Business24 Newspaper 2nd August, 2021

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MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

‘Tap expertise of women in maritime to grow industry’

European and African leaders call for a new deal for Africa

See page 5

See page 18

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NO. B24 / 229 | NEWS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

Public pay increase to cost GH¢1.2bn

By Business24 Reporters

MONDAY MONDAYAUGUST MAY 3, 2021 2, 2021

ECOWAS resolves to eliminate mobile roaming charges

By Eugene Davis ugendavis@gmail.com

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ember states of ECOWAS have resolved to ensure the removal of surcharges on incoming intra-community call traffic and comply with regulations within their territories to streamline West

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he 4 percent increase in public sector base pay will add GH¢1.2bn to government spending on compensation this year, according to the Finance Minister’s mid-year budget review unveiled last week.

Ken Ofori-Atta told Parliament that overall expenditure on compensation will hit GH¢31.5bn from the

Cont’d on page 3

G20 must become G21, says Jeffrey Sachs

Cont’d on page 2

By Eugene Davis

Cocobod starts ambitious cocoa management system project

By Benson Afful affulbenson@gmail.com

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he Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Cocobod, Dr. Emmanuel Opoku, says the sector regulator has started registering the GPS addresses of all cocoa farms as well as households of the farmers in preparation for the implementation of its ambitious Cocoa Management Cont’d on page 3

ugendavis@gmail.com

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rof. Jeffrey Sachs, the Special Advisor on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), has called on the G20 to make the African Union (AU) its 21st member, just like it added the European Union Cont’d on page 5

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Cont’d on page 2

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Editorial / News

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Editorial

Let’s promote gender mainstreaming across maritime value chain

“

Empowering women isn’t just an idea or a concept. It is a necessity that requires strong, positive action to address deep-seated structural, institutional and cultural barriers,” IMO boss Kitack Lim said in one of his speeches marking World Maritime Day. It is without a doubt that greater women’s participation would be pivotal to the sustainable development of the local maritime industry and across the sub-region.

Sustainable maritime development would require inclusive participation of all, men and women, if we are to succeed in our endeavor in that regard. Also, being able to tackle the emerging challenges of the

blue economy would require skilled workers and competent innovative leaders in all areas of maritime activity.

Although the number of women graduating from universities and other educational and training institutions with oceans and maritime programmes has increased rapidly in the last few decades, their engagement, retention and promotion to leadership in all areas of ocean activities particularly, shipping has lagged.

This is the case not only at the seagoing-seafarer level, but also in the numerous connected activities in ports and logistics, as well as legal and other services.

While explanations for this slow

progress in the “gender gap” vary depending on the specific area of activity, the key point is that the failure of the maritime industry to attract, employ and retain women as employees and also promote and support women in leadership roles represents a significant lost opportunity.

To achieve holistic and sustainable development in the global maritime domain, there is an urgent need to bridge the gender gap and government must engage the appropriate bodies in the sector to advance the cause of women in maritime.

This is the best way to explore the expertise of women professionals to grow such a dominant economic area.

Public pay increase to cost GH¢1.2bn Continued from cover

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initial projection of GH¢30.3bn.

The increase is made up of GH¢1bn of extra spending on wages and salaries and a GH¢175.3m rise in social contribution payments.

Following the worsened fiscal situation after the coronavirus crisis, the government has resorted to pay restraint to help achieve fiscal consolidation. This led in July to one of the lowest public sector wage settlements in many years, with the government reaching a deal with unions to raise the base pay by 4 percent in 2021 and 7 percent in 2022.

The below-inflation increases have incensed some workers, including teachers, and roiled labour relations in recent weeks.

“The anger building up amongst our members must be taken seriously if we want a congenial atmosphere for teaching and learning in our schools,” said Ransford Lolih, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), during the union’s 6th Quadrennial and 53rd Greater Accra Regional Delegates Conference last week.

The government is also facing a possible strike by university teachers, likely starting from today, over what the teachers say are long-standing pay and conditions-of-service grievances.

The Ministry of Finance’s case against more generous pay rewards is that the fiscal situation calls for austerity to help limit public expenditure growth. Moreover, the Ministry said workers need to reciprocate the government’s decision not to cut public sector wages and employment last year when the pandemic hit the country.

According to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which took part in the wage negotiations, this year’s settlement included a commitment by the government to maintain all public sector jobs for the next two years and a pledge not to freeze employment into the public service.

It was also agreed that the government will honour its social security obligations to workers regularly, the TUC said.

“The outcome was not what we had expected, but it could have been worse given the economic challenges and the stance of government towards pay rise, particularly in 2021,” said Dr. Yaw Baah, Secretary-General of the TUC, at a press conference last week.

Meanwhile, in his mid-year budget review, the Finance Minister pledged that the government will stay the course of fiscal consolidation despite undershooting its revenue target in the first half of the year.

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Cocobod starts ambitious cocoa management system project Continued from cover System project from October this year.

He said when the project is fully operationalised, cocoa farmers will begin to receive payments for their cocoa sales directly into their bank or mobile money accounts.

According to Dr. Opoku, this will increase the number of cocoa farmers with bank accounts and reduce the unbanked population within the cocoa-growing areas.

This, he said, will make it easier for the banks to extend credit facilities to the farmers, since most of them will now become customers of the banks and their specific addresses will be known to the banks.

So far, he said, over 200,000 cocoa farmers in the Western South cocoa region have been registered, while registration of

farmers in the Ashanti Region has already begun and will end very soon.

“One of the key features that we will achieve with the Cocoa Management System is to know the exact number of cocoa farmers in Ghana today and to have the exact area of cocoa under cultivation, as well as the GPS address of every cocoa farm in Ghana. We have already started piloting the process of tracing cocoa from the farm to our takeover centers,” said Dr. Opoku.

He added that the project will help reduce the board’s cost of operations and improve administrative efficiency.

“This is something that we have thought through, and [we] believe that once Ghana implements it fully, the system will develop and the country will be on the next level within the cocoa economy

in the world.”

This season’s (2020/21) cocoa harvest is expected to be the

largest in Ghana’s history, with total production projected at more than 1m tonnes.

ECOWAS resolves to eliminate mobile roaming charges Continued from cover Africa’s telecommunications and information technology space.

These decisions were arrived at after a five-day Delocalised Meeting of the Joint Committee of the ECOWAS Parliament at Winneba, in the Central Region.

Presenting a final communiqué from the event, Lynda Chuba Ikpeazu, co-chairperson of the ECOWAS Parliament’s Committee on Telecommunications and Information Technology, stated

that ECOWAS’ adoption of a regulation on roaming “is an important step towards the reduction of telephoning cost”.

According to the communiqué, the slow pace observed in the implementation of roaming should be corrected by encouraging member states to remove all tariffs and legal obstacles to enable ECOWAS citizens enjoy the benefits of community regulation.

To this end, ECOWAS parliamentarians were tasked to

Dr. Sidie Mohammed Tunis, Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament

act as a check on sub-regional governments and authorities in charge of telecommunication regulation.

The communique said member states have agreed that their national regulatory authorities shall send the tariff ceilings for communication services in their country (voice, SMS and data) to the ECOWAS Commission for publication, as well as monitor the implementation of these tariffs by mobile service providers.

They also agreed to enforce

implementation of reliable subscriber identification systems, ensure fraud monitoring, and monitor the market.

The ECOWAS Parliament also committed to partner with the ECOWAS Commission in all the phases of development and implementation of telecommunications and information technology policies and programmes in the subregion.

This is expected to ensure that member states step up the inter-sectoral efforts required for the removal of Surcharge on International Incoming Traffic (SIIT) in compliance with the regulation.

The ECOWAS Parliament further agreed to ensure that communication to citizens, civil society and Parliaments is stepped up to increase awareness of the benefits of the implementation of the regulation and the rights of consumers to these benefits.

On cybersecurity, it was agreed that member states will develop national legislation and strategies on fighting cybercrimes, whose incidence has risen amid the growing penetration of telecommunications and information technologies in the region.

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G20 must become G21, says Jeffrey Sachs Continued from cover (EU) as a member of the elite organisation.

The move, according to the SDGs advocate, will bring a representation of a population of about 1.4bn to the table, which will help change discussions at the international forum.

Contributing to a discussion on “Accelerating the critical transitions required” at the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit in Rome, Italy, from July 26–28, Prof. Sachs said: “The G20 should become G21 by inviting, systematically, the chairperson of the African Union and the African Union to be the 21st country. If you add the AU as the 21st country, you add 1.4bn people to represent them, and that is crucial. That will change, decisively, the discussions, because 1.4bn people are not at the table for finance right now and they need to be so.”

The aim of the UN Food Systems Summit is to maximise the co-benefits of a food systems approach to the SDGs Agenda and meet the challenges of climate change.

The pre-summit was to set the stage for the global event

in September 2021 by bringing together diverse actors from around the world to leverage the power of food systems to deliver progress on all 17 SDGs. Explaining the rationale behind his request, Prof. Sachs, who is also the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, said the world has not seen much of the development it so desires because of the neglect of poor countries.

Rich countries are always pursuing their interests and leaving poor countries behind, he said, adding this situation must change to a different system based on the principles of human dignity, sovereignty, and

economic rights.

“We need an order of magnitude change of development finance.

The rich countries just borrowed US$17tn for COVID; the poor countries nothing—because the rich countries can borrow at zero percent and the poor countries pay 5 or 10 percent coupon rate or have no access at all. So the world exposed its grotesque inequality.”

With concerns of nonavailability of COVID vaccines in poor countries in his mind, Prof.

Sachs again called on the vaccine manufacturing countries, like the United States of America, Russia, United Kingdom, China and the European Union, to allocate the vaccines they have rather than

hoard them.

He also called for heavy financing of the United Nations to be the core and central institution to solve the myriad challenges confronting the world, insisting “that is the only way we are going to have a civilised world.”

“It cannot be that a whole UN budget is less than New York City’s budget. The UN’s core budget is US$3bn. New York City’s budget is US$100bn, and then we say why don’t things work well? Because the rich are hoarding everything,” Prof Sachs said.

The Executive Director of Millennium Promise Alliance (MPA), Chief Nathaniel Ebo Nsarko, said Prof. Sachs' call was a step in the right direction, urging African leaders to follow up on this historic move and ensure that the AU is included in the G20 to make it G21.

"Prof. Sachs' statement has indeed shaken the foundations of the Western world. In the coming days, I expect the leadership of the AU to explore all possibilities to make a strong case for the continent to join the world powers during these strong decision-making dialogues and change our fortunes."

‘Tap expertise of women in maritime to grow industry’

By Patrick Paintsil p_paintsil@hotmail.com

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here is a pressing demand for skilled workers and competent innovative leaders, including women professionals, in all areas of maritime activity to fully explore the potential of the nation’s blue economy, says Sylvia Asana Dauda Owu, interim president of the Women in Maritime of West and Central Africa (WIMOWCA).

Speaking at the launch of the association in Accra, she said maritime sector institutions and firms that do not embrace diversity and support the potential contribution and leadership of qualified women would be left behind in this new era.

“Failure of the maritime industry to attract, employ and retain women as employees and also promote and support women in leadership roles represents a significant lost opportunity.”

Sustainable maritime development, she said, requires inclusive participation of both skilled men and women

Madam Sylvia Asana Dauda Owu is the interim president of the newly-formed WIMOWCA

professionals in the industry.

“There is the need for greater diversity and, specifically, ensuring equality for women to help achieve global socioeconomic and environmental sustainability,” she added.

Ms. Owu indicated that women

have lagged behind men in the maritime and trade logistics value chain despite boasting the right competence and skills for jobs in the industry.

The association therefore, she said, will harness the potential and contribution of women in

West and Central Africa to ensure the sustainable development of the maritime industry in Africa.

Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), in his remarks, called for enhanced cooperation among coastal states of the Gulf of Guinea to tackle the rising piracy and sea-borne crime in the region.

“International shipping is suffering. Piracy and armed robbery continue to damage the economy and trade. This situation has continued for several years, and these illegal acts must be stopped, and now is the time to make real progress,” he said.

Commenting on the new association, the IMO boss said there was the need for a diverse and well-trained workforce to make shipping work.

“Indeed, for sustainability and success in the modern world, shipping needs diversity in the workforce, and we need women to drive the decision-making processes. Women in the maritime world today are strong, powerful, and constantly challenging oldfashioned perceptions,” he said.

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WTO, 3 other global bodies launch joint vaccine info website

By Patrick Paintsil p_paintsil@hotmail.com

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he heads of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, World Health Organisation and World Trade Organisation have launched a new website which will serve as a platform for information on access to Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics and on the activities of the organisations in tackling the pandemic.

The website is an initiative of the Task Force on COVID-19 Vaccines, Therapeutics and Diagnostics for Developing Countries, which was set up to identify and resolve impediments to vaccine production and deliveries.

It provides an array of data on rates of vaccination and the purchase and deliveries

of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics broken down by country, region and level of income.

“We reiterate the urgency of providing access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments to people throughout the developing world. In the area of vaccines, a key constraint is the acute and alarming shortage in the supply of doses to low and low-middle income countries, especially for the rest of 2021.

We call on countries with advanced COVID-19 vaccination programs to release as soon as possible as much of their contracted vaccine doses and options as possible to COVAX, AVAT, and low and low-middle income countries,” a joint statement released by the four agencies said.

The group asked COVID-19

vaccine manufacturers to redouble their efforts to scale up production of vaccines specifically for these countries, and to ensure that the supply of doses to COVAX and low and lowmiddle income countries takes precedence over the promotion of boosters and other activities.

They have also called on governments to reduce or eliminate barriers to the export of vaccines and all materials involved in their production and

deployment.

The statement added: “It is critical to improve clarity and transparency around the evolving vaccine market, expected production volumes, delivery schedules, and pre-purchase options.

We call on manufacturers to accelerate delivery to developing countries and we call on advanced economies to scale-up nearterm deliveries to developing countries.”

Government spends GH¢ 8.1 million under GhanaCares stabilisation programme to preserve livelihoods negotiating goods and services

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he government has spent GH¢ 8.1 million to preserve livelihoods under the stabilisation phase of the GH¢ 100 billion GhanaCares (Obaatan pa) programme.

Under this phase, Ghanaians were provided with foodstuffs free water and electricity to more than 200 vulnerable families and households.

The programme is an unprecedented, bold and audacious GH¢ 100 billion postCOVID programme to stabilise, revitalise and transform Ghana’s economy to create jobs and prosperity for Ghanaians over a three-year period.

Mr. Charles Adu-Boahen, Minister of State, Finance said this at the Advantage Knowledge Forum on the theme: "Building Business Agility and Growth for AfCFTA and the Post COVID-19 Era." The forum was organised

by Enterprise Insurance in partnership with the Greater Accra Region Chapter, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI).

He said government also provided GH¢ 750 million business support scheme to enterprise's to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on MSMEs. The minister said the second phase, was a mediumterm revitalisation phase from 2021-2023 focusing on industrialisation, affordable housing and digitalisation.

He envisaged the programme

would enable the government to boldly build up better and greener business environment.

The minister said the government looked to see additional collaborations and partnerships between the public and the private sectors to implement policy initiatives under the GhanaCares Programme.

He called on the private sector to buy into the programme and take advantage of the opportunities available.

"This is because, it clearly outlines government’s strategic priorities," he added.

Mr. Keli Gadzekpo, Group CEO, Enterprise Group said over the past two years, the world had battled the pandemic and its impact on every aspect of life.

He said businesses faced substantial challenges as business operations were disrupted and

normal work routines and social structures were interrupted due to the global pandemic.

He said to meet the challenges posed by the pandemic, businesses around the world had to react in agile and decisive ways.

"The magnitude and speed of change coming out of the pandemic has generated new forms of financial and operational risks as companies grapple with inflation, capacity constraints, and supply-chain disruptions," he said.

He said it was now the time for businesses to reach out and seize the opportunities emerging in the recovery and build strategic resilience for the future.

Mr. Gadzekpo said beyond its ground-breaking size, the AfCFTA promised to be a paradigm shift and a deeper commitment to the integration of the continent by

simultaneously.

The Group CEO said the agreement was a potential economic game-changer for Africa’s development not only because of its potential to enhance intra-African trade.

He said it would also provide an opportunity for countries in the region to competitively integrate into the global economy, reduce poverty and promote inclusion.

Mr. Tsonam Cleanse Akpeloo, Accra Regional Chairman, AGI said the Association had completed a comprehensive study on the impact of COVID-19 latter part of last year, and it showed over 80 per cent of its members have been affected by the pandemic.

He said they were fortunate for the government to relieve industry by providing the stimulus for businesses affected

by COVID-19.

He said there was the need for the Development Bank of Ghana to support industries was a great intervention for industrial growth.

He said as a leading privatesector advocate in the country, they would continue to engage government and all stakeholders on issues that affected industries.

Mr. Akpeloo said the association would develop programmes and systems to scale up members to compete globally and "we will engage various stakeholders on Advantage Knowledge Forum to find solutions."

GNA

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Education, key to Africa’s prosperityPresident Akufo-Addo

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resident Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says Africa would not realise its vision of a progressive and prosperous continent, if it does not first place a premium on its human capital.

He said Africa ought to widen access to, and invest sufficiently in its citizen’s education, to maximise its economic output and facilitate a more robust economic growth.

The President, who was speaking at the Global Education Summit, co-hosted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, in London, noted that the goal of countries in Africa was to move away from being mere producers and exporters of raw materials to valued added economies.

However, he said, that dream would not materialise until the continent pursued the agenda to have an educated workforce.

“It, therefore, requires an investment that we have to make to ensure that not just as many, but also all our children have the opportunity to go to school right from kindergarten, through primary, through secondary, and through tertiary education,” he said.

The Summit, which was organised by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), aimed to raise $5 billion to fund the next five-year cycle of the GPE. The Summit asked donors to invest to help ensure learning for 175 million girls and boys, get 88 million more children in school, and reach 140 million more students with professionally trained teachers in 87 low- and

middle-income countries.

President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that his government was widening further access to education for all of Ghana’s school-going children, and that 23 percent of the national budget had been allocated to education, the highest on the continent so.

With the Free Senior High School policy resulting in some 400,000 more children getting access to senior high

school education in Ghana, he acknowledged that problems with infrastructure, and the challenges of inadequate classrooms are being addressed.

“So, in Ghana, we’ve taken the decision that we’re going full scale ahead now that we have widened public education at the secondary school level to all and sundry, to try and replicate it also at the tertiary level.

“This is absolutely critical for our future. “if we don’t do it, we will not be able to get to our basic goal, which is a structural transformation of our economies… Lives and livelihoods are both the keys to the future for us and we will hopefully continue to be to do that,” he said.

The Summit emphasized the importance of equitable access to education amid warnings that COVID-19 has exacerbated already under-resourced public education programmes in less economically developed countries. Experts alerted the organization that it was unlikely for those forced out of schools due to the pandemic to return.

Governments and international corporations pledged to donate $4 billion for the GPE at the end of the Summit.

GNA

Over 2,500 Emirates customers ease through airport during July travel peak with innovative home check-in services

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ver 2,500 Emirates customers enhanced their travel experience by adding innovative home checkin services to their bookings in July. The airline’s popular service enables passengers departing from Dubai to quickly and efficiently complete the check-in process in the comfort of their home and enjoy a swift and smooth journey through the airport.

During the peak summer travel departures from the UAE in July, Emirates’ home check-in services were typically booked for groups of four to five people, with travellers’ most popular destinations being Amman ( Jordan), Beirut (Lebanon) and Male (Maldives).

Thursdays and the Eid long weekend were particularly busy with up to 130 home check-ins completed and 150 pieces of baggage delivered to the airport a day across Dubai.

Underscoring the popularity of the service, some 400 home check-ins were for repeat customers who had already taken advantage of the service before.

During the safe and convenient home check-in process, customer-oriented agents check in travellers for their flights, issue boarding passes, weigh and tag their sanitised baggage and ensure these are delivered to the airport and loaded onto the aircraft. Each piece of baggage is disinfected with a long-lasting protective coating that lasts for up to 72 hours.

Emirates customers can easily book their home check-in service on emirates.com up to 24 hours before their flight and receive the service up to 8 hours before scheduled departure time.

Customers also have the option to book fast-track marhaba services to help whisk them through airport immigration

for an even more contactless on ground experience. In addition, travellers can also book pre-travel COVID-19 testing. A qualified medical professional performs the swab test ahead of the home check-in process, and results are shared with customers digitally.

All passengers who test negative for COVID-19 receive a medical certificate within 24 to 48 hours to meet the entry guidelines of their destination.

For their return to Dubai, customers can choose to book

a land and leave service which enables them to proceed directly home while trained agents collect their baggage, clear it through customs, sanitize the baggage, and then deliver it directly to their doorstep.

Emirates’ home check-in service is delivered by DUBZ, dnata’s baggage technology and logistics company. Based in Dubai, DUBZ providers innovative, unique solutions to travellers, ensuring a safe and seamless experience for them throughout their journey.

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CEO of Vodafone wins Africa’s most respected CEO in telecommunications

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hief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, has won Africa’s Most Respected CEO in the telecommunications category at the Africa Most Respected CEO Awards, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The awards celebrated CEOs and senior public officers from Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania in various categories such as agro-processing, automobile franchise sales, ICT, tourism, leisure and recreation, private security services, health, insurance, telecommunications, media, pharmaceuticals, aviation, among others.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Mr. Surrender Singh Kandhari, the chairman of Al Dobowi Group, and African Chamber for Trade United Arab Emirates, said: ‘’The awards are aimed at bringing together business captains, public sector officials and investors in Africa who deserve recognition for accomplishments in their respective areas of endeavor in the COVID-challenged emerging African corporate ecosystem.’’

Patricia’s contribution to the telecommunications industry is

unquestionable. In addition to championing various innovations in the industry, she is celebrated for her outstanding leadership during the heights of the pandemic. Under her leadership, Vodafone Ghana introduced remarkable initiatives as part of a comprehensive relief package for Ghanaians.

She is a fierce advocate for technology and continues to emphasize the need for Africa to leverage technological advancement to drive sustainable development and secure its

participation in the digital economy. Patricia reinforced this in her recent OpEd titled 'Connecting Africa is the Seminal Challenge of our Time’, she said: ‘’To expedite Africa’s economic recovery post-pandemic, the continent must accelerate digitalisation and expand regional cooperation.’’ She also called on governments, industry players and businesses to join Vodafone as it embarks on this campaign.

Patricia is also known for her strong passion for gender issues and interventions that

offers economic opportunities to women. Whilst speaking during the United Nations General Assembly last year, she made a call for an urgent solution to end maternal mortality across sub-Saharan Africa, describing it as unacceptable in this age. She also joined other female giants last year at the G7 Partnership on Women’s Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa’s event to deliberate on Catalyzing Digital Financial Services for Women Across Africa.

The Mobile Magazine describes her as the ‘First lady of Mobile’.

She has also won several awards including the CEO of the Year at the Ghana Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards (GITTA) as well as the Women Leadership Excellence Awards at the CEO’s Summit and Awards.

The Africa’s Most Respected CEOs Awards was held under the theme: ‘The Role of the African Corporate Pace-setters in Maximizing the Opportunities Offered by the AfCFTA.’ The awardees are first selected by public voting for nominees in each category. The awards event was organized by The Business Executive Ltd., an events and media company based in Accra, Ghana.

Famine relief blocked by bullets, red tape and lack of funding, warn FAO and WFP

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fforts to fight a global surge in acute food insecurity are being stymied in several countries by fighting and blockades that cut off life-saving aid to families on the brink of famine, warn the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) in a new report.

Bureaucratic obstacles as well as a lack of funding also hamper the two UN agencies' efforts to provide emergency food assistance and enable farmers

to plant at scale and at the right time.

This is of grave concern as conflict, the economic repercussions of COVID-19 and the climate crisis are expected to drive higher levels of acute food insecurity in 23 hunger hotspots over the next four months, according to the report, as acute food insecurity continues to increase in scale and severity.

The 23 hotspots are: Afghanistan; Angola; Central African Republic; Central

America (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua); Central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali and the Niger); Chad; Colombia; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Democratic People's Republic of Korea; Ethiopia; Haiti; Kenya; Lebanon; Madagascar; Mozambique; Myanmar; Nigeria; Sierra Leone together with Liberia; Somalia; South Sudan; the Sudan; Syria; and Yemen.

FAO and WFP have already warned that 41 million people were at risk of falling into famine unless they received immediate food and livelihood assistance.

2020 saw 155 million people facing acute food insecurity at Crisis or worse levels in 55 countries (IPC/ CH Phases 3 or worse) according to the Global Report on Food Crises, an increase of more than 20 million from 2019 - and the trend is only expected to worsen this year.

"The vast majority of those on

the verge are farmers. Alongside food assistance, we must do all we can to help them resume food production themselves, so that families and communities can move back towards selfsufficiency and not just depend on aid to survive," said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.

"That's difficult without access, and without adequate funding - and so far, support to agriculture as key means of preventing widespread famine remains largely overlooked by donors, unfortunately. Without such support to agriculture, humanitarian needs will keep skyrocketing, that's inevitable," he added.

"Families that rely on humanitarian assistance to survive are hanging by a thread.

When we cannot reach them that thread is cut, and the consequences are nothing short of catastrophic," warned David Beasley, WFP Executive Director.

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Solidaridad launches reclaim sustainability programme

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olidaridad, an international civil society organisation, has launched its reclaim sustainability programme in Accra.

The five-year programme, which is implemented by Solidaridad and TrustAfrica with funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, seeks to contribute to sustainable and inclusive cocoa, oil palm and gold supply chains, in which producers receive a fair value for their produce and work under safe conditions, without the use of child labour, and land rights and forest are protected.

It also seeks to improve the capacity of cocoa and oil palm farmers and miners to bargain for equitable access and sustainable use of natural resources.

Farmers, artisanal small-scale miners and workers in Ghana are key players in tackling major challenges such as poverty and climate change, yet their voices are often unheard.

The reclaim sustainability programme will, therefore, create a civic space where the interests, voices and rights of farmers, workers and citizens are represented and heard in

Mr Isaac Kwadwo Gyamfi, Regional Director, Solidaridad West Africa

decision making while promoting a supportive public sector, a responsible private sector, and a vibrant and strong civil society.

This, Solidaridad believes, is needed to contribute to an inclusive and sustainable economy, with prosperity and inclusion for all, as well as healthier ecosystems.

The Regional Director of Solidaridad West Africa, Isaac Kwadwo Gyamfi, called for a responsible private sector that implements comprehensive policies, and innovative and inclusive business models for truly

sustainable sourcing, production, trade and investment.

“Civic space in Ghana’s agroecological landscape is narrowed and continues to shrink. In some African countries, the space for effective policy formulation and engagement is repressed, obstructed or even closed.

Opening up civic space must, therefore, involve local, national and international engagement, as well as capacity building and institutional strengthening,” he added.

The Executive Director of TrustAfrica, Dr Ebrima Sall, said his organization was pleased to

partner Solidaridad to build the capacity of farmers and other workers, and civil society to strategically position them in the civic space in Ghana and West Africa to contribute to decisionmaking to influence policy at the national level.

“What we at TrustAfrica find most exciting about the RECLAIM Sustainability! programme is its great transformative potential. In the next five years, we should see greater equity in the value chains that the programme is working on, decent working conditions and living wages for all, economic rights, and gender equity,” he said.

For his part, the Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, Ron Strikker, said the Dutch government was happy to support the reclaim sustainability programme as it complements the government’s strategic plan for Ghana.

Mr. Strikker pledged the Dutch government’s continued partnership with the Government of Ghana, the private sector and civil society through dialogue to eliminate child labour and mainstream gender in the thematic sectors of agriculture.

UGBS alumnus joins KPMG-UK

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n alumnus of the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Mr. Senyo Adu, has been granted an opportunity to work at the Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG) office in the United Kingdom.

He joins KPMG as an Assistant Manager, Audit and Assurance Services.

Mr. Senyo Adu, a former President of the Business House Junior Common Room (BHJCR), is a graduate of UGBS, where he studied BSc. Administration (Accounting major).

While at the business school, he participated in numerous international case study competitions in Europe and other parts of Africa.

He is a Chartered Accountant and an alumnus of Achimota School.

Mr. Senyo Adu has previously worked with Société Générale, Colgate Palmolive Ghana/Nigeria and PricewaterhouseCoopers

(PwC) Ghana, where he served as a Senior Associate with the assurance line of service.

His job description included leading audit teams to perform engagements on mining and oil & gas firms in the West African subregion.

Mr. Adu is passionate about sustainable energy and the importance of developing environmentally friendly energy alternatives to fossil fuels.

He, therefore, intends to build a collaborative venture to develop an alternative sustainable energy

solution.

UGBS is proud to be associated with Mr. Senyo Adu and congratulates him on this achievement. It is our fervent hope that he continues to lift up the flag of UGBS higher.

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MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

13

Energy

MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

Spelling Bee winners pay courtesy call on GOIL

O

rganisers of the Spelling Bee Competition and the 2021 winner, have paid a courtesy call on the management of GOIL Company Limited, sponsor of the competition.

The visit was to offer an opportunity for the winning participants to share their experiences with GOIL and on how the programme has impacted and changed their academic and general lives.

The team, led by Ms. Eugenia Tachie-Menson, was warmly received by the Group CEO and MD of GOIL, Mr Kwame OseiPrempeh.

In his remarks, Mr OseiPrempeh urged the organisers to give more attention to deprived schools in remote communities in Ghana and prepare them to achieve higher laurels in the Spelling Bee competition and beyond.

He noted that deprived communities also need to be given equal educational opportunities for a brighter future and to raise the name of Ghana on the global level.

Mr Osei-Prempeh pledged the company’s continuous support for the competition.

Ms. Tachie-Menson said the

visit was also to show appreciation to GOIL for its support despite the challenges posed by covid-19 on businesses.

She was accompanied by the 2021 national champion, Naa Koshie Manyo-Plange, 11, of the Roman Ridge School, second runner-up, Gabriel Asamoah of the Springforth Community and parents of the winners among others.

The winners presented assorted

spelling bee paraphernalia to GOIL and promised to continue excelling at school.

Present at the meeting were Mr. Kwabena Adjei, Chief Finance Officer, Mr. Marcus Deo-Dake, Head of Corporate Affairs and Mr. Robert Kyere, PR Manager all of GOIL. Spelling Bee The spelling bee is a literacy

programme that teaches primary children between ages 7 and 13, how to improve their spelling, increase their vocabulary, learn, and understand word concepts that will help them all their lives.

Each year, since 2007, the Young Educators Foundation (YEF) organises the Spelling Bee programme where the eventual winner goes on to represent Ghana at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the USA.

Eni delivers exceptional results in second quarter of the year

T

he CEO of Italia Energy giant Eni, Claudio Descalzi, says the company delivered exceptional results in the second quarter of 2021.

“Eni delivered exceptional results in the second quarter of the year, continuing the upward trend of the last three quarters

and beating market expectations across all of its business segments.

With an improved macro backdrop and energy market fundamentals, the Group reported €2 billion of EBIT and €0.93 billion of net profit, a €1.6 billion increase compared to the second quarter of 2020,” Claudio

said.

He said the Group results were driven by a robust performance from the E&P segment, which recorded €1.84 billion of EBIT, up by €2.6 billion from the same quarter last year.

The newly incorporated Eni gas e luce & Renewables division

reported €70 million of EBIT, an increase of €50 million over the comparative period due to a growing customer base and higher revenue from value-added services.

“In renewables, we are going to exceed our 2021 target, reaching 2 GW of installed and in-construction power capacity.

Finally, the Chemicals business reported around €200 million of EBIT, an increase of €270 million.

The strong performances across our business and a continued focus on capital discipline resulted in strong cash flow generation in the first half of 2021 with €1.82 billion of free cash flow after organic capital expenditure, he added.

He said these results, the progress on delivering the company’s strategy, the outlook, and a Brent reference scenario of 65 $/bbl, have allowed Eni to increase it dividend back to preCOVID levels at €0.86 per share, with 50% paid next September.

“We will also start a €400 million share buy-back program over the next 6 months.”

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MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

15

Feature

MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

Time to relax global travel restrictions

By Peter Boone, Simon Johnson Complex and ever-shifting restrictions make foreign travel a daunting proposition – more often than not for no good reason. Relatives continue to pass away without visits from loved ones, parents are isolated from children, and there are fewer jobs in travel-related activities.

Anyone who risks a visit to Canada these days needs to take care. Canadians are threatening six months in jail, and up to $750,000 in fines, for disobeying testing and quarantine rules upon arrival. In the United Kingdom, the health secretary warned that travelers arriving from outside the UK could face ten years in prison for inaccurately recording their previous whereabouts on entry forms. The Biden administration recently extended the outright banpreventing most non-Americans in Europe from traveling to the United States, with threats of fines and deportation for non-compliance.

These complex and evershifting restrictions make foreign travel a daunting proposition.

Relatives continue to pass away without visits from loved ones, parents are isolated from children, and there are fewer jobs in travel-related activities. It is time to relax these rules in a responsible manner.

The risks from COVID-19 have been dramatically changed by vaccination. All vaccines authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration have proved well over 95% effective at preventing deaths, and over 90% effective at preventing serious disease, including against the more infectious delta variant.

Vaccination lowers the overall infection fatality ratio (IFR), which measures deaths among infected people, from 0.41% to around 0.02%. (Because IFR

varies significantly by age, we calculate these ratios from official data by age group, weighted by the age composition of the US population.)

Of course, vaccinating people with any kind of vulnerability, including those who are elderly or who live in congregate care settings, must remain a top global priority.

The COVID-19 vaccines do not fully prevent infections, but they do a good job of preventing severe illness. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the 2019-20 influenza season caused 38 million infections, leading to 18 million medical visits, 400,000 hospitalizations, and 22,000 deaths. That implies a 0.06% IFR for the flu, more than double the IFR for COVID-19 once the vulnerable are vaccinated.

There are still important open questions, including what percentage of people may suffer debilitating long-term COVID-19 symptoms. But the risks are now similar to those from diseases with which we already cope.

Epidemiologists have shown persuasively that wearing masks, social distancing, and generally avoiding close in-person contact reduces disease transmission.

International arrivals do not disturb that outcome at all; if we have stopped spreading the disease, then new arrivals who follow our rules don’t change much.

In 2019, 241 million passengers arrived and departed the US by air, implying that an average of roughly 330,000 passengers entered the country per day.

If all those 330,000 arrivals came from countries near the height of an infection cycle, and all symptomatic passengers still boarded the flight, then approximately 1% of those passengers (3,300 people) would be infected.

The US has recorded nearly 35

million infections in the roughly 500 days since the start of the pandemic, implying an average of around 70,000 new infections per day. The true number is probably double that, owing to undetected asymptomatic infections. If around 140,000 new infections of domestic origin per day is a reasonable estimate, the addition of up to 3,300 new cases is a minor blip.

Even though passengers on airplanes carry few infections (relative to the population size for large countries), some might argue that air travel is a breeding ground for infections, so we should ban it for that reason.

There’s no doubt that traveling in confined quarters is a risk, but so are many other activities: eating in restaurants, swimming at a pool, inviting friends to your house, visiting an art gallery, etc.

There’s little reason to isolate international air travel as the only activity to restrict severely.

It seems far more sensible to take measures that make air travel safer.

The desire to keep out potential new variants of the disease is understandable but unrealistic.

There are only a few countries that have managed a near-zero COVID outcome – notably island states like New Zealand and Australia. Most borders are far more porous. It is not people visiting relatives who ensure that all the variants will spread – it is our desire for French wines, Greek olives, Canadian maple syrup, and illegal drugs.

Approximately 30,000 trucks cross the US-Canada border each day, and another 18,000 travel between the US and Mexico.

Similarly, roughly 10,000 trucks cross the UK border daily. Air freight and shipping raise contacts even further. To maintain a zerovariant policy would require quarantining all drivers, pilots, and other personnel, as well as

halting all pedestrian, passenger car, and other traffic. The result would be further supply disruptions, higher prices (for construction materials, food, and autos, among other items), and job losses. There is no political support for such a policy.

We should stop pretending that international travel is the problem. Vaccines and treatments are keeping the variants in check, and we should keep funding promising work on boosters, new vaccines, treatments, and potential cures. Listening to public health advice is important.

But our policymakers also need to focus on what really matters.

Peter Boone is Chair of Effective Intervention at the London School of Economics’ Center for Economic Performance.

Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, is a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management and a co-chair of the COVID-19 Policy Alliance. He is the coauthor, with Jonathan Gruber, of Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream and the coauthor, with James Kwak, of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and The Next Financial Meltdown.

16

Africa Business

MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

Angola seeks investors for 200,000 bpd Lobito refinery A ngola is calling interested companies and individuals to invest in its Lobito refinery. The public tendering process was launched on Friday by the country's oil minister.

The refinery in Benguela province is projected to process up to 200,000 barrels per day when completed.

According to the proposed corporate governance structure, private investors will own 70% of the company, with state oil firm Sonangol controlling 30% stake.

Angola is building two more refineries (Cabinda and Soyo) as well as refurbishing and expanding the capacity of the existing Luanda refinery. It targets to process 360,000 barrels of oil per day locally.

"Our perspective is to have, first, enough capacity to supply the internal market, but also additional capacity so that we can export essentially to the countries in the region. There is an outflow of

oil derivatives from Angola to the Democratic Republic of Congo, so it is an interesting market," said Diamantino Azevedo, Angola's oil minister.

"We have been working with our counterparts in the DRC to make the relationship more fruitful for

our countries. Already in relation to Zambia, there is a proposal by the Zambian government to study the feasibility of a pipeline from Lobito," he added.

The country is looking to break its dependence on oil imports.

In 2019, Angola imported US$1.7

billion worth of fuel.

Angola currently has a daily production of 1.2 million barrels of crude oil, a volume that could change in the near future as new fields come on line.

Africa News

Nigeria receives four million Covid vaccine doses from the US

N

igeria received four million doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from the United States on Sunday as the West African nation steps up efforts to battle a third wave of infections.

The doses, which came on two planes, were received by officials from the UN children agency UNICEF on behalf of Nigeria at the airport in the capital Abuja, an AFP video reporter at the scene said.

It was the second batch of vaccines to arrive in Africa's most populous nation after four million doses were delivered in March under the Covax scheme.

Covax was set up to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines, particularly to lowincome countries, and has already delivered more than 80 million doses to 129 territories.

Nigeria -- home to some 210 million people -- used the four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in received in March to start its nationwide inoculation programme.

Experts worry that the highly contagious Delta variant could pose another setback to vaccine distribution -- if wealthier

countries begin requiring booster shots for fully-vaccinated people, it could slow shipments of urgently needed doses to developing nations.

The virus has killed 2,149 people and infected nearly 174,000 in Nigeria, but the real figures are believed to be much higher, in part because of low testing rates.

Last month, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said it had detected the Delta variant, putting officials on alert for a third wave of infections in the country.

In June, Nigeria barred passengers who are not citizens or permanent residents from entering the country if they have been in South Africa in the past 14 days.

The decision followed similar restrictions imposed on travellers coming from Brazil, India and Turkey.

Africa News

Egypt, Algeria foreign ministers meet in Cairo, discuss Tunisia crisis

E

gypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry on Saturday met with his Algerian counterpart Ramtane Lamamra in Cairo.

Speaking at a joint news conference, Shukry told reporters that Egypt is closely following the political turmoil in Tunisia in the wake of its president's decision to seize exceptional powers.

President Kais Saied suspended parliament, lifted the immunity of parliament members, fired the prime minister and took control of the executive branch, arguing the need to save the country amid public anger at the government over joblessness, rising prices and one of Africa’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.

Autocratic leaders from Egypt to Saudi Arabia hope the power grab spells doom for the region’s Islamists, but they also fear a

reignited Arab Spring, like the region-wide uprisings kindled by Tunisia a decade ago.

Shukry said Egypt "completely trusts" the Tunisian leadership, but called it an "internal affair."

Lamamra, meanwhile said that the dispute between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt over the Nile dam is "passing through a critical stage."

He urged for the three nations to come to an agreement.

Egypt argues a decade of negotiations over the hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile have failed to ensure that water will continue to flow downstream in sufficient amounts to Sudan and to Egypt, where 100 million people are dependent on the river as their sole source of water.

Africa News

17

Feature

MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

The paradigm shift; More Ghanaians embracing ecommerce in the wake of new Delta variant in the covid-19 era

By Bennet Otoo (Jumia Ghana)

W

e thought we were safe, or at least closer to safety when many people around the world received the covid-19 vaccines. Many of the developed countries got access to large volumes and quickly life returned to near normal.

For many developing countries, the number of vaccines was negligible but a general sense of safety was restored when a couple of people took both jabs of the vaccine. In a couple of months, everyone began to live as if everything was on reset.

Although masks are still being worn by the majority and many still practice the covid-19 safety protocols, many Ghanaians relaxed a bit too much and this has nearly cost us a lot.

The news of a new variant of the virus struck us before we knew it. Thousands of Ghanaians are contracting it and this has forced the government to implement strict measures once again by banning social events and enforcing other policies.

The general fear is that we may return to another period of restricted movements and lockdowns if the situation doesn’t improve in the coming weeks.

The realization that we will only be safe when everyone is safe goes a long way to reiterate the fact that for now, we can only rely on strategies that help us prevent physical contacts and reduce the risks of contracting this deadly virus. Jumia, Africa’s leading ecommerce ecosystem examines

ways in which Ghanaians should embrace ecommerce in the wake of the new delta variant.

According to UN trade and development experts UNCTAD, the e-commerce sector saw a “dramatic” rise in its share of all retail sales, from 16 per cent to 19 per cent in 2020.In addition to doing business online, many Ghanaians also rely on the internet more for news, healthrelated information and digital entertainment. Here are a few examples of how many Ghanaians have adapted to ecommerce in this era. ● Essential products - What happens when you really need to stay home or have limited movement because of the risk of physical contacts and infection?

It was terrible and uncomfortable last year during the lockdowns and threatens to be even more serious if care is not taken. To reduce the risk of infections, many Ghanaians have switched to shopping for essential items online. Today, many Ghanaians buy their daily needs such as beverages, sanitary items, household items,home and kitchen supplies etc online.

This has been emphasized by groceries becoming the topmost category where many consumers shop on online platforms such as Jumia. The regular vegetables, fruits and other grocery items are now purchased online and delivered fresh ensuring the safety of Ghanaians all over the country. ● Payments - In Ghana, cash has always been the preferred choice of payments. According

to the World Bank researchers, Ghana remains a cash-based economy accounting for 98.7% of payments by volume while the main non-cash instrument continues to be cheques.

However, in recent years, mobile money has gained popularity.

As of January 2021, 38.9 percent of the population aged 15 years and older had a mobile money account in Ghana. The share of mobile money users increased over the previous three years. This has been highlighted by the need to utilize cashless transactions since cash is a very dangerous career of the virus. Aside mobile money, payments by debit cards specifically Visa and Mastercard have also gone up since the covid-19 virus spread in Ghana while many Ghanaians now pay their water / electricity bills as well as purchase airtime and subscribe for DSTV/GoTv through digital payment platforms like JumiaPay. ● Deliveries / Pick-up stations - Before today, almost every Ghanaian seller who needed to deliver items to consumers or even consumers who needed to pick up their items from sellers were limited by time, distance / geographical barriers and cost.

The rise of covid-19 cases made the transfer of goods from sellers to consumers very difficult.

With ecommerce, this challenge has been neutralized especially with the fear of movement, physical contacts and contracting the virus. Many ecommerce companies have today rolled out very robust logistics systems

that allow highly trained delivery agents who observe the necessary safety protocols to make contactless deliveries to their consumers faster, conveniently and safely. Companies who also wish to deliver goods to other companies or large quantities of products to retailers also utilize ecommerce logistics platforms like Jumia Services. In addition to all of this, many pick up stations spread all over the countries make it possible for consumers to pick up their online orders from locations close to their homes.

These pickups are often cheaper and pose less to no risks. ● On demand services - This arm of ecommerce is relatively new to a lot of people but has been very effective since the start of the pandemic. In a quest to stay safe, measures were put in place which included the closure of many restaurants and bars. This was a problem for many people who often visited bars for beverages and their favorite restaurants for meals. With ecommerce solutions being provided in this regard, consumers now sit in the comfort of their homes and offices ordering for their tasty local,continental and fast food meals. Affordable drinks and beverages are also available and they get delivered safely. With just a few clicks and after a few minutes, ecommerce companies such as JumiaFood are helping Ghanaians are enjoying breakfast, lunch and even organizing family get-togethers. Life couldn't be more simple and safe during such tough periods.

18

International

MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

European and African leaders call for a new deal for Africa

By Emmanuel Macron , Paul Kagame, Cyril Ramaphosa, Macky Sall In one year, the pandemic has halted a quarter-century of steady economic growth in Africa, disrupted value chains, and caused an unprecedented increase in inequality and poverty. As a result, the entire world is at risk, because the global economy could lose one of its future drivers of growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that we can no longer treat seemingly faraway crises as distant problems. What happens anywhere can affect people everywhere. That is why addressing the impact and legacy of the pandemic in Africa is so important.

Although Africa has suffered fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths than other areas of the world, the pandemic’s impact on the continent could be more sustained, deep-rooted, and destabilizing for the entire planet.

In one year, the pandemic has halted a quarter-century of steady economic growth, disrupted value chains, and caused an unprecedented increase in inequality and poverty.

But it is not only Africa that is at risk of losing its opportunity to emerge fully from COVID-19. The global economy could lose one of its future drivers of growth.

Africa has everything required to overcome the pandemic crisis and lead the world toward a new cycle of sustainable growth: enterprising and innovative young people, natural resources which can supply a local industrial base, and a highly ambitious continental integration project. But Africa does not have the instruments to recover from a crisis as huge as it was unexpected.

While the International Monetary Fund estimates that

African countries will need $285 billion in additional financing by 2025, there is no recovery plan or mechanism in place to secure these resources. While other regions are now seeing signs of rapid economic recovery, Africa’s inability to combat the pandemic with the same leverages could fuel an economic and social crisis that denies its young people the opportunities they need and deserve.

International solidarity began yielding results soon after the pandemic began. Debt-service payments for the poorest countries were suspended under the G20, and exceptional financial assistance from the IMF, the World Bank, and other donors, including Europe, was made available.

But the institutions that have underpinned international solidarity for decades are now reaching their limits. They have been weakened in the short term by huge inequalities in vaccine access. They are weakened, too, by major economic divergences, which no emergency measure seems capable of stopping.

That is why a new framework, an ambitious and bold New Deal, is needed. And the first test of this initiative must be access to COVID-19 vaccines. Through COVAX, the vaccine pillar of the international community’s Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, and the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, hundreds of millions of doses will be delivered to Africa in the months ahead. Pre-ordered doses of vaccines are being shared via multilateral channels, with protection of health-care workers the top priority.

But it is not sufficient.

Vaccination is the world’s most important economic policy at this moment: its benefits are measured in trillions, its cost in billions. It is the highest-yielding investment in

the short term. We must therefore mobilize innovative financial instruments to increase funding for the ACT Accelerator, in order to reach Africa’s vaccination coverage target, set at 60-70% by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. We call on the IMF to recognize the use of special drawing rights (SDRs, the Fund’s unit of account) to finance this effort.

Moreover, as the Rome Declaration of the Global Health Summit held on May 21 affirms, the key to combating future pandemics is transferring not only licenses but also expertise to developing country vaccine producers.

Pending the conclusion of an agreement on intellectual property currently under negotiation at the World Trade Organization, Africa must be able to produce vaccines using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology and break a deal, within the WTO, on the TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) regime.

With the impetus of the Paris summit for African, European, and financial leaders, held on May 18, such production partnerships will be financed and move ahead in the coming months.

The second component of a New Deal for Africa is largescale investment in health, education, and the fight against climate change. We must allow Africa to ring-fence this spending from outlays for security and infrastructure investment, preventing the continent from falling into a new cycle of excessive debt. In the short term, despite certain African countries’ spectacular success at tapping international capital markets, private creditors will not provide the necessary financial resources.

Africa needs a positive confidence shock. The Paris summit has enabled us to consolidate an agreement on a

new $650 billion allocation of SDRs, $33 billion of which will go to African countries. Now we want to go even further with two voluntary commitments.

First, we need a commitment by other countries to mobilize part of their SDR allocations for Africa. As a first step, this rechanneling of resources would enable an initial threshold of $100 billion to be freed up for Africa (and vulnerable countries elsewhere).

Second, African institutions must be involved in the use of these SDRs to support the continent’s recovery and progress toward achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. This, in turn, may pave the way for an overhaul of our international financial architecture that gives greater weight to African institutions.

Emmanuel Macron is President of France

Paul Kagame is President of Rwanda

Cyril Ramaphosa is President of South Africa

Macky Sall is President of Senegal

19

Feature

MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

Unemployment is an error

By Dorothy Akuffo Boison “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that.

A lot of people have ideas, but there are a few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer”- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck-E-Cheese’s.

Nothing could be more frustrating than eagerly expecting to make a means of livelihood and yet, that means is nowhere to be found. What could be more infuriating than having a desire to accomplish a goal or purpose and yet, the means to alleviate that vision isn’t available?

Growing up, I have seen many people with great ambitions, studying hard and doing all they can to get better grades so that they could secure ready jobs.

Others are trained to believe that there is only one charted way that leads to destiny fulfillment, and that is to find a good office job after graduating from school.

But with such mentality and attitude, many have had their hopes dashed, however, there are a selected few who refuse to accept defeat. They are those who do not wait for destiny to happen to them. They happen to destiny and they chart their paths when they hit a crossroad.

I have heard the stories of some entrepreneurs who rose from nothing to become prominent people in society because they decided to change the status quo.

Sophia Amoruso for instance, is an American businesswoman who was diagnosed with ADHD at an early age and had to withdraw from school. She spent her formative years working odd jobs. Following her parents’ divorce, she then relocated to Sacramento, CA, and started selling vintage clothing and other items through her eBay account, under the guise of Nasty Gal Vintage. Its revenue subsequently grew from $223,000 in 2008 to nearly $23 million in 2011, leading her to being dubbed the “Cinderella of tech” by the New York Times.

Another story could be said of Kwame Despite Osei, the owner of Despite Company Ltd. He started life as a petty trader, dealing in cassettes, padlocks, feeding bottles, and other merchandise in Dunkwa-Offinso but is currently one of the most successful and richest businessmen in Ghana.

He refused to allow his humble background and the pressures of life to dictate to him. With hard work and perseverance, he has created numerous job opportunities for many people from all walks of life.

It was not until I came into contact with online marketing and saw all the opportunities

that social media presents that I realized that unemployment is indeed an error. It’s an error for a fully-fetched human being with blood flowing through their veins to sit idle and wait for someone or a government to create an employment opportunity for them, before they start doing something.

Thankfully, Longrich International has created an opportunity for everyone; both educated and uneducated to earn a livelihood. Longrich Business, with its Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) platform, is one of the most lucrative and rewarding businesses in the world today.

Most people's struggle has previously been how to connect to people and persuade them to use Longrich products or enter the program, but with the power of the internet and teamwork, everyone on the team can quickly become a major winner. Longrich International is a global company that aims to educate, inform, and inspire millions of people to achieve financial independence and live the lifestyle of their dreams. A way of life that allows you to set financial goals and have time for yourself. Longrich is creating transgenerational wealth by empowering people all over the world through a sustainable business model.

One of the best aspects of this program is that you are

compensated every week for the rest of your life, with no retirement, no age restrictions of any kind, transferable earnings, and benefit plans that are second to none, among other things. Get up and chart your path. You don’t have an excuse not to make it in this social media era, posterity will judge you if you don’t make use of all available resources that are highly abundant at your disposal. Network marketing has come to stay, what you need to do is to adjust to the new era in which we live, and make it big time with the Longrich. Many people have taken advantage of the Longrich Business to become successful, why can't you be among them?

In a dispensation where there are millions of students graduating every single year all in the hope of leaving school to find a ready job, you need to up your game and start thinking differently. Have control over your destiny by changing the way you think. Refuse to be part of the statistics of unemployed people. Make an effort, work hard, be resilient and take risks, certainly, you will succeed if you don’t give up. Join the Longrich Business today and have control over your destiny!

Author Dorothy Akuffo Boison Student, Pentecost University (Longrich Entrepreneur)

20

Feature

MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

The great divide: Does foreign investment influence income inequality?

Prof Charles Adjasi and Dr Theresia Kaulihowa

I

n Africa, statistics reveal that inequality has either remained unchanged or has increased for most countries over the past 30 years with significant negative consequences for social stability and peace. The current rise in inequality offsets the povertyreducing effects of more than a decade’s worth of growth. Yet there is a worldwide paradigm shift towards addressing socioeconomic concerns more adequately. Income inequality negatively affects progress towards the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000, which commits world leaders to combatting poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women.

High income inequality can be associated with a lack of income mobility and persistent implications for macroeconomic stability and broad-based development policies. In African countries characterised by higher than usual poverty and inequality rates, foreign direct investment (FDI) has become a complementary element to other development policies in closing the income divide.

When assessing the impact of FDI, the approach cannot be one-dimensional as a number

of factors, including underlying economics, play a role in outcomes.

Growing debate on foreign direct investment With the increase in the level of FDI to finance the growth ambitions of developing countries, the question arises about how these resources have affected income distribution.

Foreign resources have been found to influence the scope and rate of economic growth significantly in developing countries, and FDI from multinational corporations, governments, international trade and private organisations has become the pathway to globalisation in aiding broadbased development in Africa.

FDI has been heralded as being complementary in closing the income divide by increasing employment and wages, resulting in a reduction of poverty and inequality. However, literature is wreathed with extensive debates and mixed arguments on the efficacy of FDI as a policy instrument.

Empirical literature is filled with conflicting predictions about the impact of FDI. Mixed evidence emanates from many different schools of thought – from those that involve studies indicating how FDI worsens income inequality to those that

support its inequality-reducing effects.

Other more recent critics find that, although FDI has been beneficial in promoting economic development, there are concerns that it is also responsible for widening income inequality. And there are several reasons for these theories. For instance, despite positive externalities associated with multinational enterprises, FDI is reputed to aggravate wage differentials in host economies.

Furthermore, most of the FDI firms’ profit is repatriated back to the countries of origin.

Mind the gap Most African countries are characterised by either high or a sluggish decline in income inequality. Using the Gini ratio and index – a measure of statistical dispersion representing the income or wealth distribution of a nation’s inhabitants and the most commonly used measurement of inequality – it can be seen that countries such as South Africa, Botswana and Zambia have recorded the highest Gini coefficient of about 0.6 while Tanzania, Tunisia, Nigeria and Morocco have a Gini of about 0.4. Mauritius has the lowest Gini of about 0.2, while Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Kenya exhibit a downward trend.

A country’s development processes occur in stages. It

has been found that income inequality will increase during the early stage of development.

However, income inequality can be expected to decrease once an optimal development stage has been attained, after which spillover gains are eventually spread throughout the entire economy.

This characterises a U-shaped curve between economic development and income inequality.

By regressing the FDI ratio to GDP on income inequality, the short-run parameter FDI seems to reduce income inequality by 10%. However, this effect is diminished in the long run where FDI is associated with widening income inequality. Even if FDI reduces income inequality in the short run, it is most likely that this will be eroded in the long run such that the net effect will not support inequality reduction theory.

In capturing the non-linear hypothesis and GDP per capita for economic activity, FDI does not have a significant impact on inequality in the short run.

However, even though in the long run it reduces inequality, there is a turning point after which further increases in FDI will widen income inequality. This implies that when the inward FDI stock ratio to GDP rises beyond 2,8% it will worsen income inequality.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

21 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20 When including education, a similar U-shaped relationship between FDI and inequality is found in the long run. The turning point is estimated at a ratio of 6,91% which implies that when the inward FDI stock ratio to GDP rises beyond 6,9% it will worsen income inequality.

Education will reduce income inequality while GDP worsens it. However, after controlling financial development, education no longer decreases income inequality. This is not being pro-poor. Instead, it is rather an indication of movement towards growth and technologies. It is the exacerbation of income inequality that makes the poor worse off.

Considering financial sector development, the U-shaped relationship between FDI and inequality in the long run persists. Financial development seems to decrease income inequality while both education and GDP per capita are associated with increasing inequality.

While education is theoretically expected to improve the distribution in any economy, there is no evidence that this holds true for Africa.

FDI may have resulted in skillbiased employment that further increases the gap between the rich and the poor. Furthermore,

MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

FDI may be dominated by resource-seeking FDI that is exploitative in nature and that creates limited linkages with the entire economy. Income inequality may further worsen if mergers and acquisitions – as opposed to green-field investment – dominate FDI activities. Therefore the type and nature of FDI activities can also influence the distribution effect of FDI. Although FDI may be beneficial to economic development, there is great concern that FDI may also widen skill inequality and exacerbate income inequality as a result. The findings of a U-shaped effect of FDI on income inequality are contrary to these a priori expectations, which could very well contribute to Africa’s inherent issues of capacity constraints and a weak industrial base.

When human capital augments FDI, it has the potential to improve the distribution of income and secondary education, which has a significant impact on income inequality. FDI tends to induce employment bias towards skilled labour. This implies that the poor are less likely to benefit from the resulting increase in employment.

A minimum threshold level of human capital is therefore required to realise technological transfers and certain spill-over

gains. The reality is that Africa’s skills development, which allows the labour market to make use of new technologies, is weak.

It is therefore not surprising that FDI as a development policy instrument has worsened income distribution in Africa.

Inequality will increase when the development process of developing countries is driven by highly industrialised multinational corporations. This will happen as long as African countries remain dependent on these activities that engage in capital-intensive production.

Policy strategies that are geared towards investment in human capital could increase the supply of skilled labour and thereby improve the distribution effects of FDI. The resulting increase has the potential to invert the current U-shaped curve. By encouraging FDI to target both ends of the labour market, skilled and unskilled, the benefit would be the greatest in diminishing the gap in income inequality. Original article: Kaulihowa, T. & Adjasi, C. 2017.

FDI and income inequality in Africa. Oxford Development Studies. Link to original article: https://doi.org/10.1080/136008 18.2017.1381233 Charles Adjasi is a professor in Development Finance at the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

His areas of expertise include

the development of financial markets in Africa, international trade dynamics, economics, firm productivity and foreign direct investment. Dr Theresia Kaulihowa is head of Economics at the University of Namibia, with expertise in the field of financial economics.

PULL QUOTES The current rise in inequality offsets the povertyreducing effects of more than a decade’s worth of growth.

FDI may have resulted in skillbiased employment that further increases the gap between the rich and the poor.

Furthermore, FDI may be dominated by resource-seeking FDI that is exploitative in nature and that creates limited linkages with the entire economy.

High income inequality can be associated with a lack of income mobility and persistent implications for macroeconomic stability and broad-based development policies.

Join us for a virtual information session on Thursday 26th of August 2021, by registering with: Dr Marietjie van der Merwe Ghana In-Country Representative marie@globalnatives.com WhatsApp:+230 5 701 1362 For more information on Stellenbosch University Business School: https://www.usb.ac.za/

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NO. B24 / 229 | NEWS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

MONDAY MAY 3, 2021

MONDAY AUGUST 2, 2021

Angolan President in Ghana for three-day visit

A

ngolan President Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco arrived Accra Sunday for a three-day official visit to the country.

He is in Ghana at the invitation

of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who was in Angola in August, 2019, for a 2-day official visit at the Angolan leader's request.

President João Lourenço's

visit is aimed at strengthening the economic ties that exist between the two countries, as well as exploring possible areas of co-operation for their mutual benefit.

He was met on arrival at the airport by the Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul.

President Lourenco will on Monday, August 2, confer with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House, and preside over the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on political consultations between both countries.

He is expected also to tour, lay a wreath and plant a tree at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra, and later hosted to a State Banquet at the Jubilee House by President Akufo-Addo.

On Tuesday, President Lourenco is billed to visit the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), where he would interact with the Secretary Genral of the body, Wamkele Mene.

He has also been scheduled to visit and address Ghana's Parliament on Tuesday.

President Lourenco will depart for his country on Wednesday.

He is being accompanied by officials from his country.

Sammy Awuku appointed NLA Director-General

P

resident Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appointed the National Organiser of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Samuel Kwabena Awuku as the new Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA).

Mr. Awuku is expected to resign from his position as NPP National Organiser to take up the appointment which has been approved by the Council of State.

He has also served as the Board Chairman of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), a government agency that has the mandate to co-ordinate and facilitate employment opportunities for young people in Ghana.

Mr. Awuku replaces Mr. Kofi Osei Ameyaw, who was directed

by President Akufo-Addo on March 10, 2021, to hand over to the finance director, Ernest

Mortey upon his retirement.

That directive was contained

in a letter signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo

Asante.