Finance Students & Associates-FINSA (UGBS)♨
                🇬🇭15th March, 2019
                ⏰6:00pm

BUSINESS SPACE📈

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📡 Cedi depreciation to push fuel prices to 'all time high' - IES

The Institution of Energy Security is predicting that the prices of fuel will reach an all-time high within the second pricing window in March. They have predicted that fuel prices could go up by 2.5%. This, they attribute to the depreciating rate of the cedi. The Executive Director of IES, Paa Kwasi Anamoah Sakyi says prices will go up at the pumps soon. He pointed out that smaller OMCs are the worse hit since they do not have what it takes to achieve economies of scale.

📡 Akufo-Addo to open SWIFT African Regional Conference in Ghana

SWIFT has announced that President Akufo-Addo will open its African Regional Conference (ARC) in Accra on 18-20 June 2019. ARC is an event which will bring together over 500 high senior financial professionals from across the continent to discuss Africa's evolving landscape, how the financial industry is embracing and delivering change for it's customers and how to manage risk in am increasingly digitised world. ARC is honoured that H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo will deliver the keynote address and open the flagship African event.

📡 Samira Bawumia assures businesses of massive govt support

Wife of Vice President Dr. Bawumia has assured business leaders and private sector operators that the government is committed to improving the economic fortunes of the country. According to her, some interventions by the government have begun yielding results to allow businesses thrive in the country. She was speaking at the 5th anniversary dinner and awards night of the France Chamber of Commerce in Ghana. The event saw producers of Supercem cement, CBI emerging as the best company of the year, Ecobank Ghana with the best Digital project and Kasapreko Awake mineral water as the best Corporate Social Responsibility product of the year.

📡 CUTS Ghana calls on regulators to implement existing regulations

CUTS Ghana, a research and a public policy think tank is calling on regulatory bodies to be proactive and implement the already existing regulations to protect the interest of consumers against bad services and inferior goods in the absence of a functioning Consumer Protection Law. The Director of CUTS Ghana, Appiah Kusi Adomako made this call when he was addressing a cross-section of journalists as part of activities to mark World Consumer Rights Day in Ghana. The country has attempted to have a consumer protection law for over three decades. However, the draft bill has been listed among the list of bills to be considered by Parliament this year.

|Policy Rate in Ghana - 16.0%|

|Inflation Rate in Ghana - 9.20%|

|Treasury bills rates|

Period        Discount Rates       Interest Rates

91 - Day           14.1855%                  14.7071%
182 - Day   14.0810%                  15.1474%
2-Yr Note                                             19.7500%

Foreign News💤

⚖Standard Bank Says 1,200 Jobs at Risk in South Africa Branch Closures

Standard Bank Group Ltd. expects to close 91 branches across South Africa, most by the end of June, in a move that may affect about 1,200 employees. The company is reviewing its model for servicing retail and business customers due to an increasing uptake of its digital offerings and declining use of its outlets. The actual number of people who are to lose their jobs might be lower because there may be other opportunities in the new operating model.

⚖Boeing Troubles Could Be an Opportunity for Made-in-China Planes

Airlines worried about buying from Boeing Co. have another supplier besides Airbus SE to choose from: the Chinese government. The state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, or Comac, is building the C919, a narrowbody passenger plane with a capacity of about 170 that the company says has more than 800 orders worldwide. It will compete with the Boeing 737 Max 8—as well as the Airbus 320neo—as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious gamble to build an aerospace industry from scratch and break Western companies’ grip on the skies.

⚖Venezuela's electricity crisis could trigger 'serious disruption' to the oil market, IEA warns

A nationwide power failure in crisis-stricken Venezuela could trigger "serious disruption" to the oil market, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has  warned. The IEA report comes at a time when Venezuela, home to the world's biggest oil reserves, is in the midst of the Western Hemisphere's worst humanitarian crisis in recent memory. "The electricity crisis in Venezuela has paralysed most of the country for significant periods of time," the Paris-based group said in its closely-watched report on Friday.

⚖ SEC charges Volkswagen and its former CEO with defrauding investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is charging Volkswagen and former CEO Martin Winterkorn with defrauding American investors during an emissions scandal, the Associated Press  reported. The SEC said that between April 2014 and May 2015 Volkswagen issued more than $13 billion in bonds and asset-backed securities in U.S. markets when senior executives knew that more than 500,000 vehicles in the country grossly exceeded legal vehicle emissions limits.

|Daily Interbank FX Rates|

Currency         Pairs Code   Buying  Selling

U.S Dollar             USDGHS 5.2374    5.2426
Pound Sterling         GBPGHS 6.9500    6.9590
Swiss Franc             CHFGHS    5.2166    5.2214
Canadian Dollar      CADGHS 3.9315    3.9354
Euro                     EURGHS 5.9210    5.9256
Chinese Reminbi     CNYGHS 0.7800    0.7807

🌀|Sources|
www.citibusinessnews.com
www.bog.gov.gh
www.myjoyonline.com
www.bloomberg.com
www.cnbc.com 
www.wikipedia.com
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Term of the day📚

🤔 Fraud
Act or course of deception, an intentional concealment, omission, or perversion of truth, to gain unlawful or unfair advantage, induce another to part with some valuable item or surrender a legal right, or inflict injury in some manner. Willful fraud is a criminal offense which calls for severe penalties, and its prosecution and punishment (like that of a murder) is not bound by the statute of limitations. However incompetence or negligence in managing a business or even a reckless waste of firm's assets (by speculating on the stockmarket, for example) does not normally constitute a fraud.

🤔 Can you name the various categories of fraud?
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📍Compiled & edited by:     
Philip Elike Gagah
Agnes Boatemaa Appiadu