Ghana Water Company owes about 2.6 trillion
Microsoft to conduct raids on pirates
Inter-bank exchange rates
Ghana Water Company owes about 2.6 trillion
Koforidua (Eastern Region) 16 November 2001-The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) owes 400 million dollars (about 2.6 trillion cedis) in the purchase of chemicals for the treatment of water for consumption.
This debt came about as a result of mismanagement and waste in the system, poor service quality, low cost recovery, inadequate maintenance and deteriorating of GWCL equipment.
Mr Emmanuel Nkrumah, Water Engineer of the Water Restructuring Secretariat of GWCL, announced this when he briefed the Eastern Regional Co-ordinating Council meeting at Koforidua on Wednesday.
He said the President John Agyekum Kufuors's statement on forging public/private partnership in Ghana's urban water supply would improve efficiency in the work of GWCL and bring investors into the water sector as a means of solving the company's problems.
He said in restructuring the water sector there would be the need to increase access to water supply, ensure sustainability of the supply, achieve cost recovery through efficient operation and the improvement of water sector management.
Mr Nkrumah said the proposal for Private Sector Participation (PSP) would not increase water tariffs but would rather help to bring efficiency into the sector, adding that performance targets would be set by GWCL and the private partners would only benefit based on their performance.
He said under the restructuring programme some of the workers would be retrenched but they could be assisted to form companies and work in the sector.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 November 2001-Microsoft Corporation, a multi-national software company, on Thursday launched an anti-piracy campaign to clamp down on piracy within some Ghanaian companies.
The campaign, the company said, was a nationwide exercise that had already started in Nigeria and Cameroon.
Mr Franck-Alex Thalmas, Microsoft Anti-Piracy Manager in charge of West and Central Africa, told newsmen at a press conference that the company had contracted Tony Lithur and Company, a law firm, to assist it to sustain the fight against piracy in Ghana.
He said an investigation showed that piracy rate in some developing countries including Ghana was above 80 per cent and this was a threat to those countries' investment and revenue generation opportunities.
"Piracy of software retards the socio-economic growth of the nation that practises it. It leads to loss of revenue, efficiency and competitiveness, loss of employment and exposes resellers to severe legal consequences for copyright infringement".
Mr Thalmas said many businesses were threatened and many more were out of business because they could not compete with the pricing structure that was associated with illegal software.
A data from Business Software Alliance showed that worldwide, piracy rate in Africa is 90 per cent out of which South Africa accounts for 45 per cent.
Mr Thalmas said companies would be asked to take inventories of their software pack and licenses to attest the legality of the software in usage regarding the law and license agreement.
"If we are satisfied about the information provided we would issue a certificate of compliance to give them the authorisation to use the software," he said.
Mr John Defor, a Research Officer from DAPEG Limited, Marketing Developers of Microsoft Software, said initiating legal actions against software pirates became necessary after persistent efforts to appeal to the perpetrators' conscience failed.
Mr Defor advised artists to register their works to benefit from the piracy law, PNDC Law 110, which would be amended soon to attract stiffer punishment for the offenders.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 November 2001
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 7,039.00 7,239.45
Pound Sterling 10,129.12 10,424.08
French Franc 945.13 971.83
Swiss Franc 4,217.30 4,336.14
Deutsche Mark 3,168.52 3,259.77
Canadian Dollar 4,421.27 4,546.44
Japanese Yen 57.59 59.23
Dutch Guilder 2,813.25 2,892.77
S/African Rand 730.00 749.87
Euro 6,199.35 6,373.64
CFA Franc 9.45 9.72
Naira 64.31 66.14
Ecowas/WAUA 9,046.65 --------
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