Month: February 2024

Agri-Impact Limited, an agribusiness development firm, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to advocate and enhance agricultural businesses among youth through technology.

The partnership will help create dignified and fulfilling jobs for 326,000 young women, young men focusing especially on women, and also to eradicate the false mindset about agriculture among students.

Mr Dan Acquaye, Chief Executive Officer of Agri-Impact Limited and Professor Ben Banful, Provost, College of Agric and Natural Resources, KNUST, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective institutions.

Mrs Julie Asante-Dartey, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Agri-Impact Limited, speaking to the media said the agreement would scale up youth involvement in agriculture, build their capacity and be ambassadors of agribusiness.

She said the partnership would also help leverage the electronic-learning platform of the University to train over 500 youth, who would use I
nformation Technology and Communication (ICT) to create enterprises in the agribusiness industry.

Mrs Asante-Dartey said it was important for students to have the passion of creating businesses in agriculture to secure a lifetime job, adding that it would help reduce the high level of unemployment faced by the youth.

‘The training is to help students become entrepreneurs and ambassadors of agriculture’, she said.

The Deputy CEO said, the project would be a four-year development in rice, soya, poultry and tomato production.

She said with the aid of the University, students would have an effective value chain to work together and increase productivity, smooth market access and enterprise efficiency.

She expressed the hope that after four years, the project would generate at least $200 million revenue every year to help cut down importation by 10 per cent.

She said the idea of partnering the University was to involve academia in the project to develop policies on agribusiness for effective implementation.

P
rofessor Robert Aidoo, Dean, Agribusiness and Intergrated Supply Chain Management, KNUST, emphasised on the importance of collaboration between the two entities in meeting the demands of agribusiness development among Ghanaian youth, especially young men and women.

He said the University recognised the MoU as an important step to working together to bring agricultural businesses to the doorstep of Ghanaian youth by ensuring that stakeholders worked to achieve success in the agricultural sector.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The International Monetary Fund, (IMF) and Moody, an America agency have revealed that Cameroon has accumulated between August and September 2023, delayed payment of up to five days on its debt owed to the European Investment Bank.

According to Henri Kouam, the founder of the Cameroon Economic Policy Institute (CEPI) whose mission is to improve the quality of economic policies through fact-based research, debates and advocacy to encourage free market ideas and entrepreneurship, ‘the delay can be due to technical errors which are considered minor and temporary and that reflect the country’s default in terms of cash management.’

However, these events will not have an impact on the continuation of the program because the IMF has decided to apply a period of 30 days after the due date before considering delayed payments as external arrears.

‘We do not consider these debt payment delays as cases of default on which our issuer ratings relate, because they concerned a multilateral creditor and not private credito
rs,’ Moody explained in a press release published on February 26.

The American agency, however however, explains that the missed payments are indicative of the cash flow tensions the Cameroon government is facing at the moment.

Tensions aggravated as a result of external and internal factors, like the increase in security spending to deal with the situation in the English-speaking and Far North regions. The volatility of oil revenues, the high level of subsidies for fuels; all in a context of tightening global financial conditions are some of the issues on the agenda of the government.

While the authorities receive technical assistance from the IMF to improve debt monitoring capacity, this situation could be sending bad signals to international partners as confirmed by Henri Kouam: ‘When we make late payments, all investors and international partners see is that, that developing market economy is not organized, they don’t make their payments on time, which implies that there are possible financial risks.’

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Ms Momoko Suzuki, Chief Representative, Japan International Cooperation (JICA), has expressed confidence in Ghana’s Civil Service Training Centre (CSTC) becoming the Centre of excellence in human resource capacity development in the West Africa sub-region.

She believed the Centre was well-positioned to train staff in the civil and public service and also provide support for neighboring countries in human capital development.

Ms Suzuki was speaking at a media engagement in Accra on JICA’s collaboration with CSTC over the past 15 years, which among other things, had culminated in the establishment of an ultra-modern e-learning platform called the ‘Learning Management System’ (LMS) at the Centre.

The platform, formed part of JICA’s technical cooperation projects implemented at the CSTC over the years.

It will help deliver online courses to personnel in the civil service as the Centre continued its in-person capacity development and career advancement mission.

The well-equipped Centre, provided by JICA, has
hybrid training rooms, studios, laptops, video cameras, and other learning essentials for trainees and facilitators.

Ms Suzuki was impressed with the cordial working relationship between JICA and CSTC, as it continued to extend support to the Centre through the provision of physical infrastructure and logistics.

She highlighted the importance of human resource development stressing that ‘a highly motivated civil service’ contributed to a stable State and enabled citizens to ‘have trust in the government’.

Ms Suzuki said a part of JICA’s global agenda was to ‘strengthen good governance and institutions’, adding that capacity building and improvement in ‘administrative practices and systems’ were essential to the mission.

‘Our collaboration has grown from strength to strength…I’m very proud to see this evolvement of CSTC and how the Centre has brought herself to this level and its high ownership and the enthusiasm to become more better.

‘We see CSTC as the Centre of excellence not only in Ghana but in the
sub-region. We believe that Ghana can support the neigbouring countries in the capacity development of the civil service.

‘CSTC is now one of the leading institutions to provide support to other countries, which would also enable the stability of the neighbouring regions,’ she noted.

Ms Suzuki expressed JICA’s commitment to work with the government of Ghana to develop the country’s human resources and achieve economic growth.

Mrs Dora Dei-Tumi, Principal, Civil Service Training Center, described JICA as ‘a beacon and catalyst of CSTCS phenomenal change’.

The said the myriad of support received from JICA had led to the grooming of high level facilitators, who in turn offered technical expertise to trainees.

Apart from training low and middle level civil service personnel, Mrs Dei-Tumi said the Institution also accommodated high level staff in both the civil and public service.

She noted that the new e-learning facility would augment the in-person training offered by CSTC, and called for more collaboratio
n from other institutions.

Mr. Masashi Yamanaka, JICA Expert, also touched on the importance of training and investing in people.

He praised the interactive and well-designed interface of the e-learning system, which would allow trainees to assess online courses on their phones and computers.

He highlighted other benefits of the system and expressed confidence in its effectiveness and efficiency.

The Ghana News Agency was told that four new e-learning courses had been run on the platform with positive feedback from participants.

Subsequently, JICA and CSTC would develop courses for practicing ‘Kaizen’ – the Japanese concept of ‘Continuous Improvement Learning’ in the public sector.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Norwegian football club HamKam confirmed the untimely death of 19-year-old Ivorian footballer, Archange Defrignan Mondouo, known as Akillas, on Wednesday.

The young central midfielder was discovered by some of his club members lifeless in his apartment.

Akillas, who joined HamKam in April 2023, was found deceased in his room, with initial reports suggesting he had been battling heart issues.

In an official statement, HamKam conveyed their heartfelt sadness, stating, ‘It is with great sadness that we have received the news that Archange Defringan Mondou ‘Akillas’ has died. Our warmest thoughts go out to his family and relatives.’

Despite the diligent efforts of the club’s medical team to manage Akillas’s condition, his tragic death has left many questions unanswered.

Investigations into the cause of his untimely demise are ongoing, as the football community grapples with the loss of a bright young talent.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Fitch Solution, an international rating agency, has indicated that the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) minimised the profitability of Ghanaian banks.

The rating agency said Ghanaian banks’ heightened profitability was driven by exceptionally high yields on Treasury bills, which helped a recovery in capitalization from the large losses due to Ghana’s domestic debt exchange programme in early 2023.

The rating agency said it expected profitability to remain strong in 2024 as Treasury bill yields stayed high despite decreasing from their peak.

The agency also attributed the profitability to the capital-raising initiatives encouraged by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), which it said will continue to support the recovery in capitalization.

According to the rating agency, the banking sector reported extremely strong profitability in 2023, driven by net interest margins (NIMs) benefiting from the exceptionally high Treasury bill yields since the debt exchange was launched.

The rating agency said this was possibl
e despite incremental impairment charges from the sovereign debt exchange and higher loan impairment charges due to an increasing non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio, which ended in 2023 at 20.7 percent as against 14.8 percent in 2022.

The rating agency said that with dividend payouts likely to be limited, the strong earnings should support a significant improvement in capital at the end of 2023.

The Ghanaian government initiated the Ghana Domestic Debt Exchange Programme on December 5, 2022.

This initiative invited the voluntary exchange of roughly GHS137 billion worth of domestic notes and bonds of the Republic, such as the Dakye and E.S.LA bonds, for a bundle of new bonds.

Source: Ghana News Agency

In a recent announcement, the Minister of Territorial Administration and President of the National Hajj Commission, Atanga Nji Paul has declared the commencement of registration for the Hajj pilgrimage for the year 2024.

This decision comes amide various challenges, including the recent increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) in Saudi Arabia, housing shortages, and the soaring dollar exchange rate impacting service costs.

According to a communique released on Thursday, February 29, 2024, Paul Atanga Nji announced that the price for the Hajj 2024 has been set at three million two hundred and sixty-seven thousand nine hundred and forty-two (3.267.942) CFA francs, marking an increase compared to the previous year’s edition.

‘Despite the increase in VAT in Saudi Arabia, the scarcity of housing and especially the high rate of the dollar which has a substantial impact on all services, the price of Hajj 2024 amounts to three million two hundred and sixty-seven thousand nine hundred and forty-two (3.267.942) CFA francs,
a slight increase compared to the 2023 edition,’ MINAT boss stated in the communique.

Pilgrims have been urged to take note that registrations through the Single Hajj Window, operated by Afriland First Bank, are now open and will remain so until March 15, 2024.

However, it is emphasized that if the quota of registered pilgrims is reached before the specified date, the Single Window will be automatically closed.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

The 5th Ministerial Forum on Migration stressed the need for policy prioritization on skills, youth employment, and job creation as well as harmonization of a regular migration regulatory framework.

The Regional Ministerial Forum on Migration (RMFM) on harmonizing labor migration policies under the theme: ‘Harnessing the power of regular migration pathways for youth employment, skills development, and green economy’ concluded today.

On the occasion, Labor and Skills State Minister Teshale Berecha said that we the RMFM has blossomed into a vital space for consultation and collaboration in the realm of labor migration.

Education is at the heart of addressing the root causes of irregular migration and is a catalytic force to accelerate skill-based, dignified and regular mobility of labor in our region, across the continent and beyond, he added.

According to him, the theme not only aligns with the well-known issue of Africa’s booming youth population but also echoes policymakers’ concerns about harnessing Afr
ica’s demographic dividend for a sustainable future.

One-fifth of the world’s youth resides in our continent, and by 2030, its working-age population will balloon to 600 million, with nearly 40 percent being young people, Teshale said, and added that this presents a golden opportunity, for it would mean over half a billion trained, and empowered individuals can potentially drive development in our continent.

Meanwhile, the State Minister underscored ‘the harsh reality, however, is the alarming unemployment, especially among youth (11.2%) compared to adults (6.7%).

‘Such a challenge can partly be addressed if we focus, for example, on transforming our Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems to boost our capacities in implementing various capacity building programs toward promoting skill-based mobility,’ he elaborated.

IOM Ethiopia Chief of Mission, Abibatou Wane Fall said on her part that the breadth and scope of the reforms undertaken, and progress made individually as well as colle
ctively demonstrate the importance of labor migration and its corollary for all the Member States.

Skills, youth employment and jobs creation are at the center of the policy priorities of the East and Horn of Africa countries, she pointed out, and added ‘For instance, in Ethiopia the labor market must absorb approximately 2 million new entrants each year.’

‘Sustainable job creation and youth employment is a priority, and the Government of Ethiopia has embarked in ambitious reforms promoting skills development, improving job creation, promoting the business environment, expanding labor migration and none the least engaging diaspora for knowledge, skills and technology transfer,’ the Chief of Mission lauded.

According to her, the RMFM provides an effective platform for interstate cooperation, a model for African multilateral cooperation on migration, and a vehicle for advancing innovative solutions based on shared experience and priorities as well as agreed upon goals.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Officials of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), in the Ayawaso West Municipality, say basic school children have shown confidence and love for their mother tongue.

Mr Edem Afeeva, NCCE Municipal Director, stated that after engaging some schoolchildren in Ga language reading sessions at the Abelemkpe ‘2’ JHS, children gained strong self-esteem and felt like they belonged in their classes.

The reading sessions were held in commemoration of International Mother Language Day, which is observed every year on February 21 after being declared by UNESCO and later adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

The Day highlights the importance of languages in promoting inclusivity and attaining the Sustainable Development Goals.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Afeeva said that learning and speaking local dialects promotes culture and values while also instilling logical reasoning and intelligence in children.

‘So, language is what defines us as a people and so it gives us our
identity. The framers of the 1992 constitution were right when they mention in the constitution that the state shall promote our local languages and culture. The state has a role to play,’ he said.

Mr Afeeva said that residents had a responsibility to promote local languages in their homes, churches, and workplaces to shift the narrative of Ghanaian languages becoming extinct.

In Ghana, it has been reported that the Ga-Dangbe language is fast reaching extinction, as observation used as a tool to collect data and studied qualitatively found that the language is ‘endangered’ because it is utilized primarily by few speakers of the older generation.

The United Nations has said that 40 per cent of the global population currently lacks access to education in their native language, a figure that exceeds 90 per cent in certain regions.

The Day, as encouraged by the UNESCO, is to let children read and speak in their country’s capital language, and in the case of Ghana, the Ga language.

At the Abelemkpe ‘2’ JHS, t
he children read the Ga book titled ‘Nileegbe,’ meaning the path of knowledge in classes 1, 4 and 6.

Mr Dominic Sarpong, Head of Programmes at the Ayawaso West NCCE Municipal Directorate, stated that local languages serve as conduits for traditional knowledge and cultural heritage; however, linguistic diversity faces threat as more languages disappear.

He stated that research highlights the benefits of employing learners’ native languages in school, which promotes higher learning outcomes and critical thinking skills.

‘There are certain things we know in our local language but very difficult to say in English. Our local languages promote understanding, tolerance, and cohesion for economic, social, and cultural benefits,’ Mr. Sarpong said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A new book titled “Two Waters Grand Strategy” was launched at Abrehot Library in Addis Ababa today.

The book navigates historical and contemporary trends surrounding Ethiopia’s water resources and its mutual cooperation with neighboring countries, aiming to invigorate dialogue among stakeholders and shape development.

The book’s exploration of water resource utilization and its implications for Ethiopia’s future prospects is believed to be a valuable resource for policymakers, academics, and the general public.

The 150-page, six-chapter book is a collaborative effort of the Institute of Foreign Affairs, Walta Media and Communication Corporate, Abrehot Library, and other individuals and institutions, it was learned.

The launch ceremony, held at Abrehot Library, drew government officials and distinguished guests.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Mr Mark Badu-Aboagye, the Chief Executive Officer, Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI), has encouraged women entrepreneurs to create demand for their products to fully access the opportunities of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

He said the African Free Trade Area created a single market of more than 1.2 billion people, but entrepreneurs ought to create demand for products and position themselves to export to benefit from the prospects.

Mr Badu-Aboagye was addressing a women conference in Tamale on the AfCFTA, on the theme: ‘Making AfCFTA Work through a Deliberate Inclusion of Women’.

It was organised by the GNCCI through its women’s wing with support from the GIZ Trade Hub to explore opportunities for Ghanaian businesses.

It is an initiative that aimed at enabling seamless trade among African nations.

It brought together entrepreneurs from northern Ghana to deliberate and share challenges they encountered as business owners.

Mr Badu-Aboagye said creating market dema
nd for entrepreneurs on the Free Trade Area required knowledge on its operations, hence the conference was to sensitise participants on how the AfCFTA worked.

He said women should be empowered to trade more and take advantage of AfCFTA’s opportunities to alleviate deprivation, saying the agreement was expected to move over 50 million people out of poverty by 2030.

Dr Mrs Emelia Assiakwa, the National Treasurer, GNCCI, said the World Bank report for 2021 said women entrepreneurs dominated the private sector, therefore the need to assist them and the youth to understand the details of opportunities and challenges presented by the Agreement.

The conference was meant to furnish women with vital information on the AfCFTA, including the opportunities and strategies for their optimisation, rules of origin, export financing and export readiness, she said.

Mr Hamidi Hamza Saana, the Northern Regional Director, Ministry of Trade and Industry, said the country needed to inspire a surge in more successful women entre
preneurs to fast-track socio-economic development.

He urged participants to table a feasible path for sustainable growth and development for women groups within the context of the Agreement’s protocols.

Madam Esther Nabiiri, the Founder of Agape Moringa Processing, said being part of GNCCI created an avenue for her to trade across countries and which also made it easy to obtain a certificate of origin for exports.

Source: Ghana News Agency