Ivory
Coast crisis affects revenue collection- CEPS
Withdraw
license that flout Akuafo Cheque System
Look beyond
textiles in AGOA - Fawundu
GCB
launches worldwide electronic banking
Ivory
Coast crisis affects revenue collection- CEPS
Gonokrom (Brong
Ahafo) 10 October 2002- The collection of revenue at the country's main entry point
with La Cote D'Ivoire at Gonokrom in Brong Ahafo has reduced by 90 percent due
to the crisis in that country.
Mr Andrew Nyarko,
Base Commander of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) at the point
told Ghana News Agency (GNA) that "If the crisis is not resolved it will
continue to have a negative impact on our collection of import duties".
He said there had not
been any reports of influx of refugees at the border and this shows that the
atmosphere was still calm. The Base Commander, however, added that the presence
of the Ghanaian military personnel at the border had maintained law and order.
Mr Emmanuel Opata,
Officer-in-charge of Immigration, acknowledged that the upheaval in the
neighbouring country had affected traffic and the movement of people across the
border.
Until the problem is
resolved, people will definitely not cross the border, he said. The Immigration
Officer, however, added that people willing to travel to or from the war-torn
country might prefer passing through Sampa and Chache, near Bole in the
Northern Region.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Withdraw
license that flout Akuafo Cheque System
Kumasi (Ashanti Region)
10 October 2002- The Ghana Cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association
(GCCSFA) has called for the withdrawal of licenses of Cocoa Buying Companies
which undermine the Akuafo Cheque System through the use of cash payments for
cocoa.
The farmers said they
found the practice of "using cash to pay for cocoa totally objectionable,
problematic and disadvantageous." Nana Kwame Amankwatia, Ashanti Regional
Chairman of the GCCSFA, speaking at a meeting in Kumasi said, apart from the
potential danger of under-payment by dishonest purchasing clerks, the cash
payment practice negates efforts at encouraging farmers to adopt the culture of
saving money with the banks.
Besides, it tends to
fuel pilfering of cocoa beans by unscrupulous farm labourers, he added. Nana
Amankwatia noted that doing business with the banks through the Akuafo Cheque
system would put farmers in a more favourable position to access credit
facilities to expand and maintain their farms.
The regional chairman
drew attention to the damage caused to the country's economy through cocoa
smuggling and asked the farmers to assist the security agencies to check the
illegal activity.
He said it was
criminal for farmers to smuggle cocoa across the borders in view of the huge
amount of resources put into the mass spraying of farms by the government. Nana
Amankwatia told them to take advantage of the incentive packages by way of
attractive producer price for the crop, bonus payment and award schemes by the
buying companies to raise their output and to enable Ghana to recapture her
credibility as leading produce of cocoa on the world market.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Tema (Greater Accra)
10 October 2002- The Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority
(GPHA), Mr Ben Owusu Mensah has inaugurated 17 Mafi tractors from Germany
valued at 1.6 million pounds to be used to discharge cargo at the Tema Port.
He said GPHA has for
the past six months left no stone unturned to equip the Tema and Takoradi ports
with adequate equipment capable of handling trade at the port. Mr Mensah said
two weeks ago GPHA commissioned two mobile cranes at the Tema Fishing Harbour
and assured that by the end of November, "we would have received six
pieces of containers of forklift trucks for our two ports, together with four
tele-trucks for the Takoradi Port.''
''We need to ensure
that our customers are given the required services for their cargo as well as
satisfy the transit cargo destined for Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.'' He said
GPHA is complementing the efforts of the private sector stevedoring operators
to boost container handling.
''GPHA is committed
to leaving cargo handling to the private sector. We have started the process to
offload the remaining 30 percent of stevedoring still under our control.'' Mr
Mensah said hopefully the process would be completed by the first quarter of
next year for the authority to become a landlord operating under an Act of
parliament.
Mr Gordon Anim, Tema
Port Director, said the port invested in the equipment because of an increase
in the demand for cargo-handling services at the port. Traffic volumes at the
port shot up to about 6.3 million tonnes in 2001 from 6 million (tonnes) in
2000, while those for transit trade rose to 224,441 tonnes in 2001 from 8448 in
1997 and transhipment from 17,715 tonnes in 2000 to 38,165 tonnes in 2001.
''The statistics give
a clear picture of growing demands at the port and its facilities.'' He said
eight employees from the engineering department were sent to Mafi, the mother
company in Germany, to train on the tractors and how to repair them.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
10 October 2002- The stock index on Wednesday went up slightly by 2.25 points
to bring the main market gauge up to 1,333.94 points from 1,331.69 points.
The Ghana Stock
Exchange's All-Share Index was up by 16.29 points at the previous trading as
two big stocks rallied to give it the big push. Shares traded closed mid-week
trading higher at 101,000 from 43,100 with the change in the year to date
finishing at 39.54 per cent.
Market capitalisation
moved up from 4,902.23 billion cedis to 4,906.59 billion cedis. In the broader
market, there were four price changes - all positive. Paterson Zochonis (PZ0 gained
the highest of 49 cedis to close trading at 1,900 cedis.
Unilever Ghana
Limited (UNIL) followed with 36 cedis at 4,301 cedis while Guinness Ghana
Limited (GGL) gained six cedis to finish at 921 cedis. Mechanical Lloyd Company
(MLC) earned a cedi to close trading at 263 cedis.
The following are the
last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL
380
AGC 18,807
ALW 4,000
BAT 966
CFAO 67
EIC
4,520
FML
1,666
GBL 900
GCB 3,396
GGL 921 +6
HFC 955
MGL 254
MLC 263 +1
MOGL
19,720
PAF 750
PBC 400
PZ 1,900 +49
SCB 26,023
SPPC 387
SSB 3,950
SWL 285
UNIL 4,301 +36
CMLT 460
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Look
beyond textiles in AGOA - Fawundu
Accra (Greater Accra)
10 October 2002- The UNDP Representative in Ghana, Dr Alfred Salia Fawudu has
urged African countries accessing the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)
to look beyond the textile industry and focus on developing and exporting the
continent's wide range of products to the US in order to derive the maximum
benefits offered by the Act.
He was speaking at
the opening of a four-day exhibition of Ghanaian and American companies at the
on-going Ghana-American Trade and Investment Conference in Accra. Dr Fawundu
said the conference offered business people in the country opportunities to
develop stronger ties and exchange of ideas and technologies that would make
Ghana-US relations more meaningful.
He said Ghana must
look beyond exporting textiles under the Act to "other areas since AGOA
covers more than just textiles." The 45 participants include women of the
West African Business Network (WABNET), SAMBUS, Busy Internet, AMCHAM, Price Waterhouse
Coopers, PSC Tema Shipyard, Customs, Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS),
Worldnet and Manet Housing.
Dr Fawundu noted that
the 250 million population of the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) have a huge potential that must make it profit considerably from the
Act.
"The development
of strong trade ties is paramount in encouraging aid that brings development
and improvement in the lives of the peoples of the two countries." He
expressed the hope that interaction between American businessmen at the
exhibition and their local partners would also result in boosting the capacity
of trade, "right from software development to the manufacturing of
cars."
Mrs. Vicky Cooper,
President of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), said the business
operators from the US would link up with their Ghanaian partners. "With
the match-making coming up, we believe that both peoples can enhance their
business operations and expand their horizons in the West African and US
markets," she added.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
GCB
launches worldwide electronic banking
Accra (Greater Accra)
10 October 2002- Ghana Commercial Bank Limited (GCB) has launched a new
worldwide electronic banking and financial service to enable customers
undertake transactions from their homes and offices.
Known as
"Commernet" the product would provide customers access to their
financial account, access to secondary account information data and easy and
rapid communication between customers and the bank through a computer and a
phone connection.
Mrs. Grace Coleman,
Deputy Minister of Finance, noted that in this era of information superhighway,
any institution that failed to merge service delivery and distribution points
through electronic means would not be able to compete effectively on the
ever-changing financial scene.
GCB is the third bank
in the country to introduce such a service. The first two were Barclays Bank
and SSB Bank. She cautioned players in the banking industry to recognise the
intervention of information technology as crucial to banking services because
it enhances quick, reliable and quality service.
"Today's busy
and sophisticated customer is exposed to a variety of services and, therefore,
has the power to choose. This is the reason why it is important to do all
things to retain and attract new ones through new product development."
By this new product,
Mrs Coleman said, GCB was establishing a partnership with its customers through
the use of technology, where customers could manage their own finances from
their homes and offices.
Mr Emmanuel
Asiedu-Mante, Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana, said for “Commernet” to be
successful there was the need to constantly monitor, evaluate and assess it in
terms of its benefits to customers, GCB and the economy as a whole.
He said in order to
ensure that the financial system remained stable and efficient, regulatory and
supervisory laws would have to be enacted to respond to current developments in
terms of establishing effective controls of the technological systems.
Mr Asiedu-Mante said
the Bank of Ghana would offer the necessary guidance and support, adding that
it would monitor the products to ensure customer's safety. "The Central
Bank will continue to encourage the development and introduction of new
products by banks, especially products geared towards developing a cashless
system..."
Mr Kwabena
Dapaah-Siakwan, Deputy Managing Director of GCB, said the ambition of the bank
was "to sustain the market leadership, no more no less". "To us
market leadership means having the highest share of economic profit, not
necessarily the largest share of volume, customers and products," he said.
Mr Dapaah-Siakwan said the key to creating superior customers was to find new,
different and better ways of serving them.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com