Kelly

If you are speaking in general, I am the General. |LFC|

[Sky Sports Premier League @SkySportsPL]

"Koumas & Munoz were better than the two £100million players!"

Jamie Carragher is still disappointed with what he's seeing from Florian Wirtz in a Liverpool shirt 😬🔴

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

@pinobiomgh I wish😂

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

Liverpool player wey no get song after a whole season? If player go make am you go see.

[Frank Darkwah @Blaqqkoffi]

Florian Wirtz is at Liverpool wasting everyone’s time.

The guy doesn’t even deserve a start…just awful

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

You cannot move from employing Jurgen Klopp to Slot and Iraola. Klopp could have retired after Dortmund and still be considered a great manager. The others? No!

[Adika @Adikastakes]

Iraola has just fed me the worst draw soup I’ve eaten in my life. That was a very uninspiring performance at Anfield, we never ever looked like we could score against a Fulham team that has lost their first 3 premier league games. Another painful reminder that this Liverpool team isn’t ready to compete.

[M.anifest @manifestive]

Incoming. ON TEN⏳

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

No hoarding of music.💯

[M.anifest @manifestive]

This is probably my favorite era of Ghanaian music in a long time. So many fearless artists and such a broad spectrum of music being made. Hard.

[Majčetić @majcetic1]

please get your kids into cardio, bleep test, regular jogs, and incline walking, because that’s what pays szoboszlai 280k a week

[TheFundamentals @KojoNketsia]

As for Lil Uzi Wirtz we will have to be honest with ourselves at some point

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

The BoG operates a managed floating exchange rate regime. Before the start of every month,they make available certain amount of forex and the Banks bid. It is done twice a week. This provides predictability. Forex provided could exceed demand and this leads to appreciation.

[Prince Tee-Kay @tridicle_]

Bank of Ghana, please, just to satisfy my curiosity, what is causing the increase in the value of the Cedi against other foreign currencies? @thebankofghana

[LeBron James @KingJames]

🙏🏾🫡👑

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

On 13. He agrees a law needs to be passed so nobody can garnish such accounts. In future, he fears the sinking fund could be garnished.

[Bright Simons @BBSimons]

1.  You learn as a young policy analyst in Ghana to read every budget…and the mid-year reviews too.

2.  Simply because the other ministries barely document any policies, so the budget is where the juice is!

3.  Now that we are not so young 😉, we still read but with even greater attention to the cardinal rule: ignore the Finance Minister’s flowery prose and focus on the number tables. Only the tables.

4.  Having read the latest mid-year review, I am happy to report that the economic recovery is no doubt REAL.

5.  Much credit to the Finance Minister who has been so efficiently brutal in withholding funds and forcing MDAs to manage somehow.

6.  But the risks to the recovery are also very real. For one thing, some of the boosts are steroids. Which means the hangover won’t be pretty. See the attached sheet for more info.

A few highlights:

7.  Gold now props up everything. Should prices fall, everything would be hit the cedi, reserves, taxes, debt, everything!

8.  The debt stock has climbed up to ~$64bn. On the eve of the default in 2022, Refinitiv Eikon reported total debt of $55bn. Much of the improvement is thus exchange rate related.

9.  The Finance Ministry has taken over from the Bank of Ghana in financing the GoldBod trading book. However, the claim that the cost per ounce of gold went down "from 14.5 per cent of gold purchased to 5.0 per cent" (para. 351, p. 38) is curious as they don’t define what "cost" means.

10. Moreover, 5 per cent of the US$16bn gold purchase sum is US$800m, which does not obviously reconcile with the GH¢5bn government is budgeting for GoldBod.

11. A US$9.8 billion debt storm is coming by 2028. The government is putting money in a piggybank called “Sinking Fund” steadily to offset it but it is barely going to cover 30% of the amount.

12. One of the government’s tools for making the fiscal books look good is simply not to pay the bills. Of about US$7.8 billion of contractor bills it has agreed to pay, only US$466 million was cleared, 62% lower than promised in the budget.

13. Most bizarrely, some contractor has gone to court and got a Judge to freeze the Contingency Fund, but the Finance Ministry won’t tell us who it is.

14. Meanwhile, about US$800 million can’t be neatly reconciled and has been left as a “discrepancy”.

15. The tax situation is still a bit annoying for the Finance Minister. He missed his VAT and levies targets.

16. Ghana's forex is still leaking like a sieve. Despite record trade surpluses, forex reserves fell US$0.9 billion and the cedi lost 7.9%. The suggestion is that about US$6 billion leaked out.

17. The energy sector remains a drain. Shortfalls reached US$605 million (energy consumed but somehow not paid for.) Plans to clear legacy arrears of US$218 million somehow fell by the roadside.

18. In short, things are looking up, but it is NOT yet Uhuru. Not by a long stretch.

More grease to the elbows of the mandarins at the Finance Ministry as they keep working to slay the dragon.

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

On point 24. Until a contractor raises a certificate and all necessary approvals are made monies cannot be disbursed. Slow pace of work might be a contributory factor. He also says no Big push contractor is owed.

[Bright Simons @BBSimons]

If you want to dig into point 5 above, well, you just have to read the mid-year review 🙂. But the pointers below might help.

19. Capital expenditure was 39% below what was budgeted. Does that mean fewer roads, schools, and clinics? In Ghana, yes, but it doesn't have to be. Greater efficiency in contracting can lead to lower capex without necessarily sacrificing infrastructure.

20. Foreign-financed capital expenditure was hit pretty hard. The Finance Ministry seems to have slowed down drawdown on quite a number of donor and creditor projects.

21. Social benefits like LEAP and school feeding saw 57% in underspending. The thing to look out for here is whether waste is being cut more aggressively than actual welfare.

22. Somehow, the numbers seem to suggest that the GH¢5.9bn less was spent on public sector salaries than the Minister said was the commitment.

23. 24% less in expected interest payments was made. Could be a mix of thing, falling rates being an obvious suspect.

24. And most fascinating of all, GoldBod took precedence over the Big Push. Some Big Push spending seemed to have been deliberately cut to make more room for GoldBod. Overall, the Finance Minister disbursed GH¢7.8bn against a GH¢28bn planned budget.

25. Net effect: improved macroeconomic stability against potentially lower economic demand and domestic investment confidence down the line. That's if lower cost of borrowing and the ~42% growth in private credit don't translate to a bigger uptick in real economic activity soon.

[Bright Simons @BBSimons]

1.  You learn as a young policy analyst in Ghana to read every budget…and the mid-year reviews too.

2.  Simply because the other ministries barely document any policies, so the budget is where the juice is!

3.  Now that we are not so young 😉, we still read but with even greater attention to the cardinal rule: ignore the Finance Minister’s flowery prose and focus on the number tables. Only the tables.

4.  Having read the latest mid-year review, I am happy to report that the economic recovery is no doubt REAL.

5.  Much credit to the Finance Minister who has been so efficiently brutal in withholding funds and forcing MDAs to manage somehow.

6.  But the risks to the recovery are also very real. For one thing, some of the boosts are steroids. Which means the hangover won’t be pretty. See the attached sheet for more info.

A few highlights:

7.  Gold now props up everything. Should prices fall, everything would be hit the cedi, reserves, taxes, debt, everything!

8.  The debt stock has climbed up to ~$64bn. On the eve of the default in 2022, Refinitiv Eikon reported total debt of $55bn. Much of the improvement is thus exchange rate related.

9.  The Finance Ministry has taken over from the Bank of Ghana in financing the GoldBod trading book. However, the claim that the cost per ounce of gold went down "from 14.5 per cent of gold purchased to 5.0 per cent" (para. 351, p. 38) is curious as they don’t define what "cost" means.

10. Moreover, 5 per cent of the US$16bn gold purchase sum is US$800m, which does not obviously reconcile with the GH¢5bn government is budgeting for GoldBod.

11. A US$9.8 billion debt storm is coming by 2028. The government is putting money in a piggybank called “Sinking Fund” steadily to offset it but it is barely going to cover 30% of the amount.

12. One of the government’s tools for making the fiscal books look good is simply not to pay the bills. Of about US$7.8 billion of contractor bills it has agreed to pay, only US$466 million was cleared, 62% lower than promised in the budget.

13. Most bizarrely, some contractor has gone to court and got a Judge to freeze the Contingency Fund, but the Finance Ministry won’t tell us who it is.

14. Meanwhile, about US$800 million can’t be neatly reconciled and has been left as a “discrepancy”.

15. The tax situation is still a bit annoying for the Finance Minister. He missed his VAT and levies targets.

16. Ghana's forex is still leaking like a sieve. Despite record trade surpluses, forex reserves fell US$0.9 billion and the cedi lost 7.9%. The suggestion is that about US$6 billion leaked out.

17. The energy sector remains a drain. Shortfalls reached US$605 million (energy consumed but somehow not paid for.) Plans to clear legacy arrears of US$218 million somehow fell by the roadside.

18. In short, things are looking up, but it is NOT yet Uhuru. Not by a long stretch.

More grease to the elbows of the mandarins at the Finance Ministry as they keep working to slay the dragon.

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

Patient Capital👌🏾.

[CITI FM 97.3 @Citi973]

The Head of Trading, Global Markets at Absa Bank Ghana Limited, Andrews Akoto, has urged businesses in Ghana, particularly those in the manufacturing sector, to explore the capital market as a source of long-term financing for expansion.

Full story here ⬇️
https://t.co/IyRBExL8MF

#CitiNewsroom #CitiFM #GhanaNews

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

Asamoah Gyan just corroborate what I talk or he too he no play ball before?😂 Charle no be you you play defense wey all balls dey pass your head top😂. I fit save 3 penalties and still you all still go lose!😂😂😂

[47 Ronin @selooormm]

lol Chale you play ball before ??

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

Naa charle

[47 Ronin @selooormm]

lol Chale you play ball before ??

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

Pure drama!

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

In all 4 games Cristiano Ronaldo’s positioning has been very poor. He needs to attack centrally.

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

How is that a penalty?

[Kelly @kellyakaba]

He has to take steps before diving and he will be good.

[Don @Opresii]

Benjamin Asare dives in slow motion.