed suit with US$1.85 billion worth of exports in the same month under review.
Although cocoa exports also rose by 24 percentage points to record US$1.11 billion in April compared to the US$895 million registered in March, the amount of exports declined when compared to the US$1.29 billion gotten in April last year.
Meanwhile, the total amount of imports for April 2022 stood at US$4.77 billion.
GIK/APA