Ghana’s Economic Growth Fails To Create Jobs - TUC

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Category: Business & Finance

Created on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 00:00

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Ghana’s Economic Growth Fails To Create Jobs - TUC

23 October 2012

Mr Kofi Asamoah, Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has acknowledged Ghana’s economic growth rate for the past years in the context of a global economic and financial crisis.

He however noted that such unprecedented economic growth rate achievements of the country failed to create decent jobs for Ghanaians hence the high rate of unemployment among the people, especially the youth.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}“The reality however is that the unprecedented growth rate like the periods of the structural adjustment policies in the 1980s had failed to create decent employment for Ghanaians” he emphasized. Mr Asamoah called on government to put in place a package of support measures for the private sector, which is considered as the engine of growth, to provide decent jobs for the teeming youth. He made the call at the Eastern Regional Council of Labour meeting in Koforidua on Tuesday.

Mr Asamoah said the state would not be able to provide the needed employment for the teeming jobless Ghanaians if the present situation of importing everything into the country continues.

He urged government to empower indigenous Ghanaians in the productive and manufacturing sectors to take the commanding heights of the economy, which would serve as the only way of providing jobs to the thousands of young men and women coming out of universities and other tertiary institutions.

Mr Asamoah also urged government to review the nation’s trade policy and the unbridled trade liberalization regime that places domestic firms in unfair competition against “mature” and highly subsidized firms in the developed countries.

He identified one major problem confronting manufacturing sector in the country as high interest rate of banks and urged government as a matter of urgency to undertake strategic intervention in the money market to bring down cost of borrowing.

Mr Asamoah said the situation as it stands now was not ideal since the banks were holding the rest of the business community to ransom by charging exorbitant interest rates even as inflation tends to fall and the Bank of Ghana primes rate was systematically reduced.

Mr Asamoah expressed concern about violation of workers’ rights by private employers as many companies refused to allow union formation.

He said decent employment entailed the right of workers to freely associate and organize for purposes of collective bargaining and that both men and women at work could freely participate in decision making that affect their lives as the law states.

Mr Asamoah urged Ghanaians to ensure that the peace they are enjoying is maintained beyond the election. The Eastern Regional secretary of the TUC, Ms Francisca Borkor Bortey, commended the various unions for organizing well during the year and urged them to propagate the message of peace.

Source: GNA

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Anthony Karbo Opens Up On Allegations To Disrupt Elections With Mercenaries

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Category: Politics

Created on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 00:00

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Anthony Karbo Opens Up On Allegations To Disrupt Elections With Mercenaries

23 October 2012

National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Anthony Abaayifa Karbo, who stands accused of planning to use mercenaries “from some neighbouring West African countries and beyond to ‘instigate’ violence during the elections,” has officially commented on the allegations.

The NPP activist says the allegations are "a complete fabrication and concoction".

{sidebar id=10 align=right}A youth group under the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) called Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP), on Monday released a secret tape recording with the voice purported to be that of the NPP activist allegedly planning to disrupt the December polls by engaging the services of mercenaries described as "bad boys" from Togo, Liberia, Nigeria and Libya.

At a press conference addressed by the Convener of the group, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, called on “all Ghanaians, Civil Society Groups, Religious Leaders and members of Moral Society" to "condemn in no uncertain terms this dastardly attempt to undermine the peace and tranquility which has prevailed in Ghana all these years.”

But in a strongly worded statement, the NPP National Youth Organiser stridently denied the allegations claiming he had not had "any meeting with a person or group of persons where the agenda of that meeting is to destabilize this country".

Karbo, who wondered whether the false tape was fabricated to shut him up for his recent exposé on President John Mahama and his brother, Ibrahim Mahama’s failure to repay the over GH¢50 million debt owed to Merchant Bank, challenged the group to "confirm where this meeting was held, who were the people in the meeting and what the agenda was".

The NPP Parliamentary candidate for newly-created Lawra constituency, who demanded an apology from RAP, vowed to exposed the masterminds of the diabolical act.

"I demand an unqualified apology from this group situated deep in the partisan stable of the NDC and dedicated to publishing falsehoods about the New Patriotic Party...I will make sure the perpetrators behind this disgraceful scheme are unveiled. This gutter politics to score cheap votes must not be tolerated in our beautiful democracy," Anthony Karbo said.

Read below Anthony Karbo's statement of denial

STATEMENT

ANTHONY ABAAYIFA KARBO REACTS TO LATEST NDC AUDIO CONCOCTION…..IT IS NOT ME.

My attention has been drawn to an audio tape generated and is currently being circulated by a pro-NDC group, Research and Advocacy Platform, in which a voice planning chaos and mayhem in the run-up to the December general election is being attributed to me.

I would like to take this opportunity to expressly state that although the voice on the tape sounds like mine; it is not me. This is a complete fabrication and concoction. I have not had any meeting with a person or group of persons where the agenda of that meeting is to destabilize this country. I challenge the group to confirm where this meeting was held, who were the people in the meeting and what the agenda was.

It is not surprising that this said audio tape is emanating from a political party with a propaganda desk which is remarkable for its disingenuity, disregard for the truth, and its unrepentant penchant for fanning ethnic and tribal sentiments. It is an audio tape baked in the dilapidating kitchen of falsehood and served on the cracked plate of malicious assassination of character.

This tape can only be a desperate attempt at political equalization following the recent expose of a tape having the NDC National organizer, and a presidential staffer at the seat of Government, admit to having planned and executed criminal activities in the past and planning such activities in the run-up to the December polls using state funds provided by the minister of finance, Dr. Duffuor and under the protection and cover of the National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey. What is more criminal and diabolical than that? What is most distressing is the NDC's shameless and consistent use of tribal discord to achieve its political aims. Ghanaians will and must not buy into that disgraceful strategy this crucial election year. Ghana is a country which belongs to all of the ethnic groups that constitute this great country of ours.

Or, is this false tape fabricated to shut me up for my recent exposé on President John Mahama and his brother, Ibrahim Mahama’s failure to repay the over GH¢50 million debt owed to Merchant Bank, or, are they afraid of my rising popularity in the Lawra constituency as a candidate of the NPP, a seat I am destined to win come December.

The content of the tape clearly shows it is an attempt to create a diversion from the activities of the NDC, as they are the party planning mayhem and chaos in the upcoming elections. This is/was evident in the violence unleashed by the NDC during the biometric voter registration exercise, the by-elections conducted in Atiwa, Akwatia, Cherponi, the gruesome murder of three NPP activists in Agbogbloshie and the Tamale arson attacks in 2009. The content also confirms Yaw Boateng Gyan’s (infamous tape) grand scheme to tag the NPP as a violent party.

I demand an unqualified apology from this group situated deep in the partisan stable of the NDC and dedicated to publishing falsehoods about the New Patriotic Party.

I also appeal to the general public to, once again, ignore this false tape for what it is - an obvious concoction. Ghanaians want practical remedies to the ailing Better Ghana Agenda and not practical, ugly jokes thrown in the public arena in the forlorn hope of diverting attention from the crass incompetence, economic hardships and growing unemployment being endured under this current administration.

I will make sure the perpetuators behind this disgraceful scheme are unveiled. This gutter politics to score cheap votes must not be tolerated in our beautiful democracy.

I also urge the NDC to join the NPP in the debate and battle of ideas, policies and programs aimed at moving this country forward: Ghanaians deserve the best.

……Signed……

Anthony Abaayifa Karbo

NPP Parliamentary Candidate, Lawra.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana

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Cedi Bounces Back Against Dollar

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Category: Business & Finance

Created on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 00:00

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Cedi Bounces Back Against Dollar

23 October 2012

Ghana's currency, the cedi, has seen exchange rate swings in the first half of the year. In spite of the approach of the elections, which is normally the time for economic declines, the local currency has gained some weight. Samuel Doe Ablordeppey & Suleiman Mustapha report.

The Managing Director of Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited, Mr Alhassan Andani, like many chiefs of the financial services industry, is happy that measures introduced by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to halt the free fall of the cedi is holding grounds.

{sidebar id=11 align=right}“The measures have been absolutely thorough and everybody is happy the way this currency has been arrested,” Mr Andani told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in an exclusive interview on some the factors that were helping the cedi to regain strength against the dollar and major international currencies.

The cedi went on a nose dive at the beginning of the year, shedding about 30 per cent by the middle of the year. However, the Bank of Ghana introduced a number of measures including the enforcement of rules on pricing in dollars, not withdrawing more than US$10,000 over the counter and not travelling with dollar cash along.

Banks were also asked to keep certain levels of reserves corresponding with its foreign exchange accounts, a practice that discouraged people from either opening or keeping foreign currency accounts.

The Bank of Ghana also went on to issue medium to long term bonds of two, three and five years, which were all oversubscribed, mainly by foreign buyers. That meant that more dollars were transferred offshore to Ghana’s foreign reserve accounts to cover more imports of goods and services, thereby keeping the value of the cedi intact, as the supply of the dollar improved.

{sidebar id=12 align=right}The cedi which started the year at about GH¢1.58 to the dollar, went up to GH¢1.66 by the close of January 2012. The cedi had crossed GH¢1.7 to the dollar by the end of the first quarter and doubled up to reach GH¢1.89 by the end of June 2012.

Over the first half of this year, the cedi lost about 20 percent of its value against the US dollar in the foreign exchange markets.

But now it has stabilised somewhat between July and August, reaching a peak of GH¢1.9565 to the US dollar in late-August, and thereafter gradually gained in value /recovered to the current GH?1.8938 by mid-October.

Barring any adverse developments, CEPA projects an end-year rate of GH¢1.85 per the US dollar.

For the year as a whole, this would mean a cumulative loss in the value of the cedi by about 13 per cent. In 2008, a trader paid one Ghana Cedi for one U.S. dollar, but at the beginning of April 2012, the same trader travelling to Dubai paid GH¢1.74 for one U.S. dollar.

This means that year-on-year decline in the value of cedi against the US dollar was 74 per cent over a three-year period.

Treasury bills, which shows the extent to which the government was borrowing from the domestic market, also started the year at around 10.7 per cent for the 91-Day bill, 11.25 per cent for the 182-day bill and 12.40 per cent for the two-year note, the rates went up to 12.61 per cent for the 91-day, 12.86 per cent for the 182-day and 13.60 per cent for the two-year note, as the three-year bond issued at the end of February settled a 14.99 per cent.

By the third quarter, the 91-day treasury bill and the two-year note shot up to 23 per cent each, with the182-day settling at 22.92 per cent, which helped the cedi to keep only a crawling depreciation to settle at GH¢1.92 to the dollar.

However, the measures have yielded positive outcomes as the cedi’s depreciation has been reversed somewhat to the present average of GH¢1.85 to the dollar in the month of October. This gives credence to analysts view that the cedi might end the year at GH¢1.9.

Mr Andani is among industry chiefs, who is bullish about the future of the currency, saying “supply of the cedi increased and the confidence has come back this has helped in halting the slide of the cedi against the dollar.”

He, however, warned that the country needs to jealously guard its currency like it was the case in all advanced countries.

“It is not in any Ghanaian’s interest to see the local currency depreciate because we are import based economy. So we all need to behave responsibly and ensure that we protect the value of our local currency. This should be a collective responsibility,” the managing director of Stanbic Bank stressed.

He added his voice to other bankers’ call that people did not need to carry bulk foreign currency on them when travelling for trading because “the banks have the most efficient ways to transfer money to the business entities offshore,” adding “there is absolutely no need for people to carry large sums of dollars on them”

Going forward, the banking guru said the country had to transform its economy to be export-oriented and increase the supply of foreign currency at all times.

That, he believes, would create value for the local currency and make it attractive for people to put their investments there, hence making it totally unrewarding for people to deposit large dollar sums at the bank and get no returns on them.

“When the cedi to the dollar is fairly stable, it makes sense to go for the yield. So people must make their money work for them. We also need more financial literacy and real economic personal activity to generate the supply,” Mr Andani said.

Mr Andani also dreads the situation where Ghana allowed itself to become the source of supply of foreign currency to neighbouring countries; a scenario of everybody just walking into the country for the dollar, which he said was not “sustainable.”

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, has said that the government would intensify measures to stem the currency's over 30 per cent loss against the dollar since January.

“We’ve begun implementing the latest measures and I have hope that the situation will change soon. By the middle of this month, we’ll see the cedi stabilise against the dollar,”

The acting Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Kofi Wampah, attributes the fresh gains of the cedi to the implementation of recent policy measures that have resulted in a “slowdown of the monthly depreciation from 5.9 per cent in May, to 3.4 per cent in June, 0.6 per cent in July and further to 0.3 per cent in August 2012.”

In trade weighted terms, the real effective exchange rate depreciated by 4.2 per cent in July 2012 against 1.6 per cent appreciation in the corresponding period of 2011.

The new measures included “the re-introduction of BoG Bills, revision in the application of the statutory reserve requirement of banks and the provision of cedi cover for vostro balances”.

The Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Analysis, Dr Joe Abbey, also attributed the weakening of the cedi in the first half of the year to the political business cycle a characteristic of democracies around the world which is also observed in the Fourth Republic of Ghana.

“It largely manifests itself in election years, resulting in loss of macroeconomic stability continued loss in the value of the cedi and rising inflation”, Dr Abbey said.

A World Bank study findings that election year budget deficits have been, on average, 1.5 percentage points of GDP higher than the budget deficit of the preceding year supports Dr Abbey’s view.

In anticipation of this, investor concerns were expressed from the middle of 2011 as to whether Ghana would perform worse than average in 2012.

A point to note is that during the global economic crises of 2008/2009, the cedi depreciated by 25 per cent against the dollar. Between 2010 and 2011, the cedi again depreciated 18.5 per cent against the US dollar. GB

Source: Daily Guide

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President Mahama will lose 2012 election- PPP

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Category: Politics

Created on Sunday, 21 October 2012 00:00

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President Mahama will lose 2012 election- PPP

21 October 2012

{sidebar id=10 align=right}The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has predicted the defeat of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the December 7 General Election.

A statement issued by Mr Richard Nii Armah, National Volunteers Coordinator of the PPP said: “It is very surprising that upon all the signs that the NDC is losing the 2012 General poll, they are yet to come to terms to this fact.”

The party said the defeat of the governing party is due to “the obvious mismanagement by the government”, constant failure of leadership and gross allegations of corruption against the NDC and its functionaries.

The statement said the scenario “may not have been noticed by the NDC, as they look at those things with very political spectacles thus denying themselves the opportunity of seeing the wrongs they are doing”.

“It is time the NDC understood that they are just about losing power and must be preparing to hand over to the Progressive Peoples Party in January 2013.”

The statement said the NDC is jubilating over their number one position on the ballot paper, as if to say, that the current crop of NDC leadership and members have forgotten their history and the history of Ghana so soon.

“If they have forgotten, I (Nii Armah) would like to remind them and give them a cause to begin packing from the castle.

It said in 2000, Ghanaians went to the polls and the keen competition was all about change versus the maintenance of order.

The late President John Evans Atta Mills, who was then the Vice President was the candidate for the then ruling NDC.

The statement said Atta Mills balloted and obtained the number one position on the ballot paper and campaigned vigorously across the length and breadth of Ghana and telling Ghanaians that he was already in motion and so he should be given the chance to continue the motion.

“By the end of the elections, there was no winner as the government’s candidate failed to get the 50 per cent plus one. This necessitated a second round in which all the opposition parties came together to defeat the NDC.

“In…2008, Nana Akuffo Addo became the candidate of the then ruling NPP (New Patriotic Party). He obtained a number one position on the ballot paper and prosecuted an aggressive campaign that said we (Ghanaians) are moving forward. By the end of the elections, Nana Akuffo Addo could not obtain 50 per cent plus one and was subsequently defeated in the second and third rounds of the polls.

“Per the analysis… it is clear that anytime a ruling government is about to be defeated, its candidate obtains a number one position on the ballot paper. By divine intervention, this is a clear way of deceiving them and making them loose with surprise.

“We are solidly convinced that this time around, the four pillars of the PPP’s Political Platform; Stewardship, Education, Healthcare and Jobs has reflected in the number four position of the PPP on the ballot paper. This is a good sign that the spirit of mother Ghana is crying for Ghanaians to give the PPP and Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom a chance.

“Let those who have ears hear and get up. Its awake time; a time to defeat incompetence and replace it with competence; the time to remove corruption and replace it with incorruptible leadership; a time to give way for real accelerated development with a sense of urgency; a time to be bold to crash mediocrity. Let’s all come together under the sun and make Ghana proud,” the statement said.

Source: GNA/Ghana

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