Fred Dzakpata

At the beginning of September, Ghana’s Ministry of Finance brought the heads of State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) to deliberate how to reform SOEs, some of them loss-making, in order to have them play a more strategic role in Ghana’s development. As reported in the local press, the Vice President of Ghana, Mahamadu Bawumia (who gave the keynote address to the Policy and Governance Forum) was very candid in his directive: “Share with government not your many challenges, which we all know [about], but your strategies,” he is reported to have said, referring to strategies for ensuring financial discipline, for exploring access to new sources of capital, and for improving commercial viability.

Two Kenya Airways cabin crew members have been arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle drugs out of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital, Nairobi.

Mauritius has been ranked the topmost country on the continent in the latest World Bank ease of doing Business report. The country occupied the 25th position out of 190 countries.

Nigeria’s Justice Minister Abubakar Malami, has said that the country recently recovered $85 million of stolen assets from the UK. He claimed the money is linked to the Malabu scandal, a major case of alleged bribery involving oil giants Shell and ENI. The Malabu scandal is one of the biggest corruption cases to hit Nigeria’s oil industry. Investigators in Nigeria and in Italy claim that $1.1bn – which was paid to the government by international oil companies in 2006 – never made it into the national coffers.

The government of Ghana is beginning the auction of its 2.5 billion dollar energy bond on Tuesday.

African Development Bank is to roll out an ambitious programme to cultivate the Savannah in Ghana and other seven African countries. The initiative dubbed Transformation of the African Savannah will begin next month.

Prominent African and international business executives and investors to explore business opportunities at the Africa Trade and Investment Global Summit (ATIGS), a prestigious biennial conference and exhibition to be held on June 24-26, 2018 in Washington, DC, USA. Organized by GAA Exhibitions & Conferences, the 2018 ATIGS edition will gather 2000-plus key economic players from more than 70 countries including government delegations, high-profile African leaders, project developers and international investors on June 24, 25 and 26, 2018 in Washington, DC.

Three World Food Prize laureates are demanding immediate action to address the invasion of armyworms which has caused destruction to crops on the African continent.

The African Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina, will deliver the Norman Borlaug Lecture as part of the World Food Prize events taking place from October 16-20, 2017 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA.

Ghana reached a major milestone on October 4, 2017 after using US$200 million of its oil and gas resources from a Sinking Fund account as well as proceeds from previous Bond issues to “buyback” or redeem the last instalment of the 10-year Sovereign Bond issued in 2007.