Last Updated- Apr 30, 2009 19:32 - - 0 Comments


Government urged to “bite the bullet”

Mr. Tony Oteng-Gyasi - AGI President

Mr Tony Oteng-Gyasi, President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), on Thursday urged the government to discipline itself and implement its policies despite some foreseeable undesirable consequence to its future political fortunes.

“Government must bite the bullet and implement its policies to move the country forward in spite of the short-term resistance from the public on some of the hard decisions,” he said.

Mr Oteng-Gyasi made the remark at a day’s roundtable on the 2009 Budget Statement, jointly organised by the World Bank and the Department of Economics of the University of Ghana.

The workshop, which focused on the ways to make the budget work for the country’s good in the midst of the global financial recession, was attended by representatives from both the private and public sectors.

Mr Oteng-Gyasi noted that since the inception of the Fourth Republic, the economic challenges of the country and suggested solutions, as per government policies in the various annual budget statements, had not changed much, but the problem had been with the implementation of the policies.

He said governments often feared the public resistance to the hard decisions vis-à-vis its own future political fortune and therefore reneged on their commitment to implement policies.

“This is because government does not do much to sell the policies to the people. We can learn from the United States, where the president himself goes round explaining to the people why they needed to spend their way out of the recession and for that there is minimal public resistance to his famous US$700 billion relief plan.”

Mr Oteng-Gyasi also urged the government to enact laws to back specific projects and programmes in order that government itself would be bound to undertake those projects to move the national development agenda forward.

On budget estimation, he said: “We must move away from the usual practice and begin our current budgets with the actuals of the previous budget in order to paint a more realistic picture for the future.”

Giving an overview of the 2009 budget, Professor Newman Kwadwo Kusi, Director of Budget at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP), agreed with Mr. Oteng-Gyasi that implementation of government policies had been a challenge due to a myriad of factors.

He explained that as high as 56.6 per cent of total government spending went into statutory payments, including salaries, debt servicing, payments into various government funds, and the government was only left with the remainder of the budget to run the economy.

Added to the inadequacy of the budget to meet government expenditure, huge leakages in the direct revenue sector, financial indiscipline in most ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), among other things, broke the back of the government, he said.

For instance out of 600,000 registered profit-making organisations, only 140,000 were active and just s little over half of that number had been captured in the IRS tax net.

“We are working on roping in the other half to double direct revenue within the shortest possible,” Prof. Kusi said.

He said the way forward was to streamline the salary structure and reduce government spending by cutting down subsidies and other non-profitable spending.

Prof. Kusi also announced measures put in place to ensure that the government delivered on its promises in the budget; but called on the public to come along with the government both in good and in bad times.

Source: GNA


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Unilever makes GH¢29.2 million net profit

Unilever Ghana Limited registered a net profit after tax of GH¢29.2 million in the financial year ended 2008, as against GH¢12.4 million in the previous year.

The company’s operating profit also rose by 56.7 per cent from GH¢18.2 million in 2007 to GH¢28.5 million in 2008 and its Board declared an interim dividend of GH¢0.1005 per share and recommended a final dividend of GH¢0.1123 all of which amounted to GH¢0.2128 per share.

The shareholders also approved resolutions to elect and fix remunerations of Directors as well as amended regulations to allow for conversion and/or issuance of shares in electronic data form in compliance with requirements of the Ghana Stock Exchange.

Mr Charles Cofie, Chief Executive Officer of the company, who disclosed this at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Accra on Thursday, said the high performance was as a result of prudent measures adopted by management.

Mr Cofie said management resorted to cost cutting measures in the heat of the global economic crisis to ensure that its impact was minimal on the company’s performance.

He said high turnover rate was reduced and strong portfolio management measures adopted to cut down on unnecessary operational expenditure which resulted in saving of cost.

Mr Cofie said the continued global economic crisis posed a greater challenge to the company this year but was confident that its strategies and brands would continue to do well.

“We will explore and take appropriate internal actions with the aim of pursuing our strategic objectives to ensure the viability of the company.”

Mr Cofie gave the assurance that the company would continue to meaningfully contribute to the development of society through its social responsibility interventions.

Source: GNA


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Potash production is an avenue for wealth creation among women – Akonortey

Mr Douglas Akonortey, External Relations Officer of Marglas Potash Industries Ghana, has observed that production of Potassium Carbonate (Potash), from dry cocoa pods by the company, would help reduce poverty among women in cocoa growing communities in the country.

He said potash production would be an avenue for wealth creation among the women and the youth in those communities.

Speaking to GNA in Kumasi on Thursday, Mr Akonortey said most of the women and the youth became idle especially during the cocoa off season and potash production would make them active even with the collection of cocoa pods for a fee.

“The project would help accelerate growth of the agricultural sector, boost operation of small and medium enterprise (SMEs) and reduce rural-urban migration, “he said.

He appealed to stakeholders in the cocoa industry to help propagate the project in cocoa growing communities in the country.

Source: GNA


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Contractors get first constitution

The Progressive Road Contractors Association (PROCA) has for the first time since its inception promulgated its drafted Rules and Regulations governing its activities into a constitution.

The draft was accepted by more than two-thirds of the over 100 representatives of the Association from all over the country who were present and voted at their meeting in Kumasi on Wednesday.

The exercise was witnessed by legal practitioners and other stakeholders.

Mr. Ntore Nkansah, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, in declaring the acceptance of the draft after voting, said for fair play and social justice, the Association needed a body of laws that would regulate the activities of the members.

He noted that the Constitution would also enhance the well being of its members.

Mr. Michael Aidoo, the President of the Association, charged members to study the Constitution in order not to breach any of them and thereby, help to sustain the Association.

He added that though the Constitution was binding on members, it was also subject for review when it became necessary.

Nana Ogyeahoho Yaw II, Sefwi Anhwiasohene, patron and chairman for the occasion, advised members to love and support one another to ensure unity in the association.

Source: GNA


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Ghana: Time to develop, support and retain talents

A reader of my April 16 2009 article on “South African farmers coming to Ghana” (see article)  raised very pertinent issues that need to be addressed. The reader quoted the statement below from my article.

“Already, successive Ghana governments have given arable lands to mining companies who have destroyed farms to make way for mining, and paid farmers a pittance, thereby impoverishing them. Farmlands are also being used up for building houses, while our population keeps growing.” And argued in the nutshell, “ … It is only with Commercial Farming and its associated adoption of modern Agricultural Techniques that could save us from eventual famine.”

My response is that commercial farming isn’t a panacea to the pressures on the land. We could end up having mega-commercial farms taking up larger chunks of land to mass -produce for exports. Some people would argue that that would be good for the economy. I’d disagree, simply because, the foreign exchange from the exports won’t be retained in the country. This is evident in the mining sector. Just last week the Minister of Finance Dr. Duffour is reported to have “Appealed to the mining companies in Ghana to …increase the percentage of foreign exchange earnings retained in the country.”

There has been (foreign) commercial farming in Central American and Caribbean countries for years. However, their reliance on commercial farming hasn’t helped them develop; they’re still poor. Some of them, especially Haiti, have experienced land degradation caused by commercial farming. They’ve also suffered from foreign military interventions.

Foreign military interventions and political interference in those countries have mainly emanated from the need to protect foreign business interests. Interventions have come under the guise of anti-communism/pro-democracy doctrines. As one retired General Smedley Butler of the US Marines Corp confessed, “…that he spent most of his 33 yrs in the Marines being a high class muscle man for Big Business… I helped in raping half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. … And helped make Honduras ‘right for American fruit companies.” said the General. Washington’s War on Nicaragua by Holly Sklar. You can find excerpts from www.amazon.com/washingtons-war-holly-sklar. A most recent foreign interference is happening in Bolivia. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bolivia

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/resources/forum/viewtopic.php? T=4883&view=previous;

Entrepreneurship
Even if one subscribes to the commercial farming idea, we don’t need foreign entrepreneurs to come and run commercial farms. Our universities and colleges are churning out hundreds of graduates from agric programmes each year. Other Ghanaians study agric abroad and return. Why can’t the government encourage and support these graduates to form joint ventures among themselves to use their knowledge to create jobs for themselves and employ others to feed the nation?

By the way, Ghana is the world’s second largest cocoa producer. Ghanaian farmers made that possible. The government at least provides a market for the cocoa farmers plus subsidized inputs and technical support. Similar incentives could be used to support Ghanaians cultivating other crops to feed the nation.

Land Acquisition
Some of the readers of my article suggest that land could be leased to the foreign farmers. The problem is that even if the lands are leased on short term basis, as some readers suggest, it wouldn’t be easy for a future government to tell the farmers that the lease is up so they should vacate the lands. Where would they go? They would marshal outside support to keep the lands the government would give to them and what they’d buy from chiefs and poor farmers. That’s where the trouble lies. We shouldn’t think that because the lands in Ghana wouldn’t be acquired by force or edict, what’s happening elsewhere couldn’t happen here. Our land tenure system is weak, so we have to be very careful.

Conclusion
Foreign commercial farming isn’t a cure-all for the pressure on the land, or our economic woes. We rather need to modernize technology in the agric sector, to improve post harvest techniques, improve our road, storage, processing infrastructures, and secure markets for our farmers. We need to empower, develop and support the country’s human capital, both at home and abroad to feed, and build the country. Besides, we require effective resource management, and population control mechanisms to forestall overcrowding and food insecurity.

It’s prudent to learn from other nation’s experiences. We have to anticipate what could happen in the future, and understand that what has happened and still happening to others can happen to next generations of Ghanaians, if we’re not careful.

We need an effective industrialization policy to move the country from the commodities -based economy. We have to develop and support industrial entrepreneurs to add value to what we produce, and also manufacture some of what we need.

Ghana cannot develop simply by depending on agric, and buying and selling what others produce. “The East Asian countries: ‘four tigers” (Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, China) and others, developed their economies by supporting agriculture, expanding labour-intensive industries, and investing heavily in basic social services.” Source: Adjustment in Africa: Reforms, Results and the Road Ahead, 1994.

It’s Ghanaians who would develop Ghana. We can do with some help from well- meaning individuals and entities, especially in industrialization- non-agric sectors.

However, the help should come to supplement but not to substitute our efforts, and control our destiny and that of future generations of Ghanaians.  Long Live Ghana!

By Kofi Asamoah


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Lack of parking spaces compel haulage drivers to park along roads

haulage-trucksHaulage drivers in Tema on Wednesday said absence of parking spaces along highways had compelled them to park their trucks on shoulders or almost in the middle of roads.

The drivers said when their trucks develop fault, they do their best to find appropriate place to back “but where it becomes impossible we park along the roads against our wishes…”

The drivers said this during question and answers time at a forum organized for them by the Ghana Shippers Council on the need to drive responsibly and observe traffic regulations.

The programme was organised against the backdrop of recent accidents that resulted in loss of lives and horrendous injuries.

Speakers included Mr Kofi Mbeah, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Shippers Council, and Mrs May Obiri-Yeboah of the National Road Safety Commission.

The drivers also blamed the inefficiency of some drivers on fake licences issued to them by some “Goro boys“ who parade as staff of the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority and expressed the hope that the practice would stop to bring sanity into the driving profession.

The drivers appealed to the authorities to put danger signs at all accident prone areas.

Mr Mbeah said the Shippers Council is envisaging a legal regime that would ensure that within a specified time frame the haulage of cargo would be undertaken only in containerized trucks or in containers.

However, where cargoes are to be carried on flat beds a permit would be secured with a view to ensuring that all requisite safety measures have been adhered to.

“The present system of ‘me bo me ho modin’ trucking must give way to a better organized system which ensures that we would build a strong system of financial capital for haulage truck owners to retool, modernize their fleet, re-engineer their operations and bring it in consonance with international standards.”

Mrs Obiri-Yeboah reminded drivers to respect the law binding them not to travel beyond eight hours as they would be tired.

Source: GNA


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Illegal migration – Brong-Ahafo Region is top

The largest number of Ghanaians repatriated from overseas, especially Europe, are people from the Brong-Ahafo Region, Dr. Kwasi Apea-Kubi, the Deputy Minister of the Interior, has said.

Dr. Apea-Kubi, who was launching an information campaign to prevent illegal and irregular migration on Wednesday, said “about 60 percent of Ghanaians deported from Europe are indigenes from the Brong-Ahafo Region.”

The programme under the theme “facilitating a coherent migration management approach in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Libya by promoting legal migration and preventing further irregular migration” was organised by International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare.

It was jointly sponsored by the European Commission (EC) and the Italian Government and aimed at providing information and creating awareness of the dangers involved in irregular migration and to promote the benefits of legal migration.

Dr. Apea-Kubi expressed regret about the tragic events of at least 200 migrants who were reported missing after an overloaded boat sank about 48 kilometres (30 miles) off the coast of Libya.

He therefore advised the youth not to put their lives in danger.

Dr. Apea-Kubi said the government was putting in place an enabling environment to empower every Ghanaian to fit in the system.  “It is possible to make it in Ghana provided one wants to work and make it.”

He expressed the hope that the major stakeholders of the campaign would coordinate their efforts by utilizing the variety of communication tools to make a long-lasting impact.

Mr. Jo Rispoli, IOM’s head of the technical cooperation department and international programme manager in Accra, explained that the campaign scheduled from May to July is to reduce migration through unapproved routes and to provide information on regular migration options and regulations to actual and potential migrants.

He said in the framework of this project, 25 Ghanaian government officials were taken through training workshop in June 2008 to develop labour migration policies, adding that a technical working group had been established to develop a draft labour migration policy for Ghana.

Mr. Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, suggested to students of social sciences including sociology and population studies to research into reasons underpinning the desire of the youth to migrate overseas.

This, he explained, was because despite the constant local and international media reports concerning problems that illegal migrants were going through a lot more remained adamant to follow the same trend of travelling abroad.

Source: GNA


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Sekondi-Takoradi to get first university

The Right Reverend John Harvey-Ewusi, Bishop of the Sekondi-Takoradi Diocese of the Methodist Church, said the Western Region will soon have a campus of the Methodist University College in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.

He said already a technical team has inspected some facilities in the diocese and its final report is expected to pave way for the campus to open.

Bishop Harvey-Ewusi told the GNA in an interview on Wednesday that the university would offer courses that would include Business Administration.

Bishop Harvey-Ewusi said the diocese also plans to establish a nursing training college at Dixcove in the Ahanta West District.

The school will be named after the late William Degraft, a founding member of the Methodist Church whose appeal led to the arrival of the first Bible from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

Bishop Harvey-Ewusi said another facility at Azani in the Ahanta West District will also be named the William Degraft Centre on May 9.

The facility comprises a Chapel, Hostel blocks, administrative block, retreat centre, family centre and schools and is being funded by the Lay Movement of the Methodist Church.

Source: GNA


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Ghanaian children solve 100 arithmetic questions in eight minutes

From the expression on their happy faces, there was no indication, at all, that they were about to get into a mind – blowing competition. In that massive Burma Hall, a military facility in Accra, Ghana, where they all gathered at the weekend, the only visible thing on the face of about 500 children and adolescents was confidence. As officials of the Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic (UCMAS) Ghana Limited wrapped up the preparations for the Mental Arithmetic competition, all the children did was to chat away.

The event was the first National Arithmetic Competition. Ghana, Sudan, Egypt and Botswana are the four African countries that have so far embraced the UCMAS Brain Development programme. Nigeria is set to join too, and preparations are already in top gear by Dr Haroun Adamu, who holds the franchise, to launch it.

Koios International, managed by an Indian couple, Girish and Kirti Gurbani, holds the franchise to undertake the UCMAS programme in Ghana. Established since 1993 by Dr Dino Wong, a Malaysian, the UCMAS Group has been promoting mental arithmetic dynamics all over the world. The method involves the training of children with the abacus, a toy – like frame containing tiny rods bearing beads, to develop and train the brain. The abacus has been used by the Chinese for calculations over hundreds of years. It also organizes an annual international competition in Malaysia every year.

The 500 children were given100 arithmetic questions, with only eight minutes to attempt all of them. They were to use the abacus and their brains to get the answers. And as the whistle sounded, the children went into a frenzy, manipulating the abacus very rapidly and scribbling the answers with amazing speed. After exactly eight minutes, the whistle was blown again and the pupils stopped writing.

On hand to witness the competition was a delegation from Nigeria, led by Dr Haroun Adamu. Adamu was in Ghana to understudy the competition, fraternize with the organizers and share their experiences. Already, Zaria Academy which he owns, has started the mental arithmetic programme, from where he intends to launch it across the entire country.

The Guardian discovered that the children who participated in the competition were from private schools in Accra and Kumasi. But the Deputy Minister of Education (pre tertiary) Mrs. Elizabeth Tetteh disclosed that the Ghanaian government was making preparations to introduce the programme in its public schools too. She commended the programme and acknowledged that it had led to tremendous improvement in the performance of Ghanaian children in mathematics.

Adamu, in his speech, assured the children that they would, in due course, be invited to compete with their counterparts in Nigeria in an epic competition. The preliminary results showed that Josia Okine scored 98 marks out of 100; Matilda Sosu scored 88, while Yaw Takyi Asare scored 84.

In an interview with The Guardian, the Chief Executive Officer of Koios, Mr Girish Gurbani explained why his company took up the challenge of introducing mental arithmetic in Ghana. His words: “My wife, Kirti Gurbani, is associated with UCMAS in India. When we came to Ghana and interacted with Ghanaian children, she learnt that they were very afraid of mathematics. And because of her association with UCMAS, she knew that with UCMAS programme, the child’s brain is developed and any phobia for mathematic will be eliminated in the children. And in September, 200, we started in Ghana.”

On the initial attitude of parents and the Ghanaian government to the programme, Girish said, “when we were starting, we knew that anything new takes time. We faced a lot of challenges. Not only private schools, but lots of educationists couldn’t believe that, what children in Malaysia were doing, the African child will also be able to do. We had to convince a lot of educationists to try it. We suggested two terms, and some parents gave it a try, on private based activities. Not in many schools, but in few selected schools. But with the results and what parents saw in these two terms of the programme, the other parents started joining. The effect was very positive. They noticed that the children were able to do calculations faster and it has helped them to improve their concentration. And more children started joining in the programme.”

On how children have been reacting to the programme, he stated: “we have parents telling us that, Monday to Friday, a child likes to sleep as much as he wants to, and he is not very active to wake up and go to school. But on Saturday, when the child knows it is Abacus class, the child is up, and he is waking up daddy and saying, let’s go, it is Abacus class, it is UCMAS class. This is because our methodology is playful and activity based, in which children enjoy whatever they are doing, and they race for the next class. In every class, they are learning something new, and every next class is more exciting than the last class. They realise that the programme has helped them in their concentration. The parents also see that the programme is helping their children’s concentration, their memory, because they remember more things now.”

On how long it takes to train a child, Girish revealed that the programme has 10 different levels and that each level runs for between 12 and 14 weeks. “If a child is nine or 10 years old, he will complete one level in 12 weeks. If a child is younger, probably six or seven years old, it will take about 14 weeks. The right age to start is four to five years.”

Source: The Guardian


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Ghana’s 2008 GDP raised to 7.3%

Dr. Grace Bediako - Government Statistician

Dr. Grace Bediako - Government Statistician

Ghana’s economy grew by 7.3 percent in 2008, up from a provisional growth rate of 6.2 percent for last year, the country’s statistics office said on Thursday.

Ghana, the world’s second biggest cocoa producer, is grappling with a swelling budget deficit and huge trade imbalances after the cost of food and fuel imports surged to record levels last year.

The budget deficit stood at 14.9 percent of gross domestic product at the end of 2008. A revised figure taking the new 2008 growth figures into account was not immediately available.

The government has forecast 2009 growth of 5.9 percent and aims to cut the fiscal deficit to 9.4 percent this year and 3 percent in the medium term.

Ghana is also Africa’s second biggest gold miner and a fast-emerging investment destination. It is expected to start offshore oil production by 2011 to help offset its import bill.

Inflation surged last year on the back of high world oil prices, high food prices and a declining cedi currency. In March, inflation hit a five-year high of 20.53 percent.

Source: Reuters


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