GRi Business, Economics & Financial
04 – 03 - 2003
All the 25 listed equities
except Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), maintained their former prices. GCB went up
by ¢176 to open this week's trading at ¢4,400. The increase was reported to be
on the back of an expected good first quarter report.
The GSE All-Share Index closed
up by 11.97 points to end the day at 1,503.00 points from Friday's close of
1,491.03 points. Change in the year till date was 7.72 per cent.
Market capitalisation was
¢7,152.91 billion from a total of 2,553.75 million issued shares. It closed at
¢7,123.87 at the last session.
The following are the last
prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 410
AGC 28,500
ALW 3,500
BAT 1,102
CFAO 67
CPC 630
EIC 4,850
FML 2,003
GBL 520
GCB 4,400 +176
GGL 1,201
HFC 1,205
MGL 254
MLC 280
MOGL 19,751
PAF 750
PBC 390
PZ 2,016
SCB 29,501
SPPC 390
SSB 4,215
SWL 285
TBL 4,900
UNIL 4,906
CMLT 460
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Elmina (Central Region)
He said the practice whereby
stakeholders continued to organise seminars, workshops and prepared new documents
without implementing them must be discouraged. The Deputy Minister said this at
a day's Stakeholders' Strategy Workshop organised by the Ghana Tourism Capacity
Development Initiative (GTCDI) in collaboration with the US Agency for
International Development (USAID) at Elmina.
Some 50 participants, drawn from
the Ghana Tourists Board; Hoteliers Association; Airlines; Tour Operators; National
Commission on Culture and the Museums and Monuments Board attended the
workshop, which aimed at developing a work plan to implement GTCDI.
Nana Akomea
said the Ministry had about five reports on the development of the industry and
stressed that it was high time people used financial assistance from donor
agencies to start physical work, including development of tourist sites.
The Deputy Minister suggested to
the GTCDI to use part of their funds to organise a tourism investment and
donors' conference in the country and that local consultants must be used during
the implementation of the projects.
The Director of GTCDI, Earl Picard said the organisation had received $4.9 million to
enhance the policy and regulatory environment for the tourism sector, improve
tourism marketing and improve capacity tourism development in
Picard said even though his outfit had
put in place the necessary logistics for the smooth implementation of the
project, it found it necessary to seek the views of other stakeholders.
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Christian Akorlie,
GNA Correspondent, Ougadougou
Ougadougou (Burkina Faso) 04 March 2003- Hon.
Kwasi Asamoah Baffuor,
Special Adviser at the Ministry of Economic Planning and Regional Integration,
on Monday expressed concern at the slow pace of integration among member states
of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), saying it was an
affront to the smooth execution of Community programmes.
Addressing the opening session
of Ghana-Burkina Faso bilateral talks, Baffuor said
the speedy implementation of ECOWAS projects would depend to a large extent on
the willingness of member states to foster collaboration with other member
countries in the execution of the various protocols to improve on the standard
of living of their people.
He said it was important to
re-affirm the determination of the two countries to collaborate in accelerating
the pace of regional integration by implementing the ECOWAS Trade
Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) and the protocol on free movement of people and
goods across the borders to facilitate trade.
High on the agenda at the
three-day meeting is the exchange of ideas in the sectors of agriculture,
trade, border operations, infrastructure and regional integration, development
of road network, which are important in moving the developmental agenda of the
two countries forward, within the spirit of economic co-operation.
The implementation of the
Inter-State Road Transit Convention that seeks to introduce uniform sealed
containers with customs stamps, standard size tarpaulin for containers, as well
as proposals for the establishment of a joint border post with Burkina Faso at
Paga, which are deemed necessary to facilitate movement of goods across the borders
of the two countries are other issues that would engage the attention of the
10-member technical delegation.
Baffuor, who is also the Leader of the
Ghanaian delegation, urged the Burkina-Faso delegation to co-operate with their
Ghanaian counterparts to successfully implement the protocol relating to the
implementation of ETLS for the mutual benefit of the two countries.
He said he was hopeful that the
meeting would come out with concrete agreements to accelerate the aspirations
of the two countries to move forward the integration agenda. Serne Mamadou, Secretary General
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Burkina Faso, called for the consolidation
of the relationship between the two countries against the background of
disturbances in La Cote
He said it was the hope of his
country that the proposals that would come from the meeting would go a long way
to forge a strong bond to make the two countries viable partners.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 March 2003-
A project to boost the cultivation of Fresh Chilli Pepper for processing and
export to European markets, especially Germany, is set to take-off in the Asante-Akyem North District this month.
The venture, managed by Ghana
Organic Agricultural Network (GOAN), a non-governmental organisation, in
collaboration with the Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC), all in
Speaking to the Ghana News
Agency (GNA) Business Desk in
The project would increase
economic activity in most villages and towns across the country since chilli
pepper grows virtually under any of the climatic conditions in the country.
Opoku said it was the intention of
GOAN to implement the project nationwide, this year and get as many farmers as
possible to participate in it to alleviate poverty especially in the rural
areas.
The main focus of GOAN, he said,
was to encourage farmers to cultivate mostly organic pepper because it was cheap
and easy to grow and had the potential of penetrating the European markets
easily.
He said a German buyer was in
the country early January to meet with government organisations and agencies to
explore ways of giving meaning to the project. "This shows the importance
that our partners in
The GEPC and the Ministry of
Local Government and Rural Development are working feverishly to find resources
to organise individual farmers and organisations in towns, district and regional
levels to engage actively in the programme to reduce poverty, he said.
"Our primary target is,
however, people who can self-finance the project on contract," Opoku added. He said the organisation together with GEPC
would tour district assemblies in the Brong-Ahafo and Ashanti Regions to meet
with stakeholders, farmers and the business community to sell the idea to them.
Interested farmers and
individuals, he emphasised, would be provided contracts to grow, process and
manage the produce at all levels just as it is doing for GOAN in Konongo where the project has 400 farmers.
"In addition, farmers would
be encouraged to be members of our nationwide group of which they would be part
owners and share in the benefits of information, technology, bonuses and any
financial assistance received by the group. "The
idea is basically to ensure that the crops are managed to meet international
standards", Opoku said.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 March 2003-
Prestea Sankofa Gold Limited (PSG) said on Monday that
its total gold production for 2002 was 68,454.58 fine ounces instead of the
52,021.26 ounces published by the Ghana Minerals Commission.
An official of the Research
Department of the Commission told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Business Desk
that the first publication was without the last quarter results. "It was
because the last quarter results were not available at the time the first
publication came out."
PSG production for the last
quarter of 2002 edged up slightly to 16,433.32 fine ounces compared to the 15,676.29
posted in the previous quarter. The official of the Research Department put
small-scale production for 2002 at 160,878.73 fine ounces while the total for
other mines apart from the Ashanti Goldfields Group was 1,109,880.80 fine
ounces. The total gold production for
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Currency Buying Selling
U.S. Dollar 8,440.09 cedis
8,629.73 cedis
Pound
Swiss Franc 6,220.47 6,361.39
Canadian Dollar 5,689.94 5,816.26
Danish Kroner 1,225.40 1,253.26
Japanese Yen 71.48 73.08
South African
Euro 9,104.92 9,309.12
CFA Franc 13.88 14.19
Naira .86
68.36
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