Business24 Newspaper 22nd September, 2021

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FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

BUSINESS24.COM.GH

Wednesday September 22, 2021

NO. B24 / 251 | News for Business Leaders

Second edition of The Law Challenge kicks off in Accra

The importance of affordable housing in Accra’s market See page 5

See page 11

Gov’t to designate 150 institutions as critical information infrastructure

By Eugene Davis ugendavis@gmail.com

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By Patrick Paintsil p_paintsil@hotmail.com

overnment will this week begin the designation of 150 institutions as critical information infrastructure, which will require them to adhere to minimum security standards to protect their systems and data from cyber-attacks, the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula OwusuEkuful, has said.

Parliament last year passed the landmark Cybersecurity Cont’d on page 2

Silver Star Auto to assemble Peugeot vehicles locally

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ilver Star Auto Limited, the local distributor of Peugeot vehicles in Ghana, has announced plans to start assembling the 2008 Peugeot SUV and its newly launched Landtrek Pick-Up locally from January 2022, signalling a strong buy-in of government’s

Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful

Cont’d on page 3

Akufo-Addo tells world leaders to hasten SDGs implementation News Desk

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resident Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged world leaders to hasten the implementation of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to build a fairer, healthier, safer and more prosperous world for all.

“As our world strives to deal with the challenges posed by Cont’d on page 3

Cont’d on page 2 Cont’d on page 2

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Editorial / News

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Editorial

In its early stage, Ghana’s auto policy is bearing the right fruits

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erman carmaker VW kick-started the wave of assembling cars locally and it appears the tide keeps soaring by the day as other global auto producers including Toyota, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Nissan have since taken that course.

The latest entrant to the scene is Peugeot whose local distributor Silver Star Auto has announced its plan to assemble a select range of vehicles, specifically the 2007 SUV and Landtrek Pickup vehicles in Ghana by the first quarter of next year.

It must be pointed out that the enthusiasm of these global automotive giants has largely been sparked by the recently

introduced auto policy which is a pack of incentives and policy measures to support that venture of assembling cars and car components locally.

The policy is captured as part of government’s industrial transformational agenda having identified the automobile industry as strategic anchor industry to be facilitated and supported to facilitate the growth of the economy.

The Ghana Automotive Development Policy (GADP) is to make the nation a fully integrated and competitive industrial hub for the car making business in the West Africa sub-region.

At the crux of the sprouting

of car assembling facilities in the country are the jobs and livelihood enhancement opportunities it would offer to the teeming youth as well as ridding our streets of old and salvaged cars that we import with several millions of dollars.

Suffice to say that the policy has started bearing the right fruits even in its early stages of implementation and we can only hope for the best that is yet to come from it.

The private sector has once again demonstrated that with the right climate for industrial activities, they are ready and willing to partner the government in driving national development.

Gov’t to designate 150 institutions as critical information infrastructure Continued from cover

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Act 2020. The law establishes the Cyber Security Authority, protects the critical information infrastructure of the country, regulates cybersecurity activities, provides for the protection of children on the internet, and develops Ghana’s cybersecurity ecosystem.

It is also targeted at positioning Ghana to prevent, manage and respond to cybersecurity incidents.

The Minister explained that almost every sector is using ICT software applications and services to enhance efficiency, which exposes the data to cyberattacks that could have a major impact on the socio-economic life

in the country.

“We will do the designation this week, and then the whole programme will be launched during the cybersecurity month celebrations next month. And then we[’ll] start working with the sectors to bring up their systems to acceptable international level,” she told Business24 in an interview during the “Ladies in ICT” programme in Accra.

She further indicated that once the identified institutions have been designated, the Cyber Security Authority will work with them to upgrade their security systems to protect their data.

“The internet has become a critical infrastructure and facilitator of engagements for individual users, businesses, and

government across the globe. In Ghana, the increasing reliance on the internet and Information Communication Technology has led to increased cybersecurity incidents such as ransomware, cyber theft, banking fraud, cyber espionage and other cyber-attacks targeted at critical information infrastructure.

These cybersecurity incidents have affected critical sectors of the country including energy, telecommunications, banking and finance, and have caused disruptions in the delivery of essential services. If unchecked, it can undermine the security and economy of the country,” she said.

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Akufo-Addo tells world leaders to hasten SDGs implementation Continued from cover the pandemic, we have to turn the crisis into an opportunity and ramp up actions necessary to achieve the SDGs,” said the President in a speech at the “2021 SDGs Moment of the Decade of Action” event on Monday at the UN Headquarters, New York.

The President recounted the 2019 Declaration, where world leaders declared the years 2020 to 2030 as the Decade of Action, and he called on all member states to significantly step up and scale up actions to give the world a fighting chance of achieving the SDGs by 2030.

President Akufo-Addo, who co-chairs the Group of Eminent Advocates of the SDGs, said a few months after the historic declaration, the entire world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has since had a devastating effect on lives and livelihoods, and significantly undermined the prospects of achieving the SDGs. “Available estimates indicate that, in 2020 alone, some 124 million people in the world were pushed back into extreme poverty, with some 132 million

people experiencing hunger as a result of the pandemic.

The net effect of these adverse developments is that our world is unlikely to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2030,” the President said.

Describing the quest to achieve the SDGs as having become more daunting in the wake of the pandemic, he urged world leaders “to think big, act big and act smartly.”

Proposing “two essential ingredients for the task of building forward better and scaling-up actions to hasten progress towards the realisation

of the SDGs”, the President noted that, firstly, there is a pressing need to bridge the US$2.5tn SDGs financing gap, especially for developing countries, where the human development deficit is greatest.

“With an estimated US$360tn available in global financial assets as of 2019, the resources to finance the SDGs are certainly available. The question raised is whether the rich countries of the world are thus prepared to accept the new paradigm of the SGDs and play their part or not.”

As countries take action to address the effects of the pandemic,

President Akufo-Addo stated that “we cannot afford to perpetuate unsustainable development by disturbing the critical balance between economic, social and environmental imperatives.”

He continued, “Our recovery measures and interventions cannot and should not be delinked from actions to ensure prosperity, promote peace, protect people, and safeguard the planet. Undeniably, the SDGs provide a sound framework for responding to the pandemic, and putting communities, businesses and ecosystems on a sustainable pathway.”

The President also touched on the world’s ability to access and deploy innovative solutions and new technologies that will greatly speed up progress towards the goals.

“New forms of social practice and organisation, as well as new and improved technological products and processes, are key enablers for achieving the SDGs. Whilst embracing innovation, deliberate steps should be taken to discourage innovations that contribute to environmental degradation, that are disruptive of livelihoods, and that exacerbate inequalities,” he said.

Silver Star Auto to assemble Peugeot vehicles locally Continued from cover automotive development policy.

“When the government announced the policy to encourage the assembling of vehicles in Ghana, Stellantis Group [makers of Peugeot] expressed its commitment to support the programme. This is going to be an exciting journey for Ghana from 2022; by the first quarter of next year, we’ll witness the rolling out of the first Peugeot vehicles assembled in Ghana,” Asad Nazir, Chief Executive Officer of Silver Star Auto, disclosed at the launch of the Peugeot Landtrek in Accra.

The specific brands to be assembled locally are the Peugeot 2008 SUV and the Landtrek PickUp. In an exclusive interview with Business24, Mr. Nazir said the pick-up segment is very important in the automotive industry, adding that the company could not afford to be absent, and further that the cars to be assembled locally will

be reasonably priced and very competitive.

“This is a very important journey for Siver Star Auto and Peugeot and Ghana. We will continue to bring you exciting and innovative offers and solutions that meet the needs and budgets of our clients.”

The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi, expressed optimism about the strong support received from the private sector for the implementation of the nation’s automobile policy and for the efforts to make Ghana an auto manufacturing hub on the continent.

As part of a structured agenda to create an enabling business environment for economic transformation, government is continually developing sectorspecific policies to attract investment, he said.

“This will help to diversify the nation’s industrial landscape and economy through value-added production, reduce its import bill, and shift from the overreliance on

Asad Nazir, CEO of Silver Star Auto Limited

traditional exports. The private sector must take advantage of the industrial opportunities created by government to play its critical role in the nation’s transformation agenda and ensure the patronage of locally made products,” he added.

Some salient features of the Landtrek Pick-Up include a

suspended screen and steering wheel, and piano keys dash control buttons similar to those found in the Peugeot 3008 and 5008 SUVs. The pick-up has a standard load of 1,000kg with a 2L turbocharged engine as well as a six-speed manual or sixspeed automatic four-wheel drive transmission.

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The importance of affordable housing in Accra’s market

By Louisa Afriyie Afrane Okese

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ccording to the United Nations Habitat, over 1.8 billion people globally, lack sufficient housing. With two million people being evicted, many more being threatened with evictions and some 150 million people worldwide have become homeless.

The UN considers housing a human right as enshrined in the international human rights law.

And according to that law, failing to recognize, protect, and fulfil the Right to Adequate Housing results in the violation of a number of fundamental rights including the Right to Work, Education, Health, and Security. The ability for people to do these hinges on the availability of appropriate and affordable housing.

As an urban city, Accra has slowly become an attractive location for many Ghanaians.

It is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. As a result, accommodation has been scarce and a growing concern for many people. As Abraham Maslow argued, a person’s need to provide shelter for themselves and their families tops their list of priorities. Beyond the scarcity, the cost of accommodation has also increased dramatically. This has resulted in the conversation of affordable housing for all.

In a vibrant market filled with opportunities for growth and development, it is paramount to have affordable housing units in vital locations for rent or purchase. Studies have shown that children in stable housing tend to perform better in school and are less likely to experience disruption in their education due to frequent relocations.

Decent, affordable housing has been found to reduce stress and infectious diseases, which leads to improvement in both physical and mental health.

Improvements in health stems from stability, available resources for food and health care with increasing access to amenities in quality neighborhoods. With good shelter and health needs taken care of, productivity of people increases exponentially.

The desire to achieve more, reach the higher levels of selfimprovement and actualization is affected positively.

Affordable housing also saves funds within families’ tight budgets to spend on health care and food. Studies have shown that children whose parents receive housing assistance, benefit from good nutrition. The health benefits for low income families can be improved with a green ecosystem within affordable housing units.

Beyond its physical and health

benefits, stability and stress reduction, affordable housing creates job opportunities for people in construction.

Developers will be able to employ more and improve construction standards that affect our environment and reduce costs to the potential home owners.

There will also be order and proper layouts to our property situations, making navigation easier especially for emergency services to reach people faster.

The concept of affordable housing gives government a perfect opportunity to design a policy that impacts society.

In the process of providing for

citizens, data can be gathered so that people can easily be connected to their homes like it is in advanced countries. If we are able to connect people to their homes, credit facilities are easily accessible without fear of non-payment. It will improve financial sector with innovative technologies and services vital for entrepreneurial development.

When we reach that point when people can be traced, goods and services could be purchased on credit.

We need to rethink the policy of affordable housing as beneficial to all aspects of our economic growth and development.

Ghana to assist Sierra Leone on petroleum downstream regulation

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he National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has offered to assist its counterpart in Sierra Leone, the Petroleum Regulatory Agency (PRA), to improve efficiency in regulating the petroleum downstream in Sierra Leone.

In furtherance to this, a team from the NPA, led by its Chief Executive, Dr. Mustapha AbdulHamid, paid a working visit to the Executive Chairman of PRA, Brima Baluwa Koroma, and his team in Freetown in Sierra Leone.

The partnership between the two entities will, among other things share experiences in terms of structures, processes, policies and procedures in regulating the petroleum downstream sector.

Addressing the Sierra Leonean team, Dr. Abdul-Hamid stated that cooperation was the only way the two entities can advance the development of their countries.

“The only way we can get out of our developmental challenges is by cooperating with each other.

We are the only ones who are interested in the development of our countries and neighboring countries.

Because if I am not interested in the development of Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali and other neighboring countries and there is crisis in any of these countries, Ghana or other neighbours get the spillover effect,” he emphasised.

The NPA boss pledged Ghana’s willingness to assist Sierra Leone to develop its petroleum downstream industry.

“We mainly came to offer assistance to the PRA in order for Sierra Leone to be able to regulate the downstream sector better by crafting out a system that will ensure efficiency,” he added.

Recounting Ghana’s

experience on regulation of the petroleum downstream industry, Dr. Abdul-Hamid said what has been helping the people is also the active participation of government through its entities such as GOIL and BOST, unlike Sierra Leone that depends wholly on private players that normally decide what happens.

He commended Dr. Baluwa Koroma for his transformational leadership for the past three years which has seen new important players within the sector.

For his part, Dr. Koroma said PRA was looking forward to strengthening its relationship with the NPA and indicated that a team will be sent to Ghana to learn on regulatory frameworks which will be beneficial to the Sierra Leonean petroleum downstream industry.

"We cannot overemphasize the timeliness of this visit as this industry is under massive

reforms. Sierra Leone needs Ghana in every capacity and it is our desire to tap onto opportunities and experiences from Ghana that will enable us to overcome the emerging industrial challenges."

He also indicated that there are many investment opportunities in the sector especially in storage and distribution value chains.

The NPA delegation later met with the sector minister, Dr. Edward Hinga Sandy, the Minister of Trade and Industry.

The minister emphasised the importance of the visit and appealed for support in terms of capacity building. He said with similar cultural environment and history, Ghana is a better model for Sierra Leone to learn from.

The delegation toured the newly refurbished tank farm facility operated by All Petroleum Products Company at Kissy Town in Freetown.

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'Africa's regional blocs must function effectively to achieve desired outcomes of AfCFTA'

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ice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says Africa needs the effective functioning of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) if the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is to achieve the desired outcomes.

He said the outcomes would include enhanced intra-African trade, economic transformation, job creation for the teeming youthful population and poverty reduction.

Dr Bawumia said this in a speech read on his behalf by Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the Senior Advisor to the President, during the First Coordination Meeting of the Heads of RECs on the Implementation of AfCFTA in Accra.

The overall objective of the three-day meeting is to prepare actionable strategies towards enhancing the effective implementation of the AfCFTA and drawing on lessons from the implementation of RECs’ Free Trade Areas.

Currently there are eight RECs recognised by the African Union including the ECOWAS, the East African Community, and the Southern African Development Community, which had very important roles to play in the advancement of the implementation of the AfCFTA and the African transformation

agenda.

The Vice President said the progress the RECs had made as well as challenges they had faced over the years positioned them to promote trade integration among their Members States.

He said the AfCFTA had the potential to be the game changer for the economic transformation agenda and post-Covid-19 recovery if its numerous benefits were harnessed.

“Without a doubt, the scale and scope of these benefits depend on the effective implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement, including strengthening performance of the RECs and overcoming lingering challenges,” he added.

The challenges include inadequate infrastructure, limited production capacity,

trade information and trade development finance.

Vice President Bawumia called for the development of a comprehensive framework and realistic plan of action to advance continental integration, which must take into consideration the main principles and objectives agreed upon in the AfCFTA. He said in spite of the achievements on the continental integration efforts, the road ahead was still long and still faced potential challenges.

“We must overcome these challenges in order to continue with the process of institutional building, which must also take into account the changing needs and development in our countries,” he added.

“We need to work together,

as stakeholders and as strategic partners, in order to resolve the complexities of regional integration and ensure that the implementation of the AfCFTA leaves no one behind.”

He said the Government was committed to ensuring that “we achieve our continental integration through a meticulous, measured and proactive approach.”

Mr Wamkele Mene, the Secretary General, AfCFTA Secretariat, commended the Heads of RECs for their commitment towards the implementation of the AfCFTA. He said the RECs would have to make informed choices about how to benefit from the Agreement, while at the same time managing the challenges to be encountered during the course of implementation.

Mr Mene said, moreover, the implementation of the Agreement would largely influence the RECs trade policies hence the need to commence collaboration at the early stages of implementation, especially with the private sector, to ensure success.

He said the private sector was a very strong pillar in creating jobs, investing in innovation, research and development and a catalyst for industrialisation on the Continent.

GNA

2021 Ghana Cocoa Awards nominations open

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he 3rd annual edition of Ghana Cocoa Awards (GCA) will celebrate the country’s achievement of a new cocoa beans production record, while highlighting industry’s contribution.

Ghana Cocoa Board, the industry regulator, announced early this month the attainment of an historic 1.04m tonnes in cocoa beans purchase by the close of the 2020/21 crop year, breaking a decade old record.

The feat demonstrates the cocoa sector’s resilience in spite of the challenges of COVID19, climate change and CSSV disease.

“Like the rest of the global economy, the last few years have been quite challenging for the cocoa industry, particularly for actors at the production end. That, notwithstanding, here in Ghana we have seen the regulator, Cocobod, show bold leadership with pragmatic

policies and programmes as industry and our gallant cocoa farmers rallied behind,” Mr. Kojo Hayford, Executive Director of Ghana Cocoa Awards, indicated.

“The result of that collective energy is what has culminated in this historic feat with Ghana crossing the one-million-tonnes mark in cocoa production for the first time in 10 years. A feat definitely worth celebrating,” he added.

The theme for Ghana Cocoa Awards 2021 is ‘Celebrating Ghana’s Historic Cocoa Output – A Golden Opportunity for the Local Value Addition Agenda.’

“Speculations are that the increasing production in West Africa may glut the market. Naturally that should be a challenge. But from our viewpoint, it is a golden opportunity to open the access to affordable supply of cocoa beans, by way of a progressive

policy, to feed the burgeoning Ghanaian cocoa value addition industry,” Mr. Kojo Hayford, said.

He emphasised, “we believe this will lead to the creation of new jobs and wealth opportunities for thousands more Ghanaians, improve domestic consumption of cocoa and cocoa products, as well as strengthen the national economy.”

There are over thirty (30) competitive and honorary awards to recognise excellence at the various stages of the cocoa value chain, including processing and value addition, internal marketing, finance and insurance, innovation and technology, sustainability and leadership.

The 3rd annual GCA Gala Night returns to Kempinski Hotel, Gold Coast City, Accra on 12 November 2021.

The event, powered by Cocoa Post, is where quintessential

Ghanaian traditional costumes meet the Black-tie over tantalising cuisine, evergreen Highlife tunes and great entertainment while honouring the true heroes and heroines behind Ghana's economic backbone.

Ghana Cocoa Awards is the cocoa industry’s biggest and most prestigious gathering for networking and celebrating excellence.

It is an independent industry awards scheme designed to spotlight and celebrate innovation, achievement and excellence, while offering an unparalleled platform for networking among players in the Ghana cocoa value chain.

Meanwhile, nominations are open till 15 October 2021 for the submission of entries on the event portal

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How to manage multiple businesses

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unning one business is stressful enough but once you’re in the game, it doesn’t have to be a huge stretch to run multiple businesses.

While there are key issues to be aware of, running multiple businesses can provide you with a diversified income stream and there are ways to leverage the businesses off each other,” says Mark Achiampong-Head of Commercial and SME banking at First National Bank.

Mark outlined the following tips to help you successfully manage multiple businesses: • Outsource or hire experts: While you may be the brains and the money running the business, you need to accept that there are certain skills you may not have. For your businesses to run smoothly, ensure you hire the right people or outsource to the right company. For example, hire an accountant to do the bookkeeping and a human resources officer to deal with staff issues.

• Use a central location: You can save on rent and resources such as electricity by using one central base for all your

businesses. This allows you to easily shift between meetings and you may even be able to share resources across businesses to save cost.

• Prioritise and delegate: Entrepreneurs and small business owners tend to have a handson attitude and hold themselves to a high standard. If you want to successfully run multiple businesses, it is vital to learn how to prioritise tasks and delegate some tasks to others, to free up time to focus on the higher-level running of your businesses.

• Clear processes: Establish

and document processes so that all staff know exactly what is expected of them and how best to achieve business goals. Your business should ideally be like a well-oiled machine that is able to continue running if you are not available for a week or two.

• Separate business accounts: Register each business separately and make sure that you have separate business accounts so that the companies are legally and financially protected from each other. This is also vital for tax and business compliance purposes.

• Use a time tracker: Possibly the most valuable commodity that can never be replaced – use a time tracker so that you can see where your time is being invested. This will help you be more efficient at tasks and identify problem areas that are taking up too much of your time.

When you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, time really is money.

“Running multiple businesses may seem daunting if you are just starting out as an entrepreneur, but it’s more common than you would think. For example, in recent times some Ghanaian entrepreneurs have diversified into multiple fields and have ended up owning more than one venture. At First National Bank, we appreciate that owning a business takes more than just starting one. That’s why we help you get access to a range of products and solutions that take the hassle of banking such as the business toolkit on our mobile App. It helps you run your business, make payments and investments while considering bespoke credit solutions to explore many more other businesses,” Mark concludes.

Gov’t partners Huawei to train 46 ladies in ICT

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he Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation has collaborated with Chinese tech firm, Huawei, to train close to 46 ladies in emerging trends in Information Communication Technology (ICT).

The “Ladies in ICT” programme, a ten day residential programme, is aimed at exposing the ladies to learn new technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and internet of things.

According to the Minister, Ursula Owusu –Ekuful, she is excited about the opportunity given to these ladies who stepped up to learn and will be keen to know how it will impact their lives for the future.

Speaking at the opening of the 10 day training for Ladies in ICT programme in Accra, the minister said “I am excited about the interests the women have shown, by coming forward to initiate this process, it shows that given the opportunity, it is something they really want, it is not being imposed on them, so given the opportunity, they can do exploits with it. So l am

interested to see how far this can go and we will be monitoring and evaluate them over time to see how it also impacted on their lives and studies and whether they are making careers in ICT as well, they could be offered an internship opportunities.”

The initiative was borne out of the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) who wrote to the ministry to express interest to have its ladies trained in new technological advancements.

“We received a letter from USAG’s women’s commissioner that they have heard about girls in ICT, they are also interested and they are offering ICT related courses at the tertiary level, but they are interested in learning about emerging technologies, new things, new trends in ICT so if we could assist them and put together a programme that will enable them to also learn about some of these things they will be glad.

And we thought it was a good idea, it is not just young girls who should be introduced to emerging technologies but if the

Group photograph of the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation and her deputy, and other officials sandwiched by the trainees

older siblings are also interested then we should see how we can also set up some kind of training programme for them and seek the necessary funding for it, so we contacted Huawei –[which were keen to support us]” The minister stated that depending on the interest it could be institutionalised to expand the frontiers of knowledge for women in ICT. Jenny Zhou Jianling, the Communications Manager for Huawei Ghana, indicated that all hands are needed to attain the full impact of digitisation, that is why her organisation joined to support it.

She urged the ladies to

participate fully so they can become change makers in their communities and fields of endeavor.

Richard Okyere-Fosu, Director General of NITA, also encouraged the ladies to embrace the opportunity and make the best of it.

He said technology has come to stay and training ladies in that field will augment and boost the digital economy of the country.

Aside the training, there is also a business competition attached to it, where the ladies will be assessing companies using artificial intelligence and machine learning in their everyday operations and they will be expected to design projects and programmes around it, with the best one winning the award.

Huawei has a similar programme called ‘Seeds for Future’, in which they have taken 10 to 15 Ghanaians to China to their Research and Development department to learning about emerging technologies, so they were keen to support this initiative as well.

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Newly constituted ADB board urged to continue with agric focus

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he new board of directors of the Agricultural Development Bank Limited (ADB) has been sworn into office with the charge to continue with its core mandate of agricultural financing.

At a ceremony at the Ministry of Finance, a Deputy Minister of Finance, Hon. Dr. John Kumah, commended the previous board for refocusing the bank on its core mandate of agricultural financing and was optimistic the new board will continue with the vision making the Bank the best Bank for agribusiness financing in the country.

The nine member board is chaired by Daasebre Akuamoah Agyepong II , Omanhene of the Kwahu Traditional Area with Dr. John Kofi Mensah (Managing Director) , Alhaji Habib Iddrisu , Prof. Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, Hon. Abena Osei-Asare, Prof. Peter Quartey, Mr. George Kwabena Abankwah-Yeboah , Mr. Evron Rothschild Hughes and Madam Mary Abla Kessie as members.

“With the coming in of the National Development Bank, ADB

will get more funds for medium and long term agricultural financing programmes and I am sure this will help increase the Banks portfolio in the sector,” he said.

According to the deputy minister, the bank is well positioned to assist the National Development Bank equally fulfil its mandate of providing longterm loans for agribusiness financing to ensure food security and create wealth for Ghanaians.

“ADB has since 2017 remained a key partner to government initiatives such as the Planting for Food & Jobs, Rearing for Food & Jobs and also the novel One District One Factory initiative and I wish to commend the Bank for such a support” he said.

The Board Chairman, Daasebre Akuamoah Agyepong II, on behalf of the members thanked the President , Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, and other shareholders for the opportunity

for them to serve as directors on the ADB board.

He pledged the determination of the board to work assiduously so the bank can start paying dividends to government whiles ensuring the bank focuses on agricultural financing.

“We are going to work hard to ensure we continue to improve on the financial performance of the bank so we can pay dividends to shareholders, he said.

Consciously plan for your retirement – Axis Pension boss

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he Chief Executive Officer of Axis Pension Trust, Mr. Afriyie Oware, has advised workers to consciously plan their retirement to avoid being overtaken by event after they had stopped active work.

Among other things, Mr. Oware said people must make it a conscious effort to put money aside towards their retirement as well as decide what to do when they retired.

He said an active saving culture was necessary to spare one of retirement poverty, which often led to financial constraints and untimely death after retirement.

He added that the saving habit must be cultivated and nurtured by all, be it those in formal employment or informal employment as retirement and incapacitation from work was not limited to only one group of workers.

The financial sector expert was speaking at the Axis Pension Trust’s Annual Pre-Retirement Seminar.

The annual event aims at educating pensioners and workers on retirement.

Axis Pension boss said the

event was inspired by the mission of the organisation to empower the Ghanaian worker to retire with dignity.

This year’s event brought together experienced and well-resourced experts to discuss various topics related to retirement needs, including health in retirement, what to expect at retirement, accessing your benefits from the various schemes and how to make your retirement income last longer.

The CEO observed that as income inequality widened in society and graduate unemployment increases, the Ghanaian retiree borne a greater burden in sustaining families.

This, he said, underscored the objective of Axis to empower each client with adequate knowledge and resources to retire well in a way that distinguished them from

those who did not benefit from the company’s products.

“The Axis Retirement Annuity Plan, which is a programmed withdrawal arrangement, provides a robust solution to help retirees prudently manage their retirement savings to last you longer,” he said, adding that the company was known for offering superior value and peace of mind to clients.

He Axis Pension Trust was the first in the country to offer free embedded life insurance cover to its Master Trust and personal pension schemes.

This, he said added an additional layer of cushioning for scheme members and their beneficiaries.

The Head of the Financial Planning unit at Axis, Mrs Mimi Anane-Appiah, emphasised the need for retirees to utilise

a solution such as the Axis Retirement Annuity Plan to create an additional stream of regular income, manage the shortfalls in retirement income and ensure steady growth of initial lump sum amount.

The virtual seminar attracted about 900 attendants and concluded on a high note, as participants were confident of their retirement prospects after they were assured of the company’s continued support.

Axis Pension Trust is a leading corporate trustee in Ghana, offering retirement savings solutions and administration services with a core objective to make pension provision painless for employers and assuring for scheme members.

The company offers world-class services to invest and safeguard the retirement savings of workers for a better future.

With its 360 degree digital solutions, multi-share class investment plans and bestin-class retirement education interventions, members experience supreme accessibility and convenience while planning their retirement.

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MTN receives investors in People Platinum Accreditation

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TN Ghana has been awarded Investors in People Platinum Accreditation by the United Kingdom based Investors in People (IiP) International.

The Platinum Accreditation is the high-performing standard on the IiP accreditation model and the highest level on the IiP standard. MTN is the first company in Ghana to receive the Investors in People Accreditation.

The accreditation confirms MTN Ghana as an organisation that adheres to the Investors in People Standard and global best people management practices. The company received the Platinum Accreditation in September 2021 after rigorous evidence-based assessment including a survey of Employees, a review of the company’s people practices and policies, interviews with a cross section of selected employees and confirmation of evidence provided.

Commenting on the award, the Chief Human Resource Officer of MTN Ghana, Amma Benneh-Amponsah said, “We are glad MTN has received the high-

performing accreditation in the Investors in People standard.

Since MTN Ghana received its first Investors in People Accreditation in 2014, we have continuously and consistently worked hard, invested in our workforce and continued to employ best practices in people management to ensure the organization continues to meet the global standard on all fronts.

“As an organization, we are committed to enabling our employees live inspired, Work with meaning, Thrive in positivity, Grow with purpose and Connect to develop in all that we do. I am also excited this accreditation is coming at a time MTN is celebrating its 25th Anniversary, a testament of the organization’s growth and contributions to society” she added.

The CEO of MTN Ghana, Mr. Selorm Adadevoh congratulated all staff for their collective efforts, collaboration and for believing in the values and initiatives of MTN aimed at making MTN the best place to work and as the employer of choice.

Paul Devoy, CEO of Investors

in People, said: “We would like to congratulate MTN Ghana for receiving the highest level of accreditation on the IiP Standard.

The Platinum accreditation on Investor in People is a remarkable achievement for any organisation, and we are glad MTN has received this accreditation which places the company on high rankings within a host of organisations that understand the value of people.”

Investors in People is one

of the world’s leading people management standards, a business improvement tool designed to help organizations develop performance through their people.

MTN Ghana attained its first Investors in People Accreditation in 2014 and received two Gold Accreditations in 2015 and 2017.

MTN is the first company in Ghana to receive the Investors in People Accreditation.

ECOWAS praises AGRA, partners for support in boosting food production

O

ver the last five years, Ghana and three other West-African Countries have achieved significant gains in the cultivation and production of maize, cassava and rice under the working partnership with Agricultural Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA) and its funding partners.

The other beneficiary countries in the West-African sub-region are Nigeria, Mali, and BurkinaFaso. Funding partners under the AGRA-led initiative are the GatesFoundation, USAID, Rocky-feller, World-Bank KfW, FCDO, AfDB the EU, among others.

As a result of the AGRA partnership, private sector investments in seed systems have significantly increased in Ghana and the three other countries, resulting in greater access to improved seeds for small-holder farmers.

Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Ghana's Minister for Food and Agriculture who offered the testimony while contributing to a Plenary Session of the Ministerial Round Table

Meeting of the Agricultural Green Revolution Forum [AGRF-2021] in Nairobi, Kenya, praised AGRA and its leadership for being dedicated partners in the agricultural transformations enjoyed by Ghana, Mali, Burkina-Faso and Nigeria over the last five years.

Dr Afriyie Akoto noted that it was regrettable that in spite of the high level of achievements by AGRA in the listed countries, it had suffered a lot of bad publicity in recent times.

The minister who is also Chairman of the ECOWAS Specialist Ministerial Technical Council for Agriculture, on behalf of the agricultural ministers of the listed countries, registered the unflinching support of the respective governments for the good work of AGRA. Through the partnership, there has been increased use of crop-specific blended fertilizers by small-holder farmers, which in turn has also increased yields

in maize, cassava and rice cultivation.

Through the initiative of the AGRA partnership, the Plant Variety Protection Act has extensively been promoted in both Ghana and Nigeria to boost innovation in research to develop planting materials that command genetic advantage for farmers.

The work of the partnership, he noted, resulted in increased government budget allocation to the agricultural sector through flagship agricultural programmes in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Mali.

Consequently Ghana, in 2019, was ranked fourth as the most food secure country on the continent of Africa, according to the Global Food Security Index of the Economic Intelligence Unit.

In the light of the success story of the AGRA alliance, Dr Akoto noted that a lot still remains to be done through further collaborative efforts to scale-up the gains made so far.

This in the minister's view, will present as an extended opportunity for more countries in West-Africa to be beneficiaries.

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Second edition of The Law Challenge kicks off in Accra

By Ibrahim Mashud Mashud.Ibrahim12@gmail.com

T

he second edition of The Law Challenge has kicked off at the Executive Theatre of the premises TV3 Network in Accra.

The Law Challenge is an educational quiz aimed at strengthening the connections within the law, legal education, business community and society.

The Project Consultant, Rev. Moses Ansah Barnor Ankra, said, “among other objectives of the challenge is aimed at providing a learning platform for the students as well as testing their ability for understanding of the various aspects of the law approved by the General Legal Council and to help students grow and sharpen their legal knowledge as well as to help build the advocacy skills and techniques of the contestants.

“In this year’s edition, we have introduced a moot course session during the grand finale to help build the advocacy skills and techniques of the contestants for the first time,” he added.

The maiden edition of the

challenge was organised in 2019 with six schools participating across the country and was won by the University of Ghana.

This year’s edition is featuring 10 competing schools across the length and breadth of the country for some attractive prizes.

Among the areas to be featured include Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Law of Torts, Ghana Legal Systems, Law of Contracts, Equity and Succession, Law of Immovable Property, Company Law, Jurisprudence, Commercial Law and Civic Education.

Rev. Moses Ansah announced that the winners of this year’s edition will walk home with attractive prizes including cash, trophy, a plague, laptop and souvenirs of some sponsors of the competition.

The Chairman of the occasion, His Lordship Yonny Kulendi, Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, in his remarks of the opening ceremony of the challenge acknowledged that: “I believe that engagements of this nature are critical. As we gather to compete, we must not lose the opportunity to also reflect

on the profession that we have chosen and what it demands of us as students and God willing as lawyers when receive that sacred commission as lawyers or scholars of the law.”

“The practice of the law is as dynamic as law around which it evolves. While the nature of the profession itself might change, its tenets are in my view eternal.

Today, more than ever we must remind ourselves that integrity, honesty and professionalism are inseparable from the calling that you as young people have answered,” he advised.

Among other dignitaries in attendance of the opening ceremony were Justice Eric Bafour, Justice Kwaku Gyan, Mr. Yaw D. Oppong of the Ampofo Oppong Associates, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Hon. Herbet Krapa and Mr. Thomas Brien, Head of Marketing for BUSY Internet with Mr. Sampson Lardy Anyenini, a lawyer as the host of the challenge.

The Law Challenge is sponsored

by BUSY Internet, Websys Technology, Note Cosmetics, Yetron Services, TV3 among others.

President heralds historic agreement to build a world-class W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Complex

P

resident Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo heralded plans to construct a state-of-the-art museum complex honoring the legacy of world-renown black intellectual and civil rights pioneer Dr. W.E.B Du Bois as an important symbolic monument.

“The museum will provide in Ghana, yet another important monument to the collective struggle of the African peoples to get their rightful place in this world,” said President AkufoAddo in his remarks prior to the signing of a historic partnership arrangement between the Government of Ghana and the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation’s affiliate in Ghana.

The signing took place in New York City where the U.S. foundation is headquartered.

The agreement was signed on behalf of the government of Ghana by Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance and Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture.

Signing for the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation were Japhet Aryiku, Executive Director of the foundation in the U.S., and Humphrey Ayim-Darke, Board Member of the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation, Ghana.

“Mr. President, let me reassure you of our commitment to making your beloved Ghana a hub of Pan-African research and heritage tourism,” said Daniel Rose, Chairman of the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation, as he kicked off the ceremony. Rose is a philanthropist and leading real estate developer with deep ties to Ghana.

The Du Bois Memorial Centre in Accra where Dr. Du Bois and his wife, Shirley Graham Du Bois, are buried, opened to the public in 1985, but in recent years had required additional upkeep and maintenance.

Two years ago, Rose and two board members of the foundation, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a professor at Harvard University and foremost scholar

on Dr. Du Bois, and Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah, a professor at New York University whose father had worked with Dr. Du Bois, approached President Akufo-Addo about transforming the Du Bois Memorial Centre into a world-class living museum for scholars and heritage tourists.

The partnership arrangement will grant authority for the W.E.B Du Bois Museum Foundation to construct a multi-million dollar museum complex to preserve Dr. Du Bois’ legacy over a 50year period. The complex will be designed by Sir David Adjaye, renowned Ghanaian architect and designer of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The foundation’s goal is to realize the Du Bois Museum’s full potential as an international treasure and historic memorial honoring one of the leading and most revered black voices in world history.

The ambitious project features

a museum, library and reading room, event hall, outdoor auditorium and amphitheater, lecture space, guest house for visiting scholars and the refurbished bungalow where Dr. Du Bois lived and worked until his death. The complex also includes a Memorial Pavilion, housing the remains of Dr. Du Bois and the cremated ashes of his wife.

Dr. Du Bois, who was a confidant of Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah, became a citizen of Ghana and resided in the country until his death in 1963.

While living in Ghana, Du Bois envisioned building a unified ancestral home for Africans in the diaspora around the world.

President Akufo-Addo has invited the Africans Diaspora to follow the footsteps of Du Bois by making Africa their home and contributing to the continent’s development through the government’s “Year of Return” and “Beyond the Return” campaigns.

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Spaklean receives Africa’s 1st global cleaning standard certification

A

commercial cleaning company, Spaklean has successfully achieved the Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) certification issued by the International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA), the world’s leading trade association for the cleaning industry.

The certification is the first of its kind by the global body on cleaning for an African company and would span the next two years.

A statement from the company said that CIMS was developed

by ISSA, the worldwide cleaning industry association, as a comprehensive management and operations standard for cleaning organisations across the globe.

It said it had since become the game-changer for facility managers and cleaning business owners working in a competitive marketplace.

It added that the journey to achieve the international accreditation with ISSA began

in 2019 and concluded this year with the first certification to an Africa-based company.

“It has been over two years of rigorous activities — work study, documentation, training, monitoring and internal audit of procedures, policies and process,” the Managing Director of Spaklean, Mrs. Dinah OwusuKissi, said.

“It feels good to lead a dedicated and passionate team to achieve such a great feat of being the first in Africa with CIMS certification and with honours,” she added.

According to her, the achievement seemed a dream and expressed appreciation to the team for the effort over the years.

The statement explained that as part of the CIMS certification,

Spaklean underwent a comprehensive assessment by a third-party CIMS-accredited auditor.

It mentioned that during the audit, Spaklean demonstrated its compliance with the five core principles of the standard, which included (1) quality systems, (2) service delivery, (3) human resources, (4) health, safety, and environmental stewardship and (5) management commitment.

“The certification process itself is enlightening and educative. Already, we see the benefits in terms of the quality of work, service delivery and more importantly, savings – yes, real cost savings,” the General Manager in charge of Commercial Operations, Mr. Billins Akuoko, said.

“Since we began CIMS implementation, issues relating to quality, customer services, health and safety are resolved instantly.

Our clients are delighted because their buildings are managed by a CIMS certified service provider.”

Seed Network Ghana inducts new members

S

eed Transformation Network (STN) Ghana Chapter has inducted new members at an event held at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra.

The class of 2021, known as cohort 11, are the latest group of business leaders to complete the year-long online Stanford Seed Transformation programme to prepare and empower them to grow and scale up their businesses to positively impact the Ghanaian economy.

The new members were taken through intensive sessions facilitated by Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty and industry experts, supported by Stanford-trained advisors using experiential approaches.

The mission of STN Network is to transform local businesses to international players by creating a learning environment for members through partnerships to grow their businesses.

President of the Stanford Seed Transformation Network, Ghana and Founder of Cadling Fashions and KAD Manufacturing Ltd, Mrs. Linda Yaa Ampah welcomed the new members and urged them to apply the learnings from the training programme to scale up

their businesses.

She said being members of the network has several advantages and opportunities that can be beneficial for the businesses of new members and encouraged them to make use of them.

“I entreat you all to play your part in building the Ghana chapter of the network by participating in all programmes and taking advantage of the opportunities created by the network through the Ghana Stock Exchange and Fidelity Bank.”

“We are committed to the growth of the Ghanaian economy and we will support our members to face the new challenge that lies ahead especially with the opening of the African market through the continental free trade area (AfCFTA),” she added.

The network also launched the STN Ghana Scholarship Fund to support students who require assistance to pursue higher education at the tertiary level.

The scholarship will commence in the 2022/2023 academic year with students from the University of Ghana, Legon and will be expanded to at least 5 other universities over the next 10 years. This will be financed

through fundraising activities of the network.

The Rector of GIMPA, Professor Samuel Bonsu who was the special guest of honour, launched the fund and said “Education is the most important investment that can be made in one's future. It is a powerful agent of change that improves health and livelihoods.”

He applauded the network for taking a bold step to assist students requiring support and advised the executives to pay attention to their environment, be receptive and adaptive, and work to resolve business challenges while helping

develop the human capital of the country”.

The scholarship will be administered and managed by the STN Ghana Scholarship Committee headed by Rev. Sammy Adjepong with Constance Swaniker, Prince Arkutu and Doris Ankama-Asamoah as committee members.

The event provided the platform for the executives and members of the network to engage and interact with the new members to share their experiences of the Stanford Seed Transformation programme.

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AfDB delivers engagement at AGRF

T

he African Development Bank (AfDB) participated in a record-breaking 16 events at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), Africa’s largest agriculture conference, which concluded last week.

The hybrid summit was hosted by the Government of Kenya and the AGRF Partners Group under the theme, Pathways to Recovery and Resilient Food System.

The bank’s President Akinwumi A. Adesina headlined the bank’s engagement. In his pre-taped remarks streamed during the AGRF Presidential Summit session, he revealed new details about a Financing Facility for Food and Nutrition in Africa.

The facility is a joint Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) initiative, set to deliver proven agricultural technologies to African farmers at scale and strengthen the food systems around them.

“We must deliver food security for Africa at greater scale and for that, Africa needs a lot of financing,” Adesina said, noting that the facility aims to raise $1 billion in financing, reach some 40 million farmers with modern technologies, and reduce incidence of hunger and malnutrition by up to 20%, among

other goals.

“We should ensure that this Facility is established, as a major outcome for Africa at the United Nations Food Systems Summit,” Adesina said to African Heads of State and Government attending AGRF, which organizers say had an audience of around 10,000 registered participants.

The bank’s participation at AGRF 2021 is part of ongoing efforts to help align Africa’s voice with commitments to be made at the United Nations Food Systems Summit on 23 September.

AfDB’s Vice President for

Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Dr. Beth Dunford, also made the case for the financing facility under development at the Walking the Path to 2030: Commitments Framework session, one of her four AGRF engagements.

“The facility is both for Africa and by Africa. It responds to a call from African leaders to help African food systems build back better and stronger after Covid-19,” Dunford said, referring to the High-level Dialogue on Feeding Africa co-hosted by the Bank and IFAD. She added that

once the facility is operational, it will pool resources from a variety of partners and provide grants, loans and other financial instruments.

Earlier during the week-long summit, Vice President Dunford presented a Commitments Showcase segment that featured the positive impact of the Bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Technologies (TAAT) program and explained how boosting delivery of proven agricultural technologies will be part of the new financing facility’s proposed agenda.

Insurance, industry leads to headline workplace generational gap at diversity festival

T

he Dive In Festival, a global movement in the insurance sector initiated to engender inclusive workplace cultures, is back for the third time in Nigeria, joining over 30 countries taking part across the world.

The organisers of the diversity and inclusion virtual event have unveiled its line-up of speakers who will discuss this year’s theme, “Mind the Generational Gap”.

The event, which will take place on Wednesday, 22nd September 2021 on a virtual platform, will look at awakening the consciousness of the Nigerian insurance industry, re-directing the focus of key decision makers and employees generally to the realities of generational gaps in the industry and what that means for business and workplace relationships.

Designed to tackle existing generational bias, traditional organisational hierarchies, and limitations for inclusion arising

from a lack of active allyship, industry leaders will discuss the strategies that need to be adopted to drive active allyship within the Nigerian insurance sector.

Facilitating the 2021 Dive In virtual event in Nigeria is: financial broadcast journalist and business anchor at CNBC Africa, Esther Awoniyi. Also billed to speak on the panel is Omokunbi Adeoti, Divisional Director, Human Resources at Leadway Assurance with responsibility for Leadway Health, Leadway Hotels, Leadway Capital and Trusts, Leadway Asset Management, Leadway Properties and Leadway Vie in Cote d’Ivoire.

The strategic HR leader will bring her 20+ years of experience in transforming resource functions for various organizations to the conversation, while also sharing how she has helped organizations build positive work cultures that promote inclusion.

Nike Anani, Co-founder of African Family Firms, who’s

Mary Alade –Chief Strategy Officer at Aon

active allyship campaign pledge has stirred a positive movement across the media landscape will also be joining the panel as a returning speaker following her participation and representation in promoting diversity and inclusion in the Nigerian insurance industry during the 2020 Dive In Festival. The leading figure in generational transitions of family businesses in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, is gearing up to speak about the impact that hierarchy in legacy businesses

has on employee’s confidence and their contribution across varying generations (Gen X, Baby Boomers and Millennials).

The other notable speaker includes Abimbola Shobanjo, who heads the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability unit at AIICO Insurance Plc. Speaking about the event theme Shobanjo said, “Allyship requires being intentional about using one’s influence to advocate the underrepresented by taking positive actions to support them”.

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FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Goldilocks is dying

By Nouriel Roubini

H

ow will the global economy and markets evolve over the next year? There are four scenarios that could follow the “mild stagflation” of the last few months.

The recovery in the first half of 2021 has given way recently to sharply slower growth and a surge of inflation well above the 2% target of central banks, owing to the effects of the Delta variant, supply bottlenecks in both goods and labor markets, and shortages of some commodities, intermediate inputs, final goods, and labor. Bond yields have fallen in the last few months and the recent equity-market correction has been modest so far, perhaps reflecting hopes that the mild stagflation will prove temporary.

The four scenarios depend on whether growth accelerates or decelerates, and on whether inflation remains persistently higher or slows down. Wall Street analysts and most policymakers anticipate a “Goldilocks” scenario of stronger growth alongside moderating inflation in line with central banks’ 2% target.

According to this view, the recent stagflationary episode is driven largely by the impact of the Delta variant. Once it fades, so, too, will the supply bottlenecks, provided that new virulent variants do not emerge. Then growth would accelerate while inflation would fall.

For markets, this would represent a resumption of the “reflation trade” outlook from earlier this year, when it was hoped that stronger growth would support stronger earnings and even higher stock prices.

In this rosy scenario, inflation would subside, keeping inflation expectations anchored around 2%, bond yields would gradually rise alongside real interest rates, and central banks would be in a position to taper quantitative easing without rocking stock or bond markets. In equities, there would be a rotation from US to foreign markets (Europe, Japan, and emerging markets) and from growth, technology, and defensive stocks to cyclical and value stocks.

The second scenario involves “overheating.” Here, growth would accelerate as the supply bottlenecks are cleared, but inflation would remain stubbornly higher, because its causes would turn out not to be temporary. With unspent savings

and pent-up demand already high, the continuation of ultraloose monetary and fiscal policies would boost aggregate demand even further. The resulting growth would be associated with persistent above-target inflation, disproving central banks’ belief that price increases are merely temporary.

The market response to such overheating would then depend on how central banks react. If policymakers remain behind the curve, stock markets may continue to rise for a while as real bond yields remain low. But the ensuing increase in inflation expectations would eventually boost nominal and even real bond yields as inflation risk premia would rise, forcing a correction in equities. Alternatively, if central banks become hawkish and start fighting inflation, real rates would rise, sending bond yields higher and, again, forcing a bigger correction in equities.

A third scenario is ongoing stagflation, with high inflation and much slower growth over the medium term. In this case, inflation would continue to be fed by loose monetary, credit, and fiscal policies. Central banks, caught in a debt trap by high public and private debt ratios, would struggle to normalize rates without triggering a financialmarket crash.

Moreover, a host of mediumterm persistent negative supply shocks could curtail growth over time and drive up production costs, adding to the inflationary pressure. As I have noted previously, such shocks could stem from de-globalization and rising protectionism, the balkanization of global supply chains, demographic aging in developing and emerging economies, migration restrictions, the Sino-American “decoupling,”

the effects of climate change on commodity prices, pandemics, cyberwarfare, and the backlash against income and wealth inequality.

In this scenario, nominal bond yields would rise much higher as inflation expectations become deanchored. And real yields, too, would be higher (even if central banks remain behind the curve), because rapid and volatile price growth would boost the risk premia on longer-term bonds.

Under these conditions, stock markets would be poised for a sharp correction, potentially into bear-market territory (reflecting at least a 20% drop from their last high).

The last scenario would feature a growth slowdown. Weakening aggregate demand would turn out to be not just a transitory scare but a harbinger of the new normal, particularly if monetary and fiscal stimulus is withdrawn too soon. In this case, lower aggregate demand and slower growth would lead to lower inflation, stocks would correct to reflect the weaker growth outlook, and bond yields would fall further (because real yields and inflation expectations would be lower).

Which of these four scenarios is most likely? While most market analysts and policymakers have been pushing the Goldilocks scenario, my fear is that the overheating scenario is more salient. Given today’s loose monetary, fiscal, and credit policies, the fading of the Delta variant and its associated supply bottlenecks will overheat growth and will leave central banks stuck between a rock and a hard place. Faced with a debt trap and persistently above-target inflation, they will almost certainly wimp out and lag behind the curve, even as fiscal policies remain too loose.

But over the medium term, as a variety of persistent negative supply shocks hit the global economy, we may end up with far worse than mild stagflation or overheating: a full stagflation with much lower growth and higher inflation. The temptation to reduce the real value of large nominal fixed-rate debt ratios would lead central banks to accommodate inflation, rather than fight it and risk an economic and market crash.

But today’s debt ratios (both private and public) are substantially higher than they were in the stagflationary 1970s.

Public and private agents with too much debt and much lower income will face insolvency once inflation risk premia push real interest rates higher, setting the stage for the stagflationary debt crises that I have warned about.

The Panglossian scenario that is currently priced into financial markets may eventually turn out to be a pipe dream. Rather than fixating on Goldilocks, economic observers should remember Cassandra, whose warnings were ignored until it was too late.

Nouriel Roubini, Professor Emeritus at New York University’s Stern School of Business, is Chief Economist at Atlas Capital Team and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates. He is a former senior economist for international affairs in the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration

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FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Covid 19: How the world is still paying a heavy price for communism

By Eric Boakye Antwi

W

hen the cold war ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980's, most people thought the world had seen the last of communism.

The world breathed a huge sign of relief and was glad that this oppressive form of government, with its sardonic values and principles, had not been able to stand the test of time.

The the world's countries were happy that the Cold War which ensued as a result of Russia adopting this form of government in 1917 and which was so bitter that it had nearly resulted in an all-out nuclear war between its two protagonists the United States of America and Russia, was finally over.

But the outbreak of covid 19 is making the world reconsider

this stance. Communism survives in the world today with three countries namely North Korea, China and Cuba being the countries where this form of government holds sway.

The core values of communism are secrecy, unwillingness of the citizenry to share bad news for fear of punishment, rigid bureacratic structures, and a culture of delay, silence and compliance.

And the world has been made to pay a very heavy price for these principles; if the cancerous spread and festering of the Covid 19 virus is anything to go by. China's steadfast commitment to these anachronistic values has cost the world hundreds of thousands of lives and has disrupted the work and the activities that we all hold dear - including the economic activities that fuel everything from sports to school.

That communism is to blame

for this sorry state of affairs is an evident truth. The virus has been called the China communist virus for good reason. This is because the doctor who in December 2019 first broke the story about this virus and who was himself to succumb to the virus, Li Wenliang, was harrased by the Chinese government after he raised the alarm about the virus.

Dr Li had noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like Sars - the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003.

On 30 December he sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them to wear protective clothing to avoid infection.

Four days later he was summoned to the Public Security Bureau where he was told to sign a letter.

In the letter he was accused of "making false comments" that

had "severely disturbed the social order".

News of Dr Li's death became the top trending topic on Chinese social media, garnering an estimated 1.5 billion views.

His death has brought demands for action, with "Wuhan government owes Dr Li Wenliang an apology" and "We want freedom of speech" among the hashtags that was trending soon after his death. Typical of a communist government, both hashtags were quickly censored.

The toxic effects of communism have yet to go away and the world must sit up and take action if it no longer wants to eat the fruit this cancerous form of government.

The writer is a social commenator.

Email: ericboakye500@aol.com Phone/Whatsapp: 0558719614

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FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Reclaiming central banks

By Nouriel Roubini

F

ifty years ago, a US president closed the gold window, ended capital controls, and launched a new era of globalized finance. The “Nixon Shock” reshaped the international monetary system overnight, and then gradually changed the status of central bankers.

Instead of acting as servants of the domestic economy, monetary policymakers have become masters of the globalized and financialized world economy.

And this development bears directly on our ability to tackle the problems of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Despite their technocratic mystique, central bankers are politically appointed public servants on government payrolls, and still derive their authority from the taxpayers in their respective jurisdictions. As former Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker observes, “the right to create money is always latently a power of taxation.”

Central bankers’ status and constitutional role is therefore primarily a democratic question, not an economic or technical one. As the managers of public institutions that hold a monopoly over the issuance of currencies and liquidity, they wield awesome, powerful instruments that can be deployed only because they are backed by government treasuries.

Treasuries, in turn, are backed by a country’s fiscal resources – including tax revenues – and by public institutions that are vital to the private financial sector, such as the contract-enforcing judicial system. The stronger a sovereign’s public institutions and tax base, the more expansive the central bank’s powers to generate liquidity, and the more highly rated the country’s bonds and currency will be.

Despite the long-reigning ideology of “free markets,” capitalism has always depended on public institutions and resources for its capital gains and profits, just as central banks have always presided over a hybrid private-public financial system.

What is new is the extent to which central-bank resources (balance sheets) have been expanded and deployed in the private interests of vast, unregulated, and systemically risky capital markets across the “shadow-banking” system.

Outlining the history of these developments, the political

economist Benjamin Braun notes that “the stagflation crisis of the 1970s and [former US Federal Reserve chair] Paul Volcker’s labour-crushing crackdown on inflation in the US in the early 1980s” led to the transfer of responsibility for monetary policy away from those directly accountable to elected representatives. Ever since then, Braun argues, financialized capital has depended on “independent” central banks and arbitration courts to protect it “against local democracy.”

Meanwhile, the Bank for International Settlements has tallied up the value of the extraordinary fiscal, monetary, and macroprudential measures that central banks have deployed since 2007 to shore up private financial markets and mitigate their adverse economic impacts.

Notably, BIS economists find that central-bank programs to purchase private assets accounted for half of total purchases over this period. And as other researchers have shown, a significant share of these financial flows have gone to support fossil fuels and other carbon-intensive sectors.

The overall sums involved here are massive. Earlier this year, the Eurosystem’s balance sheet exceeded €7 trillion ($8.3 trillion), which is more than 60% of the eurozone’s GDP. The Bank of Japan’s balance sheet now stands at 130% of GDP. The Fed’s grew from $4.3 trillion in mid-March 2020 to a peak of $8.2 trillion in late July 2021. That is equivalent to about 40% of nominal US GDP, a level not seen since World War II. Moreover, since 2007, central bankers have used their public authority to participate in, influence, and shape the vast $52 trillion shadow-banking system, where they have become private dealers of last resort, and market makers of first resort. The expansion of shadow banking

follows from the 1981-2014 period, when 30 governments around the world decided to privatize their pension funds. As a result, a vast pool of the world’s savings flowed into asset-management funds in globalized, largely unregulated capital markets. Because the sums were too large to be accommodated by commercial “Main Street” banks, the shadowbanking system emerged.

These earlier political decisions to financialize the global economy are still with us, and will pose hurdles to our efforts to tackle broader societal challenges like climate change. Given the precarious state of the biosphere, it is imperative that central banks’ activities be reoriented toward what Braun calls “public purpose,” and away from the task of sustaining private gains in capital markets.

Humanity is now facing terrifying climate and ecological threats. While there is still a chance to slash greenhouse-gas emissions at the pace needed to keep global warming below 1.5° Celsius, biodiversity loss is already well underway. In fact, we are moving faster toward the point of civilizational collapse than scientists previously thought. In research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June 2020, Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich, and Peter H. Raven argued that “the ongoing sixth mass extinction may be the most serious environmental threat to the persistence of civilization, because it is irreversible.”

(Emphasis added.)

Many, including key figures in US President Joe Biden’s administration, believe that ensuring the survival of human civilization is a task that can be left to private capital markets.

In his first press conference as the US climate envoy, John Kerry paid homage to BlackRock’s climate-conscious CEO, Larry

Fink, and in effect begged Wall Street to come to the rescue of the administration’s climate plan.

The US national climate adviser, Gina McCarthy, then drove home the point: “The question won’t be whether the private sector is going to buy into it; the private sector is going to drive it.”

In the Great Depression, the face most Americans associated with the response was the democratically elected president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Are we now supposed to look to an unelected, unaccountable fund manager – or, perhaps, to Fed Chair Jerome Powell – to rescue human civilization from collapse? The present structure of globalized finance lends itself to precisely this undemocratic outcome. But we must resist it, lest we end up with a return of fascism on top of the climate crisis.

If we are going to avert both a political and a climate breakdown, we will need to transform the international monetary system so that it upholds democracy and the policy autonomy of nationstates. That means reintroducing capital controls, re-regulating global banking, re-nationalizing pensions, and restoring political and economic power to elected assemblies – not simply to their executives and to central bankers.

To be sure, the separation of powers between central banks and politicians will have to be maintained to avoid corruption.

But central bankers will need to be required, through legislation, to reorient their vast array of planning tools to the needs of democracy and the domestic economy.

Fifty years ago, a political decision by one elected president and his advisers transformed the international financial architecture overnight. Such democratic transformations are entirely possible, and another one is now urgently needed.

Ann Pettifor, Director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME), is the author of The Case for the Green New Deal.

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BUSINESS24.COM.GH FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

NO. B24 / 251 | NEWS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

MONDAY MAY 3, 2021

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Online food delivery; a blessing in a pandemic recovering world

By Bennet Otoo, Jumia Ghana

O

n a cold Friday evening, Mrs. Amoako returns from work and realizes that she has been so busy and forgot to get groceries. It doesn’t matter anyways because all week, her children have been craving for fufu with goat meat and soup. It’s already 5:30PM and as tired as she is, she cannot possibly cook.

Thankfully, her husband Mr. Amoako loves fufu and will eat it whenever it’s offered to him.

She now remembers how her colleague Frank orders for his lunch online and gets it delivered in a few minutes. There is one challenge however.

She has no idea if she can order local meals online too so she calls Frank and he confirms that there are affordable local restaurants online that she can order from.

After downloading the app and filling in her details, she orders for fufu with light soup and goat meat for the whole family.

Delivery agent: ‘’Hello, my name is Paa Kwesi and I am at your gate with your order’’ Customer: ‘’ Hi Paa Kwesi, I will be out in a second’’ A few minutes later, the order is received and her problem is solved.

In a world that has been hardly hit with a pandemic that threatened to stay for a long time, there has been a dying need to find ways and means to stay safe, save money and make better use of time. In times past, the headache of finding food, spending hours in traffic and waiting at the restaurant to get your preferred meal was normal.

With little developments, certain restaurants provided an avenue where customers could call to order ,then come in to pick up their orders. Even at that point, customers still had to spend time and money moving from home to the restaurant while waiting for long hours for the order to be prepared. In today's world, online food delivery has come as a blessing to all. Below, Jumia, Africa’s leading online food delivery service looks at some of the benefits of ordering food online at a time when the world is still recovering from the covid-19 pandemic.

For sometime now, e-commerce has proven to be the solution to many of the world’s challenges.

Online deliveries now provide so many benefits for both the consumers and businesses.

For consumers, top on the list in the context of Covid-19 will be safety. With physical contact being one sure way of contracting the deadly virus, it has become imperative that many consumers switch to online food delivery.

The adoption of contactless delivery and payments provide the assurance that there is minimal to zero risk of getting infected. You sit at home or in your office and with a few clicks on your smartphone, you can get your favorite meals delivered to you. The delivery agent can drop it at the door , take a few steps back for you to pick it up, sanitize and pay online. With platforms such as JumiaPay, customers now go through the entire process without any physical contact with the vendors or delivery agents.

Hence being safe.

Another very important benefit of online food delivery is time saving. The old adage says “time is money”. It is important that customers save as much

time as possible when getting their preferred meals from their favorite restaurants or local “chop bars''. Online food delivery makes it possible for you to plan your day so well. When preparing for an event, you can order your meal and use that waiting time to iron, do your make up and get other things done. By the time you are ready, the food should be at your doorstep. This is a relief and in sharp contrast to some years back when you had to drive or walk all the way to the restaurant, wait for a while to pick up your order and then come back home to still take care of other things before getting ready if you have somewhere to go. There was extra time being wasted back then. Ordering online through e-commerce platforms such as Jumia has helped change such things. In addition to time saving, convenience is another very important benefit of online food delivery. Why will you go through the traffic in town and move up and down just to get your cravings sorted when you can sit in the comfort of your home or office and still get it delivered?

That’s the power of e-commerce.

Globally, covid-19 really hit everyone hard. From emotional

to psychological issues, the world has had to deal with a lot since this pandemic began. Financially, it has been very challenging too with many people finding new ways to make money while others have resorted to saving the little money they have. One of the many benefits of online food delivery has been cost saving. When you order online, you can access the many deals and discounts that online food companies offer. Various campaigns such as ‘’Food Festival’’, ‘’Black Friday’’ and ‘’Jumia Anniversary’’ also come with very heavy price cuts which make it the best option for consumers. Apart from deals and discounts, generally staying at home and paying a small delivery fee is more economically viable than driving through traffic to and from the restaurant.

On the other hand, for the sellers and restaurants, online food delivery serves as a great and very lucrative option to sell their food. According to many restaurants, their sales dropped dramatically when many cities were on lockdown.

With restricted movements, many Ghanaians couldn’t go to their favorite restaurants to eat.

The food vendors were running at losses, cutting down on staff and struggling to keep their restaurants running. With online food deliveries, they are assured of hundreds of consumers who are willing and able to buy food frequently and consistently.

Food vendors who utilize online delivery services are now doing well and stabilizing their businesses with a couple even expanding their operations and employing more staff.

The benefits of online food delivery in today's world cannot be overemphasized. Day-in-dayout, Ecommerce companies are coming up with technologies and innovations that ensure that consumers get the best value for their money. Safety, convenience, cost and time saving have become basic needs for the online consumer. This means that the future is bright for ecommerce and the online food delivery industry.