Referee Samuel Sukah and his two assistant were subjected to physical beatings by irate Berekum Arsenal fans after their 3-0 defeat to Kotoko on Sunday.

Zambia have been dealt a massive blow after towering defender Stoppilla Sunzu was ruled out of next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Sudan and Lesotho due to injury.

Goalkeeper Abdoulaye Soulama has agreed a long-term extension of his contract which could see him end his career at Kotoko, GHANAsoccernet.com can exclusively reveal.

euronewscoronavirus may be contagious from human to humaneuronewsThe World Health Organisation has said that there is increasing evidence to suggest that the coronavirus can be passed between people in close contact, although it appears unlikely that the disease is generally contagious. Assistant Director General at the ...French Officials Testing 3 More People for Novel CoronavirusWall Street JournalFrance fears more cases of deadly SARS-like virusExpatica Franceall 328 news articles »

Although conservationists globally have been campaigning over the past few years for the use of alternative sources of energy such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) other than fuel wood, indications are that it is still very much in vogue in …

The Bissa Gold SA mine in Burkina Faso had not begun operations yet when a group of environmental journalists from 11 West African countries visited in 2012. However, two major communities – Bissa and Sabce, 90 km from Ouagadougou, which …

…to clear infrastructure backlog Government is pinning its hopes on a robust capital market to fund its 25-year National Infrastructure Plan to bridge the country’s infrastructure deficit, Paul Victor Obeng, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), has said. Ghana has an annual infrastructure funding gap of about US$1.1billion, most of which is associated with power and water, according to a World Bank-sponsored infrastructure study. The country spends approximately US$1.2billion per annum on infrastructure, equivalent to about 3 percent of GDP. Out of this expenditure, an approximate US$1.1billion a year is lost to inefficiencies -- the bulk of which comes from the under-pricing of power. While Ghana’s capital market has massive potential, it is yet to play a major role in resource mobilisation and long-term financing of the economy. Equities dominate the industry and the debt market consists predominantly of Government securities. Though the industry has grown rapidly in the last decade, the market lacks depth and liquidity -- in part due to low float. “In the area of economic infrastructure there is a whole lot we can do in order to catch up with others in the same economic grading, yet we cannot go to the World Bank and other places that we used to go to. So, outside the budget and the banks, it is the non-bank financial sector that is expected to help finance infrastructure projects,” Mr. Obeng said at the opening of a Capital Market Conference in Accra last week. “The National Development Planning Commission has almost completed the strategic National Infrastructure Plan that identifies all the infrastructure requirements which must drive the economy in the next 25 years,” he added. Power, water, and road infrastructure constitute the greatest challenge. Electricity consumption is rising faster than generation, while only 41 percent of the country’s road infrastructure is rated as being in good condition. Ghana’s status as a middle-income country means grants and concessionary loans, which would have gone into financing some of these infrastructure projects, will dry-up gradually -- leaving Ghana to “join the big boys in the capital market and struggle it out there”, said Mr. Obeng. “By the single act of the graduation, the door has been shut against us in respect to our entry into concessionary lending corridors. Those areas that usually gave us soft loans and grants on both bilateral and multilateral level are no more available. “Yet we are simply at the bottom of the middle-income category. Our infrastructure didn’t change from that of a least-developing economy into a middle-income economy because we have been proclaimed as so.” He indicated that Government’s Public-Private-Partnership initiative is expected to drive realisation of the infrastructure plan. “We want to build this on the back of private-sector financing. That is why we are very active in developing and promoting Public-Private Partnership schemes,” he said. Reforms To meet Government’s high expectations, capital market authorities need to pursue urgent reforms to bolster activity, efficiency and transparency, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in an assessment of Ghana’s financial sector. Among the Fund’s proposals are that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should raise the minimum capital requirement for market intermediaries, promote new equity listings by domestic companies, and introduce a separate and more flexible framework for the issuance of non-Government bonds. Government should also divest its interest in profitable stated-owned companies through the capital market, and support the creation of a locally-based credit-rating agency. By Dominick Andoh

By Dominick Andoh Government should divest its stakes in state-owned enterprises through the stock market to deepen the market and broaden the local investor base, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said. Estimates show that less than one percent of the Ghanaian working population is involved in the capital market. SEC Director-General Adu Anane Antwi said government should list its minority shares in companies such as Vodafone Ghana, and encourage the Volta River Authority (VRA) as well as metropolitan assemblies to sell bonds on the capital market. “Government should consider using the stock exchange as the main medium of divesting state assets, with the fundamental objective of deepening the capital market and broadening the local investor base of the Ghanaian economy,” he said at the first Capital Market Conference in Accra last week. “In Ghana, some SOEs have been privatised through the stock exchange. However, this has not been enough; more privatisation through the stock exchange must be done. I hope that the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Ghana Re, National Investment Bank (NIB) and other SOEs to be privatised in the future will be done through the stock exchange.” Many emerging economies have consciously used strategies such as the privatisation of SOEs through public listing to get a sizable proportion of their population directly involved in the capital market. Professor Peter Quartey, Head of the Department of Economics and Senior Economist (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, said in order to bridge the infrastructural gap in the country using the capital market, government needs to promote massive public involvement in the market. “In the USA, Japan and other advanced countries, over 90 percent of the working population are involved in the capital market. In India and Malaysia, close to about 30 percent of the population are involved in the capital market whereas in Ghana, it is below one percent. Hence, there is need for massive education to encourage people to participate in the capital market. “Government’s privatisation policy objectives should be aimed at developing the capital market. Government should collaborate with the SEC to develop the over-the-counter trading (OCT) market because its potential is enormous.” He also advocated the introduction of diaspora bonds as new instruments that can be introduced on the capital market towards financing infrastructure.

By Dominick ANDOH The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it is reviewing the Securities Industry Law to bring private equity fund managers and venture capital funds under its supervision to ensure transparency in the sector. Commodity exchanges, credit rating agencies, hedge funds, and nominee account operators are other entities expected to be brought under the regulation of SEC upon completion of the review process and approval. “The law is being amended to bring it in line with international standards to enable SEC become an International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) signatory ‘A’ country,” Adu Anane Antwi, SEC Director-General, said. “The amendment of this law is coming with the introduction of new operators like commodity exchanges, credit rating agencies, hedge funds, nominee account operators, private equity funds and venture capital funds, which will be brought under the regulation of SEC. We believe when these funds are properly regulated, it will create the necessary transparency.” Mr. Anane Antwi was speaking at the first Capital Market Conference organised by the Commission in Accra. The event was held under the theme “The Capital Market: A key to Economic Growth and Development”. In December 2000, an Act to amend some provisions of the Securities Industry Law 1993, (PNDCL 333) was passed. This Act, Act 590, made fuller provisions for the operation and regulation of Unit Trusts and Mutual Funds. It also provided for the settlement of disputes arising under the law, consequential amendments arising from provisions of the Constitution, and related purposes. The SEC is responsible for licencing and regulating all capital market operators such as investment advisors, dealers and their representatives, as well as the Ghana Stock Exchange. The Commission also provides companies and the general public with guidance in interpreting provisions of the securities laws and regulations on the listing of securities, in addition to handling investor complaints.

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has budgeted an amount of $11.6 million ($11,685,390) for its operations for the year 2014, it announced today May 13, 2013. The PAP says $2.7 million will cover administrative costs and the $8.9 million will be …

By Evans Boah-Mensah  eTranzact Ghana has successfully integrated its payment solutions platform onto the Ghana Integrated Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS), which will see a significant uptake in the company’s services. The integration is complementary to efforts of Government and the banks to migrate Ghana into an electronic payment society. This has made eTranzact the only payment solution company or aggregator to be admitted onto the exclusive Gh Link payment switch, which has been designed  to enable financial institutions to utilise a common platform for interbank transactions in an effective and efficient manner. The integration process, which was completed last week, will enable cards powered by eTranzact to be used on all ATMs with Gh-Link logo and e-zwich POS devices across the country. Also, cardholders have the convenient and secure Web and Mobile payment options for performing transactions. It will also allow microfinance institutions to issue payment and debit cards that can be used on the platforms of other financial institutions at a relatively lower cost in infrastructure, as is being operated by Women’s World Banking and Midland Savings and Loans today.   “What we are going to do from now on is that there will be a lot of education, partnership, merchant acquisition, more business relationships established with micro-finance institutions to be able to sign onto this wave of electronic payment to be able to create the convenience that will delight their consumers. “So what is likely going to happen is that we are going to see more activation from the micro-finance point of view, and also see more people undertake mobile phone transactions, mobile banking and card payments for goods and service,” the Chief Marketing Officer of eTranzact Ghana, Kwesi da-Costa Vroom, told the B&FT. He explained that the integration will provide the company with leverage to get all the financial institutions to open up and function equally within the existing infrastructure.   “We are getting to the point where we will need to have more delivery systems, because then institutions that have Internet where they display some of their products and wares with prices can have a payment engine integrated into their website, whereby people can remotely make payments using their regular ATM cards within a secure environment,” he said. Mr. da-Costa Vroom said demand for eTranzact services has been overwhelming, with many individual and institutional customers such as GCB, Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA, Energy Bank, Access Bank among others utilising the company’s payment solutions.   eTranzact’s integration into the GhIPPS platform has come at a time when the demand for e-Commerce services is expected to grow exponentially.

  By Kizito CUDJOE, Kumasi The successful implementation of the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), which is an essential component of the Public Financial Management Reform, is expected to streamline Government’s fiscal transactions. ‘The project, when fully-implemented, will serve as the single source system for official budget creation and management; cash and Treasury management; purchase ordering and payments; and financial control as well as reporting for the country as a whole.’ GIFMIS involves using a number of integrated electronic financial modules in the management of public funds. The electronic financial modules to be introduced under GIFMIS include: accounts receivable module, accounts payable module, general ledger, purchasing module, and cash management module. The system is currently being run at the national and regional levels of some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) it is said, and it is used to process financial transactions in about 34 MDAs in Accra, and over 350 regional branches nationwide. It was introduced in 2009 as parts of efforts to enhance reforms to bring about efficiency and transparency in public financial management, and is being managed by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning with support from joint development partners -- including the World Bank, DfID of the United Kingdom, the European Union (EU) and the Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA). These were made known in a ‘‘pre-live sensitisation and approval hierarchy workshop for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies’’ organised by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department in Kumasi. Kojo Bonsu, Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), in his welcome address said the introduction of GIFMIS will among other things help to draw and execute budgets that reflect local needs, and also help to improve revenue collection processes and ensure an efficient recording of financial transactions. He urged the participants, mostly Heads of Departments, to take the workshop seriously, and reminded them to take good note of how the system will operate. In a related development, Nana Kwasi Agyekum-Dwamena, Cultural change team leader of GIFMIS, in an interview also stressed the immense benefit of the model to the state -- noting that it will ensure more accountability and transparency in Governments business. He hinted that the workshop forms part of the first phase of the implementation process of GIFMIS, considering the major change that it’s expected to bring. The other phases, he said, will include the approval hierarchy which would require the list of people whose names must be included in the GIFMIS process, and training of personnel on how to effectively operate with the system.     He further noted that the introduction of GIFMIS and its modules will not only benefit Government and its officials, but also clients, individuals, and organisations that transact business with Government, and therefore to a large extent position the private sector to develop.  

President John Mahama last week inaugurated the first feed-in of renewable energy into the national transmission grid, with a two- megawatt plant at Navrongo as a pilot programme. The Navrongo Solar Power Plant is the first in the country to be integrated into the national grid in line with the country’s energy strategy, setting a goal of renewable energy constituting 10 percent of the national energy generation by 2020. “Today is historic because here in Navrongo we are setting in motion the first initiative of what will eventually become a major source of future energy supply in our country,” he said. As our economy continues to grow at a rapid pace, he continued, the demand for power also increases at an even faster pace. “We must put into the system at least 200 megawatts every year if we are to keep ahead of demand. I have committed myself to increase Ghana’s installed generation capacity to 5,000 megawatts by 2015.” However, he noted that to achieve the goal of expanded generation and universal access to energy under the “Energy for All” programme, there are certain issues to be considered which include: increased private sector investment in electricity generation and distribution; reduction of unaccounted-for power; conservation of electricity; payment of realistic tariffs and the decentralisation of electricity programmes. He indicated that it is his resolve to have the renewable energy sources contribute immensely to the energy mix. And since he said a lot of work is being done in that direction, the President expressed confidence in achieving the target of renewable energy in the energy portfolio by 2020. President Mahama conceded that two megawatts is a modest capacity, but added that it is enough to feed the whole district. Following directives from the Presidency, he said he expects the Ministry of Energy to expedite action on ongoing efforts to develop other renewable energy resources including wind, biomass and waste-to-energy. He noted that nine provisional licences have been issued to private developers by the Energy Commission to begin exploration for energy from some of the above sources.     The president also stated that the Volta River Authority is also progressively developing an additional 10 megawatt Solar Plant in the Upper West Region with support from KfW of Germany, a 50 megawatt hydro-power plant at Pwalugu, and 150 megawatts of wind power along the coast among others. He urged the Public Utility Regulatory Commission and the relevant sector agencies to expedite action to finalise and publish the Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariffs, thus enabling the private sector to take full advantage of provisions in the Renewable Energy Act. 

Ghana has confirmed the possibility of issuing a sovereign bond this year 2013. According to the central bank, the size and purpose of the bond is yet to be finalised. “There have not been firm decisions on when it will …

The governments of Sweden and the United States of America have announced the creation of a $25 million African agriculture fund for the six-member New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition initiative which includes Ghana. The others in the Alliance …