Global response to Climate Change keeps door open to 2 degree limit

An unprecedented world-wide effort is underway to combat climate change, building confidence that nations can cost effectively meet their stated objective of keeping a global temperature rise to under 2 degree C.

A new report, assessing the collective impact of over 140 national climate action plans, indicates that together they can dramatically slow global emissions into the atmosphere.

Another key finding is that the aggregate impact of the “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)” will lead to a fall in per capita emissions over the coming 15 years.

“These INDCs–or national climate action plans–represent a clear and determined down-payment on a new era of climate ambition from the global community of nations. Governments from all corners of the Earth have signalled through their INDCs that they are determined to play their part according to their national circumstances and capabilities,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“Fully implemented these plans together begin to make a significant dent in the growth of greenhouse gas emissions: as a floor they provide a foundation upon which ever higher ambition can be built. I am confident that these INDCs are not the final word in what countries are ready to do and achieve over time–the journey to a climate safe-future is underway and the Paris agreement to be inked in Paris can confirm, and catalyze that transition,” she added.

Today’s report released by the UNFCCC secretariat captures the overall impact of national climate plans covering 146 countries as of 1 October 2015. This comprises 119 separate INDCs from 147 Parties to the UNFCCC, including the EU, a single Party representing 28 countries.

Since then, more INDCs have been submitted and submissions are likely to continue.

The 146 plans include all developed nations and three quarters of developing countries under the UNFCCC, covering 86% of global greenhouse gas emissions – almost four times the level of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s first international emission reduction treaty that required emissions cuts from industrialized countries.

One of the key findings is that the INDCs will bring global average emissions per capita down by as much as 8% in 2025 and 9% in by 2030.

“The INDCs have the capability of limiting the forecast temperature rise to around 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100, by no means enough but a lot lower than the estimated four, five, or more degrees of warming projected by many prior to the INDCs,” said Ms. Figueres.

The secretariat report does not directly assess implications for temperature change by the end of the century under the INDCs because information on emissions beyond 2030 is required.

However other independent analyses have, based on a range of assumptions, methodologies and data sources, attempted to estimate the impact of the INDCs on temperature leading to a range of average estimates below, at or above 3 degrees C.

Importantly all deliver more or less similar emission levels in 2025 and 2030 and all confirm that the INDCs, if fully implemented, are an important advance on previous scenarios.

“These plans set a determined course, clearly recognizing that successful climate action achieves not only low emissions but a host of other economic and social benefits for governments, citizens and business,” said Ms. Figueres.

“Backed by financial support for developing countries, a clear long term destination of climate neutrality in the second half of the century and a ratcheting up of ambition in a structured, transparent and timely way, the INDCs provide an inspiring part of what will become the Paris package,” she said.

An accompanying report to be published in November from the UNFCCC secretariat – “Climate Action Now” a Summary for Policymakers – will underline the enormous emission reduction potential and multiple economic benefits possible from best practise climate policies across major sectors
from energy to transport, from buildings to forests.

Africa needs multilateral climate funds but domestic resource mobilization is critical

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has called for a more climate resilient investments in Africa because the current global climate financing architecture is not providing the finance needed by the continent.

“Africa is shortchanged by climate change,” said Bank representative, Mary Manneko Monyau. “Africa is shortchanged by the lack of sufficient climate financing. Much more needs to be done to increase Africa’s access to climate finance”.

She was addressing the fifth conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-V), an annual event convened by the ClimDev-Africa program to deliberate on climate change and economic development in the continent.

Ms. Monyau has noted that “Climate change is no longer a domain for scientists and climate experts” due to the evidence of impacts on economic development and livelihoods, especially agriculture and ecosystems.

The Bank is therefore committed to enhancing Africa’s access to multilateral climate funds, but also to facilitate the mobilization of domestic resources from private and public sources. 

Mr. Seth Osafo, Ghanaian climate change expert and member of the African Group of Negotiators, has emphasized the need for countries on the continent to commit local resources to implement climate activities.

He cites the experience of vulnerable Bangladesh which managed to mobilize $200million from its local resource to address adaptation and other impacts of climate change – the country later leveraged an additional $400million from the international community.

“If we are to move on as Africa and be able to address it aside from incorporating climate change issues into our development plans, we need also to put resources – our own resources – into addressing the problem before we can also leverage additional funds from other countries,” said Mr. Osafo.

The African Development Bank has spent nearly US$7 billion towards climate finance in Africa between 2011 and 2014 – Energy and Agriculture are the Bank’s two major areas of focus.

President of the Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, recently announced that the Bank will step up climate financing by 40 percent to US$ 5 billion per year by 2020.

These investments will be delivered within the framework of five priority areas that build on the Banks Strategy for 2013-2022 – including Feeding Africa, Lighting up Africa, Integrating Africa, Improving the Livelihoods in Africa and engaging more with the Private Sector.

The Bank has worked closely with the African Group of Negotiators, and fully supports the African Common Position under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Key elements of Paris agreement include global commitments that are ambitious enough to keep temperatures below 2 degrees centigrade and availing finance and mechanisms to enable Africa adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The Bank has also significantly stepped up its support for African countries to build resilience to the impacts of climate change, but also to seize the opportunity to drive low-carbon, climate-resilient growth.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh | Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

UK funds £20 million climate research programme in Africa

A new UK government-funded initiative will put £20 million behind leading-edge research to better understand Africa’s changing climate and the use of climate change information in decision-making across the continent.

Africa’s climate is one of the least-researched and poorly understood in the world, but looks set to change significantly in the decades ahead.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that temperatures could warm up to 6^oC on the continent this century, and vast areas could experience more intense drought or rainfall than known before.

Governments and the private sector currently plough US$70 billion into infrastructure investments in Africa each year.

There are major questions over whether these investments will be resilient to the climate of the future.

Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) is supporting five major research projects to develop better climate information for Africa and to test how the new information could be used in decision-making.

FCFA is a joint programme of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Natural Environment Research Council.

Dr Tim Wheeler, DFID’s Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, said: “FCFA will not only improve the climate information available to African decision-makers, but it also aims to work with both scientists and stakeholders across the continent to ensure that information is better tailored to users’ needs and to strengthen the skills of users in the interpretation and use of climate information”.

“African societies are already affected by climate change including sustained droughts, deadly floods and rising sea levels, which entrench poverty and undermine economic growth,” said Stefan Raubenheimer, Director of FCFA’s Coordination, Capacity Development and Knowledge Exchange unit. “The Future Climate for Africa programme will provide high quality climate information to help governments and businesses make more climate-resilient investments. The programme will safeguard economic development and contribute to the fight against poverty in the long term.”

For full descriptions of the research awards, visit: www.futureclimateafrica.org

A New World Order for Climate Change

2015 has been a year of cascading transitions. Whilst these transitions can be branded as the  end of the Millennium Goals,  the ushering in of the Sustainable Development Goals or a  successor treaty to Kyoto in Paris this December, the reality is that we are making space for yet another  new world order.

It is a new order that signals that it is no longer right nor ethical for one sixth of humanity to go to bed hungry every night; whilst the rest of us celebrate our increasingly huge appetite for consumable goods. 

It is a new order that suggests that one of our most sacred capitals; our natural capital cannot be subjected to further reckless exploitation without a renewal process. It is, indeed, a new dawn to mark the importance of a people inclusive development and to send clear messages to ourselves and others that we cannot continue to countenance bankruptcy with our earth’s systems by drawing on ecological goods and services that our children will most probably not enjoy if we continue to over-use our scarce natural resources.

We as actors, must ask ourselves this question:  are we doing enough to stop the current haemorraging of the earth’s natural resources?

This is also an important year to celebrate continental initiatives such as ClimDev Africa and to interrogate whether we have carried forward the bold ambition that gave our principals the license to dream of a better future and to envisage a strategy that will set the stage for Africa’s response to climate change impacts.

Are we able to replenish, regenerate our soils to ensure that those most dependent on our natural capital do not find themselves held up in a cul de sac that bears no signposts?

This meeting is about our collective security for today and tomorrow. The ClimDev-Africa programme is essentially about expanding our choices, delivering on the basis of our knowledge new and old; enabling people to choose new vantage points; providing the best science and walking through the lens of strong observations systems and networks to improve agricultural productivity, to empower farmers, pastoralists and to give decision makers confidence to plan ahead and make informed and strategic choices.

Indeed, ClimDev remains responsive to the needs of member states. This has triggered our support to African Small Islands Developing States (SIDS). An Operational High Resolution Numerical Weather Prediction and Early Warning Systems is being developed Africa-wide with specific focus on African SIDS.

Likewise, ClimDev-Africa programme developed a methodological framework for preparing Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, and provided technical assistance for the INDC preparations for Cameroon, Liberia, Malawi and Swaziland.

Through the Climate Change and Desertification Unit, technical support and input was provided to the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) in their preparatory meeting for COP 21, further building their confidence to represent African priorities.

Responding to the challenges of finance climate change, the CDSF, Africa’s Green climate Fund, has received a total of 132 proposals, and 82 were deemed bankable.

The urgent agenda now, however, is to figure out how fast can we run to repair and to respond to the critical cascading challenges that we witness ranging from an alarming rate of degradation of our water resources, soils, food systems, land, trees and forests and even the air we breathe and the rainfall and temperatures that we rely on to sustain our people.

Today is about what Africa can do for itself and with others within a new world order where it is able to act as the main purveyor of climate resilient development services. How can Africa process the bounteous natural resources that it has long enjoyed and open a new window for a service industry that will add value to its primary products? How can it change the current cycle of an agricultural system that is struggling to feed its people to a climate smart development that rhymes with tradeable goods and new markets?

Today is also about ideas, strategies, plans and action that will support Africa to sever ties with energy poverty and to deliver on a plan of action that will enable its children to “power” up their future falling back on the continent’s rich energy reserves in geothermal, wind and biomass and translating the anecdotal energy potential into energy action. 

Today is about a confident Africa, an Africa capable of giving new meaning to its growth story; able to use the argument on historical emissions to say to the rest of the world – you no longer have the license to emit on our behalf and we are prepared to invest in smart development by using our current atmospheric space to green our economies and to build climate resilient infrastructure.

Indeed, today is symbolised by a confident youth that is demanding a new and fair  treaty, not merely one that regulates global emissions, but a social contract that will hold current generations responsible, not for what they did, but especially for what they are not doing. The price of inaction is as grave as the recklessness of continuing to pollute the earth as we continue to condemn our women and children to a lifelong exercise of searching for food, fuel and water.

Today we are confident enough to ask for what we want in Paris.  As we sharpen our tools, refine our strategies; set our priorities, and put our best foot forward united in a common goal of inclusive development, we must take to Paris a new resolve of using our numbers, our collective voice, our agency and our strength in demanding a fair, just and binding treaty abetted by a  means of implementation that will align our commitments to our development priorities, including those Intended Nationally Determined Contributions that will support our ambitions towards energy efficiency and agricultural transformation and demand financial commitments.

In Paris, we demand that the sacred principle of “common but differentiated responsibility be given a central place. But, whilst we revive this principle, we must also use it to remind ourselves that the job is not done until we, ourselves, take our rightful place in the effort to curb emissions, irrespective of our levels of culpability. This is about our own future.

Africa in a post Paris conference is about taking deliberate action as champions on green growth and blue economies; showing the world that we can get it right, even as late comers through sound technologies and capacity building that will plug the information and knowledge gap.

It is not in our interest to relegate Article 2 of the Convention on food security and sustainable development to a mere footnote reference. Inadequate mitigation ambition will have untold consequences, especially to Africa’s peoples, increasing global warming and will raise the costs of both adaptation and mitigation due to Africa’s constrained adaptive capacity. Avoiding dangerous atmospheric interference requires a temperature goal that is commensurate with current levels of emissions; but it also means that we have to go beyond business-as-usual emissions.

Africa is keen to be a strong participant and contributor to a successful outcome in Paris. It knows that what get’s done, or not, in Paris, may well seal the fate for millions of vulnerable groups. But, most of all, the message for this conference is about what can we do today to ensure that no one is left behind.

It is in conferences such as this that we give meaning to Article 2, and that we re-create a new dance of diplomacy, global governance, solidarity and a quest for our collective security. Ladies and gentlemen, the climate risks that we face are real, but the opportunities for change and for designing a new climate business model are immense. 

A speech by Dr. Fatima Denton, Special Initiatives Division, UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at the opening of the 5^th Climate Change and Development Conference in Africa (CCDA-V) on the theme: “Africa, Climate Change and Sustainable Development: What Is At Stake At Paris and Beyond?” at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 28-30 October, 2015.

Keep your eyes on climate mitigation ambition – Africa charged

Inadequate climate mitigation ambition will have untold consequences, especially to Africa’s peoples, as the world heads to Paris in December for a climate deal agreement.

According to Dr. Fatima Denton, Special Initiatives Division, UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), increasing global warming will raise the costs of both adaptation and mitigation due to Africa’s constrained adaptive capacity.

“Avoiding dangerous atmospheric interference requires a temperature goal that is commensurate with current levels of emissions; but it also means that we have to go beyond business-as-usual emissions,” she said.

She was speaking on “Africa, Climate Change and Sustainable Development: What Is At Stake At Paris and Beyond?” as theme for the 5^th Climate Change and Development Conference in Africa (CCDA-V), holding in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 28-30 October, 2015.

The objective is to support the African preparatory process towards global negotiations of the 21^st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Convention Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The immediate effects of climate change in Africa are being experienced primarily in terms of human security as a result of threats to food and water supplies.

“Fighting poverty and achieving sustainable development remains our chief thrust and focus,” said Vice President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

He says COP21 presents a unique chance for Africa to assert itself in the global climate governance and influence the outcomes of Paris towards aligning with the continent’s long term sustainable development agenda.

The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC, according to Article 2, is the “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.”

Dr. Denton has therefore emphasized that it will not be in the interest of Africa to relegate Article 2 to the background in the quest for food security and sustainable development.

“We must take to Paris a new resolve of using our numbers, our collective voice, our agency and our strength in demanding a fair, just and binding treaty abetted by a means of implementation that will align our commitments to our development priorities, including those Intended Nationally Determined Contributions that will support our ambitions towards energy efficiency and agricultural transformation and demand financial commitments,” she stated.

A solutions stock taking has been initiated as part of the CCDA-V.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh / in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

COP21 Paris – Africa at the crossroads in safeguarding development progress

Africa is at the crossroads of safeguarding development progress under an expanded Millennium Develop Goals (MDGs) whilst remaining faithful to the global call for action against climate change, says Mithika Mwenda, Secretary-General of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).

According to him, the continent is the battle ground for competing global interest and as climate change acquires political-economic dimensions, African countries are squarely at the crossroads to decide which global grouping to side with.

“The continent is at the crossroad of choosing the fossil fuel-based development pathways or adopting low carbon development trajectory with its consequences of cost,” he said.

He therefore expects Africa to work harder to keep prospective speculators who would wish to take advantage of vulnerable African countries to serve their interest at the climate change talks in Paris in December 2015.

Mithika was addressing a Pre-CCDA workshop which is looking at what is a stake for Africa in Paris in “shaping an ambitious, sustainable, equitable and legally binding climate agreement”.

The Fifth Climate Change and Development Conference for Africa (CCDA-V) is holding Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe from October 28–30 on the theme: "Africa, climate change and sustainable development: what is at stake at Paris and beyond?"

Ahead of the event, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and PACJA are holding the workshop with the aim to contribute to Africa’s preparedness for COP21 and beyond.

Participants include African negotiators and other stakeholders within the continent, in particular civil society, legislators, private sector, and implementing agencies to strengthen capacity on key issues pertaining to the 2015 Climate Agreement.

“We need to think globally but act locally” when it comes to the issue of climate change, stated Yamide Dagnet of the WRI, a Think Tank.

The Pre-CCDA is assessing the options on the table on ambition cycles, adaptation, land use and forest, support, and by exploring capacity building needs related to implementation and the legal implications.

Zhakata Washington with the Zimbabwean Delegation to the UNFCCC has acknowledged African civil society speaks louder and more effective than governments in persisting to seek solutions.

To ensure implementation of decisions taken, he has tasked CSOs “to continue giving us [governments] the pressure”.

The Pan African Parliamentarian Network on Climate Change (PAPNCC) says it would be keeping an eye on the African Group of Negotiators, government representatives and other stakeholders to ensure the African position is upheld in the interest of people on the continent.

“We stand for one Africa, one voice and one position; it’s the only key of success and I believe very strongly that when we stand on this we’ll succeed in Paris,” said Cameroonian parliamentarian and Executive Secretary of PAPNCC, Awudu Cyprian Mbaya.

Africa contributes least to climate change but the people on the continent are most vulnerable to the impacts of the changing climate.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh, in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Draft Climate Change Agreement forwarded to Paris

The draft text of the new, universal climate change agreement and its accompanying decisions will be dispatched to Paris, where a final agreement will be reached in December 2015.

This follows five days of dedicated work in Bonn, Germany.

The draft text of the agreement enjoys full ownership by the governments of the world and represents a balanced text that will constitute the starting point for the final round of negotiations.

Negotiations will resume in Paris when governments meet at the Paris Climate Change Summit from 30 November to 11 December 2015.

UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres said that the draft text includes additional options that reflect the concerns of all countries.

“We now have a Party-owned text that is balanced and complete. The challenge for governments is to bring it down to a much more concise and coherent form for adoption in Paris,” she said.

French Climate Change Ambassador Laurence Tubiana said: “We have a manageable text for further work in Paris. While much work remains, the text is a good basis for negotiations and negotiations need to start from the first day of the conference.”

Both Ms. Figueres and Ms. Tubiana agreed that the political process between now and the beginning of the Paris Summit will be central to the success of the meeting.

A Pre-COP Ministerial meeting will take place in the French capital in early November to further address the high-level political issues relating to the draft agreement.

The G20 Heads of State will meet in Turkey in mid-November, followed by the Heads of State meeting of the Commonwealth in Malta just before the Paris Summit opens.

The Fifth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-V) is also being convened by the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe on the theme: “Africa, climate change and sustainable development: what is at stake at Paris and beyond?” 

Surviving climate change through media mediation

In Ghana today, the rains are coming at unexpected periods, the sun hits hard than it should not have; the least of rains cause flooding and livelihoods are impacted in diverse ways.

This situation cannot be different from other parts of the world.

People are experiencing changing climatic times for real and indeed everybody seems to be talking about the severity of the change in weather patterns.

Yet the climate change agenda is not a top priority in the media – reports are often limited to government policy papers and other scientific stuff.

Kofi Adu Domfeh looks at how the media can play a central role in the global drive to mitigate climate change as well as support adaptation mechanisms.

Listen to audio report…

https://soundcloud.com/kofi-adu-domfeh-1/surviving-climate-change-through-media-mediation

Mainstreaming Climate Change in Ghana’s politics

Climate justice activists going to Paris in December will be seeking political commitments from polluter nations to cut carbon emissions whilst funding adaptation programmes for the climate vulnerable.

The African Group of Negotiators (AGN), for instance, will be clamouring for the aspiration of vulnerable people on the continent to be upheld in the agreement.

Local farmers and communities would be the ultimate beneficiaries if a favorable deal is reached at the 21^st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

However, the benefits would only trickle down when implementation of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) has strong political backing at the country level.

An INDC is both a government's political and technical proposed 'contribution' to the United Nations as to what it will do about climate change.

Ghana, upon submitting its INDC, joined the global efforts to put in fair and balanced future climate regime, which is expected to be agreed upon at the UN Climate Talks in Paris.

Ghana’s INDC will serve as the national blueprint on its enhanced climate action plan for 2020-2030.

The INDC is anchored on the Ghana Shared Growth Development Agenda II, National Climate Change Policy and the Low Carbon Development Strategy, as well as the anticipated 40-year long-term development plan.

Effective implementation of actions outlined in the INDC will largely depend on strong political will and commitment of the political party in power to deliver on the ‘contributions’.

In November 2016, Ghana will go into Presidential and Parliamentary polls.

There are already call for the mainstreaming of the country’s INDC in the manifestoes of political parties going into the General Elections.

“We are not interested in promises but we want promises that are doable. If we have these firmly in their manifestoes, then the political parties have it as an obligation to implement these things,” said Sam Kobina Afena, a rural youth development practitioner at a national forum on Ghana’s INDC.

According to him, “the politician must be seen to be championing the cause of the people; we have to demand from them because they are coming to us for votes; so we should name our terms and that is our developmental needs”.

Climate change is indeed a development issue – it can deny people and communities their ability to overcome poverty.

“Climate is a very critical issue; infact this year, we are only praying for a miracle to happen otherwise next year will be very critical for food production because the rains came very late,” observed Sam.

Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been holding awareness creation meetings with various stakeholders on the INDCs.

The objective is to solicit comments and recommendations for post-2015 review of the INDC and readiness activities as well as discuss implementations strategies.

Dr. Emmanuel Tachie Obeng at the EPA’s Climate Unit says there plans to engage the political parties to commit to the INDC.

“We have series of awareness creation for the politicians so that the INDC is going to inform their manifestoes,” he said.

There are expectations that progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should encourage parties at the COP21 to come up with a strong, fair and equitable climate agreement.

Strong engagements will also ensure that parties at the national level are delivering on the climate needs of local people.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

Asantehene to address Chatham House on threats to global peace and security

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, will address a high-level audience at Chatham House in the United Kingdom on the escalating threats to global peace and security on October 30, 2015.

For over 80 years, the Chatham House has provided a unique platform for statesmen and great thinkers across the world to articulate ideas that contribute to peace and the building of a better world.

Among the icons of history who have been heard from Chatham House are Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and the recent Muamar opposition leader, Ansa Suu Kyi.

“The engagement with Otumfuo signifies the recognition of the role he can play as a global peace maker in a troubled world,” said the statement from the Manhyia Palace, signed by Chief of Staff, Kofi Badu.

As guest of the Cambridge University and the Royal Institute of International Relations, the King will also undertake a number of functions in the UK.

The Asantehene will be the Guest of Honour at this year’s Cambridge-Africa Day, which is celebrated at Cambridge University on October 23, 2015.

“At the invitation of Lord Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and now Master of Magdalene, Otumfuo will deliver the keynote address at a function to mark the re-launch of an endowment for a full time Nelson Mandela Professor of African Archaeology at the University on October 24,” said the statement.

Ghana’s first Islamic Investment Fund launched in Kumasi

An Islamic Investment Fund has been launched in Kumasi with the objective of reviving economic activities within Muslim communities.

The Shari’a complaint financial system is to mobilize funds from the Muslim Ummah for development, whilst creating jobs for the teeming youth in need of jobs.

The Fund is initiated by the Ahlussunna WalJama’a Ashanti Regional Imam (ASWAJ) to offer “ethical investment” tools to investors seeking to invest in profitable “halal” business ventures which have minimal risk but good potential for growth.

“Usually our interest according to Islam is ‘halal’, our economy based on helping the poor not to take the little from the poor; we always want to help the poor,” noted Sheikh Dr. Ismail Saeed, ASWAJ Imam. “So here we are using it as a starter to pull all our resources together, and when they start getting something, then in future when it becomes a bank it will be an encouragement for them [to invest]”.

A Gh100,000 is to be raised in the initial public offering of 200 shares at a share value of Gh500 per share.

The Fund seeks a combination of capital appreciation and current income for shareholders.

The investment plan is established along three minimum risk areas: short term businesses – Cattle Rearing, Washing Bay and Cash-Crop Farming; medium term – Transportation and Commodity Trading; and long term – Real Estate Development, Islamic Microfinance, Project financing and Venture capital.

A 25-member Business Implementation Committee, Chaired by a banker, Issah Mallam Ahmed, was inaugurated at the IPO launch at Sawaba, a predominantly Muslim community in Kumasi.

Municipal Chief Executive for Asokore Mampong, Alhaji Nurudeen Hamidan, is among the first to invest in the Fund.

He is confident Ghana will soon have a number of Islamic Banks spread across the country because of the high profitability based on the “interest and cost sharing principle”.

“In Islamic Banking, the 100% profit is shared accordingly, as against the traditional banks that we have here where a percentage is given to you as profit or dividend on your investment and the bulk of the money is kept by the bank for their operations,” he observed.

Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Osman Bawa Hafiz Olando, is confident the Fund will empower Muslims and reduce crime rates in Muslim communities across the country.

“It is our responsibility as individuals, organizations, churches and mosques, associations to come up with those jobs for our children and grandchildren to have something to do so that they can uplift their lives and localities for a better Ghana,” he said.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh 

Chiefs in Kumasi asked to engage professionals in land management

Good Governance Africa (GGA), an independent research and advocacy organization, has been engaging chiefs and other interest groups in land administration on security of property rights in Ghana.

Private enterprises in the country often need collateral to access finance to promote their operations and these businesses should be able to use their lands as collateral. But there are challenges with rights of property owners in the country.

According to GGA-West Africa, security of property rights, protected by the rule of law, provides the foundation for both economic freedom and the efficient operations of markets.

The organization has observed that “most individuals and corporations have fallen victims to the weak laws and institutions which are mandated to protect them and their properties”.

GGA-West Africa Centre organized a workshop to openly discuss the rights of a land owner, vis-à-vis the responsibilities of the custodians for the various stakeholders on the theme: ‘The rights of a property owner, challenges of owning a piece of land in Kumasi.’

Chief Executive Officer of GGA-West Africa, Tina Asante-Apeatu, has expressed satisfaction in outcomes of the Kumasi meeting.

“There is the perception that from tradition the chiefs know nitty-gritty of acquiring land, registration and all those things involved; but from the programme, we’ve realized that some of the complains the citizens have, the chiefs themselves don’t know. They so some of the things they do out of pure ignorance of the law,” she observed.

This workshop sought to outline the various laws that govern land administration; identify the challenges in enforcing the laws governing land administration; sensitize land owners and make recommendations to the mandated land administration institutions.

Land Economist with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Prof. Seth Opuni Asiama says Ghana can learn from other countries.

He cited Rwanda as an African country that have succeeded in registering every piece of land “so even if it’s a customary landholding, they’ve registered it” which gives the owner the confidence to deal in his lands.

In Ghana, however, a land owner seeking at give out a property on mortgage would need the consent of the chief, as custodian of the land, who in the process may demand money.

Prof. Asiama says traditional authorities would need to engage professional in the prudent management of lands.

“We should be more proactive in ensuring that we improve the security of title for our people because a lot of the problem we’re seeing in Kumasi today is because there are no professionals involved, who will be able to advise them on what to do with their lands,” he stated. “There is no reason why in this day and age there should be multiple sale of land simply because the chief does not have records; no it shouldn’t happen”.

GGA-West Africa hopes to develop policy briefs from the recommendations in the series of workshops to effect the necessary changes in land administration.