(MODERN GHANA) Historical Meeting Between The Kingdom Of Ashanti And The Accompong Maroons In Jamaica
Diaspora News | 2 May 2016 09:13 CET
By Accompong Maroons
Maroon delegation from left to right: Timothy McPherson, Toni-Ann Williams, Cassandra Wall, Col. Ferron Williams, Opal Dickson-Clarke, Novadean Newsome, Julette Osbourne
Colonel Ferron Williams returned back to the island this weekend with a delegation of Accompong Maroons whom he had led to the Kingdom of Ashanti, Ghana, for a historical meeting with the Asantehene.
Maroon delegation from left to right: Timothy McPherson, Toni-Ann Williams, Cassandra Wall, Col. Ferron Williams, Opal Dickson-Clarke, Novadean Newsome, Julette Osbourne
The Maroon delegation was invited as the Asantehene’s guests of honour during the Akwasidae Festival, which is the Kingdom’s most important celebration. The King of Ashanti, Otumfou Osei Tutu II, described the meeting as being a very important “spiritual re-unification” particularly because the Maroons in Accompong trace their ancestry back to the Akan and Ashanti people. “These are my people, they have come back home,” he said when introducing the delegation.
In addition to meeting with the King, the Maroon delegation was also welcomed by President John Mahama. Colonel Ferron Williams has described the trip as a major milestone in African and Caribbean relations, highlighting the important role that traditional leaders can and must play in achieving an African Renaissance.
Accompong’s Colonel Ferron Williams (left) meeting Ghana’s President John Mahama
During the three-day official visit, the Accompong Maroon delegation enjoyed several sites, among which was a tour of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park & Mausoleum as well as the Cape Coast Slave Castle.
In addition to the cultural re-unification between the Accompong Maroons and the Kingdom of Ashanti, the visit also ventured into the economic sphere. Accompong’s Minister of Finance, Timothy Elisha McPherson Jr., signed a trade agreement with the Kingdom of Ashanti that would establish a new era of pan-African cooperation on various fronts, particularly in the area of climate change mitigation and renewable energy finance. Minister McPherson said, “Accompong’s climate change initiative has become the driving force behind all of our current activities.
We created the Central Solar Reserve Bank of Accompong as a unique and modern institution to facilitate renewable energy finance, and now through this trade agreement we will be granted access to our ancestral land of Ghana as well as the whole ECOWAS region. So this is truly a great step for Accompong both on the economic and cultural front”.
Colonel Ferron Williams described the trade agreement as a landmark event not only for the Accompong Maroons but for the whole Diaspora. He said, “we are oldest sovereign Africans in the Western hemisphere, and it is very appropriate that this agreement be established with us. We do this in honour of our ancestors who fought for our freedom.”
Established in 1738-9 through its peace treaty with the British, the Accompong Maroons are the only Maroons in Jamaica who still have full sovereignty. The community is committed to a transformation from a cultural historic relic into an economic force within the pan-African Renaissance.
Labels: ASHANTI KINGDOM, GHANA, MAROONS
Read more...
COMMENT - How Goldman Sachs destroyed Ashanti Gold with toxic assets.
UK Gold Selloff as Goldman Sachs Screwed Ghana
January 7, 2012
By admin
Selling the nation
Goldman Sachs, the global financial institution, with fraud allegations levied against it has a long history of setting up its clients for a fall…and making handsome profits. This is a story of how this global investment banking and securities firm screwed Ghana
In 1998, Ashanti Gold was the 3rd largest Gold Mining company in the world. The first “black” company on the London Stock Exchange, Ashanti had just purchased the Geita mine in Tanzania, positioning Ashanti to become even larger. But in May 1999, the Treasury of the United Kingdom decided to sell off 415 tons of its gold reserves. With all that gold flooding the world market, the price of gold began to decline. By August 1999, the price of gold had fallen to $252/ounce, the lowest it had been in 20 years.
Ashanti turned to its Financial Advisers – Goldman Sachs – for advice. Goldman Sachs recommended that Ashanti purchase enormous hedge contracts – “bets” on the price of gold. Simplifying this somewhat, it was similar to when a homeowner ‘locks in’ a price for heating oil months in advance. Goldman recommended that Ashanti enter agreements to sell gold at a ‘locked-in’ price, and suggested that the price of gold would continue to fall. [1]
But Goldman was more than just Ashanti’s adviser’s. They were also sellers of these Hedge contracts, and stood to make money simply by selling them. And they were also world-wide sellers of Gold itself.
In September 1999 (one month later), 15 European Banks with whom Goldman had professional relationships made a unanimous surprise announcement that all 15 would stop selling gold on world markets for 5 years. The announcement immediately drove up gold prices to $307/ounce, and by October 6, it had risen to $362/ounce.
Ashanti was in trouble. At Goldman’s advice, they had bet that gold prices would continue to drop, and had entered into contracts to sell gold at lower prices. These contracts were held by a group of 17 other world banks. Ashanti found themselves being forced to buy gold at high world prices and sell it at the low contract prices to make good on the contracts. The result? In a few weeks time, Ashanti found itself with 570 million dollars worth of losses. It had to beg the 17 banks not to force the execution of the contracts.
Who served as the negotiator for the 17 banks and Ashanti? Goldman Sachs. The same company that designed the contracts for Ashanti(making a profit in their sale. [2]
The basic bankruptcy of Ashanti drove its stock price from an all time high of $25 per share to a paltry $4.62 per share. Thousands of investors – your blogger among them – lost their investments almost overnight as Ashanti was declared insolvent.
In the end (2003), Ashanti was purchased by their largest African competitor, AngloGold, a British company headquartered in South Africa, who bought them for a song. The Financial Advisers to AngloGold? You guessed it: Goldman Sachs. [3]
The destruction of Ashanti Gold by Goldman Sachs was saturated with fraud[4] and conflicts of interest: Goldman Sachs served as Ashanti’s Financial Advisers; profited form the contracts they designed and marketed for Ashanti; was involved in the manipulation of the gold prices on which the contracts depended; represented Ashanti’s creditors when the contracts went bad; and profited as the Financial Advisers to the company that picked up the Ashanti corpse for pennies on the dollar.
Source
Notes
[1] Ghana’s share in Mineral Export
[2] Anglogold-Ashanti records
[3] AngloGold purchase Ashanti
[4] AngloGold Ashanti and Obuasi Police lied
Further Study
Goldman Sachs Takeover the European Union
Labour and the Coalition, a Trio of Destruction
Eurozone Government Defaults Bordering on Absolute, but is there a Goldman Twist in this Tale?
Goldman Sachs and the Obama Government
Tags: AngloGold, Ashanti Gold, Geita mine, Ghana, Goldman Sachs, London Stock Exchange, UK sell off 415 tons of its gold reserves
This entry was posted on January 7, 2012 at 17:21 and is filed under Africa, Finance, Goldman Sachs, The City. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Labels: GHANA, GOLD, GOLD MINES
Read more...
Why mobile money is popular in Africa, but not in the US
banking mining resource curse cost benefit ground rent
Mining costs Ghanians more than it benefits them
African consumers have leapfrogged traditional banking systems by using mobile phones while their academics speak up for making mining benefit everyone. We trim, blend, and append two 2012 articles from (1) Christian Science Monitor, Jan 13, on mobile cash by C. Hopkins; and (2) Joy On Line, Jan 17, on mining.
by Curt Hopkins and by Joy On Line
Why mobile money is popular in Africa, but not in the US
How cool would it be if we could pay for our meals with our phones? For several years now, Western technology commentators and analysts have proclaimed the imminent rise of mobile cash -- the ability of users to conduct financial transactions using an application on their phone. And for several years now, Western technology users have remained uninterested.
But in Kenya, the futuristic world of mobile money is accepted by most Kenyans as the norm; that country’s mobile applications industry is booming. There are, at last count, 17 mobile cash companies in Kenya alone. Why is mobile money more acceptable in Africa than in America?
The slow growth of mobile cash in the US comes down to Americans’ trusting relationship to banking institutions, despite recent protests. The banking system is very much accessible to Americans, unlike in many African countries. In most parts of Africa, where mobile cash is extremely popular, it is often the only way, excepting paper money, to buy a fridge.
In Africa, Internet penetration and use of e-banking and e-commerce is low, so mobile money fits the bill; it has been going gangbusters for years. Mobile money offers a way for the unbanked to bank their money. Even among those who use a traditional banking institution, most banked people in urban Kenya prefer mobile money for its convenience and speed.
Mobile money has leapfrogged the payment card industry, which requires expensive ATM and Point of Sale (POS) networks to function. ATMs and POS Terminals require regular maintenance and, with ATMs, regular liquidity balancing. By leveraging third party retail outlets and making the phone the primary means of exchange, mobile money bypassed the need to distribute ATMs and POS Terminals.
Mobile cash facilitator M-Pesa and its competitors have to make their services as responsive and simple as possible to accommodate a wide spectrum of user needs, education levels, and technology types.
For Americans, there is too much complexity and too little utility for mobile money. There is no shared platform for payments and most of the current offerings are merely wrappers for credit cards. And, most importantly of all, in the Western world, mobile cash is not a solution to a problem.
To see the whole article, click here .
JJS: A solution to an invisible problem -- that is one reason why proponents of a tax on land or other means of recovery of the socially-generated value of “rents” have such a hard time advancing their cause. It’s hard to connect “land dues” to displacing other taxes, curbing sprawl, raising wages, channeling investment into useful enterprise, etc, eventho’ that has been the track record of the land tax.
Perhaps if proponents were to downplay the tax aspect and play up the notion of sharing any recovered rents -- a la Alaska’s oil dividend -- then they might get further with the public. They’d not be alone in issuing such a call. Sharing the rental revenue from resources is a demand that some prominent Africans do on occasion make.
Mining activities under microscope of New Year School panellists
At the symposium on “’Yellow Gold’ management for the past half century: Implication for the ‘Black Gold’”, opinions diverged.
While the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr Tony Aubynn, contended that mining contributed to the national economy, other panelists at the 63rd Annual New Year School and Conference at the University of Ghana declared that mining has been more costly than beneficial to the nation.
The Co-ordinator of the Third World Network (TWN), Africa, Dr Yao Graham; a senior lecturer at the Department of Economics of the University of Ghana, Dr Daniel Twerefou, and the Executive Director of WACAM, Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, were unanimous that the cost of mining to the nation far outweighed its benefit.
Dr Graham said sometimes it was better to leave minerals unmined, especially if the mining would be more costly to the environment and communities; further, the state does not well regulate mining companies. Also, he stressed the need for the revenue accruing from mining to be distributed equitably.
When Owusu-Koranteng revealed that mining companies paid 50Gp per annum as ground rent for a one-kilometre square of land, the audience responded with spontaneous remarks of disapproval.
Mr Owusu-Koranteng said that as mining shifted from underground to surface, that created lots of environmental problems in mining communities.
He said in assessing the cost and benefit of mining, it was important to also consider the destruction of the cultural and spiritual heritage of mining communities that were intangible but invaluable.
Dr Twerefou agreed it was important to put value on the social and environmental impact of mining and not just the benefits, adding that the impact of mining was inter-generational.
He observed that only 22 per cent of revenue accruing from mining was injected into the national economy as against about 98 per cent from cocoa.
To see the whole article, click here.
JJS: And if African governments were to distribute natural resource revenue equitably, then individual Africans could receive their share on their phones -- and they’d be way ahead of ordinary citizens in America.
---------------------
Editor Jeffery J. Smith runs the Forum on Geonomics and helped prepare a course for the UN on geonomics. To take the “Land Rights” course, click here .
Labels: GHANA, INTERNET, MOBILE PHONES
Read more...
Ghana to Raise Taxes on Minerals in the Ground?
JJS: ... And rather than tax the earnings of sovereign citizens, why not forget taxing and instead acknowledge the economic value of land, resources, and privileges, recover this surplus of society, and disburse this commonwealth in ways to benefit everyone equally? Toward that solution, Ghana is taking a step.
Ghana government urged to ignore mining companies’ complaints over new tax hikes
The National Coalition on Mining (NCOM) -- a grouping of communities affected by mining, NGOs, and individuals engaged in mining sector advocacy -- has urged the Government of Ghana to ignore complaints from mining companies operating in Ghana, following the new fiscal regime increases the country’s share of benefits from mining.
In the view of the Coalition, the complaints from the mining company are simply a smokescreen to cover the super profits the industry has enjoyed for long years in Ghana and Africa as a whole and “a subtle threat to any further reforms to increase or introduce additional taxes to raise revenue and improve the developmental impact of mining in Ghana.”
Praising government for the step it has taken in the mining sector, the Coalition said the steps are part of a set of actions that are urgently needed to improve the contribution of the sector to the economy and people of Ghana.
NCOM further charged that Ghana and Africa as a whole cannot continue forever with investment relations in which: mining production remains an enclave with no linkages and local value-addition, private mining companies pay land rent of GH¢0.50 per km2 per annum, stability agreements lock government royalty receipts to only 3%, the environmental and social cost of mining is externalized to the public and communities, and human rights violations, especially of communities in mining areas occur with impunity.
In the 2012 Budget Statement and Economic Policy presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, government sought to increase corporate tax rate from 25 per cent to 35 per cent; impose a windfall profit tax of 10 per cent, and implement a uniform regime for capital allowance of 20 per cent for five years for mining companies.
The budget also noted the government’s intention to review the principle of ring-fencing as applicable to the Natural Resources Sector in 2012, to prevent companies undertaking a series of projects from deducting costs from new projects against profitable ventures yielding taxable income.
NCOM stressed that the high price of gold has even triggered calls on the government of Ghana from traditional architects of the liberalized mining regimes -- the World Bank and the IMF -- to raise certain taxes in order to generate more benefits from the mineral wealth of the country.
Listing other African countries where tax regimes have been changed, NCOM said “When the world price of copper increased by nearly 400% between 2000 and 2007 the government of Zambia increased taxes in order to raise its share of mining revenue in the face of similar hostility and threat from the mining companies.
To see the whole article, click here .
JJS: Who does deserve the value of minerals? Nobody made them. And everybody -- by exerting consumer demand -- makes them valuable. For those two reasons, the economic value of not just minerals but also of surface land and the EM spectrum, and even the value of government-granted privileges, should all be the commonwealth of the people at large.
---------------------
Editor Jeffery J. Smith runs the Forum on Geonomics.
Labels: GHANA, MINING, TAXATION
Read more...
Rupiah urges candidates to accept poll outcome
By Ernest Chanda
Tue 13 Sep. 2011, 13:59 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has urged candidates in next week's general election to accept the outcome. Speaking after he received credentials from new Brazilian Ambassador to Zambia Ana Pinto Morales at State House yesterday, President Banda said as a result he would ensure the country held peaceful elections.
"We will ensure that we hold peaceful, fair and transparent elections which our country has long been known for. It is also our desire that all political candidates contesting seats at ward, parliamentary and presidential levels peacefully accept whatever outcomes arise from the elections," President Banda said.
On the economic front, President Banda said there was tremendous potential for trade between Zambia and Brazil.
He said there was therefore need to encourage the private sector in the two countries to explore investment opportunities.
"You may wish to know that Zambia has been implementing legal and regulatory reforms to reduce the cost of doing business in our country. The Brazilian business community is accordingly welcome to visit and identify areas of investment in Zambia," said President Banda.
And receiving credentials from new Ghanaian High Commissioner to Zambia Elizabeth Afua Benneh, President Banda said he admired the leadership of that country's President, Professor John Atta Mills.
"My government is a great admirer of the leadership of His Excellency Prof Atta Mills and the steps he is taking in steering your great country towards new economic horizons, noting particularly the manner in which his government is handling the challenges arising from the very recent discoveries of crude oil.
Zambia is a keen follower of the achievements of Ghana from the times of that great son, the influential Pan-Africanist and first President of Ghana Dr Kwame Nkrumah," said President Banda.
Earlier presenting her credentials, Ambassador Morales said Zambia and Brazil had a lot to exchange in knowledge.
High Commissioner Benneh called for the two countries to critically look at challenges facing them.
"In the light of the current developments on the international scene, it is needless to say that political relations, however good, are not enough to ensure the survival of nations like ours. The debt challenges of developing countries and the serious inequalities in resource allocation and consumption in today's world, enjoin countries like Ghana and Zambia to critically examine how best to improve their lot through mutually beneficial trade and other forms of economic cooperation," said High Commissioner Benneh.
Labels: AMBASSADOR, GHANA, RUPIAH BANDA
Read more...
Ghana to adopt the Norwegian model to manage its petroleum revenue
August 06, 2010
Kofodidua (E/R), Aug. 6, GNA - Ghana is to adopt the Norwegian model which divides petroleum revenue into three pools - budget, heritage and stabilization funds.
This is contained in the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill, which is before Parliament.
Whereas the Heritage Fund will ensure intergenerational equity because of the finite nature of resource revenue which compels some governments to save windfall revenues for future generation, the Stabilization Fund would be used to mitigate volatile situations that might arise in future.
At a two day workshop organised for Members of Parliament by the Parliamentary Centre at Koforidua in the Eastern Region, Mr Atoine Heuty a representative of Revenue Watch Institute stated that money to the overall national budget would be limited.
According to him, majority of the petroleum revenue should be channeled into the Heritage and Stabilization funds because government could earn returns on them if the funds were invested in stable securities.
The workshop was to enable Members of Parliament to discuss the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill in the context of international practice and the challenges facing the Ghanaian economy.
It was also to develop a response to Ghana's Bill and make recommendations to refine the bill-making process and also to adopt the methodology of sharing international experiences that discuss trade-offs and policy options.
Mr Heuty noted that since oil and mineral revenues were not perpetual, if a country did not employ them efficiently they might never help in achieving a better development.
He said if public organs and citizens grew accustomed to large inefficient public expenditure, the decline in the petroleum production could cause a severe shock and degenerate into the "Dutch Disease".
Mr Heuty said the Dutch Disease phenomenon negatively affect an economy which could lead to a sharp inflow of oil foreign currency to the detriment of other sectors of the economy.
He said the inflows normally would lead to currency appreciation making the country's other products less price competitive on the export market.
Dr David Nguyen-Thanh of German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) noted that experience elsewhere suggested that proper and responsible management of petroleum revenue was essential for the future development of the country.
"The Bill provides the framework that will guide the collection, allocation and management of petroleum revenue for the benefit of the current and future generations," he said.
He added that the Bill addresses three specific challenges - how much of the revenue will be spent now? How much of it to be saved and the means of de-coupling government spending from the volatility of petroleum prices? How to safeguard the rest of the economy from undue exchange rate approach?
Dr Nguyen-Thanh said the idea was to make sure that management of petroleum revenue was based on sound sustainable fiscal policies because resources were finite.
He said the Bill conforms to international good practice such as assigning clear roles and responsibilities to relevant stakeholders involved, and setting out clear quantitative rules to guide the inflow of petroleum receipts.
Dr Nguyen-Thanh said the Bill clearly defines conditions under which savings of the revenue could be withdrawn and be used for annual spending through the budget.
In addition, he said, the Bill has incorporated checks and balances and provisions to ensure transparency, effective oversight and accountability.
He said the aspect of the Bill that received much discussion was the issue of how much revenue receipts to be allocated for annual budget, adding that some have supported voting a high share of the revenue now, because of the huge investment the country needs.
Dr Nguyen-Thanh said others have also argued that it was wise to spread spending over time to avoid adverse macro-economic effects today because of limited absorptive capacity and to ensure inter-generational balance use of the fund.
Referring to a research document on Ghana's oil revenue, he said: "if Ghana would wants to strike a meaningful balance between today and future generation's interest, one would have to settle with a rate of 60 percent or less of the oil revenue that will be allocated straight for the Consolidated Fund."
Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah Chairman of Parliamentary Select Committee on Public Account said oil and gas revenues must be watched and managed properly for the benefit of all Ghanaians.
GNA
Labels: GHANA, NORWAY, OIL, PETROLEUM REVENUE MANAGEMENT BILL (GHANA), TAXATION, WINDFALL TAX
Read more...
IMF criticised over 'staff monitoring programme' for Zim
By: TZG, VOA, sources
Posted: Friday, June 4, 2010 9:28 am
THE IMF executive board has been criticized for its proposals to institute a "staff-monitored programme" in Zimbabwe in return for debt-forgiveness.
Wrapping up a so-called Article IV consultation with Zimbabwe last month, the Bretton Woods institution concluded that Harare "must adhere to strict economic policies to attract foreign direct investment".
Zimbabwe's inclusive Government is divided along party lines over the proposal by the International Monetary Fund to launch the programme.
The country has some US$7.2 billion dollars in external debt, the IMF recently said.
The Zanu-PF party of President Mugabe says agreeing to IMF "staff monitoring" would erode the country’s independence and leads to more economic mayhem. Zanu-PF rejects reliance on foreign investment, instead urging Planning Minister Elton Mangoma to tap domestic resources to fund capital requirements estimated at US$11 billion.
The Movement for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, which initially wanted Zimbabwe declared a Highly Indebted Poor Country, unsurprisingly welcomed the IMF recommendations despite having not worked anywhere else in the world.
Staff monitored programmes have been put in place in Chad, Sudan, Togo, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Macedonia, with disastrous outcomes.
Planning Minister Mangoma said Cabinet is still discussing the way forward on the economy and the IMF role in debt relief and reconstruction.
Meanwhile Wednesday, business leaders from Ghana and Zimbabwe were meeting in Accra, Ghana, aiming to bolster trade relations.
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara led a delegation of ministers and Zimbabwean business leaders to the Zimbabwe-Ghana Business Forum and Exhibition.
About 50 Zimbabwean and 400 Ghanaian companies are taking part in the forum as Zimbabwe seeks a larger share of the $18 billion that Ghana spends annually on imports.
DPM Mutambara said the forum offers a platform for investors from both countries to identify opportunities to increase trade in both directions.
"In Zimbabwe we have the land, agriculture, mining and all so Ghana can tap our rich experience in the agriculture sector while we can also learn from Ghana's banking sector which has seen a lot of reforms and is very good," DPM Mutambara said.
Ghanaian Deputy Trade Minister Mahama Ayariga told journalists: "The best way forward for African countries is to trade among themselves and the initiative by Zimbabwe is a step in the right direction."
Asked by journalists in Ghana about new elections in Zimbabwe, Mutambara said Zimbabwe will not rush things. "We are busy working on electoral reforms, economic, political reforms and constitutional reforms that will make our elections free and fair," he said.
"In Zimbabwe the question should not be about how soon elections should be held, it should be how to organize quality elections. There will be no elections until such time that we are ready."
Asked when elections were likely to be held, DPM Mutambara responded: "It will not go beyond 2013. We want to make sure that everything is set before elections are held."
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, GHANA, IMF, NEOCOLONIALISM, PANAFRICANISM
Read more...
Zim firms eye Ghana’s oil sector
by Business reporter
22/05/2010 00:00:00
ZIMBABWEAN companies are said to be keen to venture into Ghana to take advantage of investment opportunities in the West African country’s emerging oil and gas industry.
Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Ghana Tendai Musaka told a meeting discussing the Ghana-Zimbabwe business summit set to be held in Accra at the end of May that companies were looking at downstream opportunities in the oil sector.
"The Zimbabwean private sector is particularly interested in the downstream activities of the emerging oil and gas sector in Ghana, and is prepared to invest in construction, housing, and other service industries associated with oil production in Ghana," she stated.
After years of casting envious looks at its oil-rich neighbours, Ghana recently announced significant offshore oil discoveries in a development expected to transform the country’s economy. Ambassador Musaka said Zimbabwe, which is emerging from years of economic decline, has the capacity of take advantage of opportunities arising from Ghana’s discovery.
"We have the capacity to pool resources to invest in Ghana's oil sector through joint ventures so that we can contribute to the development of Ghana's economy," she added.
Downstream opportunities in Ghana's fledgling oil and gas sector include the provision of accommodation, material and equipment supplies, transportation, storage and distribution, consultancy and other rig-related services.
The total value of these services is estimated at US$ 5 billion annually.
Masuka said Zimbabwe was also ready to form partnerships with Ghana's private sector to promote tourism services, transportation, banking and insurance in the areas of the oil find.
Ghana is expected to start pumping from its offshore wells this year with predictions that the country could eventually produce up to 10 billion barrels of oil. Additional reporting by JoyOnline.
Labels: GHANA, TENDAI MUSAKA
Read more...
Obama's promises to Africa unrealistic
Concerned - Opinion
Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:10:00 +0000
DEAR EDITOR - United States President Barack Obama will not fool Africans. He recently said that the US was ready to help African countriues come out of their problems.
We have heard this kind of cheap talk from almost all US Presidents, but Obama's rhetoric comes at a very challenging time for the US and many of us do not believe an inch what he says.
Where is Obama going to get the money to invest in Africa given the economic woes of the US?
The US deficit has shot up to $1 trillion dollars and is expected to rise to $2 trillion dollars.
The costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are having an impact and tax revenues are plummeting.
Unemployment rate is the US has shot up to 9.5%.
China and other lenders to the US are getting nervous about this escalating deficit.
Interests rates are likely to be raised very high and pressure will be put on the US dollar. See this link: 'US Deficit Tops 1 Trillion Dollars'
http://money.aol.co.uk/us-deficit-tops-1-trillion-dollars/article/20090714011044979255550
Obama and the global corporatists are on the prowl to get their hands on African resources cheaply in order to shore up their crumbling empire.
Obama was in Ghana primarily for the new found oil reserves in that country. Only gullible Africans believe that he went there to reward Ghana for its so called good governance and democratic credentials.
Africans need to rise above this 'nonsense' that whatever they do can only be legitimate if its endorsed by the West. The West does not have all the answers.
Labels: BARACK OBAMA, GHANA, NEOCOLONIALISM, OIL
Read more...
Text of Obama's speech in Ghana
by President Barack Obama
11/07/2009 00:00:00
Text of President Barack Obama’s speech Saturday, July 11, 2009, in Accra, Ghana, as prepared for delivery and provided by the White House:
___
Good morning. It is an honor for me to be in Accra, and to speak to the representatives of the people of Ghana. I am deeply grateful for the welcome that I’ve received, as are Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama. Ghana’s history is rich, the ties between our two countries are strong, and I am proud that this is my first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as President of the United States.
I am speaking to you at the end of a long trip. I began in Russia, for a Summit between two great powers. I traveled to Italy, for a meeting of the world’s leading economies. And I have come here, to Ghana, for a simple reason: the 21st century will be shaped by what happens not just in Rome or Moscow or Washington, but by what happens in Accra as well.
This is the simple truth of a time when the boundaries between people are overwhelmed by our connections. Your prosperity can expand America’s. Your health and security can contribute to the world’s. And the strength of your democracy can help advance human rights for people everywhere.
So I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world _ as partners with America on behalf of the future that we want for all our children. That partnership must be grounded in mutual responsibility, and that is what I want to speak with you about today.
We must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans.
I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world. I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family’s own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story.
My grandfather was a cook for the British in Kenya, and though he was a respected elder in his village, his employers called him "boy" for much of his life. He was on the periphery of Kenya’s liberation struggles, but he was still imprisoned briefly during repressive times. In his life, colonialism wasn’t simply the creation of unnatural borders or unfair terms of trade _ it was something experienced personally, day after day, year after year.
My father grew up herding goats in a tiny village, an impossible distance away from the American universities where he would come to get an education. He came of age at an extraordinary moment of promise for Africa. The struggles of his own father’s generation were giving birth to new nations, beginning right here in Ghana. Africans were educating and asserting themselves in new ways. History was on the move.
But despite the progress that has been made _ and there has been considerable progress in parts of Africa _ we also know that much of that promise has yet to be fulfilled. Countries like Kenya, which had a per capita economy larger than South Korea’s when I was born, have been badly outpaced. Disease and conflict have ravaged parts of the African continent. In many places, the hope of my father’s generation gave way to cynicism, even despair.
It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these problems on others. Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner. But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants. In my father’s life, it was partly tribalism and patronage in an independent Kenya that for a long stretch derailed his career, and we know that this kind of corruption is a daily fact of life for far too many.
Of course, we also know that is not the whole story. Here in Ghana, you show us a face of Africa that is too often overlooked by a world that sees only tragedy or the need for charity. The people of Ghana have worked hard to put democracy on a firmer footing, with peaceful transfers of power even in the wake of closely contested elections. And with improved governance and an emerging civil society, Ghana’s economy has shown impressive rates of growth.
This progress may lack the drama of the 20th century’s liberation struggles, but make no mistake: it will ultimately be more significant. For just as it is important to emerge from the control of another nation, it is even more important to build one’s own.
So I believe that this moment is just as promising for Ghana _ and for Africa _ as the moment when my father came of age and new nations were being born. This is a new moment of promise. Only this time, we have learned that it will not be giants like Nkrumah and Kenyatta who will determine Africa’s future. Instead, it will be you _ the men and women in Ghana’s Parliament, and the people you represent. Above all, it will be the young people _ brimming with talent and energy and hope _ who can claim the future that so many in my father’s generation never found.
To realize that promise, we must first recognize a fundamental truth that you have given life to in Ghana: development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa’s potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans.
As for America and the West, our commitment must be measured by more than just the dollars we spend. I have pledged substantial increases in our foreign assistance, which is in Africa’s interest and America’s. But the true sign of success is not whether we are a source of aid that helps people scrape by _ it is whether we are partners in building the capacity for transformational change.
This mutual responsibility must be the foundation of our partnership. And today, I will focus on four areas that are critical to the future of Africa and the entire developing world: democracy; opportunity; health; and the peaceful resolution of conflict.
First, we must support strong and sustainable democratic governments.
As I said in Cairo, each nation gives life to democracy in its own way, and in line with its own traditions. But history offers a clear verdict: governments that respect the will of their own people are more prosperous, more stable and more successful than governments that do not.
This is about more than holding elections _ it’s also about what happens between them. Repression takes many forms, and too many nations are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the port authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end.
In the 21st century, capable, reliable and transparent institutions are the key to success _ strong parliaments and honest police forces; independent judges and journalists; a vibrant private sector and civil society. Those are the things that give life to democracy, because that is what matters in peoples’ lives.
Time and again, Ghanaians have chosen Constitutional rule over autocracy, and shown a democratic spirit that allows the energy of your people to break through. We see that in leaders who accept defeat graciously, and victors who resist calls to wield power against the opposition. We see that spirit in courageous journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who risked his life to report the truth. We see it in police like Patience Quaye, who helped prosecute the first human trafficker in Ghana. We see it in the young people who are speaking up against patronage and participating in the political process.
Across Africa, we have seen countless examples of people taking control of their destiny and making change from the bottom up. We saw it in Kenya, where civil society and business came together to help stop postelection violence. We saw it in South Africa, where over three quarters of the country voted in the recent election _ the fourth since the end of apartheid. We saw it in Zimbabwe, where the Election Support Network braved brutal repression to stand up for the principle that a person’s vote is their sacred right.
Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans and not with those who use coups or change Constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.
America will not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation _ the essential truth of democracy is that each nation determines its own destiny. What we will do is increase assistance for responsible individuals and institutions, with a focus on supporting good governance _ on parliaments, which check abuses of power and ensure that opposition voices are heard; on the rule of law, which ensures the equal administration of justice; on civic participation, so that young people get involved; and on concrete solutions to corruption like forensic accounting, automating services, strengthening hot lines and protecting whistle-blowers to advance transparency and accountability.
As we provide this support, I have directed my administration to give greater attention to corruption in our human rights report. People everywhere should have the right to start a business or get an education without paying a bribe. We have a responsibility to support those who act responsibly and to isolate those who don’t, and that is exactly what America will do.
This leads directly to our second area of partnership _ supporting development that provides opportunity for more people.
With better governance, I have no doubt that Africa holds the promise of a broader base for prosperity. The continent is rich in natural resources. And from cell phone entrepreneurs to small farmers, Africans have shown the capacity and commitment to create their own opportunities. But old habits must also be broken. Dependence on commodities _ or on a single export _ concentrates wealth in the hands of the few and leaves people too vulnerable to downturns.
In Ghana, for instance, oil brings great opportunities, and you have been responsible in preparing for new revenue. But as so many Ghanaians know, oil cannot simply become the new cocoa. From South Korea to Singapore, history shows that countries thrive when they invest in their people and infrastructure; when they promote multiple export industries, develop a skilled work force and create space for small and medium-sized businesses that create jobs.
As Africans reach for this promise, America will be more responsible in extending our hand. By cutting costs that go to Western consultants and administration, we will put more resources in the hands of those who need it, while training people to do more for themselves. That is why our $3.5 billion food security initiative is focused on new methods and technologies for farmers _ not simply sending American producers or goods to Africa. Aid is not an end in itself. The purpose of foreign assistance must be creating the conditions where it is no longer needed.
America can also do more to promote trade and investment. Wealthy nations must open our doors to goods and services from Africa in a meaningful way. And where there is good governance, we can broaden prosperity through public-private partnerships that invest in better roads and electricity; capacity-building that trains people to grow a business; and financial services that reach poor and rural areas. This is also in our own interest _ for if people are lifted out of poverty and wealth is created in Africa, new markets will open for our own goods.
One area that holds out both undeniable peril and extraordinary promise is energy. Africa gives off less greenhouse gas than any other part of the world, but it is the most threatened by climate change. A warming planet will spread disease, shrink water resources and deplete crops, creating conditions that produce more famine and conflict. All of us _ particularly the developed world _ have a responsibility to slow these trends _ through mitigation, and by changing the way that we use energy. But we can also work with Africans to turn this crisis into opportunity.
Together, we can partner on behalf of our planet and prosperity and help countries increase access to power while skipping the dirtier phase of development. Across Africa, there is bountiful wind and solar power; geothermal energy and bio-fuels. From the Rift Valley to the North African deserts; from the Western coast to South Africa’s crops _ Africa’s boundless natural gifts can generate its own power, while exporting profitable, clean energy abroad.
These steps are about more than growth numbers on a balance sheet. They’re about whether a young person with an education can get a job that supports a family; a farmer can transfer their goods to the market; or an entrepreneur with a good idea can start a business. It’s about the dignity of work. Its about the opportunity that must exist for Africans in the 21st century.
Just as governance is vital to opportunity, it is also critical to the third area that I will talk about _ strengthening public health.
In recent years, enormous progress has been made in parts of Africa. Far more people are living productively with HIV/AIDS, and getting the drugs they need. But too many still die from diseases that shouldn’t kill them. When children are being killed because of a mosquito bite, and mothers are dying in childbirth, then we know that more progress must be made.
Yet because of incentives _ often provided by donor nations _ many African doctors and nurses understandably go overseas, or work for programs that focus on a single disease. This creates gaps in primary care and basic prevention. Meanwhile, individual Africans also have to make responsible choices that prevent the spread of disease, while promoting public health in their communities and countries.
Across Africa, we see examples of people tackling these problems. In Nigeria, an interfaith effort of Christians and Muslims has set an example of cooperation to confront malaria. Here in Ghana and across Africa, we see innovative ideas for filling gaps in care _ for instance, through E-Health initiatives that allow doctors in big cities to support those in small towns.
America will support these efforts through a comprehensive, global health strategy. Because in the 21st century, we are called to act by our conscience and our common interest. When a child dies of a preventable illness in Accra, that diminishes us everywhere. And when disease goes unchecked in any corner of the world, we know that it can spread across oceans and continents.
That is why my administration has committed $63 billion to meet these challenges. Building on the strong efforts of President Bush, we will carry forward the fight against HIV/AIDS. We will pursue the goal of ending deaths from malaria and tuberculosis, and eradicating polio. We will fight neglected tropical disease. And we won’t confront illnesses in isolation _ we will invest in public health systems that promote wellness and focus on the health of mothers and children.
As we partner on behalf of a healthier future, we must also stop the destruction that comes not from illness, but from human beings _ and so the final area that I will address is conflict.
Now let me be clear: Africa is not the crude caricature of a continent at war. But for far too many Africans, conflict is a part of life, as constant as the sun. There are wars over land and wars over resources. And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes.
These conflicts are a millstone around Africa’s neck. We all have many identities _ of tribe and ethnicity; of religion and nationality. But defining oneself in opposition to someone who belongs to a different tribe, or who worships a different prophet, has no place in the 21st century. Africa’s diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division. We are all God’s children. We all share common aspirations _ to live in peace and security; to access education and opportunity; to love our families, our communities, and our faith. That is our common humanity.
That is why we must stand up to inhumanity in our midst. It is never justifiable to target innocents in the name of ideology. It is the death sentence of a society to force children to kill in wars. It is the ultimate mark of criminality and cowardice to condemn women to relentless and systematic rape. We must bear witness to the value of every child in Darfur and the dignity of every woman in Congo. No faith or culture should condone the outrages against them. All of us must strive for the peace and security necessary for progress.
Africans are standing up for this future. Here, too, Ghana is helping to point the way forward. Ghanaians should take pride in your contributions to peacekeeping from Congo to Liberia to Lebanon, and in your efforts to resist the scourge of the drug trade. We welcome the steps that are being taken by organizations like the African Union and ECOWAS to better resolve conflicts, keep the peace, and support those in need. And we encourage the vision of a strong, regional security architecture that can bring effective, transnational force to bear when needed.
America has a responsibility to advance this vision, not just with words, but with support that strengthens African capacity. When there is genocide in Darfur or terrorists in Somalia, these are not simply African problems _ they are global security challenges, and they demand a global response. That is why we stand ready to partner through diplomacy, technical assistance, and logistical support, and will stand behind efforts to hold war criminals accountable. And let me be clear: our Africa Command is focused not on establishing a foothold in the continent, but on confronting these common challenges to advance the security of America, Africa and the world.
In Moscow, I spoke of the need for an international system where the universal rights of human beings are respected, and violations of those rights are opposed. That must include a commitment to support those who resolve conflicts peacefully, to sanction and stop those who don’t, and to help those who have suffered. But ultimately, it will be vibrant democracies like Botswana and Ghana which roll back the causes of conflict, and advance the frontiers of peace and prosperity.
As I said earlier, Africa’s future is up to Africans.
The people of Africa are ready to claim that future. In my country, African-Americans _ including so many recent immigrants _ have thrived in every sector of society. We have done so despite a difficult past, and we have drawn strength from our African heritage. With strong institutions and a strong will, I know that Africans can live their dreams in Nairobi and Lagos; in Kigali and Kinshasa; in Harare and right here in Accra.
Fifty-two years ago, the eyes of the world were on Ghana. And a young preacher named Martin Luther King traveled here, to Accra, to watch the Union Jack come down and the Ghanaian flag go up. This was before the march on Washington or the success of the civil rights movement in my country. Dr. King was asked how he felt while watching the birth of a nation. And he said: "It renews my conviction in the ultimate triumph of justice."
Now, that triumph must be won once more, and it must be won by you. And I am particularly speaking to the young people. In places like Ghana, you make up over half of the population. Here is what you must know: the world will be what you make of it.
You have the power to hold your leaders accountable and to build institutions that serve the people. You can serve in your communities and harness your energy and education to create new wealth and build new connections to the world. You can conquer disease, end conflicts and make change from the bottom up. You can do that. Yes you can. Because in this moment, history is on the move.
But these things can only be done if you take responsibility for your future. It won’t be easy. It will take time and effort. There will be suffering and setbacks. But I can promise you this: America will be with you. As a partner. As a friend. Opportunity won’t come from any other place, though _ it must come from the decisions that you make, the things that you do, and the hope that you hold in your hearts.
Freedom is your inheritance. Now, it is your responsibility to build upon freedom’s foundation. And if you do, we will look back years from now to places like Accra and say that this was the time when the promise was realized _ this was the moment when prosperity was forged; pain was overcome; and a new era of progress began. This can be the time when we witness the triumph of justice once more. Thank you.
Labels: BARACK OBAMA, GHANA
Read more...
Africa hasn’t seen presidents living up to expectations - Dr Brandful
Written by Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Sunday, July 12, 2009 8:39:27 PM
GHANAIAN High Commissioner to Zambia Dr William Brandful has observed that Africa has not seen too many success stories of African presidents living up to expectations.
In an interview in the wake of the inaugural exclusive visit to Ghana by United States President Barack Obama on account of the recent democratic credentials for the gold-rich western African country, High Commissioner Brandful said Africans regretted that the practices of most African presidents were not consistent with their campaign promises.
He said this was worsened by the failure by the electorate to make leaders accountable for their promises.
"We haven't seen too many success stories of African presidents living up to expectations. We know what to expect of them, but in practice, their performance has tendered to encounter all kinds of other considerations, partly due to the followership itself because in certain respect, fellowship has also not lived up to expectations," High Commissioner Brandful said. "So yes, they campaign on a certain manifesto and all of that and it ought to have been possible at the end of the day for them to just render public service and find in there the satisfaction that they would have achieved their goals but you know and I know that this is not in practice."
And High Commissioner Brandful proposed that United States set up some programme, similar to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to reward African leaders who display commitment to excellent governance.
"If there is a similar recompense from America to say 'Ghana, on account of... to encourage so that other countries, if they were to go through the same process, we will also expect to be similarly recompensed," he said. "African countries can learn from our experiences and where no lesser country like the United States wants to establish a direct coloration between good governance and economic progress, then we should expect that with that kind of encouragement, countries will want to follow suit."
Asked to justify why African leaders should be rewarded for doing the job they swore to carry out under the country's Constitution, High Commissioner Brandful said: "This kind of reminder is useful because it will ultimately help African countries to do public service the way that they confess they are going to do and hopefully the followership will also overtime mature into that kind of position that will repeatedly call them to account for what they said they were going to do rather than encourage them to do anything other than what they had professed they were going to do."
Obama is visiting Ghana, a country that was picked as his first destination in sub-Saharan Africa because of its democratic record.
Labels: GHANA, WILLIAM BRANDFUL
Read more...
Ghana says in talks for at least $1 billion IMF support
Written by Kwasi Kpodo
Thursday, May 07, 2009 3:23:53 PM
ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana is in talks with the International Monetary Fund to secure a total of at least $1 billion of support to prop up its foreign exchange reserves, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.
The West African country, the world's second biggest cocoa grower, is grappling with a swelling budget deficit and trade imbalances after the cost of food and fuel imports surged to record highs last year. Its woes have unsettled some investors holding its debut Eurobond.
"We discussed program options, which are essentially the standby arrangement or Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)," the Finance Ministry said in a written statement provided to Reuters, adding that a further round of talks were due next week.
It said the PRGF had an advantage of concessional funding, at a fixed 0.5 percent interest rate payable over 10 years, as opposed to a market-based interest rate on the stand-by which also has a shorter repayment period of less than 5 years.
Ghana expects to receive $420 million in the third quarter of this year as part of an IMF commitment at the Group of 20 summit in London to increase its allocations of special drawing rights (SDRs) to member countries, the ministry said.
The SDR is an international reserves asset, created by the IMF to supplement the existing official reserves of its members.
The fund also agreed to support for Ghana's balance of payments gap, the ministry added.
"Preliminary indications are that the Fund's support could be in the order of around $600 million over a two-three-year period, which together with the additional special drawing rights allocation, would boost Ghana's gross foreign exchange reserves by around $1 billion," it predicted.
Ghana is grappling with a weakening national currency and inflation, currently at a five-year high and quickening.
It is also suffering from the impact of lower remittances sent home by workers abroad as the global economic crisis bites.
"Ghana desperately needs such assistance programs to be able to achieve any meaningful turnaround of the economy. ... Of course, it should be backed by prudent management," Ishac Diwan, the World Bank representative in Ghana, told Reuters separately.
Ghana's budget deficit stands at a provisional 14.9 percent of gross domestic product in 2008 -- a gap the new government of President John Atta Mills plans to narrow to 9.4 percent of GDP by the end of 2009.
Labels: ACCRA, GHANA, IMF, PRGF
Read more...
No country has monopoly of ideas for development - Ghanaian minister
Written by Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
GHANA foreign minister Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni has said no country or group of countries has a monopoly of ideas for development. Mumuni also described the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) as the greatest independent and biggest peace movement in the world.
Before the ministerial meeting of the NAM Coordinating Bureau in Havana, Cuba last Thursday, Mumuni said it was disturbing that a decade of impressive economic performance in a number of African countries was being eroded by the multiple global crises.
He observed that economic growth attained by emerging economies underlined the undying importance of South-South cooperation as a complement to North-South cooperation for advancement.
"The progress made by a number of developing countries indicates that no country or a group of countries have monopoly of ideas for development," Mumuni said.
He said developing countries could derive maximum benefit from South-South cooperation in the area of information and communication technology.
Mumuni called for bridging the digital divide between the developed and developing countries by designing strategies that enhanced the capacity at national and regional levels.
He said developing countries saw both the potential of globalisation for development as well as the challenges it imposed on them.
"For instance, although our countries are far removed from the epicenter of the international financial crisis, we are witnessing that it has far-reaching implications for developing countries," Mumuni said.
He said most African countries, for instance, would not attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
Mumuni said the situation had been aggravated by the current global economic meltdown particularly for those countries that had already suffered from impacts of food and energy crises.
"For Africa it should be disturbing to see that a decade of impressive economic performance in a number of countries on the continent is being eroded by the multiple global crises," he said.
Mumuni said the NAM should serve as a forum for advocacy calling on the international community to deliver on its commitment on increased Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), promotion of fair international trade as an engine of development, the transfer of technology on mutually agreed terms, increased investment flows and wider debt relief.
He said in the face of the many challenges as well as opportunities the NAM should reassert its role as the greatest independent and biggest peace movement in the world.
Mumuni said that required member states to marshal the necessary resources at national, regional and international levels to transform the body into a 21st Century organisation capable of defending the interests of its members and meeting the peoples' aspirations.
He also said since the end of the Cold War the question had often been asked whether the founding aims and objectives of the NAM remained relevant.
Mumuni said Ghana was still of the firm belief that the time-honoured principles of solidarity and equality as well as the quest for human dignity, peace and security were as valid today as in the era of the founding fathers.
"So long as member states remain true to the ideals of NAM there can be no question about its continuing relevance in a world of glaring inequalities and where hunger, poverty and diseases still afflict billions of people," said Mumuni.
Labels: ALHAJI MUHAMMAD MUMUNI, DEVELOPMENT, GHANA
Read more...
Ghana wants mining firms to boost local savings
Written by Kwasi Kpodo
ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana is appealing to mining companies operating in the country to increase their savings with local banks to help shore up the national currency, Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor said on Monday.
At the moment, mining companies in Africa's second biggest gold producer say they plough back about 50 percent of their earnings into the Ghanaian economy through local purchases for their operations in the West African country.
Ghana would like the companies to hold more of their earnings from operations with local commercial banks, rather than bringing money into the country through the central bank as needed.
Duffuor, who met the mining companies last week, stressed that he only appealed to them, and did not make any demands.
"I sat with them and encouraged them to keep their savings at the local banks. It's an appeal, a moral situation, and nothing is binding," Duffuor told Reuters on Monday.
"The meeting ended on a positive note and we are waiting to hear favourably from them," he said.
AngloGold Ashanti and Newmont Mining Corp both said it was too early to say what their responses would be.
Ghana's cedi, which was redenominated in July 2007, has steadily depreciated against the dollar. One dollar bought 1.425 cedis on Monday, up from 1.19 at the end of 2008 and 0.92 in mid-2007.
The cedi has been hit by widening current account and budget deficits that have worried investors. Government spending soared last year while the country's import bill surged on oil and food prices -- leaving the new administration facing a cash crunch.
Ratings agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch both cut their outlooks for the West African country last month to negative on the back of the deteriorating macroeconomic environment, blaming external shocks and loose budget management.
John Owusu, corporate affairs manager of AngloGold Ashanti, told Reuters the company received the appeal in good faith, but a final decision rested with management in South Africa.
"It is possible we'll respond positively to this appeal but it is a decision for the corporate office to take," he said.
Newmont Mining Corporation's External Affairs Manager, Chris Anderson, said the company attended the meeting and it was about how much the companies can keep in commercial banks in Ghana. He said it was too early to tell what Newmont's response would be.
Ghana's finance minister said the withdrawal of foreign investors from the government securities market and very weak economic fundamentals at the time of the introduction of the new currency had led to the pressure on the cedi.
"The new Ghana cedi was introduced at a time when there were high levels of money supply, inflation and high government spending and a trade balance deficit, as well as deterioration in the overall balance of payments," he said on Friday.
He said the central bank had tried to prevent serious currency depreciation by selling dollars on the foreign exchange market to prop up the cedi.
Duffuor said the offloading of some $145 million worth of bonds by foreign investors to local buyers since the beginning of the global financial crisis in October had compounded the pressure on the cedi.
As of December, foreign investors held 46 percent of Ghana's three-year fixed bond and 87 percent of five-year fixed bonds.
Labels: FDI, GHANA, KWABENA DUFFUOR
Read more...
Lancing Ghana's boil
The elections were free and fair, but it was touch and go whether ethnic divisions would lead the country 'on the way to Kenya'
* Cameron Duodu
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 January 2009 20.30 GMT
When Ghana swears in a new president on Wednesday, it will be installing an opposition candidate who has defeated the candidate of the incumbent government in a free and fair election.
People in other African countries will marvel at this, especially those in Kenya, who elected a new leader in 2007 but are still encumbered with the old one, President Mwai Kibaki.
The people of Zimbabwe will also wonder how an African country such as their own can hold elections in which not a single life is lost, while in their country Morgan Tsvangirai said of the 2008 election: "This is not an election, but a war."
That is not to say that the Ghana election didn't throw up scary moments of its own. The first presidential election, held on 7 December last year, had failed to produce a clear winner. According to Ghana's constitution, the winner must obtain more than 50% of the vote, and neither the candidate of the sitting government, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, or the opposition candidate, John Atta Mills, achieved that. The result was as follows: out of a total of 8,465,834 valid votes cast, Nana Akufo Addo polled 4,159,439 votes (49.13%) while Atta Mills polled 4,056,634 votes (47.92%).
So a runoff was called. This took place on 28 December. It became clear, as soon as the new results began to roll in, that the previous tight result would be maintained. In fact, the outcome was so close – 50.13% for Atta Mills and 49.87% for Akufo Addo – that the chairman of the Electoral Commission, Kwadwo Afari-Djan, decided he would not announce a winner until voting had taken place in a single constituency, Tain, in the Brong-Ahafo region. There had been no voting here on 28 December because electoral materials for the constituency had not arrived in time and, according to Afari-Djan, the 53,000 registered voters there could affect the outcome of the election as a whole.
At this point, the uncertainty and tension combined to create a climate of fear in the country. As charges of electoral fraud flew – with the government claiming that the opposition stronghold, the Volta region, had been turned into a no-go area for its agents, while the opposition counter-claimed that the government stronghold, Ashanti, had been rendered equally unsafe for its representatives – the tension could have been cut with a knife.
As everyone wondered whether Ghana was "on the way to Kenya", the governing party announced that it would boycott the election at Tain, and many regarded it as a declaration of war, no less. The tension increased when the governing party also announced it was filing a court case against the chairman of the Electoral Commission to stop him from announcing a winner. Crowds from both sides of the political divide began to congregate near the Electoral Commission headquarters. Would the police be able to control them without calling in the army? If the army came in and was forced to shoot, would it stop there, or go on to carry out a coup d'etat? It was touch and go.
Then the outgoing president, John Kufuor, displayed statesmanship by advising his party to allow the result to be declared so that the constitutional deadline of 7 January 2009 could be met. It could settle any complaints by due process later, he said.
The chairman of the Electoral Commission then duly announced John Atta Mills as the winner. Most Ghanaians heaved a deep sigh of relief. The past week had been like a cup final in which there had been an initial draw, a replay also ending in a draw, then extra time also yielding a draw, penalties which no one won, and the result decided by the toss of a coin. Well, that's how it felt.
What has became clear from the election is that despite 51 years of independence and its boast that it was the first British African territory south of the Sahara to gain nationhood, ethnic divisions in Ghana are as sharp as ever. The fears of the ruling NPP and the opposition NDC about each other's "strongholds" – the Volta region for the NDC and Ashanti for the NPP – are rooted deeply in fact.
It is like a boil on Ghana's foot, which has swelled into an ulcer during each election, since way back in 1969. Unless an ingenious way is found to lance the boil, it will one day grow big enough to cripple Ghana altogether. And that awful day may not wait for another 30 years to pass before it makes its terrifying appearance.
Labels: ELECTIONS, GHANA
Read more...
New man to take office in Ghana
Written by Reuters
Wednesday, January 07, 2009 3:08:45 PM
Ghana's President-elect, John Atta Mills, is to be sworn in after his cliff-hanger election victory. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate beat the ruling party's Nana Akufo-Addo in a hotly contested poll by a margin of less than 0.5% of votes.
The incoming leader's centre-right NDC has a slim parliamentary majority of 114 out of 230 seats, over the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) 107. President John Kufuor is standing down after serving the maximum two terms.
Atta Mills is due to take office in the capital Accra in a ceremony expected to start at around 1100 GMT on Wednesday.
On the eve of the inauguration, President Kufuor showed his successor around his new home, the presidential residence officially known as Jubilee House.
Ghana's incoming leader, who had lost two previous elections to Kufuor, has pledged to be "a president for all".
Akufo-Addo won the first round but not by enough to avoid an inconclusive run-off in last month's knife-edge polls.
Atta Mills was finally declared the winner on Saturday after a re-run of voting in the rural constituency of Tain, which was boycotted by the NPP.
Despite allegations of multiple voting and intimidation from both sides, electoral officials found no evidence of foul play and monitors praised Ghana's poll as a democratic example to others.
The stakes were raised further in the election by Ghana's recent discovery of crude oil, with production due to start in late 2010.
Turnout was high for Ghana's fifth set of polls since it embraced multi-party democracy in 1992.
The former British colony was the first African state to gain its independence in 1957.
A nation of 22 million people, it is the world's second biggest cocoa grower and Africa's number two gold miner.
Labels: GHANA, JOHN ATTA MILLS
Read more...
'Independence struggle is not over'
By Editor
Sunday April 20, 2008 [04:00]
The ideas coming from the Civil Society forum in Accra, Ghana, are very interesting and deserve serious considerations. We are told by Martin Khor, the director of the Third World Network, that “the independence struggle is not over because colonial powers are still in control of developing countries through multinational companies and international financial institutions.
There was need to strengthen efforts of various progressive forces in order to change the global economic system.
Despite getting independence over four decades ago, African and other developing countries are still facing challenges ranging from land issues to poverty and other conflicts and most of these problems are worsened by colonial powers who are still in charge through various channels like big companies and international financial institutions… in fact colonial powers are using these institutions, including the United Nations, to efficiently oppress us but we need to change this system by strengthening efforts of progressive forces and fight for what belongs to the people”.
And Aftab Khan, the coordinator of Action Aid International, says “trade liberalisation in its current format is not a solution to the challenges facing least developed countries… and only a few countries were benefiting from world trade. So this explains that trade liberalisation is not a solution, in fact, it has negative impacts on the livelihoods of people hence the need to have strong mechanisms to stop international companies from benefiting from the misery of the poor… .”
All this shows us that imperialism is more than a worn-out phrase, that it still exists, whether or not we are aware of it. And, even if you play sleight of hand with this concept, it is still there to screw up anybody who is in the way when time runs out.
If there is anything that is an affront to human intelligence, it is the pretension that imperialism is no longer there, it ended at independence and probably with the end of the Cold War.
Some people want us to de-ideologise everything: economic discussions, political proposals and international relations. That is, they want to ideologise everything in another way. And, to that end, they invite us with supreme courtesy to pay fealty to the new order. We already know that de-ideologisation isn’t the end of ideologies; rather, it is the illegible sign of the attempted burial of anti-imperialist thinking or outlook. But this fig leaf is vulnerable to the storm that will uncover the flaccid, sorry organs that cannot engender well-being and hope in the future.
Nelson Mandela once said: “Imperialism means the denial of political and economic rights and the perpetual subjugation of the people by a foreign power. Imperialism has been weighed and found wanting.”
But we must agree that real liberation is not achieved by the mere act of proclaiming independence or winning an armed victory in a revolution. Freedom is achieved when imperialist economic domination over a people is brought to an end. Therefore, the struggle against imperialism is inseparable from the struggle against backwardness and poverty; both are steps on the same road leading toward the creation of a new society of justice and plenty.
Ever since monopoly capital took over the world, it has kept the greater part of humanity in poverty, dividing all the profits among the most powerful nations. The higher standard of living in those nations is based on the misery of ours.
Thus to raise the standard of living of the under-developed peoples, there must be a fight against imperialism.
And there are no boundaries in this struggle to the death. We cannot be indifferent to what happens anywhere in the world, for a victory by any country over imperialism is our victory; just as any country’s defeat is a defeat for all of us. Solidarity is not only a duty for the people struggling for a better future, it is an inescapable necessity.
The world is more ideologised today than ever before because they are trying to impose the ideology of imperialism and neo-liberalism and wipe-off the political map any ideology or outlook that doesn’t coincide with it. Neo-liberalism is the ideology of imperialism in its phase of world hegemony – it seeks to impose its ideas on other countries.
Nevertheless, they themselves don’t apply those ideas: they tell us we shouldn’t have budgetary deficits, yet their own budgetary deficits are in hundreds of billions if not trillions, which makes them machines sucking in hard currency from all over the world.
They say there shouldn’t be any trade deficits, yet they have the largest trade deficits in the world. They say protectionist policies should be eliminated, yet they have more than us. They say there shouldn’t be any subsidies for industry or agriculture, yet they are the first ones to subsidise industry and agriculture. And they say there shouldn’t be any restrictions on free trade, yet they use free trade conditions to serve their own ends.
That is, they say, “apply all the economic measures that not even we apply consistently; clear away all the obstacles and limitations so you can become developed and receive capital”.
They then plunder our countries with high interest rates and the profits they make on investment; with the flight of capital; with unequal terms of trade, buying their raw materials cheap and selling us their products at high prices; and through competition in which they have all the advantages through imposing their technology.
The forms of plunder are multiplied to the extent to which they impose these formulas on us and our governments accept them.
These negotiating conditions are unequal, too. Rich and powerful nations with powerful international economic institutions at their service discuss matters with countries plagued with problems and difficulties, countries that have already been undermined and weakened. Those are the absolute worst conditions for negotiating; negotiating isn’t done in conditions of equality.
These are the policies that they are imposing on us. What kind of a future will our people have? It will be unbearable. Time will show that it’s unbearable and will destroy the current prestige, if any, of these ideas because so many people, hundreds of millions of people, cannot resign themselves forever to that fate. The lives of so many human beings cannot be sacrificed, ignored or exploited in that way.
We have no alternative but to struggle without respite for an end to the unequal trade that depresses our real income, shifts the cost of inflation generated in the developed countries onto our economies and ruins our peoples. We have to struggle against protectionism, that multiplies the tariff and non-tariff barriers and hinders our export commodities and manufactured goods’ access to markets, reduces our products’ competitiveness and acts as a powerful mechanism of pressure and coercion against our countries.
We have no choice but to struggle to establish a new, equitable, stable and universal international financial and monetary system whose credit and voting options reflect the needs of the various groups and categories of countries rather than the economic power of some of its members; that is capable of acting in a genuinely multilateral sense rather than in response to the pressures exerted by transnational banks or a group of developed countries; and that, in short, can respond in the long run in keeping with the magnitude and structural character of our countries’ balances of payments.
We have to struggle for industrialisation that responds to our interests, can be integrated with the rest of the economy and paves way for development, and to keep transnational corporations and foreign private investments from controlling it and from carrying out a deforming process of industrialisation in our countries.
Our countries’ staunchness in the defence of their sovereignty constitutes the best code of conduct against the uncontrolled actions of the transnational corporations, which seek to impose a transnationalised model of apparent development on our countries.
We need to struggle in each of our countries for the adoption of measures to control and limit the activities of the transnational corporations, fully exercising our right to sovereignty over our resources, including the right to nationalise them, and keeping those corporations from applying models of investment, technology, profit remittances and consumption that are alien to the realities and needs of our countries.
The transformation of international economic relations is a pre-requisite for, but not a guarantee of, our countries’ progress. We need to struggle to make our countries aware of the need to promote indispensable internal structural changes and measures aimed at raising the people’s standard of living, which are an inseparable part of any real process of development – especially those related to income redistribution, job creation, health, housing and education.
This will be the only way to make our liberation or independence meaningful. But this won’t come without struggle – and it is our duty to wage this struggle.
Labels: GHANA, GLOBALISATION, INDEPENDENCE
Read more...
From marriage partners to business partners - a couple who made African food a commercial success
Lloyd and Adwoa Mensah-Hagan are an inspirational couple who demonstrate the entrepreneurial spirit that has motivated many Africans in the UK to set up in business with their ‘other half.’
Deborah Gabriel
The idea for Jollof Pot, a catering company specialising in food from Ghana came about from the fact that both Adwoa and I really enjoy hosting dinner parties.
Lloyd and Adwoa Mensah-Hagan are an inspirational couple who demonstrate the entrepreneurial spirit that has motivated many Africans in the UK to set up in business with their ‘other half.’
Aged just 28 and 29, Lloyd and Adwoa, who recently appeared on the BBC2 show The Restaurant are from Romford in East London and run a catering company called The Jollof Pot, in Hackney. The couple, who are enjoying their own wedded bliss cater for weddings, aniversaries, private parties, birthdays and corporate functions. Adwoa is a self-taught chef who started cooking aged eight. She was brought up on traditional Ghanaian food and East African food and lived in Uganda and Kenya for 10 years with her parents when her father was stationed there.
Lloyd was brought up on a mixture of traditional Ghanaian food and English food. He was born in London and would eat English food at school and Ghanaian food at home. A favourite dish is his mum’s ampesi (a mix of boiled yam, plantain and sweet potato) with grilled red snapper and red stew. The couple have catered for some very high profile customers including TV presenter, June Sarpong, Joe Wright, soul singer Alexander O’Neal and DJ Lisa I’Anson, but like most successful businesses, this has culminated from hard work, dedication and destermination.
Lloyd told Black Enterprise: “The idea for Jollof Pot, a catering company specialising in food from Ghana came about from the fact that both Adwoa and I really enjoy hosting dinner parties. Both Adwoa and myself are of Ghanaian descent, so we had the idea of starting the first mainstream Ghanaian restaurant.” However, when the couple realised the costs involved they decided to put the idea aside, until they eventually began with a market stall in Broadway Market, Hackney, where they sold stews served with plain or Jollof rice.
“The early days were quite challenging as Ghanaian food is not particularly popular, so people were quite reluctant to give it a try,” Lloyd explained. “We had to make an extra effort with our marketing - handing out flyers and offering free samples. This eventually got people to try the food.” Fortunately, most people became repeat customers after their first taste of the food. Keeping the business growing was hard work, as both Lloyd and Adwoa were working full time in IT jobs, but they finally took the plunge after deciding that the only way to grow the business was to devote more time to the project. Lloyd quit his job and the couple opened a second stall at Exmouth Market in Islington and then set about looking for commercial premises.
Lloyd told Black Enterprise: “The business has gone from strength to strength and we now have a third site in Portobello Market and a catering business and are now looking forward to opening our restaurant next year.”
Labels: CATERING, GHANA, RESTAURANTS
Read more...
Zambians should appreciate local products, says Nashiru
By Chibaula Silwamba
Wednesday October 03, 2007 [04:00]
A VISITING Ghanaian farmers’ association leader has urged Zambians to have a sense of nationalism by buying local products instead of foreign ones. In an interview in Lusaka, Ghana Peasant Farmers Association (GPFA) president Muhammad Nashiru, who is touring African countries, said there was need for change of attitude among Africans to start appreciating local products, especially farm produce.
“I think there is need for us to start building a sense of nationalism. Why should we always be admiring goods from outside? We are shooting ourselves in the foot. If I come here and buy something from Europe, I am shooting myself in the foot because my money goes to help people in Europe,” Nashiru said. “There is need to change the attitude from the lowest man in society to the President himself.”
He said it was unfortunate that after farmers had struggled to produce their crops and taken it to the market they found foreign products, which customers preferred to theirs.
Nashiru complained that when he went to Magoye in Southern Province he found that the sole buyer, Parmalat, was determining the price for the milk.
“I think that is not fair,” he said. “Farmers should decide the price for their produce and not the buyer.”
He said in Ghana his association was demanding that government supports and protects local products.
“If that is done farmers are not lazy, some of them have been in the bush for 30 or 40 years while others spend all their lives producing food to feed people in the cities. So why can’t we sympathise with them and make policies that will improve their lives?” Nashiru asked. “It is very true that access to markets is a problem to the local produces in most African countries and one of the major reasons is that we still remain primary producers. We need to start value addition. Once that is done problems of marketing will be a thing of the past.”
He, however, said that could only happen when governments intervened.
“That way we will be able to compete but as it is now we can never compete with anybody because farmers lack even the know-how to go about the production of the crops and let alone to think about value addition,” Nashiru observed. “The problem is that a farmer is left alone to look for his own fertiliser, other inputs and even access to the local market becomes a problem.
Even when he takes his produces to the market he finds that market is flooded with European goods that are produced at a subsidised cost and people prefer European products.”
Labels: GHANA, LOCAL MARKETS, MUHAMMAD NASHIRU
Read more...
Ghana threatens to revoke investment licences
By Kabanda Chulu in Accra, Ghana
Wednesday September 05, 2007 [03:00]
GHANA Investment Promotions Centre (GIPC) chief executive officer Robert Ahomka-Lindsay yesterday threatened to revoke licences of foreign investors who flout the investment laws. He said some investors from China, India and Lebanon were flouting and contravening the investment law through engaging more expatriates to work for them.
Announcing the closure of seven foreign businesses and trading outlets in Makola and Kantamanto centres the equivalent of Comesa or Kamwala markets in Accra, Ahomka-Lindsay said GIPC was strictly enforcing sections of the law that reserve certain areas of investment and trading for Ghanaians only.
He said GIPC was working in collaboration with the Ghana Union of Traders Associations and city authorities to extend the exercise to all parts of the country.
“If need arises, licences will be revoked but the enforcement will continue and will be extended to all parts of the country because we want to see more Ghanaians to be employed in line with the rationale for every foreign direct investment everywhere in the World and from now on foreign investors will only be allowed to bring in extra workers if it is proved that they cannot be found in Ghana,” Ahomka-Lindsay said.
According to the investment centre promotion Act of 1994 cap 478, foreign investments worth between US$10,000 and less than US$100,000 or its equivalent in cedis (local currency) shall be entitled to one immigrant or expatriate, between US$ 100,000 and less than US$ 500,000 shall be entitled to a quota of two immigrants and a maximum of four immigrants if the investment is over US$ 500,000.
However, Ahomka-Lindsay explained that discretion would be granted to investors who need genuine expatriates that could not be found in the country so long there was a transfer of skills to Ghanaians within the shortest possible time.
“We are flexible in some cases especially if it is proved that the skills needed are not readily available in the country, we do allow the investor to bring in more than the required quota so long there is a quick transfer of skills to Ghanaian in the shortest possible time,” said Ahomka-Lindsay. “But others are overstepping the limit and we are going to revoke their licences, just last week we closed down seven enterprises because some foreign investors especially those of Asian origins have grossly violated the investment laws with certain companies having as many as 35 expatriates working for them.”
Labels: FDI, GHANA, GIPC
Read more...
