Ghana, 14 others get 424 million dollar loans from International Agric Fund

GSE All-Share Index maintains positive climb

Derma Bank to launch exercise to recover loans

People of Sakai refuse to pay basic rates

Rural banks urged to ensure the safety of savings

Accra (Greater Accra), 11^th December 99

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is to provide 424 million dollars as loans to 15 countries for their development projects.

The countries include Albania, Cameroon, China, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Moldavia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia.

An IFAD statement in Accra said the decision to finance the new projects was made at the Fund's Executive Board meeting held in Rome.

It said the projects would assist a large number of people living in rural areas to achieve a secure livelihood.

Nigeria will receive 36 million dollars, Senegal 46.5 million dollars Zambia and Uganda, 16 million dollars each.

"The Board has also approved four Technical Assistance Grants for a number of research programmes in different fields of agriculture."

GRi

Accra (Greater Accra) 13 Dec. '99

The All-Share Index of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) on Friday maintained its positive climb to close the week stronger but other market indicators declined by heavy margins.

The All-Share Index, the main market indicator, recorded a modest gain of 0.18 points to close at 746.21 from the mid-week close of 746.03 points.

The change in the year to date was up by 0.02 per cent at negative 14.07 per cent.

Total shares traded slumped from a high of 372,800 shares on Wednesday to 18,500 shares from 11 equities, with demand also closing down at 91,200 shares from 421,600 shares.

Shares posted on the bourse declined to 528,930 shares compared to 936,930 shares put on display by investors at the previous trading session.

Market capitalisation, however, gained by a small margin to close the week up at 3,221.24 billion cedis from 3,220.95 billion cedis.

In the broader market, there were two price changes - one gain and a loss.

Accra Breweries Limited (ABL) closed trading richer by six cedis at 456 cedis while Aluworks Company Limited (ALW) lost one cedi to finish trading down at 2,489 cedis.

The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:

ABL 456 +6

AGC 18,700

ALW 2,489 -1

BAT 470

CFAO 38

EIC 1,880

FML 900

GBL 1,450

GCB 760

GGL 950

HFC 750

MGL 200

MLC 150

MOGL 15,000

PAF 300

PZ 800

SCB 19,700

SPPC 150

SSB 1,980

UNIL 1,860

UTC-E 125

CMLT 420

GRi./

Derma (Brong Ahafo) 13 Dec.'99

The Derma Rural Bank is to launch an exercise to recover loans from defaulters.

Mr Stephen K. Koto, Chairman of the Board, said this at the Bank's annual general meeting at Derma on Saturday.

He said all avenues including legal action would be taken to recover the loans to save the bank from collapse.

A total of 751.6 million cedis granted for areas such as education, housing, trading, agriculture, funerals and health, are overdue.

Mr Koto said apart from the government salaried workers, all other beneficiaries have defaulted and described the situation as "very disheartening".

Out of 350 million cedis granted 47 farmers groups under the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) scheme, only 50 million cedis have been repaid.

To safeguard its image, the Bank has paid the balance from its own sources to the Bank of Ghana.

The Board Chairman appealed to the beneficiaries to honour their obligations.

Mr Koto said the bank made modest gains in its operations for last year adding that savings grew by 35 per cent from 463.7 million cedis in 1997 to 627.4 million cedis.

Its share capital increased by 43.9 per cent from 41.6 million cedis the previous year to 59.9 million cedis in 1998, but made a net profit of 20.8 million cedis as against 27 million cedis in 1997.

Apart from the loan recovery exercise, the bank would embark on a savings mobilisation programme to improve its operations.

The Bank spent a substantial amount to support the town's street lighting project and the on-going water project, which include the construction of a 160-cubic metre capacity water reservoir and the laying of pipelines.

The water project would be completed in April 2000.

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Tumu ( Northern Region) 13 Dec. '99

The people of Sakai, a farming community in the Sissala District, have for the past two years refused to pay their basic rates of 300 cedis per adult.

The last time revenue collectors went there, the chief and his elders drove them away and warned them never to set foot in their village again.

They alleged that the revenue collectors have been selective in their work and do not collect the rates from certain families and households.

Mr Prosper Hoeyi, Sissala district budget officer said this at a two-day planning workshop on revenue mobilisation, organised by the district assembly for unit committee and assembly members, and revenue collectors at Tumu on Friday.

Mr Hoeyi, however, said the people have promised to fulfil their tax obligations if the defaulting households and families are made to pay their arrears.

Mr Robert Wavei, Sissala District Chief Executive warned that any salaried revenue collector who fails to collect 200,000 cedis a month would be made to make up the difference from his salary.

The DCE urged them to intensify efforts at revenue generation since the district has few resources.

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Prang (Brong Ahafo) 13 Dec '99

Rural banks have been advised to ensure the utmost safety of deposits of customers and be fair in the allocation of loans to engender greater public confidence and patronage of their operations.

Mr Stephen Ameyaw, Head of the Rural Finance Department of the Bank of Ghana gave the advice at the 14th annual general meeting of the Yapra Rural Bank, at Prang in the Atebubu District at the weekend.

Mr Ameyaw said most of the rural banks, which have collapsed ceased to be viable because of massive ''retaliatory withdrawals'' by customers, who lost confidence in the banks due to slowness in loan allocation and mismanagement of deposits through fraud.

"'There is, therefore, an urgent need for rural banks to exhibit open and sound management and investment practices and be fair in the allocation of resources to communities in their areas in order to retain the trust of customers and remain viable, he emphasised.

Whilst urging shareholders of rural banks to increase their share holdings, he also asked staff to buy shares of their banks to demonstrate their confidence in their viability.

The Chairman of the Bank Board, Nana Rabiu Haruna said the Bank made a net profit of 27.8 million last year as against 42.5 million cedis in the previous year.

Nana Rabiu attributed the drop in profit to the massive reduction in the discount rate of treasury bills and high operational cost.

He said the Bank was able to grant loans totalling 353 million cedis to customers and appealed to beneficiaries to repay them on schedule to enable others to enjoy the facility.

GRi../