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BUSINESS NEWS | GHANA AND BEYOND

The national year-on-year inflation rate was 11.3% in May 2020, which is 0.7 percentage points higher than last month, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), has announced. Month-on-month inflation between April 2020 and May 2020 was 1.7%, the GSS added. This is lower than the 3.2% recorded between March and April 2020, but higher than the average month-on-month inflation recorded in the months from October 2019 to March 2020 (0.7%). Only two of the thirteen Divisions had higher than average inflation rates; Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Housing, Water, Electricity, and Gas (both 15.1%). At the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 3.1% in the Upper East Region to 13.3% in Greater Accra. When comparing Food to Non-Food inflation, there are clear differences between regions. Ashanti (22.3%) and Western Region (19.8%) had the highest rates of Food inflation, while Eastern Region saw the highest

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said it will be able to decide on the payment schedule for customers of defunct Fund management firms by the end of June 2020. According to the Commission, it is in the process of finalising the validation process of affected investors. This would influence how the payment would be carried out.
Director-General of SEC noted that “So what we have done, firstly, is to get the liquidation process to start and that means that the official liquidator that the Registrar General is in court. “We can’t tell when that process will terminate because it’s an issue of the court process so that is in the works,” the Director-General explained to
JoyNews June 9, 2020. He however expressed confidence that: “by the end of this month, the SEC will be in the position to make a definite announcement so by the end of this month, I believe that everybody should be clear as to what to expect and when to expect it.”

Malaysian palm oil futures rose for a third straight session on Wednesday, though trading was cautious ahead of the release of official May supply and demand data, and cargo surveyors’ export numbers for the first 10 days of this month. The benchmark palm oil contract for August delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 10 ringgit, or 0.38%, to 2,397 ringgit ($562.02) a tonne by 0236 GMT, tracking strength in rival soyoil. Palm climbed as much as 3.2% in the previous session to its highest since March 31, on estimates of a surge in June 1-10 exports. Palm oil exports during June 1-10 were seen 45%-79% higher than a month earlier, traders said.

Massive transformation has arrived, as African RPA pioneering firm Ntansa, based in Ghana, West Africa, announces they have joined forces with UiPath. Ntansa has partnered with UiPath, the leading enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software company, to help organizations scale RPA capabilities in their business units by providing a fast, reliable, and efficient delivery model. The experienced Ntansa Project Team intends to continue to assist clients, strategic partners, and technology partners with projects developed using UiPath’s hyperautomation platform. This partnership, which began nearly two years ago, will continue to cover African organizations supporting customers in all industries and countries from their Accra operational center.

Airlines are set to lose US$84 billion as the coronavirus pandemic reduces revenue by half to mark the worst year in the sector’s history, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecast on Tuesday. With most of the world’s airliners currently parked, IATA said revenue would likely fall to US$419 billion from US$838 billion last year. “Every day of this year will add US$230 million to industry losses,” IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac said. The average loss amounts to almost $38 per passenger flown. In 2021, IATA warned losses could hit US$100 billion as traffic struggles to recover and airlines slash fares to win business.

Absa Group, one of Africa’s largest financial services providers, is celebrating substantial completion of its separation programme from Barclays PLC, three years after the start. The separation, one of the largest and most complex corporate programmes of its kind, followed Barclays PLC’s 2016 decision to reduce its shareholding in the African group to a minority position. Barclays became the majority shareholder in Absa in 2005 and the two groups subsequently integrated systems, processes and policies over time. “We are closing an important chapter in the more-than-100-year history of the Absa Group as we wind up the last few ele

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