Business24 Newspaper 19th April, 2021

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BUSINESS24.COM.GH

NO. B24 / 184 | NEWS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

MONDAY APRIL 19, 2021

High inflation to prevent interest rate cut in 2021—EIU

2020 GDP growth could surpass 0.9%, says analyst

By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

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hana’s 2020 economic growth will probably surpass the official projection of 0.9 percent, Databank economist Courage Kingsley Martey has said ahead of the release of provisional GDP numbers by the Ghana Statistical Service on Wednesday.

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eTranzact secures Enhanced PSP license from BoG

By Nii Annerquaye Abbey annerquaye@gmail.com

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he Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the London-based business intelligence firm, says

it does not see any room for the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to reduce the monetary policy rate— which has an effect on the cost of credit—in the rest of the year.

The central bank has kept the policy rate unchanged for

ECONOMIC INDICATORS EXCHANGE RATE (INT. RATE)

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POLICY RATE

14.5% 14.77%

OVERALL FISCAL DEFICIT

11.4% OF GDP

AVERAGE PETROL & DIESEL PRICE:

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INTERNATIONAL MARKET US$1 = GHC 5.7606

GHANA REFERENCE RATE PROJECTED GDP GROWTH RATE

12 months, having reduced it by 150 basis points to 14.5 percent when the pandemic hit the country’s shores in March 2020.

eTranzact Ghana Limited, a leading electronic payment services provider, has secured an enhanced Payment Service Provider (PSP) license from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in accordance with the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987).

4.2% GHC 5.13

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Editorial / News

MONDAY APRIL 19, 2021

Editorial

Healthy capital market vital

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bout two years ago, a number of fund management companies incurred the wrath of their regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

These companies had had a field day largely flouting the rules of the regulator without so much of punitive actions.

The regulator stepped in at a time that many considered too late given that the number of locked up funds had simply ballooned as these companies had more time to take more funds.

The aftermath of the regulator’s actions has not been easy for investors especially with some still chasing after their locked up funds in some of these collapsed companies.

It refreshing to hear that the regulator is taking steps to

ensure that the factors that led to the mess are properly taken care of.

According to the commission, its new guidelines are to strengthen the market, increase product offering and diversity and support future growth.

One of the key takeaways for the regulator is the sheer scale of corporate governance weaknesses which it responded to by introducing conduct of business guidelines in which market operators were required to issue annual reports to allow investors to know their standing.

There is no denying that these directives, when thoroughly followed, would increase the level of transparency as the Commission found out during investigations that there were related party transactions that were not done transparently.

Also, this paper agrees with the view that the revocation of licenses created space for the regulator to focus on the remaining firms and to allocate resources efficiently in supervising the firms remaining.

Regardless, the Commission needs to up its game in order to be able to supervised properly any addition to the market. It will not be right to place a cap on licenses that can be issued due to the weaknesses of the regulator.

This paper will thus urge the public to support the Commission’s overarching goal to consolidate the asset management industry and it works to ensure compliance, adequate risk management and clearly defined board roles.

High inflation to prevent interest rate cut in 2021—EIU Continued from cover

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In its April 2021 country report, the EIU said with the BoG struggling to achieve its inflation target of 6–10 percent, a policy rate reduction is unlikely this year. According to the Ghana Statistical Service, consumer price inflation stood at 10.3 percent in both February and March, having climbed from 9.9 percent in January.

“With inflation remaining near the upper bounds of the BoG’s target range (8 percent plus or minus two percentage points) and rising global commodity prices supporting supply-side inflationary pressures, we believe that the BoG will lack the scope for monetary easing.

Although the authorities will remain keen to support access to credit in the context of the ongoing pandemic, the benchmark policy rate is likely to remain on hold in 2021,” the report said.

The organisation further forecast that the BoG will progressively tighten its monetary policy in 2022–25, to 16.5 percent, as inflationary pressures start to pick up, although rates will remain low by historical standards.

“Inflation will remain elevated in 2021, declining only slightly from an annual average of 8.8 percent in 2019 to 8.4 percent in 2021. Although domestic demand is still fairly weak, supply-side price pressures (including rising global commodity prices and supply-chain disruption due to the pandemic) are keeping inflation high.

In 2022 inflation will stay elevated as global commodity prices remain high and domestic demand starts to pick up. Inflation is forecast to average 9.1 percent a year in 2022–25, remaining towards the upper end of the official target range, as weaker

Dr. Ernest Addison, BoG Governor

supply-side price pressures are offset by strengthening demand and ongoing local-currency depreciation,” the EIU stated.

Commenting on the fortunes of the cedi, which depreciated by 3.9 percent against the dollar last year, the EIU said it expects the local currency to depreciate at a much slower rate this year.

“In 2021 the cedi will depreciate at a slower rate (to an average of GH¢5.84:US$1) owing to improved domestic and global sentiment, as well as narrowing fiscal and currentaccount deficits. We then expect a slower rate of depreciation through to 2025 (when the cedi will average GH¢6.31:US$1) as monetary tightening supports the currency,” said the EIU.

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2020 GDP growth could surpass 0.9%, says analyst Continued from cover After expanding at 4.9 percent in the first quarter of last year, the economy contracted in the second and third quarters, by 3.2 percent and 1.1 percent respectively, due to the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, there were signs that economic activity picked up in the final quarter, with the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) real Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA), which it uses to gauge the strength of the economy on an ongoing basis, rising year-onyear by 10.9 percent, 11.9 percent and 8.3 percent in October to December respectively.

Further indications of expansion were given by readings on the Ghana Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) during the period, which all showed an

Courage Martey

increasing trend of economic activity. The PMI measures the rate of inventory accumulation by firm managers.

“The pace of recovery, as gauged by the BoG’s Composite

Index of Economic Activity (CIEA), is really strong. Key indicators like construction, ports activity, and VAT collections are showing an encouraging level of recovery. With the added

impetus of elections, I won’t be surprised to see overall growth for the year surpassing 0.9 percent,” said Mr. Martey in an interview.

Real GDP would however have to expand by not less than 3 percent in the fourth quarter if overall growth for the year should exceed 0.9 percent, he added.

“The COVID restrictions on some activities during the period remain a downside risk, but I remain confident that we could just creep above the 0.9 percent for 2020.”

The government has projected the economy to recover to a growth rate of 5 percent this year. However, should the 2020 expansion turn out to be better than expected, that could increase optimism about an even stronger rebound in 2021.

eTranzact secures Enhanced PSP license from BoG Continued from cover Established in the year 2006, eTranzact Ghana Limited has been at the forefront of the delivery of cutting-edge innovation in the electronic payment space. As a market leader providing bespoke electronic payment solutions, eTranzact continues to support banks and other financial services providers to deliver digital financial solutions to their clients.

The license, the highest within the PSP category, allows eTranzact to among other services process EMV GH-Link prepaid cards for banks, institutions, and the general public.

The license also allows eTranzact to undertake payment processing services such as mobile money transfer, mobile banking for financial institutions using applications, and USSD and EMV prepaid card routing and aggregation services. It also offers eTranzact the opportunity to undertake the termination of inbound international remittances to beneficiaries’ wallets through partnerships with foreign remittance companies, payment aggregation, merchant acquiring and aggregation, and payment gateway services.

The Executive Director of eTranzact Ghana, George

Babafemi, stated that this license offers the company, as a processor of Gh-link EMV cards, the opportunity to partner banks who may want to issue Ghlink prepaid cards in either the physical or the virtual variant.

Hitherto, this service has been a preserve of foreign card processors but the issuance of the license will mean that banks can issue the Gh-link EMV cards at a cheaper cost for various use cases such as loyalty card, momo card, remittance card, ID card, etc, to deepen the agenda of the Bank of Ghana in making banks in Ghana issue local cards for local transactions.

“This license means eTranzact is a brand to be associated with within the payment industry without fear or doubt. It means that the investments made in infrastructure and the contributions made so far in the payment industry are not in vain,” he said while expressing his appreciation to the regulator for its diligent and forward-thinking approach to new technologies.

Mr. Babafemi added that the license also allows eTranzact the room for upward scalability, a deepening of its existing business portfolio and customer base.

He added that his outfit is also ready to innovate within

the payment ecosystem to accommodate those who may have been excluded. “The enhanced PSP license means our business has a good foundation to leverage expansion, business, and regulatory-wise,” he said.

Kwame Pianim, Board Chairman of eTranzact used the opportunity to laud the Central Bank for bringing sanity to the payment ecosystem, as it has not only introduced relevant and timely policies, it has also made the issuance of licenses more transparent and more importantly, established a dedicated office for the sub-

sector.

“An unregulated environment brings chaos, cheating, and galamsey-like businesses which can be a cancer in the entire system. It is therefore reassuring to see that the regulator has set up a dedicated office for the budding FinTech space,” he added.

On security that the enhanced license offers, the eTranzact MD expressed the belief that customers will have a greater sense of security in his firm’s operations, especially at a time when there has been a rise in the activities of cybercriminals.

From left to right: Eric Quarcoo, GM, Admin & Public Sector; Sylvia Kwame, Head, Recons & Settlement; George Babafemi, Executive Director; Elinam Agbottah, Head, Risk & Compliance; Fred Honu, Head, Finance; and Kofi Pianim, GM, Financial Services all of eTranzact

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News

MONDAY APRIL 19, 2021

Minister for Works and Housing praises First National Bank for moves to increase home ownership

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he Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye has praised First National Bank Ghana for its initiatives to boost home ownership in Ghana.

Mr. Asenso-Boakye was speaking at the maiden edition of the Home Ownership Series, an initiative by First National Bank Ghana, in partnership with Glitz Africa Magazine, aimed at promoting a continuing national dialogue on the best ways to tackle the housing deficit in the country.

The Minister said that the series creates an opportunity for players in the real estate industry to meet and discuss issues affecting the housing sector, especially issues pertaining to affordable housing.

“At the Ministry of Works and Housing, we welcome initiatives of this kind,” Hon. Asenso-Boakye said.

Such initiatives, the minister pointed out, “serve as a way of learning and exchanging ideas in our collective quest to move the sector forward.”

The Home Ownership Series follows the declaration of 2021 by First National Bank as the Year of Home Ownership – #YOHO2021, a campaign aiming to encourage

and support Ghanaians to acquire residential property, thereby shifting the national culture of renting towards home ownership.

The ‘Year of Home Ownership’ initiative primarily aims to bridge the housing deficit in Ghana, by helping Ghanaians to own homes by gradually removing the challenges that confront Ghanaians in their quest to purchase residential property.

The Minister for Works and Housing pointed that the initiative

to promote home ownership over renting will substantially contribute to the improvement of the living standards of Ghanaians.

“The key determinants of quality of life within societies of every country depends largely on a sound and efficient market that provides decent homes for its people,” Mr. Asenso-Boakye said.

He acknowledged, however, that there are challenges that need to be addressed; challenges, which he said, his ministry is

ready to collaborate with relevant stakeholders like First National Bank Ghana, to resolve.

“I would like to thank First National Bank for staying committed to this noble cause of helping to provide homes for our people,” says the minister.

The Executive Head of Home Loans at First National Bank, Kojo Addo-Kufuor, pledged the bank’s commitment to convert as many Ghanaians as possible from renters to homeowners.

“The objective is to drive home ownership very aggressively in the year. We decided that everybody who is looking to buy or can buy, must buy. We’ll make it possible for them to do so,” he said.

“We’ve looked at our processes, we’ve looked at why people start transactions and don’t conclude, we’ve looked at the reason why people can’t afford to buy and we’ve tried to fix all of these in #YOHO2021,” Mr Addo-Kufuor added.

He further encouraged the Minister for Works and Housing to continue nurturing his ministry’s partnership with First National Bank to keep the discussions alive on delivering progress in the housing sector for Ghanaians.

Experts call for accountability to help widen tax net

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ax accountability is a sure way for government to encourage citizens to pay their taxes to contribute towards national development, experts have said.

The experts, who participated in a roundtable discussion organised by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on “Taxation and Accountability in Ghana”, called for several reforms including the passage of the Tax Exemptions Bill.

Government in its 2021 budget statement introduced six new levies and increased other existing taxes with the aim of helping to rebuild the country’s public finances.

A CDD Afrobarometer survey in 2019 found that although majority of Ghanaians (72 percent) are willing to pay more in taxes to help finance the country’s development from domestic resources, a similar proportion (70 percent) say they find it “difficult” or “very difficult” getting information about what the government does with taxes it

collects.

The roundtable discussion was therefore organised as a platform for policy makers, tax experts and representatives from institutions and associations such as the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Trades Union Congress (TUC), and the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) to examine how the country can achieve a clear and effective balance between the concerns for accountability, negative economic impact and essential need for financing development in the COVID era.

The panelists identified lack of accountability, embezzlement of public funds, and abuse of tax exemptions as some of the key factors influencing tax evasion and lack of tax compliance.

Kwaku Kwarteng, Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, stressed the importance of government being transparent and accountable to citizens on how tax revenues are spent.

“It is important for us to hold government and public office holders accountable when it comes to taxation because

Kwaku Kwarteng, Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee

citizens need to know that the monies they pay to the state by way of taxes are being put to good use,” he said.

Mr. Kwarteng encouraged businesses, individuals and the general public to honour their tax obligations to boost the internally generated revenue needed to address the developmental needs of the country.

Ato Forson, Ranking Member

on Parliament’s Finance Committee, said tax increases and introduction of new levies were not the solution to increasing tax revenues.

He recommended the enforcement of tax laws and an urgent review of tax treaties and exemptions, which, according to him, are being abused by some multinational institutions and certain individuals.

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Feature

MONDAY APRIL 19, 2021

Has working from home made the office redundant? Not yet

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fter more than a year in which millions of office workers around the globe were forced to work from home for months and did so (mostly) successfully, businesses are faced with the following question: Does 2021 herald the end of the physical office?

Down-scaling or even closing physical office spaces might look like the way of the future, but a University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) study found that the future of work more likely lies in a blend of remote and office-based work.

USB MBA graduate Mandi Joubert conducted the research at the height of South Africa’s national lockdown to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus and found that while employees experienced many positives in working from home, they missed the interaction and support of an office environment.

She said previous studies had shown that employees with flexible work arrangements, able to blend office and remote working, had higher levels of engagement than employees who were either firmly office-based or worked exclusively remotely, and the lockdown had provided the ideal “laboratory” to investigate this among a group of employees forced to work exclusively from home.

“Globally it is anticipated that Covid-19 will have far-reaching impact on the future of work and especially remote working.

The rapid change in ways of working forced by the spread of Covid-19 provide opportunities for organisations and managers to redesign their workspaces and physical footprints to accommodate new ways of working, both in flexitime and ‘flexiplace’, enabled by new technology.

“However, the research also showed that participants were not ready for a complete shift

to remote work – a physical office space to allow face-toface personal interaction within teams and within the broader organisation will remain a requirement.”

“A combination of office- and home-based work in future could be the best route to greater employee engagement, productivity and performance, benefiting both the individual and the company.”

Joubert recommends companies consider blended and flexible working arrangements, enabling employees to work from home or remotely for two to three days a week.

Employee engagement – where employees feel connected to their work, are energised, mentally resilient, dedicated and involved – is important, she said, because it has been shown to influence customer satisfaction and profitability, and because it is seen as the opposite of employee burnout, which in turn impacts negatively on business results.

Joubert’s research echoed the findings of the Global Work from Home Experience Survey[i] which found that 76% of respondents would want to work from home at least one day per week, an increase from 31% before the pandemic.

Some companies that have seen the benefits of remote working are already implementing lessons from lockdown, she said, with one employer in the study introducing more flexible working arrangements and remote working options once employees could return to the office when hard lockdown restrictions were eased.

Another had closed down a satellite office during lockdown because of the cost-savings achieved by having teams all work from one office, on a rotation system where they worked partly remotely and partly in-office.

“These are positive signals of

employers seeing the benefits and acting on them, but they would also need to weigh up the cost savings of reducing office space against the costs of properly equipping staff for remote working,” Joubert said.

Her research showed that companies providing the resources to work effectively from home significantly contributed to a positive experience and greater productivity. These included access to computers, internet connections, company networks and data, as well as physical resources such as office chairs, with one participant reporting that their employer had delivered office chairs and headsets to all their staff.

Organisational culture also makes a difference – employees’ work-from-home experience was much more positive when managers’ expectations were clear and they felt they were trusted to get on with their work.

Employees valued companies that provided support such as online platforms for regular team checkins and forums for information sharing and to raise concerns and complaints.

Joubert said participants said they experienced improved worklife balance, with the flexibility to attend to family, personal and work commitments as they arose, as well as time and costs saved on commuting.

While there were distractions in working from home, participants said these balanced out with the lack of the usual office distractions.

The key disadvantage was the lack of human interaction.

“Video calls and online meetings were a positive for keeping in touch with colleagues but didn’t replace in-person interaction – the informal workplace chats that are part of the social nature of work, that provide encouragement and motivation and often get things done more efficiently than formal meetings, as well as the

non-verbal cues, body language and facial expressions that aren’t always possible to read in online meetings, especially with many suffering Zoom-overload and getting into h habit of turning off cameras,” Joubert said.

Working exclusively from home means “eating, sleeping, working, living all in the same space” and the lack of variety and human contact became “mentally and emotionally demoralising” for some participants, while the volume of online meetings can become overwhelming.

“There is a negative impact on communication and opportunities for spontaneous collaboration when people are not all working in the same space, where it is possible to get quick answers, solve problems quickly in person rather than waiting for response to emails or messages, or call quick meetings or brainstorming sessions to work out a problem.”

Joubert said it was especially significant that remote working, where the focus was mainly on the job of one’s own team, caused employees to feel they had lost sight of the company’s “big picture”, of what was happening in the business overall.

Working full-time from home also meant that employees lost out on the informal training, learning and mentoring that happens between junior and senior colleagues in an office setup.

“All of these downsides of a lack of physical, face-to-face interaction were the key reason for participants want to alternate home and office work. None preferred a 100% full-time return to office-based work, but they definitely wanted some office time at least.

“Ideally, they wanted to be able to manage their own diaries and schedules and how they achieved set targets and deadlines.”

Joubert’s recommendations

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Feature

MONDAY APRIL 19, 2021

Have you thought about setting up your own business?

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id you spend your time in quarantine dreaming about starting a new business?

The good news is there are things you can do today to turn your wishful thinking into a reality...

Your business idea can flourish in 2021 by using the following ideas that center on careful planning, financial moves and comprehensive risk assessments.

Remember it is ok to be hopeful about 2021.

It’s easy to look back on the last year and wonder if 2021 will be any better. After all, scores of small businesses will likely never come back because of the pandemic - While these comments can be justified, there are lots of business that are very optimistic for the coming year.

So many people are in limbo not knowing whether they are going to have a job or not, why not start a new business on the side while having a steady income stream.

Gather data to help plan ahead.

While it’s great to proactively establish a business plan and begin saving money now, it’s also important to take a look back at your near financial past.

Knowing how much money you’ve historically had coming in and going out is a great way to determine how your money flows, how you handle your funds, and where you can improve.

You need to understand your cash flow, especially in the early years. Set goals, create budgets,

and ensure you have funds allocated for unexpected costs.

Data collection will also help ensure that your business is on the right track from the start.

Create a Business Plan.

If there’s anything that 2020 has taught us, it’s to expect the unexpected. Before March 2020, no one could have predicted that a major pandemic would have turned the entire workforce, and how it operates, upside down.

Lots of lessons have been learnt over the past 12 months Businesses have had to become cash-flow sensitive, have a lean organisation, create a realistic and conservative operational budget, and make sure they don’t deviate from it.”

Successful entrepreneurs have created a business plan and stuck to it. Drawing up a smart business plan is not only beneficial to how your business operates, but it can make it easier to obtain bank loans, it helps you set reasonable milestones and attract investors.

Potential investors will want to see that you have a solid plan, that you know how to execute it in the best way, that you can perform against your competitors. They need to be able to see that you can manage your cashflow wisely, and that you don’t make any risky longterm financial commitments.

Simplify your life, and save up.

Many small business owners try to separate their personal lives from their new company. Whilst there are business structures that do that from a legal perspective,

once you start a new business, it becomes a major part of your life. Its costs are your costs, and its successes are your successes, regardless of whether you’re a sole proprietor or the owner of a corporation.

As the saying goes “learn to cut your cloth”..........Put away every spare penny you have. Stop dining out as often. Cut down on your little treats - you really need that skinny latte from a coffee shop every morning from a local coffee shop? The simpler your life is, the more time, money and energy you’ll have to dedicate to starting your dream business.

Going into 2021, you should “make launching this business your priority.”

As much as possible, your mental and physical energy should be going to getting your idea off the ground. Simplify your life, and your business will have its best chance.”

Carefully consider the risks involved.

Risk is an inherent part of starting a small business.

Depending on how you structure your company, you may be held liable for everything that goes wrong within the company. That can potentially put your personal finances and assets at risk. You can take steps to make sure you’re ready for any potential issues that come up. Speak to a suitable advisor if you need to.

It is recommended that new business owners hire a legal advisor for advice, draw up customer contracts or waivers if needed, and set up the business so the personal risk you’re taking on is mitigated. Legal

issues aren’t something you can handle unless you have the relevant knowledge, so seek help if necessary.

Authored by: BforB Networking Clubs

Ghana

|

Business for Breakfast (BforB) is internationally recognised for creating successful networking meetings, events and training for referral marketing. Our global offices are in Ghana, Australia, Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, Slovakia, Ghana and headquartered in UK. We create an environment where you can build quality relationships within your group, backed up by an ongoing member support programme. BforB is committed to helping small to medium scale businesses expand. In our professional network, members meet regularly in business networks to develop relationships, support each other and to share and record referral business.

We are here to help you get new business from quality business introductions and referrals made through our meetings.

Contact us: | info@bforbgh. com | Facebook & LinkedIn: @ bforbghana | www.bforb.co.uk

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MONDAY APRIL 19, 2021

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Energy

MONDAY APRIL 19, 2021

US$3bn to be invested into the Nigerian power sector

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lectricity generation is based primarily on demand (consumption). Demand is dependent on increase in population, industrialisation, infrastructure and increase in the streetlight class.

Nigeria, a West African country currently has an estimated population of 210,134,738 and ranks 7th on the global population table as of Friday 16th April, 2021 based on the latest United Nations data. Projection indicates, an estimated population of 401,315,000 and will push the country to 3rd on the global population table.

Within the next 24 months, The Federal Government of Nigeria plans to spend $3 Billion on the energy sector and end the current electricity subsidies by December 2021. This will boost the energy sector massively as Nigeria seeks to tackle its dwindling power sector.

The investment will boost the power being wheeled by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) from a current 4,900MW to at least 7,000MW. Will this increment be enough to sustain electricity demand by 2050?

Is the increase focusing on generation capacity or expansion of transmission and distribution infrastructure?

In an interaction during a webinar hosted by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), The Special

Advisor on Infrastructure, Ahmad Zakari, said that, “following the $500 million loans the government secured from the World Bank earlier this year, it is expecting another facility from the African Development Bank (AfDB), saying that the gestures are a demonstration of confidence in the reforms being currently made in the sector”.

Over the past few weeks, another country in the West African Region has been experiencing electricity challenges because of transmission and distribution infrastructure upgrade. This has created a huge backlash to the Government and many feel now is not the time.

However, Nigeria has seen an opportunity to tighten the leaks in its revenue collection as a means to increase revenue collection.

Zakari explained: With this enhanced metering on the service-based tariff, we can see the Nigerian electricity supply industry generating over N100 billion in the near to mid-term.

This is very impressive.”

Will other African countries use metering as a means to increase revenue collection efficiency?

Will there be a fund set aside solely for the improvement and expansion of electricity infrastructure?

Many will agree to this.

Nevertheless, how many will be disciplined enough to not siphon

or change the goal post set by the fund.

This is a rhetorical question.

There is no need to answer now when there is no fund with huge cash, whetting the appetite of fund managers.

The electricity market cuts across all sectors of the economy and moving forward, a lot should be done to meet the growing changes it comes with demand and global emission targets.

This means cash to meet these changes should not be tempered with hence the idea of instilling a payment discipline in the locals This according to Zakari said, “The hypothesis that we have is that if you enhance payment discipline through metering the population, revenue will go up.

We have proven that,” He later said that the current administration was focused on moving from the traditional way of funding subsidies or using the liquidity in the sector to fund consumption. Rather, he said, the subsidy budget would go into infrastructure that would ultimately lead to growth.

Will eliminating subsidy mean the poor will have to pay more?

Electricity price in Nigeria is high because enough is not being generated to meet demand.

Ideally, generating in excess of peak load means tariffs will be low. Generating 10 gigawatts of power, the tariff will be half of what it is now. Keeping the prices officially low is not the

approach; increasing delivery power is the approach that will effectively get the same output, which is, making the citizen pay lower “Nigerians and their businesses spend $14 billion annually on inefficient and expensive petrol or diesel-powered generators.

This project will contribute significantly to the reduction of Nigeria’s power deficit, decrease air and noise pollution and reduce the cost of doing business,” says AfDB’s Senior Director for Nigeria, Ebrima Faal.

Will countries be more forward thinking and invest massively in a more resilient electricity transmission system?

On 31st March, 2021, US President Biden unveiled his new infrastructure plan for the country titled, The “American Jobs Plan” which features a $100 Billion towards building a more resilient electric transmission system.

Looks like the way to go is to invest in infrastructure.

However, many infrastructure is designed to moving economies to a net-zero generation system and also ensuring a reduction in the 51 billion ton of CO2 added to nature yearly.

Writer: Donald Marshall Company: Mframadan Energy Management & Research Institute (M.E.M.R.I).

Contact: 00233-24-4550854 Email: donaldamus@yahoo.com

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Feature

MONDAY APRIL 19, 2021

A requiem for the stiff upper lip

By Raj Persaud, Adrian Furnham

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he late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband to the queen, was long celebrated (or parodied) for his distinctive personality. Before his death on April 9, at the age of 99, he was the United Kingdom’s grand, grumpy, and eccentric uncle – a man totally out of step with the modern world.

To take just one of many notorious examples, Philip couldn’t understand why servicemen today would need therapy. Back in World War II, he observed, “We didn’t have counselors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun, asking ‘Are you all right? Are you sure you don’t have a ghastly problem?’ You just got on with it.”

If Philip’s passing means that we also will be burying the iconic image of the British “stiff upper lip,” should we mourn that loss as well? There was a time when this characteristically British display of stoic resolve was widely admired. When the UK was the world’s leading power, it seemed to owe its position to a “mustn’t grumble” approach to life. And, of course, this attitude was on full display when Britain resisted a Nazi onslaught that had already swept over its European neighbors.

In March 1912, the explorer Captain Lawrence Oates joined a British Antarctic expedition seeking to be first to the South

Pole. The mission failed, and Oates, suffering from gangrene and frostbite, begged his companions to leave him and save themselves. When they refused, he casually said, “I am just going outside and may be some time.”

He never returned to the group’s tent, but his last words lived on, stiffening upper lips throughout the realm.

It is impossible to imagine Oates’ generation venting about anything with Oprah Winfrey. But Philip’s grandson, Prince Harry, recently did precisely that. Has the UK lost its claim to being the strong, silent type?

Psychologists have established that different national cultures do indeed exhibit and inculcate distinct attitudes and ways of life.

Most Nordic European, Anglo, and Latin American countries have been found to have highly “indulgent” cultures (preferring leisure and a higher quality of life), whereas East Asian countries tend to place less value on leisure and more on a strong work ethic.

In recent cross-country comparisons based on psychological tests, Vietnamese, Singaporeans, Japanese, and South Koreans demonstrate a high propensity to exercise restraint relative to Britons and Americans. From these findings, one can infer that the first countries to industrialize and deliver affluence and comfort to their populations also may be the first to succumb to decadence, abandoning the ethic that drove

their initial growth.

In the past, physical endurance, determination, and fortitude were the defining characteristics of those who succeeded in staking a claim on the world. But today, success comes to those who can promote their brand or schmooze a venture capitalist.

Traditional “masculine” attitudes are no longer revered, and often are outright scorned (sometimes for very good reasons). Being likable – something to which Philip certainly never aspired – has become the sine qua non of career success. By contrast, Oates, before his untimely death, was known to be argumentative with the leader of the expedition, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, which would be career suicide today.

Even if today’s social tensions and conflicts are different than in the past, might Philip’s cool unflappability still have something to recommend it? In psychological parlance, Philip’s character type was that of a “repressor”: he was good at suppressing any negativity within himself, and convincing others that he was in peak form. The opposite personality type is often associated with a trait that is very much in vogue: “emotional intelligence” (EI), the ability to discern how others truly feel.

And yet, recent research finds that repressors still come out with the highest EI scores on academic psychological tests, implying that those who show no emotion may be exerting more

skill or psychological effort than is commonly realized. Beneath their placid brows lies a constant weighing of whether and when it is appropriate to vent one’s spleen.

Of course, while hiding one’s true mental state from others can lead to more successful social interactions, the effort not to burden others with one’s emotional baggage can of course be taken to extremes. The danger for repressors is that they can delude themselves about how they really feel. While “emoters” pursue psychological assistance from others early and often, repressors do so too late, if ever.

Hence, while South Korea ranks higher than the UK on personal restraint, it also scores much higher in suicides as a proportion of its population.

And despite its superior handling of the pandemic, South Korea’s pandemic-induced increase in suicides and self-harm has been much higher than that of Western countries that failed to control the virus.

The key, as in most things, is to strike the right balance. In his consummate display of emotional moderation, Philip perhaps had something to teach us after all.

Upon getting stuck in an elevator at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, he is reported to have quipped that “this could only happen in a technical college.”

Now that he is gone, we should reserve a place for his style of irascible wit. We may find it useful in our next crisis.

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Stock market activity to pick up this week

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rading activity is expected to pick up as investors await earnings announcements this week.

This week’s trading activity surged as 18,202,892 shares valued at GH¢14,087,555 changed hands compared to 3,719,316 shares valued at GH¢3,603,136 the previous week. Cal Bank dominated trades by volume, accounting for 58.14% of total volume traded while MTN Ghana dominated trades by value, accounting for 49.14% of the total value traded.

The benchmark index advanced by 0.44 points (+0.02%) to close at 2,301.79 with a 18.55% year-to-date return while the market capitalization inched up by 0.01% to close at GH¢58.09 billion.

Cal Bank (+7.81%) and Enterprise Group (+0.69%) pushed the GSE Financial Index up by 5.74 points (+0.31%) to close at 1,840.99 with a 3.27% year-to-date return.

The SAS Manufacturing Index tumbled by 52.08 points (-3.50%) due to Unilever Ghana (-9.90%) to

close at 1,434.00 with a year-todate return of -15.71%.

Meanwhile, Fan Milk (+2.75%)

and Total Petroleum (+1.59%) completed the gainers’ chart last week.

Has working from home made the office redundant? Not yet.

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Spanish business chamber says ready for business post-pandemic

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he Spain-Ghana Chamber of Commerce has held a networking session for its members to outdoor its new Secretary-General, Belen Nieto Tercero, and to indicate its readiness to advance the chamber’s business advocacy and support services to fast track business recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The SGCC Back-to-Business cocktail, which was held at the Pomona Restaurant in Osu, brought together a section of members to reconnect, interact, share business experiences and to forge new strategic partnerships in line with the ideals of the chamber.

President of the chamber, Nadim Ghanem-Pares, told journalists that the event was to enable members see face-toface after almost a year of virtual

interactions and engagements.

“As a chamber, we promote the image of Spain in Ghana. We also connect Ghanaian entrepreneurs and enterprises that want to do business with Spain to our technologies and knowledge about various products and services and vice versa.

We are excited to have our members together to socialise and network after almost a year of doing things virtually,” he said.

“Doing business virtually is not the future and it does not click,” he added.

The Spain-Ghana Chamber of Commerce (SGCC) is a private association with a main of promoting and increasing bilateral relationships between Spain and Ghana, offering a wide range of services to support companies in both markets.

for managers and companies considering new ways of working in a post-Covid-19 world include: • Review existing flexible work arrangement (FWA) policies and consider allowing employees to work remotely for 2-3 days a week, or alternatively allow employees to manage their own time and only work from the office when needed.

• Exclusive work from home is not encouraged, as regular human interaction is beneficial for employee engagement.

• If an FWA policy is adopted, expectations and deliverables should be clearly communicated.

• Prioritise employee wellness and introduce formalised wellness programmes. Ensure that employee wellbeing is being practiced as well as preached.

Prioritise diversity and inclusion.

• Reconsider physical office space. Reconsider the amount of office floor space needed in accordance with the applicable remote work policy.

• Allow dedicated opportunities in meetings to focus on employees and their wellbeing instead of only focusing on operational discussions.

• Adopt a policy of cameras on during meetings to ensure employees can benefit from nonverbal communication and are

able to pick up on social cues.

“The sample size was small, with 14 participants, but they did represent nine different industries and different organisational levels. The circumstances of a global pandemic brought with them particular anxieties and uncertainties, companies weren’t necessarily well-prepared for a sudden shift to remote working, and employees had additional challenges such as a lack of childcare and domestic support which might not be there in more normal circumstances.

“On the plus side, the weight of the findings is strengthened by the fact that all participants were able to report on their remote working experiences ‘in real time’ rather than theoretically or after the fact, since they were all working from home at the same time and in the same context of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

She said the results of the study made it worth exploring the relationship between remote working and employee engagement further.

Contact us for more information on the programmes offered by the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB): Dr Marietjie van der Merwe USB Representative marie@globalnatives.com +230 606 2341 / +230 5 701 1362

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