BUSINESS NEWS | GHANA AND BEYOND 🌍 27/03/2020

🚩The International Fund for Agricultural Development, (IFAD), has approved a request of US$20 million for Ghana’s food production. The amount is also to help to deal with emergencies that may arise following the COVID-19 pandemic, Agric Minister Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, has revealed at a press briefing on Thursday April 23, adding that the funds will available in a week or two. “The target is to take agric growth to a double digit of 10% in the next two to three years,” he said. Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto also outlined a raft of measures being rolled out ahead of the upcoming planting season. They include market surveillance, where market prices and food availability on the markets are monitored; provision of PPE for Extension Agents, development of guidelines for production, public education through video and print and facilitating inputs distribution.

🚩The Bank of Ghana has recently instructed banks in Ghana not to pay dividends to shareholders for the 2019 and 2020 financial years because of the
Coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) pandemic and its effects. Banks in Ghana would have, normally, declared and paid dividends, as approved by their shareholders at the Annual General Meetings (AGMs), around this time of the year in Ghana, but that is not to be because of such instructions from the central bank - the Bank of Ghana, given reasons for such a decision as how the banks would be negatively impacted if they (the banks) should dole out such monies.

🚩The Volta Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Trade and Industry has unveiled eight development projects under government’s One-District-One Factory (1D1F) with two of such projects already existing. Mrs Josephine Dzotsi, the Volta Regional Director of Ministry of Trade and Industry, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Ho. She said Caltech Ventures Limited, which is into the production and processing of cassava into ethanol and carbon dioxide and the Volta Forest Products Company (VFPC), a wood processor, were receiving financial re-engineering and facilitation from government through the Exim Bank to bolster their businesses. She said six new projects had emerged under the flagship programme and sited at various locations in the Volta and Oti regions, namely, KOP Farms Consultancy Limited, which are into the cultivation and processing of grains at Volo, in the North Tongu District.

🚩The Government of Ghana is constructing 80 warehouses with the capacity to store up to 80,000 metric tonnes (MT) of food items aimed at ensuring food security in the country. Each warehouse would have the capacity to store up to 1,000 MT of food items and expected to be ready by June, this year. Speaking at a media briefing to update the public on food security situation, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, said Government had targeted to construct a total of 200,000 warehousing capacity to safeguard the country's food security efforts.

🚩Producer inflation for March 2020 has declined for the second consecutive month to 6.8 percent, from 11.8 percent recorded in February, 2020, according to data released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS). This represents a 3.7 percentage point decrease in producer inflation relative to the rate recorded in February 2020. The Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services. From the data, the decline emanated largely from the manufacturing sector, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the total industry, as well as the mining and quarrying sector.

🚩Remittances to sub-Saharan Africa are projected to fall from US$48 billion last year to US$37 billion in 2020 – a drop of 23.1 percent – because of the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the World Bank. It said that the continent would, however, register an expected recovery of four per cent next year. The Bank explained: “The anticipated decline can be attributed to a combination of factors driven by the coronavirus outbreak in key destinations where African migrants reside, including in the EU area, the US, the Middle East and China.

🚩Ghana will need US$5bn or more to put the economy on the road to recovery after the coronavirus pandemic, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu has suggested. Ghana’s legislature last week approved the US$1billion Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) from the International Monetary Fun3d (IMF) to support the country’s efforts to tackle the pandemic and its economic repercussions. The purpose of the IMF’s RCF is to provide rapid and concessional financial assistance to low-income countries facing an urgent balance of payments need, without ex-post conditionality.


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✴INTERBANK FOREX RATES 💴💰
US$GH¢ Buy 5.5421 Sell 5.5477
GB£GH¢ Buy 6.8329 Sell 6.8403
CAD$GH¢ Buy 3.9317 Sell 3.9341
JP¥GH¢ Buy 0.0516 Sell 0.0516
ZARGH¢ Buy 0.2920 Sell 0.2922
EU€GH¢ Buy 5.9885 Sell 5.9939
CHN¥GH¢ Buy 0.7833 Sell 0.7841
GH¢CFA Buy 109.4374 Sell 109.5361
GH¢NG₦ Buy 64.9245 Sell 65.1049   
BITCOIN Trading Price $7,636.70 ▲$112.08 ▲1.49%
ETHEREUM Trading Price $196.22 ▲$3.89 ▲2.02%
RIPPLE Trading Price $0.1965 ▲$0.0027 ▲1.42%

🔼GSE DAILY GAINERS➖%CHANGE➖PRICE
No gainers for today

🔻GSE DAILY LOSERS➖%CHANGE➖PRICE
RBGH -1.72% ➡Gh¢0.57
CAL -1.28% ➡Gh¢0.77
SCB -0.16% ➡Gh¢18.77

〽Inflation rate in Ghana  ➡  7.80% (-1.27%)

🏦Ghana Reference Rate ➡ 16.32% (+0.86%)

✳Policy Rate in Ghana ➡ 14.50% (-9.38%)

¶ TREASURY BILLS RATE💸
91 - Day Discount Rate 13.5500% Interest Rate 14.0251%
182 - Day Discount Rate 13.1118% Interest Rate 14.0317%
364 - Day Discount Rate 14.3392% Interest Rate 16.7394%
1 Year Fixed Note Interest Rate 16.5672%
2 Year Fixed Note Interest Rate 20.2000%
3 Year Bond Interest Rate 19.0000%
5 Year Bond Interest Rate 21.7000%
6 Year Bond Interest Rate 21.0000%
10 Year Bond Interest Rate 19.8000%
20 Year Fixed Rate Bond 20.2000%

🐂GHANA GOV'T EUROBOND RATES 🏦
7 Year Bond Coupon Rate 7.8750%
12 Year Bond Coupon Rate 8.1250%
31 Year Bond Coupon Rate 8.9500%


🛢Average Petrol & Diesel Price Per Litre - Gh¢4.10 (🔻-19.61%)

 GSE 2020 GAINERS ➖ YTD% ➖ PRICE
SIC +25.00% ➡Gh¢0.10
CMLT +22.22% ➡Gh¢0.11
EGL +3.03% ➡Gh¢1.70
DASPHARMA +2.56% ➡Gh¢0.40
SCB +2.01% ➡Gh¢18.77

🔻GSE 2020 LOSERS ➖ YTD% ➖ PRICE
IIL -40.00% ➡Gh¢0.03
TBL -15.00% ➡Gh¢0.34
UNIL -14.76% ➡Gh¢13.98
CAL -13.48% ➡Gh¢0.77
EGH -13.47% ➡Gh¢7.00

🏧 MARKET INDEXES
*Dow Jones Index🚂⛽ 23,775.27+260.01
*S&P 500 🏦 2,836.74+38.94
*Nasdaq Index📲💻  8,634.52+139.77
* NYSE Composite Index 11,017.90+101.23
*London FTSE 100 5,752.23-74.38
*Germany DAX 10,336.09-177.70
*Japan NIKKEI 225 19,262.00-167.44
*Hong Kong HANG SENG  23,831.33-145.99
*Shanghai Shenzhen 300 3,796.97-32.78
*S&P/ASX 200 Index 5,242.62+25.51
*Bloomsberg EU 500 217.91-2.24
*FTSE/JSE South Africa Top40 45,595.47-66.49
*Nairobi SE 20 Share 1,967.84-2.95
*Nigeria SE Main-Board Index 22,599.38+128.59
*GSE Composite Index 2152.63 
-1.81 (-0.08%)
*GSE Financial Index 1891.23 
-3.34 (-0.18%)


GSE INDEXES ⏸ 2020 YTD RETURNS%
*GSE Composite Index 2,152.63 🔻-4.63%
*GSE Financial Index 1,891.23 🔻-6.36%


💧MUTUAL FUNDS IN GHANA♣
📈EQUITY FUNDS ➰YTD%
EPAcK 🔻-12.19%
Republic Equity 🔼+0.43%
SAS Fortune 🔻-2.80%

⚖BALANCED FUNDS ⏸YTD%
Bfund 🔻-0.41%
CCMF 🔼+5.98%
CM Fund 🔼+3.76%
Dalex Vision 🔼+3.90%
EdiFund T2 🔼+1.86%
EDC Balanced 🔻-1.28%
Plus Balanced Fund 🔼+4.12%
UMB Balanced 🔼+2.42%
Fidelity Balanced Trust 🔼+3.82%
Republic F Plan 🔼+1.40%

⚙FIXED INCOME FUNDS 🛡YTD%
EDC Fixed Income 🔼+4.71%
Fidelity Fixed Income Trust 🔼+5.17%
Fixed Income Alpha Plus 🔼+6.22%
Plus Income Fund 🔼+5.18%
SEM Income 🔼+4.85%

🏦MONEY MARKET FUNDS ⏱YTD%
EdiFund T1 🔼+4.43%
STANLIB Income 🔼+5.71%
Mfund 🔼+4.86%
Republic Unit 🔼+3.41%
SEM MoneyPlus 🔼+4.24%
STANLIB Cash 🔼+4.97%

✴ COMMODITIES MARKET
*Brent Crude $/barrel⛽ $21.44+0.11
*Natural Gas 🏭 $/million BTUS $1.75-0.07
*Gold 👑 $/troy ounce $1,735.60-9.80
*Silver 💍 $/troy ounce $15.45-0.08
*Corn 🌽 $/bushel $323.00-3.00
*Cocoa 🍫 $/metric ton $2,323.00-40.00
*Coffee ☕ ¢/pound   $106.75-5.65
*Sugar🎂 ¢/pound $9.81-0.20

Sources: Bank of Ghana, Bloomberg, GSE, Reuters, Citifm, Myjoyonline, Ghanaweb, Doobia, BBC, Graphic Business, B&FT, StarFmonline.

Compiled By:
Prince Henry Danquah
Bora Capital Advisors Ltd.
+233(0)50-002-3155

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