From: Tropical Timber Market Report
Business owners in Ghana are uneasy about the warning delivered in a nationwide television address by the President that a partial lockdown will be necessary if the coronavirus situation continues to deteriorate.
By Tobias Nii Kwatei Quartey | Unsplash
The warning seemed to have been taken up by the private sector with businesses insisting on basic covid protocols by customers and staff. Over the past months restrictions had been eased but the infection rate has been rising again. The Ghana Police Service is now enforcing the law concerning the compulsory use of face masks.
Payout of funds to revive businesses
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has begun disbursing GHS282-million to businesses to revive the industrial sector. Deputy Minister, Herbert Krapa, said this forms part of efforts to ensure the implementation of some targeted reforms aimed at increasing foreign investments.
Ghana to reverse land degradation
In a press release World Bank Country Director, Pierre Laporte, reports the Bank has approved USD103.4 million for Ghana to reverse land degradation and strengthen integrated natural resource management over about 3 million hectares of degraded landscapes.
The cost of environmental degradation in Ghana due to unsustainable land use for agriculture, forestry and mining stood at 2.8% of national GDP in 2017. If the current natural resource extraction remains unchanged Ghana will see its natural resource base destroyed over the long term with fewer opportunities to sustain growth and shared prosperity.
Laporte said “The project will help boost post-Covid-19 economic recovery, create jobs and secure livelihoods in some of the poorest parts of Ghana by focusing on agricultural productivity, ecosystems management and sustainable small-scale mining”.
USD2 billion from tree crops
Ghana is expected to earn billions of dollars from some six identified tree crops in the next decade. The tree crop plan forms part of the government’s flagship project to improve the country’s foreign exchange earnings. The crops include rubberwood and together the six tree crops could generate US$2 billion annually.
The acting CEO of the Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA), William Quaitoo, said government is putting in place all the necessary measures to regulate the sectors involved. The regulation processes are expected to be completed latest by December 2021.
According to the Timber Industry Development Division reports Ghana exported 559 cu. m of rubberwood in 2020.
First half FDI
The Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) has reported USD874-million in investments in the first half of this year from 122 projects. The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) component of these projects amounted to USD829.29-million an increase 325% over FDI in the first half of 2020.
Of the 122 registered projects, 94 were newly registered projects and 28 were upstream projects. The total initial capital transfers also amounted to USD47.76-million for the first half of 2021. The agriculture sector also recorded a project. The manufacturing sector came second to the service sector, with FDI value of USD98.74-million
