Gold : company hits1.5m ounce mark
Cocoa sector development strategy launched
Gas pipeline project to generate 1.8 billion dollars investment
Inconsistencies affecting project financing in Africa
US$10m loan to refurbish water supply systems in K’dua
Gold : company hits1.5m ounce mark
Obuasi (Ashanti), 28th April ‘99 –
The Ashanti Goldfields Company, (AGC) which is currently operating six mines in Africa achieved a record gold production of 1,547,610 ounces last year.
In addition, the company operated at a cash cost of US$218 per ounce as against US$234 per ounce in the previous year.
This was announced by Mr Kwame Peprah, Minister of Finance,and chairman of the board of directors of the company at the 26th annual general meeting of shareholders at Obuasi on Tuesday.
Mr Peprah said the company commenced a major expansion programme of the Siguiri mine in the Republic of Guinea last year "and that made significant contributions to our total gold production".
"When Siguiri II mine is commissioned by the end of this year, production capacity will be increased from some 160,000 ounces to nearly 250,000 ounces per annum, he added.
Mr Peprah said apart from the Ayanfuri mine, all other AGC mines exceeded their production targets.
The company's acquisition of Samax Gold last year provided the basis for an enlarged Geita mine in Northern Tanzania which is expected to yield 400,000 ounces of gold per year.
The Board chairman announced that the company maintained its gold reserves at 23 million ounces but resources over the period increased the reserves by five per cent to 37 million ounces.
He said AGC continues to invest in the Obuasi mine so that it could maintain its flagship status "but at lower cash operating costs".
Mr Peprah said the company spent nearly 30 million dollars to further its exploration efforts on the mine sites, and elsewhere in Africa, to ensure the company's positive growth into the next millennium.
On safety, the Minister said the company marked new international milestones, as Freda-Rebecca mine in Zimbabwe and Bibiani mine in Ghana became recipients of the South Africa-based national occupational safety association's three Star Rating awards.
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Cocoa sector development strategy launched
Accra (Greater Accra), 28th April ‘99 --
The Minister of Finance, Mr Kwame Peprah has reiterated government's determination to sustain major reforms and restructuring in the cocoa sector that would make it more attractive and align it with the Vision 2020 development programme.
Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, Mr Peprah said the reforms, which were launched in 1983, have yielded positive changes in the industry.
These include the payment of remunerative producer prices, a reduction in the level of cocoa tax, streamlining the activities of the Cocobod and the introduction of competition in the internal marketing of cocoa.
He said government is committed to the recommendations put forward by experts and stakeholders to address pertinent issues in the sector and bring it in line with the overall agricultural development.
In line with the strategy recommended during the consultations, government has set dates and modalities for the payment of 60 per cent or more free-on-board prices to farmers, beginning with the mid crop of 1999.
The strategy also provides for Licensed Buying Companies, including the Produce Buying Company, to be allowed to export up to 30 per cent of their domestic purchases beginning in the crop year 2000/01.
He said a steering Committee made up of major stakeholders in the sector, will be set up to see to the implementation of the Strategy.
It will be recalled that as part of the reforms, the Ministry of Finance in September last year, set up a task force made up of experts in various fields to review the cocoa sector and advise government on strategies to prepare the sector for the next millennium.
Mr Peprah said the strategy was based on the report of the task force after it had been comprehensively discussed by the key players at two workshops held last November and January this year.
The Minister said a summary of the strategy document will be made available on the internet this week while the whole document will be available later at the Ministry of Finance.
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Gas pipeline project to generate 1.8 billion dollars investment
Accra (Greater Accra), 28th April ‘99 - The proposed West African Gas Pipeline Project (WAGP) is expected to generate some 1.8 billion dollars additional investment, create about 80,000 jobs and reduce pollution caused by flaring of gas in Nigeria.
The investments comprise 400 million dollars for the building of the pipeline, 600 million dollars for power plants and 800 million dollars in new secondary industries such as minerals processing.
The project, when completed, is expected to bring down gas emissions by 100 million tons and help save the environment, including hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests in the region.
This was contained in a paper authored by Mr Joe O. Anyigbo, Executive Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited, Chris P. Miller, WAGP Project Manager, Chevron Overseas Petroleum Incorporated, and Mr Albert H. Spiers, Vice President, Dames and Moore Group, which did a study on the project.
The study was on: "The Road to Success on the West African Gas Pipeline Project" and was presented at the "Oil and Gas Africa '99" conference and exhibition in Accra on Tuesday.
The paper said the project is an infrastructure programme that will link trillions of cubic feet of natural gas produced in Nigeria to regional power plants and industrial consumers throughout the sub-region.
"With this project, West Africa can make significant strides toward its economic growth and self-sufficiency goals, precisely the kind of progress outlined in Ghana's Vision 2020 Plan".
The regional fuel supply system will begin generating benefits as early as 2002 when gas starts flowing in through the pipeline.
The authors said the project is physically a 1,000-kilometre pipeline system that will connect gas supplies in Nigeria's Western Delta to new power plants and industries in Ghana, Benin and Togo.
Dames and Moore said their conclusions indicate that gas emissions in Nigeria will fall by 78 million tons over 20 years. In Ghana, Togo and Benin, when gas replaces crude oil in the power plants, an additional 22 million tons of greenhouse emissions will be eliminated over the same period.
They said one of the power plants that will receive Nigerian gas, the 300-megawatt facility at Takoradi, is already operational and under expansion.
"Other power plants are in an advanced stage of planning, including the 220-megawatt plant at Tema. These plants will run on crude oil until the gas arrives."
Planning for the project began four years ago when the governments of Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and Togo entered into an agreement for the supply and transmission of natural gas.
A steering committee of ministers of mines and energy of each participating country is overseeing the progress of the project through a project developer.
Six public and private sector companies have expressed interest in developing the project. They are Chevron Nigeria Limited, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Nigeria Gas Company and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria. The rest are Societe Beninoise de Gas S.A. and Societe Togolaise de Gas S.A.The authors of the paper said key milestones have been chalked in the last few months, which put the pipeline much closer to reality. These are the completion of the feasibility study phase of the project and the study into the economic and environmental benefits of the project in March.
The feasibility study concluded that the WAGP is commercially viable, as it would be serving a population of over 250 million. There are no significant legal or technical impediments, and it would be developed in phases to match system capacity.
The paper noted that the gas market in the region is projected to grow four to six fold over the next 20 years, as demand for electricity and natural gas fuel increases.
It said Chevron, working with the governments and consortium partners, is to initiate phase two of the project, which includes establishing licensing arrangements, conducting the necessary engineering design and comprehensive environmental studies.
The paper called for massive support of the project since it is the kind of project that builds the muscle and bone of a modern economy.
"This project offers West Africa a chance to show it is serious about attracting private investment and that it is part of this continent's answer to long-term energy independence, economic growth and environmental progress."
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Inconsistencies affecting project financing in Africa
Accra (Greater Accra) 28 April ’99
Political instability, sudden changes in government policies and cancellation of awards and contracts have been identified as major constraints that face the financing of major capital projects in Africa.
At the on-going 3rd Oil and Gas Africa ’99 Conference and Exhibition, in Accra, Mr Askari Naqvi, Vice-President, Global Project Finance, Citibank, said cross-border risks, including government actions, deprive the entity of the use of its assets and inability to convert local currency.
Presenting a paper on "Project Finance in Africa, Citibank’s Perspective" , he mentioned the inability to transfer funds in certain countries as factors that pose severe challenges to project financing. Factors such as the provision of infrastructure, appropriate legal framework and adequate healthy government entities involved in transactions must be addressed if progress and profits can be made.
Mr Naqvi explained that in the current scenario, banks have little appetite for taking "clean" cross-border risks in most African countries, unless credit enhancement is provided.
Most markets in Africa are limited since local currency financing is limited both in terms of amounts and tenor for large projects.
Suggesting solutions, Mr Naqvi called for credit enhancement from developers, including completed support and account structures, and guarantees from credit-worthy institutions, such as insurance companies.
Citibank has set up separate cross-border pools for project finance transactions and high level interaction with agencies, such as the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank, to ensure that "we can work closely for transactions in Africa.
"There are plans to expand branch network to be closer to the countries and to develop a better understanding of the local markets." Africa has tremendous potential for development, and over the past few years investors and developers have begun to realise this, he said.
"Political and cross-border mitigation remains the key issue, and lenders will need to come up with innovative solutions in order to mitigate these risks for their satisfaction," he said.
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US$10m loan to refurbish water supply systems in K’dua
Koforidua (Eastern Region) 28 April ’99
The Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation has secured a 10-million-dollar Spanish loan to rehabilitate the water supply systems in Koforidua and five other towns in the Eastern Region.
The project seeks to achieve 100 per cent urban water supply coverage in the region by the year 2015.
The other towns benefitting from the project include Nsawam, Akim Swedru, Nkawkaw, Annum Boso and Asamankese.
The Eastern Regional Engineer of the GWSC, Mr E.K. Appiah, who announced this, said the company would have to invest 200 million dollars to rehabilitate, expand capacity and install new systems to achieve the targeted supply of 800,000 cubic metres of water a day by the year 2015.
At the third "Meet The Press" organised by the Eastern Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association at Koforidua on Monday, Mr Appiah said the company, under its short-term plan, is drilling and mechanising bore-holes in communities, and extending supply to areas now being developed, under the government's Public Investment Programme.
All the pumping units at Akorley and Adukrom have been recently replaced, he said.
However the low voltage at the Adukrom booster station has disabled the GWSC from pumping sufficient water to the Amanokrom service reservoir, which serves the towns.
Mr Appiah appealed to customers to support the corporation's tariff adjustment to enable it provide quality service.
The Regional Co-ordinator of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, Mr E.F. Boateng, said the GWSC, with the support of donors, is currently sinking bore-holes and wells for 13 of the 15 districts in the region.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 28 April’99
The following are the average inter bank exchange rates of the cedi to the dollar and other derived rates for other currencies for Tuesday April 27 as announced by the Ghana Association of Bankers.
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 2,419.82 2,453.55
Pound Sterling 3,902.20 3,957.82
French Franc 392.63 397.82
Swiss Franc 1,605.18 1,626.46
Deutsche Mark 1,316.49 1,334.80
Canadian Dollar1,638.48 1,660.16
Japanese Yen 20.27 20.54
Dutch Guilder 1,168.71 1,184.37
S/African Rand 398.65 403.55
Euro 2,575.54 2,609.84
CFA Franc 3.93 3.98
Naira 28.21 28.60
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