BOG urges public to be vigilant
Monetary Zone Programme is on course - WAMI
PBC paid bonus to cocoa farmers
Nkawkaw (Eastern Region) 16 May 2003 - The Produced Buying Company (PBC) of the Ghana Cocoa Board has paid ¢520.3m as bonus to over 10,000 farmers in the Nkawkaw District, who sold their produce to the company during the 2002/2003 cocoa purchasing season.
Each farmer received a bonus of ¢256 for every kilogram. This was disclosed to the Ghana News Agency in an interview with the Nkawkaw District Manager of the PBC, Kwame Asante at Nkawkaw.
He said the highest bonus of ¢1,490,500 went to a farmer who sold 4,100 kilograms while the lowest of 1,280 cedis was for five kilograms.
Asante said the PBC purchased 32,521 bags from the 41 societies in the Nkawkaw District, which comprises Kwahu South, Afram Plains, Brim North and Asante Akyem South.
He advised farmers to ensure that their cocoa sales were recorded in their pass books to enable them receive the right annual bonus at the end of the cocoa purchasing season.
The District Manager also advised farmers to accept Akuafo Cheques as payment for their cocoa to avoid being paid with fake currency and attacks by armed robbers.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 May 2003 - The Bank of Ghana (BoG) on Thursday said it was impossible for fraudsters to reproduce any of the security features on the new cedi notes, and asked the public to be extra vigilant when handling the notes.
Briefing the media in Accra in response to the current case of fake cedi notes being used to pay of cocoa farmers in the Birim North District of the Eastern Region, Kassim Yahya, Head of Public Affairs, BOG, said it was important not to hype the matter to create credibility problems for the currency.
He said the security features were so entrenched and sophisticated that it was impossible for anyone to replicate them. "Indeed, attempts would be made to fake them, but it is also important to note that what would be made cannot be like the original and all that is needed is a little vigilance," he said.
"Even attempts are made to fake the dollar which is considered to be rather difficult to fake." Yahya said the new ¢10,000 and ¢20,000 notes had very tight security features that could not be faked under any circumstance.
He said the Bank in connection with the Information Services Department and other collaborators would soon embark on an education programme to educate the public, especially those in the rural areas, and school children on the currency notes.
Yahya said there was a four-week educational campaign before the introduction of the new notes. "What we have decided to do now is that we would engage in a sustained educational tour of the country and ensure that people from time-to- time are fully exposed to the nature and design of the currencies we use."
Edward Ofei-Bekoe, Head of Issue, said it was important for Ghanaians to take time off to study the currency notes before using them anytime it was given to them.
He debunked claims that the quality of paper used in printing the cedi was inferior, saying that there was a specific scientific composition that was required to make the paper and this was done for all currency notes. Ofei-Bekoe urged the public not to use only one defective feature on the cedi note and dismiss it as fake.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 May 2003 - Kassim Yahya, Head of Public Affairs of the Bank of Ghana, on Thursday asked cocoa farmers to revert to the full use of the Akuafo Cheque System, saying "it is a guaranteed means of accessing your money."
He said the system introduced about two decades ago was a safe haven within which cocoa farmers could receive their monies from the banks after selling their produce.
Yahya, who was speaking to Journalists in Accra, said even though there were initial problems with the availability of cash at some of the banks, "this time we would ensure that money is readily available and payment is effected on demand by the presentation of the Akuafo Cheque".
He said the Central Bank and Cocobod were working to streamline the Akuafo Cheque System to make it more efficient and acceptable.
He urged farmers to stick to the Akuafo Cheque system since they were always assured of genuine cedis notes.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 May 2003 - Banking operations in Ghana received a major boost on Thursday when the Central Bank launched the Ghana Interbank Settlement (GIS) System with the objective of enforcing electronic processing and settlement of interbank transactions on gross basis in real time. Hitherto, settlement systems between commercial banks and the Bank of Ghana (BOG) took several days.
Launching the system, Dr Paul A. Acquah, Governor of BOG, said Ghana now had in place the most efficient inter-bank money market in the West African Sub-Region. "With the growing inter-bank market, the values transferred between participants in a single transaction are growing exponentially."
Ghana is the fifth country after South Africa, Mauritius, Malawi and Angola to have an interbank system in Africa. Dr Acquah said the new system had been the attention of most central banks that wanted to contain systemic risk arising from large value payment systems by developing Real Time Gross Settlement Systems.
He noted that an automated large value interbank payment system greatly facilitated the establishment of short-term money and capital markets. Dr Acquah said the risk of deferred payments were absent in this system while it provided treasury managers with tools to manage their funds efficiently as they could sit in their offices and monitor the balance of their accounts with the Central Bank.
"It galvanizes all counterparts in a banking transaction and all stakeholders to show collective interest in the efficiency and safety of the system."
The Governor thus called for an efficient retail payments system. "This is the area for commercial banks to introduce products that directly benefit customers but for which the Central Bank carries supervisory responsibility".
He said the Bank had noticed with interest the development of retail products, saying this should be a shared responsibility instead of the current situation where banks wanted to go it alone.
"Commercial banks must, therefore, balance competition with cooperation." Outlining the GIS system, Damian Zaato, Project Coordinator, said transactions settled in the system were final and irrevocable, eliminating the settlement and systemic risks associated with existing payment systems.
He said only large value or time critical payments were processed through the GIS system while low value and high value transactions did not have to be subjected to the discipline and rigours of the RTGS.
He said the system would boost Ghana's promotional efforts as a financial nerve centre and gateway to West Africa as payment transactions would be settled immediately as they were received thus reducing interbank indebtedness to a minimum.
"It also ensures that banks with liquidity problems are exposed on timely basis."
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 May 2003 - The UN has completed the final draft of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Report on Ghana after incorporating comments made by participants at a retreat held last October on the Report.
A statement in Accra on Thursday said the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) had just concluded a retreat on integrating the MDG, the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and the NEPAD into the UN System's United Nations Development Assistance Framework, which is the cornerstone of the UN's interventions in Ghana.
It said some participants felt several other targets/indicators should have been included in the MDG, adding that although the list of indicators was not exhaustive, it was agreed at the retreat that they adhered to the prescribed format for reporting on the MDG.
"It is anticipated that the next MDG Ghana Country Report would try as much as possible to add other targets/indicators that may be highlighted as specific challenges in Ghana, especially on youths and sea/coastal erosion."
The statement said as agreed at the UNCT retreat, the next steps to be taken are to shift attention beyond the process of preparing the report to content and implementation by taking actions in a number of areas.
These include a formal launch of the Report by President John Kufuor. "In addition to being an accountability tool for measuring or assessing results, the UNCT will use the report's findings to assist government to launch a series of advocacy and awareness-raising campaigns on the MDG throughout the country.
"The principal aim is to involve all the relevant stakeholders in order to establish national consensus for an accelerated progress towards meeting the MDG. "Target audience will include the general public, the media, leading politicians and policy makers at central and local levels."
The statement said like the retreat held in October, the UNCT's retreat had also acknowledged the importance of timely and reliable data to monitor the MDG in Ghana.
"The Report has already highlighted the urgent need for strengthening data collection and statistical capacity building. The UNCT will discuss with government the issue of identifying national capacity gaps for monitoring and meeting the MDG and agree on relevant support programmes to address these gaps and weaknesses in data collection, analysis and dissemination, especially at the district level.
The statement said it was crucial to institutionalise a monitoring mechanism that could help government to initiate decisive actions in terms of policy reforms, institutional changes and the re-allocation of resources to sectors/areas in the MDG where they were most needed.
"All of us need to assess/monitor results so that we know where we are at any given point and what will be required in terms of policies, interventions/assistance, financial and/or otherwise to help Ghana to meet the MDG.
It said in this connection, there is a proposal that National Task Forces/Sectoral Working Groups of "Scorekeepers" comprising of all the relevant stakeholders be established to share out roles/responsibilities for assessing progress towards meeting the MDG.
Each task force or sectoral working group would address each of or a cluster of the MDG, the statement said. It said a decision also needed to be taken on when to prepare the MDG Country Report either annually or on a periodic basis.
The statement said there were clear advantages in both cases, but in the light of the administrative burdens of preparing an annual report and the fact that most MDG data did not change from one year to the next, it would appear that the Ghana Country Report might have to be prepared on a periodic basis.
The statement said in accordance with the expressed desire of the UN Secretary-General, the Resident Coordinator and his colleagues would make all efforts to work with donors and the NGO/CBO community to assist Ghana in meeting the MDG.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 May 2003 - The West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) said on Thursday that the programme to create a second monetary zone within the Sub-Region was on course, taking into account the commitment so far shown by the five countries currently involved in it.
Dr Michael Ojo, Director-General of the Institute, told a press briefing in Accra that although the countries were yet to reach their goals, the co-operation that the Institute had enjoyed from the authorities bore eloquent testimony of their determination to achieve the set targets.
He was briefing the media on the outcome of the 11th Meeting of the Convergence Council of the West African Monetary Zone held in Banjul, The Gambia last week.
Nigeria, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone are spearheading the second monetary zone that is aimed to establish a second currency, the "ECO", which would subsequently merge with the CFA franc to achieve ECOWAS' objective of a single convertible regional currency.
Cape Verde and Liberia are the other countries of the zone with observer status on the programme. Dr Ojo said member countries needed to work hard to overcome the more arduous task ahead in achieving the convergence criteria, which was necessary for the attainment of the aim of the zone.
The convergence criteria include a restriction of the budget deficit (excluding grants) as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to not more than four per cent, a single digit inflation, a ceiling on Central Bank financing of budget deficit to at most 10 per cent of the previous year's tax revenue and a floor on foreign exchange reserves of at least three months of import cover.
Most member countries' failure to meet the stringent criteria at the end of 2002 prompted Heads of State and Government of the WAMZ at their meeting in Conakry to shift the launch date of the Monetary Union from January 2003 to 1 July 2005.
The Director-General called for a collective determination and hard work to make the attainment of the goals of the Zone a reality for the benefit of the citizens of the member countries.
Dr Ojo said the meeting in Banjul dwelt on the macro-economic developments in the WAMZ countries last year, a revision of the West African Central Bank Statute, the development of a payment system and the annual report and statement of accounts of the Institute.
He said the Convergence Council noted that macroeconomic performance in member countries last year was unsatisfactory, with fiscal dominance being the bane of the economies.
"As in 2001, no country met the fiscal deficit - GDP criterion while two countries exceeded the ceiling on the Central Bank credit to Government. Only two countries met the criterion on inflation, three met the target on external reserves."
Dr Ojo said the Council noted that the first quarter of this year did not indicate any positive shift from the situation in 2002, but commended the various policies member countries had put in their national budgets to address the situation.
In its recommendation the Council asked member countries to adhere faithfully to effective implementation of remedial national policies in their budget statements; establish National Coordinating Committees on Macroeconomic Surveillance as well as implement the national convergence criteria agreed with the Institute.
Other recommendations dwelt on speedy implementation of the Trade Liberalization Scheme in all member countries. Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Regional Cooperation and NEPAD, said Ghana last year did not meet any of the criteria set out for the attainment of the monetary zone, saying the country needed to pursue difficult policy choices to lay a solid foundation for achieving the criteria.
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