Nkawkaw (Eastern Region) 16 March 2002 - A High Court at Nkawkaw has placed an interim injunction restraining the Ghana Telecom Limited (GTL) from disconnecting telephone lines of members of the Nkawkaw Communication Centres Association (NCCA).
The court, presided over by Mr Justice Amoakwa Buadu, ruled that until the final determination of the case, Ghana Telecom should reconnect the telephone lines of members of the association to enable them to carry on with their businesses.
Mr Baron Y. Amoafo, Counsel for the Association, urged the court to grant an interim injunction against the disconnection exercise, which he claimed had led to great financial losses.
He contended that Ghana Telecom reneged on an earlier agreement with the Association over the payment of one-third deposit but rather adopted threats of disconnection as a way of coercion.
Mr Amoafo stated that despite the agreement, Ghana Telecom adopted a "lackadaisical approach" towards repairing its faulty equipment, which he said affected recording of accurate rate of consumption by members for realistic billings.
He explained that due to the stand of Ghana Telecom, members of NCCA refused to honour bills served them by the company and GTL resorted to disconnecting their lines on two occasions.
It would be recalled that members of NCCA resolved not to honour "unrealistic" telephone bills by Ghana Telecom until it rectified the faulty equipment at Nkawkaw telephone exchange.
A solution could not be found to the impasse about a month ago following an intervention by the MP for the Nkawkaw, Okerchire Adusa. The Ghana News Agency reports a source at Ghana Telecom as hinting that the NCCA members owed the company several millions of cedis in unpaid bills since August last year. There was no counsel for Ghana Telecom in court.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 March 2002 - Third World Network (TWN), a civil society organisation, on Friday urged Ghanaians to endeavour to access information on trade in order to make contributions that would enable the government to pursue policies to benefit them.
Mr Tetteh Hormeku, Head of Programmes with the TWN, who made the observation at a public forum in Accra, said international trade policies were handed down to African leaders and it was therefore, necessary for the public to seek information and make contributions for the development of the nation.
According to Mr Hormeku, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) had come out with new negotiating policies that required African countries to open up their services sector for privatisation.
The set of policies could be destructive to the nations that pursued them although they would benefit foreign investors, he noted, adding that aspects of the policies would allow take-overs without any form of improvement to the sectors involved.
Mr Hormeku said individuals had monopolised the tourism industry in Africa to the disadvantage of citizens in the country. The European Union had come out with a set of formula known as the 'cluster approach formula," which required African countries to open up other areas for privatisation by March 30.
The African leaders themselves do not know which areas to open up and therefore, have been urged to request for the areas to be privatised by the end of June this year.
Mr Hormeku described the scenario as, "a form of game with blindfolds" and urged the public to access such information, question the government so as to demand that the government did what was in the interest of the citizens.
Dr Yao Graham, Coordinator of TWN, touched on the New Partnership For Africa's Development (NEPAD) and said the document sought to agree with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation, among others, that it was good for Africa to follow conditionalities set for them by programmes such as the Structural Adjustment Programme.
The NEPAD did not have any form of proposal to break the cycle of dependence by African countries but rather inhibited a framework of reference to decide who got what from external funds.
Members of the public agreed with the presenters and called for a radical change in the mode of transacting trade businesses in the country.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 March 2002 - Big gains by blue chips SSB Bank and Mobil Oil Ghana Limited on Friday gave the Ghana Stock Exchange All-Share Index another boost as it leaped by 5.76 points, although volumes traded continued to be very small.
SSB Bank gained 150 cedis at 2,660 cedis and Mobil Oil Ghana Limited was up 48 cedis at 18,550 cedis. The GSE All-Share Index, the main market index went up to 997.05 points from 991.29 cedis. Only 33,300 shares changed hands, although marginally better than 16,000 shares that were sold on Wednesday.
Change for the year was also up at 4.30 per cent from 3.70 per cent on Wednesday. Market capitalisation was up at 3,983.67 billion cedis from 3,972.71 billion cedis.
Only six of the 21 equities sold shares. Trading in the 22nd equity, Metaloplastica Ghana Limited (MGL) shares has been suspended, the GSE said.
The following are the closing prices of the equities in cedis:
ABL 321
AGC 18,800
ALW 4,300
BAT 629
CFAO 60
EIC 3,121
FML 950
GBL 1,000
GCB 1,655
GGL 910
HFC 950
MGL 241
MLC 147
MOGL 18,550 +48
PAF 750
PBC 450
PZ 1,100
SCB 21,000
SPPC 342
SSB 2,660 +150
UNIL 2,620
CMLT 430
GRi../
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