BOST to construct
three additional storage tanks in Kumasi
EU to offer
coherent trade and aid to developing countries
Rural
Banks urged to improve performance
GSE All
Share bounces back to an impressive performance
BOST
to construct three additional storage tanks in Kumasi
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 October 2002- The Bulk Oil Storage and Transport Limited (BOST) is expected
to construct three additional tanks for its Kumasi Depot at a cost of 16
billion cedis.
The project, to be
completed within four months would be financed from the petroleum levy of 30
cedis per litre. This was disclosed to newsmen by Mr Joseph O.K. Addo-Yobo,
Managing Director of BOST at the opening of bids for the tendering of the
project by the Central Tender Board (CTB) in Accra on Tuesday.
Seven out of 17
companies, which purchased tender documents, submitted their bids. They were
Francomends (Ghana) Limited, Worcon Engineering Limited, J.S. Yeboah Company
Limited and Glotec Engineering Limited.
The rest were,
Motherwell Bridge (Ghana) Limited, AFKO Engineering and Construction Limited
and Steel African Maintenance and Construction Limited.
The Kumasi Depot has the capacity to store
seven million litres of super, eight million litres of gasoline and 3.5 million
litres of Kerosine. However Mr Addo-Yobo did not disclose the capacities of the
three tanks to be constructed.
Mr Kwadwo Mpiani,
Chief of Staff and Chairman of the CTB said the project would increase the
storage capacity of BOST for the distribution of petroleum products for the
northern sector of the country.
He said it would also
reduce the congestion of petrol tankers at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). Mr.
Mpiani said after the tendering process, the bids would be submitted to the
consultants on the project, Twum Boafo and Partners for consideration to choose
the winner before the award of the contract.
Mr Peter
Asare-Bediako, Project Engineer of BOST said the company has planned the
construction of additional storage tanks at the Accra Plains and Takoradi but
land was yet to be acquired for the Takoradi project.
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EU
to offer coherent trade and aid to developing countries
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 October 2002- The European Union has stressed the importance of trade and aid
to developing countries and said it was getting organised to offer both in a
more coherent manner.
It indicated that it
would continue to pursue both unilateral, and multilateral development
objectives in the Doha Development Agenda where it underlined its commitment to
negotiating a development friendly outcome with respect to market access and
multilateral trade rules.
A joint statement
from the Union by Poul Nielson, EU Commissioner for Development and
Humanitarian Aid, and Pascal Lamy EU Trade Commissioner said the Union spent
640 million Euros on more than 100 trade-related assistance projects in
developing countries.
As a further step to
its assistance, the Union has published an Action Plan on how to respond to
developing countries' calls for more trade related assistance at the World
Trade Conference in Doha, the UN Conference on Financing for Development in
Monterrey, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa last
August.
The Action Plan, to
be discussed by EU trade and development ministers and the European Parliament
over Autumn sets out a series of concrete steps under which priority needs of
countries, including Ghana would be discussed.
It noted the
landlocked nature of many African countries, which also did not have sufficient
roads to transport their agricultural products to the markets and said building
such infrastructure could transform their economy.
"The message is
that we are ready to increase trade related assistance as our partners see
necessary, and we will both monitor closely how much money goes on trade
projects, and then review the overall trade assistance in 2005", the
release said.
The EU gave the
assurance that it would help train officials and operators to find their way
through the red tape of international trade and also work with partner
countries and help them comply with food safety rules.
The Union asked all
donors to work together to ensure that countries like Ghana got what they
wanted in terms of trade-related assistance from different sources. It
expressed concern about the lending policies of the Bretton Woods institutions,
saying it sometimes undermined agreed development policies by imposing tougher
conditions in their lending policies to developing countries.
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Rural
Banks urged to improve performance
Awutu Beraku (Central
Region) 03 October 2002- A Deputy Chief Manager of the Banking Supervision
Department of the Bank of Ghana (BOG), the Reverend J.A. Tetteh, has urged
rural banks to take advantage of the improving macro-economic environment in
the country to re-align their operations to enhance their overall performance.
This, he explained,
would enable the rural banks to build up enough funds to help them play their
expected roles in the socio-economic development of the rural communities.
Addressing the 14th annual shareholders meeting of the Awutu-Emasa Rural Bank
at Awutu-Beraku on Saturday, the Deputy Chief Manager also cautioned rural
banks against complacency, advising that the laudable achievements the banks
had chalked in recent years should spur them on to make more giant strides in
their endeavours rather than being content with the gains they had made so far.
Rev Tetteh was happy
that by dint of hard work coupled with the unity of purpose and prudent banking
practices adopted by management and directors of the Awutu Emasa Rural bank in
the past few years, had transformed it and urged them to maintain the spirit.
He said available
data at the Bank of Ghana indicate that the Awutu Emasa Rural Bank had made
significant progress since its inception. Rev Tetteh said from December 2001 to
June this year, the bank's deposit increased from 3.17 billion to 3.61 billion
cedis.
Loans and advances,
which the bank granted to customers, also rose from 1.25 billion to 1.43
billion cedis. Its investments, however, declined from 2.21 billion to 2.09
billion cedis. According to Rev Tetteh, the bank also complied with the capital
adequacy ratio requirement, posting 15.34 per cent as per the latest on-site
report of January 31, this year.
Mr James Eric
Nkrumah, President of the Central Regional chapter of the Association of Rural
and Community Banks and Chairman of the Awutu Emasa Rural Bank, said the bank
made an after tax profit of 143,953,000.00 cedis and advised shareholders of
the bank to increase their shareholdings to make the bank more vibrant and
strong financially.
GRi…/
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GSE
All Share bounces back to an impressive performance
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 October 2002- The Ghana Stock Exchange bounces back to an impressive
performance on Wednesday with the benchmark GSE All Share Index closing up at
4.22 points in an active market that saw shares that changed hands more than
eight times the previous close.
The index, which
closed previously at 1,310.67, was up marginally at 1,314.89 points. A total of
298,100 shares were sold on the market as against 25,300 at the previous close
on Monday, with British American Tobacco selling 254,800 shares in block trade.
The change in the
year to date was at 37.55 per cent. Market capitalisation dropped marginally
from 4,861.38 billion cedis on Monday to 4,809.58 billion cedis on Wednesday.
In all, there were
six positive price changes. Social Security Bank gained the highest of 49 cedis
to close at 3,950 cedis followed by Ghana Commercial Bank, 20 cedis to close at
3,390 cedis. Fan milk Limited gained 15 cedis at 1,666 cedis and British
American Tobacco, 13 cedis to close at 966 cedis. Uniliver and PZ gained three
and one cedis receptively to close at 4,263 and 1,851 cedis.
The following are the
last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL
380
AGC 18,807
ALW 4,000
BAT 966 +13
CFAO 67
EIC
4,520
FML
1,666 +15
GBL 900
GCB 3,390 +20
GGL 912
HFC 955
MGL 254
MLC 262
MOGL
19,720
PAF 750
PBC 400
PZ 1,851
+1
SCB 26,023
SPPC 387
SSB 3,950 +49
SWL 285
UNIL 4,263
+3
CMLT 460
GRi…/
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