According to a Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Sagre Bambangi, government is committed to redeeming its pledge to the farmers.

Some of the farmers, who supplied seeds for the planting for food and jobs programme, have complained of the delay in accessing their monies months after supplying the seeds.

Dr. Bambangi told Citi Business News, the Ministry is fast-tracking the payment processes to sustain the policy.

“There are a lot of processes that our public financial system takes you through for you to access resources. I think the Ministry of Agriculture is engaged in these processes. Whoever hasn’t been paid will be paid as long as they legitimately supplied seeds to the Ministry,” he assured.

He stated that though a specific date has not been set yet, government is working hard to get the suppliers some relief.

“I can’t give a timeline now on when they’ll be paid, but government can assure the suppliers of receiving payment soon because government will be working with them for the 2018 crop season. Government would not want to jeopardize the success of the planting for food and jobs program by not paying the seed providers,” he stressed.

Dr. Bambangi was speaking on the sidelines of the two-day Ghana Civil Society Orientation Consultative Workshop on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) And Mutual Accountability.

He called for a multi-ministerial strategy in solving the problems within the Agricultural sector at the workshop.

The workshop which was organized by Trust Africa and the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana was on the theme “Strengthening the Advocacy Moment for Smallholder Agriculture in Africa.”

One of the objectives of the workshop was to sensitize CSOs on the CAADP objectives, strategies and current activities for the implementation of the Malabo Declaration.

Another goal is to end hunger and halve poverty through inclusive agricultural growth and transformation should be by 2025.

The workshop also sought to develop a common understanding among civil society partners on their role in the CAADP process at national, regional and continental level, and also to map out strategies and roles of CSOs for strengthening engagement in CAADP processes, working with coalitions among other objectives.

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By: Bobbie Osei/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

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The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a financial regulator, is understood to be investigating the Bitfinex digital currency exchange.

Bitcoin, the most popular and widely traded of about 1,500 digital currencies, rose to a high of $19,666 in mid-December.

Last night bitcoin was trading at $8,965.54, a fall of 11.7 per cent for the day and 54 per cent since its December peak. Bitcoin fell by 26 per cent in January.

The commission sent subpoenas to Bitfinex and Tether, the digital currency developer, in December, Bloomberg said.

Bitfinex and Tether said: “We routinely receive legal process from regulators conducting investigations. It is our policy not to comment.”

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Source: Times UK

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According to William Owusu Demitia, a Senior Associate Consultant at Ali-Nakyea & Associates, this would help government identify key issues that has to be addressed before a nationwide implementation.

As part of measures to improve domestic resource mobilization, the Finance Minister during the 2018 budget reading announced that new tax reforms to be introduced by government this year will see an upward review of property rates as well as the intensification of its collection.

Speaking to Citi Business News, Mr Owusu Demitia said the implementation of the property rate is a step in the right direction.

“Renewed zeal for the collection of the property rate is welcome. Government should however take its time in implementing it. Government needs to get the valuation right and also get the public to understand the need for the property rate,” he advised.

Property income taxation has long been seen as an area largely neglected by Ghana’s tax authorities.

Enforcement of the tax has been weak, with property owners either not paying at all or deferring payment for years.

There’s also a general perception that properties are grossly undervalued by the assemblies.

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By: Bobbie Osei/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

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Between September and October this year, all but one of the nine categories of the Bank of Ghana’s Annual Percentage and Average Interest rate report, witnessed a marginal decline in interest rates.

The rates dropped between 0.6 and 1.9 percent within the one month period.

The highest drop was 1.9 percent recorded for interest rates charged on loans for commerce, construction, and other consumer credits.

The rates dropped from 31.3, 31.8 and32.4 percent respectively.

The least drop was recorded on loans granted to the agricultural sector.

The figure declined from 31.0 percent to 30.8 percent between September and October this year.

Reacting to the drop in interest rates on loans to the agriculture sector, however, the General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers’ Union, Edward Kareweh bemoaned the marginal drop in rates despite issues confronting the sector.

“The drop is not good enough because if we are still hovering around thirty percent then it tells you how we are still not ready to invest in agriculture because the investment will depend on the budget or the interest rate.”

He added, “That will also indicate whether people will be ready to go in for loans from the banks and if the interest rate is so high then it tells us that we still have a long way to go by way o making funds available by way of making funds available from the banks for agricultural purposes” .

For his part, the General Manager of Treasury at HFC Bank, Joseph Nketsia outlined possible reasons underlying the drop in interest rates on banks’ mortgages.

“Because the monetary policy rate has been going down banks have adjusted their cost of funds or deposit rate and that is what is resulting in fall in deposit rate as well as the fall in lending rates by the various banks”

Despite the marginal decline in the interest rates, the industry watchers are hopeful of a further reduction by the end of the year.

Mr. Joseph Nketsia, for instance, believes a further drop in interest rates will have an increase on the loans sought for particularly as the festive season approaches.

“It is not the drop because if you look at the drop in Ghana we will say it is marginal but in other jurisdictions, the interest rate falls by one percent and it’s a big drop. But Ghana at our relatively high-interest rate a one percent drop in interest rates is marginal, its impact on customers is relatively low so it’s not that drop in interest rates that is causing an increase in demand for loans but rather the season that we find ourselves in”

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By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

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The infograph below has more on what to expect.

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By: Citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post Citi Business Festival 2017: What to expect [Infographic] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The GRA said many companies now use TRIPS to automate the processes for assessing, filing and payment of various domestic tax forms such as Income Tax, PAYE, VAT, Withholding Tax, Gift Tax, etc.

TRIPS which was developed by the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) is a computer software for managing databases for controlling and administering revenue as well as tax payment processing.

The Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) of the (GRA) has expressed confidence in the software saying it had optimized tax collection.

A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency said the DTRD through the software had made more than ten billion Ghana cedis in tax collection.

The development according to the statement was revealed at the one-day briefing and training on the TRIPS organised by the GCNet and GRA for officials of the Tax and Customs Divisions in Accra.

The GRA said it would continue to introduce mechanisms to encourage companies to enrol with the software so as to ensure viability of tax system in the country.

As part these efforts, the company has partnered the GCNet to introduce a competition and awards scheme geared to boost the full migration of all taxpayers onto Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS) in order to create a uniform platform.

The scheme seeks to award GHC 25,000 every quarter to the winning implementing tax office.

“This is expected to encourage offices to accelerate the migration process, amidst the realisation that the introduction of the software has marked a major milestone in the history of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) of GRA”, the statement said.

Mr Kwasi Gyimah, the Commissioner of the DTRD, lauded the GCNet for partnering with the Revenue Authority to introduce the awards scheme saying it would trigger competition among companies whilst encouraging hard work and good ethics.

Mr Alwin Hoegerle, the General Manager of the GCNet, said the partnership with the (DTRD) of the GRA aligned with the core mandate of the organisation to improve revenue mobilisation through the deployment of efficient ICT enabled systems to significantly contribute to national development.

The organisation’s commitment is not only to build capacity and provide logistics support but also to ensure the speedy migration of the TRIPS in all tax offices across the nation to guarantee faster processing of tax returns and revenue mobilization.

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Source: GNA

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