Let Export Fund function serve its purpose – MPs
Girl-child enrolment agenda still on course
Accra (Greater Accra) 14 June 2000
The Finance Committee of Parliament on Tuesday laid two reports on loan agreements between Ghana and two financial institutions.
The first report is the re-consideration loan facility of NLG 8,880,458.60 from ABN AMRO Bank N.V. of the Netherlands approved by the House last year for the removal of Volta Lake Debre Shoals and maintenance dredging works.
The other one is a five million-dollar World Bank Learning and Innovation Loan to part-finance the Learning Project on Community-Based Approaches to Poverty Reduction (CPRP) in Ghana.
Commodore Steve Obimpeh, Chairman of the Committee, said the project covers the purchase of dredging equipment and related materials and cost of supervision, training of local personnel, equipment installation, removal of the shoals in the lake, maintenance and repairs.
The loan, which represents 60 per cent of the total cost of the project, is to enhance uninterrupted use of the waters from Debre to Buipe in the Volta Region. The remaining 40 per cent is a grant from the Dutch Government.
He noted that the interest rate of the loan at that time was 6.05 per cent but this had been reviewed upwards to 7.30 per cent due to an increase in the long-term interest rates in financial markets world-wide.
"It, therefore, became necessary for Parliament to reconsider the loan agreement in the light of this upward adjustment in the interest rate."
Commodore Obimpeh said the loan is payable within seven years in 14 equal consecutive semi-annual instalments. The first payment will be made six months after disbursement of the amount payable under the signed letter of credit.
"A management fee of 0.375 per cent flat, calculated on the loan amount and would be payable within 30 days from the agreement is signed while a commitment fee of 0.5 per cent per annum is to be calculated daily on the undrawn amount of the loan and payable quarterly in arrears from the date of acceptance of the offer."
The committee noted that, as confirmed by the Financial Times of Tuesday, May 30, this year, as well as from the data of ABN AMRO Bank N.V., there has been a world-wide consistent upward adjustment of interest rates on long-term loans between the second quarter of 1999 and the first quarter of 2000.
He said the percent change in interest rates over the period compares well with the 1.05 per cent of the ABN AMRO's even though the base rate of the bank is on the higher side.
This, the committee believed, is compensated for by the grant component of 40 per cent of the project.
Commodore Obimpeh said the committee noted the confirmation of the Ministry of Finance that even at the new interest rate the loan agreement has not lost its concessional status even though it is reduced from 40 per cent to 36.29 per cent.
He said the committee noted, however, that there had been no Environmental Impact Assessment on the project and took the Volta River Authority (VRA) to task.
The VRA, however, indicated that they had started liaising with their Engineering, Real Estate and Environment Departments to prepare the bid documents to that effect.
The five million-dollar loan is being contracted to finance a project that seeks to explore the effectiveness of new approaches to health service delivery in the country.
It will also seek to reduce extreme malnutrition among children and women, integrate street children into mainstream society and monitor poverty at the community and district levels.
The project, which is to be implemented over three years, will involve District Assemblies, the Nutrition Division of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development monitoring the implementation.
Cdre. Obimpeh said the total cost of the project is 6.8 million dollars and the government's contribution of 1.8 million dollars would be in the form of assigned staff, (already employed) and office space with basic equipment at the Ministries and District Assemblies.
The loan, he said, would be repaid in 40 years after disbursement with a 10 years grace period. A commitment fee of 0.5 per cent and service charge of 0.7 per cent are to be calculated on the loan.
He said a few areas were chosen for the whole project to make it more efficient and cost-effective.
"Should it be successful, it would be tried out in selected pilot areas and it would also be replicated if necessary to make it succeed."
The Chairman said it is the committee's expectation that the implementation of the CPRP would be effective to enable a replication of the project in other areas after the three-year period.
He said the committee also noted that even though the Ghana Statistical Service currently monitors changes in the poverty situation of the population, the data is not disaggregated at the district level.
"The poverty measuring and monitoring component is, therefore, designed to make up for this gap," he added.
The committee recommended that in compliance with the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework guidelines, quarterly reports on the CPRP should be submitted to Parliament to facilitate Parliamentary oversight over the project.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 14 June 2000
Members of Parliament on Tuesday
called for an effective monitoring mechanism of the proposed Export Development
and Investment Fund to make it serve its intended purpose.
They said no reason, apart from
one's entrepreneurial capabilities, should secure a person or company credit
from the fund.
Members were contributing to the
debate on the Export Development and Investment Fund Bill currently on the
floor of the House.
The Fund will seek to address the
problems associated with the supply side constraints of exports by making
available resources to address product development, promotion, financing,
research and market development on a sustainable basis.
Sources of finance for the fund
are levies on dutiable imports, ten per cent of net proceeds obtained from the
divestiture of any state-owned assets and any other source the Minister of
Trade and Industry may determine with the approval of Parliament.
Mr Alex Kwaku Asante, NPP-Asante
Akim South, said party affiliation and other unmeritable ties should be
detached from the disbursement of the fund.
The member said if one's
affiliation to a particular political party qualifies or disqualifies him from
securing credit from the fund, it will fail to achieve the purpose for which it
was created, adding that applicants should be spared the agony and frustrations
normally associated with official work.
Mr Francis Aggrey Agboste, NDC-Ho
West, whipped support for the fund, saying that, when it becomes operational,
it will help Ghanaian exporters to contribute more than they are doing now to
the national kitty.
He called for a second look at the
Ghana Investment Promotion Act, which, he said, contains certain clauses that
can easily be exploited to derail the nation's export drive.
Mr John Kwekucher Ackah, NDC-Aowin
Suaman, called for measures that would make the fund sustainable and reliable.
Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, NPP-Sunyani
West, criticised the government and Parliament for always resorting to easy
ways of solving problems that eventually create problems for the people.
He cited the Education Fund, which
would be sourced mainly from the two-and-half per cent increase on VAT, saying,
the proposed levy on imports would be passed on to the people, thus creating
more problems for them.
He, however, called for the
support of the creation of cottage industries to better the lot of the rural
population.
Nana Asante Frimpong, NPP-Kwabre,
described the current monopolisation of export documentation at the Kotoka
International Airport as very disturbing.
He said it is promoting
inefficiency, corruption and frustration, adding that if such arrangement are
not scraped the proposed fund would suffer.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 14 June 2000
The Ministry of Education will continue to strengthen programmes aimed at improving the chances of girls' access to science and tertiary education, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Minister of Education, told Parliament on Tuesday when answering a parliamentary question.
Mr Solomon K. Akwetey, NDC-Suhum, had asked the minister how far the ministry's programme to promote the participation of girls in science and mathematics in senior secondary schools had succeeded and what was being done to help such girls who fail to make the mark.
Mr Spio-Garbrah said since the institution of the Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STME) programme in 1987, significant impact had been made on girls' participation in the study of science, technology and mathematics.
At the beginning of the STME programme, out of the 3,241 students who took part in the GCE 'A' level science examination only 368 were girls, representing 11 per cent.
However, Mr Spio-Garbrah said between 1991 and 1994, close to 42 per cent of all students studying science at the senior secondary school level were girls as against 16 per cent in 1987, a 300 per cent increase in girls' participation in the sciences within the seven-year period.
He said the general trend now is a near equal enrolment of girls and boys in the sciences in some senior secondary schools, adding that there are more girls than boys in science classes.
The Minister noted that, from the 1998/99 congregation report of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), there is an appreciable number of females offering science and technology-related programmes in all the departments.
He said the boy-child would also be encouraged to go to school and promised that nothing would stop the ministry from discouraging a one-way gender education delivery.
On what his ministry is doing to ensure the provision of pre-school facilities to communities, which do not have them, Mr Spio-Garbrah said the Ministry of Education has no plans to provide such institutions.
He said by an education act of 1961, pre-schools were placed under a private schools unit established at the Ministry of Education to undertake registration, control and evaluation of nurseries and kindergartens.
Mr Spio-Garbrah explained that the mandate of the Ministry of Education under the 1992 constitution is to cater for children of school-going age, that is children aged six years and above.
"The provision of pre-school facilities is not the responsibility of the ministry."
He, however, said the Ministry of Education is collaborating with agencies like the National Commission on Children and other stakeholders in the running of pre-schools.
"Nevertheless, because of the Ministry of Education's role since 1969 in training nursery teachers, the GES continues to supply some teachers and attendants to public pre-school institutions."
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