All-Share Index in marginal gain
Nyinahin (Ashanti Region) 30 July 2002- The Bank of Ghana (BOG) has commended the new directors and management of Amanano Rural Bank, which virtually collapsed about two years ago, for revitalising and increasing its deposits from 2.4 billion cedis last year to four billion cedis this year.
Mrs Cynthia Abu-Bonsra, Deputy Chief Manager of the Banking Supervision Department of BOG, said within the same period, the bank increased its investments from 1.3 billion cedis to 2.1 billion cedis while loans and advances also increased from 0.7 billion cedis to 1.1 billion cedis.
She was speaking at the 17th annual general meeting of Amanano Rural Bank at Nyinahin in the Atwima District of Ashanti last Saturday. Mrs Abu-Bonsra said weak internal controls had, to a large extent, contributed to the collapse of many rural and community banks and implored the management of the Amanano bank to re-enforce internal control measures to discourage fraudulent practices likely to undermine the bank's stability and performance.
She advised them against the use of depositors' funds on capital expenditure items like computers, building structures and acquisition of vehicles. Mr Kingsley Abraham Benneh, the Bank's Board Chairman, said the government's policy of stabilising the economy slowed the growth of money supply and slumped interest rate generally. It also narrowed the budget deficit, culminating in declined economic activities.
Notwithstanding, the economic slow down, Mr Benneh said there was an increase of 30 per cent in deposits at the bank as well as a marked growth in loans with the net income escalating by 90 per cent compared with the 40 per cent last year.
Mr D. K. Adu, the Acting Supervising Manager, said the bank had intensified its deposits mobilisation drive and also introduced a new product to attract small depositors into the banking stream.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 July 2002- Ghana and Devon Energy and Encana International both oil exploration companies on Monday signed an agreement to prospect for oil in the blocks offshore the Keta Basin.
The deep-water agreement brings together the two companies in a joint venture to pool investment resources of 56 million dollars for exploration activities in the basin. The amount to be invested is besides the 23 million dollars that Devon had already spent on the project after it acquired the assets of Santa Fe in the Basin.
Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Energy and Mr Moses Boateng, Managing Director of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation signed for Ghana, while Mr Steve Stoutamaire, Exploration Manager, Devon and Alastair Hill, Vice-President Africa Exploration, Encana initialled for their respective companies.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said the agreement was a result of government's deliberate decision to streamline the operations of GNPC to enable it focus on its core business of getting the private sector to explore the country's hydrocarbon resources.
"GNPC has been overhauled. Trimmed down from a staff-strength of over 700 to about 100 today. The corporation is being retooled. We have workers who are reasonably motivated. Each one of them is excited to be part of a 'team of Destiny' - a team destined to strike oil for its nation."
The Minister, who was full of praise for the achievements of the two companies, said government was convinced that the country was endowed with hydrocarbon resources that could be exploited for the socio-economic development of the country.
Mr Kan-Dapaah announced that the two companies had also undertaken to kick-start the re-tooling programme of the GNPC through the provision of some PC based workstations and accessories for geoscientists and engineers to facilitate their work. Mr Boateng said the agreement would boost exploration activities in the Keta Basin, which hitherto had not seen any high level of exploration.
He described the agreement as balanced, saying GNPC would share its in-depth knowledge on the geology of the area with the companies while they would bring their expertise and capital to help the country achieve its dream of oil production.
He expressed the hope that the exploration would yield result to attract other companies to the country. Mr Soutaimaire said the agreement was achieved against the background of an outstanding co-operation among the partners. He said both parties stood to benefit substantially if the exploration was successful.
Devon is one of the world's largest and most successful independent oil and gas exploration and production companies based in Houston and ENCANA (Ghana) Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canada-based Independent Oil and Gas Company ENCANA Corporation.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 July 2002- The market index of the Accra bourse opened the week up marginally by 0.04 points to close at 1,254.42 points in a dull market.
Only six out of the 23 listed equities sold shares as investors continued to shy away from the market. A total of 154,100 shares changed hands, with Aluworks selling the highest of 94,700 shares. Ghana Commercial Bank and British American Tobacco sold 28,700 and 24,500 shares respectively.
On the broader market there was only one positive price change and no loses. Unilever gained one cedi to close trading at 3,976 cedis. Market capitalisation closed higher at 4,751.33 billion cedis.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 370
AGC 18,800
ALW 4,000
BAT 935
CFAO 65
EIC 4,200
FML 1,625
GBL 900
GCB 3,260
GGL 910
HFC 955
MGL 253
MLC 255
MOGL 19,610
PAF 750
PBC 440
PZ 1,801
SCB 21,802
SPPC 385
SSB 3,715
SWL 285
UNIL 3,976 +1
CMLT 455
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com