Gri Business News 14-01-99

Accra, (Greater Accra) 14 Jan.  

Four major equities rallied yesterday during trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), sending all market indicators up though on low volume.

The GSE All-Share Index made a turn-around after two successive losses, gaining 2.92 points in the process to finish up at 869.10 points compared to 866.18 points posted on Monday.

This put the increase so far in the new year at 0.09 per cent.

The total volume of shares traded nearly doubled to 62,950 from 31,720 shares.

Shares on offer stood at 2.5 million ahead of bids which finished at 357,100.

Market capitalisation sustained the gains made during the previous session to close at 3.348 billion cedis, up from 3.312 billion cedis registered on Monday.

In the broader market, nine equities saw price changes, eight went up while one went down.

Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC), having showed promise since trading began this year, gained a huge 300 cedis, the third gain in a row, to close mid-week trading at 18,800 cedis. It, however, sold only 50 shares.

Aluworks made 200 cedis to close 2,800 cedis while Fan Milk Limited (FML) ended 100 cedis richer to finish trading at 1,600 cedis.

Mobil Oil Ghana Limited (MOGL) made 1,400 cedis to end 18,500 cedis; SSB Bank made nine cedis at 2,260 cedis, Unilever was up by five cedis at 1,620 cedis, Metalloplastica Ghana Limited made 20 cedis to close at 220 cedis and Mechanical Lloyd Company which closed five cedis richer ended trading at 205 cedis.

The lone loser, Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), was down by 50 cedis to close trading at 1,100 cedis.

The following are the last prices of listed equities:

ABL 800

AGC 18,800 + 300

ALW 2,800 +200

CFAO 55 =20

EIC 2,400

FML 1,600 +100

GBL 2,000

GCB 1,100 -50

GGL 900

HFC 750

MGL 220 +20

MLC 205 +5

MOGL 18,500 +1,400

PAF 400

PTC 400

PZ 900

SCB 24,000

SPPC 251

SSB 2,260 +9

UNIL 1,620 +5

UTC-E 125

Tema, (Greater Accra) 14 Jan. 

Ghanaian freight forwarders were yesterday urged to promote Ghana as an investor friendly country by their work ethics and attitudes.

Nii Armah Ashietey, Tema Municipal Chief Executive who gave the advice, reminded them that, as a point of first contact, their manner of approach and interaction with investors could either entice them or discourage them from investing in Ghana.

He was speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of a 1.5 billion-cedi 130-room office complex for the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), near the Tema port.

Nii Ashietey told the GIFF that their brand of business places them in a unique position to play the role of good public relations officers for Ghana in order to entice crucial partners for the country's gateway programme.

He advised them to build offices at the Tema International Trade Centre (TITC) at Batsonaa which holds great potentials for the growth of the country's private sector ''if the business communities patronise it''.

Nii Ashietey advised the GIFF against negative attitudes such as over-invoicing and under-invoicing since these undermine national economic growth.

Mr Frank Sarpong, Tema district chairman of GIFF, said the huge investment that the government has made in the ports and the gateway project might not yield much results ''if the freight forwarding industry remains as it is today''.

Mr Sarpong, therefore, appealed to the government to guarantee GIFF for an international financial support either in the form of a grant or a loan to put up the infrastructure required for it to play its part towards the realisation of the goals of Vision 2020.

He touched on constraints in their work due to lack of a legal framework for the freight forwarding industry.

The only law that exists is SMCD 188 and Legislative Instrument 1178 of 1978 which puts GIFF's operations under the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS).

The law does not give GIFF any leverage over its members to pursue its programmes let alone enforce its code of ethics and discipline.

Mr Sarpong said ''apart from customs procedures which are just a fraction of freight forwarding, all the other aspects of the industry like cargo consolidation, packaging, road transport and warehousing are not regulated by any law''.

He said GIFF is also determined to end the "portfolio" and under tree" clearing agencies whose activities have adversely affected the smooth operations of all stakeholders in the industry.

The problem surrounding the payment of Value Added Tax (VAT) on imported raw materials to manufacture drugs remains unresolved.

Under the VAT law, while local pharmaceutical companies pay VAT on raw materials they import for production, companies which import finished drugs do not pay VAT.

This has brought about the situation where imported pharmaceutical products have turned out to be cheaper than locally produced ones, a pharmacist said in Accra today.

"This brings the price of locally manufactured drugs to nearly two times or three times higher than the price of imported ones".

Inquiries by GNA at the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the VAT Service revealed that the situation will not change until Parliament debates the issue and comes out with a desirable proposition on how local pharmaceutical companies can operate under the new tax system and not face shutdowns. Mr Ezekiel Asamoah, Director of the VAT Service, said "there are a few things that must be resolved before we will know whether to stop taxing them or not."

"As the situation stands now, local pharmaceutical companies are still paying taxes just as they were doing under the old tax system," he said.

Officials of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) described the situation as bad saying it has the potential of not only worsening the plight of already distressed local pharmaceutical companies, but the entire local manufacturing industry.

They said the liberalisation of the Ghanaian economy has brought in its wake the crippling of all manner of industries ranging from the established and viable to the young and viable adding that this is not good for the economy.

They expressed regret that although they pointed out the problem to the Ministry of Finance, VAT office, Parliament and other relevant bodies as far back as 1995, no attention was paid to it.

The Takoradi plant of the Ghana Cement Works (GHACEM), produced 600,000 tonnes of cement in 1998, representing an increase of about 12 percent over that for 1997.

The plant's production for 1997 was 550,000 tonnes.

Mr. Knut Tiseth, Acting Works Manager, said this on Wednesday, when Mr. Arun Kumar Banerjee, Indian High Commissioner in Ghana, visited the plant at the end of a two-day familiarisation tour of the Western Region.

Mr Tiseth said production has been increasing at an annual rate of about 20 percent since 1986, adding that 20 percent of the cement produced last year was purchased by the mining companies.

The company has put in place health, safety and environmental awareness programme for its workers in addition to measures to minimise pollution.

At the Pioneer Tobacco Company, Mr. Jimmy Idun-Ogle, Managing Director, appealed to the Government to reduce the excise duty being paid by the Company to discourage the smuggling of cigarettes into the country.

He said the Company pays six billion cedis a month in excise duties adding that 53 percent of its revenue go into taxes.

Mr. Joseph Yeung, Managing Director of the Ghana Household Utilities Company, said the factory which started operation in 1960 has a workforce of 300.

It obtains some its raw materials locally and imports others from the European Union, Yugoslavia and China.

The company has now started exporting some of its products.

Mr. Reinhard Kessing, General Manager of B. M. K. Particle Limited, told the High Commissioner that the Company produces particleboard using wood by-products from nearby processing factories for both the local and external market .

He said the company's production process is environmental friendly.

Earlier, Mr. Banerjee had paid a courtesy call on the Lt. Colonel Kaku Korsah, Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Chief Executive, in Sekondi.

Col. Korsah briefed him about the economic potentials of the region especially in the areas of agro-processing, manufacturing and mining and government policies on education and economic reforms.

Mr. Banerjee stressed the need for Ghana and India to work together for their mutual benefit.