The two-day workshop was organized in Tamale by the Trans-Media Network in collaboration with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group.

The participants, brought together from the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Brong Ahafo Regions, were enlightened on the functions of the Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs) and the Collateral Registry (CR) among other key issues that could inform the various media houses’ story lines and contents in line with the advocacy.

The overall objective of the campaign is to effectively raise public awareness on the availability of financial infrastructure and how to access finance through the use of the CR and the CRBs.

It also seeks to promote responsible lending and borrowing for personal and business purposes.

Godfred Cudjoe of the Financial Stability Department of the Bank of Ghana advocated the need for the nation’s MSMEs to take advantage of available loan facilities and improve their businesses.

He also advised loan collectors to be credit worthy saying, “If you decide to borrow, make sure you are borrowing for a good investment that makes returns or you are capable of paying back the loan without defaulting.”

According to Mr. Cudjoe, the CRBs expand access to credit and reduce the costs of credit for borrowers who are credit worthy.

“It allows lenders to assess an applicant’s total indebtedness so as to enable them calculate a borrower’s capacity to service a debt.”

He explained that, “CRBs are institutions comprising (Xdsdata Ghana, Hudson Price and Dun and Bradstreet) that collect relevant information from creditors and available public sources on a borrower’s credit history. They also compile information on individuals and firms, such as information on credit repayment records, court judgments, dud cheques and bankruptcies as well as create a comprehensive credit report/score that is sold to creditors.”

A Senior MSME expert with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Mawuko Williams, said there were about 36 million MSMEs in Africa and yet there was a huge financing gap of US$80 billion in the SMEs sector and US$50 billion in the micro sector.

He said the role of MSMEs in Ghana’s economic development could not be underestimated.

“They contribute over 50 percent of GDP, over 60 percent of employment, responsible for high productivity and resource efficiency among others”.

“The private sector is not producing that much due to lack of credit to expand its operations and also employ the requisite skills or expertise to bring a lot more innovation,” he lamented.

“For instance, identification is a huge problem in credit management in the financial sector, because financial institutions have difficulty trusting the identity or address of individuals and businesses seeking credit. So a good identification system is an enabler of a responsible effective credit system,”, Mr. Williams stressed.

A 20-member working group was formed to embark on a vigorous campaign that would sensitise the MSMEs on the gains of the CRBs, CR and other financial infrastructure abound in Ghana.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He believes Ghana is at a stage where it ought not to seek money from outside to provide something as basic as toilet facilities, saying “our incapacity to take care of our sanitation has manifested itself in taking loans.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”fXltjc3spFmDFb7UURd3wvgDGuBlCtqx”]Mr. Fuseini was speaking on the Floor of Parliament after a joint committee of Finance and Works and Housing, tabled a report seeking approval for an additional loan facility of $45.7 million from the International Development Bank to finance a sustainable rural water and sanitation project.

This project is to help expand access to, and ensure sustainability of water supply and sanitation services in rural and small-town communities in six regions of Ghana.

The MP’s initial comments on the matter, were to challenge the basis for seeking the $45.7 million when the scope of an earlier loan of $ 70 million, is yet to be accounted for.

Without demeaning the importance of toilets in Ghana, he followed this up by expressing his disappointment as part of the reasons for the loan facility.

“We are told that part of the component of the project will be used to build toilets. We know toilets are very important, but must we be taking facilities to build toilets? Do we need to go outside, make a case with our development partners for money to build toilets? I just simply can’t get it.”

According to the U.N. 2.5 billion people do not have access to toilet facilities, most of which are in developing countries like Ghana.

Ghana’s problems with open defecation are well documented, with local government criticized in the past for issuing permits to some persons to construct structures without toilets.

Mr. Fuseini asserted that “we ought as a people to know that building toilets for us in our homes and for public use will go a long way to improve our sanitation.”

He suggested further that, in the past,  “we have passed laws in this country to raise taxes to improve the delivery of certain services.”

“60 years after independence, we still think that we have to borrow to build a toilet in communities. Mr. Speaker, It might be laughable, but I think that we need a change of mindset… when we go to our development partners to look for money, we must be looking for money to do more serious things and not building toilets.”

This notwithstanding, Mr. Fuseini said he supported the approval of the loan and called for more accountability.

“Mr. Speaker, your committee must be forthcoming with the expanded scope of works that has warranted the accessing of an additional $45 million to complete the project,” he appealed.

Gov’t plan for toilet facilities

The government has indicated that, it intends to construct toilet facilities in various homes across the country as an effective measure of addressing open defecation, following threats by the World Bank to withdraw support to Ghana if measures are not taken to address sanitation challenges.

The World Bank is reportedly unhappy that many Ghanaians still do not have access to basic sanitary facilities, particularly household toilets.

The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Kofi Adda, has indicated that he is targeting the provision of one million toilets nationwide.

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By: Caleb Kudah & Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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A statement issued by the Bank indicated that Ghana has been selected to be a Founding Member of the Investment Reformers Network, which will be inaugurated at the Forum.

“For a long time, different international indicators have captured reforms undertaken by Governments to improve the ease of undertaking business by small and medium firms. However, those indicators do not capture the transformational Investment Policy and Promotion (IPP) reforms that can unlock FDI. Thus, key reforms impacting FDI and its spillover effects on the domestic economy may go unnoticed by the international investment community.

“The Investment Reformers Network aims at providing visibility to such transformational reforms with inputs from WBG (World Bank Group) support, and showcase their impact to the international business community.

“…Participation in the Investment Reformers Network is by invitation only, at a high political level and comprises a limited number of countries – about 15 worldwide selected for 2017, including the three “Star Reformers”, the statement, signed Anabel Gonzalez, Senior Director, Trade and Competiveness Global Practice of the World Bank Group, indicated.

Meanwhile, the Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is billed to participate in the 7th Nordic-African Business Summit in Oslo, Norway, slated for October 26, 2017.

According to the organisers, the summit is designed to promote and create awareness of the many business opportunities on the African continent, as well as bridging the Norwegian/Nordic and African business communities.

It is being organised by the Norwegian-African Business Association (NABA) and Norfund, the Norwegian government’s investment fund for Africa – in partnership with the Financial Times (UK).

The Vice President returns to Accra on Friday October 27, 2017.

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By: Sammi Wiafe/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Growth rates in developing economies are many times higher than in developed economies. Currently, Ethiopia has the fastest growing economy in the world. Report from the McKinsey 7 Company says the continent’s gross domestic product will hit $2.6 trillion by 2020.

Regardless of this impressive height, Africa is still saddled with challenges as a result of the falling prices of commodities on the international market as well as other regional imbalances.

The World Bank says growth in Sub-Saharan Africa slowed markedly in 2016 to 1.5% and is projected to recover moderately in 2017.

Slower growth rates continue to heighten the continent’s poverty level.

Although the fiscals may not be entirely impressive, the “Africa Rising” narrative is still gaining momentum as a result of the activities being undertaken by the World Bank on the continent. The following paragraphs highlight the interventions by the world bank to salvage Africa’s underdevelopment.

World Bank assistance

In 2016, the African region was granted $9.3 billion to undertake 109 projects among others.

The Bretton Woods institution has devised means to address the diverse issues confronting the African continent.

Improving agricultural productivity

Undoubtedly, the Regional Sahel Pastoralism Support Project of the World Bank is one of the effective means deployed by the Bank to rescue Africa’s drowning agriculture sector. The agriculture sector is the lead employer in Africa yet underdeveloped.

The $248 million active project has been rolled to improve access to essential productive assets, services, and markets for pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in selected trans-border areas and along transhumance axes across six Sahel countries.

Access to affordable and reliable energy

Accessibility to electricity is one of the prime challenges of the continent even though it has a lot of untouched renewable energy. The West African country Ghana has received $700 million for a facility to boost energy called the Sankofa Gas Project.

Building climate resilience and adapting to a changing climate

Global climate change is already having a toll on the continent. According to the Climate Change Vulnerability Index for 2015, seven of the ten countries most at risk from climate change are in Africa. The report shows that the change in temperature has affected the health, livelihoods, food productivity, water availability, and overall security of the African people.

In the face of this, the World Bank and other stakeholders have agreed to establish the West Africa coastal observatory to enhance the knowledge base on climate change hazards.

Developed framework for working in fragile and conflict affected states

Conflicts in middle-income countries are common and the World Bank keeps channeling lots of resources to resolving conflict them. The various initiatives put in place by the Bank helps rebuild fragile economies after conflicts. The operations of the Bank in the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa is addressing the pressing issue of displacement.

Addressing fragility, conflict, and violence is a strategic priority to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.

Development in the Sub Saharan Africa is still nothing to write home about in general terms. The question is will activities by development partners such as World Bank help Africa achieve its success story? It remains to be seen.

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Credit: World Bank

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This new facility was revealed during the G20 leaders’ summit in 2017.

The facility will help women in developing countries gain increased access to the finance, markets, and networks necessary to start and grow a business.

According to the Bretton Wood institution, nearly 70 per cent of women-owned SMEs in developing countries were either shut out by financial institutions or were unable to receive financial services on adequate terms to meet their needs.

The World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim believes that “Women’s economic empowerment is critical to achieving the inclusive economic growth required to end extreme poverty, which is why it has been such a longstanding priority for us.”

This new women empowerment facility offer is expected to open new doors of opportunity for women entrepreneurs and women-owned firms in developing countries around the globe.

The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) is the World Bank’s first facility to advance women’s entrepreneurship.

The facility provides over $1 billion financing to support women and women-led SMEs in World Bank Group client countries.

The women entrepreneurship initiative received strong donor support from Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States, enabling the Bank Group to take the facility from concept to actualization.

The World Bank explains that We-Fi is expected to build on the success of past and current Bank Group programmes while reaching into new areas, supporting women-led businesses at earlier stages of growth, and unlocking access to equity and insurance services.

“The facility aims to support complementary public sector interventions that strengthen the enabling environment and enhance market opportunities for women-owned businesses. We-Fi differs from current efforts in that it represents a platform to align country-level reforms and private investment’, the Bank said.

It has also built on and implement lessons learned about what worked for starting and growing female owned/led firms, collect key data from the public and private sector on female entrepreneurs and their firms, and support innovation and learning for results at scale.

We-Fi would work to break down barriers to financial access and provide complementary services such as capacity building, access to networks and mentors, and opportunities to link with domestic and global markets.

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By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This financial institution was put in place to offer soft loans to European countries which were deeply affected by the war.

Later on, operators of the institutions penetrated the African market under the guise of helping their economies get on track. They offered cheap loans to poor countries in Africa if the countries only operated an open market system.

This open system of market ideology enabled western countries penetrate their market and share the natural resources or better still take hold of their resources.

International relations expert Dr. Vladmir Antwi Danso says most of these poor African countries thought of the acts as philanthropy only to realise later the chains they had entangled themselves with. Now this trap by the World Bank and the IMF was just the beginning of the woes we face in Africa today.

Africans today live in extreme poverty and hunger while most western corporations continue to flourish based on the control of resources and markets they do not own. Therefore, if Africa wants to count its enemies, there can only be three supposed ones; The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization. To further explain the structure and mechanics behind this mass destructive strategy of those three organizations, let us take Ghana as a case study.

Ghana is one of the countries with abundant natural resources. The resources are so much that the whole country could have been catered for without any external help since the country size is fairly small.

Some years back, rice farming towns in the northern part of Ghana were thriving. This was because these communities enjoyed subsidies (such as free subsidies fertilizers) from the Ghana government so as to produce rice on the large scale for the whole nation. Ghana back then witnessed abundant rice production where the people only enjoyed their locally produced rice.

However, the IMF and the World Bank came in and as part of their policies, the institutions would not grant the government of Ghana any more loans unless the subsidies being given to the rice farmers were cut off.

The strategy was to force Ghana into rice importation from the partners of the IMF and the World Bank including the USA. The effect we see is that Ghana now imports almost all the rice eaten in the country at huge prices while the rice farming communities in the country starve to death!

Dr. Antwi Danso is of the view that these organizations sometimes cancel the debt of the poor countries but to honestly put it, the IMF and The World Bank never forgives but instead, those huge debts are used as manipulative tools to control the affairs of those countries.

He explains that “if you (the country in debt) are not ready to be controlled, then you must pay your debt, which is near impossible”.

Any leader of these African countries who tries resisting the IMF and World Bank policies is deemed “autocratic” and “oppressive” and must therefore be overthrown or assassinated by external forces, he added.

Dr. Antwi Danso is calling on African government to sit and negotiate some deals of the Bretton Woods institutions which keeps making Africa dependent.

“I was surprised the president did not touch on the Economic partnership agreement between Ghana and the EU market. This is a serious issue which must be renegotiated”.

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Source: World Bank

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The only part of the project that seems to actively ongoing involves the provision of toilets, even then, the project has only managed to provide 900 out of the projected 12,500 toilets.

Accra is considered one of the dirtiest cities in Africa, public defecation remains a problem and the rainy season has become synonymous with flooding, with access to running water also remaining a problem.

Thus the GAMA Sanitation and Water Project for Ghana was angled to address these problems with the objective to increase access to improved sanitation and improved water supply in the GAMA, with an emphasis on low-income communities.

The project, which took effect August 2014 and is expected to end in July 2018, also seeks to strengthen the management of environmental sanitation in the GAMA.

But an independent mid-project review from August 2016, available to Citi News, indicates that the project fell short of a number of targets in the key components of the project.

The components of the project include the provision of environmental sanitation and water supply services to priority low-income areas of the GAMA projected at $31.5 million, the improvement and expansion of the water distribution network in the GAMA and the planning at $48.1 million, the improvement and expansion of GAMA-wide environmental sanitation services budgeted at $34 million and institutional strengthening, with $20.1 million earmarked for this part.

No community water points constructed in two years 

As far as the provision of environmental sanitation and water supply services are concerned, no community water points have been constructed or rehabilitated and no new piped household water connections were made as at August 2016.

The review, however, said a water supply Master Plan, which was 70 percent completed, a calibrated hydraulic network model and new pipeline connection procedures had been prepared for the implementation of the core water supply objectives. With respect to improved sanitation facilities, 280 household facilities had been constructed serving 2,573 low-income people.

The report noted procurement challenges such as the extension of bid submission dates, delays during the approval process and failure to start the procurement process on time affected some deliverables, especially in the water supply sector. These points conspired to hinder the goal of improving and expanding the water distribution network in the GAMA.

This is set to compel the re-prioritizing of the indicators and service locations and about $7.5 million will be needed for the additional works required to off take the agreed quantities of water at the agreed times, according to the report.

No treatment plants constructed

The Planning, improvement and expansion of GAMA-wide environmental sanitation services component targets fell short with no treatment plants constructed or rehabilitated. But the report noted that processes toward achieving them were ongoing.

In December 2015, a contract for the assessment of faecal sludge facilities management in GAMA was signed with Messrs Colan Consult Ltd.

Parts of project were put on hold

Though some nine months have elapsed in the time since the report, indications from the GAMA Sanitation and Water Project coordinators are that major parts of the project were put on hold.

A Behaviour Change Specialist working on the project, Kuranchie Adama-Tettey stressed that it was important to make sure the project did not impact negatively on the people it is meant to benefit.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, he explained that, “in the course of the implementation of your project, you need to ensure that if there are squatters there, for example, they are properly removed and well compensated. You also need to ensure that if the project is affecting any individual in any way; for example, if a drain is affecting somebody’s fence wall, you need to ensure that that fence wall is taken care of properly.”

“In the course of implementing the project, certain individuals who were in the line of the project were not being taken care of as they should have, in order not to impact negatively, it had to be put on hold so those things could be taken care of before we move forward,” Mr. Adama-Tettey said.

Targets need adjusting

The report recommended an extension of the project by 14 months to compensate for lost time due to legal and policy constraints and the reassessment of sanitation targets to adjust them down to realistic levels.

It also noted the need for an expedited procurement process to avoid delays, the facilitation of team building processes and the pursuit of a systematic process of sanitation innovation.

The report also recommended the restructuring of the project team, the enhancing institutional and human resourcefulness at all levels and across the WASH service chain among other options.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to the Director of Infrastructure, Lands, Environment and Natural Resources of SADA, Dr. Emmanuel Abeere-tuga, the final feasibility study presented to the World Bank for the commencement of the project in 2016, suffered financial commitment and Environmental impact assessment issues.

The current proposed designs of the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam project includes a 22 megawatts Hydro-electricity generation, an Irrigation facility for  20,000 hectors of arable land,  flood control systems and the provision of water for residents of Walewale at a cost of over US$1,000,000.

But at a stakeholder meeting in Bolgatanga, Mahwash Wasig, World Bank representative of the project, described the over US$1,000,000 current cost of the project as expensive to attract donor funding, hence the need for the scope of the project to be reviewed.

“The construction of the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam project is quite expensive, this you should realize, and that the current design which is a much larger dam, but it will cost close to a billion dollars for Ghana to build. That kind of money, Ghana at the moment doesn’t have, and even we(World Bank) as the financier of the project, will not be able to fully fund the cost.”

“…So we have advised the Volta River Authority (VRA), the consultant tractebel and the AFA (the French) who are financing the feasibility study, to look at a lower height Multi-Purpose Dam, to reduce the critical inundation of  the natural habitat, reduce replacement of the people, and will lower the cost of the project considerably, but will still give you water for 20,000 hectors of land, and will still produce electricity; not the 22MW, but about 18MW of electricity”

Mrs. Wasig indicated that, the construction of the project may commence either in 2018 or 2019, adding that, the final revised feasibility study is expected to be presented to the World Bank by September 2017, subject to approval and release of funds for execution.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Bukari Ayine, said the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam project when completed, will propel the NPP’s government industrialization agenda of drastically reducing youth unemployment.

“The production of tomato from the dam can help revamp the Pwalugu tomato factory which falls in line with government’s industrialization programme. The project will serve as a raw material and power (electricity) for other potential factories under our ‘One Constituency One factory’, that will drive agriculture especially food security, job creation and industrialization.”

Mr. Ayine pledged government’s support for the project, and appealed to the World Bank to support in seeking funding for the realization of the project, and retain its multi-purpose goal.

About the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam

Parliament in 2008 contracted a loan of US$525million from the Brazilian government to construct the Pwalugu Multi-purpose dam, and the Juala dam in the Upper East and Northern regions respectively.

Although Ghana received the money in 2009, government abandoned the projects and diverted the funds for the construction of the Eastern corridor road.

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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Mr. Szradosi spoke at the Brong Ahafo Regional launch of the Ghana District League Table in Sunyani at the week-end that the World Bank could not bring itself to understand why open defecation should still persist in the country, in spite of the bank’s assistance to the nation to eradicate the unhygienic practice.

In the words of the UNICEF Ambassador, the World Bank is unhappy that many Ghanaians still lacked access to basic sanitary facilities, particularly, household toilets.

He asked for a directive from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to push MMDAs “to tackle the issue of sanitation in more proactive manner.”

We need no ghost to tell anybody that we have not been serious with this problem which has been with us for quite a long time now. That this country is dirty is as clear as today is Tuesday.  Anytime it rains, receding waters leave debris containing many horrible things. Sadly, human excreta is ever present. Apparently, some Ghanaians, and they are not only those who have not benefitted from education, throw rubbish from their households into flood waters.

It chokes our gutters and leaves our streets with dirt and a very offensive stench. It has reached a crescendo and overwhelmed our Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.

The Chronicle would like to believe that this society would seriously consider the need to rid our country off filth. And that it is this necessity that brought about the compilation of the league table to examine the various assemblies.  The idea is that the naming and shaming of assemblies that are not doing well would prompt them to take moving rubbish seriously.

Evidence abounds that most assemblies are failing the litmus test. What is irritating is the failure of this society to end open defecation, 60 years after ending colonial rule.

It is not the best of news to report that many households at the centre of the earth are still without toilets in the 21^st Century. Along the coast, for instance, our towns and villages have sandy beaches which should attract tourist in their droves. Unfortunately, with many local people easing themselves openly at the beaches, the sand and sun, which is a tourist paradise, have failed to attract tourists because of the offensive smell emanating from the beaches, as well as dirt which litter these places.

When the World Bank threatens to withdraw vital funding from the state as a result of this nation’s failure to deal with sanitation challenges and open defecation, the Breton Woods Institution is threatening to punish this country for failing to keep the country clean.

In times past, the presence of sanitary inspectors acted as checks on the failure of society to clean itself up. The Chronicle is asking the central government to get tough and force through legislation that would compel the population into the act of keeping our neighbourhoods clean. We are recommending stiffer sentences for those openly littering the society, as well as defecating openly.

Some of our neighbouring countries have succeeded in ending open defecation, especially at the beaches. In Togo, Benin and La Cote d’Ivoire, the beaches are clean and smell good. There is no earthly reason why this country cannot follow suit. We would like to recommend the carrot and stick approach to solving the problem.

We believe that providing toilets at the various beaches, while employing inspectors to summon offenders to courts to be given stiff penalties, would help stop open defecation.

Our households, streets and neighbourhoods could respond to the cleanliness test, if the authorities would severely punish those littering about. Putting rubbish into flood waters when it rains, must also be seriously punished.

We do not need lectures from the World Bank to keep our environments clean. We have to do it without prompting.

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Source: The Ghanaian Chronicle

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The Bank’s January 2017 Commodity Markets Outlook, said forecast for crude oil is a 29 percent jump from 2016. The energy price forecast assumes members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil producers will partially comply with an agreement to limit production after a long period of unrestrained output.

A statement issued by the Bank said it was raising its metals price forecast to an increase of 11 percent from the four percent rise anticipated in its October 2016 Outlook on further tightening of supply and strong demand from China and advanced economies.

John Baffes, Senior Economist and lead author of the Commodity Markets Outlook noted: “Prices for most commodities appear to have bottomed out last year and are on track to climb in 2017. However, changes in policies could alter this path.”

Agriculture prices as a whole are expected to rise by less than one percent in 2017. Small increases are anticipated for oils and oilseeds and raw materials, but grains prices were forecast to drop almost three percent on an improved supply outlook.

“Precious metals prices are seen declining seven percent as benchmark interest rates rise and safe-haven buying slows” the statement said.

A Special Focus of the outlook showed how commodity-exporting emerging and developing economies have been hit hard by slowing investment growth, which has declined from 7.1 percent in 2010 to 1.6 percent in 2015.

Ayhan Kose, Director of the World Bank’s Development Prospects Group said investment weakness – both public and private – hindered a range of activity in commodity-exporting emerging market and developing economies.

“Most of these economies have limited policy space to counteract the slowdown in investment growth, so they need to employ measures to enhance the business environment, promote economic diversification, and improve governance to better growth prospects over the longer term,” noted Kose.

The World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook is published quarterly, in January, April, July and October and provides detailed market analysis for major commodity groups, including energy, metals, agriculture, precious metals and fertilizers. This edition extends price forecasts to 2030 for 46 commodities and provides historical price data.

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Source: GNA

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