Business24 Newspaper 24th March, 2021

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WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021

BUSINESS24.COM.GH

NO. B24 / 175 | NEWS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021

Economic activity rebounds strongly, but taxes a concern

Parliament to probe collapse of UT, unibank

By Eugene Davis ugendavis@gmail.com

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he Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has directed the leadership of parliament to set up a seven-member committee to probe into factors leading to the revocation of licenses of defunct UT Bank and unibank.

Cont’d on page 3

By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

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atest data from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) reveal that the Ghanaian economy is on a strong rebound, brushing off concerns that the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic could hamper its recovery.

The Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA), which the BoG relies upon

to gauge the strength of economic activity, recorded an annual growth of 13.9 percent in January, the highest since December 2019, compared to an annual growth of 3.4 percent in the corresponding period of 2020.

The Governor of the central bank, Dr. Ernest Addison, said in the bank’s monetary policy press statement released on Monday that the key

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:

4.2% GHC 5.13

By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

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anks have signalled their readiness to extend credit to the private sector following months of sluggish credit demand and supply conditions due to the pandemic,

Cont’d on page 2 INTERNATIONAL MARKET

US$1 = GHC 5.7606

GHANA REFERENCE RATE PROJECTED GDP GROWTH RATE

drivers of economic activity were construction, imports, industrial consumption of electricity, domestic VAT, passenger arrivals at the airport, and port activity.

“On the domestic front, the bank’s high-frequency indicators have continued to pick up, reflecting the rebound in economic activity.

Banks ready to ease credit stance for private sector

BRENT CRUDE $/BARREL NATURAL GAS $/MILLION BTUS GOLD $/TROY OUNCE

Follow us online: $57.79 $2.6801,922.57 $1,836.62

CORN $/BUSHEL

$543.75

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$123.55

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Editorial / News

WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021

Editorial

Hope for the private sector

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fter a period of constrained credit to businesses due to the uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus pandemic on trade and related commercial activities, the latest credit conditions survey by the Bank of Ghana shows that banks in the country are increasing their lending support to businesses.

Private sector credit growth slowed in the first two months of the year due to constrained demand for credit. Real private sector credit contracted by 2.7 percent compared to a growth of 12.9 percent over the same period last year, the report indicated.

Bearing the harsh effect of

the pandemic, private sector businesses are in dire need of access to long-term finance that will help boost productivity and job creation.

Sustained investments, specifically banks’ funding to key sectors including agribusinesses, manufacturing and high-value services is what is needed to fast-track the nation’s recovery from the pandemic.

By offering long-term wholesale financing, credit guarantees, and other services they will boost the competitiveness of Ghana’s priority sectors and market segments.

It’s of no doubt that banks will play a key role in the participation

of private sector businesses in the single continental market as well as government’s aggressive industrialisation for import substitution.

This gesture from the banks highlights their critical role in all spheres of socio-economic activities and depicts a ready sector that will provide the financial muscle that will drive the journey to recovery postCovid.

Indeed, following the roll out of covid vaccines, the economy could do a lot with some support from the banks and this paper believes that the banks are in a right position to offer just that.

Economic activity rebounds strongly, but taxes a concern Continued from cover

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Although business and consumer sentiments softened on the back of the surge in Covid cases in the early months of 2021, the rollout of the vaccination programme has increased optimism about the future and will further add a boost to the anticipated recovery in growth.”

“Even though private sector credit growth remains generally weak due to the pandemic, the rebound of input supplies, evidenced by increased nonoil imports, should support the ongoing rebound in economic activity,” he added.

Results from the bank’s confidence surveys conducted in February 2021 showed some softening of both consumer and business sentiments.

Business sentiments, reflecting the level of optimism among firm managers, deteriorated over concerns that the reimposition of some restrictions as a result of the second wave of the pandemic could have detrimental consequences on the attainment of firms’ short-term goals.

Similarly, the softening of

Dr. Ernest Addison, Governor, Bank of Ghana

consumer confidence reflected heightened concerns about the upsurge in Covid-19 cases in the first two months of the year.

With the commencement of vaccinations and expected gradual lifting of remaining restrictions, the Governor indicated that the expectation is for both business and consumer confidence to rebound.

However, some economists have warned that confidence of

both businesses and consumers will likely be adversely affected by the new taxes proposed by in the government’s 2021 budget.

Last week, lawmakers approved the budget statement in a vote which was split along party lines, with members of the opposition rejecting the statement because of concerns they had expressed over the new taxes and the credibility of the reported budget deficit for the 2020 fiscal year.

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Parliament to probe collapse of UT, unibank Continued from cover His request comes after the two business men Prince Kofi Amoabeng of defunct UT bank and Dr. Kwabena Duffour of unibank, petitioned Parliament.

According to the Speaker of Parliament, the committee should be ready before parliament goes on the Easter recess and are expected to continue their work throughout the holidays.

Mr. Amoabeng petitioned

parliament to investigate the conduct of the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Stock Exchange for the revocation of UT Bank’s baning license and delisting the bank from the exchange.

He is also seeking Parliament

financial institutions — UT Bank and uniBank.

to direct the central bank to restore banking license of UT Bank as well as for the central bank to remedy harm done to the shareholders properties rights.

The petition also wants parliament to give any other directive they deem appropriate.

On the part of Dr. Kwabena Duffour, he is asking the legislature to investigate the circumstances leading to the revocation of the banking license of uniBank.

He is also asking the House to remedy the “harm” done to the shareholders property rights as a result of the conduct of the Bank of Ghana as well as give any other directives that Parliament may deem appropriate.

Meanwhile, the leadership of both the Majority and Minority caucuses have up to March 31, 2021, to present names of MPs to be part of the committee.

Prince Kofi Amoabeng and Dr. Kwabena Duffuor last week petitioned Parliament to investigate the conduct of the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Stock Exchange following the revocation of the license of their respective financial institutions — UT Bank and uniBank.

Banks ready to ease credit stance for private sector Continued from cover the latest credit conditions survey by the Bank of Ghana has shown.

Private sector credit growth slowed in the first two months of the year due to constrained demand for credit. Real private sector credit contracted by 2.7 percent compared to a growth of 12.9 percent over the same period last year.

Nevertheless, banks have signalled an ease in credit stance over the next two months, according to the monetary policy press statement issued on Monday, while there is an expectation of increased demand for credit from the private sector.

Notwithstanding the sluggish credit conditions due to the pandemic, the central bank’s COVID-related regulatory reliefs and policy measures continue to support lending, with new advances for the first two months of 2021 totalling GH¢4.7bn.

An emerging issue, however, is the rise in the Non-Performing Loans (NPL) ratio from 13.8 percent in February 2020 to 15.3 percent in February 2021, arising partly from the general pandemic-

induced repayment challenges as well as some bank-specific loan recovery challenges.

Banking sector performance The performance of the banking sector remained strong through end-February 2021, with robust growth in total assets,

deposits and investments.

Total assets increased by 18.5 percent on a year-on-year basis to GH¢152bn, reflecting strong growth in investments in government securities by 45.9 percent to GH¢67.9bn.

Total deposits recorded a yearon-year growth of 25.1 percent to GH¢104bn, reflecting strong

liquidity flows emanating from the COVID-19 fiscal stimulus, payments to contractors, SDI depositors, and clients of SEClicensed fund managers.

The central bank noted that the impact of the pandemic on the industry’s performance seems moderate as banks remain liquid, profitable and well-capitalised.

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News

WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021

First AU covid-19 vaccine doses arrive in Ghana as part of MTN’s US$25m donation

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TN’s US$25 million donation to support the African Union’s (AU’s) COVID-19 vaccination programme is on track to administer 165,000 AstraZeneca doses to health workers. The vaccines arrived in the country two days ago and were received at the Kotoka International Airport by Dr. Mathew Kyeremeh, Chairman of the Health Commodities Group for COVID-19 of the Ministry of Health.

Dr Mathew Kyeremeh expressed his gratitude to MTN and said the vaccines were going to be administered to people with underlying conditions and frontline workers.

In a major commitment to the health of the continent, MTN made the commitment in January 2021 to accelerate the AU’s critical programme.

This was aimed at securing up to seven million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine overall, to be spread across all 55 AU member states, for healthcare workers specifically.

“While the facilitation of the vaccination programme is in the hands of the Africa CDC and the African Union Vaccination Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), MTN is encouraged to see a clear

plan and strong, accelerated move towards keeping Africa and its people safe and healthy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure that Ghana and Africa as a whole, is not left behind,” says Selorm Adadevoh, CEO of MTN Ghana.

“As a company that is committed to the prosperity and progress of Ghana and indeed the continent, for MTN’s part, we are proud to be able to make a humble contribution to the millions of vaccine doses needed to reach herd immunity,” says Selorm.

“We are excited and grateful to be receiving this share of the first one million doses as part of the AU’s accelerated vaccine programme, supported by MTN. While we are still in the early stages of the vaccine race, this initial contribution offers some very welcome relief as we start seeing the programme coming to fruition to the benefit of our dedicated healthcare workers,” says Hon. Kwaku AgyemanManu, Minister of Health.

MTN continues to call on all large corporates across industry sectors, to play their part by contributing to this and similar initiatives that can fast-track the rollout of much-needed vaccines

to help get the virus under control.

Following the outbreak of Coronavirus in Ghana, the MTN Ghana Foundation has supported Ghanaians with some major interventions to lessen the impact of the pandemic. MTN donated GHc5 million worth of PPEs to the National Covid Trust Fund. Again, the Foundation donated essential equipment to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research to enable rapid testing and data processing.

The Foundation also donated over 80,00 face masks to 30 hospitals across the country.

With the surge in COVID-19 cases in 2021, the Foundation recently donated PPEs to 15 Senior High

Schools and 29 Hospitals.

MTN Ghana also zero-rated several public websites providing health and other COVID-19 related information as well as over 200 websites for academic use by public and private educational institutions. Other educational campaigns such as the ‘BE WISE’ campaign and MTN’s global ‘#WearItForMe’ marketing initiative were undertaken to build awareness around the importance of correctly wearing a face mask to combat the spread of the virus.

As at the end of December 2020, the cumulative value of MTN Ghana’s efforts to fighting COVID-19 was GH¢139 million.

Sixth company lists on GAX

By Joshua Worlasi Amlanu macjosh1922@gmail.com

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he Ghana Alternative Market (GAX), the special equity market for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), will today March 24th, 2020 list its sixth company, Pesewa ONE Plc, “POP”.

According to a release from the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Pesewa ONE Plc, a business incubator, will list five million ordinary issued shares priced at GH¢ 0.60 at a market capitalisation of GH¢3 million. however, the company has authorized ordinary shares of 10 billion and a stated capital of GH¢366,000.

This listing forms part of efforts by the GSE to revamp the alternative market.

The genesis of the Pesewa brand was in the launch of Pesewa Global and Pesewa Investment Club in 2018 to

invest in innovative young startup businesses. The Pesewa Investment Club has since grown into Pesewa ONE PLC with fifty-five (55) start-up ideas and businesses currently under the

Incubator.

The vision of Pesewa ONE is to build Ghanaian businesses that can go global. This informs the variety of businesses Pesewa ONE currently incubates including

enterprises in industries such as Technology, Education, Professional Services, Media, Advertising, and Finance.

The objective of POP is to develop platforms to inspire young Ghanaian entrepreneurs to begin their journeys of creating wealth and jobs.

In terms of its business model, the company takes up 30% shares in each of the businesses under the Incubator and receives dividends when any of these businesses make a profit.

Pesewa ONE also realizes capital gains upon the sale of any of these businesses. It is also entitled to management fees for services provided to each business for the first five years of the business’s existence.

The company owns and monetizes all the data from its activities and those of the incubate businesses through its website.

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VACANCY

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News

WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021

Roads Ministry gets GH¢1.9bn budget approval

By Eugene Davis ugendavis@gmail.com

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arliament has given the greenlight to the Ministry of Roads and Highways to spend an amount of GH¢1.9bn as its budget for 2021.

According to the Report of Parliament’s Committee on Roads and Transport, the budget is expected to cater to activities such as management and administration, road and bridge construction, road rehabilitation and maintenance, road safety and environment, major pipeline projects.

Under management and administration, it is intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance delivery of the sector, 239 technical staff and 49 nontechnical staff are expected to be replaced. Additionally,425 technical staff and 135 nontechnical staff would be trained in different disciplines.

For roads and bridge construction, in 2021 fiscal year, 50km of trunk roads and 25km of urban roads would be constructed and those ongoing would be continued. In addition to that, five, 24 and three bridges

on the trunk, feeder and urban networks would be constructed.

The Ministry will also undertake 15 engineering studies with three on trunk roads, two on feeder roads and 10 on urban roads.

The Ministry and its agencies plan to undertake 12,500km, 25,000km and 3,500km of routine maintenance activities (grading, pothole patching, shoulder maintenance, vegetation control) on trunk, feeder and urban road networks respectively.

Periodic maintenance activities –spot improvement, re-gravelling, asphaltic overlay, partial reconstruction and maintenance of bridges on trunk, feeder and urban roads would be undertaken on 23km,800km

and 300km on trunk, feeder and urban roads respectively.

Minor rehabilitation works would be done on 72km of trunk roads,500km of feeder roads and 30km of urban roads.

Furthermore, the ministry and its agencies would install and maintain 20 and 310 traffic signals respectively. The ministry will also correct 50 road safety hazard sites. They would construct 5km of walkway and junction improvement on 20 locations.

The report also reveals that GH₵57m will be used on compensation as well as GH₵30m on goods and services.

On capital expenditure an amount of 1.8bn has been earmarked, with funding expected to come from GoG, IGF,

Donor and ABFA. The committee report also noted with concern outstanding payments and arrears owed to contractors. Members of the committee were informed that the situation has been due to delays and non-release of budgetary allocations as well as delays in the issuance of commencement certificates for capital expenditure.

As a result, the Ministry is saddled with huge outstanding commitments.

Outstanding invoices from the 2013 to December 2020 (road arrears) for the sector amounts to GH¢2.2bn while indebtedness to contractors received at the Ghana Road Fund Secretariat pending payments is GH₵3.9bn.

StanChart announces a EUR 55mn road infrastructure financing in Ghana

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tandard Chartered announces the signing for a EUR 55 million funding with the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Ghana of a road infrastructure supported by an Export Credit Agency (ECA).

Working closely with Exportkreditnämnden (EKN, the Swedish ECA) and Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK), Standard Chartered’s project financing will fund the asphalt overlay of 100km of feeder roads in Tamale, Walewale, Nalerigu, Gambaga, Damongo, and Yendi.

The financing transaction provides a significant contribution to the Ghanaian Government’s commitment for major investments in road transportation infrastructure, and alignment with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG) concerning industry, innovation and infrastructure.

The road infrastructure project will help considerably the Government’s efforts to boost the socio-economic development of the country’s urban and rural communities by providing easier

access to healthcare, education, employment and other social services. Tamale’s road network project is being developed by a Swedish EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor, QG Konstruktion AB (QGMI, SCB client), and will help improve regional networks in the Northern Region and consequently increase the flow of business, agricultural trade and market access.

Desislava Radeva, Director, Structured Export Finance, Standard Chartered Bank, said: “We are extremely proud to reinforce our position as a reliable bank of choice to Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Ghana and to enhance our collaboration with EKN and SEK by closing this landmark infrastructure financing during such challenging times.”

Mansa Nettey, Chief Executive, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Plc said: “This transaction stays true to Standard Chartered’s brand promise, Here for good, and underscores our proficiency and capacity to provide solutions that contribute to Ghana’s socio-

economic development. The Bank has operated in Ghana for 125 years and will continue to be a conduit for long term project and infrastructure financing that help Ghana achieve its Sustainable Development Goals.”

Maria Mattsson, senior

underwriter at EKN, said: “EKN’s mission is to enable financing of the purchase of Swedish high-quality equipment. It is particularly rewarding that EKN has participated in this important project.”

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News

WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021

‘Women need to be ready to take on challenge of equal opportunities’

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BNBank Ghana’ Women Network (FWN) has urged women to gear up with the right capabilities, attitude and skills in order to be able to take on the challenges that equal opportunities at the workplace would present so as to ensure that they achieve their full potential.

To commemorate International Women Day 2021 (IWD 2021), the Bank, through its FBNBank Women Network, held a Forum to discuss issues pertaining to the advancement of the cause of women at the workplace under the same theme as the IWD 2021 celebrations, “Choose to Challenge.” The Forum, which also allowed for virtual participation featured a panel of four resource persons and over 200 attendees.

Speaking at the Forum, FBNBank Ghana’s Country Head of Technology and Services, Mrs. Rachel Adeshina, who is also the Chairperson of the FBNBank Women Network (FWN), said, “through the platform provided by the FBNBank Women Network, we have displayed our commitment to maintaining the status quo of equal opportunities

for women, particularly at the workplace.

The pillars of the FWN in particular, ensure that our women find a seat at whatever table they aspire to be at, armed with the right skill-sets in order that they can contribute greater value for success. What we need to see now is for us, women, to determine how far we want to go and to build our capabilities in order that we can be up for the challenge. That is the choice

we, women, have to make and nobody can do that for us.”

The FWN is a platform introduced by the Bank’s parent company, First Bank of Nigeria, to promote access to equal opportunities for women at the workplace. It offers female employees capacity building and personal development through its six pillars which are: Career Management, Networking Programmes/ Projects & Events, Counselling-

Support-Welfare, Financial Planning & Empowerment, Mentoring-Coaching-Sponsoring and Personal Branding. These are aimed at empowering them to contribute meaningfully wherever they find themselves.

Addressing the participants, the Special Guest, Mrs. Comfort Ocran, a member of the Board of the Bank of Ghana, said women must be ready to take up opportunities when they come up without looking at the challenges.

“We all have different skill-sets and priorities so your place is where your knowledge, skills and priorities place you. Wherever you find yourself, based on your choices, you must be prepared to discharge your role very well.

Yes, you will need support as you go along. However, in any given situation you will need to prove through your actions that you are worthy of that support,” she said.

Women make up about 48 percent of FBNBank Ghana’s staff population. The bank also has a strong female presence across all levels of personnel including senior management and the board.

Nestlé, Red Cross continue to provide clean water for rural communities

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estlé Ghana, producers of Milo, Cerelac, Maggi, Ideal Milk and Nescafe, in collaboration with the Ghana Red Cross Society, has commissioned a portable water system at Amanhyia, a community of over 4,000 residents, in the Suhum Municipality in the Eastern Region.

The water system commissioned on World Water Day, has three major water points in the community. Prior to this, the community relied mainly on a source far from the community.

This adds to the 65 water systems provided to over 119,532 residents in 64 communities in the Eastern and the Ashanti Regions of Ghana through their sustainable WASH partnership.

Speaking at a ceremony to commission the water system in Amanhyia, Georgios Badaro, Managing Director of Nestlé Ghana, highlighted the importance of water to life as a basic requirement for health and wellbeing of individuals and families; the absence of it compromises the quality of life.

“Nestlé believes in helping build thriving and resilient communities through strategic partnership such as the one we have built with the Ghana Red Cross Society and with ECOM. Nestlé will continue to contribute to societal and economic development in Ghana through its purpose of ‘unlocking the power of food to enhance quality of life for everyone today and for generations to come’.

We are thankful to Red Cross our implementing partner for working together with us to ensure water reaches deprived communities

and to ECOM for being Nestlé Cocoa Plan implementors in the Amanhyia community”.

Secretary General of the Ghana Red Cross Society, Samuel Kofi Addo noted at the ceremony that “water plays a vital role in strengthening human security and maintaining the health of the planet’s ecosystems. Ghana Red Cross Society in collaboration with its partners, will continue to aid deprived communities through provision of safe water and education to help improve livelihoods in deprived

communities”.

This Nestlé-Red Cross GhanaWash Project contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6- Clean Water and Sanitation for all.

In other endeavors, Nestlé and the Red Cross Society have supported Government with Covid-19 relief efforts, this includes clinical equipment, food for the less privileged, deployment of 250 handwashing stations with education in selected communities.

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Feature

WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021

Rebuild public trust to combat Covid-19 vaccine conspiracy theories

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ountering conspiracy theories that lead to vaccine hesitancy, threatening to derail the African government’s target of achieving herd immunity against Covid-19 by the end of 2021, will take more than publicity shots of politicians publicly receiving their vaccine shots.

Rebuilding public trust in public institutions and systems is what is needed, says senior futurist Dr Njeri Mwagiru of the Institute for Futures Research at the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, with government aiming to vaccinate 67% of the population, about 40-million people, by year end, is central to the strategy to keep infection rates low and prevent a third wave that would lead to further loss of lives and disrupt the economy again.

“While we are acting to curb the spread of the virus, curbing the spread of conspiracy theories, misinformation and fake news will be a key element in the success of that strategy.”

“The spread of misinformation is harmful to public health, individual wellbeing and overall societal peace and order, so addressing this is equally important to addressing concerns such as the acquisition of sufficient vaccine doses, the logistics of distributing and administering the vaccine and whether the pace of vaccination is sufficient to reach the target,” Dr Mwagiru said.

She cautioned that leaders in government, business and the community publicly having their vaccine shots in order to convince people of their safety, was only one step.

“Conspiracy theories and beliefs thrive when the social contract is weak, when the public lacks trust that leaders, institutions and establishments in authority will act outside of their own self and partisan group interests.

“These public shows of acceptance of the vaccine by leaders will be ineffective if still overshadowed by lack of trust, with the risk of well-intended publicity being hijacked by a conspiracy narrative that says such displays are part and parcel of a mass, ongoing duping process.

“Leadership needs to convince constituencies through sustained actions that they are acting as stewards in service of society and that their decisions and our institutions are geared towards

the greater good, not only in the short-term for expediency’s sake but in the long-term too.”

She said that conspiracy theories – defined as “claims of secret, often malevolent, ploys by powerful agents” – attempt to offer explanations for the causes of significant social, political, economic and technological events and circumstances, especially in times of uncertainty and diminished trust in public institutions and even though they are “often unverifiable or proven false”.

“Contexts of increasing uncertainty, such as we are currently experiencing, also heighten a sense of overwhelm, which can drive a desire to find certainty and answers amidst the perceived chaos. Studies show that conspiracy beliefs are higher when there is a need to make sense of changing environments and a need to feel safe and in control.

“Misdirecting this search for sense and safety, conspiracy theories offer definitive answers in areas of ambiguity, and respond to a wish for stability with an instant gratification approach,” she said.

To counter the numerous conspiracy theories, covering topics ranging from climate change to vaccines, Dr Mwagiru said the onus is on governments, multinational corporations and big business, as well as science, the media and education institutions, to re-establish the trust of populations in their systems.

“Particularly there is a need to underscore the necessary legitimacy of these systems, their representational functions and the purported altruism of their service, prioritising valuing communities and promoting wellbeing across generations.”

She said areas where public institutions could improve public trust include ethical leadership, increased transparency and accountability, improved information sharing and participatory, evidence-based

decision-making.

Dr Mwagiru said education institutions and the media also have a role to play in ensuring accurate information gains traction over misinformation, and to prevent data manipulation and distribution of falsified facts.

“These institutions have a responsibility to provide individuals with the tools for analytical and critical thinking, and to encourage cultures of questioning that are linked to ethical processes of solutionfinding guided by evidence and efforts to attain the greater good for the long-term. It is also important that these institutions avoid becoming usurped by narrow interests to act as tools for exclusive, short-sighted agendas.”

Dr Mwagiru said in addition to conspiracy theories surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine in Africa in particular, there were “welldocumented historical links between racism and science and previous unethical actions by ‘big pharma’” on the continent and these also provided reasons for distrust in experimental science, the ethics of research, testing processes and vaccines.

“Despite some prosecutions for crimes and human rights abuses by pharmaceutical and medical industries in Africa, confidence in the functional procedures to guard against malpractice and negative impacts is low, and is further justified by weak regulatory environments and governance in many instances.”

For this reason, she said, some characteristics of conspiracy theories are not altogether negative and have the potential to work for good by acting as an early warning system for signals of social decay such as largescale corruption, dishonesty and abuse, “reminding us that systems have failed in the past, and still do”.

“Some scholars view conspiracy theories as a symptom, rather than the cause, of social dysfunction. They draw attention to the skeletons in the closet, the victims of bad

science, unethical research, and the misuse of power against the most vulnerable among us, as well as our complacency despite the knowledge that our systems and institutions are cracked and crooked.,” Dr Mwagiru said.

Conspiracies are generally based on a questioning and distrust of the status quo and the motives of the powerful, she said, and this alertness to possible abuses of power and corruption could be valuable – “if well directed to correctly monitor appropriate indicators of regulatory malpractice, rather than unproven, alleged facts and acts”.

“By questioning and challenging dominant hierarchies, conspiracy theories remind us to be vigilant, to hold leadership and decision makers accountable, and to counteract any neglect of our systems and institutions that should be acting for the full benefit of all stakeholders.

“Indeed research is indicating that conspiracy theories and beliefs can act as early warning systems and a form of threat perception signaling areas of high potential for social, political and economic destabilization,” she said.

The energy, shared vision and purpose and communication networks of the communities built around conspiracy theories could also be a model to learn from in “instigating discussions on the dominance structures, systems and patterns of privilege that sustain inequity”, Dr Mwagiru said.

“Could the fervour generated by conspiracy theories be focused similarly to a consideration of proven facts and evidence-based events? Alongside anti-vaccine conspiracies, might there be a narrative similarly as potent on ‘vaccine-elitism’? The evident unequal access to vaccines is a widely debated issue currently and one that merits attention as an illustration of ongoing power plays at the expense of the vulnerable. This too is worthy of conspiracy-level mass attention.”

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 Click on the link for more details on the programmes: https://www.usb.ac.za/academicprogrammes/

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Book review

WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021

Book Title: Atakora &Attakora on Sale of Goods

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Author: Jude Atakora Tufuor & Kweku Attakora Dwomoh

takora and Attakora is a book carefully authored to meet the academic and business demands of the lack of an existence of any book on the sale of goods in Ghana and it’s Anglophone neighbouring countries within the West African legal and business market. The book contains simple language and the breakdown of the seeming complex laws on the sale of goods. The book discusses the Ghanaian position of the sale of goods and how it fits into both the received common law and the persuasive common law.

The driving force of this publication is to educate and inform traders on their rights and obligations in various trading markets in the face of increasing trading volumes

globally. Atakora and Attakora is aimed basically at traders, practicing lawyers, students, judges, arbitrators and legal academics. The aim of the book is to elaborate and codify the laws on the sale of goods as are peculiar to the Anglophone West African market taking into consideration the decision made by judges from the various courts and the socio-cultural impacts on the various transactions.

The authors resolved to commence Atakora & Attakora on sale of goods with an introduction to commercial law, the history thereof and detailed account through case law with the development of Lex Mercantoria and its assimilation into the common law.

The book focuses mainly on the sale of goods in Ghana and

its statute, the Sale of Goods Act, 1962, Act 137. It is concerned with the obligations between the parties to a contract of sales transaction, the terms of those contracts including express and implied terms, the category of goods, the passing of property and the risk in the goods, as well as the remedies available to parties in such a transaction.

With regards to the passing of property, the books specifically focuses on Romalpa clauses which enables a seller to reserve ownership in the goods and still manage to give up possession of those goods to a buyer or its representatives.

Unique to this book is a chapter reserved for the discussion on the impact of electronic sales with regard to ownership of goods, risk in those

goods and the extent to which a buyer can reject those goods.

With regard to online sales the book observes a difficulty to the principle of seller’s ordinary course of business as well as the difficulty with direct application of remedies to a seller in an online transaction.

The adoption of private international laws such as the International commercial trade terms (incoterms) as promulgated by the international chamber of commerce is considered in great detail in with the discussion of its history, the changes made by incoterms 2020 and incoterms such as FOB, CIF , CIP and FCA. Finally, the provisions of the International Convention on the Sale of Goods is discussed and how it compares with the Sale of Goods Act, 1962, (Act 137).

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An ounce of pandemic prevention

By Sally C. Davies, Jeremy Farrar and Jim O’neill

W

ith the COVID-19 vaccine rollout gaining momentum, world leaders have a chance to focus more on the future of public health.

Both domestically and through multilateral organizations such as the G20, the G7, and the G77, the aim should be to strengthen the structures that proved so essential in managing the pandemic.

The World Health Organization, for example, played a critical role in marshaling disparate stakeholders behind a common purpose. Through collaborations like the groundbreaking Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, governments, multilateral organizations, corporations, and philanthropists have helped to deliver vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to parts of the world that lack them.

Indeed, we have witnessed an unprecedented level of international, public-private, and private-to-private collaboration during the pandemic. When there was an urgent need for contact-tracing apps, large tech competitors put their rivalries aside to work toward a solution with public-health agencies.

The rapid development, testing, and production of vaccines has been a crossindustry undertaking involving governments, academic institutions, start-ups, and large pharmaceutical companies. The same goes for data collation and disease forecasting, which has involved a mix of academia, the tech sector, and government

agencies.

Ignoring traditional bureaucratic and sectoral silos has yielded impressive results that should spur us to raise our ambitions for global public health.

Ensuring universal, equitable, and affordable access to good health care is crucial for long-term prosperity. But today’s health organizations on their own cannot produce the digital and economic tools that we need to achieve such goals. Many of these tools originate outside of the health sector, and require financing, innovation, and know-how from a wide range of sources in order to be deployed effectively.

That is why the three of us are now working with a wide range of partners to build on the collaborative momentum generated by the pandemic. The immediate task is to identify specific ideas and solutions that should be implemented immediately as part of the recovery from the crisis.

Much of our focus centers on technology. Powerful new digital and analytical tools now allow us to identify, manage, and recover from health emergencies faster than ever. True, such tools often face social and cultural obstacles, such as a lack of trust between the public and proprietary data holders, or between government, academic, and commercial organizations. And deploying new tools is even more difficult when data sets are scattered and established practices are deeply entrenched. But, again, the pandemic has shown us that old habits and silos can be broken when the situation demands it.

When it comes to identifying and managing infectious-disease outbreaks, we know from the recent Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19 crises that some indicators have more predictive power than others. By monitoring sewage, social media, mobility data, or crowdsourced reports, we can identify threats much faster than the traditional microbiologysurveillance system did. (And some groups are even exploring whether routine blood-count data could have predictive potential.)

These new digital tools are comparatively cheap, easy to use, and well suited to protect or anonymize personal data. But there will need to be much more investment to expand their global uptake before the next potential pandemic emerges.

Just as private investors look for opportunities to generate longterm savings as a way to increase returns, so, too, should those who make public-investment decisions. Everyone recognizes that public investments in infrastructure or skills acquisition are needed to enhance long-term productivity. In many countries, public funding continues to flow in this direction even during times of fiscal austerity. Yet when it comes to health, most countries seem all too willing to let illnesses develop and then pay the bill for expensive cures.

Virtually every developed country’s health-care system undervalues and underprices diagnostic and risk-assessment tools. Of the $40 billion the world spends on development assistance for health every year, a paltry $374 million goes to pandemic preparedness. Yet

by paying more for prevention today, we could avert costs orders of magnitude higher in the future.

Sustained funding for global public goods such as vaccines, diagnostics, sanitation, surveillance, and modeling tools must be one of the policy legacies of the pandemic. The benefits from these investments far exceed their individual costs. They represent a capital investment in health that will deliver far-reaching productivity gains over the long run.

Real change will require real reforms to hardwire this investment logic into all health spending. For example, fiscal accounting rules should be revised to distinguish clearly between health investment and consumption spending.

At the international level, governments should follow the model of the post-2008 Financial Stability Board and launch a Public Goods Stability Board to focus on global public health and climate change, and to direct more funding toward assets that boost resilience and long-term prosperity.

Finally, it is time to update the International Monetary Fund’s Articles of Agreement to make health a constituent part of the organization’s routine economicmonitoring function.

We are pursuing these ideas within our respective organizations, and we invite others to do the same. Ultimately, the right solutions will come from innovators far and wide. The more minds we can bring into the mix, the better our chances of preventing the next crisis will be.

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The future of publishing is digital The future is ReaderApp sales from anywhere they were found wanting.

When COVID19 was at its peak and even now, we kept recording jumps in new downloads, new sign ups and new uses. With a Joy News documentary and a mention from Citi FM, we were able to gain recognition in Ghana and also beyond. We have worked with several Ghanaian writers to create exclusive books on ReaderApp which has done well in especially the university community and this makes us happy. For us, we are making people’s lives come through, removing the barrier to cost of publishing, increasing access to getting books to buy as well as making modern Ghana’s publishing industry and we do so with every happiness in us!

By Joseph Yaw Frimpong

O

n 1st January, 2019, as ReaderApp was launched on the Google Playstore, hands joined hands and we looked at ourselves thinking about what this could be. ReaderApp has always been personal, the idea came out when I couldn’t find any local tailored made electronic publishing app in Ghana.

There were others and I don’t think I will mention their names but I just knew that if I was to use any, then it will be me on a highway to disaster with my book, The Quietist. With time not on my side, I had to bow down to pressure, resort to printing the book manually and selling it but in my mind, I knew one thing: The future of publishing is digital.

The future is ReaderApp. ReaderApp is a publishing platform for publishing, buying, selling and reading of ebooks.

Writers like us face a myriad of problems, so I got two brilliant app developers to develop ReaderApp from the writers’ perspective --- easy publishing, book available on an electronic bookstore, easy purchases, easy and secured reading and fast access to royalties.

We wanted to create a system as transparent as possible and a system where we even the administrators had very little chance of manipulation. And so, we did, so when on 31st December, 2018, we joined hands at church and watched the year turned 1st January, 2019, we wondered what this could mean. It was the start of a new year but for us, it was the start of a possible new company, one in which we never imagined could grow to become this big.

What makes Readerapp the future of publishing?

The world is getting digitised: from shopping to payment to music. One of the sector that seems to have not witnessed the digital revolution in Ghana is the publishing industry. We are still over reliant on book printing, bookstores and basically the old way of doing things.

What we sought to do with ReaderApp is to bring all these systems together: create a dashboard that makes it easier to publish your book and then to track your transactions. With the convenience of mobile money,

How to publish books on Readerapp

an author or publishing firm can easily withdraw his/her royalties to any mobile money number of his choice.

Buying a book should be easy: ReaderApp has an online bookstore via which all published can easily be accessed and bought via Mobile Money, Visa and Mstercard. To secure the books from being leaked, all books bought are not downloadable.

They can only be read on the app.

What makes ReaderApp special is its ease of use and its exquisite design. We call it “The Purple Feel”: an expression born out of our traditional colours.

Wake of covid-19 To be honest, ReaderApp is one of the greatest beneficiaries of COVID-19. We went to many publishing firms in Accra to introduce the technology to them but some laughed us off saying that the app may be ahead of its time. Some said they will get back to us and then never did but few

months down the line, COVID19 happened and everything started to make sense. It became apparent that the future of publishing was digital.

As printing presses reeled from inadequate patronage, as book stores and libraries closed, we were faced the realities that our publishing and literary community was not as skin tight as we thought they were. For example, when we walked up to an unnamed big Publisher in Ghana, he remarked that if he should devote his part of his team to digital publishing he would lose money.

But we heard stories via the grapevine how their company bled in the wake of COVID19 and how they had to sack over 60% of their staff. We also know through the grapevine that they are still not even 10% back to where they were before. If only they had considered ReaderApp, they may have been able to mitigate some of their loses but they didn’t and since they were not making any

To publish on ReaderApp, get the app from Google Playstore ( https://bit.do/readerapp ) or on App Store, search for ReaderApp and download. Create an account: subscriber for those who want to only buy and read books, Author Individual for self published authors. Author Publishing for Publishing account.

Once you have the app and an account with us, all what you need is the PDF of your book and then your book cover. With these two, you can publish your book(s) with us and become that famed writer you always wanted to be.

Hands still join hands Every time we meet as a team on ReaderApp, hands still join hands and we explore ideas on how we can make the lives of writers better. We do this because we want people to experience themselves in writing and also immortalise themselves and we are always happy to be a part of such a success story.

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