Search Results for: Ghana

Confectionery and related ingredient sales between the European Union (EU) and the Mercosur countries of south America are set to rise after a trade agreement between the two blocs was finalised. A deal in principle had been held over since 2019 while details were ironed out, but these have now been resolved.…

The Ghanaian government has welcomed an “unprecedented increase” in cocoa prices in the 2023/24 season of 129.36% year-on-year as the market responded to production declines worldwide – costing chocolate manufacturers dear. Ghana’s food and agriculture minister Bryan Acheampong said Ghanaian cocoa prices had risen from Ghanaian Cedi GHS20,928/tonne (USD1,325) and GHS1,308 (USD82.80) per 64kg bag in September 2023 to GHS48,000/tonne (USD3,030) or GH3,000 (USD190) per 64kg bag as the season wrapped last month (September 2024).…

A global set of studies into how artificial intelligence (AI) can best be deployed within higher education has been launched by WISE (the Qatar Foundation’s global initiative for education), the USA-based Institute of International Education (IIE) and seven universities worldwide.

The goal, said a joint statement released after a project launch in New York on Tuesday (September 17), is “to explore the role of AI in higher education and skills development for the AI era”.…

Nigeria’s textile and footwear industries are facing a complex economic landscape, with its manufacturing sector struggling to tap overseas markets and even a growing domestic market, despite a declining Naira (down from USD1/NGN380 in January 2021 to NGN1,600 this March (2024).…

The stark differences in higher education capacity between richer and less developed countries was highlighted at the International Association of University Presidents’ (IAUP) latest semi-annual meeting. Staged at Nottingham Trent University, in England’s East Midlands on Friday (March 8), delegates heard how in Uganda, with a population of 47.2 million (World Bank data for 2022), there are only 60 higher education institutions, of which only 20 meet international standards.…

An Interpol police operation cracking down on online financial crime across 34 countries (1) worldwide led to 3,500 arrests and saw a total USD300 million seized – USD199 million in hard currency and USD101 million in virtual assets. The global agency’s six-month HEACHI IV operation, which ran from July to December 2023, targeted seven types of cyber-enabled swindles: voice phishing, romance scams, online sextortion, investment fraud, money laundering associated with illegal online gambling, business email compromise fraud and e-commerce fraud.…

The International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) has predicted that the chocolate industry will continue to face cocoa supply deficits, with its latest quarterly assessment predicting that for 2022/3, there will be 99,000 tonnes more grindings than cocoa production. As a result, global stocks will fall to 1.744 million tonnes, amidst declines in output from key production hubs Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.…

South Africa’s paints and coatings market is expected to generate USD2.1 billion by 2026 after growing at an estimated 5.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2021 and 2026. This is according to India-based market research and data analytics provider IndustryARC (1).…

The professional life of a money laundering reporting officer (MLRO) is of critical importance to the organisations that they serve, but many of their colleagues in separate roles maybe unaware of what happens in the typical day of an MLRO. Shilpa Arora, Senior Director of Anti-Financial Crime Segment Solutions at ACAMS (Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists) stressed that a key element of MLRO work is not necessarily actively hunting down dirty money flows, but consultation.…

How should anti-money laundering (AML) officers prepare for a visit by a regulator, be it a scheduled inspection, or the worst-case scenario – an unexpected dawn raid? Experts say institutions need to always be prepared for checks by regulators.

However, this is not simple given a visit to assess an obliged entity’s internal controls’ ability to effectively monitor and manage compliance with national and regional AML policies and procedures can be rare.…