GRi Business, Economics & Finance 30 - 05 - 2002
VALCO – foundation for Ghana’s aluminium
industry
European Commission to spend 110 million
euros on investment
VALCO – foundation for Ghana’s aluminium
industry
Tema (Greater Accra) 30 May 2002- The Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) produces 42,000 metric tonnes of aluminium ingots from each of the remaining three pot lines a year. Mr Seth Adjei, Production Director, who was speaking to members of the Energy Commission on Tuesday, said shipment of the ingots was made once a month.
The Commission, led by Nana Osei Bonsu II, Mamponghene, was on a day's visit to VALCO to acquaint itself with its activities. Eleven per cent of the company's total aluminium production estimated at more than 20 million dollars is released to Ghana Minerals Commission annually, thus saving Ghana foreign exchange that would otherwise have been used on imports.
"This is why VALCO is the foundation of over 50 million
dollars Aluminium Industry in Ghana," Mr Adjei said, adding that the
Industry has about 100 dependent companies which, in turn, offer employment to
thousands of Ghanaians. He explained that aluminium is released in its molten
stage to Aluworks Company, instead of giving them in ingots to roll for the
Ghanaian market thereby saving energy
VALCO, a major consumer of electric power has had to shut down some of its production pot lines anytime there is shortfall in the national energy supply. Currently, two production lines are closed due to inadequacy of power supply. The Company said it would cost about 12 million dollars to revive a pot line of 100 cells that had been closed.
Mr Adjei said it would cost one billion dollars to set up a refinery in Ghana to convert bauxite ore into alumina,.This was in an apparent explanation to why the company imports alumina from Jamaica to feed the plant. He said, even though, a number of investors had expressed interest in exploring the use of the abundant bauxite at Kibi in the Eastern Region and Nyinahin in Ashanti, "they leave and return no more because of the huge foreign exchange cost involved."
Mr Ron Helton, Managing Director of VALCO, said the company had exercised its contractual right since 1994 and had extended its power contract with Ghana for a further 20 years, effective 1997. He said out of 1,117 workers on VALCO's pay roll, only eleven of them are expatriates adding; "all our engineers are the products of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi".
Mr Helton said the company had a high calibre of human resource that had contributed greatly to its increased production, "and this has come about because of training and development of employees".
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European Commission to spend 110 million euros on investment
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 May 2002- The European Commission is to spend over 110 million Euro in the next seven years under a programme to support the private sector and to help promote investment opportunities in the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries in West Africa.
Under the programme, which is being financed by the European Development Fund, the private sector in beneficiary countries would benefit from relevant technical assistance to enable it to develop special skills in business management, business planning and project monitoring as well as strengthen intermediary organisation for investment promotion.
Other areas covered under the programme are regional identification of key sectors with economic potential, identifying and selecting ACP and EU investment opportunities and projects and public and private dialogue to promote investment in the ACP regions. Mr David Parker, Project Consultant of the European Union, announced this at the launch of the EU-West Africa Agro-Business Sector Meeting in Accra on Wednesday.
Dubbed "AGRO-IND 2002", the meeting, which would take place between 4 and 7 November in Dakar, Senegal, seeks to support the agro-business sector in countries in the sub-region through a matching meeting with European and companies in other countries to discuss potential areas of co-operation and investment opportunities on pre-identified projects. Over 125 new agro-business projects from countries in the sub-region would be linked with counterparts from the European Union.
Mr Parker said the main focus of the event was to select good proposals on agro-business projects from West African promoters that were seeking European or ECOWAS investment or long- term co-operation partner. He mentioned livestock rearing, fish and aquaculture, fruit and vegetables cereals processing and cosmetics derived from agro-products as areas of interest.
Mr Parker said ECOWAS and EU eligible partners, who present viable projects, would be able to take advantage of the assistance programmes of the revised Lome IV and Cotonou Agreements, meet with financial institutions and receive assistance available for preparation and follow-ups under the investment programme.
Mr Parker said during the event the eligible entrepreneurs would meet with the EU partners to discuss and to negotiate their proposals, technical assistance and commercial or financial potentials. They would also be informed on appropriate technologies in the agro-business sectors as well as obtain relevant information about the EU and regional markets and their constraints in terms of quality, standardisation and price competitiveness.
He explained that the EU through its local consultant would be liasing with various public and private agencies to give Ghanaian entrepreneurs an opportunity to submit proposals and take part in the meeting if they were selected.
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