GRi Business, Economics & Finance 24 –
06 - 2003
Finance Minister
denies Crown Prince interest in GCB
Finance
Minister denies Crown Prince interest in GCB
Swedru (Central Region) 24 June 2003 -
Yaw Osafo-Maafo has denied knowledge that the Saudi
Crown Prince is taking up government's 58.3 per cent in the Ghana Commercial
Bank (GCB).
He said government is not
dealing with individuals in the GCB divestiture process, adding that, it is
possible that Sheikh Al Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud had interest in GCB, but admitted that a certain bank
or company could be expressing that interest on his behalf.
Osafo-Maafo was speaking to the Ghana News
Agency (GNA) Business Desk during the break at a seminar on the Draft Banking
and Payments Systems Bills at Swedru.
He said the government could not
stop a particular person represented by a qualified company from participating
in the bid for the majority shares in GCB. The Bills are currently before
Parliament for consideration and passage
The Crown Prince was in the
country recently on a business trip. He said government welcomed the intense
interest in the debate on the divestiture of government shares in GCB, but
noted; "the discussion must be from an informed position of requisite
knowledge instead of the current situation where people make statement without
recourse to laid down processes and practices."
He expressed regret that people
who should know better were making very erroneous comments on the subject and
pleaded with them not to muddy the already murky water that GCB found itself in.
Osafo-Maafo said he did not find anything
wrong with government's decision to sell the shares, which he explained was
made by the previous administration, adding; "the entire process had
reached an advanced stage before we came into power. We then decided to go
ahead with the deal with a few modifications".
Osafo-Maafo said GCB needed more than $15m
to be the efficient bank that government wanted it to be, notwithstanding, what
the Management of the Bank thought.
The Management of GCB recently
said given the right atmosphere, support and working conditions, "local
hands in the form of Ghanaian managers can work to transform the bank to a
profitable status".
President John Agyekum Kufuor at the 50th
anniversary of GCB on 20 May said GCB needed $15m to automate its operations
and that any investor interested in taking up the Bank would not be allowed to
close any of the 135 branches scattered throughout the country.
Osafo-Maafo said the proposal was that the
strategic investor would transform it into an urban and rural financing Bank
that would take care of all its needs.
"This would ensure that
branches in rural areas would not be closed down when the strategic investor
takes over, adding; "this cannot be flouted since it would attract
sanctions from the Bank of Ghana, the chief regulator in the country."
He said GCB branches in the
rural areas provided services and would not be closed down on the mere premise
of profit. Some of the 135 branches are in very remote areas where financial
analysts call, "virtual non profit zones."
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Yaw Osafo
Maafo, Minister for Finance and Economic Planning and
Harald Loeschner, German
Ambassador in
The statement said cancellation
of the debt fell within the framework of the Cologne Debt Initiative. The
statement explained that the gesture formed part of
The statement said the amount consisted of 2.3
million Euros loans for development co-operation, 0.7 million Euros in
commercial debts and 2.1 million Euros debts with the former East Germany
(GDR).
It said the estimated volume of the total debt
relief under the HIPC initiative is $70bn.
It said together with other
bilateral debt relief that the Paris Club would grant, HIPC debt levels would
be reduced by two-thirds in total in accordance with the HIPC regulatory
framework.
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Sunyani (Brong
Ahafo)
The one-day forum organized by
the Brong Ahafo Regional
Office of the Service was aimed at educating operators in the transport
industry and the public on the new sticker, which would replace the old tax
system with effect from July 1 this year.
Drivers, members of various
transport unions and the public attended. Under the new tax system, by buying a
sticker, taxis, hiring cars and trotro vehicles with
seating capacity of 19 persons for instance would pay ¢48,000 instead of the
daily or weekly instalment payment of ¢60,000 for every quarter of a year.
The participants noted that the
sticker system of income tax payment by drivers and vehicle owners would let
the IRS to know the total number of vehicles on the road at any given time
because it would be difficult for one to escape.
The same arrangement of the
reduction in the amount of the old tax system and the quarterly payment would
apply to all other categories of vehicles.
A section of the participants,
including Richard Yaw Amankwaah, Sunyani
main branch Secretary of the
They argued that the unions
would collect large sums of money for the IRS and suggested between five and 10
percent commission for the unions.
E.N. Nimako,
Assistant Commissioner of Tax in-charge of the Brong Ahafo Region in a welcoming address said the sticker system
of tax payment would give drivers more time to work for money. The rate had
also been reduced to cater for car maintenance and repairs, Nimako
said, adding that it would also prevent embezzlement and delays or late submissions
of taxes collected.
He, however, warned that failure
to purchase and display the sticker were both offences that would attract stiff
punishment by the law.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 24 June
2003 - Mrs. Angela Ofori-Atta, Deputy Minister of
Manpower Development and Employment, on Monday said Ghana lost over ¢600m
within the last six months due to wages paid to some workers who did not
deserve it.
She said the amount was lost due
to strike actions in work places some of which did not have legitimate causes.
Mrs Ofori-Atta, who was addressing the opening of a
five-day productivity workshop in Accra said there have been about 25 strike
actions, some lasting for about half a day to a maximum of three days within
the last six months.
"We have lost in the past
half year, on account of strikes alone, earnings to the tune of more that ¢600m
in monies paid out to workers, who have not technically been productive on
those strike days," she said.
Mrs Ofori-Atta
said there were approximately 22,091 people in the various industries and
fields of endeavour, in both private and government sectors, who
caused the loss of the money, which can be translated into about 40,000
man-days.
"If one calculates a
man-day of these strikers at even ¢15,000 per day, because the strikers
included skilled persons and professionals, then collectively we have lost a
lot over the past half year," she said.
The Organisation of African
Trade Union Unity (OATUU) organized the five-day workshop with sponsorship from
the Japanese Trade Union Congress (JTUC)-RENGO.
The Trade Union Congress of
Ghana and Ghana Employers' Association are also collaborating. There are about
30 participants from three organizations attending. They include, VLISCO Ghana
group made up of Juapong Textiles Limited, Ghana
Textile printing Company Ltd, Premium African Textiles Company Ltd. Others are
Mrs Ofori-Atta
said administrative and management issues were crucial to the enhancement of
productivity, hence the need for more sophisticated analyses to inform the
public about the real cost of strikes to the nation.
She urged the TUC and GEA to
help in this direction, to help curb the frequent industrial strikes. She said
government had, on its part laid the foundation for a productivity movement,
which would be spearheaded by the MDPI.
Mrs Ofori-Atta
said Government envisioned tripartite negotiations, which would legitimately
include productivity factors in the determination of wage increases. She added
that there should be organized labour that educated its members to negotiate,
offering increased productivity in exchange for bonuses.
Alhaji Hassan
A. Sunmonu, Secretary General OATUU, said the
objective of the workshop was to learn about innovative ways of productivity
improvement at the workplaces and the use of it to establish productivity
improvement networks in workplaces.
"One of the main weaknesses
we have on out continent is low productivity at both the enterprise and
national levels," he said, adding that without increasing productivity,
national and personal incomes would not increase.
Kwesi Adu-Amankwa,
TUC Secretary-General, urged the participants to endeavour to translate all
that they would be taught into practice since Ghanaians had in recent times
been noted for taking part in a lot of seminars and workshop without
translating all that they have studied into practice.
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Sixteen equities made sales,
although total volumes that changed hands came down to 178,400 from Friday's
close of 324,000 as institutional players continued to stay away.
The GSE All-Share Index, the
main market index, went up by 28.88 points to 2,014.336 points with change for
the year jumping up to 44.35 per cent from Friday's 42.48 per cent. On the
broader market, there eight price changes, all positive.
SCB climbed by ¢2,400 to ¢40,000
followed by Mobil Oil Ghana Limited (MOGL), which gained ¢996 at ¢21,000 while
Enterprise Insurance Company continued its sterling performance with a ¢300
rise to ¢6,000.
Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL) was
¢100 richer at ¢2,726, Fan Milk Limited was ¢45 better at ¢2,600, Produce
Buying Company rose by ¢20 at ¢400, Unilever (UNIL) inched up by ¢1 at 7,201
and Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB)was also one cedi
better at ¢6,060.
Market capitalisation was better
at ¢8,417.41bn from ¢8,348.07bn from on Friday.
The following are the last
prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 456
AGC 28,600
ALW 4,000
BAT 1,913
CFAO 72
CPC 630
EIC 6,000 +300
FML 2,600 +45
GBL 552
GCB 6,060 +1
GGL 2,726 +100
HFC 2,600
MGL 268
MLC 466
MOGL 21,000 +996
PAF 750
PBC 400 +20
PZ 2,055
SCB 40,000 +2,400
SPPC 390
SSB 7,250
SWL 285
TBL 5,300
UNIL 7,201 +1
CMLT 460
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