Stanbic launches new investment fund

Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited has launched a new product called the Stanbic Income Fund (SIF), with a call on Ghanaians “to cultivate the habit of savings”.
The fund is an open-ended unit trust, investing in fixed income securities and seeks to maximise short-term income as well as long-term sustainable returns and capital appreciation.
It has 200,000 units on offer with an initial offer price of GH¢1.00 per unit. The offer runs from December 15, 2010 to January 6, 2011. The fund has Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited as its trustee.

Mr Alex Asiedu, Head of SIMS speaking during the function to launch the fund The Head of Stanbic Investment
 Management Services Limited (SIMS), Mr Emmanuel A. Asiedu, said the fixed income nature of the fund provides relatively stable risk adjusted returns to the investing public .

Fixed income funds, he said, have the core of their funds invested in corporate and government debts; a situation he stressed “avoids the potential fluctuations of the stock market”.
He further explained that the fund “will not just put investors’ “ ‘eggs’ in different baskets, but will put them in carefully woven, high-quality baskets”.
Mr Asiedu stated that “in only three years, SIMS has generated enough wealth for its clients to be recognised as a key player in the industry” and added that the company currently manages about 50 funds, both for corporate entities and individuals.
Mr Asiedu was of the view that the newly launched SIF “ will enable Stanbic Investment Management Services Limited to create wealth for those who choose it as their investment managers”.
Mrs Joyce Aryee, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines who launched the fund, called on Ghanaians to stop spending their money on unimportant items but rather invest them in funds like the Stanbic Income Fund “not just for rainy days, but for sunny days too.”

Miss Joyce Aryee, of the Ghana Chamber of Mines launching the fund

Shareholders must be vigilant

Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
Shareholders have been asked to take keen interest in the day-to-day running of the companies they have invested in in other to ensure the proper management of their interest.
They have also been urged to feel free and take it upon themselves to investigate and interrogate the actions and inaction of the management and the board of directors who run the companies.
At a public lecture in Accra on good corporate governance, Mr Adu Anane Antwi, a Chartered Accountant and legal practitioner said “shareholders are the owners of the company and are, therefore, the ultimate beneficiaries of well-run companies and the ultimate losers when the companies were badly run.
The lecture, sponsored by Tyron Flat Tyre Protection and the University College of Management Studies (UCOMS), was on the topic: “The role of shareholders in corporate governance”.
Mr Antwi said shareholders at annual general meetings (AGMs) should be courageous enough to interrogate the figures presented to them by the management and board of directors and request for any detailed explanation on the operations of the companies.
According to him, it was incumbent upon shareholders to actively partake in the debate to approve the salaries and allowances of the chief executive officers.
Mr Antwi regretted that instead of demanding what was due to shareholders during AGMs, they rather turned them into praise-singing seminars and have made AGMs the annual rituals of hearing what they had heard the previous year, except that the current one “is differently worded”.
He stated that shareholders should become mindful of their duties, and act with circumspection, otherwise, the management and board of directors would refer to their actions as "beyond bounds".
He said “shareholders are the ones with the authority to demand and enforce good governance of their companies”, and thus called for the setting up of what he referred to as “shareholder committees” in public corporations to represent shareholders when it comes to dealing with the board and managers on all matters in the companies.

Monitor quantities of oil produced - Prof Aheto

Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare

A Chartered Accountant and Lawyer, Prof. John B.K. Aheto, has called for what he describes as an oversight board that will closely monitor the quantity of oil to be drilled from the Jubilee Fields.
He also called for the strengthening of communities living near the oil exploration centres to enable them to monitor and perform oversight responsibilities on the activities and effects of the exploration on the inhabitants and the communities at large.
Prof. Aheto made the call at a lecture organised by the Ga Society (GANDS) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG) in Accra on the topic; “Ensuring transparency in the management of Ghana’s oil revenue: The role of the Accountant”.
The lecture forms part of the activities lined up to mark the week long celebrations of the GANDS, a branch of the institute.
Prof. Aheto said there was also the need for the Parliamentary Select Committee on Energy to be resourced to enable it to give legislative backing to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
He said the country must learn lessons from the mining sector and apply them to its emerging petroleum sector, adding that we “must extend our EITI endorsement in the mining sector to the oil and gas sector.”
In his view the delays in passing the bills on the Petroleum Revenue Bill and the Freedom of Information Bill are worrying signals.
On transparency in the management of the oil revenue, Prof. Aheto said “the negative conditions often summarised as the “resource curse” can in fact be avoided. Transparency and accountability are fundamental to the natural resource success.”
“Government should be encouraged to provide a steady flow of up-to-date and credible information to the citizens, not just on revenues collected, as emphasised by the EITI, but also on the reserves, production and prices; and also on licences and fiscal regimes for private investors,” he added.
According to him, transparency as a governance tool goes beyond the transparent process of choosing a model of revenue management but encompasses “all aspects of the oil sector - from policy, legislation, upstream to downstream operations, payments and revenues collections and administration and revenue utilisation if the country was to escape what he termed as the ‘resource trap’ syndrome.”
In an interview with the Graphic Business shortly after the lecture, Prof Aheto disagreed with suggestions that Ghana’s oil should be collaterilised, citing the volatility of oil prices in the international market as the reason behind his point.
“The prices of oil, gas, and minerals are quite volatile - twice as volatile than other commodities” he said and questioned; “ to collaterilise at what price?”
On the proposed Heritage Fund, he said funds put into the fund should not be used but left for the future generation alone to use. “Once we agree to set up a Development Fund and a Heritage Fund for the oil revenue, we should not try to mix the two” Prof Aheto said.
Prof Aheto was, however, mindful of the difficulties associated with saving in developing countries in the light of the immense social needs.
He said “there will always be an inter-generational equity; where our children will suffer the inefficient management of the oil revenue and benefit from our astute management of the revenues”.
Prof Aheto was also of the view that the too much talk about the oil was not helpful, adding that it made many assume that the problems of the country would soon be over.
With Ghana's short term drilling capacity of 120,000 barrels per day as against Nigeria's 2.5 million barrels per day, Prof Aheto asked; “If in Nigeria, people queue to buy petrol, how can we say our problems will be over in Ghana?”

How has Access to your Money Being?

Article: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare

Gone are the days when banking was the sole preserve of the priviledged few and the mentioned of a bank was nearly synonymous to money.
In those days, the conditions of opening an account with the then few banks in the system were so cumbersome that only a few people could afford to satisfy them. These conditions ranged from Gh¢100 or more as minimum first time deposit, submission of paid water and eletricity bills for at least the last two months to four passport sized photographs as well as other pertinent and difficult to fulfill requirements and procedures.
The few Ghanains who could satisfy these demands were either businessmen and women or the gainfully employed who were assurred of walking briskly to the banks after every month, atleast fffor some coins.
Some banks at the time were highly prided for their cost of banking. To those banks, banking with them meant belonging to a particular class (a prestigious class among the banking class).
But that was not to continue for long as the banking in the country soon evolved giving birth to numerous banks that are earger and zealous to serve the unwillling public.
As many Ghanaians embraced the ideals of saving with the banks rather than keeping their money under their pillows or even with the popular ‘susu collectors’, keen competition among banks for these customers also emerged.
But this keen competition meant a relaxing of some of the achaic and cumbersome banking proceedures and demands from the then few banks in the system.
And that actually happened. Most banks reduced their minimum initial deposts with some making it possible to eeven open an account without a pesewa deposted, no passport, no bills; just your particulars, after which your portrait is taken using a digital camera and you are told to come the next week or two for your account number plus your Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card.
The evolution further dilusioned the prestige that was attached to the then few banking class.
But agreeing to save with the banks and having easy and conveniet access to that same money are two different things as far as banking in Ghana is concern. to be continued