The former Ghana president John Atta Mills turns the valve to flag off first oil production at the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah oil rig. Pius Utomi Ekpei / AFP
The former Ghana president John Atta Mills turns the valve to flag off first oil production at the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah oil rig. Pius Utomi Ekpei / AFP

Ghana fired up for a brighter future



Ghana, regarded as one of Africa's brightest prospects, is struggling to reap the benefits of its oil and gas reserves, as production targets are missed and crippling power shortages belie its hydrocarbon wealth.

Like many of its regional peers, Ghana is the beneficiary of an oil and gas boom that began when smaller oil companies started exploring the potential of the countries near the Horn of Africa.

Whereas Nigeria and Angola had for a while been home to substantial production, it took some time before nimble outfits struck sizeable reserves off the shores of Ghana, Tanzania and Mozambique. Oil has also been found in Kenya's rift valley, known as the "cradle of mankind".

Ghana is a little ahead of the other newcomers and oil was found at its offshore Jubilee field in 2007. Production started at the end of 2010 by a consortium built around the British company Tullow Oil.

Located 80km from the coast of Takadori, the capital of the country's Western Region that has morphed into an oil town, the Jubilee field has proven oil reserves of 800 million barrels, and about 1 billion barrels of probable reserves.

But extracting these reserves has not been as straightforward as planned and Tullow fell short of last year's production targets of 90,000 barrels per day (bpd). The company nevertheless hopes to pump an average 120,000 bpd this year and 200,000 bpd by 2015.

As efforts to increase production are behind schedule, oil revenues have so far also been disappointing. Last year, the Ghanian treasury received US$540 million (Dh1.98 billion) from the oil industry, significantly less than the projected $774m.

This has not prevented the government from adopting a generous spending regime. Overall state spending will increase by 20 per cent this year, the finance minister Seth Terkper announced last month, as the government is increasing infrastructure expenditure and is boosting civil sector pay.

To accommodate this largesse, plans to trim the budget deficit to 6 per cent of GDP from 12 per cent last year have been replaced with a new target of 9 per cent, to the detriment of the country's finances. The ratings agency Fitch has already downgraded Ghana's credit rating from a stable to a negative outlook.

Credit ratings determine the cost of government borrowing and have an impact on investor confidence.

The government in Accra, Ghana's capital, is also faced with the popular perception that the country's oil wealth has made little difference to everyday life.

This is in no small part due to the disastrous state of Ghana's utility sector, which is proving incapable of providing sufficient amounts of power and water.

The power shortage is largely the result of delays to developing the Jubilee field's natural gas reserves.

The Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) has missed several deadlines for the completion of a project that would deliver gas from the field to the power plants on land.

First touted to come online at the end of last year, GNGC now expects its facilities to distribute Jubilee field gas in the fourth quarter of next year.

The delay is critical because Ghana's gas supplies from Nigeria were interrupted after the West African Gas Pipeline fell into disrepair last August.

Ghana's power plants rely on natural gas and the outage forced the state utility, the Volta River Authority, to ration electricity. Since the August, households have had their electricity cut off during daylight hours.

"What we are going through has been the result of disruptions of gas deliveries to our plants," said John Mahama, Ghana's president, adding that he was "aware of the importance of making natural gas available from the Jubilee field".

Mr Mahama said he aimed to double power generation capacity to 5,000 megawatts by 2016, and hopes to export electricity to adjacent countries in two years' time.

His administration is also keen to put an end to the severe shortage of fresh water, which is forcing companies to buy expensive water from private suppliers and puts at risk the health of Ghanaians.

To achieve these ambitious targets, the government has turned to the international private sector to improve its power and water infrastructure.

The first such investment in the power sector is held by a UAE firm, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, or Taqa, which owns Ghana's first independent power project (IPP). IPPs are privately-owned power plants that sell electricity to the government at a profit.

Taqa recently started upgrading its plant in Takoradi and is keen on further power projects in the country. It also has an eye on projects that could process the gas needed by power plants.

"There will be significant gas associated with those offshore developments, and that … is there to be processed," said Carl Sheldon, Taqa's chief executive.

"That is something that would fit us very well both on the processing side and on the power side."

The interest by outside investors is encouraging and the overall picture is not a grim one either.

Ghana's $35bn economy is projected to grow 8 per cent this year, well above average in West Africa. But its oil story has yet to deliver and further delays threaten to curb economic growth and prevent improvements to the lives of ordinary Ghanaians.

The specs

Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors

Power: 480kW

Torque: 850Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)

On sale: Now

Our legal consultants

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode

Directors: Raj & DK

Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon

Rating: 4/5

Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale

Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni

Director: Amith Krishnan

Rating: 3.5/5

Company%20profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPurpl%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECo-founders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKarl%20Naim%2C%20Wissam%20Ghorra%2C%20Jean-Marie%20Khoueir%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHub71%20in%20Abu%20Dhabi%20and%20Beirut%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2021%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E12%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%242%20million%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Know your cyber adversaries

Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

The specs: 2018 Mazda CX-5

Price, base / as tested: Dh89,000 / Dh130,000
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Power: 188hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 251Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
​​​​​​​Fuel consumption, combined: 7.1L / 100km

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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FIXTURES (all times UAE)

Sunday
Brescia v Lazio (3.30pm)
SPAL v Verona (6pm)
Genoa v Sassuolo (9pm)
AS Roma v Torino (11.45pm)

Monday
Bologna v Fiorentina (3.30pm)
AC Milan v Sampdoria (6pm)
Juventus v Cagliari (6pm)
Atalanta v Parma (6pm)
Lecce v Udinese (9pm)
Napoli v Inter Milan (11.45pm)

FFP EXPLAINED

What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.

What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.

What are the penalties?
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
Disclaimer

Director: Alfonso Cuaron 

Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville 

Rating: 4/5

The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Power: 268bhp / 536bhp
Torque: 343Nm / 686Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
On sale: Later this year
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
Michael Beckley, Cornell Press

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Business Insights
  • Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
  • The introduction of tariffs could hinder the US's clean energy initiatives by raising input costs for materials like nickel
  • US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Rating: 2/5
 
Pakistan Super League

Previous winners

2016 Islamabad United

2017 Peshawar Zalmi

2018 Islamabad United

2019 Quetta Gladiators

 

Most runs Kamran Akmal – 1,286

Most wickets Wahab Riaz –65

If you go

The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.

The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.

Business Insights
  • As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses. 
  • SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income. 
  • Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.

Fighting with My Family

Director: Stephen Merchant 

Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Florence Pugh, Thomas Whilley, Tori Ellen Ross, Jack Lowden, Olivia Bernstone, Elroy Powell        

Four stars