The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has secured US$1.13 billion from a consortium of international banks and financial institutions to purchase cocoa beans in the 2022/23 cocoa season.
The board signed the agreement with the lenders on Monday (October 3, 2022) to pave way for the transfer of the funds from next week.
The agreement was signed by COCOBOD and Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited on behalf of the other lenders, numbering more than 20.
For the first time in the 30-year old history of the cocoa loan, the signing was witnessed by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Charles Adu Boahen, and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison.
Beyond funding cocoa purchases and related operations of the COCOBOD, the annual syndicated loan is critical to the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
The timing makes it even more critical.
It comes at a time when the country has locked out of the international capital market, leading to dwindling reserves and a spike in cedi depreciation.
The currency lost more than 40 per cent of its value as of September 30, 2022. The disbursement of the loan is expected to bring respite to the cedi, which could also ease inflationary pressures.
The Lands Ministry has directed mining firm, Akonta Mining Limited to stop operations in the Tano Nimiri Forest.
In a statement issued on September 30, the Ministry said it has taken note of “publications about certain operations by Akonta Mining Limited in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve in the Amenfi West Municipality in the Western Region”.
According to the Ministry, even though Akonta Mining Limited has a mining lease to undertake mining operations in some parts of Samreboi, outside the Forest Reserve, “the company has no mineral right to undertake any mining operations in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve”.
The statement said the sector minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has therefore directed the Forestry Ministry to, “forthwith, ensure that the company does not carry out any operation in the Forest and to take the necessary action against any person found culpable in this matter”.
A copy of the statement from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources
“Our records show that Akonta Mining Ltd, on August 25, 2022, applied for a Mining Lease to undertake mining operations in the said Forest Reserve. By a Ministerial Directive, all reconnaissance, prospecting, and/or exploratory activities in Forest Reserves in the country are suspended, except in exceptional circumstanc
“Although this directive does not affect mining in Forest Reserves, Akonta Mining Limited’s application has not been determined. Accordingly, any alleged activity being undertaken by the company in the Forest Reserve is illegal”, the statement further disclosed.
Continuation of a statement from the Lands Ministry to Akonta Mining Limited
In conclusion, the Ministry pledged its commitment to dealing with the menace of illegal mining in Ghana, popularly known as ‘galamsey’.
Meanwhile, the conversation about illegal mining continues to gain prominence from the recent arrest and ongoing trial of galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang.
The Chinese lady was arrested on September 5, and is currently facing trial for mining minerals without a license among other charges
The Deputy Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, John Jinapor, has called on the government to show commitment to the fight against illegal mining by prosecuting bigwigs involved in the activities.
The rising cost of fertiliser on the global market will negatively affect availability of rice and other staple foods in 2023 if the crisis between Russia and Ukraine continues into next year, a Chief Economist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Maximo Torero Cullen, has predicted.
Mr. Cullen, in an interview with the Finance and Development Journal – a quarterly bulletin by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), says wheat and fertiliser supply shortages have already driven-up prices and increased food import bills for most vulnerable countries by more than US$25billion this year; putting 1.7 billion people at risk of going hungry in the future.
“If the war continues in 2022 and 2023, we could potentially have a food access problem coupled with a food availability problem, because Ukraine and Russia will further reduce their exports, including fertiliser. This is a situation we have to avoid,” he cautioned.
Under the current conditions, Cullen said Ukraine could reduce its exports of wheat and maize by around 40 percent – and Russia might do similarly.
Equally, the FAO observed that rice production and availability will slump to its lowest from 2023 due to the increase in cost of fertiliser, as prices of the cereal are starting to rise.
This situation, according to the FAO, could deteriorate further as a poor monsoon season is potentially affecting rice planting in India.
“These developments pose risks because rice is a key staple around the world, including sub-Saharan Africa,” Cullen indicated.
The way forward
The FAO’s chief economist suggests that key exporters of rice be prioritised to access fertilizer, as they will supply the rice needed by the world to minimise food access problems in the next year and prevent a full-blown catastrophe.
Cullen’s analysis of the situation in Russia-Ukraine
The FAO has said the high natural gas prices and rising food prices could make the difference between life and death for millions of people around the world.
Cullen said though the FAO admitted the crisis in Russia and Ukraine is the main driver behind present food price problems, it maintains that most countries having a food crisis also have internal conflicts.
“The second is economic downturns: COVID-19 is one of the major reasons most poor countries are facing significant challenges. And the third, of course, is climate change,” he added.
Growing effects of the Russia-Ukraine crisis
The war has exacerbated the already-existing problem of a global food crisis, as it stopped exports from two key exporters of cereals.
Around 50 countries depend on these two exporters for at least 30 percent of their cereal imports. For about 20 of these countries, it is more than 50 percent.
Another factor is that Russia is the world’s leading exporter of nitrogen, as well as the second-largest exporter of potassium and third of phosphorus fertiliser.
So when it halted the export of fertiliser, prices shot up – and since they were already high before the war, this has created a significant problem for farmers.
So the impact on food-importing countries is two-fold: they face a steeper food import bill and higher cost of fertilizer – which has quadrupled and many farmers cannot afford it.
Impact on vulnerable economiesIn the case of Africa, the key net food importers are northern African countries – more than 50 percent of their wheat imports come from Russia and Ukraine.
However, sub-Saharan Africa is different as it does not have wheat as a main staple.
However, maize and wheat are used for livestock in sub-Saharan Africa, with rice as the main staple.
“In the 62 most vulnerable countries of the world, we are talking about a roughly US$25.4billion increase in the food import bill compared to last year, and this is affecting 1.7 billion people,” Cullen reiterated.
The Bono Regional Minister, Justina Owusu Banahene has called on general public to appreciate the efforts of the farmers, and the value chain actors for providing food year round to the country
She said this during a three-day trade fair that was held in Sunyani, the Bono Region capital, to among others promote growth and development of the agricultural industry.
A total of about 50 exhibitors from the agricultural value chain participated in the fair. The exhibitors included agro-processors, input dealers, agro-service providers, farmer-based organisations, research institutions and academia.
This year’s fair was under the theme ‘Promoting Market Linkages Through Agricultural Fairs’. The key objective was to bring together players in the agricultural value chain with a view to promoting agriculture growth and development through exhibitions of relevant products and services. This is the agricultural-based fair’s second edition organised in Sunyani. The first edition was held in January 2021.
The fair was organised by the Bono Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in partnership with the Bono Regional Coordinating Council.
Delivering the opening remarks, Justina Owusu Banahene, Bono Regional Minister, described the fair as a perfect catalyst to showcase modernity and transformation in agriculture; and also clear the misconception that agriculture is a poverty-oriented enterprise, which causes the youths’ hesitance to venture into the sector.
She alluded to the fact that governments over the years have rolled out various policies and programmes aimed at making the sector attractive, increase productivity and food security to ensure sustainable socio-economic development.
Ms. Banahene urged the youth to take advantage of government interventions in the agricultural space to better their lots. She also called on the public to appreciate the efforts of farmers and agriculturalists for their role in ensuring food sustainability in the country.
On the part of the Bono Regional MoFA Director, Dennis Abugri Amenga, his outfit has since March this year supported various initiatives aimed at bridging the gaps between agricultural value chain actors as well as promote market linkages along the various streams.
The fair, he noted, is one of the strategies to accelerate efforts toward organising and transforming the region’s agric sector.
The 2017 National Best Farmer, Philip Kwaku Agyemang, appealed for the MoFA and government to redouble their efforts to support the sector with necessary inputs and implements to boost its production.
In a bid to bridge food security and reduce poverty among vulnerable women and people living with disability in Ghana, Agrihouse Foundation has commenced phase two of 1Household 1Gadern (1H1G) capacity in the North East Region of Ghana.
Over thirty residents of Abeadze Kwekrom in the Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region have suffered fish poisoning after eating fresh fish which was sold to them by a stranger in the community.
Information gathered revealed that the stranger after selling the poisoned fresh fish left the area and has not been seen ever since.
Speaking in an interview with Yaw Boagyan, the victims said they suffered severe stomach upset after taking in the fresh fish and had to take in drips at the Ekwamase Health Centre to make them stable.
The incident has thrown the residents into a state of fear and panic as they have stopped strangers from selling in the Community.
Meanwhile, the affected people are now in stable condition.
COCOA paste maintained its lead as the highest earner among the top 10 products that contributed most to the country’s Non-Traditional Export (NTE) earnings last year.
Management of the Ghana Exim Bank has been lauded by key stakeholders within the Trade and Finance sector as well as players in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and Creative Arts industry for its effort in the promotion of Made-In-Ghana products and services.
When Vendease launched in January 2020, it wanted to solve the challenges and inefficiencies in Nigeria’s highly fragmented food sector using a marketplace model that connected suppliers and farms to restaurants and food businesses, with deliveries facilitated within 24 hours.
But over the next couple of months, Vendease switched from its middleman role — after noticing that some of these businesses complained of delivery times, quality of food supplies, and inadequate set-up to handle operations — to one where building on its relationship with food suppliers, buys discounted products in bulk, stores them and makes deliveries through third-party logistics partners.
The YC-backed food procurement platform has doubled down on the pivot — instrumental to the company’s $3.2 million seed round last October — to raise $30 million in Series A funding (split between $20 million equity and $10 million debt).
CEO Tunde Kara, in an interview with TechCrunch, said Vendease plans to use the investment to deepen operations, consolidate its presence in eight cities across Nigeria and Ghana (the company recently expanded to the latter), move into new markets, and build new products to increase customers’ efficiency.
“We’re building technology to efficiently move food from the point of production to the point of consumption,” Kara said on the call about his company’s drive. “Everything we build at Vendease — financing, logistics, warehousing, inventory management — is tailored towards ensuring that food flows efficiently from that point of production to the point of consumption.”
Vendease allows African restaurants and food business to buy supplies, access financial services, and power their business operations. There’s a reason why Vendease is thorough about improving efficiency in this supply chain. According to the company, most customers, including restaurants and food businesses, hospitals, hotels and schools, are subject to $100 billion in annual losses due to several factors. They range from unreliable supply and wastage to limited data on making informed procurement decisions to little or no capital to fund procurement. Its platform, described as a series of stacks, is designed to mitigate losses and help food businesses thrive.
The platform claims to have moved approximately 400,000 metric tonnes of food for its more than 2,000 customers and assisted them in saving about $2 million in procurement costs and over 10,000 in person-hours over the last 12 months. Kara, who founded the company with Olumide Fayankin, Gatumi Aliyu, and Wale Oyepeju, also mentioned that Vendease has saved its customers almost $500,000 in wastage costs due to overstocking. The chief executive attributed this progress to fully utilizing businesses’ data and providing them with the necessary resources — particularly around inventory management — at every step of their journey, including delivery routes: Vendease has slashed its delivery time from 24 to 12 hours.
“Since businesses don’t have access to accurate data, they usually buy what they don’t need. We help them to solve that problem in two ways,” Kara commented on the company’s progress. “One, because businesses know they can get anything on our platform in 12 hours, they don’t need to stock some of the things they would’ve stored before. Two, they can also track what they bought and know how much is left before they need to buy again.”
While Vendease applies data to how it disburses working capital via its BNPL offering, there’s been a change of strategy from what it operated last year: Instead of using its books, the company now partners with banks and financial institutions to provide financing through its platform. So far, businesses have accessed more than $12 million worth of inventory via the embedded finance product. Its revenue, which the company says has grown 5x over the past year, comes from deals it makes with suppliers; it’s yet to monetize its lending business.
Ultimately, Vendease, while building the operating system that automates the flow of food from farm to restaurant, envisions itself as a plug-and-play solution for yet-to-be-launched African restaurants and food businesses in the next three to five years. The participation of lead investors in this round, TLcom Capital and Partech Africa (both control large pan-African funds), bodes well for that plan, said the chief executive, adding that having both investors on board means his company has backers “ready to go the long haul.”
Andreata Muforo, a partner at TLcom Capital, and Cyril Collon, general partner at Partech Africa, say they’re backing Vendease because they believe it can unlock significant value in Africa’s fragmented food supply chain and deliver robust solutions that impact critical issues around the food system on the continent, per the statement shared by Vendease. Other investors in the round include existing investors VentureSouq, Hustle fund, Hack VC, GFR Fund, Kube VC, Magic Fund, and Kairos Angels (the company raised debt from the local finance market, per a statement).
For a non-fintech business, Vendease’s equity round closed somewhat quickly despite conversations around a cooling venture capital market, parties involved told TechCrunch. Investors’ interest in the business and the emergence of other players, such as OneOrder and TopUp Mama, indicate massive room for growth in this market segment where restaurants’ and food businesses’ needs are a priority. This holds more true in light of rising inflation and global food supply shortages, where the cost of food is 42% higher than it was between 2014 and 2016, per data from this food price index.
“Something important to us about our current growth and impact is despite the ongoing global food supply shortage and inflation, Vendease is helping our users save big and provide relative stability for their stock levels. Shielding them (to a large extent) from the most severe effects of the current global shortage,” commented Kara. “What excites us is we can have even more impact as we extend and entrench our technology within Africa and the rest of the world. And that’s what keeps us going.”
