ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
After a relatively long period of economic challenges, Ghana benefited from debt forgiveness in 2005 as part of efforts by development partners to assist the country recalibrate the economy towards reducing the huge developmental gaps identified under the millennium development goals.
However, the magnitude of the estimated infrastructure deficit in almost all segments of society— economic, environmental, health, education etc —was such that the small tax base, largely composed of a relatively small formal economy, and limited income from the traditional raw material exports, could not finance the required capital investments.
The need for other sources of financing became crucial.
Following years of successful macroeconomic stabilisation, partly helped by debt relief, the country began the process of accessing foreign private capital.
First, the domestic primary market for government securities was opened 4 to non-resident investor participation; and, in 2007, the first sovereign bond was successfully issued in the Eurobond market, one of the first in SSA.
This step was important since: a. the domestic financial system was shallow and could not generate enough resources to support the development agenda to reduce poverty; b. although concessional loan facilities, such as by IDA and ADF, were largely attached to specific mutual interest of Ghana and the DPs, certain required strategic set of infrastructures to meet the strong desire to transform the economy into a market based could not be financed through those means.
In the process, the composition of external debt shifted significantly towards the private financial markets while a sizable proportion of domestic debt is now held by non-residents.
a. share of sovereign bonds 42% in external debt stock in July 2020; b. Non-resident holding of domestic debt as share of domestic debt stock was 20.4% in July 2020 from 38.5% in 2017.
While access to external financing has facilitated the execution of critical infrastructural projects, helping to expand the frontiers of growth, it has also complicated macroeconomic management and increased vulnerabilities.
Way forward over the next couple of years 11.
The relatively complex structure of the Ghanaian debt stock requires that debt management should include regular access to domestic market (with an eye on non-resident investors), regular access to the international capital market, maintaining a stable exchange rate and inflation, sustaining real sector growth at the rate enough to pay down existing debt, and minimizing the interest cost on the various components of the public debt stock.
For frontier economies like Ghana, debt sustainability and growth have become the most critical policy anchor underpinning macroeconomic management.
Ghana has opted for the clear path that requires maintenance of sound macroeconomic fundamentals that will 5 ensure market access at least cost and while at the same time engaging the attention of non-residents at the longer end of the domestic market.
How the international community can work together to help countries get through the current debt 13.
The DSSI or even calls for debt cancelation can provide enormous relief to countries to deal with the current debt challenges.
Nonetheless, there are major risks including: a. The signal it sends to the market about credit worthiness b. Potential loss of market access in the medium to long term c. May raise the cost of external financial d. Risk of moral hazard 14.
Importantly, while efforts at mobilizing subsidised funds to support emerging economies is a welcome one, as these will help meet present critical social spending needs at reasonable cost, a more enduring support should include: a. correcting the narratives of our economies in the international discourse space.
b. Highlighting the opportunities for growth above the global average is critical.
c. Also, encouraging investor interest in impactful infrastructural projects that would enable our economies to expand the capacity to generate higher sustainable and equitable growth is another channel through which the international community can support fiscal sustainability in the economies of developing countries like Ghana.
Finally, perhaps crucially, it is important for these economies to be supported to: a. Strengthen and implement reforms aimed at dismantling bottlenecks in domestic revenue mobilization and administration, b. Define a feasible fiscal adjustment plan to stabilise debt in the medium term.
c. Support transparency in debt statistics d. Ensure sustainable lending/borrowing Improve the capacity of domestic financial institutions to support domestic productive capacity.
1 9 5 7 AFI-BOG WEBINAR ON INTEGRATING GENDER CONSIDERATIONS INTO COVID-19 POLICY SOLUTIONS KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY DR.
E.K ADDISON GOVERNOR, BANK OF GHANA 14TH SEPTEMBER 2020 2 Fellow Governors and Deputy Governors of the AFI Network AFI Executive Director Dr.
Alfred Hannig, and AFI Management and Staff Members of the AFI Network Invited guests Ladies and Gentlemen 1.
Good morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you may be from around the world.
We would have loved to welcome you all to our beautiful city of Accra for this forum but thanks to COVID-19 we have to make do with a virtual meeting.
The Bank of Ghana has had a long -standing relationship with AFI over the last decade and more , and we are very honoured to be co -hosting this all-important webinar.
Our membership of AFI a nd the rich peer -learning that the Network has provided us has been extremely helpful in shaping our policies and regulation to promote financial inclusion.
Today’s webinar provides us a rare opportunity as policy makers, regulators, and other key stakeholders, to take stock of how our responses to the ongoing pandemic have either helped to close or worsen the gender gap.
The global economy has been severely impacted by the pandemic, leading to what may be the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Governments and central banks around the world have responded with unprecedented bold policies and other measures to p rovide liquidity to financial markets and to cushion 3 the impact on the private sector especially small businesses and low -income households.
Emerging and developing economies have been hardest hit, exacerbating pre - existing inequities which have led to the poor and vulnerable disproportionately bearing the brunt of the pandemic.
What is more, job losses and the collapse of many informal, micro a nd small businesses (many of which are owned by women) have pushed many out of the financial system.
What is more, financial institutions (especially smaller ones) are also at risk given the higher credit losses and attendant risks for the quality of loa n assets, lower capital and liquidity buffers, lower net interest income, and higher operational losses, creating new challenges for regulators.
The global economic outlook remains bleak and uncertain, with recovery projected to be U-shaped, suggesting a slow return to buoyancy.
This will mean that the plight of the poor and vulnerable could worsen, unless timely policy interventions are adopted to help prevent a complete reversal of the gains that have been achieved in poverty reduction and financial inclusion in the developing world.
There is global consensus that the pre -COVID 19 economic order was skewed against women.
The World Bank’s 2017 Global Findex Survey reported that of the 1.7 billion of unbanked adults globally, 56 percent are women, and in developing economies lik e Ghana, women remain 9 percentage points more likely to be unbanked than men.
In sub -Saharan Africa, only 37 percent of women have a bank account, compared with 48 percent of men, a gap that has only widened over the past several years.
Without access to critical funding, women -owned businesses suffer, and struggle to create the scale that is needed to connect to global value 4 chains and become economically significant.
The UN FAO estimates that the contributions of African women to economic activities on t he continent are considerable, albeit mostly informal.
Women in Africa are responsible for 70% of crop production, 50% of animal husbandry and 60% of market activity.
Women undertake nearly 100% of food processing activities, in addition to child care and other responsibilities in households.
Women’s formal ownership of SMEs currently stands at around a third of all registered SMEs in Africa , and women-owned SMEs are more likely to have lower sales and annual turnover, less employees, and smaller size than those enterprises owned by men.
A March 2020 African Development Bank study also confirms that female entrepreneurs dominate key growth sectors such as agriculture, textile and garments and yet lack access to critical funding.
These statistics tell a story that is troubling particularly in the context of the new economic realities that the pandemic has unleashed on the developing world.
To reduce the burden of the pandemic on Ghana’s economy and in particular on small businesses and low income households, the Government and Bank of Ghan a instituted certain measures.
The Government’s support package included a small loan facility to MSMEs to the tune of Ghc 600 million (appx US$ 100 million), a Ghc 100 billion (appx 18 billion) CARES programme to expedite economic recovery , and the absorption of water and electricity bills for a few months.
The Bank of Ghana’s policy and regulatory measures since March 2020 have included:  a 150 basis points reduction in our monetary policy rate;  a reduction of the Capital Conservation Buffer for banks f rom 3 percent to 1.5 percent; 5  a reduction of the Cash Reserve Requirement for banks from 10 percent to 8 percent;  a reduction of the 8 percent primary reserve ratio of savings and loans companies, finance house companies, and rural and community banks to 6 percent, and the 10 percent primary reserve ratio of micro finance companies to 8 percent.
 a reduction in provisioning for loans in the “OLEM” category from 10 percent to 5 percent for all banks and specialized deposit-taking institutions (SDIs);  preparedness to provide liquidity support to banks, savings and loans companies, and finance houses as needed and in strict compliance with statutory requirements, and to support the rural and community banks and microfinance sectors working with the ARB Apex Bank;  loan repayments by customers of SDIs which had been classified as “past due” for up to 30 days, were to be reclassified as “current”;  all mobile money users were permitted to send up to GH¢100 (USD 18) for free (excluding cash out) to recipien ts on the same network or other networks through the interoperability platform;  mobile money subscribers were allowed to use their existing mobile phone registration details for on -boarding of Minimum Know Your Customer (KYC) Account and daily and aggregat e monthly transaction limits as well as mobile money wallet limits were increased; and  increased public education on mobile money and other electronic money fraud.
These measures have released a significant amount of liquidity to banks and SDIs which they have passed on to their customers in the form of an interest loan reduction averaging 200 basis points, loan repayment moratoriums of three to 6 twelve months, and new loans to businesses in sectors that are at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic.
The Bank of Ghana’s measures recognised the key role of smaller financial institutions in extending access to financial services to small businesses and low - income households, several of whom had lost their businesses or jobs, making these financial institutions vulnerable given the heightened credit risk they bore.
These measures have helped somewhat to reduce the burden on these institutions and their clients many of whom are female and young entrepreneurs .
We have also seen a significant increase in the use of digital financial services during this pandemic, thanks to some of the measures we instituted.
The Government has also resorted to the use digital means of cash transfers to women and other groups under the Livelihood Empowerment Aga inst Poverty programme using the biometric e -switch card and mobile money interoperability platform.
The increasing use of digital financial services help to accelerate the rate of financial inclusion, and to close the gender gap in access to finance.
While the economic outlook remains unclear, o ur financial system is relatively strong following reforms carried out in the last three years, and is positioned to continue to play a key role in supporting economic recovery going forward, and helping to promote financial inclusion and in particular to reduce the gender gap.
The recent launch by the Ghana Government of the National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy, the Digital Financial Services Strategy, and the Cash -Lite Policy, is intended to improve access to financial services from 58% in 2015 to 85% by 2023 through increased digital financial services that will help promote economic empowerment of the poor and marginalized.
As one of the implementing agencies 7 under these policy initiatives, the Bank of Ghana will continue to use its policy and regulatory tools to promote safety and soundness of banks and SDIs and digital financial services to the benefit of all economic actors.
The Bank of Ghana remains committed to delivering on our commitments under AFI’s Maya Declaration, Denarau Action Plan, and Kigali Statement, and in keeping with our role as an AFI Gender Inclusion Ambassador, we will continue to make progress on promoting a gender-inclusive financial services ecosystem, and promoting sustainable finance .
Building on our existing sex-disaggregated data collection portal for mobile money services, we are developing a more comprehensive disaggregated reporting regime for all our regulated institutions through a new Online Regulatory and Analytics Surveillance System to be fully operational by the end of the year , to help shape more gender-specific policy and regulatory measures going forward.
As we look ahead and armed with lessons from the past, let us explore the opportunities that the current pandemic presents to us as policy makers and regulators in the AFI Network, and let us identify ways in which we can adopt new approaches to addressing the gender gap in access to finance.
This is not the time to leave any one behind, and we must begin to be more intentional about bridging the financial inclusion gap and the disparities that exist from a gender perspective.
This is critical to making progress in our inclusive socio-economic growth and development aspirations.
Fortunatel y, this webinar and the lineup of speakers and discussions, promises to help in that direction.
I wish us all fruitful deliberations.
8 Thank you for your attention.
1 9 5 7 AFI-BOG WEBINAR ON INTEGRATING GENDER CONSIDERATIONS INTO COVID-19 POLICY SOLUTIONS CLOSING REMARKS BY ELSIE ADDO AWADZI SECOND DEPUTY GOVERNOR, BANK OF GHANA 14TH SEPTEMBER 2020 2 Fellow Governors and Deputy Governors of the AFI Network AFI Executive Director Dr.
Alfred Hannig, and AFI Management and Staff Members of the AFI Network Invited guests Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour of delivering the closing remarks for what has been a most remarkable and insightful webinar.
I believe this webinar has done what it sought to do , by providing a platform for sharing experiences and lessons learnt in the pandemic response so far and helping to chart a way forward towards more gender -inclusive measures to spur economic recovery efforts.
At the beginning of th is webinar, we heard remarks from Governor Ernest Addison and D r. Hannig that were thought-provoking, and which laid a perfect foundation for the stimulating discussions that ensued.
The plenary sessions and breakout group discussions effectively addressed issues pertaining to the five key pillars of (i) Women, Regulation, and R egulatory Institutions; (ii) Women’s Participation in B usiness and in the Job M arket; 3 (iii) Women and Soc ial Protection; (iv) Women and Access to Financial Services including DFS; and (iv) Women and Consumer Protection.
The experiences that have been shared through today’s discussions confir m that the pandemic has disproportionately affected women, pushing them out of both formal and informal employment and business , and in some cases from the financial s ystem, further widening the gender gap in access to finance.
In many countries, COVID-related restrictions came at a higher price for women than for me n, given that more women tend to be involved in informal, temporary, or part-time work, or in informal business partly due to the domestic responsibilities they disproportionately shoulder.
What is more, the pre -existing gender gap in access to finance has meant that many women adversely impacted by the pandemic have little or no savings to cushion them and have no access to credit or grants to save their businesses from collapse.
Indeed, this phenomenon is not limited to the developing world.
Advanced economies are also grappling with the distributional consequences of the pandemic.
For example, in a recent Working Paper, the IMF found evidence that women in Japan were more negatively impacted by the pandemic due to disparities in the labour market and the fact that more women than men had to drop out of the job market to take care of their children amidst 4 massive disruptions to childcare and schools.
The IMF advocates for policies to promote better work -life balance and gender equality to help enhance female employment opportunities and women’s economic empowerment in the “new normal” after the pandemic is under control.
In the case of emerging and developing economies, these disproportionate impacts on women are bound to be worse, given the weak social protections that exist.
Our discussions today have also revealed that with the exception of a few countries in the AFI Network, many policy and regulatory responses to the pandemic have not considered gender-specific dynamics of the economic fallout from the pandemic, and in that respect may not have helped to avoid a widening of the gender gap in access to finance.
How do we then move forward from here to address the widening gender gap in access to finance?
The pandemic may have unleashed unprecedented hardship on vulnerable groups such as women (particularly those operating in the informal and MSME sectors) , but there are opportunities to rebuild our economies, and while at it , to rebuild them in a manner that leads to more inclusion and resilience.
5 Please permit me at this point, to share some of my own thoughts as to how we could make progress.
 Promoting gender-inclusive finance is somehow inextricably linked to addressing the many underlying socio-economic and cultural issues that create inequalities for women in the job market and in business (formal or informal) .
Policies are needed to empower women economically by addressing issues affecting work-life balance, employment and income disparities , land ownership , inheritance, education, healthcare, child care , and elder care, among others .
Greater access to finance for women., necessarily depends on this.
 What changes are required in the design of financial services and products (traditional and digital) and the design of policies and regulation to correct the additional disparities creat ed by recent COVID-19 responses ?
For example, existing literature shows that women traditionally tend to pay their loans on time.
How is this pandemic changing that narrative and what might be the implication s for women’s access to credit going forward?
How can financial institutions better s upport their female clients to help avoid losing access to future credit?
 How can we improve the quality of financial intermediation to address the gender-inclusive finance barriers caused by the COVID-19 6 pandemic, while not compromising the stability and integrity of our financial systems?
 How do we galvanise the needed support and mobilise the necessary resources (technical capacity, peer -to-peer learning, guidance for stakeholder dialogue , and other support ) for the re design of social safety nets and financial (and digital) literacy programmes to better align with gender -inclusive finance?
How can we effectively engage relevant p olicymakers, legislators, and civil society to advocate for policies that ultimately promote more gender-inclusive finance?
In sum, the gender -inclusive finance agenda is now more critical than ever before, and a coordinated effort is required to accelerate action going forward.
Making real progress will require bold action to address the underlying pre -existing vulnerabilities that have only been exacerbated by the current pandemic., so that we rebuild a more inclusive , sustainable, and resilient future.
I trust that members of the AFI Network , with the continued support of AFI , will, going forward, work assiduously on removing these underlying barriers to help address the widening gender gap in access to finance .
I invite us all to renew our respective Maya, Denarau, and Kigali commitments, and to make a big push for tangible progress in gender-inclusive finance.
7 I note that AFI intends to develop a policy summary note from this webinar building on the just published COVID-19 GIF Policy paper, which will be shared with AFI members.
This will be very helpful for guiding members’ efforts going forward , as we work towards inclusive, sustainable, and resilient economic recovery in our various jurisdictions.
On behalf of Governor Ernest Addison, I thank AFI for agreeing to co-host this very important webinar with the Bank of Ghana .
I thank the hard - working team at the AFI Management Unit, the moderators, panelists, participants, and all who contributed in diverse ways to make this webinar the big success that it has been.
Let us all continue to work together to bridge the gap in access to finance for all.
1 Opening Remarks by Mrs.
Elsie Addo Awadzi, 2nd Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisors (GARIA) Webinar on the Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring Act, 2020 (Act 1015) 26th August 2020 Members of the Governing Council and Executives of GARIA Distinguished GARIA Members Distinguished Resource Persons Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen Good morning.
I bring you warm greetings and felicitations from Governor Ernest Addison and the entire management team of the Bank of Ghana.
I am truly humbled to have been called upon to give the keynote address at this very important gathering.
I am in the midst of giants in the fields of law, accounting, banking and insolvency, some of whom are my learned seniors at the Bar.
I pay tribute to the tireless efforts of the Governing Council members and all members of GARIA who have over the years remained committed to the vision of the founding members of GARIA.
GARIA’s significant role in the crafting and promulgation of key pieces of l egislation such as the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992) and the Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring Act, 2020 (Act 1015) is no mean achievement, and is a testament to the dynamic role that it has played in recent times in helping to modernize the foundations of our market-based economy.
It is against this backdrop that the Bank of Ghana is delighted to be associated with this sensitization webinar on the Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring Act, 2020 (Act 1015).
The importance of this Act , particularly at this time, cannot be overemphasized.
The current COVID- 19 pandemic has unleashed what is thought to be the worst global economic downturn since th e Great Depression of the 1930s.
The economic impact of the pandemic on firms and households in developed and developing countries alike, is unprecedented owing to reduced demand for products and services, disruptions to global supply 2 chains, and limited access to financial markets.
The attendant job losses and personal and corporate distress situations have led to a deterioration in the quality of loan assets held by banks around the world, threatening their own solvency in some cases.