Mauritius Company to invest in Ghana
Accra (Greater Accra) 13 May 2003 - A leading Mauritius firm is to invest $18m in sugar production in the country. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, who announced this in Accra on Monday said the company would require about 11000 acres of land to produce 90,000 tones of sugar from 200,000 tones of cane a year.
Osafo-Maafo, a member of the government delegation that accompanied President John Kufuor on a four state visit to Mauritius was briefing newsmen shortly on arrival in Accra.
He said Mauritius a leading sugar producing country was rationalising production adding that the company, which he did not name, had decided to relocate in Ghana. Osafo-Maafo said in answer to a question that the company would decide whether to operate at Asutuare or Komenda depending on its choice, since operations at both areas were defunct.
He said another Mauritius company dealing in the polishing of diamond had agreed to send a delegation to Ghana to undertake feasibility study to locate a company in the country.
Osafo-Maafo said, "Mauritius has one of the most efficient diamond polishing companies in the world although the country does not produce diamonds and with Ghana producing diamond it will be ideal for the company to relocate here."
He said another company had also agreed to establish a packaging plant to support the export sector because the country's packaging industry was rudimentary and that exporters depended on imported packaging material.
Osafo-Maafo said another area the government of Mauritius would assist Ghana was offshore banking in which Mauritius had the expertise and experience, adding that Mauritius would also assist Ghana to establish a financial intelligence unit within the banking sector.
Osafo-Maafo said some personnel from the Bank of Ghana, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and financial institutions would be sent to Mauritius next month in line with the legislations and laws required to establish the offshore banking.
He said the delegation made a stopover in Pretoria, South Africa and held discussion with some businessmen and the private sector. Osafo-Maafo said a South African company had agreed to invest $400m in real estate development in the country.
He said the company would not rely on guarantee or loan for the investment but only required land for their investment and pledged government support for the assistance they would need.
Osafo-Maafo said, "Even though the visit was tiring, it was rewarding." Alan Kyeremanten, Minister of Trade Industry and President Special Initiative, said a number of textile companies in Mauritius were prepared to relocate in Ghana. He said they would be located at the Garment Village at Tema where about 50 factories were expected to operate from next month.
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Government must fund water supply
Accra (Greater Accra) 13 May 2003 - The National Coalition Against Privatisation of Water and the Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL), on Monday called on government to mobilize funds to revamp the Ghana Water Company (GWC) for an efficient service delivery.
This, it said, would rather help than to leave it in the hands of private investors to the detriment of the ordinary man. The Coalition said this at a three-day conference to find ways of strengthening the network and involve more people in the fight against privatisation of water.
It noted that privatisation did not necessarily mean efficiency, adding that the idea was being mooted out to serve the selfish interests of some few people. The conference under the theme "Securing The Right to Essential Services in Africa", brought together about 60 participants from 13 countries including Ghana, Nicaragua, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Bolivia, South Africa, Brazil and Canada.
The conference would call attention to the government's plan in July 2003, calling for bids from four pre-qualified multinational water companies to lease Ghana's urban water system.
Al-Hassan Adam, an executive member of the Coalition said the hypocrisy surrounding the plan in the name of efficiency and affordability could not be overemphasised since people were rather going to make profit adding "the time to get them out is now."
He said international donors and lenders were backing a corporate take-over of services including provision of water, health care, energy and education by creating new aid programmes that directly promote either privatisation of resources and services or some other means of privatisation such as public private partnership.
Adam said the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) preached good governance and participatory democracy whilst in another breath were leading a campaign to privatise services in Africa that stroked at the heart of the democratic process.
"African leaders are responding to pressure from powerful governments seeking to expand overseas markets" forgetting that when they were "locked-in" these processes could be irreversible.
Adam said the governments must consider whether public private partnership could serve the public interest or whether in their desperation to reduce their debt and obtain finance, they were relinquishing control over the resources and services most essential for health, livelihood and dignity.
He said Ghana must take a cue from the Ghana Telecom saga where the Malaysians messed everything and later had to leave a huge debt for the country to pay. Adam said already about 450 million people in 29 countries face serious water shortages affecting both the wealthiest and poorest nations whose expanding economies and populations were chasing fewer sources of fresh water.
He said more than one billion people lack access to clean and affordable water and approximately 2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation services while over two million people, mostly children, die annually from diarrhoea related diseases to lack of access to clean water.
"In Ghana, formal statistics cite access to treated water as available to 62 to 70 percent in urban areas and 35 to 40 percent in rural areas. However, in urban areas, only 40 percent of the population have water taps that flows. Seventy eight percent of the poor in urban areas do not have pipe-borne water, he said.
Ms. Wenonah Hauter, Director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Programme (PCCMEEP), said the privatisation of water in countries like Buenos Aires and South Africa had resulted in public health crisis and social turmoil among other things.
She said the claim by the World Bank to let one billion people get water through privatisation was unfounded, adding that it was just a bunch of European and American contractors that were going to benefit.
Ms. Hauter said statistics showed that investment in water from the public sector had been declining since 1990 with government paying 65 to 90 percent with five percent from the private sector, and asked how the private sector with its five per cent improve water supply".
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Accra (Greater Accra) 13 May 2003 - The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) continued its rise although the bourse once again recorded low volumes. The All-Share Index, the benchmark measure, rose by 3.96 points to 1,799.80 points from 1,795.84 points in trading that saw only 46,800 shares changing hands, down from 381,600 shares on Friday.
There were four price changes, all positive. Unilever was ¢97 up at ¢6,700, SSB Bank gained ¢47 at ¢7,000, Fan Milk Limited rose by four cedis at ¢2,215 and British American Tobacco (BAT) was two cedis richer at ¢1,702.
Change for the year ended up at 28.99 percent. Market capitalisation closed slightly higher at ¢7,884.68bn from ¢7,875.05bn.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 430
AGC 28,500
ALW 4,000
BAT 1,702 +2
CFAO 72
CPC 630
EIC 5,005
FML 2,215 +4
GBL 550
GCB 5,400
GGL 1,800
HFC 1,401
MGL 258
MLC 314
MOGL 19,950
PAF 750
PBC 380
PZ 2,040
SCB 34,005
SPPC 390
SSB 7,000 +47
SWL 285
TBL 5,200
UNIL 6,700 +97
CMLT 460
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Accra (Greater Accra) 13 May 2003 - Inflation at the end of April over 12 months edged up slightly to 30.0 per cent from the 29.9 per cent registered in March. The inflation over 12 months opened the year at 16.3 per cent in January, but went up to 29.4 per cent in February on the strength of a near 100 per cent fuel increase.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) of Ghana Statistical Service said the average annual inflation for April 2003 is 18.1 per cent compared with 16.8 per cent in March 2003.
The Ghana Statistical Service explained that changes that are reported in the Statistical Newsletter are monthly and annual. It said the monthly change measures the rate of price changes from month-to-month, while the annual change represents changes in price levels over a period of one year.
"It is worth mentioning that a decline of the rate of inflation from one period to the other does not necessarily mean that actual transaction prices are falling. For as long as the change remains positive, it means that price levels are increasing but at a declining rate," the Statistical Newsletter said.
Inflation over 12 months at the beginning of 2001 was 40.9 per cent dropping to 36.8 cent in June of the same year and closing lower at 21.3 per cent in December. The figure dipped further opening 2002 at 19.9 per cent and falling to 13.7 per cent in June and finishing at 15.2 per cent in December 2002.
Asked whether it was possible to achieve less than 10 per cent inflation figure by the end of 2004, K. Addomah-Gyabah, Deputy Government Statistician of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said, "it is not possible to say that now since a lot of things could happen within that period".
“It also depends on what factors go into forming the food basket and the weights that go to determine the total," he added. Government on Monday said it was aiming at inflation of less that 10 per cent by end of 2004. The concept of a basket is used as a representation for all spending on household consumer goods and services in the economy by the population.
In particular, the new series extends the food sub-group to cover beverages while alcohol and tobacco have been grouped together in line with revised international standards.
The GSS said the weights in the index for the estimation of the average rate of price increase indicate the proportion of the household consumption on a particular commodity or service in the basket.
"Prices used for the computation of Consumer Price Index are actual transaction prices on the market. Bargaining for reduction is therefore, not expected; black market and discount prices are also excluded," it said.
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