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Ghana’s decades of darkness: Finance or Incompetence? The Road Map

In today’s era of industrialization, where all aspects of our lives are so dependent on electricity for the smallest chores like charging a mobile phone to powering industrial units, the idea of life without electricity or a single day with no electricity may be a terrible thought to some people, yet, this is so common…

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Taxation vs. Debt: Is Ghana making the Right Decision to revive a Post COVID Economy?

As cited by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the coronavirus pandemic has instigated a global economic downturn that the world has never experienced since the Great Depression. According to available statistics, not even the strongest of economies have been able to withstand the shocks associated with this economic downturn caused by the Pandemic. Just like…

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Covid-19 and Ghana’s Debt Stock: The Policy Implications and Strategies for a Stable Ghanaian Economy

As widely reported, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Novel Coronavirus (Sars-Cov 2) as a global pandemic on March 11th, 2020. While contagion was the main health impact, government decisions to contain the spread have consequential economic impacts in the short and long terms. China, the second-largest world economy and the purported source of…

The Big Public Debt Debate in Ghana: Who is Winning? A Historical Analysis of Ghana’s Public Debt and Fiscal Deficits From 2001-2020

Ghana’s social media and political space have been pre-occupied with the ‘age-old’ debate on public debt and which of the two political parties, namely the NPP and NDC, left the biggest hole in the country’s public finances. Stoking up the debate is a recently published (October 2020) IMF Sub Saharan Africa Regional Economic Outlook report…

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Pandemic threatens human capital gains of the past decade-New Report

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens hard-won gains in health and education over the past decade, especially in the poorest countries, a new World Bank Group analysis finds. Investments in human capital—the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives—are key to unlocking a child’s potential and to improving economic growth in every country. The…

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TUNANI’S TAKE: COVID-19 AS A CRITICAL JUNCTURE TO CREATING A NEW GHANA AND AFRICA

The novel coronavirus is claiming lives and crippling economies around the world. Historical accounts and some development economic literature have shown that pandemics, to a large extent, inevitably cause enormous changes in economies, politics, international relations, religion, institutions, human interaction, and technological advancement, etc. What do all these pandemics mean to both the developed and…

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Gov’t’s 2020 GDP growth revised to 0.9 from 6.8%

Huge revenue losses associated with the outbreak of COVID-19 and projected losses due to the impact of the pandemic has pushed government to downgrade its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth from 6.8 percent to 0.9 percent. This was announced by the Minister of Finance Ken Ofori Atta during the presentation of the Mid-Year Review of…

Ghana Stock Exchange records GH¢194 million in traded shares for first 6 months of 2020

The Ghana Stock Exchange has recorded a total of more than 262.2 million traded shares valued at GH¢ 194 million in the first six months of 2020 amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus crisis. The performance, from January to June 2020, represents 107.9 per cent growth in volumes and 87.7 per cent in value traded…

How COVID-19 is making companies act for the long term

Companies understand that managing this pandemic is more important for future success than booking profits. Businesses are shifting their models to help slow, prevent, or cure the virus. The pandemic will help more companies see the important advantages of thinking long-term. As much of the world shelters in place, a new future is being invented….

…What will COVID-19 do to banking? Perspective from Xavier Vives’s

The COVID-19 crisis has revealed banks to be not part of the problem for a change, but part of the solution. They have so far proven to be resilient, mostly as a result of the stricter capital and liquidity requirements imposed on them following the 2007-09 global financial crisis. Today, many governments are using banks…

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IFC Invests US$5.6bn for private sector development in Africa and the Middle East

More than US$500m to address the COVID-19 pandemic IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, committed US$5.6billion to private sector development in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa in fiscal year 2020, supporting businesses across the two regions to launch, grow, provide jobs and fight impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, IFC…

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Economy expected to slide for 2-3 years before rebounding

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is expected to present the government’s mid-term budget review to Parliament on Thursday, while speculation is rife about the negative economic impact of the novel coronavirus on government projects and programmes. Mr. Ofori-Atta was engaged by a section of the media on his expectations and we must admit he gave a…