Accra bourse index in marginal gain
Government to encourage long-term lending -
Kufuor
Tema (Greater Accra) 22 June 2002- The Government is developing strategies to encourage the financial sector to develop long-term capitals to support industry, President John Agyekum Kufuor said this on Friday.
He said the best support the government could give to local industries was to create the enabling economic and political atmosphere and encourage joint ventures from outside to inject capital, technological know-how and open extra markets. "Such long-term financial assistance would make Ghana a more competitive market in the West African Sub-Region."
President Kufuor said this when he unveiled a plaque to commission multi-billion cedis pharmaceutical manufacturing plant for Ernest Chemist at Tema. The plant has the capacity to produce 400 million tablets, 100 million capsules, 300,000 litres or 3,200,000 bottles of oral liquids (syrups and tonics).
It could also produce 400,000 litres of non-oral liquids (disinfectants, liniments, liquid soap and many others) 750,000 bottles of suspension in dry powder form for paediatric use per annum. President Kufuor said foreign investments would only come into the country when Ghanaian entrepreneurs demonstrated confidence and invested in Ghana themselves.
Mr Robin Gwynn, Acting British High Commissioner in Ghana, said last year total value of Ghana-United Kingdom (UK) trade was about 278 million pounds divided almost equally between imports and exports. He said UK was not only the largest provider of non-oil goods and services to Ghana but also more importantly the largest purchaser thus helping Ghana to develop her own prosperity.
He disclosed that Ghana continued to be one of the top two markets in West Africa for British business. Mr Gwynn said over the years, Britain had consistently been the largest investor in Ghana with an estimated 500 million pounds of investments in business in the country. Currently there are about 124 companies with British equity registered with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and remains Ghana's largest non-oil trading partner.
Mr Gwynn said the British government would support the government's policy on Golden Age of Business because it was the integral part of the strategy for reducing poverty and encouraging economic growth, adding "we will continue to work bilaterally with other donors and in multilateral frameworks such as the G8 to help the development of Ghana and other countries in Africa which are moving forward".
Mr Ernest Bediako-Sampong, Chief Executive Officer of Ernest Chemist, said the company began as a sole trading business in Accra in 1986 and in 1993 a limited liability company was formed with its distribution network in Accra and in Kumasi in 1998 to cater for the northern sector.
The Chief Executive said for the Golden Age of Business to become a reality, government should create an industrial estate in the country. Mr Bediako-Sampong, appealed to the government to support local industries to withstand undue foreign competition to enable them to grow and stand on their feet and compete evenly as pertaining in other countries.
He called for a national machine shop to produce spare parts for industries, while the financial institutions made available to industrialists long-term capital at reasonable interest rates. Oyeeman Wereko Ampem II, Gyaasehene of Akwapim Traditional Area, who chaired the function, called on entrepreneurs to take advantage of the stock market in the country for long-term capital support to improve on their ventures.
He said the future of entrepreneurship in the country depended on the ability of the Ghanaian entrepreneur to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the enabling economic environment to serve the country through increased production for local consumption and export to ECOWAS markets.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 22 June 2002- The government on Friday appointed Mr John Kobina Richardson as the Chairman of the Interim Management Committee for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). The other two members of the committee are Mr Robert Forson, Deputy Managing Director and Dr Ali Abugre, Administrative Manager both of TOR.
Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Energy in a statement on Friday said, 'following the changes in the management of TOR, an Interim Management Committee
(IMC), comprising a government representative and two management staff has been constituted to manage the refinery".
Mr Richardson is the Managing Director of British American Tobacco Company and the Merchant Bank, Ghana Limited. The statement said a substantive Chief Executive would be appointed in due course.
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Denu (Volta Region) 22 June 2002 - West African Gold Fields, a mining company at Tarkwa in the Western Region, is to produce 300 tonnes of salt annually at Adina in the Volta Region.
Mr Linus Koffie, Ketu District Chief Executive, announced this when he addressed the Ketu District Assembly at Denu.He said the company had already obtained concessions from the Minerals Commission for business to commence. Mr Koffie, who did not state when production would begin, said the company would construct a jetty at Adina to facilitate the docking of its cargo vessels mainly from Nigeria to transport the salt.
On defaulters of the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF), Mr Koffie said five defaulters would be prosecuted before the Aflao Circuit Court next week to send signals to the others to pay up. He said so far only 141 million cedis, being about 30 per cent of the money loaned out, had been paid back.
Mr Koffie said 259 million cedis, representing 83 per cent of targeted revenue for January to May, was realised and noted that revenue in Agbozume and
Dzodze markets had gone down after the collection had been privatised with the aim to increase it.
Therefore, the assembly's revenue base would be overhauled to ensure effectiveness. He said the Executive Committee of the assembly had agreed to set up a civilian anti petroleum smuggling taskforce to curb the increasing level of the smuggling of the products to Togo. Mr Koffie, however, did not say if the security agencies taskforce, which had been on the ground for more than 18 months now had failed.
He said the construction of a market at Afife and the Ohawu Dam under the Village Infrastructure Project (VIP) at a cost of 860 million cedis was in progress while two 24-seater water closet public toilet at Aflao lorry station was also in progress.
Koffie said bids had been opened for the award of contract for the construction of the Makoro Junction to Beach and the Aflao Hospital to market roads. He said bids had also been opened for the construction of 60.4 kilometres of feeder roads for Afife-Nolopi-Kpota, Agorre Junction-Devego, Penyi-Ehie, Agbozume-Ehie, Dzodze-Ehie and Dzodze-Tadzewu.
Mr Kofi Dzamesi, Deputy Volta Region Minister, praised the Ketu District Assembly members and noted that the Regional District Assemblies Evaluation
Committee had identified Ketu as one of the best three in the region. Mr Modestus Ahiable, MP for Ketu North, advised the assembly to run its administration strictly in line with the Local Government Legislative Instrument.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 22 June 2002- The GSE-All Share Index, the key stock gauge of the Accra bourse, inched up 1.08 points to register its lowest appreciation in recent weeks, trading volumes were, however, stronger.
The index, which had kept an impressive run during previous trading sessions, could not maintain the momentum and closed a marginal 1,212.69 points from 1,211.61 points. Traded volumes rose to close at 143,800 shares compared to 82,000 on Wednesday.
On the broader market, there were three price changes - two positive and a negative. GCB gained 12 cedis at 3,217 cedis, ABL was up one cedi at 361 cedis and Mechanical Llyod Company lost one cedi to close at 250 cedis.
Market capitalisation was up marginally at 4,407.07 billion cedis from 4,405.86 billion cedis at the previous close. The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 361 +1
AGC 18,800
ALW 4,000
BAT 924
CFAO 60
EIC 4,200
FML 1,616
GBL 900
GCB 3,217 +17
GGL 910
HFC 955
MGL 251
MLC 250 -1
MOGL 19,000
PAF 750
PBC 450
PZ 1,620
SCB 20,901
SPPC 370
SSB 3,700
SWL 285
UNIL 3,205
CMLT 437
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