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Creditors’ Committee agreement unlocks US$300 million World Bank budget support for Ghana

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Mr. Ousmane Diagana, World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa has announced that the Bank’s Executive Directors will meet next week to consider some US$300 million for Ghana.

This development comes after Ghana reached an agreement with the Official Creditors’ Committee over debt treatment, necessary for a second tranche US$60m from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a statement issued to the Ghana News Agency on Thursday, January 18, Mr Diagana explained that the US$300 million is a budget support operation supported by the Bank’s International Development Association (IDA).

The Bank welcomed the agreement reached between Ghana and the Official Creditors’ Committee in principle, indicating that it was consistent with the World Bank-IMF Debt Sustainability Framework.

The statement described the development as “critical milestone, adding that it would help Ghana in its economic recovery, attract investments and restore the country on a sustainable growth path.

It also noted that the US$300 million was the first in a series of three operations totalling US$900 million and part of a broad World Bank engagement in support of crisis response and resilience in Ghana.

“The country implements US$ 4.3 billion in commitments from the World Bank through national and regional projects focused on private sector development and jobs, inclusive service delivery and sustainable resilient development,” the statement said.

President Kufuor courts support for Akuapem Ridge Coffee Project

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Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has rallied support for an initiative seeking to boost coffee production and job creation along the Akuapem Ridge.

The former President said the Akuapem enclave had a huge potential for coffee, adding that an upscale in production as it was done in the case of cocoa would greatly impact the contribution of agriculture to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He made the call when he launched a pilot coffee incubator programme at Akropong in the Eastern Region.

A project brief shared with the Ghana News Agency said the initiative seeks to de-risk coffee cultivation, reduce entry barriers for the youth, and promote large scale production for export.

The project is spearheaded by the Asili Coffee Purveyors Limited, with support from the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), GIZ, International Trade Centre (ITC) and Opportunity International among other partners.

Former President Kufuor said he was confident that the successful implementation of the project would make the Akuapem Ridge a hub for coffee production and create opportunities for farmers and players along the value chain.

He said the programme was a “great initiative that might truly contribute to transformation of both the economy and society of our nation.

“The Akuapem Ridge seems to contain very special attributes. It was this same Ridge that Tetteh Quarshie introduced cocoa seedlings and through that Ghana became number one producer of cocoa.

…the good thing is that we are talking about the entire coffee industry that would make it competitive,” President Kufuor said.

The Akuapem area has more than 100,000 tenable acres and a population of about 250,000, out of which about 65 per cent are youth.

Mr John Nana Addo Francois, founder, Asili Coffee Purveyors, said under the programme, farmers would have access to free coffee seedlings, training and capacity building, as well as ready market for their yields.

He said Asili had also procured modern processing equipment to ensure that the harvested coffee were processed and exported to other countries, including the United Arab Emirates.

“If the coffee crop is integrated effectively into society long term, at optimal operational levels and with efficient maintenance, each acre represents a minimum of $1000 in earnings potential. Annually, commercial income of $100,000,000 can be generated in the Akuapem area,” he said.

Mr Larry Attipoe, National Coordinator, ITC Alliances for Action, said the country must adopt a different approach to the coffee industry through value addition to maximise benefits along the value chain.

“Roasting the coffee here rather than exporting green coffee is one of those steps…if we have more of such who are roasting and setting up coffee businesses, then the consumption of coffee in this country will grow,” he said.

Mr Kennedy Owusu Nyarko, Eastern Regional Manager, Seed Production, COCOBOD, said Ghana’s coffee production continued to decline since 2009 and expressed confidence that the Akuapem Ridge coffee project would complement efforts to revive the sector.

“We expect that the emergence of incubator hubs such as this will complement COCOBOD’s efforts in solving some of the challenges faced in the coffee sector, “he said.

Mr Eric Owosu, a resident of Akropong and beneficiary of the project, said he had gained transferable skills in the cultivation of coffee and rallied other farmers to take advantage of the programme to diversify and increase their yields.

The global coffee market size was valued at USD 127 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to witness a compound annual growth rate of 4.72 per cent from 2023 to 2030.

Former Defence Minister Mark Woyongo dies at 78

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Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, a former Minister of Defence and Member of Parliament for the Navrongo Central Constituency, has died at age 78.

Family sources, who confirmed his death to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the former Upper East Regional Minister had been unwell for some time.

He died in Accra in the late hours of Wednesday, January 17, 2023.

Mark Woyongo was MP for Navrongo Central from 2012 to 2016, when he lost the seat to the New Patriotic Party’s late Joseph Kofi Addo.

He announced his retirement from politics, disclosing in December 2016 that he would not contest any political position again.

Mr Woyongo first stood for election on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress in the 2008 parliamentary election, winning 41.7% of the votes and losing to Joseph Kofi Adda of the New Patriotic Party by 1,130 votes (3.5%).

He was, however, appointed the Upper East Regional Minister by late President John Evans Atta Mills in his government in 2009.

He was retained in that position by former President John Dramani Mahama following the death of President Mills.

In 2013, he was nominated by President Mahama for the position of Minister for Defence.

Pakistan hits militant targets inside Iran, increasing tension in the region

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Pakistan carried out attacks within Iran on Thursday, targeting separatist Baloch terrorists, the Pakistani foreign ministry said, two days after Tehran claimed to have bombed another group’s strongholds within Pakistani territory.

According to Iranian media, multiple missiles struck a hamlet in Pakistan’s border state of Sistan-Baluchestan, killing at least nine. According to earlier accounts, three ladies and four children were slain, all of whom were not Iranian.

The neighbours have had strained relations in the past, but the strikes are the most high-profile cross-border incursions in recent years, and they come amid increased concerns about Middle East instability since Israel’s conflict with Hamas began on October 7.

“A number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said, describing it as a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts”.

“Pakistan fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the ministry added in its statement.

“The sole objective of today’s act was in pursuit of Pakistan’s own security and national interest, which is paramount and cannot be compromised.”

A senior Pakistani security official told Reuters the military was on “extremely” high alert and would meet any “misadventure” from the Iranian side forcefully.

Iran strongly condemns the strikes, its foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, said, adding that Pakistan’s charge d’affaires, its most senior diplomat in Tehran, had been summoned to give an explanation.

In Islamabad, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-haq Kakar would cut short a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos and return home.

Pakistan’s stocks and international bonds fell after the strikes. The Karachi stock index fell as much as 0.85% while the 2026 bond dropped 1.2 cents to trade at 71.125 cents in the dollar at 0750 GMT, data from Tradeweb showed .

A Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters the strikes were carried out by military aircraft.

“Our forces have conducted strikes to target Baloch militants inside Iran,” said the official in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

“The targeted militants belong to BLF,” he added, referring to the Baloch Liberation Front, which seeks independence for Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Iran said on Tuesday it had hit Israel-linked militant bases inside Pakistan. Both targeted groups are ethnically Baloch, but it was not clear if they co-operate.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan said civilians were hit and two children killed, warning of consequences for which Tehran would be responsible.

Islamabad recalled its ambassador from Iran on Wednesday in protest against what it called a “blatant breach” of its sovereignty.

ESCALATION FEARS

Iran had been flexing its muscles in the region, even before its cross-border incursion into Pakistan.

It launched strikes on Syria against what Tehran said were Islamic State sites and Iraq, where it said it had struck an Israeli espionage centre. Baghdad recalled its ambassador from Tehran.

The neighbours had appeared to be improving ties, with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Pakistan’s Kakar meeting at Davos this week, before the Iranian strikes on Pakistan.

Pakistan’s comments after its retaliatory strikes signal a desire to keep the row contained, but analysts warned it could get out of hand.

“Iran’s motivation for attacking Pakistan remains opaque but in light of broader Iranian behaviour in the region it can escalate,” Asfandyr Mir, a senior expert on South Asia security at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told Reuters.

“What will cause anxiety in Tehran is that Pakistan has crossed a line by hitting inside Iranian territory, a threshold that even the U.S. and Israel have been careful to not breach.”

Khwaja Asif, Pakistan’s defence minister until August, said the action was retaliatory.

“A measured response has been given and it was important,” he told Geo TV. “There should be ongoing efforts on the side that this doesn’t escalate.”

Both targeted militant groups operate in an area that includes Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan and Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both are restive, mineral-rich and largely underdeveloped.

The BLF, which Islamabad targeted inside Iran, is waging an armed insurgency against the Pakistani state.

This includes hitting Chinese citizens and investments in Balochistan, which is Pakistan’s largest province by land mass, but its least populated and developed. Large portions are lawless.

The Jaish al Adl (JAA), which Iran targeted, is also an ethnic militant group, but with Sunni Islamist leanings that primarily Shi’ite Iran sees as a threat.

The group has carried out attacks in Iran against its powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In its previous incarnation as Jundallah, the group had pledged allegiance to Iraq- and Syria-based jihadist group Islamic State.

Work progresses on Volta Regional Employment and Labour Office 

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Construction works are speedily progressing at the Volta Regional Employment and Labour Office in the Hohoe Municipality, which is nearing its completion.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in August, last year, for the single-storey edifice funded by the World Bank for a six-month duration.

Mr Daniel Noble Awume, the Hohoe Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said he was elated about the progress of work, adding that the supervision was apt.

He said everything showed that the project would meet its deadline but hoped it could be ready earlier.

Mr Awume said Hohoe had come alive looking at the edifice and its purpose since it also served as a strong infrastructure mileage for government and the entire Municipality.

He said the edifice, if completed would also add to the beautification efforts of the Assembly in the Municipality.

Mr Awume expressed gratitude to the government, and the Employment and Labour Relations Ministry for situating such an edifice in the Municipality.

The K.A Frontline Limited is the contractor for the project.

Retain seating MPs to make Western Region visible again- Regional Secretary

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The Western Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Okatakyie Amankwa Afrifa, has called for the amendment of the clause that enjoins the President to appoint 50 per cent of Ministers from the Legislature.

The amendment, he noted, was the antidote to killing desire of individuals who used Parliament as a conduit to only get Ministerial Appointment and halt the brain drain in the Parliament House. 

The Western Regional Secretary to the Party in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said the appointment of Ministers from Parliament though constitutional, was not helping in nurturing and raising career Parliamentarians for the course of the legislature, as well as its independence.

Mr Afrifa said, “the constitution has made it so and I think that position should be amended…because the constitution says half of the Executives should come from Parliament, so everyone wants to go to Parliament to become a minister faster without growing from Bench to Bench as practiced in the House.”

Citing the need for the matter under consideration to be critically considered, the NPP Regional Secretary said, “Look at the Western Region Now, and even the House in general, 18 MPs are now retiring including experienced brains like Mr Joe Ghartey, the MP for Essikado who occupied the front seat in the House.

Now that he is leaving, the Region has no front liners in the house which should be a cause for concern to all of us… and is on this premise that I wish all seating MPs within our party are retained in order to move one Bench ahead, and gradually, we will be getting the likes of Joe Badu Ansah, Gifty Eugenia Kusi, among others in making our Region visible with significant impact in national politics”.

“Apart from Mr Joe Ghartey who sits in the front desk, you will struggle to see our MPs…Just as the formula is in Parliament, I would wish that the delegates allow their seating MPs carry on to move up by a bench to get the Western a “Front Appearance.”

The Western Regional Secretary added that the country needed to focus on achieving career MPs, as retention of MPs was the way to go in creating a more independent and robust Legislature.

He said, those desiring political and ministerial appointment, must be those who have dedicated themselves to the course of the party at all levels, if you want to be a minister, come, and let us work and get the reward, not “let us Past Parliament to become minister approach.”

Mr Afrifa, touching on preparation and the future of the Party projecting into election 2024, said, the NPP would definitely set the official record as the first party to break the eight-year term for the Presidency saying, our chances are super bright.

He encouraged the delegates in the January 27 elections to promote peace in campaigning for preferred Aspirants…” We do not expect that anything untoward should happen…you as delegates know whom you want to vote for…every delegate must comport him or herself.”

Okaikwei North Municipal to generate GHC 9,650,522 IGF this year

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The Okaikwei North Municipal Assembly has targeted GHC 9,650,522.00 to be collected as its Internally Generated Funds (IGF) for 2024.

The amount would be spent on activities and projects, including the construction of a two-story three-unit classroom block and ICT Library at Tesano, as well as provision of hanging scales, toddler scales and stadiometers for the Achimota Hospital.

Others are sanitation, desilting of drains and kerbs, decongestion exercises, Revenue Taskforce operations, and procurement of furniture and fittings and other office equipment.

The Assembly’s 2023 Internally Generated Fund (IGF) target was GHC 7,764,322.00.

As of October 31, 2023, GHC 5,533,359.87 had been realised, largely coming from property rates, building permits, business operating permits, fees, rents and fines.

Some of the activities that took up a chunk of the IGF for 2023 were sanitation, desilting of drains and culvert, purchase of new pick-up vehicle for revenue monitoring, decongestion exercises, and administrative works.

To meet its IGF target for 2024, the Assembly said it would intensify public sensitisation on the need for people to acquire building permits and pay their property rates and market tolls.

The Assembly would also collect data on new development of properties, intensify monitoring of physical development, embark on random visits to monitor the performance of revenue collectors, and organise revenue mop-up taskforce operations.

Mr Nii Boye Laryea, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), told the Ghana News Agency that, the Municipality had also been divided into eight zones to ensure effective revenue collection.

“We have groups in charge of each zone. They will concentrate on their zones to make sure that we get whatever is due for the Assembly in terms of internally generated funds,” the MCE noted.

He added that the Assembly was working to cut down its expenditure to meet the people’s needs.

Mr Laryea said the Assembly would also intensify its community engagements to garner the support of the people and ensure successful implementation of the Assembly’s activities and projects.

“We look forward to total cooperation and collaboration between the Assembly and the people. Let everyone do their part so that the Assembly can also do its part—and together, we can solve most of the problems the Municipality faces.

“We are hoping that 2024 will bring some relief to our people and the Assembly,” he said.

It’s harsh to blame Bawumia for Ghana’s economic troubles, says Atta Akyea

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Samuel Atta Akyea, a Member of Parliament for the Akim Abuakwa South district, has criticised those who blame Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for the country’s economic problems.

He recognised that the economy is not in good shape, calling it ‘unkind’ and ‘cruel’ to link economic problems in the Akufo-Addo administration on Dr. Bawumia.

Mr. Atta Akyea claimed that the vice president had a very important advising function that barred him from making certain critical choices for the country.

Atta Akyea emphasised the importance of the people voting for the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) flagbearer in the December elections to improve the country’s fate.

The MP for Akim Abuakwa South described Dr. Bawumia as the finest gentleman with ‘shock absorbers’ who is ready to serve the nation.

Ghana has been experiencing an economic downturn for a while now, with the government seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

“This is the first time Ghana is going to have a president who is an economist, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. If the problem of Ghana now and people are talking about its seriousness, I agree to a reasonable extent that the economy is not in its best form. When you have a toothache, do you give it to a carpenter or a dentist? Ghana will be in a safer pair of hands when we bring Dr. Bawumia.”

Ghana is going to get a man with shock absorbers, the finest gentleman, to help us solve a major problem facing us, the economy. He was in a very serious adversary role, which is what people don’t want to see. It’s cruel and vile propaganda for everybody to say that let’s place all the economic woes of Akufo-Addo on Dr. Bawumia. It’s unkind,” Atta Akyea said during an interview on Face to Face, on Citi TV.

He said he does not believe in the ability of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to manage the government’s educational policy, free Senior High Schools (SHS), if they win power, since they didn’t start.

“Some people believe that you [NDC] didn’t start free SHS; you might not even know how to continue. And the nation will suffer for it,” he stated.

The Vice President is seeking to be elected as the president and will face off with the former president and flagbearer of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama, who is seeking re-election.

Atta Akyea: Akufo-Addo has not underperformed; rather, he has had numerous difficulties.

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Samuel Atta Akyea, the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, praised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his performance despite the multiple problems he has faced throughout his term.

He said that, unlike his predecessors, President Akufo-Addo has had to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, both of which have had a substantial influence on global markets.

Mr. Akyea stated that President Akufo-Addo is the first president to have introduced a free Senior High School policy, which will have significant advantages for future generations.

Additionally, he said the President had initiated the construction of a hospital in every district.

Mr. Akyea was speaking on the performance of the government in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Face to Face on Citi TV on Tuesday when he made the remarks.

“I don’t think he [Akufo-Addo] has underperformed. What I believe is that he has had a lot of trouble. People underrate the power of COVID-19. President Nkrumah never faced that. The Russia-Ukraine war, of which the evidence is conclusive, the cold fact that economies contracted because of this situation.”

“I think that President Akufo-Addo has been a bad storyteller too. There is no president in this realm called Ghana who said people should go to secondary school for free. You think it is cheap. Even if it is not perfect, given the foundation for this nation to take off in terms of serious brain power in the next 20 years. I have not heard of any president who said every district should have a hospital. These are not low-cost governance achievements,” he stated.

I overlooked development in Ekumfi because you voted against Ato Cudjoe- Akufo-Addo.

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President Nana Akufo-Addo has stated that he disregarded development in Ekumfi since the people voted Francis Ato Cudjoe out of parliament in the 2020 elections.

During a discussion with traditional elders from Ekumfi at the Jubilee House, the president conveyed his discontent with the voting pattern in the Ekumfi constituency, which he said contributed to Ato Cudjoe’s removal from Ghana’s parliament.

He lamented that, after appointing “him [Ato Cudjoe] a deputy minister,” the voters had voted him out.

“Ato Cudjoe was your MP and I made him a Deputy Minister and you voted him out in the last elections and because of that, I did not pay attention to development in your area, I have to be honest with you but since you have brought it up I will pay attention to it.”

The traditional leaders were at the Jubilee House to appeal to the president to send in development to enhance the living standards of their people.

Despite losing the 2016 parliamentary election, Abeiku Crentsil came back in 2020 to defeat Francis Ato Cudjoe.

Having listened to their plea, President Akufo-Addo assured them that, despite his disappointment, he would do his best to develop the area.

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