2010 second quarter investments in Ghana amount to $662m
In the second quarter of 2010, the total value of new investments in Ghana amounted to $662 million. These were derived from 105 new projects, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has said last week.
According to the Centre, the new investments have brought in altogether an amount of $850 million in 213 projects.
The CEO of the GIPC George Aboagye said the foreign direct investment (FDI) component of the total investment value into the country in the first half of the year amounted to $760.68 million, a significant increase of 598.83% compared to $108 million recorded for the same period in 2009.
The FDIs have come from India, China, Nigeria, Britain, Lebanon, Demark, Netherlands South Africa as well as Belgium and the British Virgin Island.
Aboagye said 89,483 new jobs were expected to be created for Ghanaians in the second quarter, bringing the total number of jobs expected to be created in the first half of 2010 to 94,952.
He also indicated that 67 newly invested projects, or 63.81% of the new investments in the second quarter were wholly owned foreign enterprises valued at $648 millio while the remaining 38 or 36% were joint ventures between Ghanaians and foreign entities valued at $14 million.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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The State must pay maternity benefits – Legal practitioner
Mrs Hilary Gbedemah, a legal practitioner, on Friday suggested that the state should pay maternity benefits to women in the formal sector.
She said this has become necessary because many employers were not paying such benefits.
Mrs Gbedemah made the suggestion at a day’s sensitization seminar organized by Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) for women in the Volta Region in Ho.
It was on the theme, “Women’s Rights Promotion in Ghana: Issues, Challenges and Options.”
She said maternity benefit was a right women could not afford to forfeit and urged stakeholders to ensure that that right was honoured.
Mrs Gbedemah observed that though Ghana was a signatory to many international instruments and conventions, implementation of such laws hardly favoured women and charged women to rise up for their rights.
She noted that though the country’s laws appeared to give equal protection to the citizenry, in practice there were various forms of discrimination at workplaces and in communities.
Mrs Gbedemah therefore urged women to continue to fight for their rights in various forms including upgrading themselves to be able to make more meaningful contributions to national development.
Source: GNA
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Ghanaian banks tighten credit to small businesses
Commercial banks in Ghana have tightened credit to small and medium scale businesses, including households and instead are opting for mortgages, according to the Economy Times newspaper.
The publication said the decreasing margins on average loans or credit lines are on the other hand reported to be the main contributing factors for the easing of the credit stance to large businesses.
It indicated that even though, large enterprises benefitted from a marginal ease in banks’ credit stance, commercial banks’ credit to the private sector and public institutions over the 12-month period to May 2010 increased slightly at 3.2% to GH¢214.4m, and it is the lowest since May 2003.
The newspaper said the outstanding bank credit to the private sector in May 2010 was GH¢5,873m representing 22.7% of GDP. Of this amount it said, the services sector’s share was 23.4%, manufacturing, 13.9%, commerce and finance, 13.9% and construction 9.9%.
In real terms, it said, commercial banks’ credit to the private sector fell by 3.4% at the end of May 2010 compared with a growth of 19.1% at the end on May 2009.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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Exclusive: Man who died at Japan airport was born in Kumasi
The 55-year-old man carrying a valid Belgian passport who died last Sunday in Japan was born in the Garden City of Ghana, Kumasi, ghanabusinessnews.com can reveal.
According to Ghana Embassy officials who spoke to ghanabusinessnews.com on the phone, information in the Belgian passport which the deceased presented to immigration officials says he was born in Kumasi in 1955.
But ghanabusinessnews.com sources in Belgium say, he hails from Vakpo in the Volta Region and he was married to a native of Kpando. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
The man, whose name was given as Kwadwo Akyereko also holds a Ghanaian passport which also indicates his place of birth as Kumasi.
The Embassy official, Bonaventure Adjavor, told ghanabusinessnews.com that Akyereko left Accra last Saturday on Emirates flight number 788 to Dubai where he connected with another Emirates flight number EK 316 to Kansai Airport in Osaka, Japan. He said when the deceased’s luggage was searched nothing suspicious was found.
Japan immigration officials however, wanted to know the purpose of his visit to the country and took him in for further questioning, earlier reports have said.
“He was not cooperative and suddenly ran away from the office. As we caught him, he became limp. He was sent to a nearby hospital, and his death was confirmed there.” The reports quoted the officials as saying.
The death of Akyereko who was based in Antwerp has shocked the Ghanaian community there.
Meanwhile, the Ghana mission in Japan has told ghanabusinessnews.com that the Belgian Embassy in that country has taken over the matter, because the deceased presented his Belgian passport on entering the country.
Information available to ghanabusinessnews.com also says doctors are waiting for a judicial permit to be able to conduct autopsy to determine the cause of death.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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Ghana to export power to other African countries – Mahama
Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Monday announced that Ghana was positioning herself to become a major exporter of electric power in the coming years.
He said “currently, the country has over 2,000 megawatts of power and we have the vision of increasing it to 5,000 megawatts since we have the comparative advantage to export it to neighbouring African countries.”
Vice President Mahama said these when a delegation of Japanese business organizations called on him at the Osu Castle in Accra to express interest in partnering the government of Ghana in so many sectors of development.
The delegation was made up of finance, engineering, energy development, hydrocarbons and fertilizers generating companies and general construction firms.
The Vice President was particularly happy that some of the Japanese companies had expressed interest in the development of power in the era that Ghana was on the verge of drilling oil in larger quantities.
“Financing of projects has always been a major constraint for the government and I am happy that both private and government Japanese companies are all expressing interest to invest in different areas of our economy.”
He said government was working round the clock to improve the economic growth rate of the country above six percent by the close of this year and between eight and 10 percent in the next two years.
Vice President Mahama, who traced the cordial relations between Ghana and Japan from the days of Dr. Ngouchi, who research into malaria and died in Ghana and said since then there had been numerous bilateral relations and projects between the two countries.
“As at 2002, Ghana was the second largest recipient of Japanese loans and grants after Kenya until Ghana went in for the Heavily Indebted and Poor Countries (HIPC) programme and we are working hard to ensure that relations increase better in the coming years.”
Vice President Mahama also announced that Ghana was at the brink of becoming an emerging economy due mainly to her credentials in good governance, stability, growth in the economy and respect for human rights.
The Vice President said that the country would in the coming years work closer with more foreign partners to achieve its economic goals of providing jobs and skills to the Ghanaian workers.
Mr. Fumio Hoshi, Executive Director of Japan Bank for International Cooperation, said that the Bank would partner Ghana in the import and export sector by creating jobs and transferring of technology to Ghanaian workers.
He said that it would commit a minimum of $2.5 billion dollars in the job creation and technology transfer and appealed to government to take a closer look at their proposals presented to the Vice President.
Mr. Takuma Hatano, Executive Vice President of Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, that engage in hydrocarbons and fertilizers expressed interest in using natural gas in generating adequate energy for the country.
He appealed to the Ghana Government to come out with a master development plan to enable them access areas of cooperation for the benefit of both countries.
Source: GNA
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Tullow makes another significant oil find in Ghana
Tullow Oil has announced another significant oil discovery in Ghana. In a press release copied to ghanabusinessnews.com Monday July 26, 2010, the major stakeholder in Ghana’s oil sector says “Owo-1 exploration well in the Deepwater Tano licence offshore Ghana has intersected a significant column of excellent quality light oil. Results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids have established Owo as a major new oil field requiring further appraisal.”
According to the release, the deviated well, located approximately 6km to the west of the Tweneboa wells, has encountered a gross vertical reservoir interval of 154 metres containing 53 metres of net oil pay in two zones of high quality stacked reservoir sandstones.
Following completion of logging operations the well will be sidetracked 0.6km east to provide additional information on lateral reservoir distribution and to intersect a deeper part of the Owo channel system.
“This is a high value discovery. Oil quality here and reservoir quality is similar to Jubilee. It has come in with very highly pressured reservoirs,” Tullow’s exploration director Angus McCoss has told the Dow Jones news service.
The Owo-1 find is also reported to potentially add another one billion barrels of oil equivalent to the resource estimate for the area. Owo becomes the second major oil discovery made by Tullow in Ghana.
Following the announcement of this find, Tullow Oil’s shares rose on the London Stock Exchange.
Tullow is the major stakeholder in Ghana’s biggest oil field Jubilee. Commercial production of oil in the field said to hold an estimated 1.5 billion barrels of oil is expected to start in November.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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Missing site plan stalls $1.5b China-funded trade and recreational project
Togbe Afede XIV
A $1.5 billion project to build a modern trade and recreational complex has stalled because the site plan for the project cannot be located, the Daily Graphic reports.
According to the newspaper, the $1.5 billion Gold Coast City Project that should have taken off in March this year to convert the 160-acre land between the Independence Square and the Arts Centre in Accra into a modern trade and recreational complex cannot be executed because there are difficulties in locating the site plan.
The Lands Commission the report says cannot locate the site plan which will identify the boundary between the Osu and the Ga Mashie sides of the land.
The initiator of the project Togbe Afede XIV was quoted as saying that the project has been bedevilled with numerous challenges, key among them being the relocation of the numerous offices and structures located on the land.
The commercial project being promoted by the Strategic Initiatives Limited with funding from the Shuguang Group Company Limited, the Guoquiang Construction Company Limited and Gemfy Group all of China includes residential apartments, a five-star hotel, a three-floor shopping mall with ice hockey and ice skating facilities. It would also include a 21-floor World Trade Centre, a four-floor modern school complex, a 15-floor office complex for the Ministry of Tourism and a mini golf club.
Togbe Afede said when the project is completed it will start the modernisation of Accra.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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Trade between Ghana and China exceeds $1.6b in 2009
Ghana-China bilateral trade exceeded $1.6 billion last year,Mr. Zhao Shiren, Charge D’ Affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Ghana disclosed on Friday.
He explained that a number of projects undertaken by Chinese enterprises in the country were over 400, calling for a better and closer Ghana-China cooperation.
Mr. Zhao noted that Ghana-China friendship had not only endured the vicissitude of time, but also consolidated and prospered.
He made this known at the end of an exhibition mounted by the Chinese Embassy to mark the 50 years of diplomatic relations between both countries.
The exhibition co-hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and was on the theme: “Friendship, Cooperation and Development.”
The event, attended by citizens of both countries and some members of the diplomatic corps, showcased historic photos from present to as far back as the 1960s, of some projects as well as government and private sector leaders, who blazed the trail of diplomatic relations between both countries.
“Over the last 50 years, people to people contacts have been further strengthened…the most recent example of Ghana actively participating in the Shanghai Expo 2010 by sending large trade delegation and the national dance troupe”, Mr. Zhao added.
Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, commended China on the remarkable transformation of their economy which has become the second largest destination for direct foreign investment in the world.
He said Ghana appreciates her unique relations with China and is committed to further deepening and strengthening existing warm bilateral ties as well as expansion and scope of economic and technical cooperation between the two countries.
Alhaji Mumuni therefore called on “Chinese businessmen to take advantage of Ghana’s Export Free Zone Enclave, the on-going vast and encouraging oil exploration, excellent sea and air connection and improved infrastructural network to increase their importation of food items, horticultural produce, jewellery, handicraft and wood carvings, chocolate and knock-down furniture from Ghana in order to ensure a fair and balanced trade between our two brotherly countries”.
Diplomatic relations between Ghana and China started in the early 1960s through the instrumentality of Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
Source: GNA
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Ghana makes $3b in FDIs from free zone enclaves in 13 years
The Free Zones Enclaves since their establishment in 1996 to December 31, 2009 realised about three billion dollars (2,984,305,302 dollars) from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Within the period, 28,433 jobs were created, Mrs Kate Abbeo, Solicitor for the Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB), announced at a seminar for employers in the enclaves held in Accra on Thursday.
The seminar organised by the National Labour Commission (NLC) was to educate participants on the provisions of the Labour Act 2003 which regulates employment relations and protect workers’ rights.
These are freedom of association and collective bargaining, equal pay for equal work, maternity protection, occupational health and safety as well as the right to strike.
Free Zones are designated areas where goods and services are produced for export as operators are given tax incentives and other benefits, as well as exemption from paying corporate income tax.
Mrs. Abbeo said the rationale for the establishment of such zones was to attract direct foreign investment, technology transfer, diversification of exports and job creation with the total rights of workers.
She said there was therefore, the need for employers to respect the rights of employees by allowing them to join trade unions in accordance with due process while employees should also honour the terms and conditions of their contract of engagement.
Mrs. Abbeo said union executives should as well respect the provisions in the Free Zones Act which permitted free zones developers and companies to internally negotiate and establish contracts of employment with employees on working hours and wages scale.
She reminded employers, both expatriates and locals that they were expected to spend one per cent of their annual wage bill in training Ghanaian workers to make technology transfer programmes meaningful, adding, “The employer is under obligation to furnish the GFZB with training programmes and records every six months from commencement of work”.
Mrs. Abbeo said employees working within the zones were also entitled to be paid salaries or wages not less than the minimum wage prevailing in the country at a given time, social security, provision of the pension law and law on workmen’s compensation and public holidays.
She said the Board would always ensure that free zone enterprises complied with the provisions on industrial relations contained in the Free Zones Act and uphold human values that were vital to the social and economic lives of employees.
Mr. Johnson Adasi, Director in-charge of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises and Industry, Ministry of Trade and Industry, who represented the Sector Minister, Ms. Hannah Tetteh, said an industrial policy had been established to drive industries in the country, most of which were in distress.
He said the policy which had four components including production and distribution, technology and incentives was designed to increase competitiveness and ease the transaction of business in Ghana to help promote fair pricing and trade on the international market.
Mr. Edward Briku-Boadi, Executive-Secretary, NLC, said the Commission had often received complaints that workers within the enclaves were not being allowed by their employers to form or join trade unions to negotiate for their rights because some of the employers thought such workers were not bounded by the labour laws in the country.
He said all such workers were bounded by the labour laws and should be given such rights.
Source: GNA
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Ghana earns $1.6b from tourism in 2009
The Kakum Canopy Walkway - one of the country's tourist attractions
Ghana earned about $1.6 billion from tourism as the fourth largest foreign exchange earner last year after gold, cocoa and remittances from Ghanaians resident abroad.
Mrs Zita Okaikoi, Minister of Tourism, said tourism contributed about 6.2 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year.
She was addressing a press conference on the two-day 2010 Ghana International Tourism Investment Forum (GITIF) scheduled for Accra from July 26-27.
The forum being organised as part of this year’s Emancipation Day celebration is under the theme: “Ghana-Time to Explore: The Role of the Investor in the Tourism Sector”.
Mrs Okaikoi said as a service sector, tourism was labour-intensive and a major job creator especially for young people, women and indigenous communities who host tourists and created direct and indirect employment to 260,000 Ghanaians in 2009.
She said third quarter investment report for 2009 indicated that out of new projects estimated at about 267.25 million dollars, investments in the tourism sector was 55.61 million the second after agriculture of 99.08 million dollars.
Mrs Okaikoi said the forum was expected to bring together local and international investors, practitioners, lecturers, and students of tourism to discuss the future of tourism industry in Ghana, stimulate investment in tourism to boost its development.
In addition, it would create a sustained forum for industry players to share ideas and exchange information on current issues and international best practices in the sector, while establishing a network of industry players for the benefit of Ghana’s tourism industry.
Mrs Okaikoi said participants at the forum would be given the opportunity to participate in some activities of the Emancipation Day Celebration such as the Assin Praso durbar on Friday, July 30, reverential night at Cape Coast and the grand durbar at Assin Manso on Saturday, July 31.
She called on Corporate Ghana, tourism and tourism related industry practitioners, the academia, Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies to participate in the forum.
Source: GNA
