Joy Business Report @1

Banks operating in Ghana wrote off ¢2.086 billion as bad debt in 2021, a 4.7% decline over the previous year, the Domestic Money Bank’s Income Statement by the Bank of Ghana has revealed. In 2020, the provision for bad debt was ¢2.183 billion.

More than 90% of businesses that shutdown as a result of the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic have resumed full scale operations. This constitutes more than 20,000 businesses, out of the over 30,000 that were closed down during the pandemic.

The global oil market will be subject to significant uncertainties in 2022, due to the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on economic growth, oil demand, and the production decisions of oil producing countries.

The Deputy Transport Minister, Hassan Tampuli, has refuted claims that the former Managing Director of Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), Yaw Kwakwa, was dismissed due to strife with McDan Aviation.

The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has said the government should “immediately” apply the estimated accumulated balance of GH¢948 million in the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy (PSRL) account to cushion petroleum consumers instead of waiting for parliament, which is currently on recess, to grant a two-month suspension of the PSRL “when there is accumulated cash to assuage the suffering of the consumers immediately”.

The government secured a little above ¢1.08 billion from the sale of a 2-year bond issued on 10th February 2022. This came a few days after credit rating agency, Moody’s downgraded Ghana’s creditworthiness into junk status.

Economist and Finance Lecturer, Professor Godfred Bokpin, has challenged managers of the economy to tackle underlying pressures contributing to rising inflation. Inflation for the month of January hit 13.9%, triggered by non-food items, particularly transport, housing, water and electricity.

The rising cost of Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels (28.7%) as well as Transport (17.4%) pushed the rate of inflation for January 2022 to 13.9%, data from the Ghana Statistical Service has revealed. If the trend continues, lending rates as well as cost of living will go up further.

An African Union-backed panel has urged Moody’s Investors Service to review an appeal by government against the rating agency’s downgrade of the country’s credit rating.

Economist and Political Risk Analyst, Dr. Theo Acheampong has stated that government’s decision to challenge Fitch and Moody’s downgrade ratings is a step in the right direction. This is because, in his view, there is, “African Premium or African sort of bias in the way the ratings are done.”