GRi Business News 05-03-99

Accra, (Greater Accra) 5 March, -

 Losses incurred by two major equities, Ashanti Goldfields (AGC) and Mobil Ghana Limited (MOGL) on Wednesday plunged the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) All-Share Index further down at the end of midweek trading.

The All-Share Index, the market indicator, stood at 846 down from Monday's 856.73. It lost 0.18 points, indicating an improvement over last Monday's loss of 5.3 points on the strength of an upward shift in shares that changed hands.

Nevertheless, the change in the year to date went further down to minus 2.57 per cent compared to the previous 1.34 per cent.

Volume of shares traded was high at 466,360 compared to Monday's 29,300 but market capitalisation slid from 3,302.14 billion cedis to 3,270.19 billion cedis.

Offers were up slightly at 2,865,820 from the 2,768,640 shares posted on Monday. Bids also firmed up from 425,900 to 962,400 shares at the close of trading.

In the broader market, there was one gainer and four losers.

Only Unilever Limited (UNIL) managed to make 50 cedis gain to finish trading at 1,850 cedis.

MOGL and AGC both lost 300 cedis each to finish trading at 16,700 cedis and 18,400 cedis respectively.

Pioneer Tobacco Company (PTC) lost 15 cedis to close at 400 cedis while Ghana Commercial Bank lost a cedi to finish trading at 999 cedis.

The following are the last prices of listed equities:

ABL 600

AGC 18,400 -300

ALW 2,600

CFAO 56

EIC 2,010

FML 1,450

GBL 2,000

GCB 999 -1

GGL 1,000

HFC 750

MGL 225

MLC 245

MOGL 16,700 -300

PAF 350

PTC 400 -15

PZ 850

SCB 24,000

SPPC 244

SSB 1,999

UNIL 1,850 +50

UTC-E 125

Accra (Greater Accra), 5 March,  

Mr Edward Salia, Minister of Roads and Transport on Thursday asked West African states to develop their major ports instead of competing among themselves in building individual ports that end up being under utilised.

"...Develop consensus on our major ports, which are likely to develop into hub port status, while the minor ones are made feeder port....".

Mr Salia said this results in a scandalous waste of resources and is not a prudent line of action, recommending that, "the minor ones must be turned into feeder ports in order to save cost in the development of Maritime Transport in the region".

Mr Salia was speaking at a Regional Workshop on Co-operation in the Field of Transport and Intra-Regional Trade Development at the Second ECOWAS Trade Fair in Accra.

The workshop is meant to discuss the various means of transport in the sub-region and the laws and practices that are impeding smooth trade.

Mr Salia said maritime laws and policies are yet to be harmonised for the pursuit of common objectives in the maritime industry.

Mr Salia described the situation as bad, and said "all national shipping lines of West and Central Africa have collapsed due to past poor performance and lack of strategic regional planning and co-operation in shipping matters".

"I strongly believe that if the national shipping lines in West and Central Africa had adopted pooling arrangements with adequate cargo consolidation for their ships, they would have survived the fierce competition from foreign lines".

He said, "the only way forward for maritime business is for us to intensify our co-operative efforts in the area of maritime transport if we participate in the international shipping and carry a fair share of our international trade.

"This explains why the rest of the world is dominated by regional blocks of co-operation in the maritime industry. And yet our attempts to establish a regional shipping line has not shown any promise", Mr Salia added.

Mr Salia said the flexibility and convenience of road transport makes it the predominant transport mode in the sub-region.

He said Article 32 of the ECOWAS treaty provides several things including the development of an extensive network of all-weather highways within the community, priority being given to the inter-state highways; and co-ordinate their positions in international negotiations in maritime transport. "To achieve these member states should undertake the establishment and promotion of joint ventures, community enterprises and the participation of the private sector in the areas of transport and communications".

He blamed the problems derived from the Anglophone and Francophone divide; and religious considerations and called for quick rationalisation to make their activities worthwhile.

He said he was disappointed that for nearly 30 years the desired level of co-operation within the Ministerial Conference of West and Central African States on Maritime Transport (MINCONMAR) had not materialised and called on member states to demonstrate their real commitment by action.

Mr Salia said Ghana, under the Gateway Project, has reduced the number of official immigration, police and customs checkpoints on its Trans-West African routes.

He said safety in the skies is of paramount importance and regretted that only four countries, namely Ghana, South Africa, Ethiopia and Morocco, qualify for the American Federal Aviation safety standards. Mr Salia called on member states to improve the safety of African airspace by co-operating with neighbouring countries to assist with oversight capabilities".

Mr Mark Offei, deputy secretary general of ECOWAS, called on member countries to intensify their programmes and work at making the ideals of the founding fathers of ECOWAS a reality.

He said the fair is dwelling on transport as an indication of the secretariat's commitment to move forward the institution.

Accra (Greater Accra), 5 March

The attention of the government and the implementation agencies of ECOWAS protocols have been drawn to the circulation of fake ECOWAS Brown Cards in the sub-region.

Alhaji Lawal Isa, Chairman of the West Africa Road Transport Union (WARTU), told participants at a conference on co-operation on transport and inter regional trade development at the on-going ECOWAS Trade Fair in Accra that the issue is creating serious problem.

Alhaji Isa expressed concern about the slow pace of implementation of the Brown Card scheme.

He said the co-operation between the insurance companies and transport owners in the sub-region have not been encouraging.

Some of the member states of ECOWAS have not yet set up national bureau for the effective implementation and monitoring of the scheme.

Mr. Bemardi Woto, secretary General of the ECOWAS Brown Card called for the harmonisation of legislation on policies to facilitate the implementation of the scheme.