Koforidua (Eastern Region) 10 December 2002 - Ineffective revenue collection coupled with corrupt practices on the part of some officials of the Ghana Telecom (GT) has resulted in huge outstanding bills of over 202 billion cedis owed by customers to the Company as at September 2001.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ghana Telecom (GT), Professor Stephen Kwabena Boakye Asante, made this known at a durbar with the staff of the company at Koforidua, as part of a day's working visit to the Eastern Region.
Besides the problems associated with the Stock Purchase and Sale Agreement signed between the government and G. Com Limited of Malaysia, which was currently subject of negotiations, the Board was also confronted with "a host of interlocking problems that had militated against the progress of GT in the various areas of management and operation."
Among them were inadequate financial resources to settle debts owed to some international suppliers and contractors resulting in the inability of the company to expand and modernise its operations.
He mentioned poor billing and inefficient and ineffective service delivery as well as the delay in installing new telephones and restoring faulty ones, which had provoked sustained public outcry against the performance of the company.
Professor Asante said the Board, since assumption of office in July 2001, had been making strenuous efforts to give GT a new orientation to enable it to be viable and competitive in meeting the challenges of the information age and effective implementation of the government's telecommunication policy.
He said the Board was in the process of establishing "rewarding partnerships" between GT and a number of similar companies in Europe, America, Asia and Africa to put the company on the world telecommunication map.
The Board, with the assistance of the International Communication Union (ICU), Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, was also restructuring the company to meet the challenges of the information revolution.
Professor Asante announced that a new subsidiary company would also be created to operate the ONE-TOUCH and upgrade and expand the GT Training School to provide communication education to teachers to enable them implement the government's policy of providing schools and colleges with computers and internet Inter-connectivity.
The upgrading and expansion of the school was also to create a bilingual "Centre of Excellence for the ECOWAS sub-region for the training of policy makers, administrators and regulators."
Professor Asante said the pay-phone system would also be strengthened to increase revenue and enhance the company's public image while a partnership would be established with School Net Africa, to facilitate information and communication technologies in schools.
He gave an assurance that the measures being taken by the Board would not in any way affect their job security and urged them to work hard to promote the image of the company.
Earlier, the Board Chairman inspected some new telephone facilities installed by the company in the New Juaben Municipality.
The Eastern Regional Director of the company, Mr Paul Evans Amuzu, who took the chairman round, said 5,000 new digital exchange lines had been installed to increase telephones lines in the municipality to 9,000.
He said the company was in the process of switching the lines from the old customer network to the new network and called on the residents to cooperate.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 January 2002 - Several market indices made their first move of the year on Wednesday, thanks to gains by Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB).
The Ghana Stock Exchange All Share Index jumped to 0.49 points at 956.44 points and change for the year was 0.05 per cent. Market capitalisation also moved up to 3,904.98 billion cedis from 3,904.03 billion cedis.
However, shares traded were down from 250,100 on Monday to 41,300. Only nine equities sold shares. The EIC, which gained 11 cedis at 3,061 cedis, sold only 100 shares while SCB the most expensive equity, which gained 51 cedis at 20,551 cedis also sold only 100 cedis.
Aluworks, which sold 225,000 shares on Monday, sold 28,200 on Wednesday. The following are the closing prices of the equities in cedis:
ABL 320
AGC 18,800
ALW 4,300
BAT 627
CFAO 60
EIC 3,061 +11
FML 950
GBL 1,000
GCB 1,570
GGL 901
HFC 952
MGL 241
MLC 145
MOGL 18,500
PAF 800
PBC 450
PZ 1,010
SCB 20,551 +51
SPPC 341
SSB 2,200
UNIL 2,300
CMLT 430
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 January 2002
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 7,165.91 7,356.55
Pound Sterling 10,321.78 10,600.05
Swiss Franc 4,326.52 4,440.18
Canadian Dollar 4,495.35 4,613.53
Japanese Yen 54.08 55.51
S/African Rand 627.81 641.70
Euro 6,396.74 6,563.50
CFA Franc 9.75 10.01
Naira 64.31 66.02
ECOWAS/WAUA 9,004.04 --------
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