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What is happening to the Ghanaian banking sector? Part 1

Today, October 21, 2018, I wrote on my Facebook wall about the trouble many Ghanaian savers have gone through between August 2017 and October 2018. Some members of my year group from Opoku Ware School also asked the question in the title on our WhatsApp page today. The highpoint is that they have struggled to get access to their savings at the time they needed it and some of them may only get part of their savings if they get it at all. A number of financial institutions have failed  and others too may go down. I got people liking the Facebook post and others sending me private messages about whether their savings were safe. I believe many of them have seen similar posts I made earlier and they think I may have some expertise or knowledge about the financial system. I won’t accept the tag of “expert” but I will admit that I have some knowledge on the financial system of Ghana and sub-Sahara Africa. I admit to have some knowledge of the financial system firstly because I have be
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What is happening to the Ghanaian banking sector? Part 2

In this second part I propose a rough guide to determine where to take your deposits or savings. It won’t make you an expert but it would be a fine starting point. I stated e arlier  that banks lend to businesses who in turn pay interest. The stock exchange is a market where companies sell shares. That market reflects (or it is expected to reflect) what is happening to businesses in general. You have to watch that market as an investor even if you don’t hold any shares (the Composite Index). On a daily bases, the stock exchange reports the performance of the firms listed on the exchange. You should look out for the overall performance of the stock exchange as a signal of what kind of interest you should expect to receive on your deposit. The Ghana stock exchange rarely crosses 30% (per annum). This means that the guys who actually do “real work” don’t even get more than 30% in 12months. So if the bank or savings and loans company or pyramid scheme tells you they can pay you 30% e
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ARE TRAFFIC JAMS IN ACCRA BAD?; AN INFORMAL COST AND BENEFIT ANALYSIS

I recently traveled to Awutu Breku in the Central Region and on my way back I observed something that took my mind to my economics classroom. What I observed was the traffic jam on the Kasoa to Accra stretch of the road. The traffic jam as most people will attest to is not unusual, especially in Accra and its surrounding suburbs. Also, I observed the activities of hawkers who were obviously doing well with their trade. This second observation too is not new for I have observed it for the past four years of my stay in Accra. The only difference this time round was that these observations got me thinking like the economist-in-progress that I am. Have you not heard severally how people have spoken adversely of the usual traffic jam situation in Accra and how it leads to a decline or better put, a slowdown in the potential growth of GDP? The argument has been that people spend so much time in traffic jam so they are unable to work optimally hence a slowdown in the potential growth rat
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Labour wastages in the public sector of Ghana

The inefficiency observed in the public and civil service in Ghana is often lamented by people in the fields of administration and economics. Let us expand this observation, the causes and some possible solutions. The government has the largest wage bill in the country, yet if the productivity of governmental organisations are measured and juxtaposed to those of the private sector, it will be revealed that the government is not getting what it should from the wages it pays. This should be a source of concern to the tax payer since this is an inefficient use of the taxes we pay from our hard earned incomes. If these inefficiencies are not removed the taxpayer would be slaving for a longer time before they get the desired benefits for which they pay taxes. The number of people in the public and civil service are too many in some departments and organisations and are too few in others. For this reason, one will often notice duplications in the roles played by many a civil servant.
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Building a financial stronghold and raising business capital- a clue for young men.

Someone once said that in business you do not need big money but big ideas. This is very true. How big an idea is is dependent on how the conceiver proves it to be. On the other hand one cannot rule out the fact that in some cases you need money to carry out your ideas. The money you may be considering may be big to you. Many ‘big’ business ideas have not been implemented due to the lack of financing. In this piece you will read about how to build a financial stronghold. Young men will also be given a clue as to how to secure their finances for the future. A financial stronghold is a stock of reliable financial resources.   Everyone wants to have enough money to do what they want to do. Some fall sick as a result of worrying about how to get money; others cowardly kill themselves simply because they do not know how to find money. Some too wickedly commit crime. But you can secure your finances gradually by building a stronghold. One way to build a stronghold is to avoid
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