The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, COPEC, has warned that fuel prices at the pumps may go above five Ghana cedis in a few days if measures are not put in place to stabilize the cedi against the dollar.

COPEC says the continuous depreciation of the cedi increased the price of a liter of petrol by 65 pesewas.

A sharp drop in the price of fuel on the global market also saw the price of petrol hitting 4 cedis due to a trade war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Executive Director of COPEC, Duncan Amoah, argues that even though the easing of restrictions globally may have contributed to the prices of fuel going up on the global stage due to increased demand, the cedi is a major factor in the recent spike in prices.

According COPEC, there is the need to put in place measures to arrest the fall of the cedi to stabilize prices of fuel at the pumps since Ghana is a net importer of oil.

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The Institute of Energy Security, IES, has advised government to benchmark expected revenue from petroleum receipts around 35 dollars per barrel.

The 2020 national budget pegged petroleum prices for export at 60 dollars per barrel. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 caused prices of crude oil on the world market to drop to as low as 20 dollars per barrel.

According to IES, the presentation of the Mid-Year Budget in July, should provide an opportunity for the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to adjust the figures downwards.

The Executive Director of IES, Nana Amoasi VII (the seventh), while speaking to Citi Business News said the Finance Minister must be realistic in making projections not to throw the budget out of gear.

The Finance Minister will be compelled to review the prices downward due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

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The Investment and Securities Tribunal has called for the development of the capacities of litigants and counsel to effectively address capital market technicalities.

It said this had become vital as the lack of knowledge had made capital market litigants lose many cases.

The Acting Chairman, IST, Jude Udunni, however, told journalists in Abuja that his agency had been trying to develop the capacity of its workforce in order to address this lapse in the industry.

He said capacity of litigants and counsel need to be developed because of the technicalities of the capital market. The lack of knowledge has led to litigants losing cases.

According to him, the agency had organised three sensitisation programmes since 2017, despite not being the duty of the tribunal to build capacity of litigants and counsel.

The IST boss further noted that the tribunal was in a fix on how to proceed with cases that were delayed as a result of the lockdown occasioned by outbreak of COVID-19.

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The National Economic Council has said there is an urgent need for technical and financial audits of the electricity distribution companies in the country before interventions by Siemens, World Bank and others.

The Federal Government and Siemens AG signed a Letter of Agreement on the Nigerian Electrification Roadmap in July 2019, with the aim of ramping up electricity generation in the country to 25,000 megawatts in six years.

NEC’s Ad-Hoc Committee on Ownership Review and Analysis of Discos and Electricity Sector Reform, in its report said the power sector had underperformed due to critical challenges.

It said the challenges included non-implementation of cost-reflective tariffs, misalignment between the investors and the Bureau of Public Enterprises on required investment in Discos, under-investment in infrastructure and poor implementation of rules/contracts.

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Virgin Atlantic has announced its intention to resume flights from Lagos to London Heathrow from August 24, 2020.

According to a statement by the airline, the international flight will be operated on its new A350-1000 aircraft and will provide connections to a range of US destinations.

In addition, the airline promised to resume flying to 16 additional destinations around the world.

The Chief Commercial Officer of Virgin Atlantic, Juha Jarvinen, said as countries around the world begin to relax travel restrictions, we look forward to welcoming our customers back onboard and flying them safely to many destinations across our network.

He said from 20th July flight will resume services to New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong; then from 1st August onwards, passenger flying to 17 additional destinations around the world including Lagos, Tel Aviv, Atlanta, Mumbai and Las Vegas.

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The Federal Government on Monday said it would carry out a simulation trial of domestic flight operations at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos on Saturday as it prepares to reopen the country’s airspace to commercial flights.

It also assured Nigerians that airfares would not be outrageously high as speculated by many, based on plans to begin the social distancing rule onboard flights.

This came as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority declared that it would submit the aviation restart plan to the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Wednesday.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, while speaking at Monday’s briefing of the PTF in Abuja, doused concerns about a possible hike in airfares when commercial flights resume.

He added that they are doing everything to ensure that tickets’ prices are not skyrocketed. They may be different but affordable to passengers.

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European stocks moved into positive territory after a negative start on Monday, as investors focus on prospects of a quick economic recovery despite a resurgence in coronavirus cases in Germany, the US and Australia. Robert Koch Institute said that the covid-19 reproduction rate in Germany jumped to 2.88 Sunday, up from 1.79 a day earlier, a rate showing infections are rising above the level needed to contain the disease over the longer term. Meantime, the WHO reported the largest single-day increase in global infections, with more than 183 thousand cases in a 24-hour period.

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The dollar index depreciated to 97.3 on Monday from a two-week high of 97.6 on Friday as investors try to shrug off fears of a second wave of coronavirus and its consequences for the global economic recovery. The Australian dollar was one of the best performing major currencies against the dollar after the central bank governor said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic would not be as bad as initially taught. The British pound also strengthened amid prospects of a Brexit trade agreement.

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At the just concluded Zimvest Economy Conversation, looking at The Economic Landscape and Investor Preferences in Post-pandemic Africa, The Keynote speaker Mr Bola Onadele, CEO FMDQ Group, Mr Bola indicated that Covid-19 Pandemic Paid-off For Ghana and South Africa as Gold Price soars, while Other African Economies Struggle to grasp the rapid Impact of the Pandemic. Mr Bola Onabole further spoke to the African markets in terms of equity and fixed income as impacted by covid-19 pandemic. Less liquid assets suffered more, volatility level is reported to be comparable to the 2008 level. Equity market capitalization in total lost about $17 trillion in just 52 days. Remittances from tourism industry are drying up very fast. Massive sell-off were witnessed in Nairobi and Tanzania among other negative trends. Post Pandemic, Nigeria should not wait but position herself for the next waves of opportunities in the financial market.

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Lufthansa shares slumped 5.7% on Monday morning after CEO Carsten Spohr said the company would seek to avoid a grounding and insolvency in a battle with the airline’s biggest shareholder over the terms of a 9-billion-euro bailout.

Lufthansa has been hard hit by what is expected to be a protracted travel slump because of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing it to seek a state rescue.

Billionaire shareholder Heinz Hermann Thiele will meet the economy minister on Monday to discuss his objections to the state-backed bailout

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