My Ghana Electronic Desk

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A cross section of participants at the conference Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Former President of Finland Tarja Halonen , United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark and African Women’s Development Fund CEO Theo Sawa are among over 4,500 leaders who have today called for continued investment in girls and women. Taking turns to speak at ‘Women Deliver 2013’ the third and largest conference of such nature in the decade held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, all the afore mentioned leaders addressed the importance of placing girls and women at the centre of the next development agenda, and discussed advocacy strategies to keep girls’ and women’s needs in focus.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Different types of contraceptives for women Global leaders have announced progress and new commitments toward expanding contraceptive access for women in developing countries and also outlined plans for sustaining this momentum in the years to come. This was during the second day of Women Deliver 2013, the largest conference on girls and women of the decade held in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur this week.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Tuesday, May 22, approved a US$ 100 million unfunded Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) between the bank and Commerzbank AG, a leading international bank headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, to boost trade finance in Africa. Under this facility, the two banks will share the default risk on a portfolio of qualifying trade transactions originated by issuing banks in Africa and confirmed by Commerzbank AG, which will help address critical market demand for trade finance in Africa, by providing support for trade in vital economic sectors such as agribusiness and manufacturing.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Tuesday, May 22 approved a US$ 20 million Trade Finance Line of Credit for UT Bank Ghana (UT Bank), a mid-sized, indigenous Ghanaian bank, to support the trade finance activities of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and local corporates in Ghana.      Explaining the underlining reason for the credit approval, via a press statement, AfDB maintained that as the Ghanaian economy continues to grow and diversify, there is increasing need to address critical market demand for Trade Finance by supporting businesses in key economic sectors such as agriculture and light manufacturing.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A new report launched by the African Development Bank (AfDB) during the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in April 2013 by the bank’s Finance Vice-President, Charles Boamah, says African countries need to improve their regulatory frameworks in order to ensure the successful launch of African infrastructure project bonds.    The AfDB report titled “Structured Finance – Conditions for infrastructure project bonds in African markets,” states further that Africa is ready for the launch of such infrastructure bonds, provided some conditions are met.  According to Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank, in the foreword of the report, “With Africa having now no other option than to tap into its own internal resources, ‘the book points in the right direction’.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Following on from the success of its first two programmes run in 2011 and 2012, France Telecom-Orange, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 43.5 billion euros in 2012,   yesterday May 14, 2013 launched its third African Social Venture Prize, a project which promotes social innovations in support of development that use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).  Already present in 18 African countries and boasts over 70 million customers, Orange is seeking to become a major player in the economic and social development of every one of these countries.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Dubbed the Africa Domain Name System (DNS) Forum, the Internet Society, African Top Level Domain (AfTLD) and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) , are organising a conference for registries, registrars, experts and policy makers to foster cross-border collaboration. The event, which comes off from July 12, 2013 to July 13, 2013 in Durban, South Africa, aims to establish a platform for the DNS community across Africa and to advance the domain name industry and domain name registrations on the African continent. According to the three organisers, the upcoming forum has been necessitated by the fact that despite the support offered over the years for the continued development and growth of Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) in Africa through capacity building and technical support, the growth and sustainability of African ccTLDs and adoption of new technologies remain very low as compared to other regions of the world.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The African Development Bank (AfDB), has concluded a one-week, pan-African training workshop for African regulators of derivatives and commodities exchanges in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The workshop, which ended on May 10, 2013, provided participants representing 30 African countries with strategic and technical skills to assist African securities and capital markets authorities develop legal and regulatory frameworks for derivatives and commodities exchanges.   

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A new report – the Symantec Corp.’s Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 18 (ISTR) released yesterday, May 13, 2013, has revealed a 42 percent surge in cyber fraud during 2012 in targeted attacks compared to the prior year. The report, which lists top 30 countries in Africa in terms of their internet security threat profile, also reveals increase in cyberespionage – including threefold increase in small business attacks.    

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Global Board of Trade (GBOT), the first international multi ‐ asset bourse from Mauritius, has successfully launched Contracts for Difference (CFDs). Contract for Difference (CFD) means a standardised derivative traded on GBOT, where a buyer and a seller agree to exchange the difference in value of a particular underlying between the time when the Contract is opened and when it is closed. The launch of CFDs on GBOT Tuesday, May 7, 2013 in Mauritius, makes it the 1st exchange in Africa and 2nd in the world to introduce CFDs.

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Chinese and African leaders have met at the 4 th International Roundtable on China-Africa Health Cooperation and the first China-Africa health meeting to be held in Africa, to explore new partnerships to address some of the most pressing health challenges facing Africa. The meeting, which was held Monday, May 6, 2013 in Gaborone, Botswana to promote South-South partnership on African health priorities, was also aimed at strengthening an innovative health partnership and promoting sustainable health solutions that meet the needs and priorities of African countries, while drawing on China’s unique expertise. One aim of the roundtable, which had as its major theme; “how African and Chinese officials can create win-win scenarios that will benefit all partners”, was to develop joint recommendations that could lay the groundwork for a long-term strategic plan for China-Africa health cooperation, which could be considered at the Ministerial Forum of China-