Big PBC loss brings down market indices
Kumasi
(Ashanti Region) 12 September 2002- Some 82 local businesses have applied for
more than 260 billion cedis from the Export Development and Investment Fund
(EDIF) between May and September, this year, Timothy K. Obeng, Chief Executive
of the Fund, has announced.
He said
eleven out of the applications had been approved with the beneficiaries
receiving a total of 30 billion cedis. Seven applications were rejected. Mr.
Obeng said this at the launch of the Fund in Ashanti Region at Kumasi on
Wednesday.
The Chief
Executive said repayment periods of the loan ranged between one and five years,
adding that agro-processing and salt-mining ranked high among approved
projects. He said successful applicants who fail to utilise the loans for a
period of about 12 months would forfeit the facility.
He said the
fund was designed to enhance the liquidity and solvency of Ghanaian exporters
and assist them become more competitive on the global export market.
Its success
would be measured by the level of growth in export trade and the recovery rate.
Mr. Obeng
said there were plans to introduce two new products, export insurance and
credit guarantee for the exporters. He said the Board would include two rural
and community banks in the designated financial institutions through which the
loans are disbursed.
Mr Sampson
Kwaku Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, asked the management of the fund to
support small businesses that are largely considered by some orthodox banks as
of marginal importance. He expressed the hope that the introduction of the fund
in Ashanti would help revive some viable factories like the Jute and shoe
factories in Kumasi that had folded up.
GRi…/
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 12 September 2002- The Ghana Cocoa Board on Wednesday announced
that purchases of the 2002 Light Crop Cocoa Season would cease at the close of
business on Thursday 19 September 2002.
An official
statement said the Board has decided that returns on the declared purchases
would be accepted up to 4pm on Thursday, 26 September 2002 for the final
returns from up-country stations to be obtained.
GRi…/
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 12 September 2002- Dr Pikay Richardson, a renowned Ghanaian
economist, on Wednesday said African leaders must attach determination to the
creation of the African Union and eventually a single African state to give the
continent a stronger voice in the global market.
He noted
that the ultimate goal of the 12-nation European Monetary Union (EMU), which
gave birth to the euro, was to form a United States of Europe (USE) to give
European countries a stronger voice than the United States of America.
This, he
said would eventually make Europe a greater world power than the USA, adding
that when this happens most developing countries in Africa, which currently do
about 60 per cent of their international trade with Europe, would become more
vulnerable.
Dr
Richardson was speaking in the first of a series of two public lectures
organised by the British Council to familiarise Ghanaians with the implications
of the euro to the Ghanaian and African economies.
He dared to
say that none of the 12 countries in the EMU qualified to join the union,
saying "by 1998 when the countries were supposed to sign up, each of them
had debts of over 60 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which
disqualified them from joining, but they still went ahead with it."
"This
for me is a clear sign of a political, rather than an economic motive for the
formation of the EMU," he said. "The European governments were
determined to unite and they were willing to concoct figures to qualify for EMU
in order to achieve their ultimate political aim of the USE."
He said it
was time African leaders put the impediments aside and focused on the
advantages of a United States of Africa (US of A) and showed more determination
in carrying it through, no matter the challenges.
Dr.
Richardson noted that after two years of stability difficulties, the euro was
gradually gaining strength against the dollar and the pound sterling, adding
that Britain had already showed signs of the desire to join the EMU.
"If
this happens, the European Union can pose a threat to the Commonwealth states,
as Central European laws would have pre-eminence over individual country laws
and therefore the special treatment Commonwealth citizens get from Britain may
be abolished," he said.
Dr.
Richardson said what was running the world now was nationalism and not
universalism, adding that nations joined unions with the aim to reap advantages
and minimize the disadvantages. The EU was as such intended to give European
countries better competitive urge over other countries.
He,
however, pointed out that the coming of USE would deny the member nations their
sovereignty, characterised by their right to print currency, determine interest
rate, make and implement laws, operate their own fiscal and monetary policies
among others.
GRi…/
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 12 September 2002- A 40-cedi loss by Produce Buying Company
(PBC) during trading on Wednesday negatively affected the main market gauge,
the GSE All-Share Index and other indices, despite gains by six other equities.
The index
ended down 9.17 points at 1,304.24 points from 1,313.41 points with PBC, the
sixth most capitalised equity on the bourse at 480 billion cedis, ending the
day at 400 cedis.
The change
in the year to date was lower at 36.43 per cent from 37.39 per cent on Friday while
market capitalisation was also lower at 4,848.15 from
4,866.07
billion cedis. Shares traded slumped further to 21,000 shares from 43,000
shares. In the broader market, there were seven price changes, six positive one
negative.
PBC was 40
cedis poorer at 400 cedis, Enterprise Insurance Company gained 10 cedis at
4,510 cedis, Standard Chartered Bank gained 15 cedis at 26,020 cedis, and SSB
Bank was six cedis higher at 3,872 cedis. Ghana Commercial Bank gained three
cedis at 3,311 cedis, Mobil Oil Ghana Limited was five cedis higher at 19,710
cedis and Unilever was two cedis richer at 4,217 cedis.
The
following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 380
AGC 18,801
ALW 4,000
BAT 950
CFAO
66
EIC
4,510 +10
FML
1,627
GBL 900
GCB
3,331 +3
GGL 912
HFC 955
MGL 254
MLC 261
MOGL
19,710 +5
PAF 750
PBC 400 -40
PZ
1,850
SCB
26,020 +15
SPPC
387
SSB
3,872 +6
SWL 285
UNIL
4,217 +2
CMLT
460
GRi…/
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