Accra (Greater Accra) 24 September 2002- Former US President Bill Clinton on Monday said it was unquestionably wrong for Ghana to be saddled with huge economic problems after 45 years of independence and called on Ghanaians to transform their fortunes if they supported their leadership to pursue the right economic policies.
Speaking as the Guest of Honour at a ceremony, at which President Kufuor launched the Foundation for Building the Capital of the Poor, the charismatic speaker called on Ghanaians to use their cultural differences to facilitate their advancement.
Mr Clinton said: "You have a good President and a government that understands the direction the world is going, if you support this initiative (Foundation) the future can be better than the past."
The Foundation, modelled on the ideology of Peruvian Economist Hernando de Soto, aims at mobilising the assets held by the poor to facilitate their economic development. Dr. De Soto promotes the registration and titling of the assets, such as land, real estates and businesses of the poor, for their use as collateral to secure funds for investments.
The idea was being implemented successfully in his native Peru, Egypt and elsewhere. Describing Dr. De Soto's idea as the single most important economic idea on the planet today, Mr. Clinton said poverty could be transformed into prosperity if Ghanaians embraced the change and unleashed the individual's capacity to develop.
Mr Clinton explained that when the poor had clear title to assets or business, it would enable them to borrow money and assist them to create their own banks and lending systems with the propensity to repay the loans.
He said this would complement other socio-economic programmes to be pursued by government. Explaining why he was in Ghana, Mr Clinton, a Patron of the Foundation said: "I cannot have the world America wants unless Ghanaians and Africans are a part of a genuine global community, where everybody has a real chance to reap its benefits."
While acknowledging that the creation of such a world would be difficult, Mr Clinton stressed that significant progress would, however, be made if people dwelt not on their differences, but celebrated them in a common humanity to their advantage.
"Our common humanity should matter to us the most. Interdependency is good when you are in good shape, but not beneficial where one survives and the other becomes the loser or dies," he said.
Citing the potential of the bees, ants and termites because of the strength in their unity of purpose, Mr Clinton said individually such creatures were helpless, but together termites were capable of pulling down huge buildings.
The former US President said he had planned to visit 33 developing countries throughout the world this year to contribute his quota to their development efforts.
He spoke about some of the socio-economic packages his government assisted Africa with, including the formulation of the African Growth and Opportunities Act, which is being implemented by his successor, President George W. Bush.
Mr Clinton said: "When I left office I had the time to think about the things I care about and to pursue them. When you are in office as a President you try to do what you believe in but you are often over taken by events because different things happen all the time."
Dr. De Soto encouraged the government to be firm in the pursuance of the programme and not to be deterred by the problems that would be created by cultural differences. He said America and the European countries overcame their diversity to prosper and Ghana had the advantage to learn from their experiences.
Referring to Mr Clinton's participation in the programme, he said should the late American President William Jefferson who initiated property reforms two centuries ago in America look up from his grave, he would be pleased that his name sake Mr Clinton was championing that cause in Africa.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 24 September 2002- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday launched the ''Foundation for the Building of Capital of the Poor,'' a programme devised to assist in mobilising assets the poor are holding to step up their economic development.
Development economists believe that unregistered and untitled plots of land, real estates and other properties worth hundreds of billions of dollars owned by the poor in Ghana could be formalised by legal reforms and used by their owners as collateral to secure funds to improve their lot.
To spearhead this transformation the Foundation, to be governed by a seven-member Board of Directors, will adopt and implement the Property Reform Programme developed by the Peruvian Economist Dr Hernando de Soto, who is the founder of Institute of Liberty and Democracy (ILD).
According to studies and analyses of non-western nations ILD conducted, property transactions of more than the 70 per cent of the world's population take place outside the formal legal framework.
Dr de Soto has consequently asserted that developing countries and former communist countries have an estimated sum of 93 trillion dollars locked up in what he described as ''the dead capital.''
Author of "The Mystery of Capital," he defines dead capital as: "property and other assets of the vast majority of the world's citizen's which are outside national and international regular economic activities."
''The ownership of the bulk of that property, be it real or land is anchored in controversy, contention and litigation.'' In Peru, Egypt and other countries the Foundation for Building the Capital of the Poor, described by Former President Bill Clinton as the best economic idea in the world today, has unleashed the locked up capital of the poor for prosperous investments that have yielded significant tax revenue for their countries.
In the steps of its fore bearers, Ghana's Foundation would operate as a charitable, scientific, educational, research and non-profitable company to bring the success story to Ghana.
The foundation would facilitate private investments by educating companies to encourage them to provide capital, goods and services to create a commercial institution that would serve the newly viable low-income markets in Ghana.
In due course a regional training institute would be established in Accra for the benefit of other African countries interested in property reform programmes. Members of the Board include Minister of Justice and Attorney-General Nana Addo-Dankwah Akufo-Addo, Lands and Forestry Minister Kasim Kasanga and Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development.
Dr de Soto, the President of the National House of Chiefs, Odeneho Gyapong Ababio, Mrs Stephanie Baeta-Ansah, Managing Director of Home Finance Company, Dr Kwasi Prempeh, Director of Legal Policy and Governance of the Centre for Democratic Development and two persons from the private sector to be nominated by President Kufuor, are also members. Former US President Bill Clinton is a patron of the Foundation.
Prof Kasanga, in separate interviews with the GNA, said land policy reforms and constitutional amendments would be pursued to simplify the land tenure system and registration procedures.
He said the reforms would also help to address disputes. ''It will be possible for the government to acquire disputed lands, value them and split the money among the feuding contestants.''
Mr Baah-Wiredu said his ministry would encourage property owners in the rural areas and the urban poor to register and use them as collateral to secure loans. "We may have a property in Nima for example, which would be worth a billion cedis, but its owners may be wallowing in poverty. Such people would be educated to register them for their benefit," he said.
Odeneho Gyapong Ababio said considering the diverse land tenure systems in the country, traditional authorities would be educated on the need to adopt a uniform one.
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Komenda (Central Region) 24 September 2002- Mr Emmanuel Sai, Manager of the Akatakyiman Rural Bank at Komenda, has suggested that monies government releases as interventions to curb poverty such as the Poverty Alleviation Fund and the Emergency Social Relief Funds, should be given out as loans to the rural banks to be lent to customers to enhance their repayment.
He said the current procedure where the rural banks were just made "conduits for their disbursement with lists of beneficiaries attached makes it difficult to identify the beneficiaries to ensure repayment.''
Mr Sai, who made the suggestion in an interview with the GNA, also suggested that such funds should be released on time - during the peak farming and fishing seasons - to benefit recipients to avoid their being diverted for other purposes.
He said his bank had so far disbursed 37.3 million cedis and 100 million cedis from the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs and the Emergency Social Relief Funds respectively to 75 women in and around Komenda.
These include, agro-processing, fish smoking and the purchasing of maize for storage to be sold during the lean season. Mr Sai said the current recovery rate of such loans was between 60 and 65 per cent and was optimistic that the figure could increase to 100 per cent if the funds were given to the banks outright as loans, since they knew people "who are committed" and would readily repay.
He said since 1998 the bank had offered 450 million cedis to 35 women groups to improve their income generating activities like palm kernel oil extraction, cassava processing, fish smoking and batik and tie-dye production.
It has within the same period also assisted 15 fishermen groups with 15 out-board motors at 15.6 million cedis each and granted scholarships to 15 senior secondary school students.
He said the bank had signed an agreement with the African Development Foundation (ADF), a Ghanaian NGO, for 700 million cedis for lending to women groups. At the Kakum Rural Bank at Elmina Mr Samuel Sackey, the Supervising Manager, told the GNA that the bank had since 1998 provided financial assistance amounting to 186.3 million cedis to 13 women groups such as market women, fishmongers and bakers.
He said it had also helped fishermen to acquire about 500 outboard motors and other fishing gear. The bank had granted scholarships to a student pursuing medicine at the university, and 20 senior secondary school students including 12 girls.
Mr Sackey said the bank had, in collaboration with Unibank, based in Accra, introduced an 'inward money remittance product' known as Uniteller to enable people living within the bank's locality to access monies sent them by relatives living abroad instead of travelling to Accra to collect them at the Unibank.
Mr Sackey expressed concern about cocoa farmers not patronising the ''Akuafo Cheques'' purchased by the bank. ''The lack of banking and saving culture on the part of the people has resulted in a situation where the bank lacks the requisite funds to loan to customers.'' he said
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Accra (Greater Accra) 24 September 2002- The All-Share Index of Ghana's stock market on Monday opened trading up by 0.23 points on the back of gains in three equities.
The Index closed the day's trading up at 1,306.40 points from 1,306.17 points. Demand outstripped offers closing at 81,011 and 7,912 shares respectively, however shares traded ended the day higher at 624,200. Change in the year to date was 36.66 per cent while market capitalisation finished at 4,852.84 billion cedis.
In the broader market, there were three positive price changes. Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) gained 10 cedis at 4,520 cedis. Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) made two cedis at 3,347 cedis while the British-American Tobacco Company earned one cedi to close at 853 cedis.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 380
AGC 18,805
ALW 4,000
BAT 953 +1
CFAO 67
EIC 4,520 +10
FML 1,627
GBL 900
GCB 3,347 +2
GGL 912
HFC 955
MGL 254
MLC 261
MOGL 19,720
PAF 750
PBC 400
PZ 1,850
SCB 26,021
SPPC 387
SSB 3,877
SWL 285
UNIL 4,230
CMLT 460
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BBC (London) 24 September 2002-Ghana's finance minister has called for foreign firms to exploit the West African nation's natural resources, especially its salt reserves. "We need companies to invest in our salt mines so that we can produce the critical mass that will allow Nigeria to import from us," Kwamena Bartels, Minister for Private Sector Development, told BBC News Online.
Nigeria buys $1.5bn-worth of salt a year, in order to feed both domestic demand and its oil industry. This salt is now primarily imported from Australia and Brazil, while Ghana's salt reserves remain largely untapped. Mr Bartels says an investment of up to $150m would be enough to start producing enough salt to start winning trade contracts with Nigeria.
The emphasis on salt comes as part of a wider drive to increase foreign direct investment into Ghana. "I am disappointed with our growth rate of about 4%, "Ghana's finance minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo said.
"We cannot reduce poverty by growing at these rates," he told the Commonwealth Business Council. "Now is the time for Ghana to receive its fair share of foreign investment, and we must concentrate on the private sector."
Amongst other industries, Ghana is also hoping to attract more investment for its cocoa, magnesium, gold and timber industries in particular. Political stability is the key factor in ensuring that the funds now start flowing into Ghana, Mr Osafo-Maafo told BBC News Online.
Mr Osafo-Maafo admits that Ghana has suffered turbulence during its 44 years of independence, but believes a new era has begun. "A democratically-elected government has just handed power over to another democratically-elected government," he said.
"That to me is the beginning of stability in Ghana." And Mr Osafo-Maafo was keen to stress that Ghana - as arguably the most developed and most stable country in West Africa - is the region's hotspot for future investment. "If you had money to invest, would you choose Nigeria or Ghana?"- BBC Online
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Accra (Greater Accra) 24 September 2002- The harvest is plenty, yet everybody is hungry. That philosophically, is the story of Ghana. Ghana sits on some of the richest mineral deposits and other huge foreign exchange earning resources in the world. Yet poverty stalks the land.
A new study titled, "The Industrial Potential of Ghana, prepared by Onua Amoah, a member of the "Big Six' lists 25 foreign exchange earning minerals and chemicals that are going waste, while past and present governments have been travelling around the world, cap in hand begging for foreign donations.
According to a report carried by the "Public Agenda", last week, Onua Amoah who is an Industrialist researcher and five others - Mr. Robert Wood, an Agricultural Engineer, Professor Frimpong Boateng, Cardio thoracic Surgeon, Col. K.A. Jackson, Energy Conservation Technology Researcher, Rev. Dr. Mensah Otabil, Chancellor of Central University and Dr. K.A. Owusu-Ansah, Director of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) launched the Centre for Technology-Driven Economic Development (CTED) to move the country away from the current import-led economic development strategy to a technology-driven economic development that would spur industrialization and enable the country attain middle-income status by 2010".
To attain middle-income status by 2010, experts estimate that the manufacturing sub-sector should grow at an average rate of 12 per cent per annum for five years. "This is why we at CTED have put it upon ourselves to lay bare the mineral resources of Ghana, but also to show how to transform these resources into finished goods through industrialization in order to halt the economic decline".
"As a people, we are so much concerned about purchasing what other people have produced such that, we have refused to recognize that there are abundant resources in our land. The resources of this country are in our lands, but everybody is abandoning the land and coming to the cities to buy and sell," Amoah lamented.
Amoah said Ghana has natural resources, ranging from chemicals and minerals such as limestone, bauxite, iron ore, ordinary clay, kaolin white clay, magnesium carbonate, gypsum, feldspar, alum, titanium and granite.
There are about 435 million tons of limestone, which is used to manufacture cement, sodium carbonate, calcium chloride, quick lime, glass, paper, rubber and plastics etc. Ghana also has 540 million tones of bauxite, which is used in aluminium, grinding materials and aluminium chemicals. Besides, there is 1.4 billion tons of iron ore deposited in various parts of the country. Iron ore is used in producing iron and steel, automobile and railway industries. Ghana also boats of 745 million tons of clay or ordinary clay, used in the building, clinker and ceramic industry, white clay deposits are estimated at 100 million tons, while kaolin, used for surface coating soap, porcelain ware and ceramics are in the quantity of 600 million tons.
Another mineral, magnesium carbonate used in producing pharmaceuticals, fertilisers, refractory products, thermal insulating materials, filter, paper, paints, printing ink etc. has over 72 million tons.
Perhaps one commodity that has unlimited raw material is salt. On the West Coast of Africa, only Ghana and Senegal have the normal seawater that is used to produce salt for industrial and domestic purposes. Among the industrial uses of salt are sodium hydroxide, chlorine, silicon wafers, magnesium sulphate and sodium sulphate. In spite of its numerous uses, Ghana has not taken full advantage of developing salt into a major exchange earner to the extent that salt consumers import the commodity from Brazil and Argentina.
The list is unending. Ghana also has more than 100 million tons of fine sand, also called (silica) used in manufacturing glass, solar (chips) cells, chinaware, clinker, ferrosilicon etc. The study said for instance that the prices of electronic grade silicon, which is made from quartz, which are found mostly in pellet forms in many parts of the country, could be purified with common salt. Sadly, this abundant resource is yet to be tapped.
The physic nut or Jatropha Curcas is one plant that has industrial and commercial uses, but has only been used in Ghana as a hedging and boundary plant. It has been discovered to have bio-diesel that can power various engines. It can also be used as organic manure rich in nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and ammonium nitrate. Other uses include pharmaceuticals, cosmetics. Candles, electronic and telecommunications, textile, leather paints and adhesive.
Recently, Anuanom industries manufacturers of Klinda detergent produced diesel from the Jatropha seed, which was used to power a car in Accra. Among the cash crops Ghana has not taken advantage of are, the castor plant, used for pharmaceuticals, fertilisers, technical oils, cosmetics and detergents. Even okro, which is commonly used for cooking soup, can be used in producing sugar, according to the researcher. Other crops with industrial products include, plantain, yam, cocoyam, mini seeds, banana, corn, pineapples, groundnuts and citrus fruits.
Surprisingly, even egushie (kurbis) used in preparing palava sauce can be used in making cooking oil, margarine and pharmaceuticals. But that is as far it goes. Onua Amoah was unhappy that despite the presence of these plants and minerals in abundance, no concerted effort has been made to utilise them for national development. "Let me make it clear that only few of these numerous natural resources have been researched and their quantities determined. The existence of most of them is not known at all".
The legitimate question that follows from this sketch is why is Ghana heavily indebted and poor country when she has all the mineral resources to kick-start the economy. Dr. Kofi Amanor Owusu-Ansah, a member of the 'New Big Six' and Director of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said Ghana's low industrialisation stems from the fact that 45 years after independence the leaders of the nation have failed to recognize the importance of research and development in economic planning.
Citing Malaysia and South Korea as examples, Dr. Owusu-Ansah said in 1999, the two countries allocated 2.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) each to research and development. An allocated 3.5 per cent of GDP to research and development in the same year, while Ghana only managed 0.03 per cent for research and development. The lack of funding for research means some of the 13 units of the CSIR are being underutilized.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah said even with their rising level of development South Korea in 2000 reduced budgetary allocation for all sectors except for science and technology. Japan increased their budgetary allocation from 3.5 per cent to 5 per cent GDP to science and technology within the same year.
"Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and indeed all developed countries have realized that there is linear relationship between economic growth and research and development", Dr. Owusu-Ansah said.
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