Horticulture exports records increase in earnings
Ho (Volta Region) 18 October 2002 - Dr Paa
Kwesi Ndoum, Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Cooperation, on
Thursday said the 1,000 dollar per capita income a year target set for 2010 was
achievable and not over ambitious.
He was speaking at a national durbar at Ho to
mark the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty under
the theme "Promoting a Culture of Long term Savings, Social Security and Insurance."
A scheme with the objective of promoting
savings, social security and insurance was also launched at the durbar. Dr
Nduom said the government would, therefore, create the atmosphere for the
private sector to grow rapidly to contribute to attaining the target.
He regretted that Ghana that was richer at
independence than now had been overtaken by countries that had the same growth
figures about 40 years ago. Dr Nduom said, for example, Ghana's per capita
income is one 15th of that of South Korea, which had the same
economic conditions as Ghana at independence.
He regretted that more than 90 per cent of
Ghanaians still survive on less than one dollar a day. The Minister said the
government's programme to tackle poverty recognises growth as a necessary
requirement for sustained poverty reduction.
He listed priority areas as infrastructure
development, rural development based on modernising agriculture, enhanced
social services focusing on education and health, good governance and private
sector development.
Dr Nduom said there was the need to promote and
mobilise domestic savings for investment in addition to developing innovative
forms of social protection. "This
is the best way to create a pool of investment capital for our
enterprises. We cannot continue to
think that some foreigners will bring their capital to develop Ghana", he
stated.
Dr Nduom said the Scheme devised by the Council
of Indigenous Business Association (CIBA) would be a significant boost to the
government's policy of promoting and mobilising domestic savings for investment
and social protection.
He said only 800,000 workers, mainly from the
formal sector were covered by Social Security and National Insurance Trust
(SSNIT) while workers in the informal sector, who formed about 70 per cent of
the workforce in the country were left out in the scheme.
Ralph Ameyaw, Executive Secretary of CIBA said
the Scheme, which would be operational next year, would cover health needs and
insurance against old age for its members from about 20 associations.
The associations include, dressmakers, garage
owners and staff, hairdressers, jewellers, caterers and exporters. Ameyaw said
projected contributions of 2,500 cedis a day, 12,000 cedis a week or 50,000
cedis a week would be disbursed to the various component facilities under the
scheme.
He said managers of the scheme would be guided
by controls to ensure accountability. Ms Gifty Antekyi Area Coordinator of
SNNIT in Accra said the Trust was carrying out a study on the informal sector
and on the submission of a report it would devise means to rope in many workers
in that sector in its schemes.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 18 October 2002 - Three
major banks on Thursday launched a joint electronic debit card to add up to the
growing list of electronic payment cards to ease banking and financial
transactions in the country.
The e-Card as it is called, operated by
ECOBANK, CAL Merchant Bank, The Trust Bank and Dart Communications, a private
communications company, is the first in Ghana and West Africa.
The system operates on two dedicated wireless
data networks, the card system with one on an inter-bank network linking the
banks mentioned and the Bank of Ghana to the switch on one hand while the other
network links point of sale terminals in retail outlets to the TMS switch.
The e-card is utilised as a rival form of
payment to cheques and cash and has advantages of freeing the user from the
danger of carrying huge sums of cash, cheque books, travellers cheques from one
point to the other.
To perform a transaction, you simply swipe your
card at a sales terminal; enter your amount of purchase and then your secret
PIN number. The system then sends this message to the bank, it checks to see if
you have sufficient funds, and authenticates the transaction if you do.
Subsequently, your account is debited and simultaneously the account of the
merchant is credited.
The Minister of Communications and Technology
Felix Owusu-Agyepong who launched the product commended the consortium for this
innovation, and said it will add value to banking and promote the development
of value added technological service in banking.
He said Ghana is in the process of bringing
into a single entity all relevant telecom infrastructure backbone in the state
sector with a view to opening up accessibility to the development of
information communication technology.
Owusu-Agyepong noted that Ghana by this has
positioned herself advantageously in the sub-region if the automated clearing
of transactions between banks is effectively networked.
The Minister expressed the hope that the
remaining 14 banks would soon join the TMS switch to enable Ghanaians enjoy
convenient banking, irrespective of which bank holds their accounts.
"We are looking forward to the day when
one electronic card can be used on all ATMs across the country as the case is
in Europe, America and other parts of the world." He promised to convene a
meeting of the heads of the other banks to discuss this proposal to meet the
objective of achieving e-banking in Ghana within the shortest possible time.
Owusu-Agyepong asked the implementers of the
new system to protect the cards from forgery and duplication, urging them to
continuously develop solutions to protect the confidentiality of user PIN
numbers.
The e-card according to Frank Adu Jnr, Managing
Director of CAL Merchant Bank can be used at 150 merchant points in Accra and
Tema. "It does not matter which of the three banks issued the e-card. Thus
merchants no longer need to have different sales terminals for different cards
on their counters."
Explaining how the system works, Adu Jnr said the system provides a secure online settlement at the inter-bank level. "This means that previous inter-bank settlements that took up to 72 hours can now be done in real time."
He said a cardholder does not need to pre-load
his card while eliminating cash counting errors and delays. "The whole
transaction is done in 10 seconds," he said. "To the merchant, it
provides effective control and an audit trail, eliminates disputes with
customers and bankers and has instant credit."
Millecine Narh, Head of Banking, Bank of Ghana,
commended the collaboration between the three banks noting that it has been the
aim of the central bank to ensure that banks join forces to make their
operations less costly and convenient.
He said it was in this direction that the
central bank has commenced the implementation of a Real Time Gross Settlement
(RTSG) system for high value inter-bank domestic payments.
The project is an online wholesale electronic
payment system, which will form the heart of Ghana's payment systems through
which the net clearings from the other retail payment streams will be settled
in central bank money.
"The RTSG system," he added, "will
also enable banks to monitor their account balances with the bank throughout
the day and improve their liquidity and exposure management."
GRi…/
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Fumesua (Ashanti Region) 18 October 2002 -
Foreign exchange earnings from Ghana's horticulture exports have increased from
$28m in the year 2000 to more than $29m in 2001.
Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and
Industry, observed that the increase was recorded in the volume of chilli pepper
which increased from 1.2 million dollars in 2000 to 1.9 million dollars in the
year 2001.
Additionally, exports of vegetables, notably to
Europe, rose from $10.4m in the year 2000, to $12.1m last year. Dr Apraku said
this in an address read for him at a one-day seminar organised by the Ghana
Institute of Horticulturists (GIH) for its members and partners at Fumesua near
Kumasi on Thursday.
The seminar was on the theme: "The role of
horticulture in alleviating poverty and improving the quality of life",
and attended by about participants made up of researchers, members of the
institute and producers of products in the horticulture sector.
It was designed to assess performances of the
institute over the past year and devise strategies for improving the quality of
life of Ghanaians through the use of horticultural practices.
Dr Apraku stressed the need for the
establishment of industries to process food items for export instead of
exporting them in their raw form. "We earned over nine million dollars from
an export of 5,000 tonnes of processed fresh fruits and vegetables in the year
2000 as compared to the $13m earned from the exports of almost 40,000 tonnes of
fresh pineapples in the year 2001", he said.
Dr Apraku said today's international trade
demands extra attention in areas of standard and quality, saying "this is
not to only meet buyers interest, but largely to help export companies meet
competition".
C. David Esch, Country Director of Amex
International, a USA-based consultancy firm that provides service for exports
and production of fruits and vegetables, said the only surest guarantee that
could propel Ghana to benefit immensely from the export drive was for the
exporters to go into partnership.
Esch said just as large quantities of
production was important, it should not be at the expense of quality, adding,
"the two must go together to make the products acceptable on the
international market".
Dr Nana Sakyiwa Olympio, chairperson, Middle
Zone branch of the Ghana Institute of Horticulturists, appealed to the Food and
Drugs Board to give equal attention to checking and ensuring standards of
products meant for the local markets just as it does for the export market.
GRi…/
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