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The Market Place with Pious Kojo Backah (4-10-23)
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Good afternoon and welcome to the Marketplace.
00:02 Coming up, economist Professor Peter Kwate
00:04 criticizes Ghana's procurement system,
00:07 saying it has promoted corruption.
00:10 I think our procurement processes are not helping us.
00:13 We are encouraging or centralizing corruption.
00:17 We are helping others to benefit,
00:19 rent seekers to benefit from the system.
00:24 Also this afternoon, the National Pensions Regulatory
00:27 Authority rolls out a new supervisory model
00:30 to safeguard contributions of workers.
00:33 As regulators, we have developed a new technology
00:36 which we call the risk-based supervision.
00:39 That is also helping us in real time
00:42 to see what the risks are in the industry.
00:46 And Ghana's stock exchange places ninth in dollar terms
00:50 among 15 stock markets in Africa,
00:52 ending September this year.
00:54 My name is Faustina.
00:59 Several thanks for choosing us.
01:01 Let's settle down for details.
01:22 Economist Professor Peter Kwate has criticized
01:24 Ghana's procurement system, saying
01:26 it is promoting corruption.
01:28 According to him, the country's procurement system
01:31 needs to be checked and reviewed to ensure
01:34 value for money and accountability of government
01:36 expenditure.
01:37 Here's more.
01:39 Procurement for most government projects
01:42 are conducted by the Public Procurement Authority
01:45 as the state agency mandated to grant approvals
01:49 before any transaction.
01:51 Many have questioned the relevance of this process
01:53 after it emerged that some of these procurements
01:57 are overpriced after auditing.
01:59 According to the director of ESA, Professor Peter Kwate,
02:02 this is also a contributory factor
02:05 to the overspending in the economy.
02:07 We still see some of the leakages.
02:10 Some of the expenditures that we see,
02:13 they are not value for money spending.
02:15 The procurement process itself, if you
02:17 look at the cost of a particular procurement,
02:21 and if you go to the markets to buy,
02:23 the gap, the disparity is just too huge
02:28 to justify such or warrant such an expenditure.
02:31 I think our procurement processes are not helping us.
02:33 We are encouraging or centralizing corruption.
02:37 We are helping others to benefit,
02:39 rent seekers to benefit from the system.
02:43 Procurement has to be dealt with.
02:46 He therefore called for a tracking system
02:48 to ensure that every procurement is done according
02:52 to its intended purpose.
02:54 Then as well as ensuring value for money spending
02:58 in all the areas, expenditure tracking itself
03:01 is important, that you track from the point
03:04 you release the funds up to the end beneficiary
03:08 to see that, yes, the money is trickling down
03:10 to the intended people.
03:12 I think we don't do a lot of that.
03:14 We wait and do post-audit.
03:18 That is not the way to go.
03:19 You also track the spending.
03:21 Meanwhile, the government fiscal deficit for this year
03:25 is expected to go down.
03:27 While the National Pensions Regulatory Authority
03:34 has rolled out a new supervisory model that
03:37 is expected to help safeguard contributions of workers
03:40 and protect the sector from shocks,
03:43 this move has been influenced by the impact of the debt exchange
03:46 program on the sector.
03:48 Heferata Kofi is chief executive of the National Pensions
03:52 Regulatory Authority.
03:53 He's been speaking to my colleague, George Riafi.
03:56 As regulators, you have to be on top of your game
04:00 in terms of how you regulate and monitor the industry.
04:07 Of course, we use technology.
04:09 We use some kind of--
04:11 I would say sometimes moral suasion,
04:13 especially in circumstances where
04:17 you have to put in some regulatory forbearance
04:21 to ensure that you don't leave your industry too far behind.
04:25 You carry them along with you.
04:27 And you bring in innovations and a whole lot of technology
04:32 that can also help your industry to keep alongside with you.
04:35 So as regulators, we're doing the best
04:37 that we can under the circumstance.
04:39 But you cannot rest on your oars.
04:41 Because naturally, as the industry grows up,
04:44 there will be institutions which will avoid.
04:47 There will be institutions which will lag behind.
04:49 There will be institutions which will be doing the right thing.
04:52 So you always have to keep up with it.
04:54 And that's why I would say as regulators,
04:56 we have developed a new technology, which we call
04:59 the risk-based supervision.
05:02 That is also helping us in real time
05:04 to see what the risks are in the industry
05:07 and then to see how we can mitigate them.
05:09 And where we cannot mitigate and I say the residual risk,
05:12 we use inspections and sometimes even penalties
05:16 and other forms of sanctions to bring everybody up to speed.
05:21 Going forward again, what has been
05:23 the level of engagement with government
05:25 to ensure that as time goes on, we
05:29 reduce the time lag for meeting these contributions
05:33 to the scheme when it comes to tier one and tier two?
05:36 The engagement is regular.
05:38 We go to the Ministry of Finance.
05:41 We go to the controller and have discussions,
05:46 especially when we have complaints
05:48 from the public sector schemes.
05:51 And here, talking about the public sector schemes,
05:54 we're talking SNIT here.
05:56 We're also talking about, for example, the teacher scheme,
06:00 the civil servant scheme, the doctors and nurses scheme,
06:03 the judicial service, and other public service worker schemes.
06:06 These are the public sector schemes
06:08 that government is mainly a strong employer.
06:14 And that is where sometimes some of these delays will come from.
06:17 So when we have complaints from them,
06:19 then we will approach government and see how best
06:22 we can work through that.
06:26 Well, that's brought in a conversation here
06:28 on the marketplace.
06:29 I'm joined on Zoom by the pension analyst
06:32 that we all love, Dr. Andrews at Blue Bee.
06:36 Thank you so much for joining us here on Marketplace.
06:39 Now, what do you make of this whole development
06:41 about the pension arrears and government's
06:43 delay in clearing arrears?
06:46 Thank you very much.
06:47 From my experience, the pension arrears have actually worsened.
06:55 It didn't used to be the case.
06:58 When we start, let's say 2017, 2018, 2019,
07:03 we used to have about three months in arrears
07:07 from the public sector scheme, which
07:12 the one that are related to government.
07:17 And that moved on to around 10 months, and then eight months.
07:24 So it got worse initially at the end of 2022 onwards.
07:29 As we speak now, the last time for most of the public sector
07:33 scheme that we received contributions from government
07:38 is November 2022.
07:42 So you can see that from December 2022 up to now,
07:46 the contribution hasn't come.
07:49 So out of that, most pensions board
07:52 have to devise a way of how to find a way of paying
07:56 their members.
07:57 For example, paying them some portions of the money.
08:00 Then when the last payment comes, they are paid the rest.
08:04 So the arrears has been quite, what, pervasive,
08:08 and adequate, has been consistent.
08:12 So from where I sit and teaching in class and others,
08:18 we expect that because the private pension scheme,
08:22 for example, the tier twos, what we
08:25 call the defined contribution schemes, where
08:29 they are investment-driven, when there
08:32 are arrears that are built from such schemes,
08:35 it hurts the beneficiary.
08:37 Because usually, to when government or the public sector
08:41 schemes are being paid, they don't come out
08:44 with the penalties.
08:45 For example, the 3% and all that.
08:48 Yeah, they are charged, but usually, the employer
08:52 doesn't pay those amount of money.
08:54 So arrears, generally, it's really for the tier twos.
08:57 I can say that it's not the best.
08:59 It's not the best of things to have arrears for schemes
09:03 that we are saying are investment-driven.
09:06 So for me, I can say that we need to improve upon it.
09:10 And the story around it was expecting that, OK,
09:12 once the debt exchange is finished,
09:15 there can be some room.
09:17 So there's some fiscal space, so that those arrears can
09:21 be cleared and then all that.
09:23 But let's hope and see, because the debt exchange is not
09:27 completely ended yet.
09:29 So we know that the domestic one has gone some way.
09:33 But the standard one, we know that there are still
09:35 15 problems.
09:36 So most public pensions, like I said earlier,
09:41 the arrears have a particular challenge.
09:45 So what do you suggest could be done
09:47 to sustain the pension scheme?
09:49 Because there's been concerns that for 10 years from now,
09:53 it might be unsustainable.
09:55 Well, I would say that in terms of sustainability,
10:03 sustainability simply means that we are expecting that, well,
10:07 whatever we are doing now, we can continue to be doing it
10:09 and probably do it better.
10:11 Yes, for me, I can say that most of the private pension
10:17 schemes are doing well, irrespective of the arrears that
10:21 are built. And those arrears, when the employer usually
10:26 coming from the public sector schemes are being paid,
10:28 yes, they are paid like two or three months.
10:31 And then investments are done.
10:34 So the other challenge, which I can say now,
10:38 is the high interest rates that we find ourselves
10:41 in the country.
10:43 So when you are having an investment such as pension
10:45 scheme, that will pay you a bulk money at once.
10:49 And you have interest with that inflation that are higher.
10:53 It makes that most of the private pension schemes
10:56 now having the challenge called negative real returns.
11:00 Because if you look at-- let's take an example.
11:02 For example, we know that the inflation rates for the last
11:06 month was around 40%, which it has even come down.
11:10 Now take one year treasury bill rate,
11:12 or the government of Ghana treasury bill for one year.
11:15 It's, what, 32%.
11:16 The three months are around 28, 20-something.
11:21 So a PRTO would tell that if you take away the what?
11:27 The inflation from it, you get negative returns.
11:31 So real returns is a challenge for people now.
11:33 So if we can be able to control the inflations, which
11:36 is a major challenge for people who have fixed income like
11:39 that, I think that the most returns that are done by
11:44 the private sector, around 20, above 20,
11:47 is quite meaningful returns.
11:50 So once the economic fundamentals are controlled,
11:53 their contributions comes, and then the MPI or the pension
11:57 regulator, yes, is doing their work, like I said,
12:00 doing the--
12:01 how do you call it?
12:02 The supervision work, ensuring that people stay in the core.
12:07 I expect that, yes, sustainability will be good.
12:10 Because so far, the private pension
12:12 has done remarkably well.
12:13 If you look at it, where it started from,
12:16 and talking over $40 billion now,
12:18 you can see that it's a very, very major contribution
12:21 to our economy.
12:22 So in the future, if macroeconomic fundamentals
12:25 are controlled, I believe that the private pension
12:30 scheme, one day in the future, will
12:32 be like most of these advanced countries,
12:35 as compared to our GDP.
12:37 Because if you look at the growth year on year,
12:39 the way the private pension scheme is doing,
12:41 I can tell you, it's doing remarkably.
12:43 Apart from this challenge of, I said,
12:45 the macroeconomic areas, and then other issues,
12:49 if the regulator is able to continue
12:52 with these supervisions, and even the risk-based one
12:55 that they are introducing now, and ensuring
12:58 that everybody stays in the line,
12:59 I believe that the future can only
13:01 be bright for Ghana when it comes to private pension
13:03 schemes.
13:03 Thank you so much, pension analyst there,
13:05 Andres Aglobi.
13:07 Now, tension is mounting on the tema oil refinery,
13:10 as the General Transport, Petroleum, and Chemical
13:13 Workers Union demands the immediate dissolution
13:17 of the board of directors.
13:18 Now, this is due to incompetence and alleged corrupt deals.
13:23 At a news conference this morning,
13:25 union executives Sewag Duncan-Williams and Jojo
13:28 Compson outlined the rationale and circumstances
13:31 triggering the demand for the dissolution of the board.
13:38 The constant and continuous changing of the entity's name
13:43 suggests that this entity is trying at every point in time
13:48 to hide all the dubious and scandalous issues behind it.
13:52 It keeps changing its name.
13:54 And now, we have a new entity with the same people
13:58 by name, Thermal Energy and Processing Limited.
14:01 Now, what even strikes all the workers here
14:04 is that behind the blind side, or at the blind side
14:07 of all workers, they have induced some Unicof executives
14:12 and their co-hosts to form TOR Workers Charity Trust.
14:17 And then they have given them 15% of the shares--
14:22 20% of the shares of Thermal Energy and Processing
14:26 Limited.
14:27 At the blind side of management and the entire workforce,
14:31 we want this clear cut of unethical and conflict
14:35 of interest to be resolved by the appointing authority.
14:39 We want management to take strict measures
14:42 in averting all these issues and make sure
14:44 that these individuals who have perpetrated this act
14:47 are brought to book.
14:48 Otherwise, as workers in the refinery and as executives,
14:52 we can't guarantee their security and safety
14:54 in the refinery.
14:56 This is our simple call to the stakeholders
14:59 that have been mandated to manage the refinery.
15:03 Thank you.
15:04 All right.
15:04 Madam, tell us, what time frame are you
15:06 looking at for the appointing authorities
15:08 to effect the demand that you're making?
15:09 With the immediate effect.
15:11 We want them.
15:12 Within this week and next week, the board shouldn't come here.
15:14 We don't want them, especially the three names that
15:16 have been mentioned.
15:17 Because Mr. Appentine is behind whatever is going on.
15:22 It's not hearsay.
15:23 It's something that we have witnessed.
15:25 Because normally-- personally, I don't like to say hearsay.
15:28 We have witnessed his participation
15:31 on whatever is going on.
15:32 Appentine should be off the board.
15:34 He was part of the previous board.
15:35 The question is, what did he achieve for the previous board
15:38 when he was on it?
15:39 Mrs. Grant was part of the previous board.
15:42 What did she do?
15:43 Nothing.
15:43 We don't even know the reason why
15:45 they became part of this board.
15:47 We are asking the president and the minister
15:50 to make sure that those people are off the board.
15:55 As soon as possible.
15:56 They don't have any business here
15:58 because they are here for their personal interest.
16:00 The previous board, they didn't get anything.
16:03 So they want to use this one to achieve something
16:05 for their personal reason.
16:07 That is not what we want.
16:08 We want someone who has a thought at heart.
16:11 Someone who wants to run tall.
16:14 If they are not ready, they should not be here.
16:17 They are not ready.
16:18 But is that not the reason why Torenko is coming?
16:20 That's the reason why.
16:21 Because Mr. Appentine is hiding behind Torenko.
16:24 When we mention Torenko, you are referring to Michael Darko.
16:27 Who is Michael Darko?
16:32 My colleague Carlos Kaloni also spoke
16:34 to the chairman of the Senior Staff Association, Bright Adongo.
16:37 I think this is a misuse of law.
16:47 I mean, I don't want to waste my time on these things.
16:51 The issues about myself as formed a company with a board,
16:59 there's no truth in that.
17:01 There's no truth in that.
17:02 The fact of the matter is that this
17:04 is the partner who decided that out of his own share,
17:10 he will create a trust fund for tall workers.
17:14 And it is his share.
17:15 He can withdraw it.
17:17 You understand?
17:18 The essence of this trust fund was
17:21 that they want workers to feel part of ownership.
17:25 If you are part ownership to the company,
17:28 and there is something going wrong in the company,
17:31 workers will volunteer information
17:33 so that power can be run and run efficiently.
17:36 It is when it is run efficiently,
17:38 whatever percentage is gotten, then 20%
17:41 will go into the trust fund for every worker.
17:43 So if you know that, if the company makes profit,
17:45 it is then that we also get a trust fund, which is yielding
17:49 20%, then every worker will be vigilant.
17:52 But their concern is that you've not included them
17:55 in the deal, I mean, the discussion.
17:57 And even now, Torrentco is here to fully come on board.
18:00 How come you have that trust fund set up?
18:02 That's their concern.
18:03 The trust fund was set up by the party.
18:06 Their membership is on the board.
18:08 So I don't know what they are talking about.
18:11 There's no truth in that.
18:14 All right, so that was the chairman of the senior staff
18:18 association of the Thelma Oil Refinery
18:22 acting to these concerns by the junior staff.
18:28 Well, the Ghana Stock Exchange placed ninth in dollar terms
18:31 among 15 stock markets in Africa,
18:33 and in September this year, in local currency term,
18:37 the Accra bears placed fourth.
18:39 Here's more in this report.
18:42 The GNC recorded a 29.8% return in CD terms
18:46 for investors in the third quarter of 2023.
18:50 In dollar terms, it registered a 0.22% return for investors.
18:55 This is coming on the back of the International Monetary Fund
18:58 program.
19:00 According to the data, the non-banking stocks
19:03 led the gains in the equity markets.
19:05 They include BOPP, Total Energies PLC, Unilever,
19:10 and MTN Ghana.
19:11 In all, nine stocks recorded gains
19:14 as compared to eight losers.
19:16 The biggest losers were Enterprise Ghana,
19:19 Assets Bank Ghana, and SIC Insurance.
19:22 Meanwhile, the market capitalization
19:24 also shot up to 74.89 billion CD from 70.24 billion CD
19:31 on June 30, 2023.
19:33 The financial stock index, however,
19:35 lost 17.57 in value in the first six months of 2023.
19:41 This was primarily due to the domestic debt exchange
19:43 program, which impacted their balance sheet.
19:48 Cybersecurity has become a critical area
19:51 as far as internet users are concerned.
19:54 The digital landscape as we know it
19:57 is constantly evolving just as cyber criminals devise
20:00 new ways to target users.
20:02 Today on our Let's Talk Tech segment,
20:04 we discuss the biggest internet dangers you and your family
20:08 need to watch out for.
20:09 With us to discuss this is LEAD 4I.
20:12 So, Henry, thanks for joining us here on Marketplace.
20:15 Now, what are some of the internet dangers
20:17 that users fall prey to, and how can they
20:20 protect themselves against it?
20:24 Thank you very much.
20:25 So quite a lot of times, I think that there
20:28 have been a lot of complaints when it comes now
20:30 to the internet's usage, apart from the benefits
20:33 that we sort of enjoy and when it comes to privacy.
20:36 And I think that's one of the biggest
20:38 concerns that we face.
20:40 And I think that's one of the benefits
20:42 that we sort of enjoy and when it comes out to the internet.
20:45 I mean, currently you would realize
20:46 that there's been quite a lot of issues when it comes out
20:50 to identity theft.
20:51 Quite a lot of people have sort of
20:53 been looking and complaining about their identity being used
20:57 on the internet to perpetrate fraud.
20:59 Quite a lot of data breaches have also
21:01 been a big problem in the industry.
21:04 And we're looking at antiviruses, malwares.
21:07 Antiviruses and malwares have actually
21:09 become a phenomenon when it comes down
21:11 to the internet usages.
21:13 We've had quite a lot of issues when it comes down
21:16 to phishing emails.
21:17 I mean, I'm sure that quite a lot of people
21:19 are beginning to see quite a lot of emails that
21:22 are coming in from unauthorized sources or sources
21:25 they are not sort of aware of and all of that.
21:28 Fake websites have been a normal point
21:30 when it comes down to the internet.
21:32 With the current scams that has been coming on,
21:36 I mean, from any parts, whether from mobile network
21:38 or from normal usage parties, I think
21:43 that it's actually been a big one.
21:45 We've seen a high risk in terms of romance scams.
21:49 That has also been a big deal.
21:51 I mean, quite a lot of people are having conversations
21:53 with people in the name of romance,
21:54 and that is sort of getting them into trouble.
21:56 And I think that in Ghana, one of the biggest of them
21:59 sort of is that we're looking at cyberbullying.
22:02 Quite a lot of people are experiencing cyberbullying
22:05 in terms of their reputation, the right apps,
22:08 the blogs and all of those things coming in against them.
22:11 And so some of these things are sort of posing
22:14 a lot of risk and reputational damages to individuals
22:19 and to corporate organizations.
22:20 And I think that there's quite a lot of ways
22:23 that we can look at in terms of preventing
22:24 some of these things.
22:26 Now, it raises the question, how strong
22:29 is Ghana's cybersecurity system and also measures?
22:34 I mean, in terms of the cybersecurity,
22:36 it's always a growing trend.
22:37 You can never say that you're actually 100% up
22:40 when it comes down to protection in terms of cybersecurity.
22:44 Generally, we're having some lessons and protections,
22:48 which is coming in from the government
22:49 in terms of policies, privacy policy,
22:52 data protection policies, and all of those things.
22:54 But I believe that when it comes down to cybersecurity,
22:57 I mean, most of the important part depends
22:59 on the individual that is sort of hanging onto the internet.
23:02 I can assure you that almost about 80% of users
23:06 that are using softwares,
23:08 like in terms of operating systems,
23:10 or even antiviruses that are sitting on a lot of PCs
23:13 in Ghana currently are sort of pirated softwares.
23:16 And so if you're having a pirated software,
23:18 which is running at the base of your computer,
23:21 I mean, you can definitely understand
23:23 the risk that is involved.
23:24 And then you sort of hang onto quite a lot
23:27 of these unauthorized Wi-Fi's and free Wi-Fi's
23:30 that have been provided all over.
23:32 And so definitely hanging onto a Wi-Fi
23:35 gives you the higher risk of allowing remote access
23:39 to your PCs, which gives away a lot of personal information.
23:43 I mean, quite a lot of people think
23:45 that they don't really have too much information to give,
23:48 but you'd be surprised that there's so much
23:50 that can be gathered away from your PC, your emails,
23:53 your conversations on WhatsApp and all of those devices.
23:57 Basically just hanging onto an unauthorized Wi-Fi.
24:01 Quite a lot of people don't even use stronger passwords
24:04 when it comes down to their computers.
24:07 And so, I mean, whenever you sort of using the same passwords
24:10 all over your accounts, just at the breach of one password,
24:13 you actually hanging onto the risk of just being exposed.
24:17 Quite a lot of people don't also put in
24:19 the required measures when it comes down to authentications.
24:22 And so, I mean, quite apart from the two-factor
24:26 authentication methods and SMS OTP methods,
24:29 which are used to guard some of our systems,
24:33 most of people don't really like to go through that stress
24:36 of always authenticating their accounts
24:37 before they actually allow some access
24:41 into most of these accounts.
24:42 And if you're looking at how we sort of have
24:45 a lot of banking apps floating on our mobile applications,
24:48 a lot of people don't like to put in that security measure.
24:51 And so the government can probably just put in
24:53 all the policies and all of those things
24:55 to make sure cyber security is on the higher,
24:57 but if we don't necessarily do that directly
25:00 and ensure that we ourselves are getting checked,
25:02 I think that we can always be at risk.
25:04 - Thank you so much, Henry Cobbler,
25:06 his lead for Eyes of Africa.
25:08 And that's how we draw the curtains here on Marketplace.
25:11 My name is Faustina.
25:12 So for more news, please log on to myjournalonline.com.
25:16 Good afternoon.
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