Ghana to catch cold from China's sneeze

A lot analyst seem to believe that Ghana will not feel repercussions of China's Stock Exchange crush. Many seem to believe that Ghana is insulated from such domestic shocks.

However, MD of Stanbic Bank, Alhassan Andani disagrees. He believes financial investments to the country will be affected the global trends in other developed markets like the United States and definitely China.

" We are not immune from these international shocks. Especially in terms of financial investments to Ghana. Financial investors will be weary of investment given the international economic trends. Why will they want to invest in emerging markets like Ghana when more roburst economies like U.S.A and China are suffering".

The MD of Stanbic Bank said Ghana's long-term trade relationships with China has good prospects, but commodity prices in 2016 will take a sharp hit because of the current economic difficulties in China.

" Our long-term trade relationship with China will continue to have great prospects, but the Banking sector will definitely suffer. We have huge revenue movers who will like to pull out their investments because of the trends. It will be based on general panci. But in terms of commodity prices, China may not be in a position to pay premium prices in 2016."

speaking to the press at the launch of the PWC's 2015 Banking Survey, Mr. Andani added that local banks may not be feeling the pinch yet, but the rippling effect will soon hit the industry.

" Ghanaians don't invest in international markets much, so I understand when the banks say in the PWC study that they are not being impacted by the economic difficulties, but world investor confidence will definitely reduce and that will impact all emerging markets like Ghana's."

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, on Monday, reportedly lost N141 billion the equivalent of $700 million following intense pressure of global markets as a result of ripples from the Chinese economic crisis.

Dangote joins a long list of billionaires whose fortunes have tumbled over the past few days.

The president of Dangote group lost $708.6 million (N140 billion) as Chinese stocks sank lower after a rout on August 24 that the official state news agency, Xinhua, dubbed ‘Black Monday.’

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Dangote gained $79.2m (N15.6bn) from Thursday to Friday last week, only to lose the same amount about nine times over.

The 58-year-old was just one of 197 billionaires who lost billions of dollars in 24 hours, with only three of the world’s top 200 billionaires making gain on ‘Black Monday.’

Wang Jianlin, Asia’s richest man, and Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, lost $3.6 billion and $3.2 billion respectively as the worst-hit billionaires on Monday.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, lost $1.7 billion, placing him behind Warren Buffet, world number three billion, who lost $2 billion.

The only three gainers were Alwaleed al-Saud, a Saudi business magnate; Tadashi Yanai, founder of Japanese Fast Retailing; and Petr Kellner, a Czech businessman. They gained $169 million, $105.5 million and and 87.3 million respectively.