Ghana

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    Opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo won Ghana’s presidential election on 9 December 2016 with 53.85% of the vote against incumbent President John Dramani Mahama who won 44.40% of the vote. The voter turnout was 68.62%. It was Akufo-Addo’s third time running for president in Ghana. “Ghana is open for business again,” was one of the newly elected president’s key messages. Indeed, President Akufo-Addo won the election with his promise of “Change: an Agenda for Jobs - Creating Prosperity & Equal Opportunity for All.” Read on
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    Undernourishment has decreased: The West Africa region leads the continent in progress toward reducing the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Despite rapid population growth across the region and recurrent droughts in the Sahel, West Africa has reduced the prevalence of undernourishment by 60% over the last two decades, from 24.2% in 1990-92 to 9.6% in 2014-16. Read on
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    According to the 2016 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), governance in Africa has overall slightly improved over the past decade but the security situation has clearly become worse: two out of three Africans live in a country where safety and the rule of law deteriorated over the past ten years. This is particularly the case in Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Chad. Overall, the ECOWAS area is the second best-performing African region, after southern Africa, having recorded the largest increase in its average score (52.4) for overall governance. Read on
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    Despite the huge progress, Africa remains the least-connected continent. Africa’s broadband household penetration accounted for 15.4% in 2015, far behind the worldwide average of 52.3% (Asia and the Pacific - 46.4%; the Americas - 64.4%; and Europe - 84%). When it comes to individual Internet usage, Nigeria was the best-performing West African country in 2015, with almost one out of two Nigerians connected. Read on
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    West African finance ministers met in Dakar on 15-16 August during the 18th meeting of the joint ECOWAS-UEMOA Committee on the management of the Common External Tariff (CET). The objective of the meeting was to discuss two major concerns: the regional economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union and the implications for the ECOWAS Common External Tariff. Read on
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    The World Bank has published the 2015 rankings in its Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) report for Africa. Revised annually, the CPIA score evaluates, on a scale of 1 to 6, the capacity of a country's policies and institutions to support sustainable growth and poverty reduction. With Cape Verde and Senegal, West Africa is home to the second and third best scores in the continental ranking, after Rwanda. Read on
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    From 7 to 8 June, ECOWAS and the World Bank organised a workshop in Accra as part of the Improved and Facilitated Trade in West Africa project. Representatives of UEMOA and the European Union also took part in the discussions. The workshop revolved around several issues related to the easing of trade in the maid trade corridors in the region, especially those that connect landlocked countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger) to coastal countries (Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana). Read on
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    An international team of scholars has launched an ambitious new research project on regional integration and international trade in Africa. Based at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Edinburgh, the African Governance and Space (AFRIGOS) programme examines the "respacing" of the continent through the political drive for integration and the reimagining of Africa's engagement with the global economy. Read on
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    African leaders are gearing up to realize the demographic dividend in Africa. John Dramani Mahama, President of Ghana, opened the 7th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights in Accra on 8 February 2016. The five-day conference gathered some 1 000 high-level experts, including African women and youth associations and other civil society representatives. Read on
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    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted stronger economic growth in Ghana this year. The international lender completed its second review of Ghana's extended credit facility, concluding that macro-economic reforms are largely on track. The Fund approved a USD 114.6 million disbursement, part of a USD 918 million assistance package agreed in April 2015. Read on

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