ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
As a department within the Bank, the goal is to proactively support the mandate of the Bank in ensuring price stability and ultimately contributing to economic growth.
Therefore, the work of the department is to promote monetary policy communication as well as economic development communication.
I want to urge you to continue to work with them in seeking feedbacks on the various aspects of our operations.
In an effort to further promote effective public accountability, we have just introduced a 24-hour Contact Centre.
This offers the general public the opportunity to have complaints, questions and requests for information dealt with promptly.
We have the technical team that provides the backstopping function at all times.
Over time, this platform would introduce an interactive voice response system that would also have built-in financial education section for the public.
Also, as communication is as much about educating as it is about informing, in the coming year, there would be a step-up in financial literacy and financial education programmes.
We believe that the Bank has a significant stake in financial education and in all this we will be counting on your support.
l am very confident that we will continue to work together as effectively as we have done in the past.
Thank you for your support over the years and on behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire Management of Bank of Ghana, l wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year.
ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE COMMISSIONING OF SERVICES INTEGRITY SAVINGS & LOANS LIMITED HEAD OFFICE BUILDING BY DR ABDUL-NASHIRU ISSAHAKU GOVERNOR, BANK OF GHANA ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, The Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Marshal Michael Samson-Oje, Service Commanders, Formation Commanders, Directors General, Senior Officers, Officers, Men and Civilian Employees of the Ghana Armed, Forces, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Thank you very much for the invitation to be a part of this event.
I feel particularly privileged to serve as the guest of honour on this special occasion of the Commissioning of the Head Office building of Services Integrity Savings and Loans Ltd.
I know the journey to this stage has been long and winding and would therefore like to congratulate the Ghana Armed Forces Council for championing this noble cause.
The Chief of the Defence Staff, Service and Formation Commanders, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, today marks a major landmark in our financial landscape, as the Ghana Armed Forces commissions the Head Office of its Savings & Loans Company.
I wish to extend to you all, warmest felicitations from the Board and Management of the Bank of Ghana and congratulate you the Officers and men of the Ghana Armed Forces for this achievement.
It is my hope that this edifice we are about to commission today will serve as the pride of the Armed Forces.
The Chief of the Defence Staff, Service and Formation Commanders, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the importance of licensing function in the supervisory framework cannot be overemphasized.
In recognition of the importance of controlling entry into the industry, the Bank of Ghana having received the application from the Ghana Armed Forces went through the main elements of processes typically followed by supervisory authorities when licensing an institution.
Having been satisfied that all requirements had been fulfilled, the Bank proceeded to issue a License for the Services Integrity Savings and Loans Company Ltd to commence its operations.
Although a well- administered licensing process does not guarantee that an institution will be well run successfully, it is an effective method of limiting entry into the financial system to a few stable institutions as possible, in order for the public to have confidence in the system.
It is my expectation that this institution will be prudent in the granting of credits whilst carving a sustainable market niche for itself.
I have no doubt that with the right attitude and posture, and sense of mission, this institution will excel in the savings and loans sector.
The Chief of the Defence Staff, Service and Formation Commanders, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, let me remind you that this company is venturing into the banking sector at the time when the sector has witnessed remarkable restructuring and transformation.
The specialized deposit taking institutions of which the savings and loans companies are dominant is fast growing amidst intense competition.
Presently, there are 29 licensed Savings and Loans companies and will urge you to ride on the back of innovation and technology to gain a foot hold in the market.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, to some extent, our roles as regulators over the years have been educational in the sense of sensitizing institutions on the importance of risk management systems among others.
The Bank has been guiding institutions in their efforts to put in place a robust risk management system and has been sharing global best practices in this respect.
On this note permit me to sound a message of caution to the management of Services Integrity Savings and Loans Limited as they venture into a very competitive environment.
The key risks that would emanate from your operations are that of credit and operational.
To this end, I would entreat you to scale up your credit underwriting standards and risk management systems to ward off any potential risk from precipitating.
Weakness in corporate governance still remains a challenge in the non-bank financial institution sector and I am confident that the level of discipline that the Armed Forces is noted for would be brought to bear on the operations of Services integrity Savings and Loans Company Ltd.
The Chief of the Defence Staff, Service and Formation Commanders, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, on this occasion of commissioning Services Integrity savings and loans head office, permit me use this opportunity to highlight a few policy initiatives the Bank of Ghana is leaning towards in our effort at ensuring the existence of stronger institutions.
On the supervisory front it is gratifying to note that over the years, measures have been put in place by the Bank to improve the regulation of savings and loans companies to ensure a safe and sound financial system.
To this end, the sector will soon be required to be IFRS compliant in the presentation of their financial statements.
On the regulatory front, there are also some key developments we must be mindful off going forward.
As you may be aware, the current Banking Act is making way for a new legal framework, the Banks and Specialized Deposit-taking Institutions Act which has been approved by parliament of Ghana and received Presidential accent.
The Act has made provision for some key thematic areas such as consolidated supervision, reinforcing prudential limits on loans and other exposures of connected nature, prompt corrective actions as well as detailed resolution framework.
Similarly the Deposit Protection Act which has also been approved by the Parliament of Ghana and received Presidential accent when gazetted is expected to kick start the legal framework for providing a general safety net for vulnerable depositors.
All these policies are to assist in ensuring a more stable and effective banking system.
It is thus my expectation that the Services Integrity Savings and Loans Company, which would eventually become a bank, will grow beyond seeking the welfare of personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces and be more national in outlook.
As the regulator of the banking system in Ghana, we wish to assure you of our support as you embark on your journey into the banking industry.
You must however bear in mind that the safety and soundness of your institution hinges on sound corporate governance practices as well as the institution of robust risk management systems.
In this regard, I will urge the Board of Services Integrity Savings and Loans to be assertive and exercise strong oversight responsibility on management.
On our side as regulators, we will continue to build the required capacity in supervision to ensure that the operations of regulated institutions are safe and sound to engender trust and confidence in the sector.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, in congratulating the Military High Command for their forbearance and bubbling foresight in nurturing this dream of establishing a savings and loans company, I look forward to seeing this company grow into the versatile bank.
On this note, I declare the Head Office Building of Services Integrity Savings and Loans Company duly commissioned.
I thank you all, God Bless.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE LAUNCH OF THE “GHANA INCENTIVE-BASED RISK-SHARING SYSTEM FOR AGRICULTURAL LENDING” (GIRSAL) BY DR ABDUL-NASHIRU ISSAHAKU GOVERNOR, BANK OF GHANA AT LA PALM ROYAL BEACH HOTEL His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana, Mr.
John Dramani Mahama; The Chairman, Dr.
Kwesi Botchwey, Chairman of NDPC; Honorable Ministers; Captains of the Financial Sector & Industry; Captains of the Agricultural Value Chain; The Diplomatic Community; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen.
Permit me to take the opportunity to welcome His Excellency, The President of the Republic of Ghana, Mr.
John Dramani Mahama, who has graciously taken time off his busy schedule to lend support to this program.
I also warmly welcome you all for taking time to join us here this morning.
Your presence at this launch indicates the importance and high level of commitment you attach to this innovative effort at making agriculture and agribusiness an important vehicle for improving foreign exchange earnings in the country and for supporting domestic price stability.
Chairman, Exactly two years and two months ago at this same Hall, the seed of finding innovative ways to shore up Ghana’s exports and foreign exchange resources through agriculture and agribusinesses was sown.
The Bank of Ghana, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Food and Agriculture as well as the Ministry of Trade and Industry organized a “National Stakeholders’ Dialogue under the theme: “ Boosting Exports to Increase Ghana’s Foreign Exchange Resources.”
The dialogue examined four main sub-themes, namely: (i) Increasing Food Production; (ii) Boosting Exports; (iii) The Role of the Financial Sector; and (iv) Issues of Land Acquisition.
Chairman, 3.
Among the various conclusions under the financial sector were two critical issues.
The first was a recommendation to set up an Exim Bank.
The second was a recommendation to the Bank of Ghana to support the agriculture value chain through innovation to reduce the cost of financing by commercial banks in the agricultural sector.
As I speak today, the Ministry of Finance, with the support of Bank of Ghana and other stakeholders, has set up an Exim Bank which has been endorsed by Parliament, with modalities under way to start operation soon.
Furthermore, the Bank of Ghana, in April 2015, with technical guidance and support from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) initiated a vehicle to leverage lending for Agriculture and agribusiness through a risk-sharing scheme we have named the “Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending” (GIRSAL).
Our technical partner, AGRA, designed this innovative model of financing which has been successfully implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria; and which other countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Liberia have begun to show interest.
A technical team made up of officials from the Bank of Ghana, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and AGRA are working tirelessly to support the set-up of GIRSAL.
The launch of GIRSAL is the reason we are here today.
Chairman 6.
My colleagues and I have on some few platforms this year partially mentioned what the Bank of Ghana wants to do to stimulate the desire of banks to finance agriculture and agribusiness in Ghana.
Today’s platform offers us an opportunity to officially make it known to our various stakeholders assembled here and to seek your support to make this dream a reality.
Let me put things into context by stating some facts about Agriculture.
Yet, the perception of lending risk is too high to motivate this kind of financing by the private financial sector.
This is why the central bank wants to facilitate the process of private financial sector financing of the full agricultural value chain.
Importantly, this strategy could be seen as a way of diversifying the economy away from over reliance on oil.
Indeed, several prominent Ghanaians (including most of you here) have proposed on different platforms the need to avoid the oil resource curse through a conscious diversification strategy.
Expanding agricultural production is one sure way of doing this, but it crucially depends on availability of more financing.
It is in this regard that using the value chain approach to financing agriculture constitutes an important innovation especially in this modern era.
Of course, the Central Bank stands to benefit from anticipated increase in food production.
Lower domestic food prices and increased foreign exchange earnings will directly contribute to our price stability function.
To the banks, there is a great opportunity out there for you to increase investments.
Piloted agricultural projects by AGRA and other development partners indicate a leveraging factor of up to ten times the initial capital invested in Agriculture within 5 years.
Thus, the perception that agriculture is risky and non profitable is not aligned to recent reality.
Mr Chairman, My colleagues in the financial sector 11.
Notwithstanding, I acknowledge the main concerns of you captains of the financial sector; we are aware of the difficulties in lending to Agriculture.
And this is why the Bank of Ghana with technical support from MOFA and AGRA is adopting this value chain financing model to mitigate lending risks in the agricultural sector.
The model has six pillars that together seek to reduce both the potential and real risks associated with lending to agriculture and agribusiness.
The pillars are: • Risk-Sharing Fund: Under this pillar, the Bank of Ghana pledges an initial amount of one hundred million cedis seed capital; • Technical Assistance Fund; • Insurance Facility for potential borrowers; • Bank Rating System; • Rewarding Systems for banks; and • Digital platform to facilitate quicker and cheaper credit delivery services.
We want you the operators of private financial institutions to begin to recognize agriculture and agribusiness as viable ventures so that you can optimize your share of expected benefits in the sector.
You must begin to realign your short, medium & long term strategies to take full advantage of what GIRSAL holds for you.
The target of GIRSAL is to double private sector lending to the agricultural sector from the average 4 percent to 8 percent in 5 years or even better.
Chairman, 14.
I wish to say that the project will initially focus on few selected value chain crops that have foreign exchange earning potentials and/or can support an import substitution strategy.
I also urge farmers and agribusinesses and all value chain actors who are stakeholders of the GIRSAL initiative to position yourselves to take advantage of what GIRSAL offers to you.
You need to assure the banks that you can do business together to grow your portfolios.
I urge you to embrace innovation, improve productivity and expand production.
You must improve your creditworthiness by adopting formal and modern management strategies and by honouring all lending requirements under GIRSAL.
This way, we can together achieve our collective objective through GIRSAL.
And to you, our friends in academia, your contributions through research and teaching towards developing innovative methods in agriculture and agribusiness, including improved varieties of seeds to support the activities of GIRSAL will be deeply appreciated.
Chairman, 17.
We very much recognize the role that our Development Partners play in our country’s development initiatives.
It is my wish that our development partners will provide both technical and financial support to assist GIRSAL to achieve the set objectives.
Finally, we will continue to count on the Government to create the necessary infrastructure such as feeder roads and irrigation schemes as well as promote improved seeds to support agriculture and agribusiness in the country.
In particular, we applaud MOFA’s initiative to establish farmer service centres at strategic locations around the country.
This among other such initiatives should enhance conditions for GIRSAL to flourish.
We also intend to collaborate further with a private sector partner and the Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant stakeholders to develop a commodities exchange market that will complement the efforts of GIRSAL at the upper end of the agricultural value chain.
The Way Forward Mr.
Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, 19.
As I conclude, may I stress that the Bank of Ghana and its collaborators will continue to build on the efforts made so far.
The administrative and operational modalities of GIRSAL shall be completed soon and support deployed immediately after to qualified beneficiaries.
I shall crave the support of all of you - Banks, Farmers Associations, Agribusinesses, Development Partners, Private Investors and all stakeholders - in any meaningful way to push GIRSAL to its full benefits in terms of foreign exchange earnings and food security.
Surely, we all stand to benefit, and it will be in our collective interest to support GIRSAL to succeed.
I thank you all for your attention.
1 OPENING CEREMONY OF THE REGIONAL COURSE ON MACROECONOMIC MANAGEMENT AND FINANCIAL SECTOR ISSUES, ACCRA, GHANA KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY DR.
H. A. K. WAMPAH, DEPUTY GOVERNOR, BANK OF GHANA DATE: SEPTEMBER 12 - 23, 2011 VENUE: ERATA H OTEL Director General of WAIFEM, Prof.
Akpan H. Ekpo, Course Facilitators from the IMF Distinguished Guests, Course Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen, 1.
It is my pleasure to join you at the opening ceremony of this course.
The Governor of Bank of Ghana would have loved to be present at this gathering to perform this very im portant function.
However, he is unavoidably absent.
He extends his most heartfelt welcome to every one of you, and wishes you all a most re warding experience here in Accra, Ghana.
He anticipates that at the end of it all, th is meeting of minds will result in the way forward for economies in the sub-region.
Let me thank the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for their collaborative efforts with WAIFEM in organizing these training courses and for helping to sustain such efforts in building capacity in the sub-region.
This course in particular, focuses on some of the most important macroeconomic policy issues confronting authorities in developing economies, and the options available to policymakers in these countries, 2 with special emphasis on how financ ial sector issues interact with macroeconomic management.
As the Director General said in his welcoming remarks and from a cursory look at the work program, it is obviously an integrated workshop with topics ranging from moneta ry policy frameworks, managing international capital flows, macr oeconomic challenges in African economies, exchange rate regimes, fisc al policy, management of aid flows, remittances and natural resource reve nues, debt sustainability, financial sector development, financial sound ness indicators, financial sector supervision and regulation, financial ma rket structure, financial crises, and macro-prudential supervision.
I am certain that the team from the IMF Institute will cover these issues in great detail to make your two-week course a rewarding experience.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the econ omies of advanced countries continue to grapple with fiscal and sovereign debt problems as the world economy experiences sluggish recovery from the 2008 financial and economic crisis.
As you will recall, the crisis had significant economic and social consequences evidenced by a drop in real activity, corporate bankruptcies, and a rise in unempl oyment.
However, in sub-Saharan Africa, official assessme nts suggest that, while recovery rates have been uneven, aggregate economic growth is projected to average 5.5 percent in 2011 and a further 6 perc e n t i n 2 0 1 2 .
F o r e x a m p l e , i n m o s t o f t h e 3 countries and especially among the seve n oil exporters, growth is said to be almost back to pre-crisis levels.
It is also reported that progress towards achieving the MDGs has been stalled by the effect of the sharp increases in food and fuel prices in recent times that continue to exert pressure on poor households.
It is further projected that the impact of recent price shocks coupled with the surge in growth could lead to rising inflation in the outlook.
In addition, countries that import fuel could also experience worsening current account imbalances.
It is therefor e anticipated that monetary policy in many cases will be leaning towards tightening in the outlook.
In Ghana, the latest information on the economy, suggests a stable outlook.
According to our recent asse ssment, the exchange rate continues to experience relative stability whil e inflation expectations remain well anchored.
Based on the maiden release of quarterly GDP series for the first quarter, and trends in Bank of Gh ana’s Composite Index of Economic Activity for the first half of 2011 the overall medium-term outlook for growth remains positive.
Ladies and gentlemen, even as we experience relatively faster economic recovery, there are othe r macroeconomic challenges.
Of particular reference is the gradual surg e in private capital inflows to many countries in the sub region, particularly to the frontier markets as part of the global resurgence in portfolio flows.
The challenge is to strengthen th e policy environment and design appropriate macroeconomic and structural policies to sustain the pace of recovery while stemming the potential inflationary pressures as well as the potentially destabilizing effects of capital flow reversals and their implication for competitiveness.
This calls for a strong commitment to ensure financial stability within a properly structured framework of macro p r u d e n t i a l p o l i c y .
W e h a v e l e a r n t f r o m t h e 2 0 0 8 e c o n o m i c c r i s i s t h a t financial stability is a necessary co ndition for macroeconomic stability.
Besides, one cannot have sustained economic growth without financial stability, and any disruption in the financial system anywhere in the world has the potential of affecting the real economy not only in that country but elsewhere.
Ladies and Gentlemen, my task this morning is not to pre-empt the lecture discussions, but simply to draw attention to the need for effective macroeconomic management and financ ial sector policies to stem the emerging risks from the global economy that coul d impact our respective local economies and that of the sub-region as a whole.
I am mindful of the intense training programme ahead of you and your desire to commence the technical sessions immediately.
However, before I leave the podium, let me urge you all to apply yourselv es assiduously to the discussions and exercises in the course for the benefit of your organizations and countries.
I also enjoin you all to vi sit some of the attraction s in Accra to make your stay here enjoyable.
On that note, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my privile ge and singular honour to declare the regional course on Macroeconomic Management and Financial Sector Issues open.
I wish you all a rewarding experience and I thank you for your attention.
GHANA ASSOCIATION OF BANKERS CONDUCT OF B USINESS STANDARDS KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY K. B. AMISSAH-ARTHUR GOVERNOR, BANK OF GHANA LA PALM ROYAL BEACH HOTEL JULY 29, 2 Mr.
Chairman, The President of the Ghana Association of Bankers, Chief Executives and Directors of Banks and Industry, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for inviting the Bank of Ghana to join you at the Eleventh Annual Working Luncheon of the Ghana Association of Bankers.