THE Association of Ghana Industries (AGI),has launched the 2011 edition of its oil and gas exhibition aimed at promoting local content development.
The event, scheduled for October 11-13, this year, will be on the theme: “Promoting local content development in the oil and gas industry: AGI engineering value chain dimension” and is expected to create a platform for local companies interested in the sector to interact with the renowned international industry players.
At a media launch in Accra, the AGI President, Nana Owusu Afari, said the upcoming event was aimed at creating a platform for Ghanaian businesses to “rip from the simmering benefits of the oil and gas industry in the country.”
The AGI last year organised a similar event with collaborations from the industry players such as Tullow, GNPC, the Ministry of Energy, among others and Nana Owusu said the success of that event informed the association’s decision to make it an annual affair.
According to him, Ghanaian businesses were eager to participate in the country’s oil and gas sector but lacked the needed expertise, finance and resource persons to enable it to do so.
He was, however, optimistic that events such as the AGI Ghana Oil and Gas Exhibition and conference would “help link local businesses with international players as we invite these global major players to the conference.”
Nana Afari disagreed with suggestions that the AGI was placing too much attention on the country’s oil and gas sector to the neglect of the other sectors, a situation that the industry experts fear could likely see the country swimming in the much talked about Dutch disease.
“We are not shifting attention at all; But we will not also leave it to the others,” the President said, and added that the oil and gas find was only “a bonus” to the country’s economic movers.
He said the country’s oil and gas industry had huge potentials for the nation’s businesses and “we think we should not leave it to the foreigners alone.”
The Director of Operations at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr Thomas Manu, lauded the AGI for such an initiative and described it as “the surest way that the country can adopt to help make the discovery a blessing rather than a curse.”
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
CID, BoG IN A TANGO, Over licensing of money lenders
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service is still licensing money lenders in the country, three years after the Money Lenders Act (2008), Act 744 transferred the authority to license them from the CID to the Bank of Ghana. But the criminal body, which now finds itself perpetrating illegality, says it licences money lenders only to fill a void. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare reports
The Bank of Ghana says the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service has been engaging in an improper conduct of issuing operational licenses to prospective money lenders to operate in the country.
According to the BoG, it was now the legal responsibility of the BoG to licence the lenders for operations following the enactment of the Money Lenders Act, Act 744 (2008), three years ago.
Mr Franklin Benlnye, Assistant Director of the Banking and Supervision Department of the BoG, said at a stakeholders meeting organised by the Interim Management Committee of the Money Lenders Association in Accra that “what the police are doing (issuing operational licenses to prospective money lenders) is actually illegal but we (BoG) have turned a blind eye to it because we don’t have the needed structures and guidelines in place yet.”
But Superintendent Felix Mawusi who represented the CID director at the forum, said there was a vacuum created by the central bank’s inability to licence the lenders, a responsibility and right that the enactment of the Act transferred to it.
“I think there is a vacuum and we (the CID) issue licenses to the lenders to fill that vacuum. License (from the CID) is better than no license at all,” Superintendent Mawusi observed.
Mr Benlnye however, noted that the act of the CID still issuing licenses to the lenders would be rectified in the coming months.
“We are coming out with the needed guidelines and the legal frameworks to enable us take up that mandate,” Mr Benlny said.
As part of those modalities, Mr Benlny said the BoG would, on next Thursday, hold a meeting with the members of the MLAG to solicit their inputs for the various guidelines and framework being formulated by the BoG for the sector.
He hinted that the BoG was considering a startup capital of GH¢100,000 as minimum requirement for prospective money lenders, an amount the MLAG members at the forum said was too high for them to meet.
But Mr Belny??? said “these are some of the reasons why the BoG plans to meet you next week so that we can together iron out the differences and come out with the needed modalities for the sector.”
Stakeholders and experts in the lending business were of the view that the CID’s inability to supervise and do follow-ups on the licensed operators posed a challenge to the sector as well as the operations of the lenders themselves.
As a result, an Act of Parliament, Act 744 (2008) was passed three years ago which subsequently transferred the legal right of issuing operational licenses to individuals and institutions wishing to go into the business of money lending from the CID to the BoG.
The act was to, among other things, correct the lack of supervision and other operational difficulties after the CID had issued licenses to prospective money lenders for operations.
But three years after the passage of the act, the CID still issues licenses to the prospective money lenders on the blind eye of the appropriate body, the central bank.
The BoG currently licences and subsequently supervises and regulates the activities of all individuals and institutions wishing to engage in any financial related activity in the country.
According to the BoG, it lacked the necessary framework and modalities to enable it to leave up to the demands of Act 744 - issue operational licenses to prospective money lenders in the country.
As a result, the CID says it currently issues the licenses to fill that void created by the BoG’s inability to legally carry out its mandate.
The CID was given the authority to license money lenders in the country under the money lenders ordinance. Such a mandate was however repealed following the passage of Act 744 in 2008 which was meant “to sanitise the sector”.
Some of the participants at the forum observed that taking the authority to issue licenses from the CID to the BoG would mean double cost to incur in acquiring licenses since they would have to reacquire another license from the BoG.
It was attended by the association’s members as well as representatives from the Registrar General, BoG, Micro Finance and Small Loan Centre (MASLOC) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
The Bank of Ghana says the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service has been engaging in an improper conduct of issuing operational licenses to prospective money lenders to operate in the country.
According to the BoG, it was now the legal responsibility of the BoG to licence the lenders for operations following the enactment of the Money Lenders Act, Act 744 (2008), three years ago.
Mr Franklin Benlnye, Assistant Director of the Banking and Supervision Department of the BoG, said at a stakeholders meeting organised by the Interim Management Committee of the Money Lenders Association in Accra that “what the police are doing (issuing operational licenses to prospective money lenders) is actually illegal but we (BoG) have turned a blind eye to it because we don’t have the needed structures and guidelines in place yet.”
But Superintendent Felix Mawusi who represented the CID director at the forum, said there was a vacuum created by the central bank’s inability to licence the lenders, a responsibility and right that the enactment of the Act transferred to it.
“I think there is a vacuum and we (the CID) issue licenses to the lenders to fill that vacuum. License (from the CID) is better than no license at all,” Superintendent Mawusi observed.
Mr Benlnye however, noted that the act of the CID still issuing licenses to the lenders would be rectified in the coming months.
“We are coming out with the needed guidelines and the legal frameworks to enable us take up that mandate,” Mr Benlny said.
As part of those modalities, Mr Benlny said the BoG would, on next Thursday, hold a meeting with the members of the MLAG to solicit their inputs for the various guidelines and framework being formulated by the BoG for the sector.
He hinted that the BoG was considering a startup capital of GH¢100,000 as minimum requirement for prospective money lenders, an amount the MLAG members at the forum said was too high for them to meet.
But Mr Belny??? said “these are some of the reasons why the BoG plans to meet you next week so that we can together iron out the differences and come out with the needed modalities for the sector.”
Stakeholders and experts in the lending business were of the view that the CID’s inability to supervise and do follow-ups on the licensed operators posed a challenge to the sector as well as the operations of the lenders themselves.
As a result, an Act of Parliament, Act 744 (2008) was passed three years ago which subsequently transferred the legal right of issuing operational licenses to individuals and institutions wishing to go into the business of money lending from the CID to the BoG.
The act was to, among other things, correct the lack of supervision and other operational difficulties after the CID had issued licenses to prospective money lenders for operations.
But three years after the passage of the act, the CID still issues licenses to the prospective money lenders on the blind eye of the appropriate body, the central bank.
The BoG currently licences and subsequently supervises and regulates the activities of all individuals and institutions wishing to engage in any financial related activity in the country.
According to the BoG, it lacked the necessary framework and modalities to enable it to leave up to the demands of Act 744 - issue operational licenses to prospective money lenders in the country.
As a result, the CID says it currently issues the licenses to fill that void created by the BoG’s inability to legally carry out its mandate.
The CID was given the authority to license money lenders in the country under the money lenders ordinance. Such a mandate was however repealed following the passage of Act 744 in 2008 which was meant “to sanitise the sector”.
Some of the participants at the forum observed that taking the authority to issue licenses from the CID to the BoG would mean double cost to incur in acquiring licenses since they would have to reacquire another license from the BoG.
It was attended by the association’s members as well as representatives from the Registrar General, BoG, Micro Finance and Small Loan Centre (MASLOC) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
How 'convenience' breeds a company... To currently feed West African dogs
IN some houses with dogs, providing them with their feed is perhaps the sole responsibility of the house help. Most of the time they are fed on left over food which according to Dr Adai Sai Yamoah is unacceptable. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare writes.
IN the late 1980s through to the early years of the 1990s, Dr Adai Sai Yamoah (Mrs), a veterinary surgeon petted a lot of dogs. As a result, she sought for more convenient, less costly and time consuming ways of getting them food as “feeding them was very expensive and time consuming” to her.
Today, that convenient, less expensive and time consuming method that she devised to use in feeding her dogs has hatched into a giant company that currently manufactures 10 tonnes of dog feed a month for West African dogs, given full time employment to nine people . She is also hoping to move out of Accra soon and quadruple or triple her present production.
Gazing at her animal feed office stocked with her Nutripak for dog food at Madina in Accra, Dr Yamoah said to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS amidst smiles that “this is actually the dog’s home. I have always believed that we can do it here in Ghana and I love taking up that challenge of setting up the first animal feed manufacturing company in this country .”
The animal feed manufacturing business in the country still remains fallow and perhaps in the West African sub-region as her amalgamated feed became the first and still the only feed manufacturing company in the country.
always the first
Prior to coming up with her Amalgamated Feeds Limited in 1992, Dr Adai Sai Yamoah (Mrs), the first female veterinary surgeon in the country had humbly stepped out of her public office after serving for six years. This according to her was to enable her “take proper care and give the needed attention to my children” and perhaps to her many pet dogs.
But nine years after taking that decision, Dr Yamoah lit up yet another “first” flame, marshalled yet another courage - this time round not to establish or expand a veterinary clinic - but to live up to her conviction of “we can do it in Ghana” attitude by establishing her Amalgamated Feeds Limited, an animal feed manufacturing company in the country.
Before coming up with Amalgamated Feeds, she had actually set up and ran her own veterinary clinic at Tesano.
So why the Amalgamated Feed Ltd to the total abandonment of the veterinary clinic? Her answer was simple: “A lot of people are running vet clinics but not a lot of people are making animal feed.”
the beginning in the challenges
Tracing events that led to her coming up with her present dog manufacturing company, Dr Yamoah said “I had a lot of dogs at the time and it was very expensive and time consuming to feed them. So I tried to come up with a more convenient way of feeding them”.
But the country’s unreliable utility sector and a rigid financing scheme has not been that fair to the vet surgeon now turned ‘their’ chef. According to her, the company’s operations had to temporarily shut down in 1998 partly as a result of the erratic power cuts which engulfed a large part of the country sometime 1997 through to 1998.
“Our supply could not actually meet the demand at the time and that was partly due to the then unreliable electricity power supply situation within the period. I also did not have access to finance for expansion to meet that supply, so in 1998, the company went down,” Dr Yamoah memorised.
Luck however beamed on her in 2003 when she chanced upon “a shareholder who committed finance into the company” for it to revive and has since “been behind me - being generous and encouraging - believing that I can do it.”
Currently, her product, Nutripak, both for dogs and puppies which she said is sourced from 98 per cent local materials is stocked in leading shops and supermarkets nation-wide.
According to her the company has also started exporting to neighbouring Togo, Nigeria, Cote d’ Ivoire, and Benin while strategising to cover the entire sub-region in the coming years.
Petting has, for the past few years caught up well with most Ghanaians especially those living in urban areas.
In the case of dogs, most people pet them to serve two purposes; for pets sake and to also serve as guard against the ever increasing urban house burglaries.
These people are therefore prepared to put in extra commitment, more resources and attention towards getting their dogs well trained as they aid or even take over from the always dozing guard officer at the gate.
Little attention is however given to their feed. Most dog owners feed their dogs on left-overs from the dining table or those from food vendors. Other dogs are left to scavenge for theirs at the nearest garbage or throw-away sites or better still sniffer to the butcher, crack some bones and hop to the gutter for a sip.
Of course, the well to do’s dog is upgraded to take its scraps from renowned food courts or restaurants or even get it prepared in the kitchen specially “for the dog.”
But all these boils down to one thing: Dog feeding on the human’s food and that to according to Dr Yamoah, the veterinary doctor is unacceptable.
“Dogs should not be fed on human food because they have a different body system from those of humans. People should actually stop feeding their dogs on left overs from their meals,” the vet doctor admonished further.
According to her, some people are now awakening to the need for them to feed their dogs on specially made feed for dogs, a situation she said is inducing demand for her product.
She said the company is currently putting in place the necessary measures to enable it increase its capacity to 20 tonnes a month as a way of expanding to meet the present demand and its corporate objective.
At the moment, Dr Yamoah said there is market for the product but “we would need to market our product to the people. We are actually planning to advertise the product but the high cost involved is scaring us now”.
importing irritates
For a woman who believes in ‘we can do it in Ghana’, seeing people import certain products (including the large quantities of dog feed) into the country when they can actually produce them here “just irritates” her a lot.
“You see, I could have import dog feed from China, package it here in Ghana, and believe you me, I would be assured of a ready market but that would not help anybody. See, I had to stand by the artisan who manufactured this equipment (pointing to one her company’s machine), directing him to do this, put this here and there so that I could get what I wanted. But Who told you I couldn’t have gotten that same machine abroad even at a much cheaper cost?” she queried.
Dr Yamoah, however, blamed the importing spree of most business folks on the country’s business environment which continues to pull the legs of most entrepreneurs and has as a result stifled most business ideas right at the point of their incubations.
“The environment in Ghana is not helpful at all,” she noted adding that “getting anything done in this country is very tiring. You have to go to one place two or three times just to get some small thing done.”.
But she has fortunately swam through these challenges courtesy a supportive family and a business partner.
future of amalgamated feeds
She was grateful to the GAWE describing it as “a very important, resource gathering platform for women entrepreneurs and I would advise all young female entrepreneurs and those wishing to become to join the association now”.
Torching on the future plans of Amalgamated Feeds Limited, Dr Yamoah said the company would soon be diversifying into the production of feed for tilapia and other animals to feed the local as well as the West African markets.
“We have actually ordered for equipment which should arrive before June and by the end of that month, a 30-40 monthly tonne of tilapia feed would begin,” she said.
“We have actually ordered for equipment which should arrive before June and the end of that month, a 30-40 monthly tonne of tilapia feed would begin.” She said.
message to young females
To young women, upcoming female entrepreneurs and those already in the field, Dr Yamoah said “don’t let anything stop you from doing what you want to do. Obstacles are ways for us to pass through. Don’t see them as challenges but as stepping stones on which we should pass through to achieve our individual aims.”
IN the late 1980s through to the early years of the 1990s, Dr Adai Sai Yamoah (Mrs), a veterinary surgeon petted a lot of dogs. As a result, she sought for more convenient, less costly and time consuming ways of getting them food as “feeding them was very expensive and time consuming” to her.
Today, that convenient, less expensive and time consuming method that she devised to use in feeding her dogs has hatched into a giant company that currently manufactures 10 tonnes of dog feed a month for West African dogs, given full time employment to nine people . She is also hoping to move out of Accra soon and quadruple or triple her present production.
Gazing at her animal feed office stocked with her Nutripak for dog food at Madina in Accra, Dr Yamoah said to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS amidst smiles that “this is actually the dog’s home. I have always believed that we can do it here in Ghana and I love taking up that challenge of setting up the first animal feed manufacturing company in this country .”
The animal feed manufacturing business in the country still remains fallow and perhaps in the West African sub-region as her amalgamated feed became the first and still the only feed manufacturing company in the country.
always the first
Prior to coming up with her Amalgamated Feeds Limited in 1992, Dr Adai Sai Yamoah (Mrs), the first female veterinary surgeon in the country had humbly stepped out of her public office after serving for six years. This according to her was to enable her “take proper care and give the needed attention to my children” and perhaps to her many pet dogs.
But nine years after taking that decision, Dr Yamoah lit up yet another “first” flame, marshalled yet another courage - this time round not to establish or expand a veterinary clinic - but to live up to her conviction of “we can do it in Ghana” attitude by establishing her Amalgamated Feeds Limited, an animal feed manufacturing company in the country.
Before coming up with Amalgamated Feeds, she had actually set up and ran her own veterinary clinic at Tesano.
So why the Amalgamated Feed Ltd to the total abandonment of the veterinary clinic? Her answer was simple: “A lot of people are running vet clinics but not a lot of people are making animal feed.”
the beginning in the challenges
Tracing events that led to her coming up with her present dog manufacturing company, Dr Yamoah said “I had a lot of dogs at the time and it was very expensive and time consuming to feed them. So I tried to come up with a more convenient way of feeding them”.
But the country’s unreliable utility sector and a rigid financing scheme has not been that fair to the vet surgeon now turned ‘their’ chef. According to her, the company’s operations had to temporarily shut down in 1998 partly as a result of the erratic power cuts which engulfed a large part of the country sometime 1997 through to 1998.
“Our supply could not actually meet the demand at the time and that was partly due to the then unreliable electricity power supply situation within the period. I also did not have access to finance for expansion to meet that supply, so in 1998, the company went down,” Dr Yamoah memorised.
Luck however beamed on her in 2003 when she chanced upon “a shareholder who committed finance into the company” for it to revive and has since “been behind me - being generous and encouraging - believing that I can do it.”
Currently, her product, Nutripak, both for dogs and puppies which she said is sourced from 98 per cent local materials is stocked in leading shops and supermarkets nation-wide.
According to her the company has also started exporting to neighbouring Togo, Nigeria, Cote d’ Ivoire, and Benin while strategising to cover the entire sub-region in the coming years.
Petting has, for the past few years caught up well with most Ghanaians especially those living in urban areas.
In the case of dogs, most people pet them to serve two purposes; for pets sake and to also serve as guard against the ever increasing urban house burglaries.
These people are therefore prepared to put in extra commitment, more resources and attention towards getting their dogs well trained as they aid or even take over from the always dozing guard officer at the gate.
Little attention is however given to their feed. Most dog owners feed their dogs on left-overs from the dining table or those from food vendors. Other dogs are left to scavenge for theirs at the nearest garbage or throw-away sites or better still sniffer to the butcher, crack some bones and hop to the gutter for a sip.
Of course, the well to do’s dog is upgraded to take its scraps from renowned food courts or restaurants or even get it prepared in the kitchen specially “for the dog.”
But all these boils down to one thing: Dog feeding on the human’s food and that to according to Dr Yamoah, the veterinary doctor is unacceptable.
“Dogs should not be fed on human food because they have a different body system from those of humans. People should actually stop feeding their dogs on left overs from their meals,” the vet doctor admonished further.
According to her, some people are now awakening to the need for them to feed their dogs on specially made feed for dogs, a situation she said is inducing demand for her product.
She said the company is currently putting in place the necessary measures to enable it increase its capacity to 20 tonnes a month as a way of expanding to meet the present demand and its corporate objective.
At the moment, Dr Yamoah said there is market for the product but “we would need to market our product to the people. We are actually planning to advertise the product but the high cost involved is scaring us now”.
importing irritates
For a woman who believes in ‘we can do it in Ghana’, seeing people import certain products (including the large quantities of dog feed) into the country when they can actually produce them here “just irritates” her a lot.
“You see, I could have import dog feed from China, package it here in Ghana, and believe you me, I would be assured of a ready market but that would not help anybody. See, I had to stand by the artisan who manufactured this equipment (pointing to one her company’s machine), directing him to do this, put this here and there so that I could get what I wanted. But Who told you I couldn’t have gotten that same machine abroad even at a much cheaper cost?” she queried.
Dr Yamoah, however, blamed the importing spree of most business folks on the country’s business environment which continues to pull the legs of most entrepreneurs and has as a result stifled most business ideas right at the point of their incubations.
“The environment in Ghana is not helpful at all,” she noted adding that “getting anything done in this country is very tiring. You have to go to one place two or three times just to get some small thing done.”.
But she has fortunately swam through these challenges courtesy a supportive family and a business partner.
future of amalgamated feeds
She was grateful to the GAWE describing it as “a very important, resource gathering platform for women entrepreneurs and I would advise all young female entrepreneurs and those wishing to become to join the association now”.
Torching on the future plans of Amalgamated Feeds Limited, Dr Yamoah said the company would soon be diversifying into the production of feed for tilapia and other animals to feed the local as well as the West African markets.
“We have actually ordered for equipment which should arrive before June and by the end of that month, a 30-40 monthly tonne of tilapia feed would begin,” she said.
“We have actually ordered for equipment which should arrive before June and the end of that month, a 30-40 monthly tonne of tilapia feed would begin.” She said.
message to young females
To young women, upcoming female entrepreneurs and those already in the field, Dr Yamoah said “don’t let anything stop you from doing what you want to do. Obstacles are ways for us to pass through. Don’t see them as challenges but as stepping stones on which we should pass through to achieve our individual aims.”
IT expert wins HFC’s Homesave promo
THE GH¢5,000 that 30- year-old Mr John Arhinful Mensah deposited in his HFC Bank account during the bank’s Homesave Promotion has won him a two bedroom detached house at Oyarifa.
Mr Arhinful, an IT expert with Norpalm Ghana Limited, a Palm Oil Processing Company in Takoradi, told the Daily Graphic on phone that he was currently “perching” with his brother in Takoradi and was thus very happy to have won the draw.
“I knew I would win the promotion because I was actually confident with it.”
According to him, the bank would be handing over the house’s keys to him in the coming weeks and once that is done, “that would call for grand celebrations.”
He said selling the house was out of his plans at the moment but he added that he might consider renting it out for sometime.
During the promotion, which ran for six months, customers were expected to deposit a minimum of GH¢100 in either HFC Smart, Life Starter or the Students’ Plus accounts for a minimum of 180 days to qualify for the promotion.
This draw was the first of the HFC’s three-tier Homesave Promotion lined up this year. The second and third promotion draw are scheduled for June and September this year.
Speaking during the launch, the Executive Director of the bank, Mr Akwete Akita, said the acute housing shortage in the country needed to be addressed due to the pervasive nature of the situation.
“It is these houses that grow into neighbourhoods, communities, societies and eventually develops into a nation,” Mr Akita observed.
He said the HFC Homesave promotion was a means of promoting the goal of home ownership by “making our valued customers become home owners, sooner than they expected.”
He said in the bank’s quest to extend home-ownership to all “our customers and the wider public, we included our unique products such as the HFC Smart, Life Starter and the Students’ Plus accounts.”
Mr Arhinful, an IT expert with Norpalm Ghana Limited, a Palm Oil Processing Company in Takoradi, told the Daily Graphic on phone that he was currently “perching” with his brother in Takoradi and was thus very happy to have won the draw.
“I knew I would win the promotion because I was actually confident with it.”
According to him, the bank would be handing over the house’s keys to him in the coming weeks and once that is done, “that would call for grand celebrations.”
He said selling the house was out of his plans at the moment but he added that he might consider renting it out for sometime.
During the promotion, which ran for six months, customers were expected to deposit a minimum of GH¢100 in either HFC Smart, Life Starter or the Students’ Plus accounts for a minimum of 180 days to qualify for the promotion.
This draw was the first of the HFC’s three-tier Homesave Promotion lined up this year. The second and third promotion draw are scheduled for June and September this year.
Speaking during the launch, the Executive Director of the bank, Mr Akwete Akita, said the acute housing shortage in the country needed to be addressed due to the pervasive nature of the situation.
“It is these houses that grow into neighbourhoods, communities, societies and eventually develops into a nation,” Mr Akita observed.
He said the HFC Homesave promotion was a means of promoting the goal of home ownership by “making our valued customers become home owners, sooner than they expected.”
He said in the bank’s quest to extend home-ownership to all “our customers and the wider public, we included our unique products such as the HFC Smart, Life Starter and the Students’ Plus accounts.”
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Food vendors threaten Filling Station
EMPLOYEES of companies and residents behind a Total filling station near the King Takie Tawiah overpass in Accra fear the activities of food vendors and squatters at the place could one day result in a fire outbreak.
A slum, made up of food vendors, squatters and traders, is gradually emerging on the strip of land behind the filling station and the employees as well as resident of the area fear the vendors’ use of fire near the fuel could spark fire one day.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the issue, a source at the Total filling station who wished to remain anonymous said "fumes and fire don't match".
“We are currently increasing the height of our fence wall as a preventive measure against any eventuality and also to prevent them from jumping and dropping things inside," the source added.
That, he observed, was however not enough to prevent the mounting threat posed by the vendors’ fire from possibly escalating into a fire outbreak in the area.
The Production Manager of Aisha Fabrics, a cloth manufacturing company at the place, Mr Franklin Dzandza, said the situation was worrying to the companies in the community.
Aside the fire threat that their activities pose, Mr Dzandza said the place was gradually becoming a breeding ground for criminals.
"Just last week, they duped someone here,” he recalled, adding that one of the supposed patrons of the food vendors "even used my name to falsely collect money from our accountant and we have still not been able to identify him."
According to him, most of those persons normally claim they were at the place to buy food or transact businesses with any of the squatters but in actual fact they use it "as a step gap to tap information and later penetrate us. They just play smart on us and it is really worrying."
Mr Dzandza added that it was not health wise for the squatters to have been there because of the health risks they pose to the employees, the residents and themselves as well.
He addedd that the employees had complained of the issue to the sub-metro officials who came to pick the waste generated, they promised to relay it to the AMA but nothing concrete had since been done.
Mr James Goka, Director of the Osu Klottey Sub-Metro in charge of that area, said the issue had not come to the attention of the sub-metro, but promised to detail officers to examine the emerging situation at the place.
Some of the squatters and vendors whom the Daily Graphic interacted with said they were sacked from the place in 2007, when the country was to celebrate its 50th jubilee but had since not been given any further instructions to vacate the place.
They, however, agreed that the workers around want them out of the place "but because they cannot do it that is why they have left us here.”
A slum, made up of food vendors, squatters and traders, is gradually emerging on the strip of land behind the filling station and the employees as well as resident of the area fear the vendors’ use of fire near the fuel could spark fire one day.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the issue, a source at the Total filling station who wished to remain anonymous said "fumes and fire don't match".
“We are currently increasing the height of our fence wall as a preventive measure against any eventuality and also to prevent them from jumping and dropping things inside," the source added.
That, he observed, was however not enough to prevent the mounting threat posed by the vendors’ fire from possibly escalating into a fire outbreak in the area.
The Production Manager of Aisha Fabrics, a cloth manufacturing company at the place, Mr Franklin Dzandza, said the situation was worrying to the companies in the community.
Aside the fire threat that their activities pose, Mr Dzandza said the place was gradually becoming a breeding ground for criminals.
"Just last week, they duped someone here,” he recalled, adding that one of the supposed patrons of the food vendors "even used my name to falsely collect money from our accountant and we have still not been able to identify him."
According to him, most of those persons normally claim they were at the place to buy food or transact businesses with any of the squatters but in actual fact they use it "as a step gap to tap information and later penetrate us. They just play smart on us and it is really worrying."
Mr Dzandza added that it was not health wise for the squatters to have been there because of the health risks they pose to the employees, the residents and themselves as well.
He addedd that the employees had complained of the issue to the sub-metro officials who came to pick the waste generated, they promised to relay it to the AMA but nothing concrete had since been done.
Mr James Goka, Director of the Osu Klottey Sub-Metro in charge of that area, said the issue had not come to the attention of the sub-metro, but promised to detail officers to examine the emerging situation at the place.
Some of the squatters and vendors whom the Daily Graphic interacted with said they were sacked from the place in 2007, when the country was to celebrate its 50th jubilee but had since not been given any further instructions to vacate the place.
They, however, agreed that the workers around want them out of the place "but because they cannot do it that is why they have left us here.”
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
From Western suit to an African Kente
To occassionally travel from Accra to Nigeria, the Netherlands and America in the name of business trips is a wishing desire and perhaps a dream come true and a source of comfort for today’s Ghanaian ladies. But for Ms Stacey Yayra Makumator of Nesy Concepts Enterprise this is not easily attained, Maxwell Adombila Akalaare writes
WAY back in 2002 , young Ms Stacey Yayra Makumator hanged her always neatly ironed suit to put on a different attire to the passionate disagreement of her parents. But nine years down the line, she looks back, beams with smiles and said to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that at the moment, "I would say such a move was worth it though I’m not at my destination yet.”
Ms Makumator, who now co-ordinates the activities of Nesy Concepts Enterprise, an African products’ trading company that she founded, had resigned from her job as a secretary in a shipping company in Tema to produce bags, hats and beads for sale to her friends.
PASSIONATE DECISION
From that humble beginning triggered by her passion for the trade, the young lady now has five permanent employees in her manufacturing enterprise, exports the finished products to the Netherlands, USA and Nigeria, and has even set up a foundation; the Nesy Concepts and Development Foundation dedicated to the grooming of her colleague women in the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills.
Her company is now into manufacturing of African beads, hats, bags and fabrics for the local market as well as for export. The foundation also organises training sessions on quarterly bases for young women on entrepreneurial skills acquisition and application in hat, bags, beads and yoghurt production. That, she said was aimed at giving such “women a practical skill to enable them have a sustainable life.”
According to her, this year’s second quarter training, slated for March 30 to April 9 at the Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs - GAWE house in Accra would see about 30 - 50 single mothers, less privileged women, and people who are passionate about craft participating in the programme.
PASSION IN THE MIDST OF ROUGHS
Ghana's business environment has fewer records of practical grounds and conditions for business expansion and entreprenuerial skill development as well as its application.
From entrenched perceptions of trade being an area that accomodates dropouts or the less academics, offers meagre earnings in return for higher risks, to the dawning realities of limited markets, a tight lending system from the financial institutions to businesses, scanty information on entrepreneurship and unfair competition from foreigners, only the giant hearted can bruise through this profession.
But the situation even becomes worst when the person involved is a woman. For women, combining business trips, capacity building training and workshops with family duties is just as hectic as one can imagine.
And even as Ms Makomator said "women in business are considered new comers and are therefore not given the same opportunities as the men."
So, in an environment like ours, noted for its hostility; both perceived and in practice to entrepreneuring, especially in her case "a woman", founder and co-ordinator of the Nesy Concepts Enterprise said she got not roses but roughs in her new field.
To her, that entrepreneurial path which she choose over the air-conditioned secretary job has never been smooth with her parents thinking of her as being crazy. She also regreted ever taking such a decision and has therefore attempted on several occassions to pull out, a decision passion has never allowed.
“My parents thought I was crazy to have forfeited a formal job with a fixed salary for beads, hats and bags making which they said earns meagre. I have also on several occasions invested my money in this business but never recouped any causing me to break down and weep but by God’s grace, I always wake up stronger”, she recounted.
AN URGE TO QUITE
As a result of these frustrations, Ms Makkumator said she occasionally “regreted ever taking such a step” and thus attempted stopping on several occasions but her strong centred feelings for the trade would not just permit any exit.
The challenges, she said are however not limited only to those of the personal and family difficulties but extends to lack of technical assistance, market, credit and the persistent haunting perceptions of “a woman in business” as pertains in the country.
“Access to credit for expansion is very minimal. It is only when we get orders to produce goods that the banks would be willing to pre-finance our operations, otherwise, they are not prepared to take risks,” she further bemoaned.
"The company is currently in search of a strategic partner to help us invest in machines, equipment and materials to expand the workshop and our resource center facilities."
That she said would help open up new outlets for the products in other parts of Ghana and on the international markets.
Explaining further, the young CEO said women across the country who are into trade always lack access to relevant information and technical assistance necessary to help them grow in their respective sectors of operations and that she said affects her as well.
She also mentioned the lack of patronage of African products in Ghana as a hinderance to her enterprise but added that the much talk about the need for local attires as Fridays was making things better.
“People are also beginning to patronise the use of some of our products at conferences and I think we are getting on a bit well,” she added. At the moment, Ms Makumator said those frustrations are dying out as she is bent on staying with her job.
She was grateful to GAWE, for its technical assistance and information to her business operations. She thus advised her colleague members to make good use of the association for their individual benefits.
THE NEED FOR FEMALE MENTORSHIP
Ms Makumator who is the Greater Accra regional president however, bemoaned the lack of mentorship culture among women by their fellow females.The lady who said she was mentored by the current GAWE president, Madam Lucia Quachey who was featured on this page last week asked ”a lot of women have done a lot and are in higher positions with numerous skills but what are they doing to help those below?”
According to her, successful women needed to cultivate the habit of mentorship so as to “breed a lot more of their calibre.”
She was therefore of the view that corporate institutions and the numerous female-based organisations should dedicate a little of their time and resources to the training of women in trade skill acquisition as well as its application.
LOOKING AHEAD
On the way forward for her company and women issues in Ghana, Ms Makumator, said she aims at making Nesy Concepts Enterprise a household name in Ghana especially when it comes to beads, African bags and hats.
She is currently reading Logistic at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) which she hopes to master in to enable her apply the theory to be acquired in the export of her beads, bags and hats to newer markets.
She also hopes to penetrate the local market as well as the international markets with crafts from the Nesy Concepts Enterprise in the near future.
For now, Ms Makumator said “I am hoping to stay in this field though that hope would very much depend on the perceptions of my would be better half towards my occupation. In fact, that would even determine who that person should be”.
So, who ever that is interested in Ms Stacey Makumator, and would therefore be prepared to say one day “till death sets us apart” to her, such a man should as well be prepared to allow her space, time and the moral encouragement needed to carry on with her trade. After all “if women go through the process to get rich, trust me, we would not disrepect anybody”.
WAY back in 2002 , young Ms Stacey Yayra Makumator hanged her always neatly ironed suit to put on a different attire to the passionate disagreement of her parents. But nine years down the line, she looks back, beams with smiles and said to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that at the moment, "I would say such a move was worth it though I’m not at my destination yet.”
Ms Makumator, who now co-ordinates the activities of Nesy Concepts Enterprise, an African products’ trading company that she founded, had resigned from her job as a secretary in a shipping company in Tema to produce bags, hats and beads for sale to her friends.
PASSIONATE DECISION
From that humble beginning triggered by her passion for the trade, the young lady now has five permanent employees in her manufacturing enterprise, exports the finished products to the Netherlands, USA and Nigeria, and has even set up a foundation; the Nesy Concepts and Development Foundation dedicated to the grooming of her colleague women in the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills.
 |
| Stacey Makumator rode on roughs to sit here |
According to her, this year’s second quarter training, slated for March 30 to April 9 at the Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs - GAWE house in Accra would see about 30 - 50 single mothers, less privileged women, and people who are passionate about craft participating in the programme.
PASSION IN THE MIDST OF ROUGHS
Ghana's business environment has fewer records of practical grounds and conditions for business expansion and entreprenuerial skill development as well as its application.
From entrenched perceptions of trade being an area that accomodates dropouts or the less academics, offers meagre earnings in return for higher risks, to the dawning realities of limited markets, a tight lending system from the financial institutions to businesses, scanty information on entrepreneurship and unfair competition from foreigners, only the giant hearted can bruise through this profession.
But the situation even becomes worst when the person involved is a woman. For women, combining business trips, capacity building training and workshops with family duties is just as hectic as one can imagine.
And even as Ms Makomator said "women in business are considered new comers and are therefore not given the same opportunities as the men."
So, in an environment like ours, noted for its hostility; both perceived and in practice to entrepreneuring, especially in her case "a woman", founder and co-ordinator of the Nesy Concepts Enterprise said she got not roses but roughs in her new field.
To her, that entrepreneurial path which she choose over the air-conditioned secretary job has never been smooth with her parents thinking of her as being crazy. She also regreted ever taking such a decision and has therefore attempted on several occassions to pull out, a decision passion has never allowed.
“My parents thought I was crazy to have forfeited a formal job with a fixed salary for beads, hats and bags making which they said earns meagre. I have also on several occasions invested my money in this business but never recouped any causing me to break down and weep but by God’s grace, I always wake up stronger”, she recounted.
AN URGE TO QUITE
As a result of these frustrations, Ms Makkumator said she occasionally “regreted ever taking such a step” and thus attempted stopping on several occasions but her strong centred feelings for the trade would not just permit any exit.
The challenges, she said are however not limited only to those of the personal and family difficulties but extends to lack of technical assistance, market, credit and the persistent haunting perceptions of “a woman in business” as pertains in the country.
“Access to credit for expansion is very minimal. It is only when we get orders to produce goods that the banks would be willing to pre-finance our operations, otherwise, they are not prepared to take risks,” she further bemoaned.
"The company is currently in search of a strategic partner to help us invest in machines, equipment and materials to expand the workshop and our resource center facilities."
That she said would help open up new outlets for the products in other parts of Ghana and on the international markets.
Explaining further, the young CEO said women across the country who are into trade always lack access to relevant information and technical assistance necessary to help them grow in their respective sectors of operations and that she said affects her as well.
She also mentioned the lack of patronage of African products in Ghana as a hinderance to her enterprise but added that the much talk about the need for local attires as Fridays was making things better.
“People are also beginning to patronise the use of some of our products at conferences and I think we are getting on a bit well,” she added. At the moment, Ms Makumator said those frustrations are dying out as she is bent on staying with her job.
She was grateful to GAWE, for its technical assistance and information to her business operations. She thus advised her colleague members to make good use of the association for their individual benefits.
THE NEED FOR FEMALE MENTORSHIP
Ms Makumator who is the Greater Accra regional president however, bemoaned the lack of mentorship culture among women by their fellow females.The lady who said she was mentored by the current GAWE president, Madam Lucia Quachey who was featured on this page last week asked ”a lot of women have done a lot and are in higher positions with numerous skills but what are they doing to help those below?”
According to her, successful women needed to cultivate the habit of mentorship so as to “breed a lot more of their calibre.”
She was therefore of the view that corporate institutions and the numerous female-based organisations should dedicate a little of their time and resources to the training of women in trade skill acquisition as well as its application.
LOOKING AHEAD
On the way forward for her company and women issues in Ghana, Ms Makumator, said she aims at making Nesy Concepts Enterprise a household name in Ghana especially when it comes to beads, African bags and hats.
She is currently reading Logistic at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) which she hopes to master in to enable her apply the theory to be acquired in the export of her beads, bags and hats to newer markets.
She also hopes to penetrate the local market as well as the international markets with crafts from the Nesy Concepts Enterprise in the near future.
For now, Ms Makumator said “I am hoping to stay in this field though that hope would very much depend on the perceptions of my would be better half towards my occupation. In fact, that would even determine who that person should be”.
So, who ever that is interested in Ms Stacey Makumator, and would therefore be prepared to say one day “till death sets us apart” to her, such a man should as well be prepared to allow her space, time and the moral encouragement needed to carry on with her trade. After all “if women go through the process to get rich, trust me, we would not disrepect anybody”.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Guinness expands water for life project
THE management of Guinness Ghana Breweies Limited (GGBL), brewers of assorted alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in the country said the company is stepping up its water supply to rural communities under the Guinness 'Water of Life' project to benefit about 100,000 people nationwide before the end of 2011.
The Guinness Ghana 'Water of Life' intiative, the local project of the Guinness Africa flagship community investment programme has since 2007 provided over 500,000 people with access to portable drinking water.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic after a six kilometer walk to commerate World Water Day which comes on Tuesday, the Managing Director of GGBL Mr Ekumife Okoli said Guinness together with its 'Water of Life' partners was currently implementing 15 water projects across the entire country.
He, however, noted that despite the company's continuous stretch in making portable water accessible to peolpe in the country, Guinness was still aware of the fact that such an effort was only a scratch on the surface of the country's mounting water problems.
"15 projects would be implemented this financial year to provide 100,000 additional people with clean drinking water. But this is just like scratching the surface of the current water problems in Ghana and we at Guinness together with our water partners are putting on more energy and plans to cover even more communities," Mr Okoli said.
Guinness Ghana last year April hosted major water consumers and stakeholders on a roundtable discussion aimed at facilitating corporate institution's engagement in tackling the country's water problems.
The MD thus called on other corperate bodies and benevolent institutions "to do something about this water problem for our people."
Ghana is currently battling with acute water deficiency, a situation the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) which oversees the production and distribution of portable water has always blamed on lack of funds for expansion works and repair of aging equipment.
Mr Okoli said the company was at the moment giving out 3,500 water purification filters, the CrystalPur water filter to clinics and schools in some selected regions across the country.
"We'er also selling this filter at a subsidised price to young people who earn below $100 and by the end of August 2011, an estimated 105, 000 people would have be given access to clean drinking water. We do this to help curb the rise in water related diseases in Ghana," Mr Okoli said.
Guinness Africa has, as part of its corporate responsibility programmes to the communities in which it operates a yearly one million water supply target until 2015 and Mr Okoli said Guinness Ghana is set on meeting such a goal here in Ghana.
On why the company opted for water over other social amenities, the MD said "the issue of water is very pervasive all over the world and its importance to life in particular."
Added to that, Mr Okoli said the company's huge water usage only "makes it responsible on us at Guinness to give back to our communities what we take from them; we try to replenish the resources that we take from the community for our productions."
He however added that the company was currently encouraging sorghum production in parts of the Nothern region saying that about "2,000 families were employed under the intiative and have since produced well over 3,000 metric tonnes of the cereal."
The Guinness Ghana 'Water of Life' intiative, the local project of the Guinness Africa flagship community investment programme has since 2007 provided over 500,000 people with access to portable drinking water.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic after a six kilometer walk to commerate World Water Day which comes on Tuesday, the Managing Director of GGBL Mr Ekumife Okoli said Guinness together with its 'Water of Life' partners was currently implementing 15 water projects across the entire country.
He, however, noted that despite the company's continuous stretch in making portable water accessible to peolpe in the country, Guinness was still aware of the fact that such an effort was only a scratch on the surface of the country's mounting water problems.
"15 projects would be implemented this financial year to provide 100,000 additional people with clean drinking water. But this is just like scratching the surface of the current water problems in Ghana and we at Guinness together with our water partners are putting on more energy and plans to cover even more communities," Mr Okoli said.
Guinness Ghana last year April hosted major water consumers and stakeholders on a roundtable discussion aimed at facilitating corporate institution's engagement in tackling the country's water problems.
The MD thus called on other corperate bodies and benevolent institutions "to do something about this water problem for our people."
Ghana is currently battling with acute water deficiency, a situation the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) which oversees the production and distribution of portable water has always blamed on lack of funds for expansion works and repair of aging equipment.
Mr Okoli said the company was at the moment giving out 3,500 water purification filters, the CrystalPur water filter to clinics and schools in some selected regions across the country.
"We'er also selling this filter at a subsidised price to young people who earn below $100 and by the end of August 2011, an estimated 105, 000 people would have be given access to clean drinking water. We do this to help curb the rise in water related diseases in Ghana," Mr Okoli said.
Guinness Africa has, as part of its corporate responsibility programmes to the communities in which it operates a yearly one million water supply target until 2015 and Mr Okoli said Guinness Ghana is set on meeting such a goal here in Ghana.
On why the company opted for water over other social amenities, the MD said "the issue of water is very pervasive all over the world and its importance to life in particular."
Added to that, Mr Okoli said the company's huge water usage only "makes it responsible on us at Guinness to give back to our communities what we take from them; we try to replenish the resources that we take from the community for our productions."
He however added that the company was currently encouraging sorghum production in parts of the Nothern region saying that about "2,000 families were employed under the intiative and have since produced well over 3,000 metric tonnes of the cereal."
Toyota Ghana updates skills of garage operators
TOYOTA GHANA Company Limited (TGCL), local distributors of Toyota vehicles in the country, has held its 2011 garage seminar for mechanics and garage operators within the Greater Accra Region.
The annual event is aimed at updating the skills of garage operators on Toyota repairs and to also create awareness, among the mechanics, of the need to encourage the use of genuine Toyota spare parts.
The General Manager of TGCL, Mr Eric Darko, in his address, recounted the 2010 success stories of the company to the garage operators and added that Toyota could not have chalked up those successes without the genuine support of its stakeholders, including the mechanics.
Last year, the company emerged the number one company on the Ghana Club 100 awards, an award scheme that positions the outstanding performance of companies in the country within a 100 numerical range. The company also maintained its position on the ‘Hall of Fame’ during the Chartered Institute of Marketers awards.
The General Manager said the company was bent on keeping the track record it earned in the previous years and therefore called on the mechanics to continually support the company in all ways possible.
Toyota Ghana has for sometime now been battling with the influx of counterfeit Toyota spare parts into the country and its subsequent high patronage among the brand’s users and mechanics as well.
According to the Spare Parts Manager at the TGCL, Mr Leslie Ohene, parts such as oil and fuel filters, spark plugs, drive belts, brake parts, shock absorbers, ball joints, clutch and other body parts were the highly counterfeited spare parts.
He, therefore, called on the garage operators to educate and encourage their clients to use only genuine Toyota parts in repairs since it is the only surest way to undo the counterfeit market in the country.
Participants in the seminar also received some technical training in the use of lubricants from officials of the oil market company Total.
The participants called on the management of Toyota Ghana to frequently organise training seminars for their apprentices as a means of updating them on the modern Toyota models on the market.
All the participating garages were given certificates of appreciation for their continuous use of genuine Toyota spare parts during 2010. Four garages, however, received plaques from the company as “awards for their outstanding performance, commitment and continuous use of genuine spare parts in 2010.”
The annual event is aimed at updating the skills of garage operators on Toyota repairs and to also create awareness, among the mechanics, of the need to encourage the use of genuine Toyota spare parts.
The General Manager of TGCL, Mr Eric Darko, in his address, recounted the 2010 success stories of the company to the garage operators and added that Toyota could not have chalked up those successes without the genuine support of its stakeholders, including the mechanics.
Last year, the company emerged the number one company on the Ghana Club 100 awards, an award scheme that positions the outstanding performance of companies in the country within a 100 numerical range. The company also maintained its position on the ‘Hall of Fame’ during the Chartered Institute of Marketers awards.
The General Manager said the company was bent on keeping the track record it earned in the previous years and therefore called on the mechanics to continually support the company in all ways possible.
Toyota Ghana has for sometime now been battling with the influx of counterfeit Toyota spare parts into the country and its subsequent high patronage among the brand’s users and mechanics as well.
According to the Spare Parts Manager at the TGCL, Mr Leslie Ohene, parts such as oil and fuel filters, spark plugs, drive belts, brake parts, shock absorbers, ball joints, clutch and other body parts were the highly counterfeited spare parts.
He, therefore, called on the garage operators to educate and encourage their clients to use only genuine Toyota parts in repairs since it is the only surest way to undo the counterfeit market in the country.
Participants in the seminar also received some technical training in the use of lubricants from officials of the oil market company Total.
The participants called on the management of Toyota Ghana to frequently organise training seminars for their apprentices as a means of updating them on the modern Toyota models on the market.
All the participating garages were given certificates of appreciation for their continuous use of genuine Toyota spare parts during 2010. Four garages, however, received plaques from the company as “awards for their outstanding performance, commitment and continuous use of genuine spare parts in 2010.”
Internet Journalism - A mounting threat to the newspaper industry
VARIOUS sectors of businesses the world over and Ghana in particular continue to receive mounting challenges from the ever increasing patronage of the Internet and technology for that matter.
This Internet, powered by technology and its numerous products continue, on a daily basis, to provide fertile grounds for businesses to thrive while at the same time gradually crumbling others.
The country’s theatre industry, until recent rejuvination of the sector by some theatre performance favourites nearly collapsed following the emergence of video and other enhanced equipment such as VCDs.
Another such sector of businesses that presently receives direct threats from the increasing patronage of the Internet in Ghana is the newspaper industry.
Until the emergence of the Internet, access to news and current events was the sole perogative of the media; both electronic and print.
While most people stayed glued to their electronic media in wait of the 'news', others made it a daily routine and habit of flipping through newspapers as they searched for current events in their sorroundings and the globe in general.
The emergence of the Internet and its consistent rising patronage among all manner of persons across various age groups, backgrounds and education qualification has, however, virtually snatched this sole perogative from the media.
With access to the net, most people are now creating and maintaning their own platforms on which they update themselves and their supposed audience on current events making news in the country and the globe as well.
The electronic media’s timed sort of news reportage in the country even makes it next to this Internet journalism as far as ‘news’ was concern. And as for the daily nature of newspapers, the least said about them the better.
The shooting up of social media such as facebook and the likes has equaly not helped matters as they have intensified the quest for young people to continually stay online.
As most young people stay glued to their laptops; networking with friends and family through these platforms, they intermmittedly update each other on events around them that they feel worthy sharing.
The media, in this modern era can therefore not claim sole ownership over news delivery in Ghana and the world over, a situation that continues to, on a daily basis, reduce the audience level of these media houses and consequently do same to their revenues.
The Internet patrons while online also get access to various kinds of advertisements and promotions (a major source of revenue and audience to newspapers) online as equally pertains on the print and electonic media. It is interesting to note that most of these adverts are mostly repeated on the media, be it print or electronic.
Indeed, the net’s consistent rising patronage among people within the globe and the country in particular is also slowly but surely snatching advertising revenues from the media and newspapers in particular on to the emerging social networks.
As more and more people continue to spend much time and attention on the net, advertisers would gradually see no reason why they should continue to advertise on newspapers, TVs and on radios when modern mediums powered by the net provides them higher audiences and a flexible way of getting those adverts through to these changing audience.
This hiking patronage of the net among people of all walks of life therefore makes it worthy asking if the media, particularly the newspaper business has any use to these people.
As these challenges continue to threaten the patronage of newspapers in the country, newspaer houses would definately have to live up to the challenge or gradually bow out of the competition, courtesy a new form of media, the Internet Journalism.
The way forward for the newspaper business
In business competitions, one sector or company thrieves on the weaknesses of the other. The saying that one man’s meat is another man’s poison therefore manifests clearly well in the business arena.
The delayed sort of news relay from the traditional media (electronic and print) as pointed out earlier has helped fertilised this present increasing patronage of Internet Journalism among most people in Ghana and the world at large.
But even as people continue to switch to these net powered social mediums for real news, the credibility of those imformation still leaves many people doubting. Most Internet sourced information mostly turn out to be half truths.
This phenomenon has therefore helped fuelled people’s perceptions that news stories from Internet sources might as well not be true afterall.
The newspaper industry can therefore easily capitalise on this lapse to revitalise its fast dwindling ‘news delivery’ perogative which is equally doing same to its revenue fortunes and existence in business.
While acknowledging that some Internet sourced news stories and information indeed raise eyebrowns on their credibilities, one must accept the fact that some Internet sites have gained their credibility over the years. The likes of myjoyonline.com, citifmonline.com, ghanaweb.com and others have over the years attained credible images as sites to rely on for credible information in the country when it comes to news stories.
Newspapers houses should therefore devise ways of nurturing and maintaining credibility as far as news delivery is concern as a strategy of wrestling its audience from Internet Journalism.
Another area that would be of interest to newspaper house as they battle this Internet Journalism is the issue of ‘news reporting and ‘news analyses’.
At the moment, an increasing number of people continue to receive ‘raw news’ from their mobile phones, laptops and the likes courtesy the Internet. But what these people now yearn for are insightful and deep answers to questions such as “What led to this?, how did it all start? when was the first of such an incident in Ghana? would such a thing ever happen again? and the likes.
People would therefore now expect newspapers to ananlyse the news rather than just reporting on it; afterall, it is that same news that they read on the net so why bother reading newspapers again, they may ask.
As a result, newspaper houses must shift from doing news reporting to news analyses if they indeed want to remain in business come the next decade.
Another thing is for newspapers to groom readers. Ghana has a poor record of reading habits especially among the youth and the same holds when it comes to the reading of newspapers for whatever information one may think of. Newspaper houses must therefore cultivate and continually nurture a reading culture especially among the country’s young individuals in other for them to take over from their ageing readers.
The Junior Graphic, printed and published by the Graphic Communications Group Limited is a good initiative in this regard and other newspaper houses must therefore take a cue from it.
Otherwise, before the begining of the next decade meets the end, many people would have to strategise to revive, not the theatre industry but the country’s newspaper businesses.
This Internet, powered by technology and its numerous products continue, on a daily basis, to provide fertile grounds for businesses to thrive while at the same time gradually crumbling others.
The country’s theatre industry, until recent rejuvination of the sector by some theatre performance favourites nearly collapsed following the emergence of video and other enhanced equipment such as VCDs.
Another such sector of businesses that presently receives direct threats from the increasing patronage of the Internet in Ghana is the newspaper industry.
Until the emergence of the Internet, access to news and current events was the sole perogative of the media; both electronic and print.
While most people stayed glued to their electronic media in wait of the 'news', others made it a daily routine and habit of flipping through newspapers as they searched for current events in their sorroundings and the globe in general.
The emergence of the Internet and its consistent rising patronage among all manner of persons across various age groups, backgrounds and education qualification has, however, virtually snatched this sole perogative from the media.
With access to the net, most people are now creating and maintaning their own platforms on which they update themselves and their supposed audience on current events making news in the country and the globe as well.
The electronic media’s timed sort of news reportage in the country even makes it next to this Internet journalism as far as ‘news’ was concern. And as for the daily nature of newspapers, the least said about them the better.
The shooting up of social media such as facebook and the likes has equaly not helped matters as they have intensified the quest for young people to continually stay online.
As most young people stay glued to their laptops; networking with friends and family through these platforms, they intermmittedly update each other on events around them that they feel worthy sharing.
The media, in this modern era can therefore not claim sole ownership over news delivery in Ghana and the world over, a situation that continues to, on a daily basis, reduce the audience level of these media houses and consequently do same to their revenues.
The Internet patrons while online also get access to various kinds of advertisements and promotions (a major source of revenue and audience to newspapers) online as equally pertains on the print and electonic media. It is interesting to note that most of these adverts are mostly repeated on the media, be it print or electronic.
Indeed, the net’s consistent rising patronage among people within the globe and the country in particular is also slowly but surely snatching advertising revenues from the media and newspapers in particular on to the emerging social networks.
As more and more people continue to spend much time and attention on the net, advertisers would gradually see no reason why they should continue to advertise on newspapers, TVs and on radios when modern mediums powered by the net provides them higher audiences and a flexible way of getting those adverts through to these changing audience.
This hiking patronage of the net among people of all walks of life therefore makes it worthy asking if the media, particularly the newspaper business has any use to these people.
As these challenges continue to threaten the patronage of newspapers in the country, newspaer houses would definately have to live up to the challenge or gradually bow out of the competition, courtesy a new form of media, the Internet Journalism.
The way forward for the newspaper business
In business competitions, one sector or company thrieves on the weaknesses of the other. The saying that one man’s meat is another man’s poison therefore manifests clearly well in the business arena.
The delayed sort of news relay from the traditional media (electronic and print) as pointed out earlier has helped fertilised this present increasing patronage of Internet Journalism among most people in Ghana and the world at large.
But even as people continue to switch to these net powered social mediums for real news, the credibility of those imformation still leaves many people doubting. Most Internet sourced information mostly turn out to be half truths.
This phenomenon has therefore helped fuelled people’s perceptions that news stories from Internet sources might as well not be true afterall.
The newspaper industry can therefore easily capitalise on this lapse to revitalise its fast dwindling ‘news delivery’ perogative which is equally doing same to its revenue fortunes and existence in business.
While acknowledging that some Internet sourced news stories and information indeed raise eyebrowns on their credibilities, one must accept the fact that some Internet sites have gained their credibility over the years. The likes of myjoyonline.com, citifmonline.com, ghanaweb.com and others have over the years attained credible images as sites to rely on for credible information in the country when it comes to news stories.
Newspapers houses should therefore devise ways of nurturing and maintaining credibility as far as news delivery is concern as a strategy of wrestling its audience from Internet Journalism.
Another area that would be of interest to newspaper house as they battle this Internet Journalism is the issue of ‘news reporting and ‘news analyses’.
At the moment, an increasing number of people continue to receive ‘raw news’ from their mobile phones, laptops and the likes courtesy the Internet. But what these people now yearn for are insightful and deep answers to questions such as “What led to this?, how did it all start? when was the first of such an incident in Ghana? would such a thing ever happen again? and the likes.
People would therefore now expect newspapers to ananlyse the news rather than just reporting on it; afterall, it is that same news that they read on the net so why bother reading newspapers again, they may ask.
As a result, newspaper houses must shift from doing news reporting to news analyses if they indeed want to remain in business come the next decade.
Another thing is for newspapers to groom readers. Ghana has a poor record of reading habits especially among the youth and the same holds when it comes to the reading of newspapers for whatever information one may think of. Newspaper houses must therefore cultivate and continually nurture a reading culture especially among the country’s young individuals in other for them to take over from their ageing readers.
The Junior Graphic, printed and published by the Graphic Communications Group Limited is a good initiative in this regard and other newspaper houses must therefore take a cue from it.
Otherwise, before the begining of the next decade meets the end, many people would have to strategise to revive, not the theatre industry but the country’s newspaper businesses.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Zenith holds health walk
 |
| Some of the participants walking pass the Flagstaff House |
The health walk is an annual event by the bank and this year’s event, the sixth of its kinds, had various organisations such as Data Bank and Good Life, a healthy life advocacy company participating.
Speaking after the three hour morning exercise, Mr Daniel Asiedu, Managing Director of Zenith Ghana said the bank had, since the introduction of the walk varied its target audience “to include customers from all walks of life.”
The MD said the move formed part of management’s drive to make the bank accessible to all manner of persons from all walks of life.
Zenith Bank last year relaunched its Zenith Church Premium Account targeted at churches in the country and the MD now says the bank is currently devising strategies to launch a “befitting product to cater for the peculiar needs of the Muslim brethren.”
He thanked the bank’s customers and other stakeholders for their commitment to the bank’s activities over the years and further urged them to keep the relationship going.
Mr Asiedu was of the view that the health walk would help enhance the already good relationship between the bank and its participated customers and stakeholders. He thus thanked them for devoting time to participate.
The three hour health walk started at the El-Wak Sports Stadium through the 37 Military Hospital to the Flagstaff house, past the Ako Adjei interchange, to the fire service headquarters, then to Danquah circle, Morning Star School, the Ghana International School and back to the El-Wak Sports Stadium.
pix caption: some o f the participants walking pass the Flastaff house during the health walk
Unilever targets six per cent growth
UNILEVER GHANA Limited, the country unit of Unilever global is promising a six per cent growth leap in its 2011 growth from the 19 per cent recorded last year.
The Ghana subsidiary of the multi-national company last year recorded an impressive end of year growth rate of about 19 per cent after staggering through the first half of the year.
The Managing Director of Unilever Ghana, which now hosts Unilever West Africa operations, excluding those of Nigeria, Mr David Mureithi however, said the company now aimed at consolidating those gains it achieved in previous years.
Speaking at the 15th Unilever Ghana Customer Awards and Gala Night in Accra, Mr Mureithi said "inspite of the difficulties in 2010, we ended the year with a growth rate of 18.9 per cent."
That acheivement, he said was "driven mainly by the investments the company made in its operations.
Global Unilever has a growth target of doubling its current turnover by 2020 and Mr Mureithi said Unilever Ghana is determined to achieve that goal by 2015"
He thus thanked the company's customers and distributors for their commitment to their respective operations and urged them to devise more innovative marketing strategies to meet the challenges and opportunities in the years ahead.
He observed that the present socio-economic and political crises in Cote d'Iviore and Northern Africa coupled with the surging global commodity and crude oil prices had the tendencies of inducing prices of the company's brand up.
"The price of palm oil, one of our key raw material has gone up by 60 per cent in the last six months", Mr Mureithi said adding that these events posed great challenges for the company's 2011 operations.
The MD also repeated the company's call on government to review the Environmental Tax which took effect this year. "We urge the government to meet industry half way by promptly reviewing its plans for the sector for the year in the light of the current realities. The relevant representatives must therefore be engaged to draw up an implementation win-win strategies to enable industry continue to operate cost-effectively", he said.
According to him, Unilever Ghana would in the coming days share with its clients and other stakeholders its plans of reducing environmental impact as it had done with its growth targets for the year.
Mr Akofa Ata, the Customer Development Director (CDD) of the company said Unilever Ghana valued the services and operations of its clients and distributors and would support them in various ways necessary to enable them deliver effectively to the success of both sides.
About the future, Mr Akofa said "it is our hope to partner you a lot more for us to co-creat some elements of our mixes together." He also used the opportunity to declare 2011 as a 'Turbo Charged Year' for the company's operations.
Various customers and distributors of the company's numerous brands were awarded various sums of money ranging from GH¢1,500 to Gh¢60,000 as prices for their sterling performances in their respective fields of operations.
The Ghana subsidiary of the multi-national company last year recorded an impressive end of year growth rate of about 19 per cent after staggering through the first half of the year.
The Managing Director of Unilever Ghana, which now hosts Unilever West Africa operations, excluding those of Nigeria, Mr David Mureithi however, said the company now aimed at consolidating those gains it achieved in previous years.
Speaking at the 15th Unilever Ghana Customer Awards and Gala Night in Accra, Mr Mureithi said "inspite of the difficulties in 2010, we ended the year with a growth rate of 18.9 per cent."
That acheivement, he said was "driven mainly by the investments the company made in its operations.
Global Unilever has a growth target of doubling its current turnover by 2020 and Mr Mureithi said Unilever Ghana is determined to achieve that goal by 2015"
He thus thanked the company's customers and distributors for their commitment to their respective operations and urged them to devise more innovative marketing strategies to meet the challenges and opportunities in the years ahead.
He observed that the present socio-economic and political crises in Cote d'Iviore and Northern Africa coupled with the surging global commodity and crude oil prices had the tendencies of inducing prices of the company's brand up.
"The price of palm oil, one of our key raw material has gone up by 60 per cent in the last six months", Mr Mureithi said adding that these events posed great challenges for the company's 2011 operations.
The MD also repeated the company's call on government to review the Environmental Tax which took effect this year. "We urge the government to meet industry half way by promptly reviewing its plans for the sector for the year in the light of the current realities. The relevant representatives must therefore be engaged to draw up an implementation win-win strategies to enable industry continue to operate cost-effectively", he said.
According to him, Unilever Ghana would in the coming days share with its clients and other stakeholders its plans of reducing environmental impact as it had done with its growth targets for the year.
Mr Akofa Ata, the Customer Development Director (CDD) of the company said Unilever Ghana valued the services and operations of its clients and distributors and would support them in various ways necessary to enable them deliver effectively to the success of both sides.
About the future, Mr Akofa said "it is our hope to partner you a lot more for us to co-creat some elements of our mixes together." He also used the opportunity to declare 2011 as a 'Turbo Charged Year' for the company's operations.
Various customers and distributors of the company's numerous brands were awarded various sums of money ranging from GH¢1,500 to Gh¢60,000 as prices for their sterling performances in their respective fields of operations.
Bridging the gender gap The role of entrepreneurship
Ghanaian women and female based groups nation-wide last week joined their colleagues world-wide to mark the centenary celebrations of the International Women’s Day with a promise to bridge the gap between the male and female in the areas of education, training, science and technology. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare asks if economic empowerment of the woman could help accelerate the achievement of that goal in Ghana.
WOMEN across the globe early last week observed the International Women’s Day (IWD), a day set aside to reflect on, celebrate and deliberate on issues affecting the female fraternity.
This year’s event, the 100th of its kind since it started in 1911 was on the theme: “Equal access to education, training and science and technology; Pathway to decent work for women”.
Though celebration of the day started way back in 1911, it was not until 1975 that women of the world – including Ghana - managed to convince the UN to accept to officially use that day to deliberate on issues concerning women; their rights, responsibilities and personal development .
And since then, March 8, 2011 has always witnessed women groups world-wide deliberating on the challenges that confront the female and calling for wider recognition of their role and position in all facets of life.
Here in Ghana, the just ended event was marked by some women-based groups on bridges as they sought to symbolise a pressuring need for society, dominated in voice and positions by the male, to link up with them, the female.
Women groups in the country and gender based advocates thus used the opportunity to call as usual call for the implementation of various measures necessary to bridge the women-men inequality gap which seem to widen as the years go by.
Since 1975 when the UN endorsed the day as IWD, various themes have been used by the UN for the day's celebrations; most of them calling for wider recognition of the woman in society, an end to gender based violence against women and the likes.
It is however interesting to note that non of those themes has ever openly called for women’s economic empowerment.
But the president of the Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs (GAWE), Mrs Lucia Quachey thinks the panacea to the numerous global and nation-wide calls for the need to bridge the gender inequality gap lies in the economic empowerment of the female.
“Without economic empowerment, you can’t talk of equality”, she noted.
Mrs Quachey, also the vice president of the ECOWAS Federation of Women Entrepreneurs insists that those much talks about the need to erase the male-female inequality in the country can only be built when women are empowered economically.
Speaking to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on ways of accelerating the economic upliftmnent of women in the country, Mrs Quachey observed that “an economically empowered woman is an asset to everyone; her children, family, community and the nation as a whole”.
The GAWE, formed in 1993 is an association of women entrepreneurs in business and service delivery networked across the country. It is an affiliate of the ECOWAS Federation of Women Entrepreneurs as well as its sister continental body.
The GAWE currently has over 2,500 membership nation-wide who engage in self-employed businesses across all sectors of economic activities in their respective geographical areas.
Mrs Quachey said the GAWE has since its 18 years of existence focused attention solely on the economic side of women’s issues because "if the woman is empowered economically, she would have the ability to help herself, the family and her community and even contribute effectively to her country."
GAWE, she said has been trying "to give women an economic voice to as a way of helping bridge that gender inequality gap that we all talk about."
Provisional results from the 2010 census puts women at 51.3 per cent, giving them a 2.6 per cent numerical advantage over their male counterparts.
This numerical advantage is however not replicated in the economic, social political and business realms in the country.
In Ghana, women have until recently been relegated to petty trading and other menial economic activities which comes with less incentives yet high risks.
Though lack of verifiable data on the country’s employment situation makes categorisation of jobs on gender bases difficult, ample evidence suggest that about 80 per cent of Ghanaian women are currently engaged in the country’s informal sector. The sector by coincidence also continue to receive lip-service from policy makers and political administrations as women issues do.
Political authorities have over the years promised fat policies for women and their activities as a way of bridging the male-female gap. These policies, normally impressive and mouth watering to women and their pro-groups, little success is however yet to come from most of these paper works.
And that is not news to Mrs Quachey too. “The policies of governments towards women issues in this country are always fantastic on paper. But when it comes to practical terms, they end up paying lip-services to our activities and issues”.
That, she adds beats her imaginations. “Women in this country, have the zeal and energy to work and improve their own lives as well as their communities. What they always need is just for government and the relevant stakeholders to put in few interventions to help them. And yet these authorities are not prepared to do so. That beats my imaginations”, she noted.
According to her, any government that would sincerely and practically focus on the growth of the informal sector (which continues to harbour a majority of the country’s women), such a government “would from then never borrow monies abroad to balance its budget”.
Women issues, she insisted had over the years been handled in “an adhoc manner; not planned, lacking focus and a targeted approach”.
She further wondered why past and current political administartions would always be prepared to borrow monies on concessionary terms to construct roads but would do same to enable women produce more food for the nation’s food processing industry.
The GAWE has as one of its units of operations, a food production, processing and exporting initiative and president of the association explained that the association has over the years linked up rural women farmers with their colleague food processing and exporting members as a way of increasing production while maximising revenues for all sides.
“The challenge, however, is the weather variance, access to credit, lack of access to markets for our produce and capacity building for our members”, Mrs Quachey bemoaned.
She explained that loans are readily not available to women who needs them adding that the current high lending rates offered by commercial banks only helps “buying and selling but not industry”.
GAWE members in the hinterland she added also face lack of transportation of their produce to the markets thereby hindering their production capacity as well demoralising them in the long run.
On the way forward for economic empowerment of female in the country, Mrs Quachey said “if government really believes in women, industry, and business and across all sectors of the economy, then it should invest in them and reap the promising returns”.
And until that investment is done not again on paper only but in reality, majority of the 51.3 per cent of Ghanaian women would virtually continue to be economically incapacitated and the ripplying effects on poverty reduction and the subsequet attainment of MDG 0ne; eradication of extreme poverty would very much be challenged.
WOMEN across the globe early last week observed the International Women’s Day (IWD), a day set aside to reflect on, celebrate and deliberate on issues affecting the female fraternity.
This year’s event, the 100th of its kind since it started in 1911 was on the theme: “Equal access to education, training and science and technology; Pathway to decent work for women”.
Though celebration of the day started way back in 1911, it was not until 1975 that women of the world – including Ghana - managed to convince the UN to accept to officially use that day to deliberate on issues concerning women; their rights, responsibilities and personal development .
And since then, March 8, 2011 has always witnessed women groups world-wide deliberating on the challenges that confront the female and calling for wider recognition of their role and position in all facets of life.
Here in Ghana, the just ended event was marked by some women-based groups on bridges as they sought to symbolise a pressuring need for society, dominated in voice and positions by the male, to link up with them, the female.
Women groups in the country and gender based advocates thus used the opportunity to call as usual call for the implementation of various measures necessary to bridge the women-men inequality gap which seem to widen as the years go by.
Since 1975 when the UN endorsed the day as IWD, various themes have been used by the UN for the day's celebrations; most of them calling for wider recognition of the woman in society, an end to gender based violence against women and the likes.
It is however interesting to note that non of those themes has ever openly called for women’s economic empowerment.
But the president of the Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs (GAWE), Mrs Lucia Quachey thinks the panacea to the numerous global and nation-wide calls for the need to bridge the gender inequality gap lies in the economic empowerment of the female.
“Without economic empowerment, you can’t talk of equality”, she noted.
 | |
| Lucia Quachey, Prez, GAWE |
Mrs Quachey, also the vice president of the ECOWAS Federation of Women Entrepreneurs insists that those much talks about the need to erase the male-female inequality in the country can only be built when women are empowered economically.
Speaking to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on ways of accelerating the economic upliftmnent of women in the country, Mrs Quachey observed that “an economically empowered woman is an asset to everyone; her children, family, community and the nation as a whole”.
The GAWE, formed in 1993 is an association of women entrepreneurs in business and service delivery networked across the country. It is an affiliate of the ECOWAS Federation of Women Entrepreneurs as well as its sister continental body.
The GAWE currently has over 2,500 membership nation-wide who engage in self-employed businesses across all sectors of economic activities in their respective geographical areas.
Mrs Quachey said the GAWE has since its 18 years of existence focused attention solely on the economic side of women’s issues because "if the woman is empowered economically, she would have the ability to help herself, the family and her community and even contribute effectively to her country."
GAWE, she said has been trying "to give women an economic voice to as a way of helping bridge that gender inequality gap that we all talk about."
Provisional results from the 2010 census puts women at 51.3 per cent, giving them a 2.6 per cent numerical advantage over their male counterparts.
This numerical advantage is however not replicated in the economic, social political and business realms in the country.
In Ghana, women have until recently been relegated to petty trading and other menial economic activities which comes with less incentives yet high risks.
Though lack of verifiable data on the country’s employment situation makes categorisation of jobs on gender bases difficult, ample evidence suggest that about 80 per cent of Ghanaian women are currently engaged in the country’s informal sector. The sector by coincidence also continue to receive lip-service from policy makers and political administrations as women issues do.
Political authorities have over the years promised fat policies for women and their activities as a way of bridging the male-female gap. These policies, normally impressive and mouth watering to women and their pro-groups, little success is however yet to come from most of these paper works.
And that is not news to Mrs Quachey too. “The policies of governments towards women issues in this country are always fantastic on paper. But when it comes to practical terms, they end up paying lip-services to our activities and issues”.
That, she adds beats her imaginations. “Women in this country, have the zeal and energy to work and improve their own lives as well as their communities. What they always need is just for government and the relevant stakeholders to put in few interventions to help them. And yet these authorities are not prepared to do so. That beats my imaginations”, she noted.
According to her, any government that would sincerely and practically focus on the growth of the informal sector (which continues to harbour a majority of the country’s women), such a government “would from then never borrow monies abroad to balance its budget”.
Women issues, she insisted had over the years been handled in “an adhoc manner; not planned, lacking focus and a targeted approach”.
She further wondered why past and current political administartions would always be prepared to borrow monies on concessionary terms to construct roads but would do same to enable women produce more food for the nation’s food processing industry.
The GAWE has as one of its units of operations, a food production, processing and exporting initiative and president of the association explained that the association has over the years linked up rural women farmers with their colleague food processing and exporting members as a way of increasing production while maximising revenues for all sides.
“The challenge, however, is the weather variance, access to credit, lack of access to markets for our produce and capacity building for our members”, Mrs Quachey bemoaned.
She explained that loans are readily not available to women who needs them adding that the current high lending rates offered by commercial banks only helps “buying and selling but not industry”.
GAWE members in the hinterland she added also face lack of transportation of their produce to the markets thereby hindering their production capacity as well demoralising them in the long run.
On the way forward for economic empowerment of female in the country, Mrs Quachey said “if government really believes in women, industry, and business and across all sectors of the economy, then it should invest in them and reap the promising returns”.
And until that investment is done not again on paper only but in reality, majority of the 51.3 per cent of Ghanaian women would virtually continue to be economically incapacitated and the ripplying effects on poverty reduction and the subsequet attainment of MDG 0ne; eradication of extreme poverty would very much be challenged.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Online businesses begin to take-off
An online business fair, the Ghana Sales Fair has started operations in the country. But what would this Internet powered fair bring to the business community? Maxwell Adombila Akalaare looks at the significance of the online fair on corperate Ghana.
The physical walk-ins, the enquires, and the subsequent buying of products and services in shops and companies in the country are gradually giving way to online requests for product information and orders following the official launching of an online fair last week.
The Ghana Sales Fair, with domain name as ghanasalesfaironline.com is a customer centred online business exhibition platform that brings to the disposal of customers registered Ghanaian businesses and companies.
This, therefore makes it possible for the customer to enquire about products and services of his/her choice, order for the needed products using computers, iPads, mobile phones as well as other Internet powered tools. The products ordered are then delivered to the customer at his/her door steps.
On how the online fair operates, Mr Philip Gamey, CEO of Web and Software Limited, a local IT company and architects of this first ever online sales fair explained to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that registered businesses and companies are set-up in booths to exhibit their products and operations to prospective online customers.
These booths designated to individual businesses, he said are given catch phrases with which they can be accessed by visiting customers upon a click. “People can easily get in touch with needed businesses or companies through a lead form (an imformation request form filled by the customers requesting for a particular service or product from the respective company or business organisation) for estimates, orders or further information about the product or the company’s operation”, the CEO added.
The site, prior to its official opening had recorded close to 60,000 visitors, with about 67 per cent of them being within the country.
According to Mr Gamey, the site's campaigns on facebook, yahoo, google and other search engines were yielding positive results. He mentioned that over 120 businesses and companies had registered to exhibit their products and operations on the Internet powered platform with most of them already recording numerous visits and leads.
Competitions among corporate institutions the world over have taken an IT-based dimensional shift from the age old man-powered way of doing businesses.
This operational shift has helped reduced the workload of companies and business institutions, eased their operational costs while making more hands available for fresher jobs and expansions within these companies.
But while the business community in the Western world is embracing the ever increasing potentials of IT and the net in particular, their counterparts in the Africa continent are yet to take full advantage of this technology.
Internet searches in Ghana for products and services, business opportunities and companies’ operations in most cases turn to foreign-based information companies which the Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama says "that is not good for businesses in Ghana".
This absence of indigenous online businesses can, however, be attributed to the lack of requisite IT trained professionals in the country who can create, maintain and periodically update websites with information on their operations.
It is incredibly true that most business institutions and companies in the country still do not recognise the need for online presence and are therefore absent in this all rewarding, yet free medium.
The little companies that have online sites do not update them frequetly, a situation one can easily trace to the lack of in-house IT trained persons to carry out these updates.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Employment and Social Welfare Minister, Mr E. T. Mensah at the official launch of the fair, Vice President John Mahamah observed that such a situation was unfortunate to corporate Ghana.
"One of the challenges we often hear from our colleagues in the business community is the difficulty of getting consistent business. Regrettably, however, most businesses in Ghana have not even considered the establishment of an online presence to make it easier for their customers to find them", Mr Mahamah bemoned.
He was however, optimistic that initiatives like the Ghana Sales Fair would enable customers to find products and services on one platform, cause Ghanaian businesses to develop partnerships between industries and customers and further position "Ghana as a technologically ready nation eager to collaborate with the rest of the world in business partnerships.".
But even before businesses and customers reap the full potentials of this online fair, industry experts and prospective customers fear the information provided by customers could as well be misleading and therefore cause customers to waste yet another precious time requesting for products that barely exist.
To address this situation, management of Web and Software, however, explained that its online exhibition fair is only available to registered companies in the country who have the requisite certificates to prove that they are actually into business. "We inspect their office location to ensure that they are actually into business. Once that is done we take the company’s value proposition and other details for the booth and set them up", Mr Gamey said.
In Ghana today, looking for estimates or proposals from companies mean spending hours if not days visiting one place or the other in search of the companies and business institutions that meet one’s needs.
And with traffic situations in the capital Accra amd other cities become intensed, go on a shop to shop request for information is indeed time and resource wastage
The number of working hours spent on the Internet by customers is meanwhile on a consistent increase and Mr Gamey insisted the "Ghanasalesfair.com presents a unique platform that would enable customers to connect with Ghanaian businesses right from where they are without any lost to man working hours".
The average exhibitor, he said has six leads per day and the highest lead since the fair was launched has been 28 by a real estate company.
About the customer, Mr Gamey said instead of spending time and fuel driving around in search of business or product information in shops “that time and revenue should rather be diverted to address pressing business issues”.
On the challenges of the fair, Mr Gamey said some companies would still have to develop their internal capacities to enable them meet growing demands to be generated from the new online customers.
Explaining further, the CEO said "a decoration company turned down two online clients asking him to provide wedding decoration services through our fair because the company could only service one client a day.
The successful online exhibition coupled with high patronage among customers and businesses means that any moves towards electronic payment for goods bought online would be easily embraced.
And the CEO of the company running the ghanasalesonline.com says "we are in talks with two banks on the possibility of creating an electronic payment storefront for each exhibitor and will soon come out with information on how companies can take advantage of this service too".
But for now, Mr Gamey says "the fair would remain an exhibition platform for registered businesses in Ghana."
The physical walk-ins, the enquires, and the subsequent buying of products and services in shops and companies in the country are gradually giving way to online requests for product information and orders following the official launching of an online fair last week.
The Ghana Sales Fair, with domain name as ghanasalesfaironline.com is a customer centred online business exhibition platform that brings to the disposal of customers registered Ghanaian businesses and companies.
This, therefore makes it possible for the customer to enquire about products and services of his/her choice, order for the needed products using computers, iPads, mobile phones as well as other Internet powered tools. The products ordered are then delivered to the customer at his/her door steps.
 |
| Philp Gamey, CEO, Web and Software Limited |
On how the online fair operates, Mr Philip Gamey, CEO of Web and Software Limited, a local IT company and architects of this first ever online sales fair explained to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that registered businesses and companies are set-up in booths to exhibit their products and operations to prospective online customers.
These booths designated to individual businesses, he said are given catch phrases with which they can be accessed by visiting customers upon a click. “People can easily get in touch with needed businesses or companies through a lead form (an imformation request form filled by the customers requesting for a particular service or product from the respective company or business organisation) for estimates, orders or further information about the product or the company’s operation”, the CEO added.
The site, prior to its official opening had recorded close to 60,000 visitors, with about 67 per cent of them being within the country.
According to Mr Gamey, the site's campaigns on facebook, yahoo, google and other search engines were yielding positive results. He mentioned that over 120 businesses and companies had registered to exhibit their products and operations on the Internet powered platform with most of them already recording numerous visits and leads.
Competitions among corporate institutions the world over have taken an IT-based dimensional shift from the age old man-powered way of doing businesses.
This operational shift has helped reduced the workload of companies and business institutions, eased their operational costs while making more hands available for fresher jobs and expansions within these companies.
But while the business community in the Western world is embracing the ever increasing potentials of IT and the net in particular, their counterparts in the Africa continent are yet to take full advantage of this technology.
Internet searches in Ghana for products and services, business opportunities and companies’ operations in most cases turn to foreign-based information companies which the Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama says "that is not good for businesses in Ghana".
This absence of indigenous online businesses can, however, be attributed to the lack of requisite IT trained professionals in the country who can create, maintain and periodically update websites with information on their operations.
It is incredibly true that most business institutions and companies in the country still do not recognise the need for online presence and are therefore absent in this all rewarding, yet free medium.
The little companies that have online sites do not update them frequetly, a situation one can easily trace to the lack of in-house IT trained persons to carry out these updates.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Employment and Social Welfare Minister, Mr E. T. Mensah at the official launch of the fair, Vice President John Mahamah observed that such a situation was unfortunate to corporate Ghana.
"One of the challenges we often hear from our colleagues in the business community is the difficulty of getting consistent business. Regrettably, however, most businesses in Ghana have not even considered the establishment of an online presence to make it easier for their customers to find them", Mr Mahamah bemoned.
He was however, optimistic that initiatives like the Ghana Sales Fair would enable customers to find products and services on one platform, cause Ghanaian businesses to develop partnerships between industries and customers and further position "Ghana as a technologically ready nation eager to collaborate with the rest of the world in business partnerships.".
But even before businesses and customers reap the full potentials of this online fair, industry experts and prospective customers fear the information provided by customers could as well be misleading and therefore cause customers to waste yet another precious time requesting for products that barely exist.
 |
| Philip Gamey, CEO, Web & Software stressing a poit during the launch |
To address this situation, management of Web and Software, however, explained that its online exhibition fair is only available to registered companies in the country who have the requisite certificates to prove that they are actually into business. "We inspect their office location to ensure that they are actually into business. Once that is done we take the company’s value proposition and other details for the booth and set them up", Mr Gamey said.
In Ghana today, looking for estimates or proposals from companies mean spending hours if not days visiting one place or the other in search of the companies and business institutions that meet one’s needs.
And with traffic situations in the capital Accra amd other cities become intensed, go on a shop to shop request for information is indeed time and resource wastage
The number of working hours spent on the Internet by customers is meanwhile on a consistent increase and Mr Gamey insisted the "Ghanasalesfair.com presents a unique platform that would enable customers to connect with Ghanaian businesses right from where they are without any lost to man working hours".
The average exhibitor, he said has six leads per day and the highest lead since the fair was launched has been 28 by a real estate company.
About the customer, Mr Gamey said instead of spending time and fuel driving around in search of business or product information in shops “that time and revenue should rather be diverted to address pressing business issues”.
On the challenges of the fair, Mr Gamey said some companies would still have to develop their internal capacities to enable them meet growing demands to be generated from the new online customers.
Explaining further, the CEO said "a decoration company turned down two online clients asking him to provide wedding decoration services through our fair because the company could only service one client a day.
The successful online exhibition coupled with high patronage among customers and businesses means that any moves towards electronic payment for goods bought online would be easily embraced.
And the CEO of the company running the ghanasalesonline.com says "we are in talks with two banks on the possibility of creating an electronic payment storefront for each exhibitor and will soon come out with information on how companies can take advantage of this service too".
But for now, Mr Gamey says "the fair would remain an exhibition platform for registered businesses in Ghana."
Friday, March 4, 2011
Stakeholders meet over Investment Awards
Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
Business Leaders in the country have brainstormed a range of criteria and modalities to be adopted as benchmarks towards selecting prospective award winners for the upcoming Ghana Investment Awards night.
At a stakeholders meeting in Accra, representatives from the investment community, among other things, proposed that prospective award winners should be interviewed by the awards selection committee.
That, they maintained, would help reveal the capabilities of deserving firms and individuals of the various award categories.
The meeting, the second of its kind, was to review suggestions made by the stakeholders at an initial meeting held on February 8.
The President of the Premier Networking Investment Club (PNIC), organisers of the GIA, Mr Kwame D Amporful, said the meeting was meant to engage stakeholders in the “weighting to be attached to the criteria to ensure that the selection process is participatory.”
The GIA, the first of its kind in the country, is being organised by the PNIC under the auspices of the Association Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and is slated for April 16 this year.
There are 16 award categories to be bestowed on deserving firms and individuals that distinguished themselves in the investment sector in the 2010 working year.
According to Mr Amporful, the awards criteria were prepared by Hatfield Business Consult in consultation with Morningstar Research, organisers of the Canadian Investment Awards.
He noted that the GIA would help spur excellence and tighten up competition in the country's investment sector.
"We believe the awards would stimulate competition among the industry," the president said, adding that the awards dinner is meant to award industry excellence while creating an opportunity for stakeholders to network.
He said though the award scheme would be administered by a jury, members of that jury would not be disclosed until a few hours to the ceremony, a move which he insisted was necessary to help bring sanity into the event.
Business Leaders in the country have brainstormed a range of criteria and modalities to be adopted as benchmarks towards selecting prospective award winners for the upcoming Ghana Investment Awards night.
At a stakeholders meeting in Accra, representatives from the investment community, among other things, proposed that prospective award winners should be interviewed by the awards selection committee.
That, they maintained, would help reveal the capabilities of deserving firms and individuals of the various award categories.
The meeting, the second of its kind, was to review suggestions made by the stakeholders at an initial meeting held on February 8.
The President of the Premier Networking Investment Club (PNIC), organisers of the GIA, Mr Kwame D Amporful, said the meeting was meant to engage stakeholders in the “weighting to be attached to the criteria to ensure that the selection process is participatory.”
The GIA, the first of its kind in the country, is being organised by the PNIC under the auspices of the Association Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and is slated for April 16 this year.
There are 16 award categories to be bestowed on deserving firms and individuals that distinguished themselves in the investment sector in the 2010 working year.
According to Mr Amporful, the awards criteria were prepared by Hatfield Business Consult in consultation with Morningstar Research, organisers of the Canadian Investment Awards.
He noted that the GIA would help spur excellence and tighten up competition in the country's investment sector.
"We believe the awards would stimulate competition among the industry," the president said, adding that the awards dinner is meant to award industry excellence while creating an opportunity for stakeholders to network.
He said though the award scheme would be administered by a jury, members of that jury would not be disclosed until a few hours to the ceremony, a move which he insisted was necessary to help bring sanity into the event.
BaFSA holds capacity building seminar
Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
THE Banking and Finance Students Association (BaFSA) of the Institute of Professional Students (IPS), has organised a three-day capacity building seminar for its members.
The annual seminar, which was organised in collaboration with CDH Securities and Akotia and Partners Limited, both consultancy firms based in Accra, was to expose students to practice experiences in the job field and afford them the opportunity to interact with renowned industry practitioners in the country.
Speaking on the need for an investment culture among young persons, Prof J. B. Aheto, a chartered accountant and lecturer at the Central University College called on the students to adopt an investment philosophy as a guideline to their investment.
He bemoaned the lack of investment habit among the youth and thus called on them to take up the initiative of investing in lucrative ventures as they await their future.
On the need for the seminar, Mr James Quaye Ayertey, president of the BaFSA said students over the years "chew theory and go out there to perform abysmally in practice."
He observed that most of the theories taught students in Ghana were foreign-based making it difficult for fresh graduates to fully apply what they have learnt at the job market.
"We need practical experience to compliment what we have learnt in the classroom", Mr Ayertey said adding that the association was optimistic the seminar would "equip students with the needed experiences" as they prepare to meet the practical realities of what they had learnt.
The CEO of Akotia and Partners Limited, Mr Aseye Akotia, and a resource person at the seminar said the gap between theory and practice in the country was further widening and therefore needed redress.
"There is a big gap between theory and practice in this country", he said adding that his management consultancy firm had realised this and was therefore partnering the student groups as a way of helping bridge the existing gap.
Mr Akotia was of the view that theoretical ideas taught students without practical direction was useless and hoped that the students would at the end of the seminar get "at least a sentence from these practised professionals that would help impact positively in their professional lives".
Mr Akotia furher disclosed that the firm would in the coming months be organising same capacity building seminars in other tertiary institutions throughout the country as a way of exposing them to the realities of the job market.
THE Banking and Finance Students Association (BaFSA) of the Institute of Professional Students (IPS), has organised a three-day capacity building seminar for its members.
The annual seminar, which was organised in collaboration with CDH Securities and Akotia and Partners Limited, both consultancy firms based in Accra, was to expose students to practice experiences in the job field and afford them the opportunity to interact with renowned industry practitioners in the country.
Speaking on the need for an investment culture among young persons, Prof J. B. Aheto, a chartered accountant and lecturer at the Central University College called on the students to adopt an investment philosophy as a guideline to their investment.
He bemoaned the lack of investment habit among the youth and thus called on them to take up the initiative of investing in lucrative ventures as they await their future.
On the need for the seminar, Mr James Quaye Ayertey, president of the BaFSA said students over the years "chew theory and go out there to perform abysmally in practice."
He observed that most of the theories taught students in Ghana were foreign-based making it difficult for fresh graduates to fully apply what they have learnt at the job market.
"We need practical experience to compliment what we have learnt in the classroom", Mr Ayertey said adding that the association was optimistic the seminar would "equip students with the needed experiences" as they prepare to meet the practical realities of what they had learnt.
The CEO of Akotia and Partners Limited, Mr Aseye Akotia, and a resource person at the seminar said the gap between theory and practice in the country was further widening and therefore needed redress.
"There is a big gap between theory and practice in this country", he said adding that his management consultancy firm had realised this and was therefore partnering the student groups as a way of helping bridge the existing gap.
Mr Akotia was of the view that theoretical ideas taught students without practical direction was useless and hoped that the students would at the end of the seminar get "at least a sentence from these practised professionals that would help impact positively in their professional lives".
Mr Akotia furher disclosed that the firm would in the coming months be organising same capacity building seminars in other tertiary institutions throughout the country as a way of exposing them to the realities of the job market.
KPMG opens new office
Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
KPMG has opened its Development Advisory Services (DAS) office in Ghana with a promise to lay its expertise at the door steps of government, donor and development agencies in the country and the sub-region.
The Ghana office would also serve as a hub for other selected West African countries by offering fund management advisory services to governments, development and donor agencies operating in region.
The Director of the West African DAS, Dr George Manu, said, “Ghana joins a growing list of hubs within KPMG Africa, all fully dedicated to offering development advisory services on the continent.”
He said the DAS was bringing the expertise and integrity of an international professional advisory firm, KPMG, to bear on its activities in Ghana and the selected West Africa countries as well.
The KPMG Ghana is an accounting and advisory firm operating in the country and is the local representative of KPMG International, a network of independent member firms that offer advisory services in tax, audit and accounting.
Dr Manu noted that the DAS was borne out of the recognition that professional service organisations had a role to play in Africa’s development agenda.
As a result, Dr Manu said, “KPMG remained committed to rendering of relevant support to the continent; We have adopted a Pan-African development approach to work, employing full time experienced experts within the KPMG Africa team.”
He observed that the expertise of the DAS would, however, remain dormant if development, donor and government agencies did not access them. “A lot would depend on what we are entrusted with,” he added.
According to him, most of the money that entered the country as donations, loans and other revenues are not well managed, a situation he said led to improper usage of the monies for their intended purposes.
He was, however, optimistic that the launch of DAS in Ghana would help reduce the inconveniences associated with money management in the country and the sub-region as a whole.
A senior partner of the KPMG Ghana, Mr Joseph Winful, also observed that the continent was presently going through numerous development stages and thus needed independent minds and expertise to help partner the various governments, development and donor agencies in that regard.
He noted that the DAS was modelled in a manner that made it fitting to the current development needs of the continent and the sub-region in particular.
KPMG has opened its Development Advisory Services (DAS) office in Ghana with a promise to lay its expertise at the door steps of government, donor and development agencies in the country and the sub-region.
The Ghana office would also serve as a hub for other selected West African countries by offering fund management advisory services to governments, development and donor agencies operating in region.
The Director of the West African DAS, Dr George Manu, said, “Ghana joins a growing list of hubs within KPMG Africa, all fully dedicated to offering development advisory services on the continent.”
He said the DAS was bringing the expertise and integrity of an international professional advisory firm, KPMG, to bear on its activities in Ghana and the selected West Africa countries as well.
The KPMG Ghana is an accounting and advisory firm operating in the country and is the local representative of KPMG International, a network of independent member firms that offer advisory services in tax, audit and accounting.
Dr Manu noted that the DAS was borne out of the recognition that professional service organisations had a role to play in Africa’s development agenda.
As a result, Dr Manu said, “KPMG remained committed to rendering of relevant support to the continent; We have adopted a Pan-African development approach to work, employing full time experienced experts within the KPMG Africa team.”
He observed that the expertise of the DAS would, however, remain dormant if development, donor and government agencies did not access them. “A lot would depend on what we are entrusted with,” he added.
According to him, most of the money that entered the country as donations, loans and other revenues are not well managed, a situation he said led to improper usage of the monies for their intended purposes.
He was, however, optimistic that the launch of DAS in Ghana would help reduce the inconveniences associated with money management in the country and the sub-region as a whole.
A senior partner of the KPMG Ghana, Mr Joseph Winful, also observed that the continent was presently going through numerous development stages and thus needed independent minds and expertise to help partner the various governments, development and donor agencies in that regard.
He noted that the DAS was modelled in a manner that made it fitting to the current development needs of the continent and the sub-region in particular.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Cocoa revenue to stay same; Despite higher global prices
The political tussel in the Cote d' Iviore, the world's leading producer of cocoa has sent prices of the commodity pulling up. But can Ghana, the second largest producer of the crop take advantage of the hiking global cocoa prices to rake in more revenue? Maxwell Adombila Akalaare reports
Ghana’s revenue from cocoa exports is likely to stay same despite soaring prices of the commodity on the international market.
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), which oversees all activities relating to the crop says the country’s buying arrangements in which a large quantity of the commodity is sold in advance has denied the nation any gains from the current escalating global prices.
The Public Relations Officer of the board, Mr Noah Kwesi Ameyah explained to the Graphic Business that the country’s beans are always used as a syndicate for loans “even before they are produced”.
“We always need money (loans) for the farmers to enable them go into production. But before we can get those loans, we need to garantee for them. So we sell forward a certain quantity of the cocoa yet to be produced,” Mr Ameyah explained.
Global cocoa prices have been stretching up since the political crisis in Cote d’ Ivoire begun late last November.
The political stand off between Laurent Gbango and Alhassan Outtara induced the prices up from about US$2,279 before the start of the tension to close the year at well over US$3,000.
Cocoa prices again started the year on record highs after the crisis continued to protract in the world’s leading cocoa producing nation.
Following a one month ban placed on export of the commodity by Alhassan Outtara on January 22, prices of the commodity again jumped to a record year high of US$3,340 per metric tonne and currently sells at (today’s price) raising speculations among local industry experts and dealers that Ghana, the second largest producer of the crop would as well reap maximum revenues from the high prices.
But the PRO of the nation’s cocoa governing body, explained that Ghana’s buying arrangements makes taking advantage of the present Ivorian crisis very minimal.
According to him, Ghana as at September last year had already used about 700,000 tonnes of yet to be produced cocoa beans as garantee to a US$1.5 billion loan that it needed to finance this season’s productions.
The Managing Director of the Cocoa Marketing Company (Ghana) Limited, the marketing subsidiary of the COCOBOD Nana Oduro Owusu last Thusday lauded the advance buying strategy of the board saying the move has even made it possible for the COCOBOD to determine a free on-board (FOB) price.
According to him, COCOBOD’s success in external borrowing for the trade facility which, in the last 16 years has enabled the board to finance cocoa purchasing was due to the forward buying strategy.
“Quite a large quantity of Ghana’s cocoa has been sold already,” the PRO said noting further that the buying arrangement makes it impossible for the country to reap from any ripples that may always emerge in the market.
Prices of cocoa at the time of Ghana’s syndication of the 700,000 metric tonnes were barely inching above US$ 2,800.
“You see, cocoa production is not done in the factory. If the tree produces 400 beans, you do not expect that same tree to give you 800 just because there is a boom in the price of the commodity in the market. Increased production means more time, years and prices at those times would as well be determined by prevailing situations “, the PRO stated.
On the present world prices, Mr Ameyah said “it is good news for the cocoa community” but only in the “short term”.
He explained that continues price soars would much likely cause cocoa buyers and users to begin to look for substitutes to the commodity, a situation the PRO further observed could as well cripple the entire cocoa industry.
According to him, it was the COCOBOD’s resolve that the present Ivorian crisis would end soon “for the Cote d’ Ivoire cocoa farmer to get back his money”.
But about the Ghanaian farmer, Mr Ameyah said the current higher prices in the global cocoa market meant “higher bonuses to them”.
“They would always benefit because of the bonuses we pay to them. If we sell above the anticipated market prices, then we would pay bonuses to them”, he added
Torching on production capacity, Mr Ameyah expressed optimism that the measures put in place by the board would yield higher production results in the coming years.
The COCOBOD has a production target of 800,000 metric tonnes in the 2011 season and a one million metric tonne by 2013.
And its CEO, Anthony Fofie said the company is “edging closer to the one million metric tonne target”.
Last year’s better weather conditions coupled with other management factors increased the crop’s production making it possible for the COCOBOD to buy about 643,000 metric tonnes of the bean from farmers within the year.
Ghana’s revenue from cocoa exports is likely to stay same despite soaring prices of the commodity on the international market.
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), which oversees all activities relating to the crop says the country’s buying arrangements in which a large quantity of the commodity is sold in advance has denied the nation any gains from the current escalating global prices.
The Public Relations Officer of the board, Mr Noah Kwesi Ameyah explained to the Graphic Business that the country’s beans are always used as a syndicate for loans “even before they are produced”.
“We always need money (loans) for the farmers to enable them go into production. But before we can get those loans, we need to garantee for them. So we sell forward a certain quantity of the cocoa yet to be produced,” Mr Ameyah explained.
Global cocoa prices have been stretching up since the political crisis in Cote d’ Ivoire begun late last November.
The political stand off between Laurent Gbango and Alhassan Outtara induced the prices up from about US$2,279 before the start of the tension to close the year at well over US$3,000.
Cocoa prices again started the year on record highs after the crisis continued to protract in the world’s leading cocoa producing nation.
Following a one month ban placed on export of the commodity by Alhassan Outtara on January 22, prices of the commodity again jumped to a record year high of US$3,340 per metric tonne and currently sells at (today’s price) raising speculations among local industry experts and dealers that Ghana, the second largest producer of the crop would as well reap maximum revenues from the high prices.
But the PRO of the nation’s cocoa governing body, explained that Ghana’s buying arrangements makes taking advantage of the present Ivorian crisis very minimal.
According to him, Ghana as at September last year had already used about 700,000 tonnes of yet to be produced cocoa beans as garantee to a US$1.5 billion loan that it needed to finance this season’s productions.
The Managing Director of the Cocoa Marketing Company (Ghana) Limited, the marketing subsidiary of the COCOBOD Nana Oduro Owusu last Thusday lauded the advance buying strategy of the board saying the move has even made it possible for the COCOBOD to determine a free on-board (FOB) price.
According to him, COCOBOD’s success in external borrowing for the trade facility which, in the last 16 years has enabled the board to finance cocoa purchasing was due to the forward buying strategy.
“Quite a large quantity of Ghana’s cocoa has been sold already,” the PRO said noting further that the buying arrangement makes it impossible for the country to reap from any ripples that may always emerge in the market.
Prices of cocoa at the time of Ghana’s syndication of the 700,000 metric tonnes were barely inching above US$ 2,800.
“You see, cocoa production is not done in the factory. If the tree produces 400 beans, you do not expect that same tree to give you 800 just because there is a boom in the price of the commodity in the market. Increased production means more time, years and prices at those times would as well be determined by prevailing situations “, the PRO stated.
On the present world prices, Mr Ameyah said “it is good news for the cocoa community” but only in the “short term”.
He explained that continues price soars would much likely cause cocoa buyers and users to begin to look for substitutes to the commodity, a situation the PRO further observed could as well cripple the entire cocoa industry.
According to him, it was the COCOBOD’s resolve that the present Ivorian crisis would end soon “for the Cote d’ Ivoire cocoa farmer to get back his money”.
But about the Ghanaian farmer, Mr Ameyah said the current higher prices in the global cocoa market meant “higher bonuses to them”.
“They would always benefit because of the bonuses we pay to them. If we sell above the anticipated market prices, then we would pay bonuses to them”, he added
Torching on production capacity, Mr Ameyah expressed optimism that the measures put in place by the board would yield higher production results in the coming years.
The COCOBOD has a production target of 800,000 metric tonnes in the 2011 season and a one million metric tonne by 2013.
And its CEO, Anthony Fofie said the company is “edging closer to the one million metric tonne target”.
Last year’s better weather conditions coupled with other management factors increased the crop’s production making it possible for the COCOBOD to buy about 643,000 metric tonnes of the bean from farmers within the year.
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