Ghana: ‘Power ships’ from Turkey

Published Jun 18, 2014

Share

GHANA

‘Power ships’ from Turkey

Turkey’s Karadeniz Holdings will provide two electricity-generating vessels to Ghana in a 10-year supply deal, according to the company’s chairman, Orhan Karadeniz. The company builds vessels that act as floating power stations and plug into electricity grids after berthing. They run on fuel oil but can use natural gas. The Ghana investment is its first in Africa. It produces electricity for Iraq and Lebanon, through part of its fleet of seven “power ships”. “There is an electricity shortage of around 100 000 megawatts in Africa that needs to be fulfilled urgently. This investment needs to be done,” Karadeniz said on Monday. – Reuters

ZAMBIA

Cap on interest lifted to 28%

The Bank of Zambia has increased the maximum amount lenders can charge for credit after efforts to support its currency have made funding more expensive. The cap on lending would rise to 28 percent from 21 percent effective immediately, Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula, the deputy governor in charge of administration, said yesterday. The central bank introduced the limits in December 2012 to spur economic growth. Yields on Zambia’s one-year treasury bills reached a record 19.99 percent at an auction last week. – Bloomberg

GHANA

State wage bill to be cut

Ghana will reduce its public sector wage bill to 35 percent of government revenue in three years as part of a plan to restore macro-economic stability, according to one of its deputy finance ministers. As recently as 2012, the wage bill accounted for around 70 percent of Ghana’s government revenue. The wage bill is the single biggest contributor to an imbalance between government spending and revenue in Ghana. “We are in negotiation with organised labour and the objective is to lock in wage changes for a longer period,” Casie Ato Forson said on the sidelines of an African economic conference on Monday. – Reuters

Related Topics: