The International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission to Ghana has ended their third review visit to the country but has raised questions about some amendments made to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Act. The visit, which was seen by many as emergency one, was to help the staff working on Ghana‘s program to get first-hand … Read more
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), under its five year project to mitigate the effects of climate change in the country’s cocoa landscape, has in the past two years supplied 800,000 economic tree seedlings to more than 6,000 farmers in growing areas of the cash crop. The project named the “Environment Sustainability and Policy for … Read more
Mr Daniel Asiedu, the Managing Director of the Agricultural Development Bank (adb), has attributed the bank’s award as the Best Bank in Financing Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to its readiness to take risks in the competitive market. “The adb emerged tops in financing agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector, which is recognised as the backbone of … Read more
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the China Development Bank (CDB) are to enhance their cooperation towards yielding mutual dividends in the development of transport and maritime infrastructure, energy, agriculture and health. Conferring with a delegation from the CDB at the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja, on Wednesday, the ECOWAS Commission’s President, Marcel … Read more
The fund will be used to support the education of Edwin’s two children The Finance Department of Stanbic Bank has set up a GHC10,000 fund in memory of Edwin Yaw Augustt, a teacher who lost his life to an End Stage of Renal disease. The fund will be used to support the education of Edwin’s … Read more
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has warned management of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to put in contingency measures to serve customers in the face of a two-day sit-down strike by workers. Workers of the country’s major power distributor are protesting the proposed privatization of the company by government. But in a statement … Read more
The Ministry of Transport has ruled against the introduction of the Terminal Handling Charges at Ghana’s ports. A statement issued and signed by the Minister of Transport, Fiifi Kwetey said, “Terminal Handling Charges (THC) cannot be introduced at the ports in Ghana as a local charge.” It added, “Terminal Handling Charges may be introduced as … Read more
Work on the $1.5 million Tema Port expansion project will begin on October 1, 2016. The project, which would be executed by China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC), is expected to increase the port’s berthing facility from 16 to 20. The expansion of the facility will not only link Ghana to the global logistic market … Read more
Public irrigation schemes in some parts of the country are under threat from the activities of illegal mining (galamsey) and real estate developers, Kwasi Asare-Mintah, Director of Planning and Coordination at the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA), has disclosed. In an interview with the B&FT, Mr. Asare-Mintah said irrigation lands in Ashaiaman, Weija, Dawhenya, Akurobi, … Read more
Exports of non-traditional products from January to December 2015 amounted to US$2.522billion or GH?9.210billion, representing an increase of 0.32% over the year 2014, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has announced. The figure represents just over half of a five-year, US$5billion target set in 2013 under the National Export Strategy. Released yesterday, the statistics indicate … Read more
Statistics recorded by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority has revealed that earnings from the agric sub-sector recorded an increase of 16.51% in 2015. According to the export authority, earnings from the agric sub-sector amounted to USD396.91million in 2015, compared to the USD340.68million recorded in 2014. The top ten leading agric products which pushed the industry’s … Read more
The Ministry of Transport will by the close of today [Friday] make public its ruling on introduction of Terminal Handling Charges (THC) fees at the ports by some shipping lines. The Transport Ministry had earlier directed the suspension of the Terminal Handling Charges at the ports after a number of shipping lines introduced it some … Read more
The Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU) has directed workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana not to attend to official duties today and Monday until government backs down on its concession plan. PUWU argues that the action is in protest of what it describes as a disrespectful attitude showed them by the Millennium Development Authority … Read more
British High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin, says it is important for Ghana to strive harder to tackle macroeconomic challenges stipulated in the three-year programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mr Benjamin wants government to pursue and meet the demands outlined in IMF fiscal support programme as it will facilitate the reversal of dwindling … Read more
The Ministry of Transport has denied reports that the new national airline will commence operations by October this year. According to the Transport Ministry , the national airline cannot commence operations when the technical and financial proposals from the interested airlines have not been received by the transactional advisor, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). Speaking to Citi Business … Read more
The Ghana Bankers Association has appealed to power companies to abide by rules governing the Escrow Account with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to prevent a future Legacy Debt in the power sector. The Escrow Account was created as part of the Petroleum Levy Law passed as an act of parliament to help government clear … Read more
Petroleum Commission is confident more oil would be discovered in the very near future to the benefit of the economy. The commission has licensed several companies to prospect for oil and gas both onshore and off-shore. The companies are stepping up exploration activities towards finding oil-rich wells in the country. Commercial production of oil at … Read more
Some banks are impressing on the Bank of Ghana the need to possibly streamline the regulations for Mobile Financial Services. The Central Bank announced a new set of guidelines for the service about a year ago to improve money transfer via mobile phones. The new regulatory regime among others empowered telecom companies to also own … Read more
Energy analyst Kwame Jantuah has called for the expansion of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) in order to refine crude from Ghanaian production fields for local consumption. According to Mr Jantuah, the country cannot continue to import refined oil while holding huge stocks of crude in its reserves. Currently, all the oil produced at Jubilee … Read more
Finance Minister Seth Terkper has expressed hope that a milestone agreement reached with creditors over VRA’s debts will be enough to ease holdup in discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the ongoing bailout programme. The Minister, on Wednesday, told the press at a meeting also attended by bigshots of the banks the VRA … Read more