Today's Ghana Business, Banking and Economic news

A former Deputy controller and Accountant General, Seidu Kotomah is to replace the Controller and Accountant General, Grace Francisca Adzrone, who is going on retirement.

Barely a week after  Dr. Henry Kofi Wampah  proceeded on leave prior to retirement , his succesor has been found.

Ghana’s central bank chief stepped down Friday amid criticism about the country's lackluster economic performance.

Henry Kofi Wampah was named governor of Ghana’s central bank in 2012 to address the country’s fiscal deficit, rising inflation, continuous currency devaluation and ballooning debt stock.

 

Wampah leaves his post four months before the end of his four-year mandate amid criticism over his performance though some concede he was dealt a difficult hand.

Ghanian economist Felix Asante says the new central bank governor must be bold on checking government spending.

“Certainly, that person should be able to say to the sitting government that no there is no money so I cannot answer the cheque,” he said.

Challenges ahead

Wampah assumed his post amid high deficits in 2012. The country had spent a lot on elections that year, including rolling out a new biometric voter system. Ghana is headed to polls again in November, and more high spending is expected.

Asante says that is just one of the factors outside the central bank’s control.

“In Ghana, the main concerns are the exchange rate and inflation," he said. "You cannot fix the exchange rate if you are not in control of what is produced in the country [and] encourage private sector to export. The economy should bounce back into its form where we can produce enough to export and earn foreign exchange. If we do not do that and we keep on importing, every governor will come and will have such a problem.”

Inflation has climbed since 2012, though in February, it dropped slightly to 18.5 percent from 19 percent in January.

Ghana is one of the world's top producers of gold and cocoa.

The country discovered oil in 2007 and in 2011 was named the fastest growing economy in the world. Ghana was a darling of the “Africa Rising” narrative. But commodities-based growth has done little for Ghanaians' standard of living, and Ghana’s economy began to stall in 2013.

Inflation

In Accra, people say their paychecks buy less and less at the market. And even as economists advise the country to export more, exporters like Kweku, a local handicrafts businessman, say inflation is a problem.

“When my remittances are coming in, I cannot withdraw and go back and exchange at the same forex rate that I bought to use for the production, he said. "I have to go and exchange the money at the controlled rates… For every dollar I earn, I lose some cedis on it. With time, I will be eating up my capital.”

Ghana’s president will appoint a new Central Bank governor. Wampah’s first deputy Millison Narh has taken the helm in the interim.

voanews.com

Amber Rose has made $4 million from her new emojis after signing a deal with the app's developer, and her MuvaMojis range raked in $2 million on its first day.

 

The 32-year-old star debuted her MuvaMojis, a set of 900 symbols available from Apple and Android app stores, yesterday (31.03.16), and the model is said to be set to receive a cut of the profits after the successful start.

The exiting Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor, Dr Henry Kofi Wampah, has told the Daily Graphic that political pressure did not compel him to resign.

Dr Wampah will leave office at the end of March after declining to seek as second term. 

Mr Narteh Tetteh, a real estate broker, has advised against the adoption of a proposed rent law that would force landlords to charge not more than one month rent.

A statement signed by Mr Fidel Amoah, the Content Manager, Lamudi Ghana and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said Mr Tetteh, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Realty Connections, believes the proposed Rent Act amendment will do more harm than good.

 

He admitted that such an amendment would suit tenants favourably as it would enable them meet their rent obligations but it will at the same time be a disincentive for real estate developers.

In a poll conducted by real estate expert, Lamudi Ghana, revealed that 12 per cent of respondents said they were looking to change accommodation because of rent-related issues.

Mr Narteh said that any amendment to Ghana’s Rent Act has to suit real estate investors as much as tenants, else, it risks worsening the housing deficit in the country.

“The proposed amendment would make housing more affordable for tenants and people in search of accommodation,” he said.

“There is the need for change with the existing situation because some landlords are charging rent advance of more than two years. It makes it difficult for many house hunters to afford such agreements.

“However, we need to look at the situation holistically because this proposed amendment would affect real estate investment negatively,” he said.

Mr Tetteh underscored the importance of real estate investment, stating that the country was grappling with a huge housing deficit.

He said the proposed amendment of one month rent advance would be a disincentive for real estate investors, culminating in a worsening housing gap.

He suggested that the Rent Control Department should be resourced adequately to ensure that the constitutionally approved six months rent advance was adhered to.

“The best solution for Ghana’s rental problem is to enforce the six months rent advance to the letter. Reducing it to one month could lead to further problems,” he said.

“For instance, a landlord could claim that an individual has offered to pay one year’s rent advance so would only give out his accommodation to another house hunter willing to beat the offer.”

GNA

The country is still faced with the menace of SIM box operators with reports suggesting as much as $900,000 was lost to the state in 5 months.

 

Collaborating with foreign counterparts, telecom experts contend the state could counter the gains of the gangs should there be functional regulatory measures.

To help address the challenge of SIM box fraud which has costs the nation several millions of Ghana cedis and other peculiar challenges facing the telecommunications sector, Parliament has passed into law the Electronic Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

The new law is expected to streamline and rationalize activities of the various players in the telecommunications industry and provide a fairer atmosphere for industry players whiles prohibiting the possession of unregistered SIM cards in the country.

 

businessdayghana.com

Just weeks after the arrest of his son-in-law, David McDermott, for the importation of cocaine into the United Kingdom, Bank of Ghana Governor, Dr Henry Kofi Wampah has said on Tuesday he would retire this week, cutting short a four-year term during which he has struggled to curb inflation and stem the decline of the national currency,  Reuters has reported.

Young Ghanaian entrepreneur Bright Simons has been named one of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune®. The 34-year old Simons made the list, published in Fortune® Magazine, 24th March 2016, alongside eminent persons including Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon; Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor; Pope Francis, and Christine Largarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.

 

The World's 50 Greatest Leaders are men and women selected from business, government, philanthropy and the arts and all over the globe who are transforming the world and inspiring others to do the same. The 2016 edition is the third publication of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders list.

Bright Simons, President and Founder of mPedigree is named on the coveted list of The Worlds 50 Greatest Leaders, for his innovation to fight medications counterfeiting in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

Consumers could check the authenticity of medications simply by sending a text message with 12 digit code marked on their medicine packets to mPedigree and get confirmation almost instantly.

It is proving to be an efficient solution to fighting counterfeit medicines in Africa where one estimate pegs the chances of purchasing and, in fact, consuming one at 30%. Over 120,000 African Children are reported to have died because of fake anti-malarial medications in 2013 alone.

AstraZeneca and Sanofi are some of the manufactures who have signed on to mPedigre now have its Goldkey labels on over 500 million packets.

Beyond the pharmaceutical industry, TextStyles, the African print cloth manufacture in Ghana has signed on, in a bid to fight counterfeiting of its prestigious GTP Cloth products.

laboneexpress.com

Ghana's debt stock rose to US$25.6 billion or GH¢97.2 billion in December last year, equivalent to 72.9 per cent of the year's total economic output, measured by gross domestic product (GDP), it has been reported.

The Ghanaian banking industry recorded negative 5.4 percent growth in the year 2015 signaling a difficult financial year, according to the latest Bank of Ghana’s Financial Stability report.

Traders who were affected by the fire which ravaged a section of the Kumasi Central Market Friday say they are fed up with the numerous fire outbreaks in the market.

During the turn of 19th century Gold was the only mineral mined and exported from Gold Coast (Ghana). Thomas Hughes, a wealthy Fante entrepreneur, advisor to the Cape Coast and the British Colonial authorities at Gold Coast, was the first man to order modern heavy machinery to start mining at Wassa areas. In no time, Hughes struck a rich vein of gold in 1861.

Cassava has become a potential industrial crop, which could reduce imports, increase exports, create employment and increase smallholder farmers’ incomes along the value chain.