GRi Business News 28-01-99

Accra (Greater Accra), 28 Jan.  

The volume of shares traded on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) in Accra yesterday slumped, but gains in two equities sustained the market, sending the GSE All-Share Index up by 1.41 points. The market index appreciated to 893.68 points from the 892.27 registered during the last session. Total shares offered, though lower at two million, far out-numbered bids of 204,600, with investors still in a profit-taking mood. Total shares offered at the last session finished at 2.3 million. Market capitalisation closed mid-week trading at 3,408 billion cedis, compared to Monday's close of 3,406 billion cedis.

On the broader market, there were five price changes - three up, two down. Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) continued its gains, rising by 50 cedis to end at 25,350 cedis, while Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL) went up by 20 cedis to close at 1,000 cedis. Mechanical Lloyd Company (MLC) made eight cedis on its share price to close trading at 250 cedis.

On the losing side, Ghana Brewery Limited (GBL) dropped by 50 cedis to close at 1,650, while CFAO lost three cedis to close at 55 cedis.

The following are the last prices of equities in cedis :

ABL 800

AGC 19,000

ALW 2,800

CFAO 55 -3

EIC 2,300

FML 1,680

GBL 1,650 -50

GCB 1,100

GGL 1,000 +20

HFC 750

MGL 225

MLC 250 +8

MOGL 20,000=09

PAF 400

PTC 400

PZ 900

SCB 25,350 +50

SPPC 250

SSB 2,280

UNIL 1,650

UTC-E 125

Accra (Greater Accra), 28 Jan.  

The basic strategy of the First Medium-term Development Plan (1997-2000) is to create an enabling nvironment to facilitate the emergence of the private sector as the principal contributor to national economic development. "The private sector is expected to play the leading role in spearheading the growth of the economy during the Plan period," according to the Vision 2020 document released in Accra yesterday. It said the contribution of the private sector towards realising sectoral output targets, productivity improvements and the creation of employment opportunities is crucial.

"It will have to play a significant role, particularly in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, which are targeted to achieve significantly higher growth rates in terms of output and exports."

The document said sectoral strategies will focus on diversifying the economic base, promoting the growth of value-added activities and finding new potential areas of product development. It said the aim will be to gradually build up the manufacturing sector to become the lead sector of the economy. The agriculture sector will, however, remain the largest in terms of output and contribution to employment in the medium-term, the document said. "These efforts to transform the structure of production will strength en the resilience of the economy and reduce the dependence of the economy on the vagaries of commodity prices."

The document noted that generally the private sector thrives best under stable macro-economic conditions and on an environment where the cost of doing business is low.

"Government will, therefore, provide a conducive environment which will facilitate the growth of private investment, entrepreneurship and domestic/external business partnerships."

Towards this end, fiscal and monetary policies will aim at maintaining stable prices, favourable exchange rates and a manageable balance of payments position, the document said.

"Policies will be made transparent, and the nation's infrastructure will be considerably expanded. Existing legal provisions and administrative procedures, which guarantee security of investments, will be enforced." The document said monetary policy will continue to aim at maintaining economic stability and promoting a sound financial structure. Government will manage the domestic liquidity situation to ensure that money and credit expansion will support growth consistent with the need to maintain continued price stability in the domestic economy and a viable balance of payments position in the long-run.

"Greater efforts will be made to strengthen the development of the financial capital markets so that domestic savings will be more efficiently mobilised and channelled towards the productive sectors of the economy, particularly agriculture and manufacturing. "This will require policy changes to encourage technological upgrading to diversify the agriculture base and to promote industrial restructuring and modernisation, especially among small-scale industries."

The document said in addition to ensuring that development will take place in an environment of financial and monetary stability, "government will exercise greater flexibility and pragmatism in its policies and measures to foster private enterprise".

The document noted that achievement of higher levels of private investment will require "a radical restructuring of the system of financial intermediation for the private sector". Therefore, macro-economic stability will be accompanied by "financial deepening". "This will enable the economy to generate adequate domestic savings to finance investments necessary for rapid growth. Aggressive resources mobilisation strategies will be pursued by banking and financial institutions.

"New and innovative mechanisms to mobilise savings in addition to raising more funds from existing sources will be required." The document said additional potential areas for savings mobilisation include further tapping of provident funds, institutionalising unit trust schemes and encouraging banks to develop new financial products and services.

It said government will carefully consider the possibility of extending the coverage of existing provident fund and pension funds in order to incorporate a wider range of membership and increase moderately the contribution rates with the view to increasing the contribution base of these funds.

The document said the banks are to develop new mechanisms or offer new financial products and banking services to foster the development of a savings culture.

The following are the average inter bank exchange rates of the cedi to the dollar and other derived rates as against the major foreign currencies for today Thursday January 28, as announced by the Ghana Association of Bankers.

Currency Buying Selling

US Dollar 2,340.18 2,372.82 cedis

Pound Sterling 3,853.11 3,909.22 "

French Franc 408.78 414.31 "

Swiss Franc 1,663.98 1,685.95 "

Deutsche Mark 1,370.53 1,389.99 "

Canadian Dollar 1,539.89 1,560.38 "

Japanese Yen 20.28 20.56 "

Dutch Guilder 1,216.50 1,233.19 "

S/African Rand 387.10 391.21 "

Euro 2,681.73 2,717.95 "

CFA Franc 4.09 4.14 "

Naira 27.92 28.31 "