GRi Business News 11-03-99

Mobile Network Operators come together

Market index plunges again

Accra, (Greater Accra) 11 March 

Mr John Mahama, Minister of Communications on Wednesday inaugurated the Ghana Association of Mobile Network Operators (GAMNO) with a call on them to invest in telecom connectivity in Africa.

He asked them to co-operate with other local investors and take advantage of the increasing opportunities for the development of telecom infrastructure.

The Minister stressed the "need to increase access to telecom that, in the next five years, all our people should enjoy the facility". It is hoped that the current 40,000 cellular lines would be increased to about 200,000, and must be extended to hospitals, schools and the rural areas.

Mr Mahama said since the Telecom Reform programmes started about four years ago, there has been a jump of 100 per cent in subscriber lines . Consultants would soon be appointed to assist the National Communications Authority (NCA) in addressing urgent issues, he said. These include providing outstanding licences to members of the association, and setting out guidelines for frequency management, as well as pricing and interconnection.

Mr Mahama reminded the association that even though "a remarkable progress" has so far been made by the mobile network operators, a lot remains to be done because most of the population are still denied easy access to telephone service.

He asked the association to give priority to strategies that would facilitate access to their services through reduced access charges. Mr Mahama said they could do that by establishing joint and common use of infrastructure including towers, joint facilities for training and the promotion of affordable tariffs.

Mr Prince Kofi Kludjeson, Chairman of GAMNO said the Association had so far paid more than 10 billion cedis in direct and indirect taxes, since mobile telephone companies started operation four years ago in the country.

About 80 million US dollars have also been invested by the companies into the nation's economy while they have promoted development in industry, commerce and agriculture, he said..

Accra, (Greater Accra) 11 March 

Trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) finished midweek trading in a bearish mood that saw the All-Share Index plunging again after a slight increase at the beginning of the week.

The market index slipped by 3.5 points to finish at 833.82 on Wednesday down from Monday's 837.32. Change in the year stood at minus 3.98 per cent.

Market capitalisation, however, managed to close trading higher at 3,272.20 billion cedis from 3,267.13 billion cedis on the strength of two major equities, Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) and Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC).

Investors showed an inclination of off-loading their shares as offers shot up by almost a million from 2,330,090 posted on Monday to 3,240,230, but total shares traded went up slightly to 51,800 from the previous 41,460.

Bids stood at 493,090 up from Monday's 479,960.

In the broader market, two equities made gains while two others made losses.

ABL and AGC gained 150 cedis and 100 cedis to finish trading at 750 cedis and 18,600 cedis respectively.

Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL) lost 90 cedis to close at 900 cedis with SSB Bank losing 39 cedis to finish trading at 1,860 cedis.

The following are the last prices of listed equities:

ABL 750 +150

AGC 18,600 +100

ALW 2,800

CFAO 56

EIC 2,010

FML 1,448

GBL 1,900

GCB 980

GGL 900 -90

HFC 750

MGL 225

MLC 245

MOGL 16,700

PAF 350

PTC 400

PZ 850

SCB 24,000

SPPC 244

SSB 1,860 -39

UNIL 1,800

UTC-E 125