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Dutch Prime Minister pays official visit to Ghana

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Dutch Prime Minister Mr. Mark Rutte is in Accra for a two-day visit from 29-30 November, 2017. With this visit, the first of a Dutch Prime Minister to Ghana, Mr Rutte wants to reaffirm and further strengthen the excellent relations between the two countries.  

His visit coincides with that of the French President Emmanuel Macron to Ghana. The two leaders agreed to visit Ghana together, in the aftermath of the AU-EU summit in Abidjan. H.E. President Nana Akufo-Addo will host a lunch for President Macron and Prime Minister Rutte. Both European leaders will also meet with young Ghanaian entrepreneurs, whom have benefitted from startup accelerator programs.

The Dutch Prime Minister will have talks with President Nana Akufo-Addo, in which economic cooperation will be high on the agenda. Ghana and the Netherlands have longstanding relations. Recently the focus has been changing from development cooperation to trade and investments. Other areas of common interest are also on the table, including migration. 

Further elements of his tour in Ghana will be a visit to MDK Flowers and Greens, a Dutch company in Tema that produces flowers and plants for export to the Netherlands and the signing  ceremony for a loan, issued by Fidelity bank to a hospital in Teshie, through the Dutch funded Water and Sanitation program. This program engages the private sector by offering a sustainable financial model for business in water and sanitation.

For more information, please contact the Netherlands Embassy, Gladys Ofei at 050 1423688.

#NLinGhana

A brief intro to customer loyalty

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We will start this brief introduction with a definition of customer loyalty, what it entails and some factors that sustains customer loyalty in organizations.

Internet (and business literature in general) is full of definitions of Customer Loyalty – and they are all similar. For us, Customer Loyalty is the Likehood of previous customers to return and continue to buy from a specific business or organization (Non-profits/ NGOs also have customers: their beneficiaries)

In layman’s terms Customer Loyalty is the Consumer Behavior where one buys a specific particular brand or product or service over an extended / long period of time.

Obviously, Customer Satisfaction with your product or service itself along with superb Customer Support are absolute Essentials in creating and maintaining Customer Loyalty. Customers must be able to reach you are and there are various customer service skills a company can portray to make them service champions.

The SERVQUAL model (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SERVQUAL) which comprises of empathy, reliability, responsiveness, assurance can help retain customers. But theory aside, simply human behavior, like saying a big ‘thank you’ to customers and saying ‘sorry’ when you go wrong, they do help make customers happy or even calm customers down in escalation situations.

Also, following up on your customers to find out if they are satisfied with your product or the service and always ensuring that your customer is king and is always right, helps to retain your customers.

But please keep in mind that a Satisfied Customer is never by default a Loyal Customer. You might be extremely happy with your new blue shirt- that does not mean you will go ever again in the same shop.

 

The Relationship- cycle with customers starts with creating awareness of the product. Customers then make the decision to ‘use’ the product by purchasing it, when they like the product; it ensures repeat sales and they tend to refer the product to others. This is a great factor in increasing market share which will make it difficult to lose your customers to competitors (but not impossible).

The 4 main factors that could sustain Customer Loyalty in/for your business.

There are 4 main different reasons / factors that could lead to sustainable Customer Loyalty in your organization:

  1. The Psychological factor – This describes the psychological reason for ‘sticking’ to a specific product or service.

For instance, Customers can develop a sense of loyalty to a certain person working for a company. People build excellent relationships with their relationship managers in the bank and this is why they stay with a particular bank for such a long a time without switching.

  1. The Economic factor – In B2B (Business to Business) marketing for example, when companies switch to different suppliers / vendors/ service providers, it results in economic challenges. In this case, customer loyalty is based on economic grounds.

But also in straight B2C (Business to Consumer) transactions, you have Consumers who are ‘loyal’ to a product or brand because it is simply the cheapest (at the moment).

  1. Technology factors – Customer Loyalty occurs here when a company has already adapted a technology favored by the consumer- e.g. it supports that e-wallet or e-payment method that I have already setup on my mobile phone, or I can order with my Facebook login, or I can pay with that particular network mobile money, etc.
  2. Contractual factors – Think of all sort of subscription services…this is more of ‘forced’ Customer Loyalty.

 

What are the 5 Benefits of Customer Loyalty to an Organization?

The main 5 reasons why Customer loyalty is very beneficial to any business, are:

  1. It makes you the market leader in your industry.

Customer loyalty goes a long way to make you the market leader in your industry. In today’s competitive world, it is difficult to distinguish your products from your competitors. Customers of today are very sophisticated, and they have a wide range to choose from (number of products or services, quality levels, prices, etc.) and your product today can easily be lost to your competitor tomorrow.

Customer Loyalty towards your brand affect customer purchasing decision. If your competitors have similar products, your product will still have highest priority among customers. A typical example is how well Unilever positioned the” Omo” brand in the minds of the beneficiaries. When customers go to mini marts to buy detergents, they refer to every detergent as “Omo”.

 

  1. It ensures repeat sales.

Loyal customers tend to make more than one purchase. Also, they tend to spend more without thinking due to the trust they have in the brand. Customer Loyalty does actively act as a defense strategy against competitor brands. For instance, the Club Beer from Accra Brewery, has positioned itself well to make it impregnable to attack; Star from Guinness Ghana Brewery has tried multiple promotions, attack strategies and change of taste but more customers still prefer the Club.

 

  1. It ensures customer retention.

Customers are the heart and souls of every organization and keeping existing customers is just as important as getting new ones but it cost less to maintain existing customers than recruiting new ones. Therefore, organizations must invest in customer loyalty in order to avoid losing customers to competitors.

 

  1. It improves brand image.

Brand image is how a customer perceives your products or service. Painting a good image helps businesses to maintain existing customers, acquire new ones easily by word of mouth and reduces marketing cost. Guinness Ghana for example engages in social responsibility such as supplying water to local communities and this goes a long way to sustain the brand image of the organization.

 

  1. It increases organization’s profitability.

Customer Loyalty is proven to have a direct impact in the increase the organization’s profitability. Customer Loyalty is crucial to every business because it can help your business make more money and save more money as well. The business tends to save more when existing customers recommend the product to others, thus reducing marketing cost. The business also makes more money when loyal customers and new customers buy from you and not your competitors. A typical example is how MTN Ghana shows love to their cherished customers by buying cakes and call cards for them on their birthdays. This makes it difficult for them to switch to other networks and they tend to recommend MTN to their friends too.

 

In Conclusion

This brief introduction should have made you aware that in 2017 there are 2 realities:

  • Happy Customers / even extremely Happy ones, they are not by default repeated buyers of your products or services,
  • It is cheaper and more profitable to turn an ‘acquired customer’ into a Loyal one that to get a new customer to ‘replace’ the one that you just ‘lost’,

and that you need to address how you can make your customers Loyal.

 

Do you want 1000 Happy Customers or 1000 Loyal Customers? Think about it and redefine/ readjust for Customer-centric Strategies & Operations for 2018.

 

Thank you and Good Luck,

Rosemond.

 

 

Disclaimer:  any products and brand /company names mentioned here, are purely for demonstrative purposed and the author does not have any financial gain or connection of any kind with those orgranizations nor does she indirectly endorses them by simple mentioning them.

About the Author: Ms. Rosemond Addae, a 2018 MA Marketing Candidate at Legon, is an active B2B

Marketing Practitioner. She is also associated with a unique Customer Loyalty Startup :  HireLoyalty (www.HireLoyalty.com)- based in Accra, which is coming out of stealth mode in the next few weeks offering both Consulting and Training in anything relating to Customer Loyalty.

 

She welcomes all your comments/ remarks/ feedback /suggestions at Press [at] HireLoyalty.com. HireLoyalty can be reached at +233 20 741 3060 or +233 26 835 2026

  

© 2017 Rosemond Addae and © 2017 HireLoyalty.

2017 VegFest comes off on Farmers’ Day

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The 11th edition of the annual Vegetarian Festival (VegFest) is set to come off at the Christ the King International School, Accra, on Farmers’ Day, December 1.

Expected to attract almost 1,000 patrons, the one-day event will see a display of 100 percent juices, smoothies, vegan local and international cuisine, most of which are already consumed on a daily basis by Ghanaians without knowing they are fully vegetarian dishes. Vegan foods do not contain animal or dairy products.

The family day festival with over 50 exhibitors will showcase a spa haven where patrons can pamper themselves, and a wellness village where holistic wellness consultants will educate people on alternative health options and lifestyle choices devoid of medication, using food as the building block.

Other exciting offerings include free healing sessions, promos, food sampling, natural health products, special offers, kids’ corner, cooking demonstrations, health and fitness as well as music and entertainment.

Coming off under the theme ‘Healthy Lifestyles Beyond a Meatless Diet’, the event is organised by the Vegetarian Association of Ghana (VegGhana), a non-profit making organisation with one of its aims and objectives being to educate the public on a plant-based diet for healthy living.

The vegan summit will have seminars throughout the day. Speakers include Dr. Kofi Asare of PAMA Health, who will speak on African Healing Science and Nutrition; Serap Danyildiz speaks on Reversing and Preventing Lifestyle Diseases; and Dr. Samuel Sasu of Healthworks will discuss Healthy Lifestyles: The Ayurveda Way.

The rest are Dr. Vladimir Antwi-Danso, Director/Dean of Academic Affairs of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), who will look at the cultural perspectives of our diet and nutrition; and finally, Dr. Emmanuel Kwame Asenso of Health Talk will explore Good Eating habits and Your Health in An Evergreen Environment.

Dr. Kofi Asare, who is also President of the association, noted that many Ghanaians think vegetarians eat only grass.

“We eat some of the best dishes you can think of. The popular local dishes including Red Red, Apaparansa, Waakye, Abom, Apem and Nkontomire and others are staple foods of Ghanaians, and these are the dishes we enjoy all the time. It just does not contain animal protein,” he said.

He urged Ghanaians to patronise the festival to learn more about vegetarianism and the best healthy lifestyles to combat degenerative health conditions that are claimed to be ‘incurable’. “All such ailments can be reversed if you adopt a plant-based diet and key into healthy lifestyles,” he chimed.

If you do well to pass through the one-day event you will understand better the vegan/vegetarian lifestyle and its enormous health benefits. “You will realise that we do not eat grass at all, but actually some of the best dishes one can think off,” he added.

He explained that the reason for choosing to hold the event on Farmers’ Day is to show Ghanaians that vegetarianism starts right from the farm. “What we eat is not conjured from anywhere. We choose Farmers’ Day because our lifestyle starts from the farm, which signifies the abundance of the earth,” he added.

The association has been holding monthly vegan potluck meetings every second Sunday of the month at Christ the King International School. These meetings focus on the promotion of healthy living, and members bring along homemade local vegan and international cuisines that are shared by all.

5 ways to maximise your sales this Christmas

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The busiest time of year for retail businesses is here with us. Increased numbers are expected to flock to our shopping centres for various reasons: to purchase items, to window-shop, to accompany friends or family – or perhaps to get a feel of the excitement the season brings. Whatever the reasons are, businesses should grasp the opportunity and offload their wares as much as possible before it all ends. Here are a few pragmatic steps to take advantage of increased numbers in our shopping centres and high streets at this time of year, so as to maximise sales.

  1. Draw attention to your Shop to remind customers you are there

Christmas is a time for sharing and giving. The season has the potential to pulleven the most shop-averse individuals tothe shops for gift items. How do you draw attention to your shop in the midst of crowds and the seemingly keen competition? Consider advertising on traditional media with print, radio or TV.

Social media has turned out as an effective and relatively cheaper advertising tool. It is hugely far-reaching and may cost little or nothing at all on some platforms. A reliable customer contact database is required to embark on social media advertising campaigns. Businesses that have not gathered customer data as a practice may lose out on this far-reaching advertising tool. Make it a practice to collect basic data on all your shop regulars and first-time visitors alike. This will help to effectively disseminate information on seasonal promotions during such peak periods.

Use both internal and external bright decorative lights and promotional designs to enhance merchandise, and music that appeals to your target customers. At the peak of the season, it would be great to create an extension of your shop at the front or on the street where the shop is located.  This will serve as a pull into the shop.

  1. Commit to Selling Your Products

After successfully pulling footfalls to the shop, the next step is to effectively sell to them and maximise sales. Get more people on the shop floor to attend visitors and ensure that no visitor remains unattended to. Selling still remains a face-to-face human activity that technology has not replaced yet.  Increasing the surface area for customer interfaces increases the chance of making a sale.

Attending to shoppers can sometimes imply mere observation of their movements for a short while to ascertain the need to approach them or not. Shop floor attendants should not bombard shoppers with the “is there anything I can help you with?” cliché. Allow newly-arrived visitors to have a feel of products on display, and then if necessary confidently initiate conversation in a friendly and non-intimidating tone. Communicate product features in a manner that offers solutions to meet the desires of shoppers. Get your people to offer service that will win life-time customers for the shop.

Ensure sales happen by advertising products in-store. It will cost you zero airtime to advertise products especially seasonal items to visitors who are already in the shop. Invest in stimulating radio jingles and videos of items on offer, and constantly play the adverts on the shop floor. Also, create attractive product displays and well-designed store layouts to drive sales. Ensure seasonal and promotional items are clearly visible to all visitors. You need to sell as much of them as possible before the season ends.

A supermarket can consider combining seasonal promotions of children’s treats with adult gift items. This may stimulate buying of seasonal gift items once parents/guardians with children are drawn to the particular aisles.

  1. Get Suitable People

Some businesses may need to recruit more hands – perhaps temporary staff to cover the busy period. Employ people with a friendly attitude and who are keen to exert energy. Remember, any bad experience or impression that a shopper takes away during this busy period may linger with them for life and they may never visit your shop again. This also means working on your shop’s Employee Net Promoter Score (EPNS).

This is a measure ofyour members’ preparedness to promote your products.  Implement aspecial sales staff reward system, and also work on product-knowledge among staff.  The permanent staff should then pass on product-knowledge and team skills.Train both old and new staff on basic selling and customer service skills to ensure they give their best for your store to maximise sales and build your customer base.

  1. Provide Quality Service

Shop attendants should constantly be on the lookout for customers who require help with their shopping – with children, or who require some other form of assistance. Remember, the goal is to transform today’s Christmas shoppers intolifetime customers. Also, ensure speed of service – especially at the check-out or when providing some required assistance. Information on shop opening and closing times for the season should be readily available.

  1. Ensure Cleanliness ofYour Outlet’s Interior and Exterior

The season calls for a complete cleanup and overhaul in all parts of your outlet. Ensure a clean and attractive exterior and interior of the store, with thoroughly neat fixtures, fittings and furniture. Clear idle furniture to create space for display or storage of seasonal items. The whole idea is for your outlet to appear tidy, full and attractive.

Some outlets may require repairs, repainting or additional lighting. Also, fix broken in-store or outdoor sign ages as customers will notice them. Christmas shoppers require additional space because of possible crowds. Ensure adequate space around shelves with seasonal/promotional items to make them stand out. Apparel shops may consider using smaller round tables nested around each other to create dramatic display areas, particularly for high-selling items.

Give your outlet a facelift and make sure your shoppers have a WOW! experience this Christmas. Once this is achieved, these same customers will visit your shop all year round.

M-DoZ Consulting offers Organisational Development, Corporate Training and Financial Planning Services. We can be reached on +233247-247-200, +23320-1196-080, Email: [email protected], Facebook: mdozghana

BoG applauds move to merge NIB, ADB

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The central bank has endorsed plans by government to merge the operations of ADB and the National Investment Bank (NIB) to meet the new GHS400 million minimum capital requirement.

Dr. Ernest Addison told the press on Monday that he sees nothing wrong with government’s plans to merge the operations of the two banks into a Development Bank.

According to Dr. Addison: “this will be consistent with the new requirement for capitalisation for banks. To the extent that ADB has to raise 400 million and NIB too same, and the fact that government has fairly large shares in both banks, it makes sense to start thinking of consolidating and I don’t see any difficulty with that.”

Government has said the new bank will mobilise private capital toward agricultural and industrial transformation.

Dr. Addison said the central bank, which has given banks up to end of this month to submit their recapitalisation plans, will not stand in the way of government if it comes to merging the operations of the two state-owned banks.

In September, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) introduced the Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) under the Basel II framework.

The ICAAP will require banks to more than treble their minimum capital to GH¢400m (US$91.6m) by December 31, 2018.

This represents a much bigger jump than previous increases imposed by the regulator over the past decade to strengthen the balance sheets of Ghana’s banks.

The NIB has a capital shortfall of about GH¢255million, a stated capital of GH¢70million and an income surplus of GH¢74 million as at July 2017.

The ADB – a publicly-traded company with majority government ownership – also has a capital shortfall of GH¢310million and a stated capital of about GH¢275million, but a negative income surplus of about GH¢185million.

The ADB, in December last year, started trading on the local bourse. Institutions with an interest in the company include: SSNIT, 9.5% of the shares; Starmount Development Company Limited, 11%; and SIC Financial Services 10%.

Citizens demand stiffer punishment for corruption – Afrobarometer

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Majority of Ghanaians want stiffer punishment for corrupt public officials, including jail time, restitution of stolen funds, and public shaming, according to a new Afrobarometer survey.

Findings show widespread popular perceptions of corruption in both government and private-sector leadership, with the police and judges most widely seen as corrupt.

But public approval of the government’s efforts to combat corruption has increased dramatically since 2014, after more than a decade of decline.

“These findings provide solid backing for government and reformers seeking to strengthen laws and their enforcement in the fight against corruption,” the report said.

The findings are being released a few weeks after the passing of the Special Prosecutor’s Bill, which is expected to help government effectively crack the whip of justice against corrupt public officers, political office holders, and accomplices.

Key findings

Almost two-thirds (64%) of Ghanaians want corrupt officials prosecuted and, if found guilty, forced to return stolen funds, jailed, and publicly named and shamed. About one-fifth (22%) favour government retrieval of stolen funds without prosecution, while one in 10 (9%) would opt for prosecution without retrieval of stolen funds.

Six in 10 Ghanaians (59%) say “most” or “all” police officials are corrupt, and substantial proportions say the same about judges and magistrates (38%), national government officials (35%), and other public leaders. Perceptions of corruption in the private sector are somewhat lower.

The proportion of Ghanaians who think the government has performed “very well” or “fairly well” in fighting corruption more than doubled between 2014 and 2017, from 25% to 60%. After more than a decade of declining approval ratings, this puts popular approval near the 2002 high of 63%.

Support for anti-Galamsey fight

The report revealed that more Ghanaians support the government’s efforts to clamp down on illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.

The survey also shows that Ghanaians overwhelmingly favour the government’s proposed initiatives to develop alternative livelihoods for those affected by the clampdown.

Rejection of ‘galamsey’ and approval of the government’s handling of the fight against are particularly strong among better-educated Ghanaians and among residents of the Central, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Regions. Opposition to small scale mining is weakest in the Upper East, Northern and Upper West Region.

“Public opinion fortifies the government’s assertive new fight against ‘galamsey’ and its devastating effects on the country’s water bodies, farmlands and livelihoods.”

Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues in more than 35 countries in Africa.

GIS holds 2nd TIME confab…empowers teacher to adopt best practices

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Ghana International School has organised its 2nd TIME –Transform, Inspire, Motivate and Educate–Conference to enhance teaching and learning in the country’s education sector.

The conference, which was held under the theme: “Inclusion –Empowering All Students,” forms part of the school’s strategic goal 1 which is to aspire to be universally recognised as a centre of instructional excellence.

The one-day conference was created to provide educators with a platform to share and learn best practices that will lead to teacher efficiency, improve students’ outcomes and support the emergence of educational change in Ghana.

The workshop included over 100 basic school teachers, who were equipped with relevant knowledge and skills to empower students.

Educators in both GIS and other partner schools, who have been trained both locally and internally over several years, with an amazing wealth of knowledge and skills through experience were invited to serve as resource person to present seminars and workshops that covered a variety of topics including learning best practices that will lead to teacher efficiency and improved student outcomes.

The key note for this year’s conference was influence. To influence the wider community by providing a platform where educators will continue to be encouraged to acknowledge diversity amongst all learners and aim at removing barriers to learning by ensuring that all students have equal access to the curriculum.

Dr. Mary Ashun, the Principal of the school, said: “it is time to reflect on our practice, learn from one another and go back to our home schools, transformed. It is time we acknowledge how worthy our profession is, how critical, how necessary, and how indispensable the teaching profession is, to the growth of the country.”

Mr. Kwabena B. Tandoh, the quest speaker of the workshop, who spoke on the topic “Leveraging Universal Design for improved Student Outcomes” said teachers are central to ensuring success in all students and that the creative and comprehensive design of lessons contribute to positive student outcomes.

“As teachers, we must also have positive expectation for all our students and support them to achieve success,” he said.

Ken Thompson shoots down dev’t bank idea…says private sector can serve purpose

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The economy does not need another development bank along the lines of the Agric Development Bank (ADB) and the National Investment Bank (NIB), Kenneth Kwamena Thompson of Dalex Finance has said.

Reacting to government’s intention to set up a “national development bank” to “mobilise private capital toward agricultural and industrial transformation”, Mr. Thompson noted that the new bank “could end up neither serving the SMEs in the agriculture and industrial sectors nor assist the institutions that truly provide credit.”

The capital for resourcing the proposed National Development Bank (NDB), he said, would be better utilised through existing private sector financial institutions in any combination of ways. These include: credit guarantees, credit insurance, risk-sharing facilities, credit rate capping, technical assistance, and financial institution rating scheme.

“This will get our existing financial institutions to lend to the businesses engaged in the targeted sectors at reasonable rates. Credit risk would be shared but not neglected since institutions would still face pain on default.

This would be the best method to ensure long-term sustainability of the scheme to mobilise credit for the critical areas of the economy. Let us change the behaviour of our existing institutions by changing the incentives scheme in lending to the agricultural and industrial sectors,” he said.

The scheme, he said, could be modelled along the lines of Chile’s Guarantee Fund for Small Businessmen (FOGAPE).

The FOGAPE is a state fund aimed at guaranteeing a certain percentage of the capital of credits, leasing operations and other financing mechanisms that financial institutions, both public and private, grant to employers and organisations that do not have guarantees.

“The fund’s success has been due to many factors, including a strong regulatory and supervisory system; transparency and fairness – for example, guarantees are allocated to financial institutions through a sealed bid auction; an intensive publicity and a promotional campaign launched by the government to explain the utility of the programme.

Additionally, training programmes were provided to commercial banks to acclimate them with FOGAPE and its policies and financial institutions were invited to participate in committees,” he added.

The outspoken Managing Director of Dalex Finance added that the advantage of this alternative to setting up a new bank would be that it would still mobilize funds for the targeted sectors, utilise existing financial institutions and ensure that the distortion of the original missions that afflicted ADB and NIB in their long-term efforts to achieve sustainability, would be avoided.

The saddest learning, he noted, from the experience of the named legacy development banks is that they are some of the most challenged institutions as per the Bank of Ghana (BOG) Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) under the Basel II framework.

“The Bank for Housing and Construction (BHC), which collapsed, NIB and ADB were all established with a strong developmental agenda. Over time they moved away from these objectives because they must survive, generate profits and returns to shareholders. And one of the key reasons was a poor incentive structure,” he noted.

Mr. Ofori-Atta announced in the 2018 budget that government will be establishing a development bank that will be capitalised with US$500million to mobilise private capital towards agricultural and industrial transformation at cheaper rates.

“The thinking process is clear that we need a strong and vibrant and well-capitalised enterprise development bank. This is to be able to support the agriculture and industrialisation drive,” he said.

Analysts quickly criticised the government on the creation of a new bank when the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), which was supposed to focus on agriculture, and the National Investment Bank (NIB), which was to help industrial development, have changed focus.

But Mr. Ofori-Atta, at the recent PwC Post Budget Forum, noted that the government is instead planning to merge the two development focused banks to form a bigger entity, with some sources telling the B&FT that the government is planning to launch the new bank next month or first quarter 2018.

“We could also look at a possible merger between the NIB and ADB into the National Development Bank to actually finance development through agriculture and industry,” the Finance Minister said.

He added that the successful establishment of the new bank would help aid the realisation of the government’s agenda to create a ‘Ghana Beyond Aid.’

Although government currently hold stakes in ADB and NIB, it is a minority shareholder in ADB, which could pose a challenge to the merger.

RMB forecasts further policy rate cuts

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As though the 550-basis points cut seen in 2017 was not enough, South African-based RMB Research believes the central bank has more wriggle room to further trim its policy rate by between 200 and 300 basis points in 2018, which could trigger aggressive lending rate cuts.

In its reaction to the Bank of Ghana’s 100 basis points cut of the policy rate – which has seen it drop from a high of 25.5 percent in January to 20 percent in November – RMB noted that with inflation resuming its expected southward movement, it is only a matter of time for the policy rate to fall further.

“There is possibly another 200bp to 300bp left in the cutting cycle. We are still of the opinion that inflation will fall within the bank’s inflation target of 6-10 percent in 2018. Moreover, the Bank of Ghana has reiterated its commitment to reducing lending rates for commercial banks.

“The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will most likely keep rates unchanged in its first meeting of 2018 (20 January) to assess the festive season’s effects on inflation, before it resumes loosening again throughout 2018,” it noted in its analysis.

RMB is of the view that the rate cut was expected for a few reasons: slower private-sector credit expansion and a tightening credit stance on enterprises could dampen the growth momentum; and inflation resumed its downward trend in October, falling to 11.6 percent, year-on-year from 12.2 percent in September.

“Recent comments by the central bank pointed to a continuation of the cutting cycle. These include focusing on accelerating economic growth and its expression of disappointment in the slow downward pace of lending rates [around 150bp] after cutting the policy rate by 450bp,” it added.

But the BoG’s Governor, Dr. Ernest Addison, urged patience on Monday – saying inefficiencies in the banking sector, particularly the high rate of bad loans, would not allow an immediate drop in lending rates.

“The inefficiencies in the banking sector have to be worked on, and then we can expect that once those efficiencies are made we’ll see a faster transmission of the policy rate into the lending rates,” the Governor said after announcing the 100-basis points reduction in the policy rate to 20 percent.

The Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) ratio declined from 21.9 percent in August to 21.6 percent at the end of October, but is still considered too high. Similarly, NPL ratio net of provisions declined from 11.3 percent to 10.5 percent,

According to the central bank’s latest report on lending rates charged by commercial banks, borrowers are still paying above 30 percent to access credit facilities – although the cost of lending, since turn of the year, has declined by about two percent.

 

‘It could take late 2018 for interest rates to ease’

Meanwhile, a banking academic, Dr. Richmond Atuahene, has said the “cautious” posturing of the central bank means it could take as long as late 2018 or even early 2019 for lending rates to respond to lowering of the policy rate, urging the public not to be too optimistic too soon.

Speaking to the B&FT, Dr. Atuahene – who is a former Faculty Head of Banking Operations at the National Banking College – said the Governor’s cautious tone points to uncertainties that remain in the macroeconomy as well as on the global level, which is why the policy rate was not cut significantly.

“If it [lending rates] will come down, then we should look at late 2018 or possibly early 2019 when we can be sure inefficiencies of the banks will be minimised, and when we will be sure about the economic performance and its indicators,” he said.

“The Governor said the rate can come down only when the high non-performing assets are looked at; and then he even went to a position where he said it is dependent on the global economy. And here he is talking about oil prices, which have moved to US$64 per barrel. And also looking at commodity prices, cocoa continues to decline. So, therefore, it will affect the exchange rate market,” he said.

“He again said that if the interest is to drop, banks must address the inefficiencies on the loan. So being cautious, he is not going to drop the policy rate because he is not certain about inflation; he is not certain about the currency stability; and he is not certain about the global economy,” Dr. Atuahene opined.

“So, as for interest rate,” he said, “we shouldn’t expect it coming down soon, because the governor himself has said he is not certain about the global economic fundamentals; he doesn’t know the direction that cocoa and oil prices will take. So, if he cuts the policy rate by a high margin and prices of the commodities rise sharply, it will create a problem.”

ISPACE UWAT participants enter business incubator stage

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Unlocking Women and Technology (UWAT), an iSpace initiative that gives women between the ages of 18-35 years an opportunity to learn how to code and start-up their businesses has reach reached its business incubator stage.

The ladies who were selected into the 2017 training programme were taken through a three months tech training where they were taught how to code and develop websites for their idea.

The coding lessons which the ladies prior to their training had no knowledge in, concluded with presentations from all participants which was a criteria to go into the next stage of the programme.

The next stage which is the incubator stage will take a period of six months, where participants will go through lessons on business development, business model generation, marketing strategy and will climax the training by building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The total number of ladies who have made it for the incubator stage number up to twenty-one (21).

iSpace apart from training these ladies in the aforementioned will also support their various businesses by buying out rightly domains for their websites, registering their businesses and also provide seed fund for their start-ups, coupled with assigning them to a mentor.

The businesses going through the incubator stage include the likes of Sabary Travel and Tour which is a travel and tour agency which seeks to promote Ghana’s best tourists sites and organise trips for locals and foreigners.

Other businesses include Mukasi ,R-smile Cottons, Fizle Cleaners, N & A Organics, Shebab Forex Exchange, The Agric hub Ghana, UgwuMerchants,NDIIBO, EUUEES kiddy events, Pals Network, Djay,  Adepa Market, Union –Aid,  ADCA, Culmabate, Influential, Monger, VerteLeben, Allyn Foods, Findfix.

Speaking about the efforts that iSpace as a tech hub, start-ups and entrepreneurial advocates, Ms. Nma Favour Ozichukwu, the Program Manager argued that “iSpace’s Unlocking Women and Technology is a project that has been impactful in the lives of many young ladies over the years and as such, we are always determined to see through the realization of the ladies exploits and start-ups. This incubation stage will help fine-tune their ideas”.

She also added that, iSpace will be partnering local tech hubs in 4 regions across Ghana, specifically Volta region, Northern region, Ashanti region and BrongAhafo region in their attempt to take iSpace’s flagship program UWAT nationwide, to get enrolled visit www.unlockingwat.com. The ladies who have begun the incubator programme also expressed their satisfaction with the coding and business development classes and are looking forward to the next stage which is the Accelerator, where they will scale their Start-ups.

In a related development, Code school, an iSpace initiative that has impacted lives over the period of four years has opened applications to train people in python and Java. The program which has seen many participants benefit from it over the years will once again offer all the needed skills one needs in python and java for a successful coding school this year.

The programmes Manager of iSpace, Nma Favour Ozochukwu announcing the opening stated that “it is always the vision of iSpace to make the needed strives when it comes to the world of tech in this country. Code school has come to stay and as usual we have created the platform for all code enthusiasts to apply and subsequently join us on this amazing ride”.

The programmes manager giving more details on how to apply for code school stated that, the deadline for applications is Tuesday, the 28th of November, 2017 as classes will begin on December 4, 2017. She also added that, interested individuals can find out more about code school by visiting [email protected].

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