Waiting to be crunched?

In various economic commentaries on the Ghanaian economy that I've read, the effects of the credit crunch is discussed in the future tense, as something yet to manifest. But there are signs all around us that we are in the midst of a crisis.

1. About 5 of our 'big' banks, including the biggest mortgage lender, have frozen lending for lack of liquidity, and those are just the ones I know about. Loan applicants are told various stories but the cash is simply not there. A few more are lending very selectively.
2. Gold exploration activity is down about 70%. My former employer has only about 3 out of 9 drill rigs working and their main competitors have 100% idle capacity. One of the mines could not raise new funding and has been foreclosed by it's main creditor, a South African bank. There will be no mining and export of gold from that mine for, at least, the first half of this year.
3. Remittances are estimated to be down by about 28% so far.
4. The UT Financial Services (late '08) IPO set a record as the first to attract zilch foreign participation. Ecobank raised $500m in rights and IPO when it sought $2.5bn. Except for a block trade in CAL shares last Friday, there's been almost 2 weeks of no trade (hence no price movement) on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
   

Perhaps the commentators recognise that it will take a while for us to feel the full (potential) effect. The budget process this year has not been as inclusive as recent years but it's not too late. Industry and society should bend the ears of our MPs with suggestions that will enrich the debate of the budget in parliament. Our economy was in dire need of stimulation even before the credit crunch!

Avoiding defeat

It's just as well the Black Stars are not playing their WC qualifiers at the moment. Not that they've done well in their friendlies so far. All my favourites seem to be doing badly this year.

Jelena Jankovic got bounced from the Aus Open, Federer was reduced to tears, Kotoko seem to have lost their way. As for Arsenal, I don't know what to say anymore. I fear we are suffering diminishing returns with Wenger. Many things seem lost on him at the moment so he may not have noticed the irony last Sunday; he recommended Palacios to Wigan who bought him for 1m, sold him to Spurs for 14m 12 months later, and there he was in all his pomp bossing the game against us!

Even in our local league, Berekum Arsenal is one place below Bechem Chelsea albeit both in mid-table as expected. Haba!!!