Ghana to host West African Monetary
Institute
Traded volumes
continue to slump on stock exchange
National Statistics
System has failed – Abbey
Ghana to host West African Monetary
Institute
Accra (Greater Accra) 21 November 2000
Ghana has been selected as the headquarters of the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI), the interim institution that is to work towards the establishment of a West African Central Bank.
The Central Bank is to be the monetary authority of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), the official name given by the six countries, which have decided to fast-track monetary integration within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
This was contained in a statement issued by Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, Minister of Planning, Regional Economic Co-operation and Integration, in Accra on Monday.
It said the decisions were taken at the end of the third general meeting of the Convergence Council of the second monetary zone, the ministerial body charged with the responsibility of supervising the process leading to the establishment of the zone.
The meeting took place in the Gambian capital of Banjul. Countries in the zone are Ghana, the Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Leaders of the six countries signed the Accra Declaration on April 20 this year, which committed them to the establishment of the second monetary zone, a common central bank and a common currency in 2003. The time-table speaks of a possible merger with the CFA to form a single West African currency in 2004.
The statement said since then, a task force comprising representatives of the various central banks, as well as a technical committee, has been working on the technical details.
It said the Banjul meeting approved the various proposals made by these bodies, and in particular, the institutional, administrative and legal framework of the WAMZ.
It also approved proposals on the statutes of both the WAMI and the West African Central Bank and a stabilisation and co-operation fund of the WAMZ.
The statement said the meeting decided that the Convergence Council would meet again next month in time for the heads of state to approve the final texts of the documents during the summit of ECOWAS heads of state to be held in Bamako, Mali.
GRi…/
Traded volumes
continue to slump on stock exchange
Accra (Greater Accra) 21 November
2000
Only two equities, Ghana
Commercial Bank and Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL), sold shares on Monday as
market volumes dropped sharply at the first trading of the week. There were
demands for shares of only eight of the 22 equities but they made no sales.
Traded shares closed lower at
7,300 from 134,500 as the bourse continued its poor performance under dominant
bearish sentiments.
However, the benchmark GSE
All-share index inched up by 1.25 points at 852.60 points compared to 851.35 on
Friday.
The market remains offer-driven
with offers outstripping demand by large volumes. Offers were down at 1.1
million from 1.3 million on Friday.
Bids fell heavily to close at
28,400 from 156,200. On the broader market, there was only one price change -
GGL, which gained 20 cedis to close at 740 cedis. The following are the last
prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 630
AGC 18,600
ALW 4,100
BAT 400
CFAO 50
EIC 2,400
FML 1,000
GBL 1,350
GCB 1,579
GGL 740 +20
HFC 952
MGL 200
MLC 145
MOGL 18,600
PAF 270
PBC 503
PZ 400
SCB 21,500
SPPC 250
SSB 2,200
UNIL 1,550
CMLT 425
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National Statistics
System has failed - Abbey
Accra (Greater Accra) 21 November
2000
An independent think tank and the
World Bank on Monday criticised the National Statistical System (NSS) for
failing to live up to requirements under the Statistical Service Law and losing
the confidence of the donor community.
"The NSS publishes things
that do not inform the people about conditions affecting them and has failed to
set standards for private data collection firms," said Dr. Joe Abbey,
Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Analysis.
Mr Peter Harold, World Bank
Country Director, said "donor partners have lost a lot of confidence in
the Service itself and are worried about the benefits of their support".
As a result of concerns about the
misuse of their money, donors are only supporting specific projects rather than
NSS-initiated and supervised projects, Mr Harold said.
The attack came at a forum
organised by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to commemorate this year's
annual Africa Statistics Day under the theme "Poverty reduction:
strengthening statistical capacity for measuring and monitoring poverty."
Dr Abbey cited unsatisfactory NSS
statistics on labour, environment, gender, investment and tourism.
He said the NSS statistical
publications show little information on how such findings affect ordinary
Ghanaians.
"There are too many agencies
churning out data but they require the GSS to set standards for people to judge
the accuracy and acceptability of data and how they are arrived at."
Dr. Abbey stressed the need for
statisticians to "have an intuitive feel to be able to go beyond figures
appearing on computer screens and analyse their implications".
He said conditions attached to
poverty alleviation grants could benefit both parties on the basis of
"mutuality".
This is because when developing
countries "actually use" such grants as required and poverty is
reduced, donors would no longer have to cope with economic refugees going to
their countries.
Mr Harold said the World Bank is
ready to work with the NSS to build its capacity if it acts "to recreate
the confidence of donor partners".
He urged the NSS to create
programmes that the donor community would be ready to support, adding that it
should make available its printed reports on its web site, compact discs and
diskettes.
The NSS, he added, should refrain
from leaving data collection in the hands of special interests that might
compromise the accuracy and objectivity of the findings for personal gain.
GRi…/