GRi Business, Economics & Finance 30 –
01 - 2003
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 30
January 2003- Licensed Cocoa Buying Companies (LBCs)
have been called upon to help maintain the quality of Ghana's cocoa through the
adoption of healthy marketing practices.
Nana Kwaku
Nyarko, National Vice-Chairman of the Ghana Cocoa,
Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association (GCCSFA), who made the call, cautioned
that the eagerness to out-do each other by way of the volume of cocoa purchases
should not make them compromise on quality.
He was speaking to the Ghana
News Agency (GNA) in
He said apart from the potential
to undermine quality, this had also led to a high incidence of pilfering of
cocoa in some communities. The GCCSFA National Vice-Chairman said from his
tour, he observed that there was now marked improvement in the living
conditions of farmers as the thatch and bamboo roofing on their houses had been
replaced with roofing sheets.
Nana Nyarko
praised the government for its efforts at making cocoa farming attractive and
rewarding and asked farmers to work hard to expand their farms to increase
production and boost their returns. He also advised them to encourage the youth
and assist them obtain farmlands to go into cocoa growing to sustain the
industry.
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Nkoranza (Brong Ahafo)
Nana Osei-Baafour
told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Nkoranza on
Friday that because private individual businessmen purchase the crop, its price
is not stable.
The cashew farmers have also not
got a common purchasing season for the crop, hence, the people who purchase it
buy at the price of their own.
He stressed the need for cashew
farmers to come together to form an association in order that they could share
ideas to promote their economic activities to enhance their living standards.
Nana Osei-Baafour
described cashew as the cocoa of the grassland and urged the youth who are not
in any employment to grow the crop to improve upon their lifestyles.
He commended the Government for
proposing the establishment of food processing factories towards the storage of
foodstuffs in the country to prevent post-harvest losses.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 January
2003- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday called on stakeholders in the
insurance industry to be more dynamic and intensify the education on the
advantages of insurance to attract more diverse clientele.
He said "it is time to
bring in all the small-scale businesses to appreciate the importance of
insurance to protect their investments” adding that “farmers, fisher folk,
traders, chop-bar keepers should all be persuaded to insure their
businesses. Every house, every business,
no matter how humble must carry an insurance."
President Kufuor made the call
when he unveiled a plaque to commission the eight billion cedis new Head Office
building for Ghana Union Assurance Company Limited (GUA) in
He said an increase in coverage
would inevitably lead to the generation of more funds being available for
investment through the insurance companies as pertains in other countries.
"It will require greater
effort on the part of the insurance companies, their financial advisers and
lawyers to work on potential policy holders to expand this vital
business," he added.
President Kufuor said for the
economy to be modernized, insurance policy should become a normal and everyday
aspect of the lives of Ghanaians and should not be limited to only big business
and the sophisticated people in the urban areas.
"This is the challenge, the
industry must face and overcome," he said. President Kufuor said whilst
urging a change in attitude to make more people to insure their businesses,
properties and take life policy and that insurance companies
should also keep an eye on the affordability of the premiums they demand.
He said there was the perception
that the enthusiasm with which insurance companies take
premiums tended to disappear when it comes to paying claims. "Many people
are put off by the perception that insurance companies always find something in
the proverbial 'fine print' to frustrate their customers," he added.
President Kufuor said the
activities of fraudulent claimants contributed to make the industry adopt this
sceptical attitude to clients.
Kwadwo Duku,
Managing Director of the company said the new facility was a sign of their
continued commitment to their vision of improving services to their clients and
to maintain dedicated client loyalty. He said the company paid 786 million
cedis to flood victims in 1995 and about 2.8 billion cedis to flood victims
last year.
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Tema (Greater Accra)
Frank William Aidoo, a Director of Human Resource Management and
Development of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture said the bulk purchase of
farm produce would serve as a morale booster to farmers to work harder and
increase their yields.
He was opening a three-day
national executive council meeting of the Ghana National Agricultural Technical
Class Association (GNATCA) in Tema. It was under the theme: "the
agriculturist in the production sector".
Aidoo said the current glut in the
system should be the prime concern of all agricultural staff and it is about
time they moved away from production to post production by changing the
marketing environment.
He said marketing of produce has
been a major issue confronting the ministry and, therefore, impressed upon agricultural
extension officers to educate and provide the right information to the farmers
to enable them to appreciate the system and go into postproduction activity.
Presently, he said, the ministry
is laying emphasis on rehabilitation of dams and irrigation projects in the
country to encourage all year round farming to increase productivity.
According to the Director, the
survival and effectiveness of the ministry depends on the efficiency of
agricultural extension officers and, therefore, urged them to be conversant
with the "Food/Agriculture Sector Development Programme" (FASDP) a
blueprint document that the ministry works with.
The document contains the
vision, objectives, and function as well as provides vital points on guidelines
such as marketing strategy, facilitation of food production for security,
policy formulation of effective coordination and distribution system, among
others.
Emmanuel Kuwornu,
national president of the GNATCA commended Major Courage Quashigah,
the sector minister, for the efforts he is making towards boosting agricultural
productivity, especially in rice production, fisheries, livestock and the
mechanisation sectors resulting in abundant food.
In a welcoming address, Patrick Amartey, Greater Accra regional president of the Association
debunked the notion that the region is not an agricultural area, saying that
the region, as a gateway to exports and imports of agricultural products, and
inputs, continues to play a role to boost productivity.
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Tema (Greater Accra)
A source close to the Ministry
of Manpower Development and Employment told GNA that Kwesi
Adu Amankwah, Secretary
General of TUC, who tabled the proposal, a 68 per cent increase in the minimum
wage, said TUC would provide the scientific basis for the proposal at the
appropriate time.
The source said when the
technical committee presented its report at the meeting it was agreed that
members should be given time to study it and reconvene on Tuesday, 4 February.
Jake Obetsebi
Lamptey Minister of Information and Presidential
Affairs, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and
Industries, and Mrs Grace Coleman, Deputy Minister of Finance attended the
meeting.
Also at the meeting was an eight-member
team from the Ghana Employers Association, led by its President, Ato Ampiah. Last Week Wednesday,
the tripartite committee held its first meeting following the hike in fuel
prices.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 January
2003- The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) on Wednesday called for a yearly
fiscal reconciliation of government tax revenue vis-à-vis the amount allocated
to the Common Fund Administrator to ensure that the statutory five per cent of
revenue earmarked for the fund is complied with to forestall any shortfalls in
monies due district assemblies for development.
Professor Bartholomew Armah,
Senior Economist at the IEA, told a policy forum in
According to him, analysis of
actual disbursements and actual tax revenues had shown that apart from 1995, in
which government fully exceeded its statutory obligations, average
disbursements were 0.2 percentage points short of their statutory level.
Prof Armah said the requirement
in the law that the Common Fund Administrator submits a disbursement formula
proposal in March of every year constituted a major source of delay in the
disbursement of the first quarter releases.
Further delays are caused by
failure of district assemblies in submitting their supplementary budgets. Prof
Armah said undue delays in the disbursement had adverse impacts on the
execution of development programs in the districts and also adversely impact on
their liquidity position.
"It also contributes to
cost over-runs in project execution, particularly in a high inflation
environment and in accumulation of deficits at the district level when
commitments are made in anticipation of District Assembly Common Fund
inflows," he said.
Prof. Armah said it would serve
the needs of the district assemblies better if the Common Fund Administrator
could come out with the formula early in the year instead of March to forestall
delays in the first quarter disbursement.
Touching on misuse of
development funds and revenue at the district level, Prof Armah said it was
necessary to punish recalcitrant districts by placing a portion of Funds meant
for them in an escrow account to be used in correcting any deficiencies in the
capacity of personnel at that level.
He said there was equally the
need to prosecute offending officials to serve as deterrent to others. Prof
Armah said there was also the need to review the MPs share of the common fund
to make it consistent with the needs of the district assemblies.
Captain (Rtd)
Nkrabea Effah-Darteh,
Deputy Minister of Local Government called for appropriate mechanism to remove
bottlenecks to ensure the early release of funds, saying the delays in the
release were unacceptable.
He also called for a proper
linkage between the capacities of revenue generation at the district assembly
levels, adding that reliance on the Common Fund tended to weaken the
mobilisation base of most assemblies.
Participants at the forum,
however, said the three years covered by the presentation was not
representative enough. They called for appropriate monitoring to ensure that
laid down procedures were followed.
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Currency Buying Selling
U.S. Dollar 8,344.18 cedis 8,556.00 cedis
Pound
Swiss Franc 6,187.95 6,341.24
Canadian Dollar
5,463.67 5,601.18
Danish Kroner 1,220.96 1,251.54
Japanese Yen 70.66 72.43
South African
Euro
9,079.88 9,307.67
CFA Franc 13.84 14.19
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The index ended 0.43 points
higher at 1,429.25 points, up by a mere 0.43 points over Monday's close. Traded
shares were 102,000 shares compared with 3,300 on Monday, with
one equity, Camelot Limited (CMLT), selling 93,200 shares, as big
institutional investors continued to shy away from the market.
On the broader market, there
were only two changes, both positive. Ghana Commercial Bank continued its steady
rise with an additional five cedis to end the day on 3,661 cedis while Unilever
was one cedi richer at 4,862 cedis.
Market capitalisation was up at
6,395.43 billion cedis from 6,394.54 billion cedis at the previous close. The
change for the year now stands at 2.43 per cent from 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
CFAO 67
EIC 4,600
FML 1,800
GBL 510
GCB 3,661 +5
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
SWL 285
TBL 4,850
UNIL 4,862 +1
CMLT 460
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