Business24 Newspaper 26th March, 2021

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FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021

BUSINESS24.COM.GH

NO. B24 / 176 | NEWS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021

Expert warns rising piracy could drive up freight cost

GRA, GIPC key to achieving Ghana Cares— Ofori-Atta

By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

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inance Minister-designate Ken Ofori-Atta has identified the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) as institutions that are key to the achievement of the GH¢100bn Ghana Cares “Obaatan pa” programme initiated by government.

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Time to explore deep waters for oil, says Amoako-Tuffuor Dr. Kamal Deen wants security agencies to have direct access to government funds for retooling and augmenting their capacity

By Patrick Paintsil p_paintsil@hotmail.com

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ore kidnappings took place in the Gulf of Guinea in the first two months of 2021 alone than the entire first quarter of 2020, as piracy and other sea-related crimes continue to bedevil that stretch of the Atlantic Ocean.

Executive Director of the Center for Maritime Law and Security Africa (CEMLAWSAfrica), Capt. (Rtd) Dr. KamalDeen Ali, said the rate of piracy and crime could make the region insecure for ships, which could increase the cost of freight to shippers.

“Aside putting lives at risk, increased piracy in the Gulf

ECONOMIC INDICATORS EXCHANGE RATE (INT. RATE)

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14.5% 14.77%

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11.4% OF GDP

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US$1 = GHC 5.7606

GHANA REFERENCE RATE PROJECTED GDP GROWTH RATE

region also means cost of international trade in the subregion would continue to soar to unbearable levels. Not only will insurance on ship increase but also insurance on crew, and that will mean higher freight charges that will have to recovered on imports.”

4.2% GHC 5.13

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he secretary to the government’s Economic Management Team (EMT), Prof. Joe Amoako-Tuffour, says it’s time the country did more exploration of oil in deep waters if it still wants to remain an oil producer.

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$543.75

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$123.55

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Editorial / News

FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021

Editorial

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Piracy remains troublesome

ccording to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the Gulf of Guinea remains a hot spot for piracy, accounting for the vast majority of sea-going hostage seizures and kidnappings globally.

As per IMB’s report, crew kidnapping in the region accounted for 95% of the world’s crew kidnappings.

The Executive Director of Centre for Maritime Law and Security Africa and a former Ghanaian naval officer, Dr. Kamal-Deen Ali, explained that, while the West African attacks were initially concentrated offshore Nigeria, they have since spread to waters off Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon,

Ghana, Togo and Cameroon”.

According to the maritime security expert, there are many players now involved in mass kidnappings, which calls for swift intervention from Gulf of Guinea states to stem the menace and reposition the gulf as a safe haven for international trade.

Already, the attacks have prompted insurers to hike rates for ships transiting in the region and adding extra clauses for protection.

Shipping giants like Maersk which controls 15% of global freight have equally expressed concern about the rising cost and high insurance for vessels transiting in West Africa.

According to Dr. Kamal-Deen

Ali, the rate of piracy and crime could make the region insecure for ships, which could increase the cost of freight to shippers.

“Aside putting lives at risk, increased piracy in the Gulf region also means cost of international trade in the subregion would continue to soar to unbearable levels. Not only will insurance on ship increase but also insurance on crew, and that will mean higher freight charges that will have to be recovered on imports,” he said.

This paper believes that whatever the cause of piracy, there is the need for a combined and common approach across nations to make the shipping lanes safe for commerce and crews.

Expert warns rising piracy could drive up freight cost Continued from cover

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According to the maritime security expert, there are many players now involved in mass kidnappings, which calls for swift intervention from Gulf of Guinea states to stem the menace and reposition the gulf as a safe haven for international trade.

“For every crime, once we allow it to fester, those involved in the crime will perfect it. The business model of the crime has brought more money to the actors, and they are able to themselves get faster boats to conduct their activities,” he said.

Although Dr. Kamal Deen acknowledged some regional efforts to fight the problem, like the Yaoundé architecture for maritime security, he called on individual nations to be more proactive in the fight against piracy.

He said security agencies should have direct access to government funds for retooling and augmenting their capacity if they are to match up to the strength and sophistication of pirates.

Dr. Kamal-Deen Ali

Specifically, he urged the government of Nigeria to expedite action against piracy, since most of the issues of piracy are generated within that jurisdiction.

“If we are to make headway regionally, 90 percent of that effort has to come from Nigeria because generally, the piracy

groups usually operate from the Niger Delta area,” he opined.

He was also of the opinion that a more coordinated approach could help address the issue since piracy organisations have demonstrated higher sophistication in terms of resources, planning, hostage accommodation and negotiations.

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FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021

GRA, GIPC key to achieving Ghana Cares—Ofori-Atta Continued from cover The post-Covid Cares programme is expected to stabilise, revitalise and transform Ghana’s economy and create jobs and prosperity for Ghanaians

over a three-year period.

Responding to questions on the programme at his vetting before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Thursday, Mr. Ofori-Atta said, “The issue going forward is how do we fund such

a programme in the new normal that we see. What we [decided] was that we will have a different entity working within GRA to look at ways to raise an additional GH¢30bn outside what they raise for government.

Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister-designate

“Also, GH¢70bn will be publicprivate sector-led. In this regard, we will be working closely with GIPC to determine partners in the international sphere, who will then bring this resource to bear.”

Mr. Ofori-Atta said the Cares programme will grow the country’s economy, with real GDP expected to increase by 5 percent in 2021.

“Amidst a historic global recession, Ghana’s economy has shown resilience and robustness, outperforming its peers. The Ghana Cares programme’s implementation will see growth rebound to 5 percent, and that is why we are confident that we will emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic with a stronger and more resilient economy,” he added.

The Cares programme is sequenced in two phases: the stabilisation phase and the medium-term revitalisation phase. It is expected to provide the necessary support to businesses that have been dealt a blow by the global pandemic.

Time to explore deep waters for oil, says Amoako-Tuffuor Continued from cover In an interview with Business24, Prof. Amoako-Tuffuor said the country risks exhausting its hydrocarbons in the next 10 years if it doesn’t move into deep waters to explore oil.

“We have to be confident to explore, because if we don’t explore, we won’t have oil. So it’s all hands on deck to make sure that we do more exploration into deep waters; otherwise, we will have all our oil stranded underground,” he said.

Asked if the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation is doing well as a national oil company, he said the conversation should be on whether the country will be producing oil in the next 10 years, since GNPC will not be relevant if there is no oil.

“Moving into deep waters is not child’s play. Very few companies can do deep waters, so the conversation is not so much about whether [the] Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) will exist or Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is doing well.

“Yes, GNPC is doing very well, [but] the oil industry is an expensive one and you don’t venture if you have no money,”

he said.

Dr. Steve Manteaw, a former chairman of PIAC, said after 10 years of oil production, the nation can be proud of the fact that it has managed to create an avenue through which citizens are able to participate in discussions about how oil money is being managed.

Prof. Amoako-Tuffuor

“This part of the story has been hailed globally. It means we are doing something good, and time has come for us to extend that to the mineral sector,” he told Business24.

In 2010, Ghana lifted its first oil cargo of 1.1m barrels from the Jubilee field. Ten years down the

line, 420m barrels have been produced from a total of three oil fields PIAC said in its 2020 half-year report that the government has earned US$6.2bn from the oil sector since production began a decade ago.

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News

FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021

Trade balance falls, but reserves remain strong

By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

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eclines in the volumes and prices of Ghana’s major commodities have adversely affected the trade balance in the first two months of the year, data from the Bank of Ghana has shown.

Total exports contracted by 9.2 percent year-on-year to US$2.5bn in the first two months of 2021, driven mainly by yearon-year declines of 25.8 percent and 5.6 percent in crude oil and gold exports respectively, due to lower volumes, and a 12.2 percent decline in cocoa beans exports, due to lower volumes and prices.

Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, noted that while crude oil prices gained 12.6 percent in February to settle at an average price of US$62.3 per barrel compared to US$55.3 per barrel in January, gold prices suffered some losses due to the strengthening of the US dollar and rising US Treasury yields.

Gold prices declined by 3 percent in February to US$1,810.3 per ounce compared to US$1,867 per ounce in January.

Cocoa prices also declined marginally to US$2,508.8 per tonne in February compared to the US$2,523.9 per tonne a month earlier, due to the combination of weak demand caused by the

pandemic and excess supply in Ivory Coast.

According to the central bank’s data, total imports went up by 9.6 percent to US$2.2bn, underpinned by a 12.9 percent year-on-year increase in nonoil imports due to a pick-up in economic activities.

Consequently, the trade

balance recorded a lower surplus of US$339.7m, equivalent to 0.5 percent of GDP, in the first two months of 2021 compared with US$791m, equivalent to 1.2 percent of GDP, in the same period of 2020.

Although this may be a worrying sign that pressures could mount on the cedi’s exchange rate, some economists have indicated that the country still has a positive overall balance of payments, as its current account deficit of US$2.1bn is reversed by a US$2.9bn positive balance in the capital and financial account.

The gross international reserves remained resilient at US$8.72bn, providing cover for 4.2 months of imports of goods and services, compared with the end-December 2020 position of US$8.62bn, equivalent to 4.1 months of import cover.

The reserves are projected to see a major boost from the upcoming US$5bn Eurobond issuance.

Transport Minister asks aviation players to sustain industry gains

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he Minister for Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, has tasked players in aviation to work hard to sustain the gains made in the industry over the years.

According to him, the successes achieved include the expansion of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), which has culminated in the airport being adjudged the best international airport in 2019 and 2020 in Africa.

However, he stressed that the successes risk being undermined if players in the industry do not collaborate effectively to sustain and build upon them.

He explained that aviation remains a symbolic target for terrorists, who seek to attack aircraft, airport and aviation facilities to inflict mass casualties to cause economic destruction and public fear, adding that it is only through effective collaboration by players in the industry that these threats could be curtailed.

“Safety and security are a priority of the aviation sector.

Sustaining the industry requires not only safety regulatory measures but also robust security systems both on the ground and in the air. Our progress in the aviation industry will never be sustained if we do not work

together with neighbouring countries and other players in the industry. There is the need for us to combat emerging security threats in the subregion. Our safety and security can be guaranteed through information sharing and adhering to regulatory standards in the industry.”

Mr. Asiamah made these observations on Monday when he joined Ambassador Martha Pobe, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the US Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie S. Sullivan, to commission an L3 ProVision 2 body scanner and nine explosives and narcotics trace detectors donated by the US Government to the Ghana Airports Company to beef up security activities at the KIA. The L3 ProVision 2 is an advanced personnel-screening solution which quickly screens subjects using safe, active millimeter wave radio frequency technology to reveal concealed objects made of a broad range of materials—both metallic and non-metallic. It has an advanced, state-of-the-art software that processes digitally scanned data and determines if an individual can be cleared through the checkpoint.

The Minister appealed to the Transport Security

Administration of the United States Department of Homeland Security to further engage the government of Ghana in the spirit of international cooperation and information sharing to discuss aviation issues and other new emerging threats in the aviation industry through workshops, seminars and exchange programmes.

He said the ever-changing dynamics within the aviation industry place a huge responsibility on government to develop appropriate policies to drive the sector.

“It is significant to note that while the world’s aviation is growing at 5 percent and Africa’s is growing at 6 percent, Ghana’s is growing at the average rate of 7.9 percent per annum. This calls for a rapid development of our aviation infrastructure together with the integration of other modes of transport such as rail and road transport as well as

urban planning initiatives.”

Air Ghana will soon fly Touching on the proposed national airline for Ghana, the Minister said plans are far advanced for Air Ghana to be launched.

“Engagement with strategic partners is at an advanced stage to pave the way for its launch. This is to ensure that Ghana’s aviation industry grows to become the pivot of regional and continental flights within the West African sub-region,” he added.

Ambassador Sullivan in her remarks said the growth of the aviation sector in Ghana has increased the importance of aviation security, screening and information sharing, noting, “The airport security training and equipment programme underscores the robust security cooperation between the United States and Ghana.”

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VACANCY

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Companies

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Sahara Energy backs Fujairah to emerge as global trading hub

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he availability of locally produced fuels, enhanced automation and access to clean fuels should provide a level of market confidence in supply at the Port of Fujairah, Andrew Laven, Chief Operating Officer, Sahara Energy Resources DMCC, Dubai has said.

Speaking ahead of the upcoming virtual 12th International Fujairah Bunkering & Fuel Oil Forum (FUJCON 2021) in the United Arab Emirate (UAE), Laven said ongoing transformative projects would give traction to the drive to develop Fujairah “as a global trading hub will also support the growth in demand as activity levels continue to increase.”

“The bunker market during 2020 has had to deal with a number of challenges. At the beginning of the year, we had the IMO 2020 specification change, then following the COVID-19 pandemic, global demand and bunker markets around the world have been impacted in different ways. Hopefully 2021 will see a

return to normality and Fujairah can see growth,” he added.

Launched in 1978 and fully operational in 1983, the Port of Fujairah is the second-largest bunkering hub in the world after Singapore. It offers eneral cargo, bulk cargo, wet bulk cargo and container services. The port has a vast oil storage capacity of 10 million cubic metres with plans to enhance productivity through the extension of the storage capacity to 42 million barrels of crude oil.

Laven commended Fujairah’s leading role in the implementation of IMO 2020, noting that global transition to cleaner fuels would ultimately boost sustainability of the sector and safeguard the well-being of lives and economies across the globe. Effective since January 2020, the IMO 2020 regulation capped the sulfur content in marine fuels to 0.5% from 3.5%.

Ships are also allowed to use other compliant fuels such as marine gasoil or install scrubbers to continue to use high sulfur

Andrew Laven, Chief Operating Officer, Sahara Energy Resources DMCC

fuel oil.

He asserted that as a leading player in the UAE oil and gas sector, Sahara Energy would continue to promote investments projects aimed at ensuring availability of clean fuels. “Sustaining strategic and transparent conversations around the future of the energy sector requires the commitment and collaboration of all stakeholders. Sahara Energy and its parent organisation, Sahara Group are delighted to lend its voice to shaping the future that will best serve global well-being.”

Laven who will be speaking on Risk Management and Oil Storage alongside other speakers, said the issue of price remained critical to risk management considerations in oil and gas transactions. “But the strategy of investing in flat price without managing the price risk carries a significant amount of risk. When investing in oil, a combination of appropriate risk management and trading market structure and arbitrage can still generate material returns,” he said.

Huawei releases Innovation and Intellectual Property white paper

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uawei has published a new white paper focused on innovation and intellectual property at its Forum on Innovation and IP Prospects in 2021.

The white paper focuses on how Huawei has been a leader in innovation and intellectual property (IP) management since the 1990s. This has been key to Huawei rising as one of the world’s most influential technology powerhouses.

African consumers have benefited particularly from this, as Huawei has brought numerous impressive technologies to previously underserved areas on the continent.

These range from mobile network technologies that are affordable and reliable, to smartphones that offer incredible value for their price.

“We want to show the history of our innovation over the past 30 years and our long-term commitment to respecting, protecting, and contributing to IP,” said Huawei’s Chief Legal Officer Song Liuping.

Huawei – The leader in patent filing

“Innovation has been at the core of Huawei’s business since the company was founded,” explained Huawei’s Head of Intellectual Property Rights Jason Ding.

“Our white paper lists the number of patent applications Huawei filed, or our R&D and innovation activities, in the late 90s and early 2000s.”

5G royalty rate announced

Huawei Head of Intellectual Property Rights Jason Ding

Huawei is one of the world’s largest patent holders, and as of the end of 2020 it held over 100,00 active patents in more than 40,000 patent families worldwide.

Huawei first topped the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO’s) list of patent filers in 2008. Since then, it has finished first on this list for all but one of these years.

This has been key to the company repeatedly dominating

the market in developing important technologies, with the most notable example of this being 5G. Huawei’s innovation has been key to several African mobile networks developing high-quality networks that offer tremendous benefits for businesses – both now and in the future.

The white paper also focuses on how Huawei’s priority on intellectual property and R&D did not appear out of nowhere.

The company also announced that for multi-mode 5G smartphones, it will be providing a reasonable percentage royalty rate of the handset’s selling price and a per unit royalty cap of $2.50.

This will drive the adoption of 5G by making the cost structure for 5G implementers transparent and affordable.

This certainty and affordable licence fee structure goes a long way to ensuring that 5G smartphones are attainable to African consumers.

Huawei is therefore supporting African countries to embrace future technologies that drive economic growth, improved education, and a better quality of life.

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News

FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021

Canada supports Ghana’s agric. modernization agenda

By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

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anada is supporting Ghana to modernize it agriculture sector with the provision of 125 million Canadian dollars of assistance directly to the Government….

In an address at the launch of the 3rd Annual Women in Food and Agriculture Leadership Training and the Gold in the Soil Awards, Stephanie Brunet, Deputy Director, Development said that, Canada recognises that the agriculture sector continues to hold great potential for reducing poverty and inequality in Ghana, hence since 2017, Canada has been providing support to the government of Ghana to improve its agriculture sector through an initiative called Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG).

The MAG project is now in the fifth year of implementation and I am glad to note that tremendous successes are being recorded.

These include increases

Stephanie Brunet, Deputy Director, Development, Canada

in the adoption of relevant, productivity-enhancing technologies by both female and male farmers in Ghana, the introduction of new marketoriented approaches to farm management, improvements in major crops and many more.

“A big focus of the MAG project has been to understand the specific needs of women farmers

and to ensure that both female and male farmers are receiving the appropriate extension services to help them improve both their yields and their incomes,” Brunet said.

“This is in line with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance policy and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 on Gender Equality. Through

our partnerships with the government and organizations like the Agrihouse Foundation, we are witnessing increased empowerment and self-reliance among women in the agricultural sector.”

Deputy Director said that this has empowered women farmers to demonstrate higher levels of financial autonomy.

“As a result, they are now able to buy land, add rooms to their homes, purchase agro-processing machines, expand their agroprocessing activities, and pay school fees for their children,” she said.

“However, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to erode these gains and see women, in particular, regress deeper into poverty. That is why building resilience is very crucial,” Deputy Director noted.

In light of this, Canada has requested a revision of the MAG work plans and also conducted studies into the impact of the pandemic on women farmers.

Recommendations from these studies have provided important inputs to the 2021 work plans.

Ghanaians increasingly using herbal toothpastes for maximum oral health with great results

By Naa Adoley Pappoe

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lobally, consumers are showing a keen liking and affinity for products made using natural raw materials. This has been true in various product categories and certainly, oral care hasn’t been left behind.

Increasingly, natural options in oral care and the rising awareness of the importance of oral hygiene have become a major driving force for growth in the oral care category.

Herbal toothpaste is becoming more and more popular for a good reason.

The global Herbal Toothpaste Market is expected to touch USD 2.6 billion by the end of 2025, according to a new report by Million Insights. The market is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 8.0% from 2019 to 2025. In Ghana the natural toothpaste segment is worth $2.7M and growing at an exponential rate of 80% yearon-year. Changing consumer preferences towards natural products owing to rising health awareness is a major factor driving the growth of the market.

As more shoppers look for natural alternatives in oral care, many brands are positioning themselves to offer the right solutions.

The health of our teeth, gums and the entire mouth is a very important part of our overall health. With that in mind, doesn’t it make sense to use the healthiest products out there for your teeth?

Most families have started eating organic and clean foods as a way of living healthy. This has motivated oral care companies to get innovative in developing toothpastes that are natural to give families a more holistic approach to all aspects of their life.

When we smile, our teeth should always spark with fresh breath that gives us the confidence to get closer to family, friends and loved ones.

Natural toothpastes use natural ingredients like mint, lemon, charcoal and others to freshen breath and whiten teeth. They are free of artificial flavoring and dyes. Many natural toothpastes use natural ingredients like hydrated silica to whiten teeth,

which is gentler on your teeth than artificial bleaching agents found in common toothpastes.

The burden of oral health diseases remains one of the major public health challenges in the country because its prevalence continues to be unacceptably high. As such, brands have committed to provide great oral care solutions that meet the needs of the public.

One such brand is Pepsodent Ghana which has introduced a new natural variant Pepsodent Herbal to meet the growing consumer preference for natural products.

Just like other variants, it provides triple protection as the infused Green Tea herbal extract

helps to provide consumers with strong teeth and gums, and allround cavity protection, fresh breath, and white teeth The carefully selected natural extracts and herbs are uniquely formulated to release inner heat, repair and protect gum tissue and give an all-round cooling sensation when used.

For thorough cleansing and improved dental health, you might want to try the new Pepsodent Herbal - the fast-acting toothpaste. It comes complete with a green tea extract that reaches in between your teeth and thoroughly cleanses from the gums, keeping your mouth sparkling clean and your breath fresh.

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Agrihouse launches 3rd WOFAGRIC to empower agri-women beyond the pandemic

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grihouse foundation has launched the third edition of the Women in Food and Agriculture Leadership Training Forum (WOFAGRIC) to empower agri-women beyond the pandemic.

The WOFAGRIC project was established in 2019 by Agrihouse Foundation to enable women develop their agricultural skills, motivate, mentor and build upon their capabilities to becoming independent.

“At WOFAGRIC, we teach women through competence-base approaches, demonstrations, and soft skills they can employ to build vibrant agribusinesses. We celebrate their work in the agric sector, provide them support and urge them to do more. This goes a long run to motivate other women to venture into the fields of agriculture business,” the Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Ms. Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa said at the launch of the 3rd WOFAGRIC. The platform has also been a source of women empowerment since its inception, whiles acknowledging the efforts of women-farmers in the country, and awarding a number of the through the Gold in the Soil Awards scheme.

Ms. Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, Executive Director, Agrihouse Foundation

According to the Executive Director, this year, Agrihouse is receiving nominations for the Gold in the Soil Awards, from both Upper East and Upper West Region. She said this is the first time the Foundation is opening up nominations in such a way, to allow more women from culturally diverse backgrounds an opportunity to participate in the awards scheme, “This year’s event is going to be bigger and better; more practical, especially in this time of COVID-19.

We want to build the resilience of our agri women and ensure that in this critical time, they don’t just survive as agriprenures, but also thrive now and beyond the

epidemic. This year’s activities will expose them to more practical competence-based skills in bookkeeping; applying for bank loans; managings farm and agribusiness, among other skills.

The theme is, ‘women in agric – surviving, thriving & making waves, beyond the pandemic,” she said.

In Ghana, agriculture remains the predominant economic activity, employing 55 percent of the workforce and producing 45 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Approximately, 70 percent of the rural population depends on agricultural activities as a source of income. Smallholder

farmers - the majority of whom are women - on family operated farms generate 80 percent of total agricultural production in Ghana. As of 2003, 49.4 percent of the female population were employed in the agricultural sector, compared to 51.7 percent of the male population.

Through the WOFAGRIC and Gold in the Soil Award, agri-women have been able to access loan facilities to support their farms and businesses.

Furthermore, information and guidance provided by the Netherlands embassy and the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) have equipped some of the women farmers on the standard procedures, best practices and how to go documentations to export their produce. This has helped about 13 women to start the process to go into exportation.

In 2020, at the end of the tw0-day event, 25% of women who were not into agribusiness but attended the program had decided to start up their own agri-projects, as a result of the competence based training and soft skills, they had acquired; about 900 women were groomed to take up leadership roles and build their capacities, to drive them towards growth and expansion of their agribusinesses.

Survey to track impacts of COVID-19 on Agribusinesses in Ghana begins

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he Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), is conducting an Agribusiness Tracker Survey from Monday, 15 March to Thursday 15 April 2021 to track the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on agribusinesses in Ghana.

The survey (agribusiness tracker) which involves the use of telephone interview for data collection will identify and measure the impact of the coronavirus disease on small, medium and large establishments operating in the country.

The survey will also assess measures put in place by agribusinesses to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 as well as efforts to build better recovery for businesses. The outcome of the survey will enable government and development partners come out with measures to alleviate the impact of the disease on agribusinesses.

Commenting on the survey, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician noted that results from the survey will inform policy directions in protecting jobs and safeguarding progress of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The findings will also provide insights

into keeping the promise of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) alive as a tool to handle future pandemics and protect jobs/businesses.

The Ghana Statistical Service wishes to assure owners of establishments that information provided on businesses will not

be disclosed to anyone or entity in any form.

The Government Statistician noted that the data collection does not require payment of money, and under no circumstance should an establishment be required to pay any amount to any person.

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Feature

FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021

Creative coding for kids

Is Creative Coding the key to getting all children interested in Computer Science?

however, thrown out as a tool to create something meaningful or “cool”.

Two essential questions and challenges that the team of the Code it! learning platform continues to answer, and from experience in teaching computer science, are: • How can we spark interest in computer science in all children?

• How do we ensure all children find programming meaningful?

Creative coding might be an answer, at least for us, it is.

In mandatory programming workshops in schools, for instance, it can be difficult to motivate all kids. To find a common ground in a group with vastly different interests can be tough. In our experience, there are three components that are important to spark interest for coding across the aisle. The access must be easy; it should be possible to create fast results with little coding and the projects must be meaningful for the kids– in the sense that they can relate to them or see some links to real life.

To make coding meaningful is in our experience the key aspect to generate a long-term interest for computer science in kids.

In our school workshops, we worked for years almost exclusively with Scratch programming. Scratch is one of the greatest tools to get started with programming: it is easily accessible, and kids can create minor projects quickly. But there are also some weaknesses.

It does not work well as a selflearning tool because the variety of blocks and the many elements of the interface are overwhelming for beginners and can lead to frustration. With many older students, Scratch has the image of a “coding environment for kids”,

Building new programming tools Based on these experiences, we developed tools that contain the strengths of Scratch and address some of its weaknesses.

The general approach of Code it! is to combine block-based programming with different reallife applications. Applications that kids and youth often use like games or something they would like to use or create, like Apps or art objects. Besides that, we have created courses using a step-bystep teaching method. Referring to the cognitive load theory, the learners should have only those commands available which they need to solve the tasks at hand.

Code it! provides an excellent introduction for self-learners.

The first application we built was a game - “The Duck Race”.

We chose a game because almost all children love to play.

Unfortunately, most games’ internal gameplay logic limits the student’s creative freedom.

That is why we started looking for other applications to broaden the possibilities for the students.

In the search for other applications with great creative potential, we discovered Processing. Processing is a framework specifically designed for artists. The idea behind Processing is to provide nonprogrammers with a tool with which they can easily create images and animations of high visual and aesthetical quality.

Processing stands for an old but long-time neglected field of programming - creative coding, the artistic expression through programming.

In our learning platform–app. code-it-studio.de–we created a

free-to-use web-based editor that links P5.js–the JavaScript-Version of Processing–with Blockly, the block programming library used

by Scratch and many others. The Processing editor allows you to create impressive pictures with just a few blocks. With every new block-type and every new programming concept, the creative possibilities multiply. The participants in our workshops, girls, and boys alike, are always enthusiastic about the pictures and animations they create.

Creative coding made easy Our editor does not include all Processing features. Following the didactic reduction method, we have limited the core functionality of the editor to the essential functions (e.g., shapes, loops, logic). In the future, we will provide more functions for experienced users that can be loaded as extensions - functions for photos, videos, sounds, and machine learning. The editor also allows an easy transition to text programming. The block program can be displayed as source code and can be exported to the Processing web editor.

In 2019 we published an “Hour of Code” course to introduce creative coding and the Processing-Blockly editor.

Additionally, we are creating free teaching material–a collection of projects based on the concepts introduced in the “Hour of Code”.

Get inspired On our learning platform, we provide the teaching material for our Processing editor like teacher handouts and tutorials.

Besides our material, there are a lot of great teaching resources for Processing on the internet that can be adopted. The Processing Foundation actively

promotes the use of Processing for educational purposes. There is also a variety of teaching material for introducing creative coding: e.g. the curriculum by CS4all (https://nycdoe-cs4all. g i t h u b . i o /u n i t s / 1 / l e s s o n s / lesson_1.1), the Khan Academy ( h t t p s : //w w w. k h a n a c ad e my. o r g /c o m p u t i n g /c o m p u t e r programming/programming) or the excellent books and tutorials from Daniel Shiffman, who also runs one of the most entertaining programming YouTube channels “The Coding Train” (https://www. youtube.com/user/shiffman/).

The large Processing community of artists, activists, and educators is an almost endless source of inspiration for new projects.

Processing is not only a great tool to teach programming, but it is also suitable for projects in many other areas. It can be used in art classes to teach about space, color, shape, perspective, proportion, or aesthetics; in math classes, one can use it for algebra and geometry; in physics classes, it can provide simulations and illustrations. There are countless projects on the internet that can serve as templates: Instagram filters, picture stories, video animations, art installations, or even machine learning applications.

In our experience, creative coding is an excellent starting point to get kids interested in coding. It allows fast results, provides almost endless creative possibilities, and as a “real world” application leads to high motivation right from the start, even with older students.

Author: Andreas Koch, Code it!

Studios, Code for Afrika, (member, Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana). For comments, contact andreas.koch@code-it-studio.de or richard.amanfu@iipgh.org

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Feature

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A Concert of Powers for a Global Era

RICHARD N. HAASS, CHARLES A. KUPCHAN In the nineteenth century, the Concert of Europe successfully preserved peace for a half-century in the absence of a dominant power and amid ideological diversity. Something similar would be a boon to global governance today.

NEW YORK – Last week’s testy US-China dialogue in Alaska augurs poorly for bilateral relations. And the mounting rivalry between the two countries clearly indicates that the emerging world of multiple power centers could presage an era of increased competition and conflict.

A big part of the problem is that the existing international governance architecture, much of it erected soon after World War II, is outdated and not up to the task of preserving global stability.

The US-centered alliance system is a club of democracies, poorly suited to fostering cooperation across ideological lines. Fly-in, fly-out G7 or G20 summits are episodic and spend too much time haggling over communiqués.

The United Nations provides a standing global forum, but its Security Council invites grandstanding and paralysis among veto-wielding permanent members.

What is needed is a global concert of powers – an informal steering group of the world’s most influential countries. The history of nineteenth-century

Europe points the way. The Concert of Europe – a grouping of Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria formed in 1815 – successfully preserved peace for a half-century in the absence of a dominant power and amid ideological diversity. The Concert of Europe rested on a mutual commitment to rely on regular communication and the peaceful resolution of disputes to uphold the territorial settlement that ended the bloody Napoleonic Wars.

A global concert offers the best vehicle for managing a world no longer dominated by the United States and the West. The members would be China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, and the US, collectively representing roughly 70% of world GDP and global military spending. Including these six heavyweights would give a global concert geopolitical clout while protecting it from becoming an unwieldy talking shop.

Concert members would send senior permanent representatives to a standing headquarters in a place determined through mutual agreement. Summits would occur on a regular basis and as needed to address crises. Although they would not be formal members, four regional organizations – the African Union, the Arab League, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the Organization of American States – would maintain permanent delegations at the concert’s headquarters.

When discussing issues affecting these regions, concert members

would invite delegates from these bodies and other relevant countries to join meetings.

A contemporary concert, like its nineteenth-century forebear, would enable sustained strategic dialogue. It would bring to the table the most influential states, regardless of their regime type, thereby separating ideological differences over domestic governance from matters requiring international cooperation. It would shun formal procedures and codified rules, instead relying on persuasion and compromise to build consensus.

The concert would be a consultative, not a decisionmaking body, addressing emerging crises, fashioning new rules of the road, and building support for collective initiatives.

It would leave operational oversight to the UN and other existing bodies. The concert would thus augment, not supplant, the current international architecture, by sitting atop it to tee up decisions that could then be taken and implemented elsewhere.

Like the Concert of Europe, a contemporary concert would promote stability by privileging the territorial status quo and a view of sovereignty that precludes, except in the case of international consensus, the use of military force or other coercive means to alter existing borders or topple regimes. Members would reserve the right to take unilateral action when they deem their vital interests to be at stake. Ideally, sustained strategic dialogue

would make unilateral moves less frequent and destabilizing.

The concert would also seek to generate collective responses to longer-term challenges, such as combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as well as terrorist networks, promoting global health, forging norms in cyberspace, and combating climate change. These important matters often fall between institutional cracks that the concert could fill.

Imagine what might have been had a global concert taken shape after the Cold War. The major powers might have been able to avert, or at least make far less bloody, the civil wars in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Syria.

Russia and the US might have been able to forge common ground on a security architecture for Europe, heading off ongoing frictions over NATO expansion and preventing Russian landgrabs in Georgia and Ukraine.

The coronavirus pandemic might have been better contained had a great-power steering group coordinated a response from day one.

Looking forward, a concert of global powers would be a venue for minimizing the risk that USChina differences over Taiwan trigger a major clash. It could facilitate the peaceful resolution of political stalemates in places like Afghanistan and Venezuela.

And it could set parameters to limit the interference of countries in each other’s internal politics.

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