GRi Business, Economics & Finance 01 –
02 - 2003
Accra (Greater Accra) 01
February 2003- Vice President Aliu Mahama on Friday received a report on
facilitating the access of local contractors to World Bank-funded and other
donor-funded projects and said it would reverse the situation that made foreign
firms gain 60 per cent of the $1.4bn spent on infrastructure.
The amount was spent between
1996 and 2000. He said improving the capacity of local construction firms to successfully
compete for major projects would create wealth, jobs and help the national
economy to grow.
Vice President Mahama,
therefore, tasked the Ministries of Works and Housing, Roads and Transport and
Finance to speedily consider the 55-page report and make recommendations for
Cabinet to take the necessary action.
He said: “This issue is of high
priority to the government because we desire to localise our economy. We have to
help our local firms to grow. Their managerial and other capacities must
improve to make them competitive.”
The Vice President commended the
seven-member committee tasked with the assignment for a good job done and the
World Bank for supporting the initiative. “The issue must be of interest to our
development partners because when our firms become competitive it would reduce
our reliance on them,” he said.
Dr Richard Anane, Minister of
Roads and Transport, said his Ministry with the other relevant agencies, would
push forward the laudable agenda. Dr Thomas Fokuo Agyapong, Chairman of the
Committee, said with consultations from many experts and stakeholders, the
Committee examined the issues confronting contractors, identified their
constraints and potentials and made suggestions to address them.
The Committee, Dr Agyapong said
looked at the criteria for qualifying for road, building and other projects and
assessed the equipment holding of contractors, staff strength, assets, and
their training programmes for personnel.
It also examined their finances,
delays in the payment of jobs executed, business practices and the packaging of
contracts. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Johannes Twumasi-Mensah,
Chairman of the Association of Road Contractors, said the major constraint in
his area was meeting the high annual turnover set as a major criteria.
“They demand between $100m to
$200m as turn over, and this amount, I believe is even difficult for the
government to raise, let alone a local firm,” he said, adding that the
threshold affect other criterion like equipment holding and staff strength.
Twumasi-Mensah, however,
stressed that Ghanaian contractors were competent to execute major jobs, saying
when the foreign firms win they utilise mainly local expertise for their jobs.
He cited the Accra-Nsawam road,
which was executed by Swedru Contractors about 22 years ago, saying that asphalted
road which became eligible for rehabilitation quite recently attested to their
competence, adding that it lasted longer than the
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It said the increases were “high
and too harsh,” adding that, they would aggravate “the poor state of Ghanaians
especially those in the rural settings”. In a statement signed by Hamidu
Mohammed and Osei Kennedy, Chairman and Secretary respectively in
It said the decision to increase
the prices of petroleum products was not the result of the 3.4 trillion-cedi
debt of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) as claimed by the government.
The increases had no bearing
with the debt. Instead the hike in the prices of petroleum products is the
result of “the government's incompetence in handling of the rot and corrupt
practices prevailing at the Ministry of Energy and TOR,” it said.
The TEIN stressed that increase
in salaries alone would not mitigate the hardships Ghanaians would have to bear
as a result of the fuel and transport fare hikes since such “salary increases
only go to benefit those in the formal sector of employment who happen to also
be in the minority”.
The TEIN urged the government to
“keep faith with Ghanaians and cease shifting blames for their inability to
deliver on their electoral pledges on the previous government”.
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The index ended 6.04 points
higher at 1,435.29 points from Wednesday's close of 1,429.25 points. Traded
shares were up more than five times at 582,400 shares from 102,000 shares on Wednesday.
Ten of the 24 listed equities sold shares
On the broader market, there
were six positive gainers with no loser. British American Tobacco led the way
with 98 cedis at 1,100 cedis followed by a 41-cedi gain by Ghana Breweries
Limited at 551 cedis.
SSB Bank was 38 cedis richer at
4,152 cedis, Ghana Commercial Bank rose by nine cedis at 3,670 cedis, PZ gained
five cedis at 2,015 cedis and Guinness Ghana Limited inched up by one cedi at
1,103 cedis.
Market capitalisation responded
by jumping up at 6,407.84 cedis from 6,395.43bn cedis at the previous close. The
change for the year now stands at 2.87 per cent from 2.43 per cent.
The following are the last
prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 390
AGC 28,000
ALW 3,700
BAT 1,100 +98
CFAO 67
EIC 4,600
FML 1,800
GBL 551 +41
GCB 3,670 +9
GGL 1,103 +1
HFC 1,200
MGL 254
MLC 272
MOGL 19,730
PAF 750
PBC 390
PZ 2,015 +5
SCB 28,700
SPPC 387
SSB 4,152 +38
SWL 285
TBL 4,850
UNIL 4,862
CMLT 460
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Deposits grew from 3.6bn cedis to
5.6bn cedis, a growth of 80 percent while net assets increased from 4.5bn cedis
to 6.5bn cedis. These were announced by Prof Florence Dolphyne, Chairperson of the
Board of Directors of the bank, at its Ninth Annual General Meeting in
She said one issue that has
affected the company significantly has been its limited capital position. This
situation, Prof. Dolphyne said, prevented the company from expanding its credit
activities and from generating interest income to improve its profitability.
To improve efficiency in the
performance of the bank, Prof. Dolphyne said Project, Marketing and the
Management Information System departments were established in the year 2002.
The Board Chairperson said the
bank is currently working on two new products that would be introduced on the
market in the course of this year and expressed the hope that these products
will be widely patronized to enable the bank generate income and improve its
profit position. No dividend was recommended for payment to the shareholders
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