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Development Bank Ghana is finally here with us

By
MAXWELL OFORI
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President Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo in a group photograph with dignitaries

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has launched the Development Bank of Ghana (DBG), which he promised Ghanaians when he assumed office in 2017.

The launch followed years of feasibility studies on the viability of the vision to set up a unique developmental bank, whose operations would stand out from the existing ones.

In Accra yesterday, President Akufo-Addo addressed a ceremony to officially launch the bank, during which he recalled what birthed the idea of a development bank.

According to the President, the day’s event was the culmination of years of painstaking efforts undertaken by the Akufo-Addo government to strengthen the infrastructure transformation of the Ghanaian economy for private sector-led growth.

“A year on, I am delighted that the Development Bank Ghana has seen the light of day. As its foundation will help steer the vision of moving our nation beyond aid…,” he said.

He explained that involves positioning the private sector to take the lead in the socio-economic transformation of our country, and create quality jobs for our young people.

AIM
Announcing that the idea of setting up a Development Bank was in the 2017 Budget Statement and Economic Policy when he first assumed office, and according to the President, it was one of many policy initiatives that his government had come up with, to help transform the Ghanaian economy.

The over-riding objective, he continued, was to make long-term funding available to the private sector, and develop the ecosystem for market access, technology and innovation.
The Development Bank’s focus, the President said, is to help transform the key sectors of the economy, over a period of time, by supporting all institutions that are essential for SME transformation.

FUNDING
The total capital of the Bank, both debt and equity, is currently some seven hundred and fifty million dollars (US$750 million).
The Ministry of Finance had extensive technical engagements with KfW in Germany, and other multilateral institutions like the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and the African Development Bank to mobilise international funding, diversify its shareholding and institute best practices to have an independent Board and a financially sustainable institution.

 

Government put up an initial equity investment of two hundred and fifty million dollars ($250 million), the European Investment Bank one hundred and seventy million euros (€170 million), World Bank two hundred and twenty-five million dollars ($225 million), and a forty-million-dollar (US$40 million) grant came from the African Development Bank.

BEDROCK
President Akufo-Addo continued the Development Bank Ghana should be the bedrock for renewed commitment to private sector development.

He said it was expected to work to transform SMEs into well-functioning, formal and strong corporates with the potential to increase our GDP, employ more people, and enhance our tax efforts.
Work with Private Sector
The Bank, the President said, must be partners with the private sector, and must work with them to provide access to long term funds, access to markets both domestic and foreign, and skills developments.

The President assured that the government would not interfere in the affairs of the board of the bank.

EXPERIENCES
In his remarks, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta underscored that development banks across the globe have yielded both positive and negative impacts towards growth. Therefore, in setting up DBG, all those experiences were considered to have a different bank.

He said the bank should complement the operations of existing banks and should be regulated, he said thanking all who played roles to the formation of the DBG.

ABOUT THE BANK

The DBG was established in 2017. In 2020 the bank received its license from the regulator at the Bank of Ghana. The DBG focuses on ways to address market failures and meet gaps in the Ghanaian credit markets.

Its mandate is to increase the availability of medium and to long term financial instruments to support Ghanaian businesses. DBG’s goal will facilitate economic transformation and job creation.

DBG in essence will be constituted as a commercial banking institution governed by the provisions of the Ghanaian Company Act. As a result of our unique role in the market we operate a strict corporate governance structure in line with international standards.

Green Minerals: Ghana thinks ahead of time

By
admin
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Mr Jinapor speaking at the forum
Mr Samuel Jinapor interacting with some of the CEOs

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, says Ghana will build a full value chain of its green minerals to retain the value of the minerals in the country.

The Minister was speaking at the Africa CEO Forum, being held in Abidjan Cote D’Ivoire, where he participated in panel discussion on the topic – “Green Minerals: How to Fully Seize on a Historic Opportunity.”

Green minerals generally refer to minerals and metals needed to support the transition to clean-energy technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions and reaching net zero. They include minerals like copper, lithium, cobalt, bauxite, graphite, manganese and nickel.

With global focus on tackling climate change and its negative impacts on lives and livelihood, there has been a concerted effort to move away from fossil fuels, used to power vehicles, to electric cars, which will run on batteries and be friendlier to the environment.

Minister Jinapor arriving at the venue of the meeting

It is estimated that by the year 2040, over sixty-five percent (65%) of vehicles that would be sold across the world would be electric vehicles and the world will need close to Five Thousand Gigawatts Hour (5,000GWh) of lithium-ion battery per year to power these vehicles.

With Ghana holding some commercial quantities of lithium, one of the main minerals needed for the green transition, Mr. Jinapor says, Government will concentrate on building the full value chain of these minerals here in Ghana, to ensure that the Ghanaian people benefit from these resources.

Using the example of bauxite, the Minister said the days where we export bauxite and turn around to import alumina, which is refined bauxite for VALCO to smelt, is over. He said the real value of these minerals lie in their value addition and not the raw minerals.

Mr Jinapor said the Government of President Akufo-Addo is building the mining sector of the country on three main pillars, certainty in the industry anchored on the rule of law to boost investor confidence, value addition from mining to downstream production and a robust local content and local participation.

The Minister said this policy underpins the establishment of the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) and the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GIISDEC), which have been tasked to promote and develop integrated aluminium and iron and steel industries in the country.

According to Mr. Jinapor, just as Government is doing for these industries, it will ensure that the full value chain of lithium, as well as other green minerals is retained in Ghana.

In addition to building the full value chain, the Minister said Government is committed to local content and local participation in the mining industry, including these emerging minerals.

He said the surest way of ensuring that the mining industry has linkages to the other sectors of the economy is through value addition and local content.

Speaking directly to the investor community, Mr. Jinapor said Ghana, with her democratic principles, good and accountable governance, respect for the rule of law and human rights as well as the sanctity of contracts, is the number one destination for investment on the continent. He said Government is committed to providing a conducive environment for businesses thrive for the benefit of investors and the people of Ghana.

The Africa CEO Forum is an annual gathering of decision-makers from the largest African companies, international investors, multinational executives, Heads of State, Ministers and representatives of the main financial institutions operating on the continent.

Over two thousand (2000) government officials and business leaders are gathered in Abidjan for this year’s event, which is the first in-person event since 2019.

ECG issues one month moratorium to customers; to address challenges at service centers

By
ERNEST BEST ANANE
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Anokye Abebreseh (right) and William Boateng, Director of Customers Service and the Public Relations Officer briefing the media

The Ashanti Regional office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has issued a one-month moratorium or amnesty to customers to report faulty meters. Mr. Anokye Abebreseh, Director of Customer Services at the ECG, at press briefing in Kumasi, explained that, over the years, the biggest challenge of the company was losses incurred, which affects the viability of the company.

According to him, the quantum was unacceptable, hence, the ECG had decided to deal with two components, being technical and commercial losses.

He said the ECG had control over the commercial losses caused by situations such as uncaptured meters, faulty meters, bypassing and tampering with meters, pointing to power theft as the significant contributor to commercial losses.

In order to reduce the losses and improve revenue, the company had introduced, for the first time in its history, a moratorium or amnesty for customers towards the audit of all the meters, beginning from June 7 to July 6 this year.

Mr. Abebreseh urged all types of customers to visit all the district customer services centers to address the abnormalities and be given a slip to indicate that one had come to report, in which case both the ECG and the customer would keep a copy of the slip to enable them rectify the challenges and address them appropriately.

The Director of Customer Services appealed to the general public to take advantage of the moratorium or amnesty to  address their electricity problems, stressing that whoever failed to catch up with the make do one month ultimatum would face the law, as the National

Revenue Mobilisation Taskforce would strongly come after them to be prosecuted and have their names published in the dailies.

Petroleum subsidies not sustainable -NPA

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admin
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Mr Abass Ibrahim Tasunti

The Head of Economic Regulation at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Mr. Abass Ibrahim Tasunti, has stated that the government of Ghana can only subsidise petroleum products if it has the ability to do so, despite the hikes in prices in the country.

“Subsidy in itself is not really a good thing; but because you, the consumer, you’re only interested in the cheaper prices, but you forget that if the price is cheaper and the product is not available, you will not like that.”

He continued: “For us, if the government wants to subsidize, the NPA as a regulator cannot say it would not allow the subsidy to pass but it is for the government to analyse or assess its capacity to subsidise but you must have the money before you can subsidise so that we don’t go back to the issue where you have subsidize but there’s no money and there’s shortage”.

He further explained the NPA can only advise government when it realises prices are rising to use the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy to cushion consumers which the authority did last year.

Giving a presentation on the Price Formula in Ghana in a day’s capacity building training for journalists in northern region on Monday June 13, 2022, Mr. Tasunti said Nigerian as an OPEC country when they restructured their petroleum industry last year decided to scrap subsidies on petrol by June this year.

“Why is Nigeria scraping subsidy on fuel? Most countries in the world want to scrap subsidies on fuel – it is not an easy decision to scrap subsidies on fuel but it is very good for an economy. About 70% of vehicles in Nigeria run on petrol; in Ghana we consume more diesel than petrol but in Nigeria it is the other way round because everybody is using the fuel that is subsidised but because Nigeria produces a lot more crude oil than Ghana does, that is why they’re able to use the revenue they generate from the crude oil export to subsidise the petrol prices for consumers and even that they say they want to scrap the subsidy because they aren’t able to afford the subsidy” he explained.

BoG intervention

Meanwhile, the NPA Head of Economic Regulation has said the Bank of Ghana is organising a special exchange rate options for the oil industry, asserting it used not to happen until three months ago, so that the rate at which the oil industry gets the dollar becomes predictable in order to help stabilize the price for public.

For his part, the NPA Head of Quality Assurance, Saeed Ubeidalah Kutia, gave an assurance that the authority will continue to put in quality control measures along the value-chain to guarantee the integrity of petroleum products in the country. The National Petroleum Authority has also urged consumers to report issues of fuel adulteration within 48hours for swift investigations and redress.

Editorial: Is IGP Dampare showboating or…

By
THE CHRONICLE
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George Akuffo-Dampare, Inspector General of Police

On Friday, June 10, 2022 students of Islamic Senior High School in Kumasi went on a demonstration to protest against frequent accidents that have been occurring in front of the school, as a result of lack of speed ramps on that stretch of road. During the demonstration, the students blocked the main road leading to Barekese and its environs, forcing the police to step in.

Unfortunately, the peace mission of the police turned into a ‘violent mission’ as they indiscriminately fired both tear gas and live ammunitions. Some of the students, after inhaling the tear gas, fell unconscious and were rushed to various health facilities around the vicinity. The police, however, claimed they did not fire tear gas, but rather pepper sprayed, following an attack on them by the students.

Fast forward, the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akufo Dampare, upon hearing the news, rushed to Kumasi to first commiserate with the students. His outfit, on the same day, issued a statement that announced the interdiction of the Acting Ashanti Regional Commander and Director of Operations, to pave way for thorough investigations into the case.

Regrettably, the action of the IGP seems not to have gone down well with a section of the public, who are accusing him of promoting a so called presidential ambition, by always rushing to every trouble spot instead of allowing his regional commanders to do so.

It is instructive to note that the allegation against the IGP nursing presidential ambitions has been lingering for some time now, but the man himself has not come out to deny or confirm it. The Chronicle cannot, therefore, defend him on that.

Our concern, however, is the accusation that he rushes to every trouble spot instead of instructing his commanders to do so. Though those raising the issue are entitled to their opinion, we do not think the conduct of the IGP in such situations are bad.

Previous IGPs might not have behaved that way, but we cannot also fault his administrative style. To Dampare, his physical presence at the trouble spots will help calm nerves and ensure cordial relationship between the police and the public.

This might be his management style and we believe it has nothing to do with showboating as we are being made to believe. A good leader is the one who comes down to the level of the people without compromising on discipline.

There are so many incidents that the police did not handle well and could have resulted in a counter attack by the affected people on the police, but the presence of the IGP might have helped to stabilise the situation.

In the latest case being referenced, the students could have resorted to different ways of attacking any police personnel they see on sight, but the way the IGP interacted with them on campus might make them forgot about the incident that happened the previous day.

Our position does not mean we support the brutalities that are being meted out to the public by the police of late. We can recall Ejura, Nkroranza and a host of other places where the use of brute force by the police resulted in casualties. This is certainly not the modern way of policing and, therefore, we agree with those criticising the Islamic Senior High School incident.

But to say the IGP, making his physical presence felt at the trouble spots is a failure of his administration, we dare say is farfetched.

The Chronicle holds the view that we should rather encourage the security agencies to adopt strategies that help them to calm boiling situations. Once these strategies work for them, we should give them the benefit of the doubt to carry out their work.

Pass Community Sentencing Bill into law-Participants

By
KWESI ALFRED ADAMS
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Eva Ankrah presenting flyers to the participants at the CSB outreach programme

Participants at a United State Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)-sponsored community outreach programme have called for a speedy passage of the Community Sentencing Bill (CSB).

The participants believe that the surest way of reducing the hitherto congested prisons challenge in Ghana was for the early passage of the CSB.

At a community outreach programme at Agona-Nkwanta, capital of Ahanta West, the Human Rights Development Foundation (HURD), local implementers of CHRI programmes, engaged hairdressers, seamstresses, beauticians and traditional authorities to seek their opinions on the Community Sentencing Bill.

It is believed that the CSB, when passed into law, would provide for the usage of other non-custodial sentencing approaches in convicting offenders of certain types of offences considered as misdemeanors instead of the usual custodial sentencing.

The Bill provides community service as an alternative to custodial sentence for convicted offenders in respect of some offences. At the programme, the Executive Director of HURD, Eva Ankrah, took the participants through the Bill and explained the purpose and why it needed to be considered and passed by Parliament.

She appealed to the participants to get involved and advocate for the consideration of the Bill to become law, so that the purpose for which it was being advocated for would be achieved.

The HURD Executive Director further stated the specific crimes that the Bill would cater for when passed into law.

Offence with punishment of not more than three years – misdemeanors such as crimes listed in the Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act 29), minor assault, supplying drugs or instruments to be used for abortion, threatening another person, unlawfully causing harm to public or private property.

Others are falsifying receipt, defrauding another person, evade requirement of law, facilitating commission of lawlessness, and drunken offence.

She, however, spelt out the crimes that would not be considered under the Bill as being murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and causing harm amongst any others.

Following the specific enumeration of crimes considered under the CSB, the HURD Executive Director appealed to the participants to join in the advocate for the consideration of the bill.

The Chief of Agona Nkwanta Damite, Nana Ngya Toku V also added his voice to the early consideration and passage of the bill.

To the Chief, the surest way of averting congestion in our prisons was for the quickest passage of the CSB. He explained that considering the heavy congestion of prisons in Ghana, passing the bill would reduce financial burden on government of having to fund for the feeding of thousands of prisoners in our prisons.

The outreach programme also saw participants being educated on the Ghana case tracking system.

Prestea Hunni-Valley MP sponsors skills training for 140 females

By
KWESI ALFRED ADAMS
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MP Robert Cudjoe presenting test books to Appiatse Relief Fund
The sewing machines for the apprenticeship programme

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Prestea Hunni-Valley, Robert Wisdom Cudjoe, has organised and sponsored a day’s skills training programme for 140 female beneficiaries in the constituency.

The beneficiaries were drawn from Abosso in the constituency and saw the girls undergo training in how to prepare ointments, shampoos, ice cream, liquid soaps and many others products.

The Trainer of the programme, Pastor Amoah, undertook the girls through the preparation of the products on the day that coincided with the birthday of the Legislator.

Each of the girls then demonstrated how to prepare the products with skills they had acquired.

Addressing the beneficiaries, MP Robert Wisdom Cudjoe underscored the importance of the skill training programme.

He said initially the idea was to impart skills to 100 people, but the number increased to 140.

This, according to him, showed how serious the beneficiaries were to learn and acquire skills.

In that direction, he had no other choice, but to organise and sponsor of the programme, because, he knew the importance of skill training.

He further tasked the beneficiaries to make sure the knowledge and skill they had acquired would be imparted to others.

Legislator Cudjoe also used the opportunity to advise them to form an association or a group so that they could easily access loans from the micro finance schemes.

One of the beneficiaries, Gifty Asantewa, on behalf of her colleagues, thanked the MP for sponsoring the programme.

According to her, but for the MP, they did not know how they were going to garner money to learn the skills, considering how expensive trainers charged before taking one through the programme.

In a related development, Wisdom Cudjoe has also sponsored another group of females to an apprenticeship programme in hairdressing, sewing and welding.

The twelve were drawn from Damang and Hunni-Valley, and they would undergo a three year apprenticeship programme.

Tools such as sewing machine, hair drier and others equipment have since been provided to them by the MP.

The apprenticeship training programme is an initiative of the Legislator launched a year ago to help impark skills to both males and females who were ready and willing to undergo apprenticeship.

Apart from the twelve, quite a number of persons, both males and females, have benefitted from the Legislator’s apprenticeship training programme since it was launched.

The MP provides basic tools and pays for the duration of the apprenticeship.

Meanwhile, as part of the birthday celebration of the MP, he has also donated 600 exercise books to the pupils of Apiatse.

50 soldiers deployed to Yilo Krobo for ECG to install prepaid meters

By
ISAAC AKWETEY-OKUNOR
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The Director of Customer Service, Anokye Abebreseh speaking to the media on Monday after a familiarization visit by the management of ECG led by the new Managing Director (ECG), Mr Samuel Dubik Masubir Mahama

In an effort to avert any possible clash between residents of Yilo Krobo and staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), a contingent of 50 military personnel has been deployed to the Krobo area to provide security to the staff of ECG, as they replace all post-paid meters with pre-paid meters.

As at the time of filing this report, the exercise, which started on Tuesday June 14, 2022 and was supervised by the military and assisted by National Security and the Police, has enjoyed large cooperation with its corresponding peaceful atmosphere.

The Municipal Chief Executive for Yilo Krobo Assembly, Eric Tetteh, who urged his constituents to cooperate with the ECG staff said the decision is a last resort after the people had been incited to resist the installation of prepaid meters.

According to him, the military personnel have a simple task to perform:  “the instruction is simple, when they enter your house and you say you don’t want a prepaid meter, they will disconnect you and move on.

He continued that customers who still insist on rejecting prepaid meters will be taken off the national grid.

Earlier on Monday, the Director of Customer Service, Anokye Abebreseh, said intensive engagements have been done with all stakeholders in the Krobo area, hence expecting maximum cooperation.

He made this known in an interview with the media, shortly after a familiarisation visit by the management of ECG, led by the new Managing Director (ECG),The Director of Customer Service.

The Director of Customer Service explained that management of ECG met a tripartite kind of a committee composed of Electricity Company, National Security and United Krobo Foundation last week, in a bid to fashion out and create common understanding to the exercise.

To him, the agreement is that ECG is going to install prepaid meters starting from Tuesday June 14, 2022 for which all stakeholders have agreed and “we are, therefore, going to deploy our men to the field to start the installation of prepayment meters.

“We have done a lot of stakeholder engagements so at least for now, calm is prevailing so come tomorrow 14th of June we are going to start deployment of prepayment meters,” said Anokye Abebreseh.

The installation of prepaid meters comes after years of impasse between Krobo residents and ECG which escalated into devastating attacks on the ECG office in Somanya and led to a deadly clash with police. The ECG office has since been shut down.

Residents vowed to resist the installation of prepaid meters while calling on ECG to write off debts owed by customers in Krobo land from 2018 to 2021.

Answering questions on the controversy of non-payment of electricity bills by residents, Mr. Anokye Abebreseh stressed that ECG has ring-fenced all arrears of customers in the Krobo area from the period between 2014 and 2017, but arrears between 2018 to date must be paid by customers within 5 years.  However, the debt will not be transferred into the prepaid meters to be installed.

“We made it clear that the period between 2014 and 2017 has been ring-fenced so that the customers, for now, will not border themselves about their amount, but then the period between 2018 to date the customers are supposed to pay but for goodwill purposes, we have asked that we are not going to put the debt on the new prepayment meters.

“Normally the practice is that when you put prepayment meter there, you put the debt on the post-paid meter  so that we will recover whatever debt, but in this case we said from 2018 to date we are not going to put it there, and that we will meet customers individually and determine how they should pay the debt.”

I wasn’t comforting Will Smith after the Slap, I was ‘De-Escalating’ -Tyler Perry

By
NANA KWESI COOMSON
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Will Smith and Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry was one of the men reported often as having spoken to Will Smith in the immediate aftermath of him slapping Chris Rock at this year’s Oscars telecast, with many believing he was comforting the pending Oscar winner.

“I left early to go and check on Chris [Rock] because it was wrong in no uncertain terms,” Perry says of the moment immediately following the Oscars slap heard ’round the world.’

Perry says that instead he was walking a very fine line in an extremely tough situation for him, as a friend to both men involved. Smith slapped Rock over a joke at Jada Pinkett Smith’s expense and then screamed profanities at him from his front-row seat.

“There is a difference between comforting and de-escalating,” Perry said during a discussion with Gayle King at the Tribeca Film Festival, per Variety. He was hesitant to talk about the slap heard ’round the world, predicting that it would dominate headlines afterward.

“I was there, close up. I left early to go and check on Chris because it was wrong in no uncertain terms and I made sure I said that to Will,” he said.

As for Smith, he said it was clear the actor was “devastated; he couldn’t believe what happened.” He added, “I think he is very much in reflection of trying to figure out what happened.”

“And I’m looking at this man, in his eyes going, ‘What are you doing? This is your night,'” Perry continued. “And to get all this way to winning an Oscar. It was one of the crowning moments of his career that he wanted so desperately.”

“I know that feeling,” Perry said. “I’m getting chills thinking about it. I know that feeling of being a man and thinking about the little boy. if that trauma is not dealt with right away as you get older, it will show up in the most inappropriate and horrible times.”

For Rock, Perry called him “pure champion the way he handled it.” Struggling again with having friendship and respect for both men, Perry said that it was also “extremely painful” for Smith.

“It’s no excuse, he was completely wrong, but something triggered. That was so out of everything he is,” Perry explained.

Dada KD refutes claims he is about to marry Diana Asamoah

By
NANA KWESI COOMSON
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Diana Asamoah and Dada KD

Highlife Musician, Dada KD, has debunked reports that suggested he is about to marry gospel musician and Evangelist Diana Asamoah.

Diana Asamoah shared a post on her Facebook wall in which she was pictured with Dada KD She also captioned the image with the words “Save The Date,” words commonly used by a couple about to tie the knot.

As a result of this, most people assumed that the two were about to marry.

However, speaking in an interview on Accra-based TV3, Dada KD explained that the “Save The Date” meant a collaboration between them and not what other people think.

He clarified that, “on Diana’s wall she said ‘Save the Date’ but when did save the date become marriage? It looks like Diana sings Gospel and I sing secular music and we collaborated on a song.”

“What I also wrote was that what has been put together no one should put asunder. I and Diana have been put together in music, she sings, I also sing so I don’t know why people thought it was about marriage. The music is out already and on all the channels.”

The two released a song titled Mesom Ewurade days ago but according to Dada KD, the Dada KD the song is not enjoying enough airplay because it is a collaboration between a secular artiste and a Gospel artiste.

Credit: pulse.com.gh

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