The decision was contained in a joint communiqué issued and signed by Mr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board, and the Chief of Cote d’Ivoire’s Coffee and Cocoa Council, Yves Kone-Brahima. The two countries, at a two-day meeting in Accra in July, announced the suspension to push their demand for a floor price of US$2,600, which was accepted by stakeholders. Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, between them, produce more than 60 percent of the world’s cocoa output and have agreed to “a constant US$400 farmers’-living differential” on each tonne of cocoa from the two countries. The communiqué said, “in view of the above the two countries decided to lift the suspension of sales of the 2020/2021 crop from July 16,” the communiqué said. It said they were going to legislate the minimum producer price to be paid to cocoa farmers as a means to safeguard their income. The two countries would be paying farmers a guaranteed minimum price of 70 percent of the floor price of US$2,600 per tonne. Farmers would also be entitled to bonus payment when the achieved average gross Free On Board (FOB) price at the end of the Cocoa season is between the minimum of US$2,600 (US$2,700 Cost Insurance Freight (CIF) – US$2,900 (US$3,000 CIF). The countries agreed on creating a stabilization account under the cocoa initiative of both countries and provided for in the Charter. In line with this, two accounts would be set up for each country within the secretariat in Accra where any extra value above US$3,000 CIF or US$2,900 Gross FOB of the Achieved Weight Average will be deposited. Source: Citi Business News
The system known as Public Key Infrastructure will allow both the public and private companies authenticate every data they receive while protecting their own data from possible hacking. The system forms part of the government’ E-Transform project which seeks to digitize all transactions within the public sector. Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu Ekuful explains that the system will provide an additional layer of authentication which secures digital transactions “This key broken into two; the public key is given out so before anyone can read or open your document, they need the private key so if you are not the who actually issued out that document it will be impossible for anyone to open it and to read it, so it helps with issuance of digital certificates and electronic signatures of documents,” she explained. “Nowadays it’s easy to fake all kinds of things using the same technology so how do we ensure that the documents that you are for example filing in court are the real authentic documents. You need this public key infrastructure to be able to authenticate that, it makes it difficult if not impossible to falsify electronic and digital signatures,” she added. Source: Citi Business News
Berlin, July 17, 2019 - The Berlin start-up ecoligo will receive EUR 2.5 million of funding from Saxovent, an investor specializing in ecological investments. Since its foundation in 2016, ecoligo has opened up the solar market for commercial and industrial businesses in emerging markets, driving the energy transition in these countries. The current funding will be used to scale up operations and enter new markets. After closing a seed financing with business angels and InnoEnergy 2 years ago, ecoligo has successfully rolled out its crowd-financed Solar-as-a-Service concept in key markets. Saxovent COO, Matthias Kittler, was convinced by ecoligo’s business model, "because everyone involved benefits financially from the solution: the local companies who reduce their electricity costs, the local service providers through the installation and maintenance of the solar systems and the crowd investors in Germany, who receive an attractive interest rate. Last but not least, the climate benefits from the replacement of fossil fuels by solar energy". Therefore, according to Kittler, he is confident about the long-term success of the ecoligo and is happy to invest. Saxovent, a highly experienced renewable energy project developer that has built more than 385 wind turbines since 1997, is the sole investor in the current growth financing round. ecoligo’s recent success has been impressive. "So far we have brokered a total of more than EUR 2.4 million on the crowd investing platform ecoligo.investments and won almost 800 committed private investors. To date, we have successfully implemented more than 20 solar projects in East and West Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia and thus already have a relevant global influence," says ecoligo CEO Martin Baart. The company has also been awarded with several prizes and recognitions. "Our business model and especially the integration of crowdinvesting was recently selected as one of 1,000 efficient solutions by the Solar Impulse Foundation. These solutions will make a measurable and sustainable contribution to combating the climate crisis," announced ecoligo CFO Markus Schwaninger. With Saxovent's entry, Baart wants to expand into other countries and offer additional products and solutions: "With the funds raised, we are investing in the expansion of the existing hubs in Ghana, Kenya and Costa Rica and opening new locations in Southeast Asia. At the same time, we will expand our offering in the area of energy efficiency. There is huge potential here in our target markets." "Our local teams ensure that we maintain a close relationship with our corporate customers and partners, but our headquarters remains here in Berlin. In this way, we also want to ensure proximity to crowd investors. We are also looking forward to recruiting committed employees to strengthen the team here," Schwaninger explains. <i><br /></i><b><i>About Saxovent:</i><br /></b><i>Saxovent is an investor and project developer active in the renewable energy field and other sustainable business sectors. With a background in wind power project development and operation, Saxovent pursues both projects and corporate investments with a sustainable approach and with successful, long-term partners. <br /><a target="_self" class="rte_button" href="http://www.saxovent.de/en">Read more</a><br /><br /></i> <i><b>About ecoligo:</b></i><br /><i>ecoligo provides a fully financed solar-as-a-service solution for businesses in emerging markets. With a complete digital platform for financing and delivering solar projects, ecoligo removes the barriers that prevent such projects from being realised. Supplying businesses with affordable electricity enables them to grow and boost the local economy.<br /><a target="_self" class="rte_button" href="http://www.ecoligo.com/">Read more</a><br /><br /><br /></i> _____________________________________________________________________________________ <h4>Press contact:</h4> Emma Patmore <br />ecoligo GmbH <br />Tel.: +4915781036870 <br />E-mail: <a href="mailto:emma.patmore@ecoligo.com">write an E-mail</a><i><br /></i>
But little attention have been giving to its strengths and opportunities. It takes only those who have ever ventured closer, to see the brighter side of the 45,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd) state-owned facility which is situated 24 kilometers East of Accra. Fortunate am I to come close to the Technicians and Engineers of this facility who would always make it count when they are most needed. The capability and sense of ownership of the ordinary worker of the facility is not comparable; making them the employee of choice for the refineries in the Gulf and Asia. Beyond the human asset, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) can boost of huge storage capacity of approximately 1 million metric tonnes for both crude oil and finished petroleum products, and well inter-connected multi-product pipelines of varied sizes. The refinery also owns a Jetty, a Single Point Mooring (SPM) facility, and a Conventional Buoy Mooring (CBM) system for both crude and finished petroleum products vessels. And aside its large capacity of land, the facility is very much close to markets (local and domestic). However, the under-utilization of these assets have become a major setback for the entity. For instance, the stock tank turn is less than 1 percent; 20 percent minimum measure of fair utilization. Both the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) and the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) rarely run continuously, with the CDU unable to run at optimum capacity on most occasion. In spite of the challenges, industry players and analysts have described TOR as a necessary center of the success of Ghana’s proposed petroleum hub, as a result of its base assets that can easily be developed into a viable refinery. They argue that if the country could optimize the use of TOR’s existing assets, investors would appreciate the value proposition from Ghana as a petroleum hub. Having identified capital, good governance and management structure as some of the necessary factors needed to make the state-managed facility viable, industry players are asking government to take all useful assets of the refinery as an equity contribution to enter into a strategic relationship with private technical and financial institutions to recapitalize and revamp the facility, if it has to play the central role in the creation of the petroleum hub. <h4><br />Restructure:</h4> At the just ended 2019 Ghana Energy Summit organized by the Business and Financial Times (B&FT), panelists who led the discussion on the topic “Ghana’s Petroleum Hub Project: The Dream, Opportunities, How to Get There”, concluded that the private sector must play a key role in the idea’s formulation, implementation, and the management of the hub, appealing to politicians to stay out and focus on setting policy and regulatory guidelines. And in contributing to the discussion as a panel, Mr. Isaac Osei, the boss of TOR, conceded that the business of government is to create the enabling environment needed for the private sector to thrive, instead of seeking to manage enterprises. The assertion of the panelists was largely influenced by the huge capital and technological requirement for the success of the project which involves refineries, power plants, petro-chemical plants, light industry, storage and transmission utilities, waste and water treatment facilities, and business and residential centers et cetera. In repositioning the Tema Oil Refinery to not only be part, but to play a central role in the petroleum hub dream, it has become imperative for the government being the sole shareholder, to open its doors to private international and local investors to change the ownership structure of the facility. Government must be willing to forego its shares or take a minority stake in the business, and allow a strategic investor to introduce the kind of economics and technologies the business require. Restructuring TOR would provide the broad framework for the remedy to the numerous challenges facing the facility. Today, if the policy on TOR is reviewed and is privatized, the composition of the Board of Directors and management will reflect this new structure and will be incentivized to act in the best interest of the organization with little or no government interference. It would be able to not only attract funding, but also the competent hands required to run the facility as a business concern.<br /><br /> <h4>Recapitalize: </h4> Aside requiring competent leadership to make it viable, the business of oil refining require huge capital outlay to improve efficiency, meet higher quality fuel standards and environmental legislation. Successive governments have clearly shown the lack of financial, technical, and management capacity in this regard. TOR has been plagued with funding challenges, in spite of debt recovery levy Acts instituted in the past and the current cash collected through the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) to offset its indebtedness. And just like the many other state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Ghana’s energy sector, TOR has been made bankrupt from subsidies (and non-payment of these subsidies) and political interference; a problem that is practically government manufactured. It still remain unclear how much debt sits in the books of TOR and what the debt is made up of. A complete audit of TOR’s financial position is necessary to ascertain its indebtedness, and to commence the processes of recapitalization. Recapitalization remains the prime motive for proposing a change in the management and control of the refinery. To provide the free cash flow from the private sector to service the debts and provide working capital to relieve it from its financial distress which is frustrating smooth operations. <b>For instance, the process of installing the brand new 120 tonne per hour steam boiler that TOR took delivery of in October 2018 to replace the old and obsolete one which has proven to be unreliable has stalled, for reason of inadequate funds</b>. Also, the refinery have not been able to restore the furnace that exploded in January 2017 as a result of illiquidity, forcing the refinery’s production capacity to drop from 45,000 bpsd to a paltry 28,000 bpsd. Again, the company’s plan to build a Greenfield facility to refine 100,000 bpsd, as against its current capacity of 45,000 barrels, remains on the drawing board since it was first announced in October 2017, while it struggles to source for funds to upgrade the existing facility from 45,000 bpsd to 60,000 barrels. But the topmost of its financial challenges is the inability to raise letters of credit (LoC) to procure crude to ensure uninterrupted running of the facility. In view of these, capital injection from the private sector into the operation, expansion, and rehabilitation of the existing infrastructure is critical if the new TOR would have to play a central role in the petroleum hub.<br /><br /> <h4>Revamp: </h4> The world over, profitable refineries rely on operational efficiency to gain competitive edge since they have little or no control over the price of their input or their output. Therefore constant innovation, upgrading and optimization of plants remains a priority if they have to produce more outputs from fewer inputs. Revamping/rehabilitation and expanding the existing Tema Oil Refinery is therefore a non-negotiable call if it has to proceed on the path of sustainability. The country must rely on its petroleum hub agenda to revamp the existing TOR facility to make it more efficient whilst it makes plans to construct new refineries to meet local demand, as well as targeting the countries without refineries in the sub-region. There must therefore be a change in the technology or processes used in the existing facility to allow low-cost slate to be processed, increase the current throughput, achieve economies of scale and increase overall profitability. For instance, TOR have had the intention to automate the loading gantry at its premises to reduce the human intervention as a way of reducing, if not to eliminate the losses at the gantry. The idea of rehabilitating/revamping the storage and product transmission facilities to create more storage room, move product efficiently and safely, and reduce product losses, remain part of TOR’s plan. And the restoration of the exploded furnace and/or an installation of an additional furnace is also imperative to increase the number of barrels to produce per day. Even now with the Sulphur standards of 50 parts per million (ppm) that have been implemented to reduce Sulphur emissions by Diesel vehicles, TOR cannot refine to that standard and therefore they need to retool the plant to make it compliant with the new regulations and laws. In brief, the revamping idea is necessary today to revitalize TOR’s operational capacity through the upgrade and modernization of various parts of the refinery. It is therefore the most appropriate time for government to review its policy on TOR and cede the management and control of the facility to private and competent hands which has capacity to provide the right economics and technology for the business, if it has to be profitable and sustainable. <i>Written by <b>Paa Kwasi Anamua Sakyi</b>, Institute for Energy Security (IES) © 2019 </i> <i>The writer has over 22 years of experience in the technical and management areas of Oil and Gas Management, Banking and Finance, and Mechanical Engineering; working in both the Gold Mining and Oil sector. He is currently working as an Oil Trader, Consultant, and Policy Analyst in the global energy sector. He serves as a resource to many global energy research firms, including Argus Media.<br /></i> Source: Citi Business News
He said the government has devoted GHȼ 1 billion towards the establishment of the Tree Crop Development Authority that would regulate the cashew industry and revamp that sector to contribute significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Mr Ntim, who is responsible for Rural Economic Development and Agriculture, directed the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to raise the targeted 100,000 cashew seedlings under the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) programme to meet the target. The cashew seedlings would be supplied to registered farmers under the PERD programme free of charge for plantation. He said the PERD has come to stay and that government is contemplating on engaging unemployed youth to plant the cashew seedlings for farmers. Interacting with the Heads of Department (HODs) and staff of the Pru East District Assembly at Yeji in the Bono East Region, the Deputy Minister said the successful implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PfFJs) and the PERD programmes depended mostly on the MMDAs. He said the PERD, PfFJs and other social intervention programmes rolled out by the government were all geared towards job creation and poverty reduction, and directed the assemblies to intensify educational campaigns for more farmers and Ghanaians, in general, to register and benefit. Mr Ntim said documentation and reliable data collection are essential as they were key index in measuring the impact and success of the PfFJs programmes and called on the Assemblies to be awakened to improve data collection. He called for effective collaboration between Departments and Agencies within the MMDAs towards the implementation of the PfFJs and PERD to enable the government to achieve desirable results. Mr Ntim said the PfFJs and the PERD has huge potential for job creation and reduce rural poverty to spur rapid socio-economic growth and development and advised Ghanaians to embrace and support those programmes. He said the government is ready to provide agriculture inputs and equipment to expand the scope of the programmes, and the MMDAs were thus required to register more farmers and make the programmes attractive for the unemployed youth to join. Mr Joshua Kwaku Abonkrah, the Pru East District Chief Executive, said access to farmlands is very difficult in the area due to chieftaincy disputes and land litigation and this is impeding the implementation of the PERD and the PfFJs in the District. He said many farmers in the area had registered under the PERD and desired to go into a commercial plantation of cashew but access to farmlands is a major challenge. Mr Abonkrah advised traditional authorities to bury their differences and release lands to enable interested farmers to engage in the programmes. Source: GNA
The Vice President also touted the country’s stable domestic market and macroeconomic stability, which placed it as a favourable investment destination of choice in Africa. Vice President Bawumia touted Ghana’s economic credentials when he addressed a group of investors at the Canada-Ghana Economic Summit in Vancouver on Monday. The summit was organised by the Canada-Africa Strategic Investment Group Inc. Dr. Bawumia was optimistic that the recent economic development in Ghana presented huge opportunities for diverse investment opportunities and urged Canadian investors to double their steps in Ghana. The Vice President said Ghana provided a safe haven for investment, which was protected under a fair and ‘commercially-aware’ judicial system, ranked 48th out of 126 countries in the World Justice Project’s 2019 Rule of Law Index. For instance, Ghana is ranked higher than countries like South Africa in the 2019 A.T Kearney Global Services Location Index, a measure of the attractiveness of a location for offshore services. Ghana has also maintained a consistent position as the second-highest ranked country out of 20 in the Absa/Barclays Africa Group Financial Markets Index for two years running. More also, Ghana is ranked as the fourth highest out of 25 African Countries in Ernst & Young Africa’s Attractiveness Survey (2017), ahead of Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritius, Rwanda and Nigeria. According to Dr. Bawumia, Ghana’s large domestic market and the coming into force of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) suggests that the country’s domestic market was no longer confined to West Africa alone. This, he said, made Ghana the potential capital of Africa’s commercial, trade and investment future. Ghana is currently hosting the headquarters of several multinational companies, serving over 350 million people in the ECOWAS region. The multiplier effects of hosting AfCFTA provides an even greater opportunity for businesses to rapidly launch into the rest of Africa from Ghana, Dr. Bawumia noted. Vice President Bawumia further noted that “successful implementation of AfCTFA would have a combined consumer and business spending of $6.7 trillion by 2030. Additionally, it would boost manufacturing and industrial development in Africa and raise intra-African trade by 15 to 25 percent or $50 billion to $70 billion by 2040. Dr. Bawumia was of the conviction that economic transformation complemented by digital platforms would fast-track the country’s development efforts. He mentioned some ‘soft infrastructure’ rolled out by Government since it assumed office, including the National Identification System, Digital Property Address System, e-Justice System and Mobile Money Interoperability System, which were undertaken in partnership with the private sector. Mr. Yoofi Grant, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and Dr. Mohammed Awal, the Business Development Minister, took turns to market Ghana to potential investors. Mr. Yoofi Grant said Ghana had made significant economic strides and sustained path for macro-economic stability. He mentioned the 17 tax cuts in 2017, 11 percent cumulative reduction in electricity prices and suspension of Import Value-Added Tax of 15 percent on 64 Commodity Groups, to spur investment growth. Source: GNA