GRi Business, Economics & Finance 17 –
06 - 2003
Salt producers
receive ¢1.4bn loan facility
PBC urged to look
at its re-zoning of cocoa districts
Accra (Greater Accra) 17 June
2003- The GSE All-Share Index, the main market gauge, pushed further up on
Monday climbing by 4.1 points at 1,936.46 points although traded volumes
declined by about half.
A total of 91.300 shares changed
hands, down from Friday's 187,400 shares, in business that saw eight price
changes. Enterprise Insurance led the way with a 194-cedi gain at ¢5,200
followed by a 100-cedi gain by Home Finance Company at ¢2,500.
SSB Bank was five cedis up at ¢7,231, Ghana Commercial Bank rose by ¢3 at
¢5,653 Patterson Zochonis gained two cedis at 2,045 cedis, British
American Tobacco inched up by ¢1 at ¢1,912, Standard Chartered Bank gained one
cedi at ¢37,501 and fan Milk Limited was up by one cedi at ¢2,304. Market
capitalisation was up at ¢8,229.33bn cedis from to
¢8,219.38bn on Friday.
The following are the last
prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 456
AGC 28,600
ALW 4,000
BAT 1,912 +1
CFAO 72
CPC 630
EIC 5,200 +194
FML 2,304
+1
GBL 552
GCB 5,653 +3
GGL 2,515
HFC 2,500 +100
MGL 268
MLC 465
MOGL 20,002
PAF 750
PBC 380
PZ 2,045 +2
SCB 37,501 +1
SPPC 390
SSB 7,231 +5
SWL 285
TBL 5,300
UNIL 6,852
CMLT 460
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
"Yes, it is true that
unequal relationship exists," he said.
"Developing countries are living in unequal relationship and it is
very difficult for them to make choices and I agree that there are a lot of
World Bank issues that need to be looked at," he added.
Karlson said this in reaction to a
number of issues participants at a day's consultative discussion on World Bank
assistance to
He said, "The World Bank
may be powerful to a degree, but not all-powerful. The time of conditionalities is over and there should be a paradigm
shift". Some of the questions included, "Is the World Bank here to
teach
The discussion, which cantered
on the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS), was organized by Institute of
Economic Affairs (IEA) in
Its primary objective was to
enable the Word Bank to solicit the view of civil society organisations
regarding the most effective way the bank could support
Reacting to the issue on
subsidy, Karlson said the point was not that the
World Bank and its allies were discouraging developing countries. Rather they
were reactions to the implications in terms of their effect on the macro
economic stability such as inflation and interest rates.
He said the problem facing the
In his intervention, Stephen Adei, Director of the Ghana Institute of Management and
Public Administration (GIMPA), said the thrust of the discussion must be geared
towards what the World Bank could do to help restore the trust that the average
Ghanaian was losing in its government vis-à-vis its relationship with the Bank.
According to him the World Bank
was also losing the trust of the
"
Kenneth Quartey
of Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers said there was the need for
the Bank to review and reverse its policies in order to regain the trust from
developing countries. "If you say subsidies are detrimental to our
development, then you must speak about it in total; tell the development
countries (the same)," he said.
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Mats Karlson,
World Bank Country Director, who announced this on Monday, said the assistance was
the result of
"If we do our job well, the
World Bank can give higher than this. The Bank is reviewing its partnership
with countries. We must do things different now. In partnership both must feel
free to express their likes and dislikes, lets all embrace the new
change," he said.
The Country Director was
speaking at a day's consultation discussion on the Country Assistance Strategy
(CAS) organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in
The meeting's primary objective
was to enable the Word Bank to solicit the view of civil society organisations
on the most effective way the Bank could support
Karlson said this new kind of budget
support by the Bank, which would flow in batches of not less than $250m a year,
would be project based but stressed that the government of
He said currently the Bank's
support to the country's GPRS was one billion dollars, half of which went to
infrastructure development with the remaining going to rural development and
natural resources and others.
Karlson mentioned partnership,
empowerment and implementation as key elements that must be looked at in
details in the new wind of change of doing things as partners, adding that the
countries and WB needed to help each other in the whole business of
development.
He agreed that there had been
unequal partnership over the years, which had been detrimental to the
developing countries but said there was the need to re-look at the past
portfolio of WB programmes to postpone those that did not work.
"We all have to be part of
the change that has started, scaling up, speeding up and making sure that
things are done rightly and not just talking about them," Karlson said.
He said the link between the
GPRS and what is done, must be tightened by making sure that the link between
the strategies and the things that were being done were right.
He said the Bank was encouraged
by Ghana's economic status so far and that indications were that GPRS would
achieve the desired growth adding that more resources would flow in, if Ghana
did things right.
The plumbing should be done well
so that there would be no leakages, the World Bank Country Director said. Giving an overview of the GPRS, Michael Ayesu of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said
the maintenance of macro economic stability,
especially inflation and interest rates, sustainable employment, modernisation
of agriculture and law enforcement were some of the major challenges facing the
success of the programme.
He said currently the National
Development Planning Commission was working on the measurement and evaluation
on the GPRS, which would soon be made known to the public.
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Salt
producers receive ¢1.4bn loan facility
Elmina (Central Region) 17 June 2003-
Some ¢1.4bn out of the ¢3.2bn loan facility the government gave the Elmina Small Scale Salt Producers Association (ESPA) as
part of "Government Special
Assisted Projects" has been disbursed to 14 members of the association.
Foster Forson,
chairman of the four-member procurement committee set up by the Mineral's
Commission to oversee to the disbursement of the loan, told the Ghana News
Agency (GNA) in an interview on Monday, that it would be an indictment on the
region and the association in particular if the programme failed.
''This is the first time the
association has received an assistance of this nature and therefore it is a
test case for the region.'' "To avoid a repetition of previous experiences
in the case of the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) when loans were diverted for
other purposes other than what they were intended for, stringent measures have
been put in place to ensure that the monies are used for the purpose for which
they were disbursed", he said.
Forson said the measures would also
ensure full recovery of the loan which is payable within a maximum of four
years at an interest rate of 20 per cent per annum. He said for that purpose
his committee had bought large quantity of materials such as stone, sand,
cement and water pump machines needed for the excavation and rehabilitation
works of the "crystallisation pan" for members.
Forson urged the 32 members who are
yet to benefit from the loan to excise restraint and wait for the rains to
subside to avoid a situation where the downpour would disrupt their work. He
said each member received between five and ¢120m worth of materials and cash
for excavation, construction and expansion works.
Forson said he was not happy that most
members had wanted the loans to be credited to their accounts for them to
purchase the materials themselves, a practice that was not in accordance with
the guidelines and agreement of the loan.
He explained that the items
being distributed by the committee were bought on discount from the factories
to save cost and that the remaining members would be given their consignments
soon.
Forson, who is also the executive
secretary of the Central Region Development Commission, said after supplying
members with the materials the committee took care of excavation and
labour.
Chairman of ESPA, Nii Okai Tagoe,
said the aggrieved members must be assured that "nobody can touch that
money." ''We have put in place enough checks and as the assistance is the
first of its kind the association will ensure that no one sabotages the
project,'' he said.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Currency Buying Selling
U.S. Dollar 8,590.00 8,754.00
Pound
Swiss Franc 6,637.64 6,760.38
Canadian Dollar 6,455.57 6,573.33
Danish Kroner 1,380.05 1,405.56
Japanese Yen 73.14 74.49
South African
Euro 10,246.38 10,437.08
CFA Franc 15.62 15.91
Naira 68.14 69.45
ECOWAS WAUA 12,211.97
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
PBC urged to
look at its re-zoning of cocoa districts
Nyinahin (Ashanti Region) 17 June 2003 - Cocoa farmers in the Nyinahin cocoa district of Ashanti have called on the Produce Buying Company (PBC) to take a second look at its re-zoning of the cocoa districts that had put certain societies in the area in other administrative districts.
A statement signed by Opanin Yaw Bronya, the district
chief farmer at Nyinahin in Ashanti said some farming
communities in the Nyinahin cocoa district which
administratively, fall under the Atwima District,
have their stocks sold to Bibiani in the Western
region.
The statement mentioned
communities, which suffered some setbacks in the last mass cocoa spraying
exercise due to improper zoning by the PBC as Kuffour
Camp, Kusikrom, Antwi-Adjeikrom,
Kasotie, Awisesu, Bayerebon and Donkoto, among
others.
"While we appreciate the
efforts by the government for increase in the producer price of cocoa and its
attendant mass spraying exercise, immediate action should be taken by the PBC
to correct the zoning of cocoa districts in the country", the statement
said.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com