He said
government has not accumulated fresh debt as was imputed by Professor John
Evans Atta Mills, Flagbearer
of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at a recent press conference in
He, however,
agreed that domestic debt stock was currently at ¢60trillion. Osafo-Maafo was speaking at the Meet-The-Press Series in
He said the
total stock of debt had two components - external and domestic stock. The
Minister explained that at the end of 2000,
He said at the
end of last year, external debt stock was ¢6.13bn equivalent to ¢48.57trillion,
at an average exchange rate of 7,923.73. He said when added to the domestic
debt stock of ¢14.1trillion, the total debt stock would stand at
¢62.67trillion.
He said the
difference between the end of 2000 and 2002 external stocks of $330m, the
equivalent of ¢2.6trillion could partly be explained by the net resource flow
on debt out of which 66 per cent was from loans signed before 2001 and 34 per
cent from that in 2001.
Osafo-Maafo said at the end of 2003, the debt stock of ¢14.1trillion
included the restructured Tema Oil Refinery (TOR)
debt of ¢2.4trillion taken over by government from the Ghana Commercial Bank
books. He said it was important to note that there were parastatal
debts, most of which were previously considered as quasi-fiscal operations or
contingent liabilities that had now crystallized.
The Finance and
Economic Planning Minister said these debts would be part of domestic debt,
once they were taken over by government as direct fiscal liabilities. These
included GNPC's debts and the remaining TOR debt.
He argued that
even if the external debt stock last year had remained at the same level of
$5.8bn in 2000, by applying an average exchange rate of ¢7,923.73 for 2002, it
would have meant an external debt stock of about ¢46trillion.
"This
added to the domestic debt stock of 14.1trillion gives ¢60trillion." He
said actual addition to the external debt stock between the end of 2000 and end
of 2002 was $330m, the equivalent of ¢2.6trillion.
Osafo-Maafo said it was not true that the World Economic Forum
ranks
"In the
Contracts and Las index, Ghana is again ranked eighth out of 21 while she is
again ranked 10th least corrupt among the 21 countries in the corruption
index."
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An additional
¢43.843bn was paid in respect of May. The Minister said in accordance with
legislation, government had decided to release funds into the GETFund on a monthly basis with a month's lag. Osafo-Maafo said besides being current with the payment of
the GETFund, road contractors had been paid ¢132.8bn
of outstanding arrears while ¢182.7bn had been used to settle non-road arrears
at the end of June.
He said
monetary developments within the first five months of this year showed a
significant reduction in the growth of key monetary aggregates such as reserve
money, which fell by 11.3 per cent. The Minister said the country had also
improved its gross international reserves to about $820m, representing about
three months of import cover.
Osafo-Maafo said receipts from
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Addressing
Journalists in
He said
expected additional amount to be credited from July to the end of 2003 would be
about ¢535.92bn. He noted that the commitment in the payments "is a clear
demonstration of government's resolve to ensure that the full benefits of the
enhanced HIPC Initiative is accomplished and channelled to poverty related
projects".
The Minister
said it was clear that the country would benefit immensely from the refinements
being made to the HIPC Initiative at the international level.
"This
includes the International Finance Facility of the
He said for
anyone to talk about the failure of HIPC was to show a certain level of
ignorance, especially when
Giving a
breakdown of the disbursement, he said ¢4,782.15bn has been disbursed to the
various sector ministries and ¢157.53bn to local government agencies.
"An
allocation of ¢31.46bn to the Ministry of Works and Housing to contract 150
boreholes, 180 household latrines, 10 institutional latrines for the benefit of
10 districts while over 100,000 people in 181 communities in 10 districts in
three guinea worm endemic regions will have access to potable water and a
guarantee of eradication of the menace."
He said ¢18.6bn
had also been given to support over 40,000 small-scale farmers in all the 10
regions. The Women's and Children Affairs Ministry is also providing
agro-processing machines for shea butter extraction,
groundnut, tomato and gari processing to benefit
120,000 women.
The Ministry of
Manpower Development and Employment is also training 3,000 youths in
dressmaking, tailoring, building and construction, carpentry and joinery and
electrical installation.
Osafo-Maafo said ¢81.4bn had been disbursed for domestic debt
reduction, adding that details of the amount disbursed were available for
reference.
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Koforidua (Eastern Region)
The company
has, therefore, embarked on the mass disconnection of defaulters, recovery and
reallocation of lines to awaiting customers while debtors are being prosecuted
for recovery of the amount.
The Regional
Head of the company, Nii Amaa
Fleischer-Brock, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Koforidua on Monday, however, urged defaulters to pay up
promptly to avoid "the unpleasant situation of having to disconnect their
lines and other punitive measures."
Nii Flesicher-Brock who expressed concern about
the alarming rate, at which the payphones in the region were being destroyed,
also appealed to residents to take good care of the payphones in their areas.
Giving the telephone supply situation in the region, he said there are 10,123
fixed telephone lines in eight out of the 15 districts, 4,285
"one-touch" mobile phones, 581 communication centres and 304 payphones.
Nii Fleischer-Brock said the company would soon acquire switches and radio
equipment to extend telephones to the remaining districts to support the
government's vision of having all
On the
One-touch service, he said it had enjoyed tremendous patronage throughout the
country resulting in a huge back-log of applicants on the waiting list, adding
that more mobile cell sites are to be installed after which starter packs would
be out to serve the public.
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Accra (Greater
Accra) 9 July 2003 - Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo
on Tuesday reiterated government's commitment to increase farmers' share of the
free on board (FOB) price of cocoa to reach the target of 70 per cent by the
2004/2005 Crop Season.
Addressing a
press conference in
Osafo-Maafo said despite the unstable price development in the
world market, which prompted Cote d'Ivoire to review its price paid to farmers
downwards, government had maintained the producer price of ¢8.5m per tonne it
had set in October last year.
He said the
forecast FOB price for the 2002 - 2003 season was ¢13.86m per tonne, while the
producer price paid to the farmer is pegged at ¢8.5m per tonne. "Together
with other farmer support programmes, the farmer is earning ¢9.6m. In line with
unusual upward movement in prices, government has rewarded farmers through the
payment of bonuses," the Minister said.
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Rather government would be guided by prudent
technical and financial analysis to safeguard the interest of the nation.
Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, said this when he took
his turn at the meet the press series in
But government
said it had not the means to inject the 15 million dollars needed by the Bank
to improve its technology and enhance service delivery to a level required by
customers. Osafo-Maafo said such comments without
recourse to economic analysis might not alter government's aim to follow
policies that would help to deepen the country's financial sector, which, he
said, was for now least developed.
He said a
well-developed financial sector would help government to deliver more quickly
its economic development agenda. It is in this vein that the government
appointed a Special Committee to look into the best model for divesting shares
in the Bank.
"For now
no clear decision has been made and I'll not pre-empt the outcome of the Committee's
work," the Minister said. Osafo-Maafo gave the
assurance that no Ghanaian strategic investor would be excluded from the
divestiture process once they met the technical and financial considerations.
He asked social
commentators to study the Banks annual statements of accounts and make their
own judgement about the operations of the Bank.
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