Foreign currency controls and higher interest rates will do little to mitigate pressure on the cedi unless the authorities do more to roll back the large fiscal and current-account deficits, say analysts assessing the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) policies to halt the currency’s pernicious slide since the start of the year. According to Fitch, the ratings agency which has published consistently grim assessments of Ghana’s fiscal situation in the past year, the country’s budget deficit, which averaged

Government must be serious with its commitment to the oil palm sector as it holds tremendous potential to create jobs and reduce poverty, says Harrie Hendrickx, Regional Oil Palm Programme Manager of Solidaridad, a global investor in sustainable agricultural supply chains. Oil palm is the fifth-largest crop in Ghana in terms of area planted after cocoa, maize, cassava and yam. Approximately 305,758 hectares of plantation is being cultivated nationwide, with an additional 20,000 hectares needed

  Ghana is on course to achieve the 2015 cocoa production certification standards stipulated by the World Cocoa Foundation, Philippe Huet, Managing Director of Cargill Cocoa and Chocolatetold B&FT. Cocoa buyers and consumers of chocolate around the world are increasingly demanding traceable cocoa that is certified as grown in a sustainable manner. As a result, a lot of cocoa- producing countries are grabbing the opportunities therein. Cocoa certification demands that a farmer’s social,

  Togbe Afede XIV, paramount chief of the Asogli traditional area and an industrialist, has been sworn-in as chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Investment Bank Limited. In a short but impressive ceremony held at the conference room of the Ministry of Finance, the seven-member board was sworn in by the Deputy Minister of Finance, Cassiel Ato Baah Forson. In a speech read on his behalf by his deputy, the Minister of Finance urged the new board to carry on with the good works

  The Volta River Authority (VRA) says it will embark on a conservation campaign to curb rising household power consumption. The campaign, if successful, will free-up many megawatts of power for industrial use to spur industrialisation. “A lot of us don’t conserve electricity. If you don’t need your light, switch it off. We are going to roll-out these demand-side management strategies which will be helpful to all of us,” acting Chief Executive Officer of the VRA Kirk Koffie told the