Government says July salaries
will delay if...
At a press conference to add its voice to
the growing public dissent against the sale of government shares, Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwa,
Secretary-General of the TUC, said the coalition would adopt all available
means to ensure that GCB was retained as a strategic national asset.
"We wish to emphasise that TUC is not
against the modernisation of GCB per se. We believe that the secure future of
GCB can be entrusted to competent Ghanaian managers, who have track records in
managing such institutions", he said.
This is in sharp contrast to the position
of Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, who said on
Tuesday that the Executive would not bow to threats or emotional outbursts from
the public on the sale of its shareholdings in the Bank. Government would be
guided by prudent technical and financial analysis to safeguard the interest of
the nation, the Minister said at a press conference in reaction to agitation
against the sale.
Adu-Amankwa said an outright sale of the Bank would
amount to mortgaging the financial system to the detriment of the development
needs of the country, adding that the strategic reasons for which the bank was
set up were still valid as they were some 50 years ago.
"GCB has successfully played this
role of bringing banking services to the door steps of communities that would
otherwise have been without a bank while at the same time mopping up capital
for investment."
Adu-Amankwa accused government of bowing to pressures
of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to privatise GCB.
This is because the two Breton Wood Institutions have expressed dissatisfaction
about the continuous support of the Bank to the Tema
Oil Refinery (TOR) to the tune of over ¢2 trillion.
"The IMF and the World Bank describe
this as a source of soft financing, which has adversely affected the efficient
operations of TOR by avoiding or delaying reforms of its operations and
postponing the introduction of a rational pricing regime for petroleum in
Adu-Amankwa suggested a complete overhaul of the
organizational structure of the country's largest bank with 135 branches to
conform to modern trends by strengthening such areas like information
technology, bank office operations and human resource management.
GRi…/
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The All-Share Index almost doubled to
49.41 from January to June this year as compared to 28.01 per cent for the same
period last year. Indeed the Index moved from 1,395.31 points at the beginning
of January to 2,084.72 points in June.
The gain in the index, even at half-year
rate, was above the prevailing annual interest equivalent on 91-day treasury
bills of 35.27 per cent at end June 2003. The gain was again above the June
2003, 12-month inflation rate of 29.80 per cent as was well as the 45.96 index
gain recorded for the whole of 2002.
He said market capitalization at the end
of the period was 8.652 billion cedis as against the
4.429 billion cedis while percentage increase in
market capitalization was fixed at 39.9 per cent. The figure for the same time
last year was a low of 13.5 per cent.
He attributed the increase to the rise in
share prices of nearly all listed equities. Yamoah
singled out the listing of Cocoa Processing Company as contributing a huge
538billion cedis of total increase in market
capitalization from 861.48 million issued shares in February this year.
The CFAO and the Ashanti Goldfield's
additional listings contributed ¢10 and ¢62bn respectively to the change in
capitalization. Market capitalization went up by just 13.4 per cent to ¢4.429bn
in the first-half of last year.
Yamoah said Volume of shares traded was 51.38
million, raking in ¢256.0bn. Volume of shares traded from January to June last
year was 32.46 per cent and earned only ¢59.30bn.
The value of bonds traded by corporate
members closed at the period at $529,000 compared to the $249,750 posted last
year. Earnings from the Government of Ghana Index Linked Bonds (GGILBS) dropped
fetching a meager ¢2.75bn against the ¢22.22bn for
last year.
Yamoah explained the situation to the recent
increase in inflation due mainly to the recent increase in petroleum prices,
which has made treasury bills more attractive. The major increase in the volume
and value of shares was the arrival of Societe
General Group into SSB Bank operations where they bought in controlling
interest
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 July 2003 - The
Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has expressed disappointment at the way government
divested its shares in Barclays Bank of Ghana Limited and Coca Cola Bottling
Company, Ghana Limited without an offer to the local investing public through
the Exchange.
It said the market would have benefited
immensely, "if government and the parents of these companies had taken the
opportunity to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange." Barclays Bank and Coca
Cola bought back government shares being sold in their respective joint
ventures.
Kinglsey S. Yamoah,
Managing Director of the GSE, observed that promises made by
the government to divest its shares in some companies through the Exchange was
not being fulfilled.
He expressed the hope that
He said it was in this direction that the
Exchange had put in place the provisional and Fast Track Listing Guidelines,
which have been approved by the Council of the Exchange and the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Yamoah said in pursuit of encouraging listings,
the GSE had signed a memorandum of understanding with the African Project
Facility Development to collaborate in assisting small and medium size
enterprises to list and raise long-term capital for their operations.
He noted that there were brighter
prospects for new listings in both short and medium term and. "management
is committed to letting these yield results for the market in particular and
the economy as a whole".
On the protracted issue of automation, Yamoah said the Exchange had stepped up active
collaboration with relevant stakeholders including the Bank of Ghana and the
government under the Financial Sector Structural Programme to source funding.
On the Exchange's position on the
government's intention to off-load its 46.8 per cent shares in Ghana Commercial
Bank, he said the exchange had no position since it was a referee in the field
and could not take sides.
GRi…/
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Government says July
salaries will delay if...
Eugene A Ofosuhene,
Deputy Controller and Accountant General, said: "Until we meet with the
Minister of Education to resolve the MOE's payroll
budget situation, which has currently derailed the entire payroll structure in
the country, salary releases will not come.
"The problem at MOE is so huge that
there appears to be some concealing of names so they are unable to provide us
with realistic figures for their budget."
Ofosuhene noted that the Ministry of Defence would
be an exception since their salaries were paid fortnightly. Ofosuhene
was delivering a lecture at this year's Public Accountancy Week on the topic
"An Overview of the New Business Oriented Cash management System in the
Public Sector".
The
This, according to Ofosuhene,
could be as a result of the large chunk of teachers who joined the service
before this year's budget was approved.
He announced that next week has been
chosen to meet the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports together with heads
of departments to tackle the issue.
GRi…/
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 10 July 2003 - Ghana
Breweries Limited (GBL) recorded a net profit of ¢3.8bn in the first quarter of
2003, Martin Eson-Benjamin, Chairman of the Board of
Directors of the company, said on Tuesday.
Addressing the fifth annual general
meeting of the shareholders he said 16.8 billion cedis
had been invested in plant and equipment. These investments, he said, were
needed to enhance production efficiencies and enlarge cost saving to improve
product quality and ensure overall productivity.
Eson-Benjamin said the Value Added Tax (VAT)
and excise duties paid to the government was ¢82.5bn as compared to ¢75.2bn in
2001 and represented an increase of 9.7 percent.
Financial charges declined from ¢11.4bn in
2001 to ¢9.4bn in 2002, net turnover was ¢136bn in 2002 representing an
increase of 24 percent over 2001.
"Operating profit improved
significantly from negative ¢2.8bn in 2001 to ¢6.3bn last year. This reflected
strategies implemented by management to control costs and improved sales
revenue," he said. Eson-Benjamin said the strong
performances at the turnover and operating profit levels coupled with the lower
interest charges notwithstanding, net loss increased from ¢10.6bn to ¢12.6bn.
This, he said, was attributable to the 36
percent depreciation of the cedi against the Euro during the year that led to
significant exchange losses on inter-company debts.
Cash flow improved as a result of 5m Euro
deposits against shares paid by Heinenken, the parent
company in December 2002. "3m Euro of that amount was used to pay off a
major part of overdrafts and other short-term loans contracted from some local
banks", he said.
He said in 2002, the company started
implementing the first phase of a restructuring plan and set aside ¢3bn in
addition to a ¢5.4bn booked in 2001 for redundant staff. "We continued our
focus on building team spirit and developing employee core competencies through
various training programmes to sustain the trend of positive results."
The Chairman said the company would
continue to discharge its social obligations to civil society as part of its
corporate social responsibility programme with special interest on water
conservation, environmental protection, education and health care.
GRi…/
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