Trump Delays Beijing Summit as Hormuz Standoff Rattles Global Markets

Roger A. Agana
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Trump Delays Beijing Summit as Hormuz Standoff Rattles Global Markets

United States President Donald Trump has formally asked China to postpone his planned state visit to Beijing by roughly a month, injecting fresh uncertainty into US-China relations and unsettling global financial markets already strained by the Iran conflict and its impact on energy supplies.

Trump confirmed in the Oval Office on Monday that the US has asked to delay the summit by “a month or so,” citing the ongoing war with Iran and his desire to remain in Washington to coordinate the military effort. The Beijing visit had been scheduled for March 31 to April 2 and would have been the first trip by a sitting US president to China since Trump’s previous visit during his first term in 2017.

The postponement follows remarks Trump made to the Financial Times on Sunday in which he linked his travel plans directly to Beijing’s willingness to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump said, indicating he wanted clarity on China’s position before travelling to Beijing.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sought to soften the diplomatic framing on Monday, telling CNBC that any delay would be for logistical reasons, specifically that Trump may choose to remain in Washington as commander-in-chief while the Iran war continues, rather than because of a direct demand that China police the Strait of Hormuz. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt separately confirmed it was “quite possible” the meeting would be delayed.

The uncertainty underscores how significantly the US-Israeli strikes on Iran have reshaped global politics in the past two weeks, as Washington seeks to build a coalition of naval contributors to restore tanker traffic through a chokepoint that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply.

Analysts warn that the diplomatic maneuvering is introducing a new category of market risk. Nigel Green, Chief Executive Officer of financial advisory firm deVere Group, said the episode illustrates how summits and state visits have shifted from ceremonial milestones into strategic instruments. “Political signals of this kind have the capacity to explode across energy markets, currencies, equities and global supply chains,” he said, adding that investors who have relied on traditional economic data cycles to guide positioning are now exposed to geopolitical decisions that can reshape sentiment within hours.

Analysts at the Council on Foreign Relations noted that China has spent two decades diversifying its energy sources and building strategic reserves, holding an estimated 1.2 billion barrels of onshore crude stockpiles as of January, enough to cover three to four months of demand, and that oil flows through Hormuz represent only around 6.6 per cent of China’s total energy consumption. This suggests Beijing is less exposed to the strait’s closure than Trump’s framing implied, and may have limited incentive to commit naval assets to a US-led operation.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said only that China and the US had maintained communication on the visit, describing head-of-state diplomacy as playing an “irreplaceable strategic guiding role” in the bilateral relationship.

Trade talks between Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng were underway in Paris on Monday, originally intended to lay the groundwork for the now-delayed summit, with both sides navigating a fragile tariff truce reached in Busan last October. The fate of that truce, and the broader trajectory of US-China economic relations, now hangs on the resolution of a conflict that neither power initiated but both are being drawn into.

Tamale Hub Launches AI Lab to Close Ghana’s North-South Digital Divide

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Tamale Hub Launches AI Lab to Close Ghana’s North-South Digital Divide

A Tamale-based entrepreneurship and innovation organisation has launched what is positioned as the first dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) research and innovation hub in northern Ghana, responding directly to the growing concentration of AI development in the southern part of the country and the widening technology gap it is creating.

HOPin Academy, which has trained over 10,000 young people in digital and entrepreneurial skills since its founding in 2013, launched the Northern Ghana AI Lab at an event in Tamale that brought together representatives from academia, civil society, technology firms, development partners and traditional authorities.

The initiative comes at a time when AI development and adoption in Ghana remains concentrated in the south, widening the digital divide as Northern Ghana continues to face limited infrastructure, skills gaps and reduced innovation capacity. The lab is designed to serve as a research and collaboration hub bringing together academia, industry, government and civil society to conduct foundational and applied AI research tailored specifically to the region’s development priorities, including healthcare delivery, agricultural productivity, education access, job creation and economic inclusion.

MacCarthy Mac-Gbathy, Co-founder of HOPin Academy, said the lab reflects a deliberate effort to ensure northern communities are not passive recipients of AI technology but active participants in shaping it. “This lab will give students, early-career researchers and innovators the skills and resources to develop inclusive and sustainable AI solutions that respond to their socio-economic challenges,” he said.

Winnie Dzidonu, Senior Manager for Digital Channels and Product Innovation at MTN Ghana, urged the lab’s leadership to keep equity at the centre of its work. “AI should not deepen existing social and regional inequalities. Ghana’s AI future should reflect resilience, innovation and inclusion,” she said.

Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko Amidu, Board Chair of HOPin Academy and Executive Director of the STAR-Ghana Foundation, said the lab would ensure that AI solutions developed for northern communities are designed with input from those communities, rather than adapted from models built elsewhere.

HOPin Academy, founded as a youth-led digital skills initiative, has supported more than 500 start-ups and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) over its 13 years of operation. Mac-Gbathy said the organisation intends to grow into a technology and business innovation hub with a footprint across three regions in Northern Ghana.

Shea Sector Signs First Collective Bargaining Deal to Protect Women-Dominated Workforce

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Shea Sector Signs First Collective Bargaining Deal to Protect Women-Dominated Workforce

Workers and employers in Ghana’s shea industry have signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) establishing formal labour standards across a sector that employs hundreds of thousands of women in northern Ghana, marking the first time the industry has operated under a structured, legally recognised framework governing working conditions, productivity and employee rights.

The agreement was concluded at the end of a three-day meeting in Tamale, organised by the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in collaboration with the Ghana Employers Association. The International Labour Organization (ILO), under its Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work Programme, provided technical and financial support, with funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).

The signing brings together representatives from labour unions, employers, development partners and civil society organisations under a common framework that sets clear standards for both sides of the employment relationship within the shea value chain.

Wumbei Abdulai, Northern and Upper East Regional Industrial Relations Officer of GAWU, said the initiative was central to organising a workforce that had largely operated without formal labour protections. He noted that the agreement would protect workers’ rights while simultaneously strengthening standards and output across the industry.

Hajia Rabiatu Abdul-Karim, President of the Ghana Shea Employers Association, said the agreement carries implications well beyond domestic labour relations. She noted that the CBA would strengthen the credibility of Ghanaian shea producers seeking international certifications, including organic and fair trade standards, which are increasingly required by buyers in Europe and North America. She added that many actors in the shea value chain had previously operated independently, and that the new framework had created the conditions for collective advancement.

Hajia Abdul-Karim appealed to government to reinforce the momentum with financial and policy support to enable the sector to scale its operations.

Charlotte Esenam Afudego, representing SECO, said the programme sought to advance decent work and productivity while supporting private sector development, noting that the CBA would create a mutually beneficial framework where responsible business practices and improved worker welfare reinforce each other.

Ghana’s shea industry is a significant contributor to agricultural export earnings and rural livelihoods, particularly across the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions. The sector has faced persistent challenges around informal employment, inconsistent pricing and limited access to premium international markets, which the new agreement is intended to help address over time.

Cloudflare Deploys Accra Network Nodes as Ghana Faces Rising Cyber Threat Exposure

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Cloudflare Deploys Accra Network Nodes as Ghana Faces Rising Cyber Threat Exposure

Global connectivity and cybersecurity company Cloudflare has established dedicated network nodes in Accra as part of an expanded infrastructure push into West Africa, signalling a strategic commitment to building localised cyber defence capacity in Ghana as digital attack risks across the region intensify.

The infrastructure deployment coincided with a three-day cybersecurity seminar series in Accra, organised jointly by Cloudflare and its West African partner Comsec Technology Solutions, that brought together senior officials from financial institutions, government agencies, telecommunications companies and essential service providers to address the growing threat landscape facing Ghana’s digital economy.

The Accra nodes are designed to detect and mitigate cyber threats closer to their source, improving response times and reducing the vulnerability of Ghanaian organisations to disruptions caused by attacks originating from distant network points. The infrastructure is expected to deliver faster and more reliable internet services across Ghana and the broader West African subregion.

The seminar focused heavily on Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, which have emerged as one of the fastest-growing categories of cyber threat globally. Specialists demonstrated automated approaches to protecting web applications, application programming interfaces (APIs) and other internet-facing systems from such attacks. Sector-specific sessions addressed financial system protection, including the security of banking applications and transaction data, as well as the safeguarding of critical national data and public service platforms within government institutions.

Officials from the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) participated in the sessions and stressed the importance of coordinated collaboration between government bodies, international technology firms and local industry partners in building a safer digital environment.

Boaz Alon, Chief Executive Officer of Comsec Technology Solutions, said cybersecurity has moved well beyond an information technology concern. “Cybersecurity has transitioned from an IT concern to a critical pillar of business continuity and national trust,” he said, adding that combining global expertise with local implementation knowledge was essential to ensuring Ghanaian organisations remained resilient against emerging threats.

Graham Turnbull, Account Executive at Cloudflare, said strengthening partnerships and investing in local digital infrastructure were central to enabling Ghanaian organisations to defend against increasingly sophisticated attacks while keeping their digital services operational and accessible.

The initiative arrives as Ghana’s digital economy continues to expand rapidly, increasing the exposure of banks, telcos, government systems and other critical services to cyber risks that have already disrupted institutions across Africa and globally.

Profitable SOEs Should Keep Commercial Flexibility Under Travel Ban, Says Donkor

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Profitable SOEs Should Keep Commercial Flexibility Under Travel Ban, Says Donkor

A corporate governance expert and former power sector minister has endorsed President John Mahama’s ban on state-funded international travel by boards of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and public institutions, but is urging the government to draw a clearer line between commercially run entities and traditional public sector bodies.

Dr. Kwabena Donkor, speaking in an exclusive interview, said the directive issued from Jubilee House on March 5 is a justified and necessary measure to curb wasteful public spending. He maintained, however, that profitable state companies operating without government financial support should retain the flexibility to make commercial decisions in their own interest, including authorising travel where it is essential to closing business transactions.

“I’m fully in support of the travel ban on SOEs and public sector institutions,” Dr. Donkor said, adding that too many Ghanaians conflate every government-linked entity with a state-owned enterprise, which clouds the policy debate.

He drew a firm distinction between regulatory agencies and genuine commercial enterprises. Bodies such as the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the Petroleum Commission and the Energy Commission, he said, are regulators rather than profit-seeking businesses and should not be judged by enterprise metrics. In contrast, entities such as the Volta River Authority (VRA), the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ghana Water Company Limited and the Grid Company of Ghana, despite operating in regulated sectors, were structurally designed to function as businesses.

Others, such as Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), were incorporated as limited liability companies under corporate law, placing their governance closer in practice to that of private firms.

Dr. Donkor argued that where a state company is generating profits and operating without periodic government injections, its board and management should be empowered to take commercially sound decisions. “If there is an urgent need to go and close a transaction, say in London, the chief executive or board representative should be able to take a commercial decision and travel in the interest of the company,” he said, noting that this flexibility should only apply where the company is fully financially independent.

The calculus changes entirely, he said, when the state steps in with funding. The ECG, which periodically receives government financial support outside of equity investment, is a case in point. “If I buy fuel for you because you cannot buy fuel, I have a licence to find out what your funds are being used for,” he said, explaining why the Ministry of Finance is fully justified in exercising closer oversight over such entities when the travel ban is applied to them.

The March 5 directive prohibits boards of SOEs and public institutions from undertaking any international travel for training, retreats, conferences or study tours funded directly or indirectly from public resources, effective immediately. Where a board deems an international engagement absolutely necessary, a formal request must be submitted through the sector minister to the Chief of Staff at the Office of the President for express presidential approval before any commitments are made.

Dr. Donkor said the directive is an important first step toward fiscal discipline, but its long-term effectiveness will depend on whether the government codifies clear operational boundaries between commercial state enterprises and public sector bodies, rather than applying a single policy framework to fundamentally different types of institutions.

Ghana’s MPC Opens 129th Meeting as Inflation Hits 27-Year Low

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Ghana’s MPC Opens 129th Meeting as Inflation Hits 27-Year Low

The Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) opened its 129th regular meeting in Accra on Monday against a backdrop of record-low domestic inflation and rising global energy risks, as central banks across the world simultaneously weigh the economic fallout from the Iran conflict.

Speaking at the opening session, BoG Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama confirmed that headline inflation fell to 3.3 per cent in February, marking the 14th consecutive month of decline and dropping below the Bank’s own medium-term target band for the first time. Dr Asiama described the development as evidence that Ghana’s economic recovery is advancing faster than earlier projections.

The three-day deliberations, running until Wednesday, March 18, come weeks after the MPC delivered a 250-basis-point cut at its January meeting, lowering the Monetary Policy Rate to 15.5 per cent, extending the easing cycle to a four-year low.

Yet the operating environment this week is sharply more complicated than in January. Dr Asiama cautioned at Monday’s opening that the ongoing Middle East conflict is disrupting global energy supply chains and shipping routes, driving oil price volatility and uncertainty around global inflation, and that policymakers must remain cautious while consolidating the gains achieved.

That caution is echoed across major financial centres this week. The United States Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is also meeting this week, with analysts having dramatically revised rate-cut forecasts for 2026, and some now doubting the Fed will cut at all this year. The ECB and the Bank of England (BoE) are also scheduled to decide on rates this month, with the ECB’s next decision set for March 19.

For Ghana, the stakes are particular. Brent crude briefly spiked to a high of $119.50 per barrel before retreating below $90 late on Monday, with analysts warning that any sustained elevation could reverse the disinflation in transport costs that has driven Ghana’s inflation downward in recent months.

Governor Asiama has previously acknowledged concern about the implications of Ghana’s scheduled exit from its International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme later this year, noting that a volatile global environment could pose challenges to capital flows and exchange rate dynamics. The BoG has stated that its decisions will remain data-driven.

The MPC’s decision will be announced at a press conference by Governor Asiama on Wednesday afternoon. Markets and analysts broadly expect the committee to pause its easing cycle and hold the rate at 15.5 per cent, prioritising caution over stimulus given the uncertain external outlook.

CDD-Ghana Says SOE Reform Failures Pose Systemic Risk to Public Finances

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CDD-Ghana Says SOE Reform Failures Pose Systemic Risk to Public Finances

A new policy analysis from the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has renewed pressure on the government to accelerate state enterprise reforms, warning that persistent governance failures within Ghana’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) continue to generate serious fiscal risks that successive administrations have failed to resolve.

The commentary, published this month, draws on findings from the 2024 State Ownership Report (SOR), the ninth in an annual series assessing the performance of government-owned entities, and characterises the sector’s challenges as “recurring nightmares.” It describes weak corporate governance, limited operational efficiency and recurring financial deficits as structural problems that have remained largely unresolved despite years of reform programmes.

The critique carries particular weight given the financial data underpinning it. The SOE sector deepened its net loss to GH¢9.67 billion in 2024, compared with GH¢7.14 billion the year before, even as total revenues surged 28.3 per cent to GH¢133.68 billion. Finance costs of GH¢9.40 billion, roughly six times the sector’s operating profit, effectively erased all operational gains, meaning that for every GH¢1 earned before interest, an additional GH¢4.97 was required to service debt.

The CDD-Ghana analysis points to the importance of strengthening corporate governance standards, improving board accountability, and ensuring that state enterprises operate under clearer commercial mandates backed by stronger financial reporting systems.

The concerns are not new, but the commentary highlights the gap between reform intention and reform outcome. Previous assessments have documented that neither the public record nor the documented performance of these entities suggests a fundamental change over the last seven years, even as international financing has been procured specifically to improve SOE governance.

Five SOEs, including Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company Limited, Ghana Water Company Limited and Tema Oil Refinery, consistently recorded losses across the five-year period from 2020 to 2024, posing what SIGA described as significant fiscal risks to the government. Against that, nine state enterprises, including the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Bui Power Authority (BPA) and Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC), maintained uninterrupted profitability over the same period.

Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson described the 2024 performance as dismal and called for tougher enforcement of reporting deadlines and prioritisation of dividend payments as a measure of financial health, acknowledging that the situation undermines the government’s broader fiscal reset agenda.

The CDD-Ghana commentary underscores that improving transparency and operational discipline within SOEs is essential to reducing the fiscal burden they place on the national budget and enhancing their contribution to economic development. The analysis arrives as the Mahama administration reviews the role of state enterprises in Ghana’s broader economic strategy, with policymakers under renewed pressure to translate reform commitments into measurable results.

Ghana Mineral Royalties Cross GH¢5 Billion for First Time Despite Cedi Rally

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Ghana Mineral Royalties Cross GH¢5 Billion for First Time Despite Cedi Rally

The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) collected a record GH¢5.43 billion in mineral royalties in 2025, breaching the GH¢5 billion threshold for the first time in its history, and doing so despite a significant appreciation of the Ghana cedi against the US dollar.

The full-year figure represents a 10.8 per cent increase over the GH¢4.90 billion recorded in 2024 and stands as the highest royalty inflow since the Fund was established under the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 978 (Act 978).

What makes the achievement particularly notable is the currency headwind the Fund navigated during the year. The cedi, which opened 2025 trading at around GH¢17 to the dollar, the rate on which large-scale gold royalty projections were based, appreciated to approximately GH¢12 to the dollar as the year progressed. Since gold royalties are denominated in US dollars, the stronger cedi ordinarily compresses the cedi-equivalent value of collections. That the Fund still delivered a record figure, surpassing even the 2024 total recorded at the weaker exchange rate, underscores the strength of the underlying operational performance.

Large-scale gold mines anchored the result, generating GH¢5.1 billion in royalties, up from GH¢4.7 billion in 2024, an increase of nearly GH¢394 million. The growth was underpinned by elevated international gold prices, expanded output from Newmont Ahafo North Mine and the Cardinal Namdini project, and closer monitoring through collaboration between MIIF, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Minerals Commission.

Manganese delivered the strongest growth rate outside gold, with royalty receipts rising 14.4 per cent to GH¢212 million from GH¢186 million in 2024, driven by higher production volumes and improved payment compliance.

Other minerals, including granite, limestone, sand and salt, contributed roughly one per cent of total royalties and fell slightly short of annual targets. The Fund attributed the shortfall to competitive pricing pressures in quarry operations, restricted access to Sahelian export markets for Ghanaian salt, increased salt imports and adverse weather conditions.

Justina Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of MIIF, described the full-year outturn as a major milestone. “It is a significant milestone, as this marks the first time since the Fund’s inception that royalty inflows have exceeded the GH¢5 billion threshold, achieved despite challenging conditions,” she said.

Mrs Nelson said the Fund would intensify internal monitoring systems, expand field supervision and continue working with state agencies to strengthen compliance and support higher production levels across the extractive sector in the period ahead.

MobileMoney Ltd Float Hits GH¢38.4bn as Merger Reshapes Ghana’s Fintech Sector

Roger A. Agana
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MobileMoney Ltd Float Hits GH¢38.4bn as Merger Reshapes Ghana’s Fintech Sector

MobileMoney Limited (MML), the fintech subsidiary of Scancom PLC, closed 2025 with a 60.9 per cent surge in its mobile money float to GH¢38.4 billion, as a regulatory-driven merger with a newly incorporated entity signals the next phase of Ghana’s digital payments evolution.

The float figure, up from GH¢23.9 billion in 2024, reflects deepening consumer confidence in mobile wallets as both a store of value and a primary transactional tool. Revenue from mobile money services rose 35.7 per cent to GH¢6 billion, against GH¢4.4 billion the previous year, driven by broader adoption of digital payment channels across the country.

Active users on the platform grew 12.3 per cent to 19.3 million, while total transaction volumes climbed 18.4 per cent from 7.1 billion to 8.4 billion during the year. The total value of transactions processed reached GH¢4.1 trillion, a 53.8 per cent increase from GH¢2.7 trillion in 2024.

Beyond the headline numbers, a structural shift is underway. Following shareholder approval in December 2025, a merger between MML and MobileMoney Fintech Limited (MMF) is progressing under Ghana’s Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987), which mandates at least 30 per cent direct local ownership for all electronic money issuers. The restructuring requires full regulatory clearance before taking effect.

Once completed, the merged entity is expected to operate as a standalone fintech business, with Scancom PLC publishing combined financial statements for investor reference. The company has indicated the restructured unit could eventually seek a separate listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).

The results reinforce mobile money’s position as a central pillar of Ghana’s financial system, underpinned by wide mobile phone penetration, extensive agent networks and growing demand for cashless payment solutions.

Hormuz Fertiliser Crunch Threatens Ghana’s Planting Season Ahead

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Hormuz Fertiliser Crunch Threatens Ghana’s Planting Season Ahead

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has removed approximately one third of globally traded seaborne fertiliser from international markets almost overnight, and analysts warn that Ghana, which imports all of its mineral fertiliser requirements and relies on Gulf supplies for urea and phosphates, faces a planting season squeeze that could reduce staple food crop yields well into 2027.

Global urea prices had risen nearly 26 percent by March 11, climbing from $465 per metric tonne before the war to $585, as the blockade cut off Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Iran, which together account for approximately 49 percent of global urea exports and around 30 percent of global ammonia exports. Virtually all of those exports must transit the 21-mile passage between Iran and Oman that has been effectively closed since the United States and Israel launched strikes on February 28.

The disruption differs materially from the 2022 Russia-Ukraine fertiliser shock in both speed and scale. The earlier crisis gradually reduced roughly 15 to 20 percent of global fertiliser exports over several months, allowing importers to adjust. The Hormuz blockade removed approximately one third of seaborne trade almost immediately, and even if the strait reopens in the coming weeks, restarting production and transport logistics for fertilisers and their feedstocks could take several additional weeks, time that Northern Hemisphere farmers preparing fields for spring planting do not have.

Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) typically procures between 250,000 and 350,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser annually for distribution under the Feed Ghana programme, with the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) procuring an additional 100,000 metric tonnes each year for the cocoa sector. The country relies almost entirely on imported Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium (NPK), urea and Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) compounds, importing the raw materials or finished blends through private importers and local blending plants with no domestic production of basic mineral fertiliser.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most exposed to the disruption. More than 90 percent of fertiliser consumed across the region is imported, mostly from outside the continent, and application rates average just 22 kilograms per hectare, among the lowest in the world. A price shock that forces farmers to reduce application rates will translate into lower yields for nitrogen-dependent cereals like maize, Ghana’s most widely grown staple, with the impact on food prices most acute six to twelve months after the planting disruption.

University of Texas research professor Raj Patel, whose work focuses on global food systems, said the Strait of Hormuz had effectively become as important to agriculture as it is to energy. “Sub-Saharan Africa is the most vulnerable region,” he told CNBC, pointing to the structural combination of import dependence, low income levels, and high food expenditure shares that make fertiliser price shocks particularly damaging for smallholder farmers.

Ghana has been developing a longer-term structural response to this vulnerability. Moroccan phosphate producer OCP Group is working with the Government of Ghana to construct an industrial fertiliser manufacturing complex that would combine Moroccan phosphorus inputs with Ghanaian natural gas to produce ammonia, urea, DAP and NPK domestically, which would directly reduce dependence on Gulf supply chains. That facility has not yet reached commercial production. Until it does, Ghana’s farmers remain fully exposed to the price and availability volatility that the Hormuz closure has introduced.

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