Interview: Charles Darku What sorts of potential obstacles do you see for the future full implementation of the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) project? CHARLES DARKU: The prices of cross-border regulatory arrangements are set on historical provisions. However, these must be harmonised so that each utility does not add up in cost, minimising its competitiveness as it travels across borders. Today,…
Interview:Roland Agambire How competitive is Ghana as a base for value-added production in consumer electronics? ROLAND AGAMBIRE: One can say that the perception within the industry has changed and people are realising new opportunities coming within the sector. It is true that earlier on people would have never thought that local ICT manufacturing could have a significant impact on the country’s…
Interview:Sampson Donkoh What plans are in place to allocate the money coming from the tourism fund? SAMPSON DONKOH: So far a large portion of the money going into the fund is coming from upmarket hotels. The collection so far has been very smooth since the luxury market has been very cooperative. We expect to see challenges when it comes to collecting money from the informal sector though.…
Interview:Manoj Lakhiani In terms of a regional comparison, how competitive is Ghana as a manufacturing destination? MANOJ LAKHIANI: By African standards, manufacturers in Ghana compare well for a variety of reasons. Despite recent electricity price hikes, actual electricity supply is still relatively stable and we expect the current price spike to be only short term. In neighbouring countries…
Interview:Ernest Aryeetey To what extent do accreditation criteria need to be strengthened or better enforced in Ghana? ERNEST ARYEETEY: The way the national accreditation board pursues accreditation does not really distinguish between different types of institutions. All public universities are seen as equal, but in fact they all have different endowments, resources and strengths. It would…
Interview:Dr Pilar Mateo Herrero What are the advantages to manufacturing health care products in Africa? DR PILAR MATEO: Usually it is very common within the health care industry to produce in Europe and export the finished products to Africa. However, we believe there is no reason why our types of products, which are designed to fight malaria and other diseases in Africa, cannot be produced…
Africa has had a chequered history, and we have gone down the wrong path several times. Today, all of us recognise that it is necessary for society to progress as a single unit and that we cannot achieve the kind of progress we desire when one section of society lives in absolute wealth while the majority of the people wallow in poverty. Today, we all, as the world, adopted the Millennium…
Conventional wisdom has long suggested that Ghana would never be a hotbed of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, given the ultra-conservative nature and fiercely proprietary culture of its first few generations of successful entrepreneurs. That myth has been debunked in recent years as the deal-making market has come to life with a series of successful deals as well as some protracted,…
The insurance industry is a very critical sector in the nation’s socio-economic development, and therefore pledges the government’s support to the insurance industry in particular and the financial services sector as a whole. Conservative figures put the rate of insurance penetration in Ghana at about 1%, compared to South Africa with a penetration of 14.8%, Namibia with 7.3% and Kenya…
Ghana has seen growth in the number of multinational organisations operating in all sectors. There has been a consequent rise in the volume and variety of intercompany transactions for intra-group services such as royalties, debt financing, management and technical services. New transfer pricing (TP) regulations have thus been introduced to provide guidance to taxpayers and to protect the country’s…
