France
to invest 7.4 million dollars in Ghana
Twenty-seven
SOEs on divestiture list
Losses
in GCB, BAT contribute to another slide of GSE All-Share Index
Accra (Greater Accra) 29 Feb. 2000
The Board
and Management of Dunkwa Continental Goldfields Limited (DCGL) on Monday said
the company has not 'folded up' as reported by a section of the media.
A statement issued in Accra by the
Resident Director of the Company, Mr Kris Kapoor said the "Board and
Management of Dunkwa Continental Goldfields Limited wish to assure our workers,
shareholders and the whole nation that we have not folded up".
The statement was in reaction to a
publication in an Accra daily that the company had folded up, all 300 workers
have lost their jobs and the equipment abandoned.
The statement said, "it is true that
dredging operations have proved to be non-viable due to the poor market price
of gold and high cost of operations".
"However, to sustain the project and
continue to provide employment to our workforce, we have made plans and
received the government's approval to turn the
Dunkwa
project into a multi-layered multi-product operations.
"This includes the production of
Silica/Quartz, in addition to the gold.
"We are hoping that by June, this
year, we would have resolved other pressing issues to enable us to start
re-engagement of the workforce".
It said during the re-organisation period
and at the request of the workforce, a severance/financial package to the
workers was negotiated with the Ghana Mines Workers' Union and an agreement was
reached in August 1999, under which all the entitlements due the workers were
paid.
At the moment the company still
maintains about 70 employees until the operational re-organisation is completed.
"This is known to the Chief labour
Officer as well as the Minerals Commission, Upper Denkyira District assembly
and other appropriate government authorities."
It said the company's dredges and heavy
equipment are under care and are maintained by the retained workforce, adding,
"none of the equipment is abandoned in the bush."
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Accra (Greater Accra) 29 Feb. 2000
The French
Delegation attending the Seventh Ghana International Trade Fair (GITF) on
Monday said political instability in Africa makes the decision to investment on
the continent difficult.
The
delegation said frequent and unconventional changes in governments erode the
confidence of international investors and, therefore, retard development.
Mr Nestor
Nemeg, Managing Director of the Office of the De-Trans Development and
Industry, said this at a workshop on trade and industrial partnership between
Ghana and France for food and agriculture.
The
workshop was organised by Agro-Tropic of France and Ghana and the French
Chamber of Commerce as part of activities for the Accra fair.
Participants
at the workshop discussed investment opportunities in the two countries and the
forging of partnership.
Mr Nemeg
cited the recent military take-over in Niger saying it happened at a time when
there was an investment meeting between France and Niger.
He urged
African countries to maintain democratic institutions and governments and use
acceptable means to change them.
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Takoradi (Western Region) 29 Feb. 2000
The
Government and the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), the French
development agency, are to sign a seven point four million-dollar agreement for
the financing of the second phase of Rubber Out-growers project of the Ghana
Rubber Estate Limited (GREL).
Dr John Adu Gyamfi Poku, a Deputy Director
of Crop Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) announced this
at a meeting of representatives of the Ministry, Ministry of Trade and
Industries, GREL and Western Region Rubber Out-growers Association in Takoradi.
The meeting was to explain the delay in
the take off of the second phase of the rubber out-growers project.
Dr Poku said if everything goes as
planned, the agreement would be signed in March this year during a visit by a
senior officer of AFD.
Dr Poku said the MOFA has initiated moves to
get Parliament and Cabinet to approve the credit agreement.
The credit would be given to farmers
through the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB).
Dr Poku said the Ministry of Trade is
seeking approval from the Ministry of Finance for GREL to pre-finance the
project because it would take some time before approval to the agreement is
given.
He said this would enable the out-growers
to plant rubber this year adding 450 farmers would cultivate about 2,500
hectares of rubber under the second phase of the project.
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Kumasi (Greater Accra) 29 Feb. 2000
Ghanaian
businessmen and women have been advised to be bold and adopt sound management
practices to enable them to qualify for the numerous credit schemes available
in the country now.
Mr Kwame Owusu Afriyie, President of the
Millennium Africa Fund (MAF), who gave the advice said because of the way most
Ghanaian business people operate, many of them do not qualify to benefit from
the many credits available.
He was speaking at a one-day seminar
organised by MAF for businessmen and women in Kumasi.
The theme was "Trade finance in the
new millennium - US Exim Bank's approach".
He said as a result of the economic
recovery programme as well as other fiscal and monetary policies implemented by
the government, a lot of foreign financial institutions have become interested
in Ghana's economy and are willing to offer a helping hand.
Mr Afriyie said the government has
identified the private sector as the engine of growth and pointed out that
this, therefore, posed a great challenge to Ghanaian businessmen and women.
He expressed regret that most businesses
do not have business plans, proper accounts and documentation and financial
discipline and appealed to them to adopt good management practices to be able
to qualify for the many credit facilities being offered by the international
finance community.
Mr
Ben Akuete, Vice-president, Credit Review, Allfirst Bank, USA, which operates
under Exim Bank, said the bank has been operating in South America but has
decided that the time has come to assist Sub-Saharan Africa.
The bank runs short, medium and long-term
programmes but is presently engaged in medium-term lending.
He said their programmes are geared
towards the funding of capital equipment made in the USA.
Mr Kofi Gyamfi-Duku, Chief Executive
Officer of MAF, said last year, the bank disbursed loans totalling nearly 145
million dollars in Ghana and that the bank is thinking of increasing the amount
to about two billion dollars this year.
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Twenty-seven
SOEs on divestiture list
Accra (Greater Accra), 29 February 2000
Twenty-seven State-Owned Enterprises,
including the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and
Ghana National Petroleum Corporation have been slateted for divestiture.
The list released by the Divestiture
Implementation Committee (DIC) in Accra on Monday said they have been put in
four groups.
These are large and strategic, medium-size
SOEs (fully state owned), Joint ventures and small-size SOE's (fully state
owned).
A source at the DIC stand at the Ghana
International Trade Fair 2000 told the GNA that the Graphic Communications
Group and the New Times Corporation have been removed from the list.
State Insurance Company, State Housing
Company, Mim Timber Company and the Electricity Company of Ghana would be
divested under large and strategic group.
Ghana Publishing Corporation, Takoradi
Press, Ghana National Procurement Agency, Ghana Re-Insurance Company, GNTC
General Goods, Volta Lake Transport Company, Plant Pool, TOR and City Express
Service are under the medium-size SOEs.
The rest under this category are Omnibus
Service Authority, GHASEL, Asutsuare and Komenda, Ghana Airways Limited, Ghana
Commercial Bank, GIHOC Distilleries, Benso Oil Palm Plantation and Ghana
Consolidated Diamonds (GCD).
Ghana Sanyo Company Limited and Western
Veneer and Lumber Company, which are under negotiation, fall under the joint
venture group.
Under the small-size SOEs category are
GIHOC Footwear and Anyinase Oil Mills.
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Losses
in GCB, BAT contribute to another slide of GSE All-Share Index
Accra (Greater Accra), 29 February 2000
Losses in the share prices of Ghana
Commercial Bank (GCB) and British American Tobacco (BAT) during trading on
Monday contributed to another slide in the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) All-Share
Index as negative pressure piled up on most of the equities.
The GSE All-Share Index, the main market
indicator, declined by 0.44 points from 741.17 points to 739.73 points although
total shares demanded and traded improved substantially.
The change for the year after the close
of Monday's trading stood at 0.48 per cent as the Accra bourse continued to
limp along under heavy bearish sentiments.
Total shares traded went up from 12,200
on Friday to 103,800 shares while shares demanded were 105,600, up from 37,100
as investors continued to dump their shares on the market. Shares offered
remained well ahead of demand at 927,900 compared with Friday's 829,570.
There was no trading in the shares of
troubled Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) despite an announcement of measures
to bail it out of its financial troubles. No share was offered for sale and no
bid was made.
Market capitalisation was down at 3,211.03
billion cedis from 3,213.21 billion cedis following the loss of GCB, the fourth
company with the highest market capitalisation after AGC, Standard Chartered
Bank and SSB bank Limited.
On the broader market, GCB lost 13 cedis
735 cedis while BAT lost two cedis 464 cedis.
The
following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 470
AGC 18,700
ALW 2,489
BAT 464 -2
CFAO 42
EIC 1,880
FML 935
GBL 1,450
GCB 735 -13
GGL 974
HFC 760MGL 200
MLC 150
MOGL 14,500
PAF 294
PZ 800
SCB 19,200
SPPC 150
SSB 1,980
UNIL 1,849
UTC-E 125
CMLT 421
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