Accra (Greater Accra) 06 December 2001 - The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) would need 308 million dollars for the expansion of the Tema and Takoradi ports, Mr Edward A. Kwakye, Director of Planning of the Ministry of Roads and Transport said on Tuesday.
Funding of the projects to be undertaken in phases, would be sought from the donor communities after the stakeholders had made inputs into the draft of the, "Master Development Plans of Ghana Seaports".
Stakeholders discussed the report, which the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) prepared, at a workshop organised by the GPHA in conjunction with JICA.
The 37 participating organisations included Ministries of Roads and Transport, Trade and Industry, Food and Agriculture, Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport, Tema Municipal and Takoradi Metropolitan Assemblies, Ship owners and Agents Association, Customs, excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Shippers' Council and the World Bank among other institutions.
Mr Kwakye said as part of Ghana's Vision to be the port of preference within the West Africa Sub-region and in line with the government's port development policy, the GPHA had embarked on a number of institutional, organisational and infrastructure projects aimed at increasing efficiency to facilitate and promote trade.
Mr Kwakye said the maritime industry played an important role in the country's economy, because 90 per cent of trade in Ghana was sea bound hence the need to involve all the stakeholders before its approval.
Mr Ben Owusu-Mensah, Director-General of GPHA, in a welcoming address said the workshop was to serve as public hearing of the draft for the two seaports expansion plans and told stakeholders that their contributions would be included in the final report.
He referred to the assistance that JICA had offered to the port by improving the facilities at the Tema Fishing Harbour and the provision of the Takoradi Fishing Harbour.
Mr Owusu-Mensah said it was their intention to market the final report to the business community to enable them to see where they could fit in to offer the necessary contributions.
The report, which was started in 2000, covered the master plan for Takoradi and Tema ports, short-term development of the two ports, implementation programme, cost estimation, economic analysis, financial analysis and environmental impact assessment.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 December 2001 - Ghana will work towards becoming a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to benefit from its financial packages to facilitate the government's efforts at transforming the economy to create wealth and jobs.
Vice President Aliu Mahama said in Accra on Wednesday at a meeting with a three-member delegation from the bank, which was in the country to seek information that. "Ghana needs such development partners to alleviate poverty, provide infrastructure and solve other social problems," said the Vice President.
The IDB, established in 1975, is an international development financing institution. It has 54 members, with 25 from Africa. Alhaji Mahama told the delegation, led by the bank's Vice President Onsmane Seck that he had followed the humanitarian activities of the bank in Ghana, which included the sponsoring of a Science Secondary School in Tamale.
The bank had also financed projects at the University of Development Studies in Tamale, rehabilitated schools in Southern Ghana and sponsored the training of about 200 Ghanaian doctors and engineers in Turkey.
"It is for these reasons that I wrote to the President of IDB to discuss Ghana's membership of the bank," he said. He urged the bank to continue providing grants for development activities as Ghana took steps to fulfil the membership requirements.
Mr Seck said IDB, whose mode of financing was based on the principles of Islamic Shari'ah, prioritises its support to economic development with bias for funding agriculture, human resource development, private sector growth and improving transportation and public utility services.
The IDB, with its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, also has trade, import and export financing schemes, technical assistance programmes, among other schemes. The loans are interest-free but attracted service fees to cover administrative expenses. The repayment period varies between 15 years to 25 years, with a grace period of three to seven years depending on the beneficiary country and the type of project financed.
"We do not fund Islamic propaganda, religious infrastructure such as mosques or religious activities," he stressed.
Mr Seck said membership of the bank was opened to all African countries and other countries of the South, in line with South-South co-operation. He said the composition of the Islamic population of its members was unregulated, with some members having about 80 per cent whereas others had 12 per cent.
Mr Seck said the bank, whose members included Malaysia, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey, had a close relationship with multilateral financial institutions like the US EXIM Bank.
Dr Abdul Azziz Jalloh, Director of Operations and Mr Farrukh Mahmoud, project officer, accompanied Mr Seck. The delegation, which arrived on Tuesday, would hold discussions with members of the Economic Management Team, Central Bank officials, private sector representatives and ministers of state. It departs on Saturday.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 December 2001 - The poor run of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) continued on Wednesday as the main market gauge, the All-Share Index, ended flat again.
The GSE All-Share Index, which ended flat on two of the three trading sessions last week, inched up on Friday but ended unchanged again on Monday and Wednesday.
Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) was the only gainer, making four cedis at 3,010 cedis, but that was not enough to make any impression on the index, which closed at 958.54 points.
Shares traded went up about eight times from 10,600 to 88,800 and market capitalisation was also up at 3,909.08 billion cedis from 3,909.06 billion cedis. Change for the year remained at 11.72 per cent. Below are the closing prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 320
AGC 18,800
ALW 4,300
BAT 627
CFAO 60
EIC 3,010 +4
FML 950
GBL 1,000
GCB 1,566
GGL 901
HFC 952
MGL 241
MLC 145
MOGL 18,200
PAF 800
PBC 450
PZ 1,005
SCB 20,500
SPPC 341
SSB 2,300
UNIL 2,300
CMLT 430
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 December 2001
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 7,092.73 7,294.45
Pound Sterling 10,092.95 10,385.84
French Franc 965.90 993.01
Swiss Franc 4,297.62 4,419.69
Deutsche Mark 3,238.55 3,331.46
Canadian Dollar 4,507.39 4,635.09
Japanese Yen 57.14 58.75
Dutch Guilder 2,875.08 2,955.81
S/African Rand 664.35 682.44
Euro 6,337.01 6,511.50
CFA Franc 9.66 9.93
Naira 64.31 66.14
Ecowas/WAUA 9,001.61 ----------
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