Ghana-US sign agreement to Develop Enterprises
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 May 2003 - President John Kufuor on Wednesday stressed the need for trade delegations to the country to consummate their negotiations into fruitful investment ventures for the benefit of the people.
He said, "we look forward for real consummation of these trade negotiations with the private sector for the benefit of the people". President Kufuor made the call when William Watley, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary of New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission, paid a courtesy called on him at the Castle, Osu.
Watley is leading a 23-member trade and business delegation from New Jersey to Ghana to discuss areas of mutual business interests. The areas discussed were mutual prospects of investment in Information Communication Technology (ICT), Telecommunications, Tourism and processing of fruit juices.
Watley said the delegation would visit South Africa as well, but chose Ghana first for their discussions, because of its political stability, high-level interest in privatisation drive and its significance as the Gateway to the West African Sub-Region.
"With the development of a free market economy, it is meaningful to come to Ghana". He said Ghana had a significant number of skilled professionals with integrity and a traditional manufacturing industry that fed into a strong and successful partnership with New Jersey where about 90 per cent of the business establishments are small and medium-scale enterprises.
The delegation leaves for South Africa on Wednesday night.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 May 2003 - The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) announced on Wednesday that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Africa Project Development Facility (APDF) to promote listing of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on the bourse.
The MOU would initially be in force for two years effective May 2003, a statement issued by the GSE in Accra said.
Under the Memorandum, APDF and GSE would collaborate in assisting SMEs to access financing opportunities available on the bourse. GSE and APDF would identify and select SMEs with the potential to benefit from the Stock Exchange, the statement said.
"Thereafter, APDF will co-fund advisory services provided by stockbrokers, investment bankers and other market operators by contributing between 30 and 70 per cent of the cost of such advisory services."
The statement said the advisory services would include documentation and preparation of the SMEs for listing on the stock exchange.
APDF and GSE would also organise outreach programmes in the regional capitals for potential SMEs and the general investing public to educate them about the activities of the GSE. APDF would provide capacity-building support for stockbrokers, investment bankers and other stock market operators.
"The Exchange recognises that for it to play a more meaningful role in national economic development, there is the need to encourage more domestic companies especially SMEs to list and access long-term capital for expansion. This support from APDF is, therefore, a significant step in attracting SMEs to go public, list and expand," the statement said.
The APDF is a multilateral donor funded agency, managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The African Development Bank (AfDB), IFC and 15 donor countries and supports the development of competitive African SMEs by providing business advisory, enterprise support and capacity building services.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 May 2003 - The Government has come of age and overcome a lot of the difficulties it faced when it took office.
"We have gone through the learning process over (a period). We have been in office and though we were slow in implementing some projects, we can now say that we are doing things faster now having learnt more now," Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, told the closing session of a two-day Ghana-German bilateral negotiations in Accra.
The 10-man German team and its Ghanaian counterpart were discussing their annual economic and development cooperation at the end of which 468.9bn cedis was committed to Ghana for 2003 and 2004 to implement various German assisted projects and programmes in the country.
Osafo-Maafo, who signed for Ghana, said even though the German delegation might not have found everything done successfully, "I can say that subjects such as the Procurement Bill, the Local Government Bill and the Revising Support of EU Financial Administration Bill are all before Parliament and would soon be passed.
"The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are assisting us in this direction." He noted that the performance of the district assemblies in mobilising revenue was improving and indications were that "things are very encouraging".
Osafo-Maafo praised German non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in their efforts at changing the Ghanaian economy adding that, all arrears owed German contractors have been paid.
Mrs Gudrun Gross-Wiesmann, Director for Africa and Middle East of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, who initialled for her country, said 302.8bn cedis out of the total amount would be provided under Financial Cooperation and the balance of 166.1bn under technical cooperation.
Approximately 244.2bn is in the form of a grant whilst the balance of 224.7bn cedis would be provided as a concessionary loan with a 40-year maturity period with a 10-year grace period and an interest rate of 0.75 per cent per annum."
She said the 302.8bn provided under the financial cooperation would be used in financing agriculture and food security, economic reforms and development of a market economy, democracy, civil society, public administration among other areas.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 May 2003 - Ghana is making follow-ups and holding discussions to consolidate trade links with investor countries for mutual benefits.
Alan Kyerematen, Minister of Trade, Industry and President's Special Initiatives (PSI), therefore, urged local entrepreneurs to take advantage of the links and enter into joint venture projects with interested investors in order to exploit the vast market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Kyerematen made the suggestion in a chat with Journalists in Accra after meeting three members of a 23-member trade and business delegation from New Jersey on Wednesday.
The delegation is in the country to discuss areas of mutual business interests to the two countries. Kyerematen said the meeting discussed the President's Special Initiatives on Textile and Garments; Salt and Oil Palm. It also discussed mutual prospects of investment in Information Communication Technology (ICT) and processing of fruit juices.
He said Ghana had a large agricultural land for the cultivation of fruits that could be processed for the US market, adding that Ghana was interested in trading with the US because of the opportunities offered under AGOA that had opened the way for 75 billion dollars of exports from Africa to enter US.
Kyerematen said Government had established the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) and Ghana Investment Fund (GIF) to create conducive credit environment and to support local entrepreneurs.
There was still some money under the Business Assistance Fund being reclaimed to support business initiatives in the 2003 budget, he said, and added that a Venture Fund had been created to provide access funds to business, and also to provide it equity and leverage.
Also there were pockets of finances to businesses under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and Poverty Reduction Funds. William Watley, Leader of the Team, said they chose Ghana for their discussions because of its political stability and high-level interest in privatisation drive.
He said Ghana had a significant number of skilled professionals with integrity and a traditional manufacturing industry that fed into a strong and successful partnership.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 May 2003 - Gains by Guinness Ghana Limited and Unilever helped the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to maintain its rise although institutional investors continued to stay away from the bourse.
Traded volumes rose from 46,800 shares to 264,200 shares, but 13 of the 25 listed equities did not do any business. The All-Share Index, the benchmark measure, rose by 10.99 points to 1,810.79 points from 1,799.80 points on Wednesday
There were four price changes, all positive. Unilever was 50 cedis up at 6,750 cedis, Guinness Ghana Limited gained 200 cedis at 2,000 cedis while Home Finance Company and Mechanical Lloyd gained one cedi each at 1,402 and 315 cedis respectively.
Change for the year ended up at 29.78 per cent. Market capitalisation closed higher at 7,911.42bn cedis at 7,884.68bn cedis.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 430
AGC 28,500
ALW 4,000
BAT 1,702
CFAO 72
CPC 630
EIC 5,005
FML 2,215
GBL 550
GCB 5,400
GGL 2,000 +200
HFC 1,402 +1
MGL 258
MLC 315 +1
MOGL 19,950
PAF 750
PBC 380
PZ 2,040
SCB 34,005
SPPC 390
SSB 7,000
SWL 285
TBL 5,200
UNIL 6,750 +50
CMLT 460
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 May 2003 - Foreign Direct Equity Investment into Ghana is mostly concentrated in Accra, with Greater Accra Region alone accounting for over 65 per cent of projects.
According to a draft report on Foreign Assets And Liabilities and Investors Perception in Ghana, the region in 1999 and 2000 attracted $660.4m and $482m worth of investment, twice more than Western and Ashanti Regions, which are the next two high ranking in the league of regions with large investments.
The National Task Force for Monitoring Private Capital Flows Project in collaboration with Development Finance International launched the project to monitor private capital inflows into the country.
The workshop was to disseminate findings of the survey conducted between October 2000 and November 2002 to build a comprehensive database on foreign private capital flow into Ghana.
The report, which was discussed at a workshop on Wednesday to allow for inputs from stakeholders, attributed Greater Accra Region's success to location of most companies' head offices in Accra and not necessarily enterprises operations.
"This, therefore, means that while it is true that Greater Accra is the major region of Ghana's economic activity, the regional distribution of foreign investments as indicated in the results may not be a true reflection of the distribution pattern of FDI," it said.
In this direction, the report called for further information and data on the distribution patterns of companies in order to guide government's regional policies.
Albert Quartey of the Bank of Ghana, who presented the findings at the workshop, said lack of infrastructure such as electricity, water and good roads could be some of the limiting factors discouraging companies to locate their operations away from the capital.
He said it was important to facilitate the provision of such facilities to ensure balanced distribution of enterprises throughout the country. Kwasi Abeasi, Chief Executive Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, said getting investors to relocate outside Accra was the main thrust of the centre's strategy but was being hindered by operational difficulties.
He, however, expressed the hope that every effort would be made to succeed in that direction. In a speech read for him the, Dr Paul Acquah, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, said the country had attracted more than one billion dollars in FDI flows into the country.
He said the survey would provide the necessary database for monitoring the flow of capital into the economy. Nils Bhinda, Programme Manager at Development Finance International, said the survey initiative sought to establish a sustainable institutional framework of public and private sector stakeholders.
It is also to develop and maintain a database on private capital and investor perception and provide information to donors to help them to define their priorities and allocate funds.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 May 2003 - The Government of Ghana and the African Development Foundation (ADF), a US government agency, on Wednesday signed an agreement establishing a $4m annual Venture Capital fund to provide resources to support small and medium size Ghanaian businesses.
The Fund is meant to support a minimum of 40 Ghanaian businesses for a five-year period. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Finance Minister, signed for Ghana, while Nathaniel Fields, President of the ADF, signed for the Foundation.
He said the Government was providing a counterpart fund of two million dollars from part of the National Reconstruction Levy, thereby ensuring that four million dollars was in the fund at the beginning of each year.
A selected SME is expected to receive 250,000 dollars and would be developed to become a full-fledged company capable of listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
Osafo-Maafo said the Fund would virtually end the problem of accessing long-term financing by micro, small and medium scale industries that were usually faced with banks' unwillingness to provide credit on the grounds that their risks were too high.
He said SMEs in the country had for too long, lived on loans adding, "no company can survive on loans from banks." Similar financial arrangements exist between the ADF and governments of Zimbabwe, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
The ADF would collaborate with the National Board for Small Scale Industries and EMPRETEC to work out selection criteria. Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Private Sector Development, said the Fund was coming at a most appropriate time to fill a gaping hole in the finances of a large number of SMEs.
"It will also enable them to have leverage for further funding," he added. Fields said 15 African countries were participating in the Fund, which also provided technical support to make businesses more profitable.
He expressed the hope that Ghana would be the flagship for other African countries, and the ADF looked forward to a US-Ghana collaboration to build viable micro, small and medium scale enterprises.
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