Joy Business Report @1

Top story: Ghanaians will have to brace themselves up to pay for more for electricity consumption, as electricity tariff is expected to go up soon, the African Center for Energy Policy has revealed. This is due to the obsolete equipment that the Ghana GRID Company (GRIDCo) is repairing and upgrading some across the country

Top story: Joy Business is gathering that government’s $5 billion Eurobond has been oversubscribed. However, the interest cost has not yet been disclosed. The Finance Ministry is expected to put out a statement to give full details about the Eurobond oversubscription soon. Ghana becomes the first African country to issue a zero-coupon rated bond. With a zero-rated coupon bond, no interest is paid whilst it trades a discount to its face value

Top story: The decision by government to withdraw the 5.0% capital gain tax on profit made by investors during the 2021 Budget presentation, can be a game changer to activities on the stock market. According to Managing Director of Ekow Afedzie, the new directive should be a relief to investors and also serve as a catalyst to entrepreneurs to invest more on the capital market.

Vetting of Finance minister designate - Ken Ofori Atta

Ministerial vetting of Finance minister designate - Ken Ofori Atta

Top story: President Akufo-Addo has said that government is committed to ensuring that petroleum revenues are well managed for the benefit of Ghanaians. Speaking at the launch of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) in Accra on Wednesday, he said government was determined to leverage the country’s hydrocarbon resources for the economic transformation of Ghana.

Top story: Minister for Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen has defended the 2021 budget and economic policies as the best to push Ghanaian businesses ahead of their African partners trading on the African Continental Free Trade Area. According to him, the suspension of tax stamp for small businesses, suspension of capital gain tax and other initiatives in the budget will ensure that a conducive business environment is created

Top story: EgyptAir is said to begin a new national airline for the country, to be called “Air Ghana”. According to Bloomberg, the new “Air Ghana” is likely to begin operations in a couple of months’ time. EgyptAir is looking to expand on the African continent as air traffic recovers from the covid-19 pandemic.

Top story: The 2021 Population and Housing Census scheduled to take place in April and May next year will be the first digital census in Ghana. It will involve the use of Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing devices (tablets) for electronic data capture and Geographic Positioning Systems (GPS) for recording coordinates of structures as recommended by the United Nations.

Top story: International ratings agency, Fitch, could review Ghana’s credit rating of B, saying, the “high cost of government’s debt burden is an important rating weakness”.

This it says will continue to squeeze government’s other spending priorities.