The World Bank has hailed Ghana’s economic growth for 2017, describing it as “positive”. The World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, Mr Henry Kerali,  has said the country’s impressive growth was due to good microeconomic policy management and economic stabilisation as well as improvement in physical balances.

He made the comments at a recent stakeholder forum organised by the American Chamber of Commerce, Ghana on the topic “Ghana’s Economy Moving from Stabilization to Growth”.Mr Kerali said Ghana’s inflation rate was close to the central bank’s target of 8 percent and that average lending rate has also come down.

He said although Ghana recorded one of its biggest drops in the latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report – from 108 in 2017 to 120 in 2018 – it still did better than other giants in the West Africa sub-region.

Despite the drop, Ghana still took the top spot as the best place for doing business in sub-region, beating Ivory Coast, Senegal, The Gambia, and the biggest economy, Nigeria.

The World Bank Business Report provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the sub-national and regional level.

It assesses the countries based on 11 indicators such as starting a business, access to a credit facility, registering a property, access to electricity, paying taxes, protecting minority investors, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

 Chairman of Ismael Yamson and Associates, Dr Ishmael Yamson, who also spoke at the forum said the government must not only focus on “Ghana beyond Aid” but also “Ghana beyond Debt” since the country’s debt keeps increasing. He said there was the need to create avenues to generate money for the country for developmental projects.He expressed concern about the way corruption had been institutionalised and called on institutions to be proactive and address the menace.

 Ms Ayesha Bedwei, Tax Partner at PWC Ghana, said the country is faced with a general problem of indiscipline – tax evasion, corruption and lawlessness – in a way that stifles development. She called on authorities to sanction individuals who flout the laws to serve as a deterrent to potential offenders.

Source: GNA

President Akufo-Addo has said Ghana has decided to turn our back on the old Ghanaian economy, which has been dependent on the production and export of raw materials, and also dependent on aid. He said despite the excellent relations that exist between Ghana and Germany, “we want our relations with Germany to be characterised by an increase in trade and investment co-operation.”

The President explained that an increase in trade and investment co-operation between the two countries is the only way to put Ghanaian products at the high end of the value chain in the global marketplace, and, thereby, create jobs for the teeming masses of Ghanaians, particularly the youth.

President Akufo-Addo made this known on Tuesday when he delivered the keynote address at the German-Ghanaian Economic Forum, organized by the German Chamber of Commerce, and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

 Expressing his delight that German Development Co-operation is now being aligned with his government’s vision of moving Ghana Beyond Aid, President Akufo-Addo added that his my administration has implemented measures aimed at attracting investment, domestic and foreign, into Ghana, as well as stimulating the growth of the Ghanaian private sector.

“We have introduced a monetary policy that is stabilising the currency and reducing significantly the cost of borrowing; and have initiated a raft of tax cuts that are bringing relief to and encouraging businesses,” he said.

These interventions, the President noted, have ensured that the fiscal deficit, which stood at 9.5% at the end of 2016, has been reduced to 5.6% at the end of 2017, and is projected to go down to 4.5% in 2018.

Additionally, he stated that inflation has declined from 15.6% at the end of 2016 to 10.3% at the end of January this year; the economy has grown from 3.6% in 2016, to 7.9% in 2017, and, this year, is estimated to grow at 8.3%, which would make it the fastest growing economy in the world.

President Akufo-Addo indicated further that Ghanaian industry was undergoing a spectacular revival, a decline in interest rates, a more stable cedi, and, overall, “our macro-economy is growing stronger.”

These measures, he stressed, have been put in place to build the most business-friendly economy in Africa, and create jobs and prosperity for all Ghanaians.

Additionally, he told the gathering that his Government has taken specific measures which will lead the country and its economy into the new digital age.

These include the introduction of an e-business registration system, a paperless port clearance system, a digital addressing system, a mobile interoperability system, and a national identification card system, all of which are designed to formalise the Ghanaian economy, reduce the cost of doing business, and facilitate interaction between businesses and their clients, particularly in a technology-driven era, where connectivity through digital services is an important element in achieving competitiveness.

 “I am, thus, notifying the German Business community, to take advantage of the growing business-friendly climate in the country to invest in Ghana,” he said.

The President continued, “Our flagship policies of ‘One District, One Factory’, ‘One Village, One Dam’, and the ‘Programme for Planting for Food and Jobs’ map out areas of opportunity, which I commend to you, as I do areas in the development of renewable energy and ICT growth. We are particularly keen to receive German investment in the area of renewable energy, for reasons that are self-evident.”

Addressing the challenge of the country’s infrastructural deficit, he told the gathering that his government is embarking on an aggressive public-private partnership programme to attract investment in the development of both the country’s road and railway infrastructure.

“We are hopeful that, with solid private sector participation, we can develop a modern railway network with strong production centre linkages and with the potential to connect us to our neighbours to the north, i.e. Burkina Faso, to the west, i.e. Cote d’Ivoire, and to the east, i.e. Togo. We believe that this is an area where German and European technology and expertise would be very welcome,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo was confident that Ghana is on the cusp of a new, bold beginning, which will repudiate the recent culture of failure.

“We are determined to lift our country out of the doldrums. We want to use all the blessings that the Almighty has bestowed on us to bring progress and prosperity to our people, in our time. The Black Star is poised to shine and shine again, for, truly, the project is Ghana Beyond Aid,” he added.

Source: myjoyonline.com

Tourism is a powerful vehicle for economic development and job creation throughout the world. In 2016, Travel & Tourism directly contributed US$2.3 trillion and 109 million jobs worldwide. Taking its wider indirect and induced impacts into account, the sector contributed US$7.6 trillion to the global economy and supported 292 million jobs in 2016. This was equal to 10.2 percent of the world’s GDP, and approximately 1 in 10 of all jobs.

The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates that 3.8 million jobs (including 2.4 million indirect jobs) could be created by the tourism industry in Sub Saharan Africa over the next 10 years.

Tourism’s main comparative advantage over other sectors is that visitor expenditures have a “flow-through” or catalytic effect across the economy in terms of production and employment creation. During the construction phase of tourist accommodation and services, tourism creates jobs in that sector. If the country is sufficiently developed, the investment can generate demand locally for furniture and furnishings, and even for capital equipment.

Tourism in Ghana has become a major socio-economic activity with potential of contributing significantly to the total economic growth of the country given the vast tourism resources Ghana is endowed with. The sector remains the fourth highest foreign exchange earner after the gold, cocoa and oil. The government of Ghana has shown strong commitment to the tourism sector’s development to obtain the most recent and reliable trends in domestic and international tourism.

In 2016, according to the World Economic Forum’s “Travel and Tourism competitiveness report 2017 (TTCR) “the sector’s contribution to GDP was GHs4.9bn (US$1.2bn). In 2017, the World Travel & Tourism Council predicts an increase from GHs4.9bn (US$1.2bn) to GHC5.25bn (US$1.3bn). Ghana recorded US$818.8m international inbound receipts according to the TTCR in 2016, positioning Ghana higher above other African countries like Kenya, with US$723m and Namibia with US$ 378m.

It’s another year full of great potential and expectant growth in the investment sphere of Ghana. In our quest to accomplish major strides in Ghana’s tourism investment drive, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is working together with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) to reintroduce the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (Promotion of Tourism) Instrument, 2005 (L.I. 1817)

The Act had generous investment incentives including import duty exemptions, tax holidays and exemption from the payment of VAT and other related charges. Establishments and tourism investment projects such as accommodation facilities, catering establishment, travel and tourism projects, conference and convention establishments, entertainment establishments and other strategic or major investment projects were the categories of projects that could benefits from the incentives and provisions of the Act.

 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE INCENTIVES UNDER THE GHANA INVESTMENT PROMOTION CENTRE (PROMOTION OF TOURISM) INSTRUMENT, 2005 (L.I.1817) 

#	PROJECT CATEGOTY	INCENTIVE PACKAGE
1	Accommodation Facilities	·Customs import duty exemption ·Exemption on Value Added Tax and other related charges on capital equipment, machinery, appliances, furniture and fittings in the pre-approved quantities to be used in establishing the project ·Exemption from the payment of corporate taxes ranging from  4 to 10years depending on the kind of facility and its location
2	·Catering Establishment ·Travel & Tourism Establishment ·Conference & Convention Establishments ·Entertainment Establishments	·Customs import duty exemption ·Exemption on Value Added Tax and other related charges on capital equipment, machinery, appliances, furniture and fittings in the pre-approved quantities to be used in establishing the project ·Exemptions on import duty, VAT and other related charges for components, spare parts and knocked-down parts to be used as  replacements for equipment, machinery etc ·Exemption from the payment of corporate taxes ranging from  3 to 5years depending on the location and the type of facility ·Benefit from other relevant incentives contained in the GIPC ACT 478
3	Strategic or Major Investment	·The incentives given are as negotiated by the GIPC Board and approved by the presidency

Companies like Best Western Hotel, Holiday-Inn just to mention a few benefited from the provisions of the Act. It is expected that the re-introduction of the act will still have the scope highlighted above and more as industry players have been looking forward to such a policy to help drive massive developments of the industry in Ghana.

Source: GIPC Corporate Affairs with additional files from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture

The Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) has activated a paperless exemption module to allow all applications and approvals for trade exemptions from the Ministry of Finance to be done on the eMDA portal.

The eMDA electronic portal, on the Ghana Customs Management and GCNet systems, is connected to 35 MDAs including the ministries of Energy and Petroleum, Health, Defence, Education, Interior, Women, Children and Social Protection, and Works and Housing.

Others are the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Food and Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Employment and Labour Relations, Communication, and Transport. The rest are the ministries of Roads and Highway, Trade and Industry, Local Government and Rural Development, Water Resources and Sanitation, and the Department of Social Welfare.

This was made known in a statement signed by Mrs Aba Lokko, the Corporate Communications Manager of the Office of GCNet, and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday. It said the players in the trading community, including applicants, traders, importers, freight forwarders and the Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs), were required to, from February 26, 2018, process all new applications to the Ministry of Finance through the eMDA portal of the Ghana Customs Management and GCNet systems.

“Prior to commencing the new application process, GCNet organised a two-week training and sensitisation programme to deepen knowledge and understanding in such areas as processing e-exemptions and approvals of permits and licenses by MDAs on the e-MDA Portal,” the statement said.

It said the training brought together key actors in the clearance chain, including declarants and selected officials of the various MDAs to enhance their knowledge base on the new feature upgrades on the eMDA portal as part of measures to make the exemption process fully paperless.

The statement said Mr Eben Engmann, the Acting TradeNet Manager of GCNet, explained that the paperless exemption process allows an applicant or agent to send an electronic exemption application to the MDAs via the eMDA portal for processing and approval.

He said once the designated agency received the application electronically on the portal and was approved, entry was forwarded to the Ghana Revenue Authority (Domestic Tax and Customs Divisions) whereupon a Bill of Entry (BOE) was generated once approval was granted by the GRA.

“Whenever an application is rejected, it is sent back to the applicant for revision and re-submission via the portal and once revisions done are re-submitted and approved, the clearance process continues,” he said.

Mr Engmann said the paperless mode of exemption or approval application would effectively address the challenges of delays and increasing cost of clearance, among other things associated with the manual regime where an applicant would write an exemption application letter to the MDAs for processing and approval. The MDA, upon receipt of application, forwards to sector Minister for approval.

The participants noted that in the manual regime, the approval for the application was cumbersome and hailed the development as very timely in the second phase of the implementation of the paperless ports regime. They observed that the process would go a long way to improve the way of doing business in the country.

Sarah Kariyama, a Freight Forwarder with Reign Lamb Company, said the paperless exemption would eliminate physical movements of agents between the offices of the regulatory agencies and their supervising ministries to have exemption applications processed, thereby significantly reducing cost and turnaround time in the clearance of goods at the ports.

The new procedure would require the MDAs on whose behalf the exemptions are being applied for to grant the First Level approval whilst the Ghana Revenue Authority (DTRD and Customs), grant the Second and Third Level approvals respectively.

Ms Emelia Adjei, a Freight Forwarder with Yakumca Company Limited, said the paperless initiative would make it faster and easier, and allow real time transactions to be executed.

The training, which was held in batches from February 15 to 23, 2018 covered declarants, agents and officials from the MDAs stationed at the three main entry points; Tema, Takoradi and Kotoka International Airport.

It would be recalled that in November 2017, a Deputy Minister of Finance in charge of Revenue Mobilisation, Mr Kwaku Kwarteng, launched the upgraded electronic platform (eMDA portal). The platform was to allow MDAs and their clients process applications for duty and tax exemptions electronically in the end to end port clearance chain without the use of paper.

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Mr Frederick Attakumah, the President of the Canada Ghana Chamber of Commerce (CGCC), has said that the Chamber will contribute to policy initiatives aimed at enhancing further growth and development of agribusiness in Ghana. He said the Chamber believed that agriculture is fundamental to our very human existence, and that Ghana had most of the basic building blocks necessary for not only achieving food sufficiency but also becoming a major exporter of agro-produce.

Mr Attakumah made these remarks in his welcome address on the sidelines of a breakfast forum on agribusiness in Accra. The forum which was held under the theme: “Investing in Agribusiness”, highlighted the prospects and opportunities in agriculture, challenges as well policy frameworks within the agribusiness sector in Ghana.

Mr Attakumah said it was within this context that the Chamber applauds the Canadian Government’s support to the Government of Ghana’s ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ initiative to the tune of C$ 125 million. He said as a group they had no doubts this would significantly boosts efforts at modernising agriculture in Ghana.

Mr Attakumah said the agriculture sector was critical for achieving economic development, prosperity and food security in countries such as Ghana, however, there were a number of questions that needed to be addressed. “Does our national policy framework provide farmers and agribusinesses with the right tools and support to enable them work to transition the sector from the current sector into large –scale, mechanized commercial enterprises,” he asked.

He again asked if we were synergistically pulling together the various policy initiatives such as ‘One- District One-Factory, One Village One Dam and Planting for Food and Jobs’ as Ghana seeks to achieve a quantum leap in the level of agriculture and agribusiness in the country.

He asked what should be the roadmap as we seek to maximize value addition to our agro-produce so as to create more jobs and significantly increase revenues. Mr Attakumah said “as country, what do we need to do enhance attractiveness of the sector when it comes to investment, access to credit and youth employment, and what about access to land and our land tenure systems?”

Mr Yofi Grant, Chief Executive Officer, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), said there is a lot more focus on agriculture now with regards to the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme. He said it should not end there, thus, it should not just be government; there should be a major drive to get the private sector involved in agriculture as a business.

Mr Grant said one of the reasons that make agriculture unattractive to young people was that there were no role models in the sector, to inspire them. He said the perceived risk involved and cost of financing were also among major challenges in the sector, therefore there is a need for various interventions that will de-risk the sector.

 Source: ghananewsagency.org

The Queen of Belgium, Her Royal Majesty Queen Mathilde, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, Alex De Croo, will today [Friday], hold bilateral talks with President Nana Akufo-Addo as part of their three-day visit to Ghana.

The Queen and President Akufo-Addo, as Co-Chair of the UN Advocates on Sustainable Development Goals, will proceed to address a forum at the University of Ghana.

She is also expected to meet the First and Second ladies as well as the Minister for Gender and Social Protection, and visit the Makola Market to interact with some market women.

She will also be at the Osu Presby Senior High School to commission an ICT Laboratory built by the Belgian Community in Ghana.

The meeting with the Queen has led to the postponement of President Akufo-Addo’s planned face-to-face meeting with his Ministers as part of their assessment after a year in office.

The assessment has been moved to Monday, February 12, 2018. 

 Source: citifmonline.com