2019 in Review: Mouthwatering deals that caused business stirs in 2019

The year 2019 has come with its own ups and downs especially owing to the financial slope the country has experienced over the past few months.

Nonetheless, economic prosperity has been the main agenda and it is aimed at lessening the burdens on Ghanaians in the phase of financial hardships.

To this effect, the Akufo-Addo-government has reiterated its promise to take the country through a path of monetary successes by unearthing some enticing business deals which will in one way or the other save the country from wallowing in poverty.

On the other hand, there has been some substantial investment opportunities across key sectors to put Ghana on the global front economically.

GhanaWeb takes a review of some of the substantial investments across these sectors;

The Banking Sector

Recently, President Akufo-Addo granted an executive approval for the expenditure of GHS15.6 billion to save the funds of depositors who had their monies locked up in the collapsed of some financial institutions two years ago.

In a press release signed by Presidency, it pointed out that the money released is expected to improve the liquidity of the financial sector. Earlier, the banking sector reforms carried out by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), spearheaded by the Bank of Ghana cleaned up affected a total of 420 institutions.

Though some banks, including, Construction Bank, Beige Bank, Royal Bank, uniBank and Sovereign Bank had their license revoked, some were fortunate to be merged to operate as the Consolidated Bank with Government of Ghana having 100% shares in it.

Oil and Gas Sector

One of the latest prospects in the oil and gas sector is the newfound Springfield Exploration and Production Limited.

The Exploration and Production company is the first indigenous oil and gas firm to make a historic deep-water discovery offshore in the country, as well as discovering commercially viable quantities of gas.



Springfield's Stena Forth

“We are the first African company to drill in deep water and to find oil,” Kevin Okyere, Chief Executive Officer of Springfield earlier emphasised.

He continued that Springfield Group expects to boost the country’s production by an additional 250,000 barrels a day by 2020. When fully operational, it will make Ghana the fourth-largest producer of oil in sub-Saharan Africa.

Since the discovery of the Jubilee oilfield by Kosmos Energy in 2007, Ghana has managed to bring three offshore projects on stream, resolve its maritime border dispute with Cote d’Ivoire and position itself as a key hydrocarbons province in the Gulf of Guinea.

Oil is now being produced from Kosmos Energy’s Jubilee field, Tullow Oil’s Twenneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme fields and ENI’s Offshore Cape Three Points Integrated oil and gas development project.

Production is expected to reach 250,000 bopd next year, and most optimistic expectations put output at half a million barrels a day by 2025. Tema Oil Refinery however, seals the deal to process 11 million barrels of crude.

The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) on December 3, 2019 signed an agreement with Woodfield Energy Resources to process a total of 11 million barrels of crude.

According to the Managing Director of the Refinery, Isaac Osei, the partnership will lead to the continuous processing of crude oil in the near future.



Mr Osei explained that under the tolling model which the Refinery was currently operating, his outfit processed crude oil for or on behalf of third parties at a fee adding that this arrangement placed minimum or no risk at all on the refinery as the processor since the crude oil would be purchased, transported and marketed by the third party.

He added that TOR was also negotiating to sign similar tolling agreements with other international traders like Gemcorp, BP, and other traders stating that the developments were as a result of guarantees on plant efficiency and effectiveness.

“After a careful diagnosis of TOR’s challenges, the Board and Management met with the workers and charged them to work in an efficient manner in order to restore the company to its glory days and I’m happy to announce that with this new operating philosophy at TOR, our trading partners have realized that TOR is technically viable and could indeed give them value for money with the right structures in place," Mr. Osei indicated.

Bauxite discovery at Atewa forest

Next is the Atewa Forest reserve which has mainly been stirred by a lot of controversies with some section of the public decrying a depletion of the natural resource.

The world-renowned forest reserve, Atewa, hosting three major rivers - Densu, Birim and Ayensu which serves over 5 million people in the community also house an estimated 165 million tons of bauxite, a sedimentary rock used to create aluminum products such as aircraft parts, kitchen utensils and beer cans.



In this particular case, Ghana signed a memorandum with China as part of its US$2 billion Sinohydro deal with Ghana government paying back with proceeds made from the sale of refined bauxite.

Though it seems the forest is under a threat because Bauxite, typically found in the topsoil is extracted through strip mining, which requires removing layers of soil and rock to access the minerals below.

Environmental campaigners are however calling on the government to rescind its decision to mine in the Atewa forest because, they are of the view that the mining, toppled with the bauxite dust will tend to contaminate the Densu, Birim and Ayensu rivers.

Boeing, Ghana sign MoU for three 787-9 Dreamliner jets

In the Aviation sector, the World’s largest aerospace company, Boeing on November 19, 2019, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Ghana for three 787-9 dreamliner jets to replace the collapsed Ghana Airways and establish a new national carrier.

Signing the deal at Dubai Air Show, Aviation Minister, Joseph Kofi Adda noted that the three national carrier airplanes which would be Accra-based to serve cities across West Africa cost US$877.5 million.



On the part of Boeing, Senior Vice President of Commercial Sales and Marketing, Ihssane Mouni stated that “Africa boasts a growing, young workforce and vast natural resources. We see the demand for air travel continuing to rise across the continent. Boeing is honored to work with Ghana in helping re-launch an airline to serve this vast market”.

“We look forward to working with the government on an integrated solution that includes the 787-9 Dreamliner and aviation services to support the new airline and provide a superior experience for its future passengers.”