News Guide Africa

Tag: Alexander K. Mensah Mould

  • Alex Mould leads transformative agenda at MiDA

    Alexander Mould

     

    Adnan Adams Mohammed

    Alexander Mould has assumed the position of acting Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).

     

    Known for proven track-record of excellence and a citadel of expertise from both the private and public sectors, with over three decades in Finance, Energy and Governance.

     

    The former CEO of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC); where he spearheaded transformative reforms at both organizations, driving operational excellence and growth. At MiDA, he is expected to bring a fresh perspective on aligning the institution’s objectives with the government’s development priorities. However, during his inaugural address to the MiDA team, he emphasized his collaborative leadership style, acknowledging the wealth of experience within the organization.

     

    “I am, first and foremost, a people person,” Mr Mould stated, expressing his readiness to learn from the existing team. “I will be relying heavily on your expertise and institutional knowledge to bring me up to speed so we can collectively deliver the results expected from this important institution.”

     

    At MiDA, a key focus of Mr Mould’s vision involves strengthening the organization’s alignment with government’s initiatives, particularly the proposed 24-hour economy program. He has outlined plans to engage in substantive discussions with government stakeholders to identify opportunities for MiDA to take on a more prominent role in the nation’s development agenda.

     

    He highlighted the immediate priority of meaningful conversations with government officials to explore effectively integrating programmes that will support the 24-hour economy initiative.

     

     

    Mr. Mould pledged to work to synchronize MiDA’s activities with the government’s broader growth agenda, stressing that “MiDA needs to be in perfect sync with the government’s vision.”

     

    Emphasizing the importance of cross-ministerial collaboration, he stated that MiDA would actively work with various ministries to identify and potentially assume management of strategic projects, to, ensure effective project management and implementation, delivering tangible results for Ghana.

     

    Looking toward the future, Mr. Mould articulated an ambitious vision for his tenure at MiDA. He expressed gratitude to President Mahama for the opportunity, entrusting him to transform MiDA into a world-class Project Implementation Organization, to deliver his government’s flagship projects in support of the 24Hr Economy agendum.

     

     

    “The legacy I want to leave,” he shared “is to establish MiDA as the government of Ghana’s go-to project implementation unit.”

     

    The appointment of Alex Mould marks a new chapter for MiDA, with a renewed focus on alignment with national development goals and efficient project implementation. His emphasis on collaborative leadership and strategic alignment with government initiatives suggests a potentially transformative period ahead for the organization, as a key player in achieving the government’s broader growth agenda.

     

     

  • Alex Mould diagnoses the Ghanaian economy and the resultant DDE

    Alex Mould diagnoses the Ghanaian economy and the resultant DDE

    Alex Mould

    Adnan Adams Mohammed

     

    Ghanaians are facing a period of economic harshness never experienced after the periods of the military junta in 1980’s.

     

    While inflation is beating about three decades records to record over 54.1 percent for December 2022 year on year, the Ghana cedi is losing its value by over 50 percent and had been adjudged as the worst performing currency as at November last year and current ranking second worst performing currency according to Bloomberg data.

     

    Also the country defaulted in debt servicing to both domestic and foreign debtors as the country’s accumulated debt surpassed its Gross Domestic Product recording  over 105 percent debt to GDP ratio. All these compounded with already global slowdown in economic growth and business activities and as well as drop in remittance to the sub-Saharan regions.

     

    A finance expert has done a deep postmortem analysis of Ghana’s current economic woes and attributed the ‘big factor’ to reckless borrowing and expenditure.

     

    In a question and answer session with a former executive director with Standard Chartered Bank, Alexander K. Mensah Mould, he outlined the causes and solutions to our current economic challenge leading us into a ‘killer’ debt restructuring arrangements under the Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE).

     

    “The financial crisis was largely a result of structural problems that ignored the loss of tax revenue and the slow down in growth in key sectors in a sustainable way”,  the analyst responded to a question on why the government is aggressively implementing the a debt exchange.

     

    “Government was simply not bringing in enough money to cover its growing expenditure including its debt service. This has been exacerbated by high inflation, high physical deficits, low growth in key sectors ,and problems with the exchange rate.”

     

    In explaining what happened that got us into this mess, Mr Mould alluded that, “Financial indiscipline and taking wrong bets via ill-thought through policies emanating from populist manifesto promises.

     

    “Government also was not constrained in its financial management and violated many covenants it signed up for, namely; Deficit not more than 5% of GDP and Public debt to below 60% of GDP. It also misrepresented its ability to keep the exchange rate under control by supporting the Cedi via sustainable strong exports and a strong trade surplus. As long as borrowing cost remained relatively cheap and the economy was still growing then issues like current account deficit continued to be ignored.

     

    “What government did not do was to stress test the economy to see the vulnerabilities and address them by putting some risk management measures in place to address these vulnerabilities.”