Accra (Greater Accra) 19 January 2002 - Air Afrique on Friday put the smiles back on the faces of its customers and staff when it assured them that although the airline would be liquidated a new carrier would replace it soon.
Mr Sessime Simeon Quadjovie, General Manager for Ghana, said in an interview that the new airline would be known as ''New Air Afrique'' and would operate like its predecessor.
"It would retain its old staff, operate Air Afrique airplanes and ply the same routes. But until Air Afrique's liquidation by March, the airline would be functioning as usual'', he said.
The Heads of States of 11 francophone African countries that own the debt-ridden Air Afrique at summit in Abidjan on January 10 decided that it should be liquidated and a new one established.
The summit also decided that an Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders should be convened before the end of January "to confirm the suspension of payment of its debts and the liquidation of the original company".
Mr Quadjovie said the 11 countries would hold 22 per cent shares in the "New Air Afrique'' with the remaining shares going to Air France, DHL and some banks. "There will be no let up. The new airline will operate as the old one. We want to assure our customers and staff that there will be no break in our operations", he said.
Several airlines are facing tremendous difficulties following the September 11 suicide attacks in the United States in which hijackers slammed commercial airplanes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in Washington. A third aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania.
Bookings for air travels have dropped significantly and enhanced security on airplanes is proving financially burdensome for some airlines, driving some of them out of business while others had to be bailed out by their governments.
GRi../
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Tema (Greater Accra) 19 January 2002 - Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry, on Friday commissioned a two-million-dollar Crown Cork production plant for the Carnaudmetal Box Ghana Limited and Crown Cork/Seal Ghana Limited at Tema.
The company, which started production one and half years ago, is the first of its kind to come out with the product. Additionally, it produces food and fish cans for breweries and food processing companies in the country.
Dr Apraku noted that packaging was a very important aspect for economic growth saying that the country has the potential to produce a wide range of products, but poor packaging made such products uncompetitive on the international market.
He, therefore, commended the company for it its products and said the investment made showed the kind of investor-confidence that was is prevailing in he country and attributed this to "the political stability and good governance in the country".
The Minister urged directors of the company to be "worthy investment ambassadors of Ghana" by helping to market the country to other business partners.
He said the government's "Golden Age of Business" policy was doing everything possible to create a congenial macro-economic environment by giving priority to the private sector and entrepreneurs for industrial development.
He said all obstacles in business were being rectified and the incentive and legal framework were also being reviewed to enhance the efficiency of the private sector.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 January 2002 - Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, on Friday reiterated the need for Ghana to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to facilitate the elimination of poverty and urged international partners to assist in getting such investments.
At a meeting at which former Finance Minister, Dr Kwesi Botchwey, led a four-member delegation to call on the Vice President at the Castle Osu, Mr Osafo-Maafo said the country had to go beyond achieving a favourable macro-economic environment to make it a prosperous one.
"It is necessary for us to achieve a stable macro-economic environment, but that is not sufficient to achieve development and remove poverty. "We need growth exceeding three to four per cent and heavy inflows of FDI would help to achieve this." Mr Osafo-Maafo said Asian countries, which had pursued similar programmes as Ghana had performed better because of their ability to attract FDI.
Mr Osafo-Maafo, therefore, appealed to Dr Botchwey and his team to encourage the inflows of FDI into Ghana. Other members of the team included Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard University, Jamie Drummond of Jubilee 200 and Bono, a singer and campaigner for relief and aid for Africa.
Dr Botchwey, currently a professor at Harvard University in the United States, presented a copy of a report of a study he undertook with Prof. Sachs and others, to the Vice President, which recommends a substantial increase in funds for poor countries to finance their health budget.
He said he recommended Ghana as a model for such assistance because of her economic performance. Prof. Sachs said the team was interested in assisting Ghana to strategise for economic growth and would also seek investment from Europe and the United States for her.
The Vice President urged the team to share its ideas with Ghana, which is on the way to economic recovery and work towards the debt cancellation of her debts.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 January 2002 - The privatisation of toll collection on the
Kumasi-Sunyani, Kumasi-Mampong-Ejura roads and the Accra-Tema Motorway on trial basis yielded significant revenue growth.
Toll collection on the Motorway jumped up by 25 per cent last year, moving from a monthly revenue of 279 million cedis to 396.5 million cedis a month during the trial period. Mr Francis Digber, Roads Engineer, told the GNA in Accra that collection of tolls on other roads would subsequently be privatised.
The decision to privatise the collection of tolls was taken after traffic counts on 10 toll roads showed that revenue collection was on the lower side. Five more roads on which tolls should be collected had been identified and sent to Parliament for approval. He did not name the roads.
The advantages of the privatisation exercise, Mr Digber said, was for the private company to supply and install the toll collection equipment, improve collection, maintain the facilities and pay revenue one month in advance.
He said hitherto, all government and some private vehicles did not pay tolls, which resulted in lower revenue. But the new Act passed in 1999 exempts only vehicles used by the military, police, Fire Service, prisons, Red Cross, government and mission hospital ambulances and diplomatic missions.
The Ghana Road Fund Secretariat was currently evaluating tenders for toll collection on three roads Kumasi-Sunyani, Kumasi-Mampong and the Tema-Motorway where the agreement with the contractors had expired, Mr Digber said.
Those for the Sunyani-Dormaa-Ahenkro, Kintampo-Tamale-Bolgatanga and the Tema-Akosombo roads were also being evaluated. In the interim Ghana Highway Authority staff would continue to collect tolls pending privatisation.
Mr Digber said factors considered for a company to secure a contract included banking procedures and security and increased revenue. The intention of the Fund was to toll all trunk roads but they would first have to be improved from their current poor or fair state to good conditions.
He said it was important for road users to understand that they must be prepared to pay more to continue to enjoy good quality roads.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 January 2002 - The main indicators of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) remained static once again on Friday as investors continued to shy away from the market.
The GSE All-Share Index, market capitalization and change for the year were unchanged in Friday's trading where only nine of the 22 listed equities sold shares. The Index, the main market indicator, which had changed only once since the year began, remained on 956.44 points. Change for the year was 0.05 points and market capitalisation remained at 3,904.98 billion cedis.
Total shares traded went down further from 95,000 on Wednesday to 64,800 shares with Unilever selling the highest, 35,100. 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
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
SPPC 341
SSB 2,200
UNIL 2,300
CMLT 430
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 January 2002
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 7,173.55 7,369.00
Pound Sterling 10,299.07 10,583.36
Swiss Franc 4,396.83 4,411.02
Canadian Dollar 4,450.57 4,567.50
Japanese Yen 54.04 55.51
S/African Rand 628.62 642.93
Euro 6,311.09 6,482.52
CFA Franc 9.62 9.88
Naira 64.31 66.06
Ecowas/WAUA 9,016.50 --------
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