General

International trade chiefly involves the activities related to the worldwide exchange of goods and services to satisfy consumer needs. The said activities include acquiring, managing, and developing financial, physical, and human resources.  International Retail has a broader scope. The Wiley Online Library breaks down International Retail as the following:  “International retail is the operation of retail outlets in more than one country. The internationalization of retailing activity has two dimensions: the firm (direct internationalization) and the market (indirect internationalization).  The internationalization of retailing formats and operational systems is not dependent on international retail firms. Indirect internationalization occurs when domestic retailers adopt international practices.  When firms engage in direct internationalization it is a market-serving activity; it is not a resource-seeking activity. International retailer activity is hosted by most global markets. Entry methods most commonly used are acquisition, organic growth, joint venture, and franchising. Since the 1980s, international retail activity has been characterized by the international expansion of firms that have retailing as their primary function. Earlier forms of international retail activity were often associated with other organizational characteristics where retailing was not the primary activity in the domestic market.” The advantages of international trade and retail The advantages of international logistics and retail depend first and foremost on Global Supply Chains. Global Supply Chains are a worldwide network of suppliers, manufacturers or service providers that are readily available and easily able to source goods and provide services.  A critical section of this entire operation is the business of moving these goods and services from one country to the other.  Another advantage of global logistics is the edge in competitive pricing. Firms can turn around and offer their partners, collaborators and purchasers competitive pricing incentives, even going so far as to do away with the delivery cost entirely.  Typically, those who trade in the most considerable quantities of goods and services can source at the lowest prices, inevitably dominating the market, all other things being equal. It’s an advantage to trade worldwide when competitors have difficulties keeping up due to their inability to offer some of the incentives that more prominent and dominant companies do.  An additional advantage of international logistics and retail is the broader range and grade of products a company can immediately procure at a moment’s notice. This possibly holds for sourcing products and services for and in domestic and international markets.  International logistics and retail can also capture niche markets that predominantly require rare or difficult-to-source products and services. An example of this would have the ability to provide consumers in the United States, for instance, with exotic African handmade items from a select few towns (in Africa) or ensure the timely production and procurement of something such as a special kind of organic cotton or even organic spices from South East Asia.  Lastly, companies with access to international logistics and retail can obtain larger orders, and again, for cheaper than usual due to the company’s reach. Some disadvantages of international trade and retail So, what are some of the drawbacks? We know that when done efficiently and adequately, global supply chains can lower your production cost, affording you a real competitive advantage.  Engaging in this business of global supply chains can be very tasking on your time, money, and other recourses, including your customers, partners, and end consumers.  Another significant thing to consider is the intricate and vast amount of cross-border and cross-industry communication that smoothly makes only one purchase order, ensuring that all parties are pleased.  A breakdown in communication across teams can cost the entire order to go amuck. Having exceedingly strong and adept partners in the international freight and courier departments is critical, but these relationships do not always run smoothly. In addition to the many disadvantages associated with international logistics and retail, the adverse effects of global occurrences can also significantly impact a company’s ability to fulfil its orders, mandates or responsibilities to partners and consumers. COVID-19 has indeed given the world an unforgettable lesson on the effects of global chaos very quickly spiralling beyond our control and greatly influencing the efficacy and even possibility of moving large consignments of commodities around.  The entire cost structure of commodities may change over a few weeks, direly impacting pre-set arrangements and contracts due to strict procurement, packaging, storage and distribution rules from bodies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO).  Also, the core of the business is international and involves several countries at the same time (usually). Newly and abruptly imposed rules and regulations of different governments can certainly also affect (negatively) the way one conducts business. These new rules generally affect the timelines for production, procurement, storage and deliveries, as well as the prices at which they can now be produced, manufactured, and delivered. Another kind of global occurrence is the gruesome business of war. Recently, we have seen the negative ways in which Russian Ukrainian war has affected global food, petrol, and gas prices. In a World Economic Forum Article, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) had the following to say on the effect on global food prices the war in Ukraine is having:  “You know, just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. I mean, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, a food and fuel price spike taking place. We were already hit. And I’m sure UNICEF and UNHCR the same thing.  We were already hit right before Ukraine crisis with a $42 million increase in operational costs. We were already billions of dollars short for Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Ethiopia, the Sahel, let me just go around the world. And then when you think it can’t get worse, here comes Ukraine. And the difficulty here is Ukraine grows enough food to feed 400 million people on planet Earth. So when the farmers on the battlefields aren’t planting or aren’t harvesting, what impact do you think that’s going to have?  Fifty per cent of our grain, for example, wheat, comes from Ukraine. And then when you put it in the global context of Russia and Ukraine

In this great big world of digitisation seemingly on steroids, and innovations springing up faster than mushrooms overnight after a good soft rain, it is more than easy to be considered out of fashion and outside of the spectrum of useful and technological applications.  Yet somehow, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data remains indispensable as it continues to be utilised alongside recent technology. With a name a tad bit too complex to commit to memory, they have come to be known under the more widespread regionally popular term, USSD!  In Africa, the technology retains a substantial amount of popularity and a high degree of utility within the continent. Across the pond, USSD, more widely referred to as short codes, is much less popular.  The world and the world of technology are constantly on a path of making everything digital; of course, all for improved efficiency and ultimately the betterment of the human race. But sometimes, just sometimes, going back to the things of old may be moving forward into something new. Especially when our part of the world is not moving at the same pace. Every time you use the keypad of your cell phone and you input a command that begins with a star (*), usually followed by a series of digits, e.g. 920, and then concluded with an octothorpe, or the hash, or pound (#), you have just performed a USSD interaction! Collectively, it should all look something like this: *920#.USSD has very fundamental applications that include functions such as ascertaining the balance or remainder of the minutes on your GSM cell phone. Cellfind, as a proper authority on this subject, defines some of those (basic) functionalities in the following way:  “…This text-driven technology allows users to interact directly from their cell phones by making a selection from a menu. Unlike SMS, USSD operates in real-time. This means it allows for two-way communication of information for as long as the communication line stays open. This makes queries and answers virtually instantaneous…USSD most commonly involves a query generated by a cell phone user (such as a balance enquiry). Once this request is sent, the USSD gateway forwards it to your USSD application. The application then responds to the request, and the process is repeated in reverse: the response goes back to the USSD gateway, which displays the content of that response on your phone screen. Responses are usually sent in an easily displayed format, containing a maximum of 182 alphanumeric characters. Messages sent over USSD are not defined by any universal standardisation, so each operator is free to use a format most suited to its customers.” (van Straten, 2018).  The examples above are presented in the somewhat raw form of the things that USSD can do and has achieved – we can bravely say it gained a good amount of popularity for its functionality and usability. An estimated 94 per cent of financial transactions are performed using USSD.  To that end, a truly worthy mention would be concerning the rocket-fact escalation and expansion of financial transactions in Ghana via USSD technology. The technology allowed for the roping in or otherwise, the financial inclusion of approximately 7.3 million out of some 30 million (as of 2018) Ghanaians who are unbanked and predominantly residing in rural or low-income communities.  CIPESA further illustrates this case of reaching the unbanked through the use of this technology in the following summary:  “Ghana is among the countries leading the drive to expand financial inclusion by leveraging digital solutions. Mobile penetration is 67% and internet access via mobile is 45%. The Bank of Ghana estimates that approximately 7.3 million of Ghana’s adult population is unbanked. As of 2018, there were 32 million registered mobile money accounts across the country’s three leading mobile money operators. These mobile money accounts are generally used for person-to-person and person-to-business transactions. Account holders can access savings, credit, investment products as well as make payments for goods and services via mobile phone” (Financial Inclusion in Africa in an Era of Internet Shutdowns, 2019).  On the topic of transactions, or more specifically, financial and digital transactions, the use of Blockchain technology has been on the rise in recent years. You might imagine or surmise that this spurge of innovation nearly immediately means that technologies of old such as USSD technology would be rendered redundant and quite curtly, dead! The plague of COVID-19 and the immediate need to send money to severely marginalised communities of a low-income nature (such as migrant settings, refugee camps, and other places of asylum) also arose. All at once, it became apparent that two persistent issues might stay and thwart that effort. Issue number one, low-income and impoverished communities hardly have access to the kinds of devices, internet, and electricity to reasonably access, learn, and practically use fancy technology payment systems.  Issue number two, the bulk of the people (consisting of people living below minimum wage, refugees, migrants, and other Persons of Concern) did not even have bank accounts to begin with, which means that even on the off chance that money was sent to them via the application of modern technology, how would they use it? How would they make it real by cashing it out?  The answer: they would not be able to. It would remain numbers on a screen or in an account, essentially as useless to them as a car battery with no car – innovative but sorely ill-timed! It appeared as though the one way to get the much-needed cash during the height of COVID-19, was to do it through mobile money. Mobile Money, also known as MoMo, has an exceedingly high user base in Ghana (approximately 40.9 million registered users).  According to The Conversation, mobile money in Ghana as achieve the following:  “A study by the World Bank indicates that mobile money services have a positive impact on poverty reduction. Poverty is not just about lack of money, but also about lack of access to formal financial systems. Mobile money services can enhance financial inclusion by providing access to savings, credit and insurance services.  In Ghana, mobile money services

Countries may ban the exportation of certain commodities from time to time. It is not an altogether uncommon thing to do, and it may occur for several different reasons.  The length of time a commodity may remain banned is entirely relative to the reason or reasons it was banned for, or to the special conditions that may have provoked causing it to be banned in the first place.  What precisely does it mean to ban the exportation of a commodity, why may it happen, how may it be done, should it even happen and what steps can producers and governments take to mitigate its possibly negative socio-economic repercussions?  Reading onwards, you will discover what arguments exist for and against this practice and what that may mean for you (whether or not you are directly involved). Where national or domestic commodities are concerned, we are mostly all of us involved or affected in one way or the other.  Why do we ban food exports (or imports) Banning the exportation of certain foods or agricultural commodities may happen for a myriad of reasons. The practice dates back thousands of years even, as we may observe in the famous Bible story in which Joseph, Prime Minister of Egypt, levied restrictions on grains for the purposes of saving the nation of Egypt from the oncoming famine that was to plague the then-modern world.  We often share several similarities when this practice extends to us even in these current times. You have heard that Ghana recently placed a ban on the exportation of grains. These grains included the staples such as soybeans, maize, rice, and others.  This is understandable, as the ban has been in place since September 2021 in order to help fortify Ghana’s domestic production of poultry and livestock. This new extension (of the ban) is now a consequence of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine are the largest exporters of wheat (and also heavily export other grains). The following are some facts about Russia and Ukraine’s contributions to the global grain market (according to this Forbes article):  “Grain exports from Ukraine are down 64% so far in May compared to the same timeframe last year, the country‘s agriculture ministry said Thursday according to Interfax Ukraine. Known as one of the world‘s breadbaskets for its agricultural production, Ukraine accounted for 10% of global wheat exports in 2021, according to the United Nations, while Russia produced about 17% of all wheat globally.” (Saul, 2022) With grain exports down 64% (from Ukraine), we can see how much of a global strain this would cause on the market. With no proper way of determining just how much longer the unrest may carry on, the ban is unfortunate but arguably necessary. Further, Russia not only exports a lot of wheat but is also the world’s largest exporter, as this synopsis from an Aljazeera news article states: “Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, accounting for more than 18 percent of international exports. In 2019, Russia and Ukraine together exported more than a quarter (25.4 percent) of the world’s wheat, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).” (Duggal & Haddad, 2022) So on one hand, we understand that food export (and import) bans are imposed for the purposes of food security and safeguarding livelihoods. There are, however, arguments from some very prominent authorities and bodies that argue strongly against this, citing also that banning the export or import of these grain commodities is ridding the world of at least 10% of its calories, and thereby increasing the risks of food insecurity.  An article on the matter published by The Economist cites the bans and actions against food imports that were taken by at least 20 countries including India and Malaysia, and how this action may be hurting the world instead of healing it:  “On May 23rd Malaysia banned the export of poultry. Earlier this month, India banned wheat exports. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a think-tank, at least 20 countries have imposed some sort of limit on exports since the war began. Taken together the restricted exports account for 10% of calories on the global market. The United Nations has urged countries to reconsider. Keeping calories flowing across borders, it argues, is the best way to ensure global food security and less-volatile prices.“ (The Economist, 2022) Both the arguments for and against are worth looking into, as they undoubtedly both have sound grounds backing them.  What goes into setting the right domestic market prices So what exactly goes into determining food prices? Who decides how they are set? What are the rules of engagement? What is the modus operandi? Domestic food prices (in Ghana) are mostly set based on the demand for that particular food commodity within the domestic market. Food prices are also often inflated and influenced by seasonal farming, and the lack of adequate food preservation and processing facilities. According to Forbes, the following reasons may also influence the price of food within domestic markets:  “Prices are set by either retail category managers or pricing analysts according to their category role (competitive, destination, innovation, etc.), market intel, demand elasticity and the corresponding gross margins and sales targets. Any given retailer will have dozens of product categories based on particular purchase occasions, such as milk, yoghurt, snack bars, citrus, berries, etc. These staff who negotiate prices with suppliers are accountable to financial targets set by executives. Pricing strategy is a major tool these workers use to achieve or exceed these expectations, lest they lose their jobs.” (Schweizer, 2022) We understand the domestic market sets the domestic prices, but the average Ghanaian is forced to bend over backwards to be able to afford basic common foods. Hausa Koko is now selling for 1.50 Cedis a bag in some neighbourhoods. It appears the government needs to intervene and provide some form of economic agricultural commodity respite for citizens before things truly go out of hand. Inflation is on the rise and is on its highest in the past 18 years. Bloomberg reported the following:  “Ghana’s inflation