Six Head of States to attend Privatisation Summit
Bank of Ghana praised for new independent stance
Three companies raise hope for oil discovery
Six Head of States to attend Privatisation Summit
Accra (Greater Accra), 28th June 99 -
Six Heads of State, Ministers and 23 international experts are expected to attend the Third African Privatisation Summit to be held in September in Accra.
The Summit to be held from the 8th to the 10th would provide a platform for African leaders, ministers, private sector, financiers, investors and academics, to discuss current trend in the divestiture programmes on the continent and to find solutions to issues of privatisation in Africa.
Mr Everest Ekong, Publisher of Business In Africa Magazine, convenors of the summit told newsmen who would be covering the event last night that the Accra Summit will be the third after the first two in Johannesburg.
He said President Jerry Rawlings would deliver the keynote address with support from Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.
Others Presidents expected at the Summit are Omar Bongo of Gabon, Henri Kona Bedie of Ivory Coast and Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso.
The Summit titled "Privatisation in Practice - Restructuring of State Owned Enterprises in Africa into the next millennium" is co-hosted by the government of Ghana through the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC).
Mr Ekong said the event would provide a forum to update African privatisation issues since its beginning in the eighties.
"Problems of transparency, politics, joint venture opportunities, social impact of privatisation, unemployment and labour unions, post privatisation experiences, country case study and a special one day focus on Ghana's divestiture programme".
Ghana Day at the event will feature speakers including Mr Kwame Peprah, Minister of Finance, Dr Obed Asamoah, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Mr Ekow Spio Garbrah, Minister of Education, Mr Ishamel Yamson, Chairman Unilever Ghana and Mr Christian Appiah-Agyei, secretary-general of the Trades Union Congress.
Mr Ekong said the event is important to the West Africa sub-region, especially Nigeria which is expected to off-load about 100 billion dollars worth of assets in the areas of manufacturing, communication, transportation, energy and the financial sectors soon.
Mr Emmanuel A. Agbodo, Executive Secretary of DIC said the Summit is the first in West Africa, and will offer an opportunity to assess Ghana's privatisation procedures.
"We are going to the Summit as learners as this is going to enable us pick up useful lessons that will enhance our own programme," he said.
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Bank of Ghana praised for new independent stance
Tema (Greater Accra), 28th June 99 --
The Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) has commended the "strong independence" of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) which it says now enables it to dishonour government cheques which are likely to cause monetary problems.
CEPA said the BOG has since 1998 shed its "previous image of a passive institution", which accommodated fiscal excesses, and become a strong supervisory authority with a lot of clout over monetary, exchange rates and fiscal developments in the country.
Dr J. L. S. Abbey, Executive Director of CEPA, made the commendation in a speech read on his behalf by Dr Nii Kwaku Sowah, Core Research Fellow of the Centre, at the Presidential Ball of the Rotary Club of Tema on Saturday night.
He said this strong position of the central bank was ensured by the governor of the BOG having to chair the implementation committee of Ghana's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) programme with the IMF.
For the first time since the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) was initiated in 1983, the governor of the central bank, and not the Finance Minister, was given the task of ensuring that all financial targets within the stabilisation programme are met.
Dr Abbey said the resulting economic achievements for last year included a monetary growth of less than 18 percent over the period, an exchange rate depreciation of less than five percent, and a decline in the rate of inflation.
He said these targets were achieved by the strong enforcement of laws relating to banking and the use of foreign currency, prudent use of repurchase agreements in monetary management and by placing a limit on excessive budgetary spending by government.
Dr Abbey said until quite recently, the BOG operated as a "weak appendage" of the Ministry of Finance, and that made it difficult for the bank to come out with its independent policies to counteract fiscal policies of the Ministry.
The 1992 Constitution granted the governor quasi-independence by giving him a "full term of office", which exceeded that of a government in power. Yet through the generous accommodation of (its) excessive spending, the government fuelled inflationary spiral in the country.
Dr Abbey applauded this "new independence of the central bank", describing it as "par supreme" but cautioned that the passivity of the bank should not be transferred to the Ministry.
Dr Abbey noted that Ghana's economic woes are basically rooted in poor fiscal management, dictated by intense socio-political demand pressures in the face of serious resource constraints. The result is reflected in chronic and large budget deficits.
He called for discipline from within and painstaking hard choices by major decision makers, particularly the Executive and Parliament, to tackle the perennial large budget deficits.
He cautioned that if the central bank is always left with no other option than to dishonour government cheques, important developments in the country may suffer.
Dr Abbey advised that fiscal policy must be prudent enough to allow for the creation of jobs and improved standard of living. This should be complemented by monetary policy to maintain a stable price regime to make the country internationally competitive.
At the ball, Mr Seth Quao, out-going president, handed over to a new executive and board members. The new president is Dr. Kwesi Aidoo of Tema Oil Refinery.
The occasion was also used to honour three journalists and their various organisations for their "commendable roles" in reporting service projects and activities of the Club, and educating the public about Rotary's aims and accomplishments.
They are Mr George Osei-Antwi, Tema Municipal Manager of the Ghana News Agency, Miss Kate Hudson, Tema correspondent of the "Daily Graphic", and Miss Rebecca Ekpe, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) radio correspondent.
The Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO), which freighted several containers of books donated by the Brothers' Brother Foundation of the United States for the Club free of charge, was decorated with the Paul Harris Award, the highest award of the Rotary Club.
The books, worth over eight billion cedis, were distributed to the three medical schools in the country, 38 nursing and midwifery schools, the universities, and a number of junior and senior secondary schools.
Mr Quao said the Rotary Club of Folksten, UK has promised to fund the furniture component of 6,000 dollars for a 400 million-cedi Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled being built by the Rotary Club of Tema.
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Three companies raise hope for oil discovery
Tema (Greater Accra), 28th June 99 -
Oil exploration agreements between the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and some international oil exploration companies are beginning to yield positive results, according to the 1998 annual reports of three of the international companies.
Santa Fe Energy Resources and Nuevo Energy Company of USA and Dana Petroleum of U.K. in their reports said that there are high prospects for Ghana to recover hydrocarbons.
The Santa Fe Energy Resources' report noted that success in four major development projects and high exploration prospects together presents continued growth through the coming years.
It described exploration in the Keta Block as "exciting with several significant numbers of prospects identified in the shallow water, and a high risk, but very high prospect in deep water."
The report, which also covered the company's activities in other West African countries said in Gabon, production commenced in January 1998.
It said three field discoveries made at Tchatamba West and East Orovinyare and Tchatamba south in 1997, will come to the stream over the next several years, with that of the South commencing production in mid-1999.
The company also drilled two unsuccessful wells in Cote D'Ivoire.
The report of Nuevo Energy described West Africa as one of the world's premier exploration regions and said the company is currently the operator of 4.4 million acres located in the East Cape Three Points Block and the Accra-Keta Block offshore of Ghana.
It pointed out that the region holds the potential for large reserves adding that in 1998, "we drilled our first exploratory well offshore in Ghana in our East Cape Three Points Block, and the well was our high-risk exploration well in that year".
While the well did not contain commercial quantities of hydrocarbons, we gained valuable information.
In the case of Dana Petroleum, the Chief Executive, Mr Tom Cross, in his report said a seismic survey has been planned for offshore Ghana, pointing out that the chances of a major oil find being made are considered high.
Mr Cross noted that the big excitement "for us is what we are doing in Ghana, because we see that the good potentials are there".
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