Ghanaians urged to use non-cash systems in transactions
Export of cocoa shells earns 19.8 million cedis for CPC
Koforidua Mobitel subscribers angry over poor service
Takoradi (Western Region) 03 August 2001
The Bank of Ghana (BOG) has called on Ghanaians to use non-cash systems like cheques and credit cards in transaction to improve the performance of the national economy.
Speaking at a seminar on the "Significance of non-cash payment system" organised by the Takoradi branch of BOG on Wednesday, the Head of the Research Department, Mr Franklin Belnye said reliance on cash transactions was inefficient, costly and could not support the trading needs of an aspiring middle-income country like Ghana.
He said the use of cash also made it difficult to monitor the circulation of money, check inflation and make correct tax assessment for revenue generation.
Mr Belnye noted that apart from the risk of taking cash through hazards like robbery and fires, cash users also stood at a disadvantage to obtaining credit from the banks to expand their businesses.
He said fears associated with the use of non-cash system like dud cheques, long period of clearing cheques and inability of the illiterate person to interpret figures on cheques have all been eliminated through highly improved security check systems in banking operations.
Mr John K. Agbokpe, Head of the Issue Department of BOG, said the Central
Bank spends huge sums of money to print paper money and mint coins and transport them from a foreign country into Ghana where they wear off quickly because of frequent use.
He said this situation must be minimised with the use of non-cash payments to enable the government save money for more profitable ventures.
The Head of Domestic Banking of BOG, Mr Kwesi Bentil advised cash users to accept lower denominations of the cedi since they were still legal tender.
He said in order to encourage the use of all denominations of the cedi the commercial banks have been ordered to pay 20 per cent of cash payments in the lower denominations of the cedi to their customers.
The Acting Western Regional Manager of BOG, Mr Cyril N. Barnor said the outfit was carrying out an educational campaign on the use of non-cash payment systems to a cross section of the public in the markets, churches and workplaces.
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Tema (Greater Accra) 03 August 2001
The Cocoa Processing Company Limited (CPC) realised a total of 19.8 million cedis from 1,983.210 metric tonnes of cocoa shells it exported between October 1999 to September 2000.
During the same period, local sale of 54.177 metric tonnes of the cocoa shells yielded 514,770 cedis, Mr Nathan O. Quao, Quality Assurance Manager told the Ghana News Agency during a recent tour of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment, Science and Technology led by Mr Sampson Otu Darko, MP for Ga North to the CPC. The shells are left over after the processing of the beans.
The committee toured three factories, Ghana Cement Works (GHACEM), Ghana Agro Foods Company (GAFCO) and CPC to assess the environmental management plans they have put in place to check polluting their environment with by-products.
Mr Quao said in October 2000 to March 2001, an amount of five million cedis was generated from 500.7 metric tonnes of the cocoa shells exported while 19.4 metric tonnes sold in the country gave the company 194,000 cedis.
He said no by-product was wasted at the company because it goes into the production of another commodity.
Mr Quao stated that the cocoa shells which used to be burnt was now exported to America and Europe where it is used as fertiliser while Ghanaian women also buy them to prepare Alata Samina, a local soap.
Committee suggested that Ghana's processed cocoa products should be served during break time at state functions instead of tea/coffee as a way of promoting the products to foreigners, who come into the country.
The committee noted that even in the country, processed cocoa products like chocolates, cocoa powder and pebbles were not widely known to people in the rural areas.
Mr Cletus Avoka, MP for Bawku West and ex-Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, expressed satisfaction at the company's operations and suggested to management to decentralise its marketing to ensure that the rural folks, who produce the cocoa have some to buy and taste their own product.
To this end, they appealed to the CPC to produce chocolate and other products that would be affordable for the average Ghanaian to buy.
Mr Paul Awuah, Managing Director of the CPC, told the committee that 90-95 per cent of its products were exported while five per cent was converted into chocolate and cocoa powder and sold on the Ghanaian market.
He said the company produces high quality and export to Europe, America and Japan and had won several awards on the international market.
The Company's five-year expansion programme would cost 192.43 billion cedis adding, "after meeting all operational and capital expenses, the company's net cash flow will improve from 24.2 billion cedis to 214.6 billion cedis per annum".
He said an annual budget of three billion cedis was allocated to treat its effluent before it was discharged.
Mr Awuah appealed to the government through the Committee to consider the need to reactivate the silos project, which was abandoned after the 1966 coup.
He said the silos, which could store several tonnes of cocoa beans for processing was 80-90 per cent completed but has been left idle and the iron rods have rusted.
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Koforidua (Eastern Region) 03 August 2001
Subscribers of Mobitel Cell Phones in the New Juaben Municipality have petitioned Milicom Ghana Limited, operators of Mobitel, to restore the 30 days lost service units on their starcall cards and apologise to them for the inconvenience caused to them and their business partners during a recent unannounced break in service transmissions.
They have also petitioned the Minister for Transport and Communications to intervene and save cell phone subscribers from undue exploitation by telephone operators whose motive was to make profits at the expense of their customers.
At their meeting in Koforidua on Wednesday, the subscribers expressed their anger about what they described as " a cheating and ineptitude" on the part of the management of the company for the frequent break in service transmissions in the Municipality.
They alleged that, the recent break in service transmission in Koforidua, which lasted for over 30 days have caused "a lot of embarrassment to them and their business partners".
What was more appalling, according to them was that, "Mobitel continued to debit the units on the starcall cards of subscribers throughout the 30 days period, until they got finished and asked us to buy new units when transmission resumed recently".
The Spokesman for the subscribers, Mr Kwasi Agyeman Jantutu said in spite of the several complaints made by subscribers to the management of Mobitel, services have been interrupted without any notice to subscribers while units on their starcall cards have also been running out despite the break in services.
He said subscribers could not continue to pay for the inefficiencies of the company.
Mr Jantutu said the subscribers have also requested a meeting with the management of Mobitel to brief them on the problems militating against the smooth operation of the phones in the Municipality after which a new line of action would be taken.
The Management of Mobitel told the Ghana News Agency in Accra that "the outage of Mobitel service was caused by lightening strike that affected a major part of the Cellular infrastructure. Certain part of our coverage across the country were without any service for a given period of time".
It said: "For the loss of use of service, Mobitel gave all its prepaid customers a one-off credit of 20,000 cedis and also reduced the line rental charges for all Postpaid customers by 25 per cent.
The Management said: Provision has also been made to compensate customers, whose credit balances were erased during the period through our Offices or Accredited Agents in the specific areas where the outages were experienced. It said it was ready to offer the best possible service at all times.
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