The Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) has launched an Investment Monitoring Platform that is aimed at redesigning and reshaping the country’s investment promotion strategies.
The platform according to GIPC will feature a compilation of investment data expected to boost the impact of foreign investment inflows into the country.
During the launching, the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Paul Victor Obeng has indicated that the platform which was developed by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) was implemented in collaboration with the GIPC, adding that, if used prudently would direct more investments into the economy.
“All the issues that affect industrialization, investment promotion, effectiveness of government policy on investment and responses to these policies by the private sector are all captured on this platform,” he said.
According to him, the platform could be a one-stop facilitating platform where prospects and constraints are seen, averring that, if all the parties that stand to benefit from the platform come together and work together, it will drive investment and create jobs to advance national development.
NAIROBI, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Kenya’s shilling closed firmer for the third straight session on Thursday, unphased in the final minutes of trading by the finance minister’s resignation following his indictment earlier this week for crimes against humanity.
A currency dealer counts Kenya shillings at a money exchange counter in Nairobi October 23, 2008. REUTERS/Antony Njuguna
Pressure had piled up on Uhuru Kenyatta to quit the Treasury after the International Criminal Court ruled on Monday he must face trial for crimes committed during violence after a disputed 2007 poll.
“The resignation shows there is still some integrity in the system and that will be shilling positive. But there will still be uncertainty over the new appointments,” said Dickson Magecha, a trader at Standard Chartered Bank.
In a statement, the presidency said Robinson Githae, a lawyer and cabinet minister for metropolitan development, was named acting finance minister.
At the 1300 GMT market close, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 84.80/85.00 against the dollar, nearly one percent stronger than Wednesday’s close of 85.50/70.
Market players said tight liquidity and dollar inflows from offshore clients had supported the shilling on Thursday.
The Central Bank of Kenya had sought to mop up 5 billion shillings through repurchase agreements, but received no bids.
Determined to keep the shilling on an even keel after its collapse last year, the central bank has been busy absorbing liquidity and selling hard currency.
“Markets will be cautious after the change of the top guy at the finance ministry. But I think we will be able to take it in our stride,” said a trader with a commercial bank.
Traders said high yields on Kenyan government securities were enticing foreign investors, leading to high subscription rates in recent auctions and injecting dollars into the market.
In fixed income, yield on the 91-day Treasury bills fell to 20.614 percent at Thursday’s oversubscribed auction from 20.769 percent last week, as investors keen to lock in high yields outstripped the amount offered.
In the money market, the weighted average interbank lending rate rose to 21.1 percent on Wednesday, from 20.3 percent on Tuesday, pushed by banks competing for the few shillings in the market after central bank tightened liquidity through repos.
“The interbank is the predictor in this market and it has been easing down of recent. Guys are looking to lock in these good yields,” said Johnson Nderi, an analyst at Suntra Investment Bank.
On the secondary debt market, government and corporate bonds worth 635 million shillings ($7.4 million) were traded, up from 300 million shillings on Wednesday.
In stocks, the key NSE-20 Share Index was barely
changed, down 0.1 percent to 3,188.23 points.
“We don’t expect any major impact on the equities market from the finance minister’s resignation,” Nderi said.
Shares in cement manufacturer Bamburi fell 3.7 percent to 130 shillings. Traders said investors remained nervous about the slow down in the property sector brought on by high interest rates and inflationary pressures.
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Kenya’s economy is set to grow 5 percent this year and nearly 6 percent in 2013, boosted by better trade links in the region, provided political tensions remain in check, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.
That would be a slight improvement on government estimates for 4.5 percent growth in 2011, a year when the economy was restrained by a severe drought that hit food and electricity production and caused widespread water shortages.
Economists also expect Kenyan inflation to plunge following a series of aggressive interest rate hikes from the central bank, responding to runaway prices and a near-25 percent collapse in the shilling in the first nine months of last year.
But escalation of any tensions ahead of elections scheduled for March 2013 would undermine the economy, especially if the situation threatens to descend into a repeat of the mayhem and bloodshed that followed a late 2007 poll.
“While a stable political environment has supported the implementation of economic reforms and the attraction of capital inflows since 2009, the upcoming elections could stir social unrest and stoke investor uncertainty and shilling volatility,” South African bank RMB said in a research note.
The elections now set for next year were originally scheduled to be held in August but have been pushed back. The government had proposed amending the constitution to delay them because of logistical problems.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court ruled this week that former Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former education minister William Ruto would have to stand trial in the Hague for directing the unrest in which at least 1,220 people were killed.
Kenyatta stepped down on Thursday and president Mwai Kibaki appointed Robinson Githae, a lawyer and cabinet minister for metropolitan development, as acting finance minister.
Economic analysts and traders said market impact was likely to remain limited, but the market would be closely watching to see if Githae is up to the task.
“Given the strength of Kenya’s institutions, this is unlikely to dramatically alter the outlook for fiscal policy, or near-term borrowing plans. As such, market reaction should be relatively limited,” Razia Khan, head of research for sub-Saharan Africa at Standard Chartered, said.
BETTER INTRA-REGIONAL TRADE FLOWS
In previous Reuters polls Kenya’s prospects have hinged more on the outlook for the euro zone, which is still battling through a sovereign debt crisis that has lasted two years and still threatens the currency union.
But that appears to be changing, with trade figures from the first seven months of 2011 showing exports to other countries in the region, exceeding those to traditional trading partners in Europe and the United States.
The World Bank said this month that more advanced trade links among East African countries has led to a relatively rapid expansion of trade within the region.
London-based risk consultancy Business Monitor International (BMI) said expansion of trade in east Africa’s recently established common market should be a major driver of economic growth.
“Improving domestic economic conditions and the robustness of regional trade partners underpin our expectations,” said BMI’s Matthew Searle, who like the consensus from the poll expects 5 percent growth this year.
INFLATION TO FALL SHARPLY
The poll also forecast inflation will average of 11.8 percent for 2012, easing to 7.1 percent the year after. The central bank is targeting 9 percent for the July 2011-June 2012 fiscal year.
Inflation peaked at 19.7 percent in November last year, forcing the central bank into an aggressive tightening cycle that pushed its benchmark lending rate up to 18 percent currently from just 6.25 percent in September.
The analysts forecast the shilling at 88.7 against the dollar at the end of the first quarter – in line with its current value. It was then likely to ease to 90.5 three months later and end the year at 90.0, the poll said.
“The overall pressure should be for shilling depreciation given the large current account deficit, slowness in bringing the fiscal deficit under control and rising political tensions,” Citi economist David Cowan said.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Runners from Kenya and Ethiopia will be aiming to maintain their dominance at this year’s Dubai Marathon with favorite and three-time London Marathon winner Martin Lel back in top form after an injury and last year’s women’s champion Asselefech Medessa returning to defend her title.
Martin Lel
Nearly 15,000 runners will compete in the $1 million race Friday that starts in the shadows of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. The mostly flat route then takes runners along the Persian Gulf coast before ending back at the Burj Khalifa.
Lel leads what organizers say is the best men’s field ever, with a dozen runners having bettered Kenyan David Barmasai’s 2011 winning time of 2:07:18, including Ethiopian’s Bazu Worku (2:05:25) who finished third in Berlin, former World Youth Champion Markos Geneti (2:06:35) of Ethiopia and 2009 Boston Marathon champion Deriba Merga (2:06:38).
“The men’s field is incredibly strong with 12 runners who have all run below 2:07:00,” event director Peter Connerton said. “We are delighted to have a five-time major winner in Martin Lel with us this year, but he is just one of many men who can win the event, and the women’s field is very similar with some incredible talent in the lineup.”
Three-time winner Haile Gebrselassie, considered among the greatest distant runners of all time, will not run.
Much of the attention among the men will be on Lel due to his strong performances at big races over the past decade. The 33-year-old was a runner-up at last year’s London Marathon. Before that, he won in London in 2005, 2007 and 2008 and New York in 2003 and 2007.
“It’s great to have such a strong race to help me try for Olympic selection,” Lel said. “I’ve seen how Haile has performed well here, and if the group is strong, I hope to produce a good race.”
If he were to win, Lel would continue the dominance of Kenyan men that was most evident last year. All the major events in 2011 were won by Kenyans and 37 of them ran 41 of the world’s top fifty times. Close to 500 Kenyan men ran under 2:20, with 162 of them under the Olympic qualifying time of 2:12.
In the women’s field, Ethiopians are expected to upstage the Kenyans. Medessa is among the favorites but her personal best 2:22.38 is still slower than three other runners competing in Dubai.
She will expect a strong challenge from 2010 Dubai champion Mamitu Daska of Ethiopia, who set a best of 2:21:59 in Frankfurt last year, Atsede Baysa of Ethiopia (2:22:04) and Kenya’s Lydia Cheromei, who set a course record 2:22:34 winning in Prague last year.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NAIROBI, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Kenya’s year-on-year rate of inflation is expected to maintain a downward trend in January as food and fuel price pressures ease and the effect of months of monetary tightening reflects in a stronger shilling.
People shop at Nakumatt supermarket Nairobi January 5, 2011. REUTERS/Noor Khamis
All eight analysts polled by Reuters said the rate would come down from 18.93 percent in December, as the impact of past rate rises filters through the market. Inflation rose for 13 consecutive months to peak at 19.72 percent in November.
The shilling, one of the worst performing currencies last year, rebounded strongly after a series of rate rises that surpassed market expectations in the second half of 2011.
The shilling closed 2011 down 4.8 percent against the dollar after recovering about 20 percent of its value having hit an all-time low of 107 in October. Its rally reduced imported inflation.
The Central Bank of Kenya left its key benchmark rate at 18 percent earlier this month.
In a bid to keep the shilling on an even keel, the central bank has so far this year absorbed about 26 billion shillings through regular repos and sold hard currency to commercial banks.
“Thanks to base effects, a recovery in the shilling, tight domestic liquidity and improving weather, we believe that year-on-year inflation in Kenya has topped out and that it will head progressively lower over the course of 2012,” Matthew Searle, sub-Saharan Africa analyst with Business Monitor International, said.
Searle, who predicted inflation would fall marginally to 18.5 percent in January, warned the market would be watching the central bank closely to see whether it would defend the shilling if it came under renewed pressure.
The central bank was heavily criticised for being too slow to respond to the shilling’s freefall for much of last year.
“At $3.8 billion or 3.4 months worth of import cover, the bank does not exactly possess a warchest of foreign exchange reserves with which to do the job,” Searle said.
The next Monetary Policy Committee meeting is due on Feb. 1.
The stronger shilling has allowed the energy regulator to cut the prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene, while good rainfall has improved harvests, easing food inflationary pressures. Nonetheless, east Africa’s biggest economy is still expected to import 67,500 tonnes of maize in the six months to June to boost its stocks.
While the maize imports are likely to put some pressure on the shilling, the Ministry of Agriculture says the resulting surplus will ease pressure on the price of the main staple food.
Kenya’s finance minister has pledged to cut inflation to 5 percent by 2014/15 (July June) fiscal year through austerity measures to reduce its budget deficit.
“Inflation is likely to slow to around 18 percent in January … as transport, utility, and clothing costs … moderate somewhat,” Angus Downie, fixed income and currency strategist at Ecobank, said.
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) — Kenya Power & Lighting Ltd., the east African nation’s sole electricity distributor, headed for its biggest gain in three weeks on increased demand for the stock before a bonus issue deadline runs out on Feb. 28.
The stock rose as much as 1 percent to 15.65 shillings and traded 0.7 percent higher at 15.60 shillings as of 2:42 p.m in Nairobi, the capital. A close at that level will be the biggest gain since Dec. 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“We may also see growing demand on Kenya Power ahead of the company’s books closing for the 1:8 bonus issue,” Kestrel Capital East Africa Ltd. said in an e-mailed note to clients today.
Investors have until Feb. 28 to buy the stock to be eligible for the company’s one-for-eight bonus share offer, according to data from the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The company’s shares are down 11 percent this year after declining 27 percent last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Last year the fall was in line with the market that was down 30 percent,”, Vimal Parmar, head of research at Kestrel, said in a phone interview today.
The past year was indeed an Action Year – only it was the wrong actions by the ruling NDC government. The preponderance of catastrophic failures, blunders, and thievery chalked by the inept Mills-Mahama NDC administration in a year they ironically dubbed “Action Year” has made the job of NPP-USA Public Relations Committee’s selection team very challenging. Just like the difficulty faced by Black Stars’ coach Goran Stevanovic in reducing his final squad to 23, it has been very difficult to narrow down the MIlls 2011 “Achievements” to ten. From illegal gasoline price hikes, through 31-day presidential vacation, to Woyomegate, the list for 2011 could have gone as high as 50. However, through a serious process of elimination by our team we offer our dear readers the following ten.
Number Ten – “Dzi wo fie asem” Foreign Policy
For a country increasingly becoming a benchmark for her peers, one would expect Ghana to exemplify continental and regional leadership. That position comes with integrity, trust, and honesty among other things. That is why we find it shocking and outright embarrassing that President Mills attended the ECOWAS meeting on the crisis in Cote D’Iviore, played an obscure role by saying nothing, and signed his name – our name – to a document that called for an ECOWAS military action if democratically deposed president Gagbo failed to surrender power. Yet no sooner had he arrived back in Accra did President Mills renege on that promise and state that Ghana would not contribute troops to enforce what he had signed only days ago. President Mills’ betrayal emboldened Gagbo to stay longer, prolonging a civil conflict that claimed more innocent lives. Eventually the will of ECOWAS minus Mills as well as that of the entire world would prevail to leave Ghana’s continental leadership status bruised.
Number Nine – Worst BECE results in 13 years
Every country hedges its future by educating its youth. In Ghana, as young students transition from Junior High School to Senior High School, they sit for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Since 1998 Ghanaian students sitting for this West African Examination Council (WAEC) test have chalked up a passing rate of not less than 60% with the highest rate occuring in 2008 at 62.16%. Then President John Evans Atta Mills took the reigns of power and began to slash education expenditure from its epic of 9.1% of GDP in 2007 down to 7.57% of GDP in 2011. The result showed up in Ghana’s passing rate. In 2009, there was a 12% drop to 50.21% followed by 49.12% in 2010 and finally 48.93% in 2011. During this same time, Mills can spend money buying votes in Sunyani, spend $20 million on the NDC headquarters in Adabraka, and dish out GHC 92 million to Alfred Woyome for doing nothing. By the way, Mills is the only teacher we have had as president. Go figure.
Number Eight – Corporate Exodus from Ghana
What does corporations such as Baker Hughes, Anadarko Petroleum, SW Global Ghana Limited, and many others have in common? They all came into Ghana a few years ago to invest millions and employ thousands. Today, under the anti-business environment created by the Mills-Mahama administration, these companies have either drastically scaled back their operations and laid the bulk of their employees off, or closed their doors altogether and left the country. In 2011 the “shake-down” tactics employed by this NDC government to pressure businesses to “take care of” government officials or face harrassment was too much for one SW Global. The company’s president just shut his doors in disgust and left Ghana with his millions in tow. Left behind were 240 people previously employed, but now unemployed. Under the guise of fighting for Mother Ghana, this NDC administration is driving businesses away in droves.
Number Seven – Botched STX Deal
When the minority in Parliament – the NPP Caucus – raised questions about the viability of the Korean STX Housing Deal, the NDC with their usual propaganda came out with blistering speed to accuse them of playing obstructionist. Undeterred, the NPP in Parliament raised their questions anyway, only to be out-voted on party lines to approve the corrupt deal. Works and Housing Minister Alan Bagbin went around the country and touted the unworkable deal as the answer to the housing needs of Ghana’s security forces. Not long afterwards the cracks in the deal began to show. The questions raised by NPP transformed into boardroom squabbles between the Ghanaians and their Korean counterparts. The squabbles generated into a full blown conflict needing the intervention of Vice President John Dramani Mahama who later pronounced the deal dead. Is there a politically correct way to say “we told you so?”
Number Six – Cocaine Turns into Baking Soda
Of all the talents, lying included, that this government exhibited, we could never have envisioned magical acts being one of them. But we have been mistaken before. First a criminal is apprehended with substance believed to be cocaine. That substance is impounded and kept in police custody for a year or so. Then as the court case progressed and the criminal had his day in court, the police was called upon to submit samples of the cocaine to the Ghana Standards Board to be tested. Why that is necessary after the police has previously tested it and determined it to be cocaine is beyond all of us. But then lo and behold, the Ghana Standards Board tests the cocaine again at its own labs, and what has it turned into? You guessed it – baking soda. Where the cocaine went, who made sure that the disapperance took place, and who walked all the way to the bank will continue to be a mistery. One thing is for sure; someone in this NDC administration could be making a killing as magician in Las Vegas instead of wasting his time in Ghana.
Number Five – “Greedy Bastards” Take over of NDC
Say what you may about President Jerry John Rawlings, but you can’t take away from him the fact that he formed his National Democratic Congress (NDC) to compete in Ghana’s Fourth Republic. And since the party’s inception in 1992, he has called the shots as to who sleeps, who eats, who smiles, and who gets to run for president on the party’s ticket. He led and everyone else followed. But all that changed in Sunyani where his wife, former First Lady Nana Konadu Rawlings was embarrassed with a 3.9% of the votes in her bid to challenge President Mills for the NDC nomination. All of a sudden, Rawlings finds himself on the outside looking in on the party he formed and controlled for over a decade. In a gestapo fashion Mills showed some action in his “action year.”
Number Four – Illegal Gasoline Price Hikes
More people today are walking to work in Ghana. More people today are skipping a meal. More people today are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet in Ghana. Why you ask? Because for the sixth time in three years, President Mills and his NDC government have ignored the cries of Ghanaians and hiked fuel prices. Ironically, it was this same John Evans Atta Mills who, in 2008 when he was on his “Fooling Ghanaians” campaign, promised to reduce fuel prices if elected president. At the time, a gallon of basic fuel was selling at GHC3.08 and the annual average price for a barrel of crude oil on the world markets was $95.57 (Inflation adjusted). In 2011 the annual average inflation adjusted price for a barrel of crude oil has dropped to $87.33. In addition, Ghana is an oil producing country now. So why is a price of basic fuel selling in Ghana today at GHC7.80, more than double what it sold in 2008? A Castle aid replied “why not?” and who can blame him? he fills his tank up with a government fuel coupon.
Number Three – $20 million NDC Headquarters
As usual, they thought they could do it in the dark. That explains why when the spotlight was turned on and Ghanaians got to know about the $20 million Headquarters of the NDC, the scramble to lie about it was more comic than Agya Koo in action. The more they tried to deny that they had indeed stolen Ghanaians’ money to build an ultra-modern office complex for their dying party, the more ridiculously clear it became that they cannot be trusted to tell the truth even to save their own lives. Now that it is becoming incresingly certain that NDC Financier Alfred woyome may end up vomitting the money Betty Mould Iddrisu helped him to steal from Ghanaians, it would be interesting to see how they would complete the multi-million dollar complex.
Number Two – Mansion Building Spree by NDC Public Officials
Before they came to power, NDC party secretary Asiedu Nketia was livng in a small two-bedroom home in Tema and struggling to make ends meet. Three years later, he is the proud owner of two enviable mansions – one in Accra and the other in Kumasi. He is not alone. Deputy Minister of “Misinformation” Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has never worked in his young life before being rewarded by an inept Mills administration with an undeserving position. In fact, he just recently completed his first degree. Today, however, not only is he able to afford a lavish wedding and an even more lavish honeymoon, he is said to have just purchased a mansion in Friendswood, Texas in the United States which was beautiful until he bought it. Now he is said to have thrown so much money into it that it looks “out of this world” in the words of one familiar with the house.
Number One – “Woyomegate”
In President Mills’ Ghana, nothing is impossible. Just imagine that two people – possibly more – go out to rob a bank in broad daylight and make away with millions of Ghana Cedis. A police officer decides to leave no table unturned to catch the criminals. But before he can begin his investigations, the president terminates his employment. If you think that is impossible, then you don’t know President Mills. The GHC92 million cash giveaway by this totally clueless Mills-Mahama administration to their friend Alfred Woyome, who happens to be the one bankrolling the $20 million NDC headquarters, is the single most ridiculous, most inexplicable, and largest case of financial loss to the state. And as if that was not shocking enough, the president and his henchmen – and woman – do not think they did anything wrong. One cannot help but wonder how much of the $3 billion Chinese loan would be stolen before they leave office in January of 2013.
Fuel subsidies are not only enormously wasteful but they also greatly distort the efficient distribution of resources, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has observed.
In its latest Oil Market Report (OMR), a monthly IEA publication which provides a view of the state of the international oil market and projections for oil supply and demand 12-18 months ahead, the IEA said demand for oil products in Nigeria is likely to fall in the first quarter of 2012, following the removal of a gasoline subsidy.
Observations from the report on January 20, 2012 as it relates to recent developments in Nigeria under the title: The Removal of gasoline subsidy in Nigeria sparks protests and cut in demand,reads: http://www.iea.org/index_info.asp?id=2354
“Such listings must be taken with a grain of salt” – Prof. Dr. Konrad Osterwalder, Rector, UNU
By J. Ato Kobbie, Managing Editor
IMANI
[The Business Analyst, January 25, 2012] The screaming headline of a press release last Friday, January 20, 2012, “Imani Tops Africa in Global Ranking of Think Tanks”, was enough for many-an-editor to consider the two-man Ghanaian shoestring operation team, best known for its fly-by-night essays that it passes off as “research”, for a front-page recognition.
However, as is the style of The Business Analyst, per its motto – Going behind the numbers with objectivity – the paper went to the source of the report, only to find out that the screaming headline of IMANI, which was written in red, was only the first lie.
The actual ranking, dubious as it is, had the South African Institute of International Affairs at the top, with IMANI coming 9th ahead of continental power houses like IDASA and CDD. Strangely enough, IMANI failed to mention that even back home, the ninth (9th) place ranking was behind the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), ranked eighth (8th).
Then came the follow-up in the first paragraph of the promo that the “think tank” sent to a tall list of recipients, dominated by media houses, aware of their gullible nature for which most of them are too lazy to conduct an independent investigation of such glorified 419s.
Hear Imani: “IMANI Center for Policy & Education, a public interest, research-driven, advocacy organisation based in Accra, Ghana, featured strongly in the 2011 ranking of think tanks across the globe released by a joint United Nations University (www.unu.edu) – University of Pennsylvania (www.upenn.edu) team.”
Impressive! But that was not entirely true. At about the same time that IMANI was creating the impression that no mean an organization than the “United Nations University” (UNU) was recognizing them for their superior policy work, UNU was also boasting on its website that it had been “ranked among top global think tanks” by the International Relations Program of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.
Even then, the rector of UNU, “Prof. Dr. Konrad Osterwalder” (as he’s described on UNU’s website) watered down his excitement with the caveat that “…such listings must be taken with a grain of salt…”
IMANI had confused two venues for a joint launch of the report, with a joint ownership or authorship!
The caution by the UNU rector becomes even more appropriate once you visit the Program’s website (University of Pennsylvania) and are confronted with what seems like a sleek academic version of 419.
A quick look at the report, under the directorship of a “James G. McGann, PhD” throws up even more red flags: The reader is treated to a “methodology” that is long on dubious processes and name dropping but short on analytical rigor. We are told of a large (and nameless) number of experts and institutions who supposedly pored over nominations and came up with the ranking (793 “expert panelists”, 150 “journalists and scholars”, and 120 “academic institutions, among a long list).
A claim that ‘all 6,545 think tanks in the world were contacted and encouraged to participate in the nominations,’ appeared to crumble as all three think tanks initially contacted during The Business Analyst’s maiden verification, denied involvement at any level of the process.
The Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), and ISODEC all denied involvement in the process.
“We were not involved and did not participate in any of the processes,” Mrs. Jean Mensah, Executive Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), responded to The Business Analyst’s e-mail enquiry.
Asked how the IEA heard about the results of the 2011 ranking, Mrs. Mensah said it was through the press release issued by IMANI.
Dr. Joe Abbey, Executive Director of CEPA, was at sea when the paper contacted him on Friday to find out if his outfit had received news of the 2011 Global think tank ranking report last Friday. “We were not contacted,” was his response to a direct question as to whether CEPA was involved at any level of the process.
But for IMANI Centre for Policy Education, getting ranked in three categories among the best think tanks in the world was what puts them ahead of their continental peers, Executive Director, Franklin Cudjoe told The Business Analyst in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
In addition to its ninth ranking among the top 30 sub-Saharan think tank rankings, IMANI was ranked 26th in the Most Innovative Policy ideas/Proposals category and listed also among think tanks with ‘Annual Operating Budgets of Less than $5 Million.’
The overall global ranking of the Top 50 Think Tanks outside the US, has Chatham House (CH), Royal Institute of International Affairs – United Kingdom, leading the pack.
Strangely, however, while Centre for Conflict Resolution of South Africa, which placed 2nd in the Sub-Saharan Africa category behind South African Institute of International Affairs, is ranked 49th in this category, the best in the Sub-Saharan African category did not feature!
It is unclear also why a research consortium such as the African Economic Research Consortium, located in Kenya or Conseil Pour le Developpement de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales (CODESRIA), located in Senegal, would be placed in the same sub-Saharan-Africa category with local think-tanks.
“It may be a misleading perception of performance of groups based on their media presence,” an analyst told this paper.
According to him since such reports inform policy makers in different jurisdictions in deciding on what group to support or deal with, it is important to ensure that such rankings are characterized by the best of standards, citing recent concerns regarding the work of rating agencies. Author:[email protected]
An IranAir Boeing 727 had to make an emergency landing at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport without being able to make use of its front landing gear(tyres). Nevertheless the pilot managed to execute a perfect landing and come to a stand still using only the main gear (middle tyres) and the nose of the aircraft. The flight, which travelled from Moscow to Iran, held 94 passengers and 19 crew members, fortunately nobody was injured in the strange emergency landing.
The Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) has launched an Investment Monitoring Platform that is aimed at redesigning and reshaping the country’s investment promotion strategies.
A currency dealer counts Kenya shillings at a money exchange counter in Nairobi October 23, 2008. REUTERS/Antony Njuguna
