Allow Rural Banks to appoint auditors
Accra bourse index in modest gain
Dodowa (Greater Accra) 16 July 2001
Shareholders of the Shai Rural Bank at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region have called on Parliament to review the law, which mandates the Bank of Ghana to appoint auditors for rural banks because that gives no room for competition.
This suggestion came to the fore when agitated shareholders at the annual general meeting of the bank at Dodowa were told for the second consecutive year that they were not going to be paid dividends.
Members expressed the view that if they were allowed to choose their own auditors there could be room for bargaining to reduce the four million cedis charged by the auditors.
Reasons put forth for the non-payment of dividends included the poor level of the balance on retained earnings and low level of profits.
The Chairman of the Bank's Board, Nene Awate Bana Atrokpa said because the Dangme West District Assembly had failed to pay some of their contractors they were also not able to repay their loan.
Nene Atrokpa said efforts would be intensified to recover the outstanding loans adding that there was a bright future and that the banks was still classified among satisfactory rural banks in the country.
The Chairman said the bank was on course to pay its share of 20 million cedis towards the setting up of an Apex Bank for rural banks before the year 2004.
He said that the construction of a permanent office has reached an advanced stage.
Mr J. L. Adjei, Manager of the Bank said out of 122 rural banks Shai Rural Bank was ranked 15 in terms of performance.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 July 2001
Dr. Gheysika Agambila, Deputy Minister of Finance on Saturday reiterated the government's policy not to continue subsidising state enterprises that operate at a loss.
Subsidising such institutions is a huge drain on the national revenue, Dr. Agambila said in an interview with newsmen at the Airport on his arrival from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia after leading a 10-member Ghanaian delegation to a forum on poverty reduction strategy.
He said although the prudent option of salvaging loss-making enterprises is recapitalisation either through privatisation or a total sell-out, it would be wrong for people to think that the government will just accept any conditionality of lending institutions.
The Deputy Minister said national interest in strategic enterprises would also be maintained and protected.
Dr. Agambila said a new approach and strategy involving civil society, labour and community, was adopted instead of the "top down approach" which failed.
He explained that Ghana's delegation which included parliamentarians, civil society groups and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) is a reflection of the new demand by the international community that all stakeholders should be involved in poverty reduction programs.
The four-day forum was jointly organised by the Economic Community of Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank.
Nine African countries including Ghana attended the forum which was organised by the Government of Netherlands.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 July 2001
Traded volumes rallied on Friday, lifting shares traded to 3.3 million shares, from a mere 32,000 shares at the previous close, powered by a fresh round of buying by institutional investors.
However, the GSE-All Share Index, the key stock measure, only rose by a modest 0.27 points on the strength of gains by Mobil Oil Ghana Limited and Unilever, as the bourse continued to struggle under bearish sentiments.
The index finished trading at 934.57 points as against 934.30 points at the previous close.
There were two price changes, both positive. Mobil Oil Ghana Limited gained 50 cedis for the second time on the trot to close at 19,600 and Unilever went up five cedis at 1,810 cedis.
The change for the year to date inched up at 8.93 per cent. Market capitalisation was up slightly firmer at 3,789.24 billion cedis compared to 3,788.72 billion cedis on Wednesday.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 630
AGC 18,500
ALW 12,100
BAT 550
CFAO 60
EIC 2,890
FML 853
GBL 1,300
GCB 1,600
GGL 900
HFC 952
MGL 240
MLC 130
MOGL 19,600 +50
PAF 350
PBC 450
PZ 640
SCB 21,000
SPPC 306
SSB 2,300
UNIL 1,810 +10
CMLT 425
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 July 2001
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 6,988.18 7,234.18
Pound Sterling 9,793.93 10,144.49
French Franc 908.33 940.06
Swiss Franc 3,941.54 4,077.37
Deutsche Mark 3,045.66 3,153.69
Canadian Dollar 4,555.95 4,713.54
Japanese Yen 56.34 58.32
Dutch Guilder 2,703.71 2,798.17
S/African Rand 848.87 877.56
Euro 5,958.11 6,166.49
CFA Franc 9.08 9.40
Naira 64.70 66.98
Ecowas/WAUA 8,826.46 --------
GRi../
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