GRi Business, Economics & Finance 28 –
01 - 2003
The Ministers are expected to
submit recommendations at the end of their two-day meeting for the
consideration of the summit of Heads of State, which convenes on 30 and 31 January.
High on their agenda is the
political crisis in the
"The political situation is
first because the security status of the sub-region is not the best and the
current situation in the
De said some efforts had been
made to mitigate the crisis to ensure peace and stability, adding that, the efforts
had to be monitored and sustained. He commended those who brokered the peace in
the
"I urge the leaders and the
people of ECOWAS to ensure that this peace holds and improves on the stability
of the sub-region, because it is still fragile". De said despite some
difficulties on the ECOWAS second monetary zone and the fact that its take-off
point had been shifted from this year to 2005, "great strides have been
made in our efforts to harmonise our various currencies".
The zone includes
He said another area of
achievement was the introduction and use of the organisation's passport to facilitate
the free movement of persons and integration of the sub-region. "However,
efforts so far made to bring these achievements to fruition must be sustained
and improved," he added.
During the session, the
Ministers would consider the annual report of the Executive Secretary, as well
as reports by the community's Parliament, Court of Justice, Bank for Investment
and Development and the Status Report of the Executive Secretariat.
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Currency Buying
Selling
U.S. Dollar 8,326.00 cedis
8,555.91 cedis
Pound
Swiss Franc 6,154.46 6,321.76
Canadian Dollar 5,485.52 5,634.86
Danish Kroner 1,212.75 1,246.12
Japanese Yen 70.67 72.60
South African
Euro 9,024.25 9,268.90
CFA Franc 13.76 14.13
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Nana Wiafe
Ababio, the Chief Executive Officer of the Company,
who announced this, said with this support, the GCMC was now poised to raise
its production levels and boost its viability.
He was addressing a meeting held
with Distributors and Agents of the Company in
Nana Ababio
told them that to achieve effective distribution and marketing of its products,
the GCMC has decided to do away with the old practice where it dealt directly
with individual agents.
Instead, they have zoned the
country with each zone managed by a sole Distributor from whom the Agents would
obtain their supplies. The CEO said to qualify as a Distributor, one should
have a warehouse, provide a collateral or bank guarantee, possess retail
outlets in towns around the region, order a minimum of 500 pieces of 14.5
kilogramme (kg) Cylinders, 100 pieces of six kg Cylinders, 100 pieces of Osugyeni stove, and 100 each of Awarepa
and any new product every month.
Nana Ababio
noted that
Maxwell Kofi Jumah,
Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, announced plans by the Metropolitan
Assembly to ban charcoal-burning in the metropolis. This, he said, is to help
check both the environmental and health hazards associated with the activity.
Jumah noted with concern the high
prevalence of asthma cases particularly among children at Ahinsan
in
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Takoradi (Western Region)
Already, management of the
He said the solicitors for the
stool land and Essikado and GPHA are in the final
stages of formalising the lease agreement on a parcel of land to be developed
for the purpose. He said negotiations would begin next month with the Ghana
Railway Company Limited to acquire a 7.4 hectare plot of land inside the
Additionally, management is
looking for land outside the Port to be developed as back-up storage centre. Ansah stressed that dredging of the port was completed
early this year, thus Buoys I and III have been dredged from 10.4 metres to 11
metres while the berths now have a maximum draft of 10.4 metres from the
previous 9.5 metres.
He noted that with introduction
of 20 per cent rebates on port dues, 10 per cent on stevedoring charges and 10
per cent on pilotage, towage and mooring by the port,
GPHA handled 19,245 tonnes of general cargo between October and December last
year. Ansah said initially, shippers and ship owners
and stevedoring companies were not happy with the rebate but their responses
have improved.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 28 January
2003- The Ghana Stock Exchange opened trading on a dull note on Monday, with
the benchmark GSE-All Share Index inching up a mere 0.71 points in an inactive
market that saw only 3,300 shares changed hands.
The key market gauge closed up
marginally at 1,428.82 points from 1,428.11 points as big institutional
investors continued to shy away from the market. Traded volumes declined to
close at 3,300 shares from 62,600 shares at the previous close on Friday.
On the broader market, there were
three positive price changes. Ghana Commercial Bank gained 8 cedis to close at
3,656 cedis, British American Tobacco was one cedi higher at 1,002 cedis and
SSB Bank gained one cedi at 4,114 cedis.
Market capitalisation was up at
6,394.54bn cedis as against 6,393.08 at the previous close. The change for the
year now stands at 2.40 per cent.
The following are the last
prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 390
AGC 28,000
ALW 3,700
BAT 1,002 +1
CFAO 67
EIC 4,600
FML 1,800
GBL 510
GCB 3,656 +8
GGL 1,102
HFC 1,200
MGL 254
MLC 272
MOGL 19,730
PAF 750
PBC 390
PZ 2,010
SCB 28,700
SPPC 387
SSB 4,114 +1
SWL 285
TBL 4,850
UNIL 4,861
CMLT 460
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Birem (Ashanti Region)
Mrs Gladys Asmah,
the sector Minister who made this known in an interview with the Ghana News
Agency, said 21bn cedis of the amount was disbursed directly to the women while
the remaining 3bn cedis was used to buy machines for some selected women groups
to expand their production base.
Mrs Asmah
was speaking after interacting with women groups in four communities in the Afram Plains portion of the Sekyere
West District on Sunday. The communities were Birem, Kyeiase, Kyekyebon and Faramso.
Mrs Asmah
attributed this year's bumper food harvest to the expanded activities of women
who were mainly engaged in food production and fishing. She expressed
appreciation at the rate at which the women were repaying the loans and said
her Ministry would push for a bigger budget this year to enable more women to
have access to loans.
Mrs Asmah
appealed to husbands of women who benefited from the facilities to assist their
wives to manage the loans to ensure efficient utilisation and maximum benefits.
Mrs Mary Brobbey, the organiser of the women in the
area, said due to poverty among the women, most of them were not able to cater
for their children.
She said this compelled her to
organise the women to form groups to enable them attract material and financial
assistance from the various poverty intervention programmes which had been initiated
by the government to support women.
Kwame Osei Prempeh, Member of
Parliament (MP) for Nsuta-Kwamang, assured the people
of the government's commitment to reduce poverty among women in the rural
areas. He advised the women to form co-operatives to enable them have easy access
to loans to expand their businesses.
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