Bank of Ghana (BoG) said, they have submitted five (5) separate requests to EOCO for investigations into claims of persons to investigate specific cases of suspected financial crimes and liaises with the appropriate agencies for possible prosecution of suspected persons. Pursuant to this, a number of referrals have been made by BoG to EOCO for investigations, as summarized below. SUSPICIOUS REQUESTS TO BOG FOR PAYMENT OF LARGE SUMS OF INWARD REMITTANCES APPARENTLY WITHHELD BY BOG Following an emerging trend observed by the BoG over the last few years, BoG has since October 2020 submitted five (5) separate requests to EOCO for investigations into claims of persons (individuals, businesses, and law firms acting on behalf of clients) who have persistently made claims on the BoG to the effect that certain large sums of money purportedly remitted to them by foreign counterparties through the banking system have been withheld by BoG. These claimants often attached documentation alleged to be messaging from the SWIFT international funds transfer system, as proof of the receipt and retention of their funds by BoG. Following BoG’s preliminary investigations which have shown that these claims are fake, BoG has referred such matters to EOCO for further investigation. EOCO has made significant progress in these investigations and has initiated prosecution in some of these cases, while investigations in other cases continue. REQUESTS BY RECEIVERS FOR INVESTIGATIONS INTO DEFUNCT SAVINGS & LOANS COMPANIES AND MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS In its public notices in 2019 announcing the revocation licences of certain defunct Savings and Loans Companies, Finance Houses, and Microfinance Institutions, BoG cited a number of potentially criminal actions on the part of these institutions and their shareholders, directors or management, as the case may be. Following further investigations into the failure of these institutions by the Receivers appointed by BoG, these cases were referred to EOCO for advice. EOCO has conducted independent investigations into a number of these cases as listed below and has made recommendations to the Attorney General’s Department for consideration and possible prosecution. Savings and Loans Companies                  Microfinance Companies 1. Ideal Finance                                       1. Goldman Capital Microfinance 2. GN Savings and Loans                          2. Dwadifo Adanfo Microfinance 3. CDH Savings and Loans                        3. CIG Microfinance 4. Midland Savings and Loans                   4. Noble Dream Microfinance 5. Legacy Capital Savings and Loans         5. Adom Sika Microfinance 6. FirsTrust Savings and Loans                  6. Nationwide Microfinance 7. Express Savings and Loans                   7. Cypress Microfinance 8. IFS Savings and Loans                          8. Jorbies Microfinance 9. UniCredit Savings and Loans                  9. DPF Microfinance 10. Dream Finance Co Ltd                         10. FTS Capital Microfinance EOCO continues to work with the Attorney General’s Department towards speedy prosecutions of persons suspected to have been complicit in the failures of these institutions. In the meantime, EOCO has frozen and/or impounded some assets of such persons to help with reimbursements of the claimants of the defunct institutions. BoG continues to deepen its collaboration with EOCO and other law enforcement Agencies in the country, to help promote financial integrity and trust and confidence in our banking system. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093.

The Bank of Ghana, has decided to raise the policy rate by 100 basis points to 14.5 per cent. This was after its Monetary Policy Committee meeting. The Monetary Policy Committee, last week, held its 103rd meeting, the last meeting for the year. Meanwhile, the first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting for 2022 is scheduled for 25 to 28 January 2022. The meeting will conclude on Monday, 31 January 2022 with the announcement of the policy decision. Here is a summary of the developments and key considerations that the committee considered in arriving at its 14.5 per cent decision is provided below: 1. The growth recovery in the global economy has persisted notwithstanding the softened momentum observed in the third quarter of 2021, which is largely attributed to supply chain bottlenecks and concerns about renewed COVID-19 outbreaks. The International Monetary Fund, has subsequently in October, marginally lowered its earlier 2021 global growth forecast from 6.0 per cent to 5.9 per cent. This forecast is, however, conditioned on the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and new waves of infection especially in Europe, progress with the global vaccination drive, and supportive financing conditions. 2. Global price pressures, on the other hand, have intensified with headline inflation rising above targets in several advanced and emerging market economies. The rise in inflation broadly reflects rising energy prices, a resurgence in global demand, and supply chain constraints. Although the rise in inflation was deemed transitory in the first half of 2021, it is becoming embedded, raising policy uncertainties in the outlook. The Federal Reserve Bank has started tapering its asset purchase programmes to contain the inflation threat. In Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs), increased commodity and food prices, supply bottlenecks and pass-through to exchange rate depreciation resulted in rising inflation. While some EMDEs have raised their policy rates to contain inflationary pressures, others have adopted a wait-and-see attitude to further observe the price dynamics. 3. Despite the policy uncertainty introduced as a result of mounting inflationary pressures, global financing conditions remain supportive of growth. In the financial markets, long-term bond yields have increased amid growing concerns about the above-target inflation trends across several advanced economies. In EMDEs, financing conditions have tightened to some extent, reflecting the rise in policy rates Bank of Ghana Monetary Policy Committee to contain rising inflation, rising long-term bond yields in Advanced Economies (AEs), strengthening of the US dollar, and widening sovereign spreads in some vulnerable frontier economies. Additionally, capital flows to emerging markets and developing economies have become volatile due to concerns about the strength of the global recovery and rising inflationary pressures. These developments — the recovery in global growth conditions, rising global inflation trends, and volatility in capital flows — are likely to have spillover effects on the Ghanaian economy, mainly through their potential impacts on trade, portfolio flows, external financing, and exchange rate movements. 4. On the domestic front, economic activity during the third quarter continues to point to a sustained recovery from the pandemic. The Bank’s updated Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA) recorded an annual growth of 11.2 per cent in September 2021, compared with 10.8 per cent and 4.2 per cent in the corresponding periods of 2020 and 2019, respectively. The stronger growth in the CIEA was driven by domestic VAT, industrial consumption of electricity, port activity, imports, and air-passenger arrivals. Construction activities, however, slowed down somewhat. 5. The results of the latest confidence surveys signalled a continued improvement in both business and consumer sentiments. Businesses met short-term company targets and were optimistic about company and industry prospects as the yuletide approaches, despite concerns about the high cost of raw materials and exchange rate depreciation. Similarly, consumer confidence improved on account of positive economic prospects. 6. Provisional data at the end of October 2021 show a marked slowdown in the pace of expansion of key monetary aggregates. Broad money supply (M2+) recorded an annual growth of 14.5 per cent in October 2021 relative to 29.9 per cent in the corresponding period of 2020. The moderation was explained by a 19.5 per cent year-on-year contraction in Net Foreign Assets of the banking system, despite the 21.4 per cent growth in Net Domestic Assets. Reserve money went up by 25.9 per cent compared with 26.1 per cent growth over the same review period. 7. The banking sector remains sound and well-capitalised with strong growth in total assets, investments and deposits. In the first ten months of the year, total assets increased by 16.1 per cent to GH¢173.8 billion, reflecting strong growth in investments in government securities by 25.5 per cent to GH¢83.4 billion. The gradual growth in gross advances has continued, with 8.9 per cent growth as of the end of October 2021 compared to the end-June position of 5.2 per cent growth. Deposits grew by 17.2 per cent year-on-year to GH¢117.4 billion on the back of strong liquidity flows. 8. The industry’s Capital Adequacy Ratio of 19.8 per cent as of end-October 2021 was well above the current regulatory minimum threshold of 11.5 per cent. Core liquid assets to short-term liabilities were 24.6 per cent in October 2021 compared with 27.0 per cent in October 2020. Net interest income grew by 15.2 per cent to GH¢10.5 billion, compared with 19.9 per cent growth over the same review period. Net fees and 3 commissions recorded a stronger growth of 22.9 per cent to GH¢2.3 billion, relative to 6.1 per cent growth for the same period last year, reflecting a continued recovery in trade finance-related and other ancillary businesses of banks. Accordingly, total operating income grew by 14.3 per cent to GH¢14.1 billion, marginally lower than the previous year’s growth of 16.6 per cent. Operating costs increased by 11.0 per cent, relative to the 9.9 per cent growth for the same period in 2020. Growth in loan loss provisions, however, moderated to 6.5 per cent as of end-October 2021 from 18.9 per cent a year ago. These developments resulted in a profit before tax of

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana has reduced its lending rate by a 100 basis point from 14.5 percent to 13.5 percent. What this means is that individuals and businesses will be seeing a drop in the cost of borrowing. This is the first time the Prime rate has been lowered post-coivd-19. According to Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, their redecision was based on the global financing conditions which remain favorable in the first quarter of this year as well as on the domestic front, underlying inflation which subdued marginal signaling growth in the economy post-covid-19. Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addision announced this to journalists at the 100th MPC Meeting on Monday, 31 May 2021. Classfm Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has encouraged exporters to remain committed to the national regulation that required the repatriation of export proceeds for the development of the country. Speaking at an Exporter’s forum in Accra, Eric Kwaku Hammond, the assistant director of the banking department, BoG, said despite the existence of the Foreign Exchange Act, 2006 (Act 725) and other legislation, Ghana was still losing billions of dollars because some exporters failed to repatriate their export proceeds as required by the law. “Unfortunately, the law does not grant the BoG the power to prosecute defaulters (those who fail to repatriate these funds), so the Bank only refer them to the appropriate authorities for redress,” he said. Hammond said repatriating export proceeds into the country was very crucial for building a strong national currency reserve and stabilising the Ghana cedi to become resilient to other foreign currencies, thereby ensuring macro-economic stability. “We need to build our export currency reserves to get enough money to pay for our exports. We need surplus resources,” he said. The forum, which was organised by the Ghana Shippers’ Authority, brought together exporters, transport companies and regulatory agencies, including the Bank of Ghana, Ghana Standards Authority and the National Insurance Commission. It was to discuss issues about their operations and also dialogue on how best to address the challenges faced in successfully transporting products to destination countries. Hammond said due to the important role that such export funding played in enhancing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, the Letters of Commitment (LOC), which was a simple word-based Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, was introduced in 2016 by the BoG, to guide exporters in the processes of repatriating their proceeds. He explained that although exporters had at least 60 days after the sale of their products to repatriate funding after which the system would block the account of an exporter, the BoG often allowed some flexibility in enforcing the regulation. Hammond encouraged all exporters to contact Ghana Link Limited, which hosted the platform, to apply for enlistment. Dr Charles Kuranchie, the chief scientific officer of the Standard Directorate, Ghana Standard Authority (GSA), educated exporters on the need to ensure the standard and quality packaging for their export products. He cautioned that there could be negative consequences to the quality of products if they compromised on quality packaging leading to losses of investments. Dr Kuranchie advised exporters to select packages based on considerations, including the weight and type of product, shelf life, as well as temperature, and also ensure proper labeling to guide handlers in taking caution. Teye Kitcher, AfCFTA, spoke about the pursuant of the Single Africa Transport Market (SATM), aimed at connecting the continent to other markets globally, through an unhindered transporting system, eliminating what pertained currently, where airline operations were limited to some countries. He gave some of the benefits of the SATM as opened connectivity of airlines from and to countries globally, reduction in taxes, reduced airline fares and enhanced services due to competition, creation of free-market trading, enhanced tourism, employment opportunities and economic development. Charlse Ansong Dankyi, the senior manager, supervision department at the National Insurance Commission (NIC), underscored the importance of insuring goods in transit to safeguard investment against accidents. The exporters during a panel discussion complained about the LOC impeding their swift operations and cited other challenges such as getting cargo transport for their products and the high cost of transportation, which must be reduced. The panelists encouraged the tightening of partnership and collaboration with the various institutions to help address all concerns of exporters and other systemic challenges for effective operations. Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093