Accra (Greater Accra)
25 March 2003- Participants at a forum on investment at the ongoing conference
of the Federation of African Public Relations Association (FAPRA) in Accra on
Monday disagreed about the effectiveness of FDIs in the economic development of
the continent.
Some participants
advocated for a paradigm shift in investment on the continent to focus on
making use of African investors who are the key players to the continent's
renaissance.
They said experience
had shown that continuous reliance on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which
African governments spend a great amount of time, energy and scarce resources
to woo, had not yielded the desired expectations.
The participants said
the current invasion of investment by South Africa, Nigeria, the Gambia and
other African countries clearly attests to the fact that Africans are capable.
However, other
participants said African governments should work at increasing Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) into their economies while increasing development and reducing
poverty to manageable levels.
They argued that
aggressive marketing and development of the continent as a preferred investment
destination should be the focus of the continent's public relations
practitioners if Africa was to attract the required attention necessary to
change her current status.
Presenting a paper on
"Investment and Economic Development of Africa", Godwin Oboh, Chief
Executive Officer of the Union Bank of Nigeria, called for rethinking of the
issue in order to re-focus "our policies and strategies of achieving
developmental goals on the continent."
He said there is the
need to consolidate and extend the democratic and macro-economic stability so
far achieved in Africa, which could be done through appropriate regulations and
their transparent and even-handed implementation.
Oboh called for a
comprehensive and integrated strategy that would enable African countries shake
off the debilitating effect of debt to develop a workable strategy to mobilise
domestic savings so as to invest rather than wholesomely rely on FDIs.
"African
governments must prioritise their development strategies by developing and
expanding their areas of comparative advantage in order to integrate fully into
the global market. "They should
also free themselves from their colonial shackles and mentality," he
added.
Ken Ofori-Atta,
Chairman of Databank, Ghana, Limited said Africa's share of just five percent
of FDI in 2000 is an apology of the 25 percent she commanded in the 1970's.
"This situation where Africa attracts less than 10 percent of the world's
FDI must be reversed.
"We must depend
on our governments to start the way by establishing stable macroeconomic
environments, convenient judicial and legal regimes and favourable financial
environment.
He asked PR
practitioners on the continent to package Africa properly and adequately as a
potent investment destination. This, he said, could be done "by
celebrating and telling the success stories of Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa,
The Gambia and some other countries where they have had peaceful transitions
from one government to another and also good governance and democratic
institutions and practices that are emerging all over the continent".
Ofori-Atta called for
a stop to the bad press Africa gets, fuelled by knowledge gaps, saying,
Africans and African PR practitioners are the best people to do this. "We
cannot depend on CNN and the other foreign media networks to do them for us."
He said Africa has a
proud history and resources, which must be harnessed efficiently.
"Africa must not
negotiate from a disadvantaged position and FAPRA must lead the way to change
things."
He said Africa must
take its destiny into its hands and effect change that would bring prosperity
to her people. "We must work at developing an efficient, targeted PR that
has the potential of making everybody know that Africa has what it takes to
make life worthwhile."
Godwin A. Thompson
Oboh, Chief Executive of Union Bank of Nigeria, identified adequacy of good
infrastructure and Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) as necessary tools
to jump-start investment and development.
The adequacy of
infrastructure, he noted, assists in determining the success or failure of any
country in diversifying the productive base, expanding trade and commerce,
coping with population and urbanization and reducing poverty.
He said for SMEs to
play the needed role in the take-off of the economic development in any African
country, new initiatives must be evolved. "Such initiatives must include
giving generous corporate tax concessions, radically improving infrastructure
and developing products and making them competitive with those from
industrialized countries," he added.
Earlier Kwaku Osei
Bimpong, President of the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana urged his
colleagues to work hard at making Africa the place and partner that can no
longer be ignored in the scheme of things.
"Africa has its
image problems which adversely affect growth ..... Investment capital does not
see Africa as a favourable destination. But PR practitioners should be able to
change all this."
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra)
25 March 2003- The Central Bank on Monday promised drastic action against
operators of communications centres, saloons, and shops engaged in non-bank
financial activities.
Speaking to the Ghana
News Agency (GNA) Business Desk in Accra on the money situation in the country,
Miss Esi Hammond, a Public Relations Officer of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) said
there are licensed money transfer companies and urged the public to deal with them
for their own safety.
She asked the public
to desist from dealing with such companies since they are fake, not licensed
and could disappear with the monies that come into their custody. Ms Hammond
said such persons must be avoided as they most often peddle fake currencies.
She said such
unauthorized acts prevent the government from receiving the right amount of
foreign exchange needed for the development of the country, adding that,
"such persons must be reported to the BoG or the police for necessary action."
She said most
Ghanaians are not able to identify fake cedis saying, " people should take
the trouble to study and observe the cedi, namely the serial numbers and other
details on the cedi notes".
She told GNA that the
use of fake currency was increasing, because people do not keep the monies
clean and that makes it unidentifiable. "It is time we have confident in
our own money, since people easily identify fake dollars but not cedis"
she added.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
25 March 2003- Union Bank and Union Homes, both of Nigeria, are to take up
major stakes in the proposed HFC Bank, the brain child of Ghana's Home Finance
Company (HFC) Limited.
Godwin A. Thompson
Oboh, Chief Executive of Union Bank of Nigeria, told the Ghana News Agency
(GNA) Business Desk in an interview that Union Bank is putting up an additional
20 percent in the new bank, which is expected to bring a new bite and practice
into the banking industry.
Oboh spoke to the GNA
after speaking at the 16th Federation of African Public Relations Associations
(FAPRA) Conference currently underway in Accra. Union Bank already has a 12.5
percent in HFC.
He said the bank
would come on stream "as soon as HFC and the Bank of Ghana are able to
work out details of a banking license." He said the deal is at an
"advanced stage" and expressed the hope that the physical edifice of
HFC Bank would be out soon.
Oboh said Africa has
a huge potential in her people and institutions and urged governments to start
looking inward to tap the talents and resources of the institutions they head.
He expressed regret that most African governments spend time and money looking
for foreign investors when the same capital could be sourced from within their
own countries.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
25 March 2003- The rise in the GSE-All Share Index slowed on Monday, climbing
by a mere 0.75 points after a vigorous performance in the past few weeks.
The Index, which made
a modest 2.45 points on Friday after 28.18 point in Wednesday and 6.68 points
on Monday, ended at 1,624.30 points. It closed on 1,623.55 points.
The number of shares
that changed hands slid further to 51,900 from 68,600 shares.
The change in the
year to date was 16.41 per cent. In the broader market, there were three price
changes - all positive. Guinness Ghana Limited was eight cedis richer at 1,218
cedis, Ghana Commercial Bank rose by four cedis at 5,010 cedis and SSB Bank
gained three cedis at 6,005 cedis. Market capitalisation closed up at 7,447.08
billion cedis from 7,445.27 billion cedis.
The following are the
last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 420
AGC 28,500
ALW 4,300
BAT 1,102
CFAO 67
CPC 630
EIC
5,005
FML
2,009
GBL 520
GCB 5,010 +4
GGL 1,218 +8
HFC 1,215
MGL 257
MLC 280
MOGL
19,751
PAF 750
PBC 390
PZ 2,016
SCB
30,001
SPPC 390
SSB 6,005 +3
SWL 285
TBL 4,900
UNIL 5,201
CMLT 460
GRi.../
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