Industry to get preference in case of load shedding - Hammond
Tema (Greater Accra) 06 March 2002- One hundred and eighty-one workers of Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) would be laid off on Thursday March 7 following the shutting down of one of its pot lines under a new agreement reached with the government for the company to reduce its energy consumption to prevent a power crisis in the country.
Five hundred workers out of the company's workforce of 1,225 would have been affected had the government insisted on its initial demand that two pot lines should be closed.
Mr Malik Adam, Assistant Secretary and Mr David Bluawofogbe, First Trustee of the VALCO Local Union of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) announced this at this year's first quarterly meeting of the Greater Accra Regional Council of Labour (GARCL) at Tema on Tuesday.
Mr Adam said under the agreement reached between government and VALCO, the second pot line would be shut down if the water level of the Volta Lake, which is used for the generation of the hydro electric power also goes down.
He was briefing the GARCL on current developments at VALCO since the government on February 19, this year gave the company 48 hours to shut down two pot lines.
The government's directive was to enable the Volta River Authority (VRA) save 150 megawatts of electricity to provide spinning reserves and repair faults without resorting to power shedding.
Mr Adam said under an agreement reached between the Management and the Local Union, the affected workers would be paid their End of Service Benefits (ESB) in addition to goodwill payments, medical coverage for a period while those whose children are on scholarships would continue to enjoy the facility. .
The closure of the pot line means VALCO is reducing its production capacity by 25 per cent to 120,000 metric tonnes per annum from its present level of 160,000 metric tonnes with four pot lines.
The closure is likely to affect raw material supply to local aluminium industries since VALCO annually provides 20 million dollars worth of aluminium through the Minerals Commission to local aluminium companies.
The company, which has five pot lines with the capacity for 200,000 metric tonnes shut down one of its lines in 1994 and has since then not re-opened it due to energy problems.
Mr Bluawofogbe told the meeting that both the management and workers of VALCO were happy about the solidarity shown by the Trades Union Congress and others, which enabled an acceptable agreement to be reached on the issue.
He said in the past when it came to power curtailment, both the public and VALCO bore the effects, however, this time VALCO was asked to bear it alone but government had to rescind its decision because of the support workers and the company had from all fronts.
Mr Bluawofogbe said if the government had insisted that two pot lines should be shut down, it would have cut production by 50 per cent, which would have sent about 500 workers home on redundancy.
VALCO, which is the eighth largest contributor of foreign exchange to the Ghanaian economy has paid over 700 million dollars in fess to the VRA and further paid over 1.6 billion cedis in taxes to the government since its establishment in 1967.
The company, which consumes 25 per cent of the hydroelectric power generated by the VRA, is the second largest aluminium smelter in Sub-Saharan Africa. Attempts to get the Management of VALCO to comment on the story proved futile since they were not in their offices.
The order to shut two pot lines came at time when negotiations between government and VALCO over renewal of agreement for the supply of power had stalled. VALCO later filed an ex-parte application at an Accra High Court for an interim injunction to restrain the government and VRA from curtailing power to the company but the court did not grant VALCO's application for failing to serve the defendants.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 March 2002- The government on Tuesday appealed to financial institutions to assist Ghana's drive to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which is very significant in efforts to achieve economic growth.
Finance Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo made the appeal when Mr Mervyn Davies, Group Chief Executive of Stanchart, paid a courtesy called on Vice President Aliu Mahama at the Castle, Osu.
In a discussion on how the bank could assist Ghana's programme to achieve economic progress, Mr Osafo-Maafo said the government would continue its agenda to stabilise the cedi, pursue the divestiture programme and reduce inflation to 13 per cent by the end of the year.
However, without an increase in the inflows of FDI, he said, it would be difficult to achieve the necessary growth requisite for poverty reduction. He, therefore, urged Stanchart and other financial institutions to promote Ghana to investors as a safe place to do business because there is democracy, good governance and the respect for the rule of law.
Mr Osafo-Maafo said Ghana would put its case strongly at the meeting of the International Monetary Fund's Investment Council scheduled for the first week of
May. The Finance Minister said whereas China received 20 per cent of the global share of FDI annually, Africa received a paltry two to three per cent.
On Ghana's domestic focus for the year, Mr Osafo-Maafo said the government had identified five key areas, which would receive significant resources towards poverty alleviation. These are infrastructure development, modernising agriculture, promoting good governance, improving education and health.
He said having set the rules for ensuring transparency in the divestiture programme it would be rigorously pursued to create jobs. The Vice President urged Stanchart and other banks to review their interest paid on savings to mobilise excess cash in the system.
"The situation where the minimum savings deposit of a bank is higher than the monthly wage of a worker does not encourage savings," he said. Alhaji Mahama appealed to Stanchart to use its expertise in insurance to help the insurance sector to grow.
He commended the bank for its commitment to social responsibility, which, he said, had been beneficial to Ghanaians. Mr Davies welcomed the call to assist in the investment drive, saying Ghana was important to the bank's activities, hence his visit after only two months in office.
"We have been following Ghana's progress and, with the positive economic indicators, we are convinced that Ghana is on the right track," he said. He added that because of the confidence the bank had in the country, he would commission an Information Technology Service Centre to serve a number of
African countries.
Mr Davies, who also expressed confidence the management of Stanchart, Ghana, said the bank would share its expertise in infrastructure development with Ghana. Mr Peter Sullivan, Chief Executive, Stanchart, Africa, Mr Ebenezer Essoka, Managing Director of Stanchart Ghana, Mr Willing Vanderpuye, External Affairs
Manager, Stanchart, West Africa and Dr Rod Pullen, British High Commissioner to Ghana accompanied Mr Davies arrived in Accra on Monday.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 Mach 2002- Mr Kobina Tahir Hammond, Deputy Minister of Energy, said on Tuesday that in the event of load shedding, preference would be given to industry.
"This is unfortunate, but it is a choice we have to make to minimise impact on productivity and safeguard employment," he said at seminar on solar water heaters at the Eighth Ghana International Trade Fair underway in Accra
Mr Hammond said as a short-term measure, an emergency power plant capable of generating 150 megawatts would be installed at Tema in April to increase the reserve margin to 210 megawatts and provide greater security system.
In the medium to long term, the transmission bottlenecks that had constrained the evacuation of electricity from the Western Corridor to supplement the supply from Akosombo and Kpong would be addressed.
Mr Hammond announced that a project contract expected to be completed by March 2003 had been signed to upgrade the transmission between Prestea and Obuasi to allow the evacuation of all available supply from the Western Corridor. In addition a 110-megawatt heat recovery-generating unit would be installed at Takoradi to increase the capacity of the thermal plant to 660 megawatts.
Mr Hammond said, a power barge to be fired by natural gas from the Tano Fields, would be installed at Efasu to provide a further 125 megawatts, adding that an agreement had been reached with Tano Energy to develop the natural gas potential at the Tano Gas fields.
He said in the longer term, the completion of the West African Gas Pipeline Project in 2004 would encourage substantial private sector development of more power plants. The Bui Dam Project was also being re-evaluated and would be developed on Build, Operate and Transfer basis to secure the interest of private investors.
Mr Hammond noted that countries like Japan, Israel and Kenya had made efforts to exploit solar energy in residential homes, offices and hotels and announced that the Energy Ministry would implement a programme to promote the use of solar water heaters in houses, hotels and restaurants.
The ministry would also encourage new housing estate developers to use solar water heater instead of electric heaters, he said.
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