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<p>After a rebasing exercise that changed the base year from 2006 to 2013, Ghana&#8217;s GDP expanded by 25 per cent to $52 billion dollars, making the West African country the 6th largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa. John Ashbourne, Africa Economist at Capital Economics joins CNBC Africa to analyse the underlying factors in Ghana&#8217;s economy.</p>


Understanding Ghana’s rebased GDP

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<p>Ghana&#8217;s President Nana Akufo-Addo says the country welcomes investors in the government&#8217;s priority areas. The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre is charged with promoting and facilitating investments into the country. Yofi Grant, CEO of the GIPC joins CNBC Africa to discuss the challenges.</p>


Ghana woos investors

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<p>Nigerian business owners in Ghana are seeking the intervention of the regional economic union ECOWAS over the closure of some Nigerian-owned businesses in Kumasi and Ashanti region of Ghana. Bamidele Ayemibo, Export Group Chairman at the Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry joins CNBC Africa to discuss this development.</p>


Nigerian traders look to ECOWAS over closure of shops in Ghana

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<p>Ghana Grid Company is struggling to run its operations due debt owed to it by as many as 39 companies including the Electricity Company of Ghana, Ben Boakye, Deputy Executive Director, Africa Centre for Energy Policy, Ghana joins CNBC Africa to discuss implications of the current trends and challenges in Ghana&#8217;s power sector.</p>


Debt stifles Ghana’s GRIDCo power transmission

<p>NYAME NNAE, Ghana (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; Since Emmanuel Agyekum took over a decade ago as chief of Nyame Nnae, a poor cocoa farming village in western Ghana, people’s incomes have fallen and his worries have increased.</p>
<p>The cocoa trees planted behind wood-plank houses are getting old, and produce only a fraction of what they used to.</p>
<p>Last year, money ran out between harvest seasons and people struggled to buy food.</p>
<p>“The cocoa trees are dying and it is a worry to us all,” said Agyekum, sitting in a plastic chair in a dirt yard.</p>
<p>Cocoa yields are declining across Ghana, the world’s second-biggest producer after neighboring Ivory Coast, where about 800,000 family farmers supply cocoa beans to chocolate companies such as Hershey’s and Nestle, according to the government.</p>
<p>The industry regulator, Cocobod, has encouraged farmers to clear away old trees and replant. But under the traditional agreements that govern rural land use, a farmer’s land rights are tied to the crops he is growing.</p>
<p>Cutting down the cocoa can mean losing your lease, said Paul Macek of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), which represents over 100 of the biggest companies.</p>
<p>“Land tenure is a risk for any smallholder farmer,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.</p>
<p>“As a result of the customary arrangements, sharecroppers are very reluctant to make investments in rehabilitating old farms. Even if the situation is desperate, they really have no incentive to do that.”</p>
<p>In Nyame Nnae, The Hershey Company , cocoa supplier ECOM and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tested a possible solution.</p>
<p>Working with lawyers, tech companies and local chiefs, they mapped farms and documented customary land agreements that had never been put into writing before.</p>
<p>“What we found is that just the fact of documentation helped farmers increase their sense of security over that land,” said Robert O’Sullivan of U.S.-based non-profit Winrock International, which helped design the pilot project.</p>
<p>When they do not fear losing the land, farmers are more likely to make long-term investments to increase yields, he said.</p>
<p>MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS<br />
Hannah Adjei does not know what the document says, but she clutches it tightly in a plastic envelope in the rain.</p>
<p>“If anybody comes and tries to take my land from me, this will help me prove that the land is mine,” said the 54-year-old, who received a customary land title through the pilot project.</p>
<p>Like most cocoa farmers in Nyame Nnae, Adjei is not a native of the region.</p>
<p>According to the document, the land she farms was a gift from her husband, who inherited it from his father, who obtained it through an agreement with the late chief of the district.</p>
<p>North of Ghana’s cocoa-growing regions, the landscape changes from green to brown. For decades, people from this poorer zone have migrated south and made deals with locals who owned land but required labor.</p>
<p>In the typical arrangement known as “Abunu”, a migrant farmer plants crops on uncultivated land and, when the crops mature, divides the proceeds with the landowner.</p>
<p>But this scheme disadvantages farmers in the long run, said John Bugri, a land economist.</p>
<p>Migrants can toil for generations only to get a portion of the profits and still lose their farm at any time, Bugri said.</p>
<p>“They (landowners) see the people who come and farm the land for them as a cheap source of labor,” he added.</p>
<p>“If you are a tenant farmer who’s saying, ‘Let’s document the rights’, you are the one more likely to be booted out.”</p>
<h3>DISPUTES</h3>
<p>Ghana’s Cocobod estimates that 40 percent of the country’s crop needs replanting.</p>
<p>It started its own farm rehabilitation program this month, aiming to more than double productivity in the next 10 years, said Cocobod spokesman Noah Amenyah.</p>
<p>The government hopes raising yields &#8211; and therefore incomes &#8211; will convince farmers to stay in the sector at a time when many are abandoning cocoa for illegal gold mines and rubber plantations, said Amenyah.</p>
<p>“Land tenure is a significant problem,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.</p>
<p>Cocobod will pay landowners to allow farmers to cut old cocoa without losing tenancy, he said.</p>
<p>Winrock and partners took a different approach in their pilot &#8211; holding discussions and trainings to persuade landowners to allow replanting.</p>
<p>Sitting in silver-backed chairs in their rustic town palace, the district chiefs of Asankragua have the final say over land decisions in Nyame Nnae and some 60 other villages.</p>
<p>Under customary law, land held by tenants normally reverts back to the landowner if the crops are removed, allowing him to negotiate a better deal or use it for something else, said Kwame Appiah, secretary of the chiefs.</p>
<p>But through the pilot, chiefs and landowners were persuaded that allowing farmers to replant would bring in more money, he said.</p>
<p>The land tenure documents drawn up during the project by Ghanaian startup Meridia do not meet the requirements of land deeds under formal, statutory law, said O’Sullivan of Winrock.</p>
<p>They enshrine traditional, or customary law, which is suitable for use in rural settings, he explained.</p>
<p>They also provide maps in places that have never had one &#8211; which prevents conflicts over property boundaries, the chiefs said.</p>
<h3>REHABILITATION</h3>
<p>Daniel Ntodi steps around knee-high cocoa seedlings interspersed with tree stumps in a wooded clearing.</p>
<p>He replanted last year, after a crop disease reduced his yearly yield from 20-25 bags of cocoa beans to less than 10.</p>
<p>Having a land tenure document motivated him to replant the farm, but he is not sure he could have afforded to do it on his own.</p>
<p>Farmers have difficulty accessing credit in Ghana, and most do not have the cash to pay for new seedlings &#8211; much less survive the three to four years it will take them to start producing, said cocoa supplier ECOM.</p>
<p>In the Nyame Nnae project, ECOM paid for the rehabilitation and planted plantains and maize among the cocoa.</p>
<p>The plan is for farmers to sell the food crops to pay back the investment and sustain themselves until the cocoa matures, said ECOM program manager Bismark Appiah-Kubi.</p>
<p>“It’s still a work in progress,” he said, adding that the company is working on ways to scale up the model.</p>
<p>The pilot project in Nyame Nnae saw 190 farms mapped and documented and 71 rehabilitated over a period of 11 months.</p>
<p>Meridia has done mapping and registration for thousands of farmers since it started three years ago and is in talks with companies to do more, said managing director Joseph Okyere.</p>
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<div id="google_ads_iframe_/4735792/us.reuters/world/article_7__container__">The Asankragua chiefs have requested an extension of the pilot in their district, and farmers said they expect to see record harvests when the new trees mature.</div>
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<p>“I am really happy about it because it will help me get my daily bread and look after my children,” Ntodi said.</p>
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<p class="Attribution_content">Reporting by Nellie Peyton, editing by Zoe Tabary. Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit www.trust.org</p>
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Ghana’s cocoa industry is under threat could this be the solution?

<p>ACCRA (Reuters) &#8211; Ghana is considering a century bond worth $50 billion as part of the West African nation’s plan to secure long-term funding to build critical infrastructure for industrial development, its leader said.</p>
<p>“The Ministry of Finance and economists in Ghana are looking at floating a $50 billion century bond. This will provide us with the resources to finance our infrastructural and industrial development,” President Nana Akufo-Addo said during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.</p>
<p>Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Toby Chopra</p>


This West African country is considering a century bond worth $50 bln to finance infrastructure development

<figure><img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232652/original/file-20180820-30596-199dq81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="File 20180820 30596 199dq81.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" /><figcaption>Genetic data holds a wealth of health information.<br />
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CI Photos/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shane-c-quinonez-516128">Shane C Quinonez</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-michigan-1290">University of Michigan</a></em></p>
<p>Genetic technologies are poised to change the world. Want to eradicate a human disease such as cystic fibrosis or improve a person’s ability to run impossible distances or lift unimaginable weights? This may be possible in the future by using something called <a href="https://www.livescience.com/58790-crispr-explained.html">CRISPR to edit</a> an organism’s genetic makeup. How about rapidly sequencing a newborn’s genome, similar to an early scene in the 1997 movie <a href="https://nerdist.com/20-year-anniversary-gattaca-genetics/">Gattaca</a>? Next-generation sequencing may make this fiction a reality.</p>
<p>As these technologies continue to increase in ability and decrease in cost, we may soon be living in an age of genomics-informed health care.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the “we” in the previous sentence only applies to at best 7% of the world’s population. For everyone else technologies such as next-generation sequencing and CRISPR gene editing are more science fiction than nonfiction.</p>
<p>Low or middle-income countries are where this technology is needed the most as they harbor the largest <a href="https://www.marchofdimes.org/global-report-on-birth-defects-the-hidden-toll-of-dying-and-disabled-children-full-report.pdf">burden of birth defects</a> and genetic diseases. Yet almost all low-income countries and many middle-income countries <a href="http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789241501149_eng.pdf">lack</a> the necessary personnel, technology, infrastructure, and public and medical education capabilities needed to introduce medical genetics services.</p>
<p>To address this gap, my colleagues and I created the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-018-0069-6">MiGene Family History App</a>. It’s an Android-based mobile application that aims to introduce medical genetics services into low and middle-income countries.</p>
<p>The app is used by health care providers and collects and stores patient and family histories. It generates personalised genetic counselling information that can be delivered to patients and their families. And the data can also be used for epidemiologic analysis.</p>
<p>The app has already been piloted in an Ethiopian hospital and has since been rolled out to a teaching hospital in Ghana.</p>
<p>It’s important to point out that the technology the app uses is far from what’s required to perform genome sequencing or gene editing in Ethiopia. But our work is one of the many preliminary steps needed to bring attention to the need for genetic services in low and middle-income countries.</p>
<h2>Pilot project in Ethiopia</h2>
<p>The MiGene Family History App was designed jointly by teams at the University of Michigan and St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa. It was then programmed by xHub, a technology group in Ethiopia’s capital.</p>
<p>The first version of the app focuses on paediatric birth defects and genetic diseases. These include heart malformations, Down Syndrome, and neural tube defects. So we launched the app in the Paediatric and Obstetrics and Gynaecology departments at St. Paul’s. We also conducted <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-018-0069-6">a study</a> about the app’s value and ease of use.</p>
<p>MiGene was loaded onto physicians’ and nurses’ tablets. It was then used to collect data in both departments, but with a focus on the general paediatrics ward. The staff told us they found the app easy to use. The app allowed us to provide the hospital with data on the incidence of birth defects and genetic diseases in the institution. For instance, we found that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-018-0069-6">approximately 12%</a> of all admitted patients were affected with a birth defect or genetic disease. Heart malformations and Down Syndrome were the most common conditions present.</p>
<p>Having this data will help to inform future decisions taken by Ethiopia’s ministry of health. For instance, it can assess the success of interventions such as the country’s <a href="https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-017-1506-2">folic acid</a> supplementation efforts, which were introduced as a strategy to decrease the incidence of birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord.</p>
<p>While our study was intentionally small in scope, if use of the MiGene Family History App is expanded to other regions within Ethiopia it will provide more representative population data.</p>
<p>One of our most interesting <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-018-0069-6">findings</a> was that the incidence of birth defects and genetic diseases at St. Paul’s was nearly identical to the incidence of birth defects and genetic diseases in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-018-0069-6">previously studied</a> children’s hospitals in high-income countries.</p>
<p>This confirms something that geneticists have long known: genetic disease affects everyone and doesn’t discriminate. That’s why it’s so crucial that the benefits of genetic technology are not limited to only those individuals fortunate enough to have been born into a rich country.</p>
<h2>Taking the tech further</h2>
<p>After the success of the pilot study in Ethiopia, MiGene Family History App has been expanded to include adult-onset non-communicable diseases such as cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It’s still in use at St. Paul’s and is now also being used at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana.</p>
<p>Our future plans include improving the genetic testing capabilities available at St. Paul’s and launching a genetic counselling training curriculum at the hospital. This focus on patient and health care provider education is vital when introducing a new medical technology, such as genetic testing, into a country or region.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101702/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shane-c-quinonez-516128">Shane C Quinonez</a>, Biochemical Geneticist, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-michigan-1290">University of Michigan</a></em></p>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-an-app-is-helping-to-collect-genetic-data-in-ethiopia-and-ghana-101702">original article</a>.</p>

This app is changing the way genetic data is collected in Ethiopia and Ghana

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<p>School Feeding Programs are often seen as one of the social intervention strategies to ensure that pupils in poor communities have access to education by removing the barriers of hunger. In the following conversation with CNBC Africa Ghana’s Alfred Adjabeng, a young agribusiness enthusiast shares how he is helping schools in rural areas produce their own food for their feeding programs.</p>


Young entrepreneur offers solutions to challenges faced by school feeding programs

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<p>In honour of the late Chair of the Africa Progress Panel, Nobel Laureate, and former United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. CNBC Africa brings you his last interview on CNBC Africa where Wole Famurewa spoke to him on the progress and challenges in the drive to electrify Africa.</p>


Kofi Annan dead at 80: CNBC Africa shares his last interview

<p>ZURICH (Reuters) &#8211; World soccer’s ruling body FIFA says the Ghanaian government has pledged to stop the process to wind up the country’s football association (GFA) over corruption allegations.</p>
<p>FIFA, which earlier this week threatened to suspend Ghana from international football, said the two sides had on Thursday agreed to work together “to offer leadership in reforming football administration in Ghana and in Africa”.</p>
<p>FIFA will also work with the Ghanaian government “to eradicate corruption and malfeasance and other associated criminal conduct from the administration of football in Ghana”, it said in a statement.</p>
<p>The two sides will set up a so-called “normalisation committee” to administer football in the country as well as a task force to create disciplinary, governance and auditing mechanisms.</p>
<p>“Satisfied with the above measures, the Ghanaian government shall take steps to discontinue the process for the winding up of the Ghana Football Association,” FIFA added.</p>
<p>FIFA did not, however, explicitly state that it had withdrawn its threat to suspend the GFA. Such a ban would mean the country’s national teams would be barred from international competition.</p>
<p>There was no immediate comment from the Ghanaian government, although it said on Tuesday that it expected an amicable outcome to Thursday’s meeting.</p>
<p>The GFA became embroiled in a scandal when its president Kwesi Nyantakyi was filmed by an investigative journalist in a hotel room appearing to take a $65,000 bribe from a supposed businessman seeking to sponsor the Ghanaian football league.</p>
<p>In June, the government began a process to wind up the GFA and police locked down the GFA offices, declaring the building a crime scene.</p>
<p>Nyantakyi was suspended by FIFA from his positions on its decision-making FIFA Council. He resigned as GFA president and apologised to Akufo-Addo and the government for what he called his “indiscretion”.</p>
<p>Despite having itself suspended Nyantakyi, FIFA does not accept third party interference in its member federations and had therefore threatened to ban the GFA over the government’s action.</p>
<p>Reporting by Brian Homewood, editing by Ed Osmond</p>


FIFA plans to work with Ghana’s government, here’s why…

<figure><img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228795/original/file-20180723-189338-l42zjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="File 20180723 189338 l42zjg.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" /><figcaption>Space law is a growing and important discipline.<br />
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">piick/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julia-selman-ayetey-303578">Julia Selman Ayetey</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/mcgill-university-827">McGill University</a></em></p>
<p>Rapid advances in space technology mean that space is no longer simply a stargazer’s paradise.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/space-on-earth/space-economy/">socio-economic benefits</a> possible from the use of space technology and research are endless. For instance, satellite imagery can be used for agricultural purposes, such as helping to predict food shortages and surplus harvests. It can also be employed to forecast and monitor natural disasters like flooding, earthquakes and wildfires. <a href="http://www.who.int/goe/publications/goe_telemedicine_2010.pdf">Telemedicine</a> platforms, which also rely on satellites beaming from space, can greatly enhance the provision of health services in remote areas.</p>
<p>African countries are becoming increasingly aware of these and other possibilities. According to Euroconsult, the space budgets of just five African states amounted to over <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265964613000593#tbl1">USD$900 million between 2009-2012</a> and the continent’s evolving space sector is reportedly worth <a href="https://spacegeneration.org/regions/africa">USD$400 billion</a> today.</p>
<p>In 2014 Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa combined spent more <a href="https://www.africaportal.org/features/making-case-african-investment-space-programmes/">than USD$140 million</a> on non-military space programmes. Others expanding their space agenda include Angola, Egypt, <a href="https://africanbusinessmagazine.com/region/east-africa/ethiopia-enters-space-age/">Ethiopia</a> and Kenya.</p>
<p>Ghana is trying to catch up. The <a href="http://gsstc.gov.gh/">Ghana Space Science &amp; Technology Institute</a> has been established to train specialists in these fields and to convert space research into commercial applications. The government has made a <a href="https://www.businessghana.com/site/news/general/162920/Ghana-bids-to-host-African-Union-Space-Agency">bid to host</a> the African Union’s planned Space Agency. It’s also a participant in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ghana-is-boosting-africas-ascent-to-astronomical-heights-82849">Square Kilometre Array</a> (SKA) radio telescope project.</p>
<p>A notable accomplishment came in July 2017 when, as part of the satellite <a href="http://birds1.birds-project.com">Bird Project</a>, three engineering students from All Nations University, built and successfully launched Ghana’s first satellite, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40538471">GhanaSat-1</a>, from Florida’s Kennedy Space Station.</p>
<p>But if the West African nation is to fully harness the benefits of space technology and create a lucrative space sector – whether in a niche or wide-ranging market – it will need to put proper policies and structures in place. It will also need space legislation and regulations.</p>
<h2>National space laws</h2>
<p>In setting out space legislation, Ghana would be following international precedent. More than 25 countries have enacted such laws. The space powers Russia and the US are among them, but so are smaller states like Argentina, Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Iran.</p>
<p>Closer to home, <a href="https://www.egyptindependent.com/sisi-passes-law-establishing-egyptian-space-agency/">Egypt</a>, Nigeria and <a href="http://www.sacsa.gov.za">South Africa</a> already have space laws. Other nations on the continent will undoubtedly follow suit.</p>
<p>A national space law would ensure that space activities launched within Ghana’s jurisdiction – whether on land, ships or aircraft – and perhaps even abroad by its nationals or registered companies are appropriately regulated.</p>
<p>Such laws may govern a host of space-related ventures. These include launches; remote sensing and space data protection; aeronautics; rocket and satellite development, space tourism and space mining.</p>
<p>Of course, the complexity of space activities combined with the rapid pace at which technology develops means that national space laws are <a href="https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2017/12/selman-ayetey-uk-space-legislation/">unlikely to cover</a> every eventuality. They do, however, provide a degree of certainty for the public, investors and courts should disputes arise.</p>
<p>National laws also facilitate compliance with global obligations. Article 6 of the <a href="http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/outerspacetreaty.html">Outer Space Treaty</a>, for example, requires all space activities to be authorised and continually supervised by the state. National laws which demand licensing of space activities foster adherence to the treaty.</p>
<p>Article 7 makes states liable for damage caused by space objects under its jurisdiction, including those belonging to private commercial entities. A Space Act can be vital in limiting a state’s liability through provisions on indemnities.</p>
<p>Ghana has signed the Outer Space Treaty. The next step will be for the government to ratify it, and then to establish a legislative framework for space activities.</p>
<h2>Making Ghana’s space law</h2>
<p>About half a decade ago the International Law Association published the <a href="http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/limited/c2/AC105_C2_2013_CRP06E.pdf">Sofia Guidelines for a Model Law for National Space Legislation</a>. Shortly afterwards the United Nations General Assembly passed <a href="http://digitallibrary.un.org/record/763550/files/A_RES_68_74-EN.pdf">a resolution</a> entitled “Recommendations on national legislation relevant to the peaceful exploration and use of outer space”. These documents contain elements deemed essential for any country’s space law.</p>
<p>Like other <a href="https://tem.fi/en/artikkeli/-/asset_publisher/avaruuslain-rakennuspalikat">countries</a> before it, Ghana can refer to the model law and UN recommendations when drafting its space law. This can then be adapted to suit the nation’s particular needs.</p>
<p>The drafting of such legislation requires a careful balancing act, taking various stakeholders’ interests into account and honouring Ghana’s international obligations.</p>
<p>If laws are too restrictive, investors will take their money elsewhere. For instance, a country whose licensing scheme for private commercial space companies is perceived as onerous will be prone to losing foreign investment to a country whose space laws are viewed as more favourable. On the other hand, safety, environmental concerns and the ability to seek damages for harm to persons or property may be compromised by laws which are too liberal.</p>
<h2>Space law awareness</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/newsevents/workingdocuments/33178-wd-african_space_policy_-_st20444_e_original.pdf">African Union</a> has identified the need to develop the human capital necessary to expand the African space market.</p>
<p>Discussions on space capacity-building have tended to focus on the value of aerospace engineers, astrophysicists, and other technical experts. All these professionals are indeed crucial to create a space sector.</p>
<p>But the need for policy advisers, government lawyers and space entrepreneurs to be aware of the rights and obligations arising out of both national and international space law has often been overlooked.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100200/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />In an effort to contribute to this aspect of the requisite human resources, Ghana could look at introducing space law courses at its universities. At least three other institutions on the continent, Kenya’s <a href="http://law-school.uonbi.ac.ke//uon_degrees_details/1391">University of Nairobi</a>, Niger Delta University in Nigeria and the <a href="https://www.up.ac.za/en/programmes/StudyLevel/13/Faculty/F6/mod/postgrad/year/2019">University of Pretoria</a> in South Africa, have already done this.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julia-selman-ayetey-303578">Julia Selman Ayetey</a>, Doctoral Candidate, Institute of Air &amp; Space Law, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/mcgill-university-827">McGill University</a></em></p>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ghana-is-looking-to-outer-space-it-needs-the-law-to-match-100200">original article</a>.</p>


Why Ghana’s space law can’t be too restrictive as country looks to expand space agenda

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<p>Moody&#8217;s Investors Service says it expects Ghana&#8217;s debt burden to reach 72.4 percent of GDP by the end of the year, on the back of the costs associated with operationalising the newly created Consolidated Bank and the resolution of UT Bank and Capital Bank earlier. Peter Mushangwe, a Banking Analyst at Moody’s joins CNBC Africa to analyse Ghana’s banking space.</p>


Moody’s outlook for Ghanaian banks

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<p>Industry experts are calling for an independent probe following the recent collapse of five banks in Ghana. John Gatsi, Economist at the University of Cape Coast joins CNBC Africa from Ghana to discuss this development.</p>


BoG collapses 5 banks: Industry experts call for independent probe

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<p>Following the recent collapse of five banks in Ghana, Bank of Ghana governor Ernest Addison is adamant about the state of the banking industry as he revealed that the total assets in the country&#8217;s banking sector were up 15.7 per cent as at the end of June. Arnold Dublin-Green, Portfolio Manager at Ecobank joins CNBC Africa to discuss the state of Ghana&#8217;s banking sector.</p>


How attractive are Ghana’s banks?

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<p>Ghana’s Inflation for the month of June rose to 10 percent, compared to the 9.8 per cent recorded in May this year. Collins Appiah, Economic Advisor at Services Integrity Savings and Loans joins CNBC Africa from Ghana to discuss the economic events that may have influenced the recent inflation figures.</p>


Ghana June inflation rises to 10%

<p><em>By Romain Py, Head of Transactions at African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM)</em></p>
<p>Business leaders and government ministers have gathered this week at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Johannesburg to discuss reforms that aim to restore investor and consumer confidence in South Africa and create a more inclusive and sustainable future for the country. But the debate at the WEF will extend way beyond South Africa’s development and will address the future of the continent as a whole.</p>
<p>One of the biggest issues common to most African countries is a shortage of power (approximately 600 million Africans do not have access to a power supply), and this is becoming especially important as populations continue to increase quickly.</p>
<p>It may surprise you to learn that Africa is the world’s fastest urbanising continent, with its populace growing faster than either China’s or India’s. There’ll be something like an additional 187 million Africans living in cities over the next decade.</p>
<p>The sheer scale of African population growth presents as many opportunities as it does challenges, but the African leaders at the WEF will need to discuss how they can create more energy generation capacity that meets all this extra future demand. Of course, the electricity needs of businesses are as important as the needs of people’s homes, if Africa is to deliver transformative GDP growth.</p>
<p>To reduce its existing energy deficit, the challenge is already considerable. Africa will have to unlock large-scale investment in its power sector. This requires the implementation of reliable domestic policies and the involvement of international investors. To attract new investment, it will also require well-structured and transparent procurement processes and a “programmatic development” approach in order to reach the scale of extra power production needed.</p>
<p>Africa is of course blessed with plentiful supplies of energy: from solar to wind and thermal. These are sustainable and affordable renewable energy sources with low environmental impacts.</p>
<p>As renewable technologies have developed, energy tariffs are now either on a par or even lower than standard fossil fuel grid electricity costs in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries. In fact, renewable energy is expected to make up 40% of Sub-Saharan African generation capacity by 2040 (compared to 20% in 2012), accounting for almost half of the growth in overall power supply in the region.</p>
<p>The South African Renewables Programme (REIPPPP) is one of the country’s major successes. It has attracted investors from all over the world providing them with long-term pricing certainty. And it has successfully widened the pool of investors in the renewable market, with a new class of African financial investors such as my firm AIIM entering the sector.</p>
<p>AIIM currently has a renewable energy portfolio of around 3,000MW (in construction and operation) including the Umoya Wind Farm outside of Cape Town, the Cookhouse Wind Farm, SA’s largest wind power facility, in the Eastern Cape. It has invested in REISA, SA’s largest solar plant in the Northern Cape.</p>
<p>Other countries, such as Ghana, have over the past 10 years completely reformed its entire power sector in order to attract new investors. This includes the establishment of an independent utility regulator, and setting cost-reflective tariffs.</p>
<p>Starsight Power Utility is another example of efforts in renewables across the continent. The Nigeria-based energy services company (into which AIIM recently invested) offers a solar-diesel-battery hybrid and efficient cooling and lighting solutions to its commercial and industrial clients. The company is in the process of rolling out its services to a number of core clients in the financial services and energy sectors, and has a target pipeline of over 1,000 sites in the medium term.</p>
<p>At AIIM, we leverage dynamic private sectors and entrepreneurial spirit by teaming up with local developers, management teams and partners. This has been a key ingredient to our success in renewable and other independent energy project investments such as Azura-Edo, Cenpower and Albatros Energy.</p>
<p>As long-term infrastructure investors, our goal is to make both a positive and sustainable impact. We have built considerable expertise in environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG) matters, which we embed in our investment processes, investment decisions and daily operations. And Africa’s sustainable and renewable energy sources point to a bright future for the continent, in more ways than one.</p>


Op-Ed: What Africa needs to do to generate the right conditions for its development

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<p>Ghana&#8217;s Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta says investing in education holds the key to equip Africans with the requisite skills needed to create the future jobs on the continent.</p>


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How attractive are Ghana’s banks?

Ghana June inflation rises to 10%

Op-Ed: What Africa needs to do to generate the right conditions for its development

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Ghana

Understanding Ghana’s rebased GDP

Ghana woos investors

Nigerian traders look to ECOWAS over closure of shops in Ghana

Debt stifles Ghana’s GRIDCo power transmission

Ghana’s cocoa industry is under threat could this be the solution?

This West African country is considering a century bond worth $50 bln to finance infrastructure development

This app is changing the way genetic data is collected in Ethiopia and Ghana

Young entrepreneur offers solutions to challenges faced by school feeding programs

Kofi Annan dead at 80: CNBC Africa shares his last interview

FIFA plans to work with Ghana’s government, here’s why…

Why Ghana’s space law can’t be too restrictive as country looks to expand space agenda

Moody’s outlook for Ghanaian banks

BoG collapses 5 banks: Industry experts call for independent probe

How attractive are Ghana’s banks?

Ghana June inflation rises to 10%

Op-Ed: What Africa needs to do to generate the right conditions for its development

Why investing in education is key to Africa’s development – Ken Ofori Atta

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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