Last Updated- Jan 11, 2010 9:07 - - 1 Comment


Ghana’s democratic credentials put country up on tourism rankings

The Kakum Canopy Walkway

Ghana for the first time has been included in the list of developing countries that attract tourists based on ethical values, a new report released by Ethical Traveller has said.

Ghana ranks fourth among the ten developing countries. These are: Argentina, Belize, Chile, Ghana, Lithuania, Namibia, Poland, Seychelles, South Africa and Suriname.

Ethical Traveler’s report, “The World’s Best Ethical Destinations” identifies the 10 countries in the developing world that are best protecting their natural environments, promoting responsible travel, and building a tourism industry which provides real benefits to local communities.

Ethical Traveler is a project of the Earth Island Institute, based in San Francisco. The  organization has experts with a  broad range of  expertise in the fields of travel,  environment, economy, health and world policy, it says on its website.

According to the report, Ghana joins the 2010 list due to an impressive commitment to genuine democracy, as well as a growing culture of sustainability, environmental consciousness and grassroots efforts towards responsibly improving Ghana for Ghanaians and tourists alike.

Ghana is the third most important tourist destination in West Africa, according to Luigi Cabrini.

Mr. Cabrini, who is Director, Sustainable Development of Tourism of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) said these when he addressed stakeholders in the tourism sector in Ghana.
He said Ghana comes third after Nigeria and Senegal in the sub-region in terms of international arrivals, the GNA has reported.

According to Mr. Cabrini, international tourist arrivals for 2007 was 587,000 whiles tourism receipts for the same year amounted to $908 million with an average annual growth rate between 2000–2007 pegged at 5.7 percent.

Ghana’s Minister of Tourism has also said that the sector is the fourth highest foreign exchange earner for Ghana, and the country earned a total of $1.3 billion in 2008.

According to a B&FT report, projected tourists arrivals for 2008 was pegged at 698,069 with receipts in monetary value amounting to US$1.2 million, as against 586,612 arrivals in 2007 amounting to US$1.17 million.

This, the newspaper said, reflects a consistent increase in tourism revenue over the years.

In 2005 the country earned US$836 million from tourism.

The income generated from these arrivals grew at an even stronger rate, 11.2% annually for the same period, hitting US$680 million in 2005.

The hospitality industry, particularly hotels, had the largest chunk of the revenue ­taking up 34 percent of the expended income, while the transportation and food sectors had 11 percent each with the entertainment industry enjoying eight per cent, it said.

Domestic tourism last year saw a total of 417,558 arrivals to the country, comprising 303,668 residents visiting 25 tourist sites and 113, 890 non-residents patronising domestic tourism.

The figures indicate that Ghana has not yet hit the intended one million tourists target ­earmarked in 2007 to coincide with the country’s Golden Jubilee celebrations and the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, since Ghana boasts of many landmark castles and sites used in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

The target was developed to make tourism the leading sector of the economy through foreign exchange earnings and employment creation.

Currently, tourism is one of the fastest growing sector in the economy and is expected to grow at an average rate of 4.1 % per annum over the next two decades.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


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Educated Ghanaians look for jobs outside – Report

A growing number of educated Ghanaians are leaving the country in search of jobs in other lands, an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) report has found out.

The Ghana migration profile which was released Friday January 8, 2009 said trained Ghanaians are seeking jobs outside the country because of lack of employment opportunities for young people and “the decline of Nigeria as a major destination for Ghanaians.”

The report which covers 10 West African countries found that although 71% of Ghanaian migrants stay in West Africa, a growing number of Ghanaians are now to be found outside the region. Ghanaian migrants, according to the report can be found in 33 countries worldwide.

The United States and the United Kingdom are the two most important destination countries for Ghanaians outside of West Africa. The US has 7.3% and  the UK has 5.9% of Ghanaian migrants.

Ghana has the highest emigration rates of 46% for highly skilled people in West Africa.

This trend the report found is detrimental to the country’s education and health sector, but more especially so, for the health sector. It is estimated that more than 56% of doctors and 24% of nurses trained in Ghana are now working abroad. In education, more than 60% of faculty positions at polytechnics and 40% at public universities are vacant.

The report noted that a lack of career development and poor working conditions are the main drivers of skilled emigration and although the government has introduced measures to improve pay for health professionals, income differentials with western countries are too large to compete. One study in 2004 found that wage differentials between nurses in Ghana and counterparts in Canada and Australia were 14 times as much. For doctors, they were 25 times as much.

The profile, however found a positive impact of growing emigration on the country. The report described as dramatic the increase in official remittance flows to Ghana.

It indicated that the Bank of Ghana estimates that remittances increased from US476 million in 1999 to US$ 1.9 billion in 2008. However, the economic crisis has taken its toll with the Bank reporting a 7.3 per cent decrease in remittances in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008.

Nevertheless, the report recommends the need to create and maintain links with a diaspora estimated to range from anywhere between 1.5 million to 3 million Ghanaians in order to tap into their potential and to benefit from skills transfer, investment opportunities and remittances.

The report also found that Ghana has become a destination choice for most West Africans because of the country’s stable democracy and peace.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


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Kosmos Energy under investigation for corruption in Ghana

Texas-based oil and gas exploration company, Kosmos Energy, which is also one of the stakeholders in Ghana’s largest oil field, the Jubilee oil field is being investigated for corruption by US and Ghanaian officials the Financial Times (FT) reports.

According to the report, the authorities are looking into allegations of a relationship involving Kosmos and its local partner EO that helped the US oil company to secure control of the Jubilee oil field.

The case, the FT says risks complicating efforts by Kosmos Energy to sell its stake in the Jubilee oil field to another Texas-based US oil company, ExxonMobil in a deal valued at $4 billion. Kosmos has however denied any wrongdoing.

EO is a company owned by two political allies of former president John Agyekum Kufuor who handed over power to current president John Atta Mills after the elections of 2008.

Citing people close to the case, the FT says Ghana is preparing to file criminal charges against EO. The US justice department is also understood to be probing the relationship between EO and Kosmos, although the department on Thursday declined to confirm or deny this, it added.

A California-based lawyer working for the Ghanaian investigation, Duke Amaniampong told the FT that Ghana’s attorney-general had accumulated “enough evidence of criminal culpability to bring charges against the EO group and its directors”.

The charges would include “causing a financial loss to the state, money laundering and making false declarations to public agencies”, a person in the attorney-general’s office told the FT.

Ghanaian officials believe EO used its links with government officials to secure favourable deals for itself in the country’s nascent oil industry, but they have denied this saying they have conducted all their activities lawfully.

EO was set up by a Houston-based businessman, George Owusu, who was Kosmos’s representative in Accra and Kwame Bawuah Edusei, a doctor and supporter of Mr Kufuor who was later appointed as ambassador to Washington.

The group has a 3.5 per cent stake in the offshore oil block where Kosmos first found commercial quantities of oil in 2007. EO, whose stake could be worth more than $200m, initiated the deal which brought Kosmos into Ghana three years earlier, the FT said.

Kosmos had put up for sale its stake in the Jubilee oil field, said to contain about 1.8 billion barrels of oil according to Tullow Oil the majority stakeholders. It also has 17 wells. It is the largest oil field to be found in West Africa in the last 10 to 15 years. Commercial production of oil in the field is expected to begin this year.

A sale agreement between Kosmos Energy and ExxonMobil in October was halted by the Ghanaian government which has since indicated its interest in buying the stake.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


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Ghana has double taxation agreements with six other countries

Ghana has double taxation agreements (DTAs) with six other countries apart from Switzerland.

The Swiss Embassy in Accra issued a press statement Tuesday January 5, 2010 and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com in which it announced the coming into force of the agreement between Ghana and Switzerland on January 1, 2010.

The agreement between Ghana and Switzerland was signed in July 2008 and ratified by the parliaments of the two countries in 2009.

Ghana has signed similar agreements with the following six countries; France, UK, Belgium, Italy, Germany and South Africa, according to information on the website of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC).

Ghana uses the instrumentality of DTAs to rationalize the tax obligations of investors who come from global tax sourced jurisdictions with a view to saving the affected investors from the incidence of double taxation by both their home governments and the host country, the GIPC says.

Ghana is committed to entering into DTAs with interested countries with the ultimate objective of freeing investment capital and thereby securing the investment capital from being eroded by the effects of taxation, it adds.

The DTAs save investors in the participating countries money, because they are not liable to pay taxes in both countries. For instance, if a Swiss investor who invests directly into Ghana pays taxes in Switzerland, he is not liable to pay taxes on the same investment in Ghana.

According to the statement from the Swiss Embassy, the agreement will protect investors from the two countries from double taxation on income, wealth and capital gains.

Specifically, Swiss direct investment in Ghana and Ghanaian direct investments in Switzerland will be encouraged and withholding tax on dividends, interest, licence royalties and service fees will be limited, it added.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


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US FBI in Ghana, country admits bomber stayed for two weeks

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - the suspect

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have arrived in Ghana to probe the stay in the country of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian accused of attempting to blow up a US airliner, the AFP has reported.

The deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim-Boateng, was quoted by the AFP as saying “the investigation will allow the FBI agents to gather more information on the suspect’s stay in Ghana.”

Mr. Agyenim-Boateng did not however say when the FBI agents arrived in Ghana and how long they will stay.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal (WJS) says officials in Ghana have said that the Nigerian had been in Ghana and had lived in the country for two weeks before he attempted the act of bombing the Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day.

Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, also a deputy Minister of Information told the WSJ that Ghanaian officials did not know how Abdulmutallab spent his time or who he was with while in the country.

Ghanaian officials however criticized U.S. and U.K. officials for not sharing information about Mr. Abdulmutallab before his arrival in Ghana.

The Ghanaian government said Mr. Abdulmutallab arrived in Accra on December 9, earlier than was previously believed. He stayed for just over two weeks before flying to Lagos to board his flight to Amsterdam, where he connected to another Detroit-bound flight that he attempted to attack with explosives sewn into his underpants.

Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa told the WSJ that Mr. Abdulmutallab arrived at 3:20 a.m. on December 9, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Dubai via Addis Ababa. As a citizen of the West African economic bloc Ecowas, Mr. Abdulmutallab is allowed to stay in Ghana for up to 90 days without a visa.

He was processed without any problems because the Ghanaian government had not been alerted about a possible threat from Mr. Abdulmutallab, Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa said. Mr. Abdulmutallab’s father had alerted U.S. and Nigerian authorities to his concern about his son’s growing extremism, and British officials, in May 2009, denied Mr. Abdulmutallab a student visa to re-enter that country, where he had graduated from university in 2008.

“What we have concerns about has been the lack of sharing information,” he said. “We had been working closely with American and British partners, our global partners, but nobody at any point in time shared information about any such Abdulmutallab. When the incident happened it came as a surprise to all of us.”

According to the government, Mr. Abdulmutallab wrote on his immigration form that he would be staying at the Holiday Inn in Accra, but checked into another hotel in town. Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa declined to name the hotel, saying that the government was concerned about harming its business. He said security officials had spoken with the hotel management and people in the area, but that so far they had not turned up anything that suggested possible criminal activity.

During his stay in Accra, Mr. Abdulmutallab kept a low profile, Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa said. “So far we have not had any indication that he engaged with people generally,” he said. “He wasn’t seen walking around. He appeared to have kept a rather quiet and private life. So far we have not stumbled on who he met with, or whether he met with anybody.”

Ghanaian officials confirmed an earlier statement from Nigerian officials that Mr. Abdulmutallab had purchased his ticket to the U.S. in cash at a KLM office. At some point, he also purchased a one-way ticket in cash from Accra to Lagos, Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa said.

After 13 days in Accra, he boarded Virgin Nigeria flight 804 from Accra to Lagos on December 24, which departed at 5:06 p.m. “He filled the immigration forms on the flight,” he said. “I have all those on the form before me so I know he was on the flight.” He said the Ghanaian officials were trying to discern why Mr. Abdulmutallab chose to return to Lagos rather than fly to the U.S. from Ghana, the report said.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


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Can Ghanaians hope in country’s oil?

At Agbogbloshie market in Accra, Ghana’s capital, Rose Kamina struggles to sell T-shirts in the stifling heat. “Business is small-small,” says the 22-year-old wearily. “This year we could only afford fowl for Christmas.” Then, unexpectedly, her face brightens a little. “But maybe next year we will buy a goat.”

As Ghana prepares to pump oil in the second half of 2010, hopes are rising, both among hard-pressed market traders at home and in the far-flung diaspora, where Ghanaians are quitting jobs in American banks to head back to an optimistic homeland. Oil was found off Ghana’s coast in 2007 and, even without further discoveries, is now expected to earn an average of $1.2 billion in annual state revenues for almost two decades. For a country with 23m people and a GDP of $16 billion, it could be a big boost—or a crippling blight.

Perky economic growth, a decent human-rights record and two consecutive changes of government by the ballot box have made Ghana one of the past decade’s success stories in Africa. In 2009 it won the accolade of being sub-Saharan Africa’s only country to be visited by Barack Obama as president. Yet some people worry that it could slip back into its corrupt and violent ways once the oil begins to flow: witness other countries in the region, such as huge Nigeria and tiny Equatorial Guinea, where cliques of “big men” have stolen stacks of bounteous oil money while most of the people have been left to live in poverty. This is the curse of black gold.

Ghana still has a good chance of getting it right. Unlike many of its neighbours, Ghana has struck oil under democracy. Its officials entrusted with drawing up legislation have been scrutinising oil-revenue laws from Norway to Trinidad and Timor-Leste. A draft bill proposes that part of the oil money should go directly into the national budget, with the rest split between a “stabilisation fund” to support the budget if oil prices drop and a “heritage fund” to be spent only when the oil starts to run out. Putting the money into ring-fenced funds should prevent a free-for-all among politicians and the corruption that could ensue.

But there are countervailing pressures. President John Atta Mills, who took office a year ago after a tense election won by less than half a percentage point, inherited a fiscal deficit of 14.5%, almost two-thirds more than the previous year’s. The former ruling party, it transpired, had embarked on a pre-election spending spree to woo voters. Because of Ghana’s recent record of good management, donors have helped out: the World Bank tripled direct assistance in 2009 and the IMF has agreed to lend $600m over three years. But Mr Mills has still had to cut spending, with a partial freeze on hiring in the public sector, the biggest employer. And the opposition says the government is creating mistrust by spending too much time weeding out civil servants close to the previous administration rather than preparing for petroleum.

None of this is endearing Mr Mills to the electorate. After an austere year the government may yet be tempted to blow its early oil revenues on restoring popularity. That would set a dangerous precedent; it would also be a lot easier if the government was not restricted by laws to stop it. For all the fine talk of heritage funds, the oil bills are behind schedule; none has yet been put to Parliament. “If you get the revenues before the laws, it will be very grey,” warns Moses Asaga, a member of the ruling National Democratic Congress who chairs Parliament’s energy and mining subcommittee. “Everybody will be struggling for the money.”

So decisions taken this year will strongly affect Ghana’s future. With proven reserves of just 1.2 billion barrels of crude (against Nigeria’s 36 billion), Ghana’s windfall may last only a generation. As Joe Amoako-Tuffour, a senior official working on the oil laws, puts it: “We must decide how many of these eggs to eat today and how many to keep and hatch into chickens. But we are a poor country and we are hungry. The temptation is to eat now.”

Source: The Economist


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Ghana, China trade hits over $189m in 2009

Trade between Ghana and China has reached over $189.395 million as at the end of October 2009 according to official statistics published in the Chinese media.

China has not hidden its interest in Ghana in particular and Africa in general. Indeed, bilateral relations between Ghana and China became stronger during the First Republic when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was President of Ghana.

In the first half of 2009, China invested about $552 million directly in Africa raising China’s direct investment in Africa to 81% from the same period in 2008.

And trade between Ghana and China has grown over the years. In 2005 trade between the two countries was $769 million.

Trade between the two countries has blossomed over the years, with China benefitting most.

Ghana’s exports to China totalled only $25 million with imports of $93 million in the year 2000. Exports grew to $32 million in 2003 with imports of $180 million. In 2006, the figure went up to $39 million for exports while imports surged to $504 million.

China recently gave Ghana some undisclosed financial support to be used to develop infrastructure for the country’s nascent oil industry.

On Wednesday December 30, 2009 China granted Ghana two concessional financial facilities totalling 100 million Chinese yuan, approximately $14.65 million.

And on the same day the first batch of an 11-member Chinese medical team arrived in Ghana for a two-year medical mission.

The six-member medical team, which includes experts in cardiology, anesthesiology, neurology and urology, is the first batch of the 11-member medical team. Its members were selected from hospitals in Guangzhou, capital of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

China has also offered to rebuild Ghana’s Foreign Affairs offices after it was razed down last year.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


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Facebook is most popular site in Africa – Report

The social networking site, Facebook has taken the lead as the most popular website visited in Africa, according to a report by Opera.

According to the report Facebook is the most popular site visited by Opera Mini users in six of the 10 African countries covered in the report published December 22, 2009 and it is second in three of the countries where it is not number one.

The report also indicated that Google is very popular in these countries and ahead of Facebook in a few of the top 10 countries.

The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in Africa are (in order): South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Tanzania and Namibia.

Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets are extremely popular in Africa, but Samsung is a significant exception, boasting the most popular phone used by Opera Mini users in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia, the report said.

According to available statistics there are over 10 million Africans on Facebook as at November 3, 2009. Facebook currently has over 300 million users worldwide.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


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Chinese companies top FDI list in Ghana

Chinese companies top the list of companies registered in terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Ghana, the CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has said.

Mr. George Aboagye said the FDI component of the estimated value of the companies registered during the period under review was GH¢339.32 million while the local currency component amounted to GH¢24.88 million.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra, he said while Chinese companies record the highest number of companies in the country, South African companies top the list of countries with the largest value of investments in Ghana in 2009.

He said the GIPC during the third quarter of this year registered a total of 81 new companies with a combined value of GH¢374.15 million compared to 83 new companies in the second quarter which were valued at GH¢156.34 million.

Mr Aboagye said the figure for the third quarter represented a significant jump, inching closer to Ghana’s annual projected estimates of GH¢400 million, yet to be realised.

China has not hidden its growing interest in Africa in general and Ghana in particular.

In the first half of 2009, China invested about $552 million directly in Africa raising China’s direct investment in Africa to 81% from the same period in 2008.

And trade between Ghana and China has grown over the years. In 2005 trade between the two countries was $769 million.

Trade between the two countries has blossomed over the years, with China benefitting most.

Ghana’s exports to China totalled only $25 million with imports of $93 million in the year 2000. Exports grew to $32 million in 2003 with imports of $180 million. In 2006, the figure went up to $39 million for exports while imports surged to $504 million.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


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AngloGold Ashanti closes deal with IFC in mine purchase

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., has closed a transaction with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group for the purchase of up to half of the IFC’s stake in Société d’Exploitation des Mines d’or de Sadiola (SEMOS) which owns the Sadiola Gold Mine in Mali.

In a press statement issued Tuesday December 29, 2009 and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com, AngloGold Ashanti said the other half of the IFC’s interest in SEMOS has been acquired by IAMGOLD Corporation on the same material terms and conditions.

The statement indicated that the transaction follows IAMGOLD’s announcement on November 2, 2009 whereby it offered to acquire the IFC’s entire interest in SEMOS and is as a result of both parties following the pre-emptive rights process in accordance with the SEMOS shareholders agreement.

The consideration for each 3% stake is US$6 million upfront followed by contingent payments during 2010, 2011 and 2012 for:  US$0.25 million for each year in which the average gold price exceeds US$900/oz or US$0.5 million for each year in which the average gold price exceeds US$1000/oz and US$0.5 million upon approval by the board of directors of SEMOS and the Republic of Mali to proceed with the development of the Sadiola Deep Sulphide Project or a public announcement by AngloGold Ashanti to proceed, the statement said.

In addition, AngloGold Ashanti and IAMGOLD have extended an offer to the Republic of Mali to take up its proportionate entitlement of 19.15% of the 6% sale interest, by acquiring an equal 0.574% interest in SEMOS from each of them on terms proportionately identical to those set out above, on or before 31 March 2010, it added.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


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