ABL says no rule was violated in 1999
retrenchment
British Minister calls for reduction of
interest rates
TOR is totally bankrupt - Essilfie-Adjaye
Unilever to double production in next four
years
Trade Ministry bans importation of beef
Team up to ensure longevity, Abeasi
Demand for sachet
water increases in Sunyani
ABL says no rule was violated in 1999
retrenchment
Accra (Greater Accra) 23 February 2001
Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) on Thursday said it complied with all necessary procedures before retrenching 91 employees in 1999.
Mr Raymond Stark, Managing Director, said the retrenchment was part of the restructuring exercise by the company to downsize its workforce.
He was reacting to statements at a press conference held by the ex-workers of the company in Accra that the processes of the retrenchment and payment of their benefits were contrary to the rules and laws that govern redundancy.
Mr. Stark said the calculation for the payments to affected workers was in accordance with relevant provisions under the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Mr. Romeo Quarcoo, a spokesman for the ex-workers, said at the press conference that the Personnel Manager did not sign their redundancy letters as is usually the case, adding that the same number of people was engaged within the same period to replace them.
He said redundancy payments were calculated from 1991 and not on the number of years they had worked for the company.
Mr. Quarcoo said management also refused to pay them interest on 7.5 per cent on money deducted from their salaries from 1991 to be invested.
"We were paid just the lump sum of monies deducted and not the interest on the investments that the company put our monies to.
"The local union executives who protested against this to the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of the TUC were sacked for interfering with management decisions."
Mr. Quarcoo said they petitioned the then Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare on the matter and the former Deputy Minister, Mr Austin Gamey, drew the attention of management to the fact that the exercise embarked upon and the benefits paid were not in respect of End of Service Benefits.
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British Minister calls for reduction of
interest rates
Tema (Greater Accra) 23 February 2001
Ms Clare Short, the visiting British Minister of State for International Development, on Thursday called on African governments to work towards removing all factors, which frustrate private sector growth and regional co-operation.
She expressed concern about the high interest rates charged by local banks and high tariffs imposed on imports from neighbouring countries saying these charges strangle the potentials for growth.
Ms Short was speaking during a visit to Tropical Cable and Conductor Limited (TCCL), a solely Ghanaian-owned private company which has been successful with the assistance given by the British Department for International Development (DFID) through EMPRETEC.
She said DFID is prepared to support EMPRETEC, established 10 years ago under a second Mutual Guarantee Fund, to enable it assist more businesses.
Ms Short said her outfit is interested in private sector development stressing: "we want to strengthen people and improve the business climate for the private sector to flourish".
She said her government also wants to see the situation where African countries would be able to process their raw materials and export at competitive prices instead of exporting only raw materials at cheap prices.
This, she said, would help reduce the level of poverty in developing countries but the high tariffs and other barriers imposed by governments of developing countries are preventing inter regional co-operation.
Ms Short said it should be possible for donor agencies to untie the strings attached to loans so that some of the money could be used to purchase materials locally for donor funded projects to encourage local industries.
Mr Tony Oteng-Gyasi, Managing Director of TCCL who was one of EMPRETEC's first clients to receive entrepreneurial training, said his company has benefited immensely from the advice of British Executive Service Overseas (BESO) in the establishment of the company and training of manpower.
There are 120 of such BESO advisers helping in various sectors of the economy.
Mr Oteng-Gyasi said last year, the company produced 314 metric tonnes of aluminium and copper cables, an increase of 11 percent over 1999 level and this year the company intends to process 400 metric tonnes. About 80 percent of its products is sold to Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Mr Oteng-Gyasi said the company's future plan is to process aluminium ingot into aluminium rod, a project that is estimated to cost five million dollars, but TCCL is frustrated by the lack of finance.
Ms Short who said she was impressed with the efficiency and quality of work of TCCL advised the Managing Director to contact the British Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) for assistance.
Dr Rod Pullen, British High Commissioner in Ghana and officials of DFID, accompanied her.
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TOR is totally bankrupt - Essilfie-Adjaye
Takoradi (Western Region) 23 February 2001
Mr Kwamena Essilfie-Adjaye, Member of the Energy Team of the government, said on Thursday that the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is "totally bankrupt and insolvent".
Speaking at an energy forum organised by the Ministry of Energy in Takoradi, he said, the situation has arisen because of inadequate cost recovery.
Mr. Essilfie-Adjaye said the TOR has been operating with an implicit subsidy, which is not sustainable.
The subsidy, he said, was financed by bank borrowings, which now threaten the liquidity of the banking sector, adding that the total borrowings by TOR now exceeds the capital base of the banking sector.
Mr. Essilfie-Adjaye therefore said recovery is unavoidable and cannot be postponed.
He said the full cost recovery policy involves ex-refinery price covering the cost of importing crude oil and cost of refining at TOR with adjustments for exchange rate changes.
Mr. Essilfie-Adjaye said the policy has been continuously violated for political reasons since its inception in 1997, adding that even though the cedi continued to depreciate throughout the period, there were no petrol price adjustments after March 2000.
He said measures would be implemented to reduce the use of petroleum in the public sector.
Other measures will also be announced to rationalise the use of petroleum products nation-wide.
In an address read for him, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Energy, said though the strategic stock levy for fuel products increased to ten cedis per litre in 1998, strategic stocks inherited by the NPP government could not last for three weeks.
He said that, to reverse this situation, subsidies on ex-refinery prices will be removed to enable the TOR to recover costs while the product becomes available on the market.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said the overall tax element of petroleum in March last year was 600 billion cedis, yet the country spent twice the amount generated to re-pay for the subsidies.
"Several countries levy about 80 per cent of price paid for petroleum products as taxes and this practice must be adopted to reflect current changes," he added.
Mr Kan-Dapaah added that even though the pricing is supposed to be based on import parity formula, the market forces are not allowed to determine prices to enable the TOR to re-cover its costs.
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Unilever to double production in next four
years
Tema (Greater Accra) 23 February 2001
Unilever Ghana Limited which earned four million dollars in exports last year, is to double its production in the next four years, targeting other markets in West Africa.
Unilever with a current production capacity of 1,000 tonnes per annum, particularly wants to penetrate the big market in Nigeria which has a population of over 120 million to sell its personal care, home care and food products.
Mr Ishmael Yamson, Chairman of Unilever announced this when Dr Kofi Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry paid a familiarisation visit to the factory on Wednesday. The visit was his first to any industry since his appointment.
Mr Yamson said Ghana consumes 6,000 tonnes of powdered soap, which Unilever buys from its counterpart in Nigeria, while Ghana in turn sells soaps and oils to that country.
Mr Yamson however said the biggest challenge for every industry in Ghana is stability of the micro-environment since that business needs to plan ahead and acquire high quality human resource.
He also expressed concern about the slow pace of development of the packaging industry in Ghana, saying Ghana's technology is old and the industries have developed faster than the packaging industry.
Unilever currently imports its packaging needs from South Africa, Europe and Nigeria.
Dr Apraku told journalist after a closed door meeting with officials of Unilever that Ghanaian firms have a tremendous impact on the national economy and his visit was therefore to know the challenges facing them.
He said issues raised centred on access to capital, packaging material, support services and getting quality manpower, adding that the government will see how best it can formulate policies to address them.
The Minister said the government is putting together an investment fund and with the country now private-sector-centred, some of the issues raised will be addressed.
Dr Apraku commended Unilever's tremendous contribution to the country's tax revenue, employment as well as imparting of technology, and assured the company that the government will look at areas of assistance to enable it embark on its expansion programme.
Unilever employs 900 workers at its factory and 1,700 others on its two oil plantations.
Mr Michael Charamba, Supply Chain Director, took Dr Apraku on a tour of the factory.
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Trade Ministry bans importation of beef
Accra (Greater Accra) 23 February 2001
The Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Thursday that it has placed a temporary ban on the importation of beef and beef products, including corned beef, from Italy and Denmark.
A statement from the ministry on Thursday said the action follows a further notice of the outbreak of Mad Cow disease in some European Union countries.
"The ministry is monitoring the crisis in Europe regarding the Mad Cow disease and will review the ban as and when necessary," the statement added.
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Team up to ensure longevity, Abeasi
Accra (Greater Accra) 23 February 2001
Mr Kwesi Abeasi, Director-General of the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF), on Thursday said individually-owned businesses should team up in order to withstand modern business challenges and ensure their longevity.
He said it does not speak well of the country's private sector for companies not to survive the deaths of their owners.
Speaking in an interview with the GNA in Accra, Mr Abeasi said in many cases survivors of such companies, mainly the owners' children, do not have interest in running them.
He said PEF would later this year embark on an educational campaign to highlight the benefits of joint ventures to the private sector.
In that regard, PEF has prepared a 74-page draft "Manual on corporate governance and codes of conduct for Boards of Directors and Chief Executives".
The manual touches, among other things, on "Ghana's corporate structure; instruments and mechanisms of corporate governance", "Review of internal stakeholders and corporate processes", and "Recommended guidelines on corporate governance".
Mr Abeasi said apart from ensuring the survival of companies, joint ventures also bring them bigger commercial gains.
"One hundred per cent ownership of a 100-dollar company is less than being a 10 per cent owner of a million dollar business.
"When you go it alone and there are crises you fall alone, but when you team up, you share the pains with others and the impact is lessened", Mr Abeasi said.
He said joint ventures demand trust and mutual respect and there is also the need for good corporate conduct accountancy and management discipline as well as the will to work to achieve results.
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Demand for sachet
water increases in Sunyani
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 23 February
2001
Demand for sachet water in Sunyani
has increased following the water crisis that has hit the town in the wake of
the drying up of the intake pond of the Abesim headworks, which supply pipe
borne water to the district.
Although the price of the product
has jumped by more than 30 per cent within a week of the crisis, most retailing
outlets have run out of stock as consumers quickly buy supplies.
To avoid contracting water borne
diseases from the consumption of contaminated water from ponds and rivers,
residents are turning to the patronage of sachet water in large quantities for
drinking and other domestic purposes.
A number of Sunyani based sachet
water producers that the GNA talked to confirmed that there has been a boom in
the sale of their products since the taps stopped flowing about two weeks ago.
Mrs. Mercy Odoi of the Encore
Enterprise, producers of Encore sachet water, said the companies have been
compelled to increase the prices of their products as a result of the sudden
rise in the cost of water supplied to them by water tankers.
"In the past, a tank-full of
pipe borne water was sold to us at 50,000 cedis, but the tanker owners are now
charging 180,000 cedis for the same quantity of water because they have to go
all the way to Berekum for supplies.
Miss Nana Yaa of the Mayfair water
refinery limited, also told the GNA that demand for their bagged water has
risen so high that it has outstripped production.
"We are now hardly able to
meet the requirements of our accredited agents and retailers because increasing
numbers of individuals are coming directly to our premises to buy the sachet
water we produce."
Mr. Teddy Mensah, a retailer said
a sachet of water is now being sold at 200 cedis instead of the 150 cedis it
was sold before the crisis began.
In spite of the rise in price,
people have increased their patronage, as it is safer than water from rivers
and ponds, which most Sunyani residents are now relying on.
Most taps in Sunyani and its
environs stopped flowing over a week ago due to a virtual halt in production at
the Abesim headworks of the Ghana Water Company limited, following the drying
up of the Tano river.
Consequently, water has become so
scarce in Sunyani that some people are said to be relying on bagged water for
bathing.
Indiscriminate bush burning and
farming along the banks of Tano River in districts such as Techiman and Sunyani
have been blamed for the present state.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 23 February 2001
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 6,885.45 7,098.09
Pound Sterling 9,934.33 10,248.22
French Franc 954.26 983.41
Swiss Franc 4,084.67 4,208.20
Deutsche Mark 3,199.36 3,299.39
Canadian Dollar 4,478.55 4,618.10
Japanese Yen 59.27 61.10
Dutch Guilder 2,840.41 2,927.14
S/African Rand 880.90 906.94
Euro 6,261.39 6,453.54
CFA Franc 9.54 9.83
Naira 63.05 64.99
Ecowas/WAUA 9,016.47 --------
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