THE National Petroleum Authority (NPA), will by the close of this year colour kerosene and put identity markers on all petroleum products for easy indentification.
According to the regulator this would stem the rampant adulterations of the products by dealers which, it maintained causes numerous havoc to consumers.
Addressing a meeting of the Petroleum Retailers Association (PRA) in Accra, Mr Daniel Amoah, a Director of Pricing, Planning and Research at the NPA said the authority was always facing challenges on the quality and quantity of petroleum products in the country.
The meeting which was on the theme: “The role of the retailer in a deregulated petroleum industry” had the Executive Secretary of the NPA and the Director General of the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) as guest speakers.
Mr Amoah, who represented the Executive Secretary of the NPA said some of the products were always adulterated.
To forestall those actions and further protect consumers, the Director said “the NPA is going to colour kerosene as we have done to premix fuel. We would also introduce identity markers, a small quantity of a chemical put in the fuel, such that if you add even a drop of product ‘A’ into product ‘B’ the chemical would be able to show that product ‘A’ has been added to product ‘B”.
The NPA has for sometime now been grappling with issues of adulterations of the various petroleum products refined or imported into the country.
The authority has always maintained that less costly products like kerosene and premix fuel, which are mostly subsidised for rural folks are always added to the more costly ones like petrol and diesel by dealers as a way of maximising quantity and profit.
The authority last year coloured premix fuel, a product used for marine activities as a strategy to prevent its adulteration with other petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, kerosene by dealers.
He said anyone, be it tanker drivers, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) or retailers who would be caught adulterating the various products after the measure was implemented “would be dealt with” .
The director called on OMCs to model their operations to be in line with the various laws governing the country’s petroleum sector.
“Your business models can’t change the laws of the petroleum sector but you can change your models to conform with the laws. This is our resolve and we would peruse it to the ultimate”, Mr Amoah cautioned the OMCs.
The President of the PRA, Mr Sylvester Apedu appealed to the NPA to compel the OMCs to pay the retailers their margins as was recently revised by the authority.
The verification of products delivered at the stations, according to the President also creates problems for them.
“Whereas the refinery and bulk traders use flow meters as instruments of measurement when loading products, we the retailers use the dipsticks to verify the volumes and this results in disagreements between drivers and retailers”, Mr Apedu said.
Mr Ade Acquah, Head of Material Science, at the Ghana Standard Board explained that while the retailers normally maintained that carrying the flow meters from the refinery to the stations by the tanker drivers could cause the calibrations to be altered, the tanker drivers also insist that dipsticks kept by retailers at their various stations could be tampered with.
The Managing Director of TOR Mr Ato Ampiah, who chaired the meeting pleaded with the NPA to collaborate with the necessary stakeholders to solve the problem.
He said “proactivity is what is needed to safe the petroleum industry from collapse. If we sit down and talk about trust, people would go home empty handed. The dipstick is too archaic to be talked about at this time”.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
VETURE CAPITAL Capitalises to the Tune of Gh$100m
Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
The management of the Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) says it is increasing its fund pool to over US$100 million in 2011 to enable it support small medium enterprise investments.
To achieve that, the management said it expected to leverage its new capital injection with funds from foreign investors as well as local financial institutions to establish new funds.
It will also intensify its public awareness campaign as a way of educating SMEs on the benefits of equity investments as it seeks to attract more funds from local financial institutions.
Addressing a press conference in Accra to launch the fund’s vision for 2011, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the VCTF, Mr Daniel Duku, said the fund had partnered both local and foreign investors to create a pool of GH¢ 83 million for SME investments as at 2010.
“In doing so, the Trust fund has established five venture capital funds and invested the Ghana cedi equivalent of US$ 17 million, adding that more than 1,000 direct jobs have been created by 39 portfolio companies.
The VCTF was established in 2006 by the Ghana Government tasked with the responsibility of providing capital to SME’s and also to promote venture capital, funds set aside to use in assisting SME’s to expand.
The fund started operations with GH¢22.4 million as seed money from the then government and has since vetured into many SME’s in the country.
The CEO said the VCTF recognised the need to complement the government’s efforts toward supporting SMEs and “wil1 continue to secure additional funding through our flagship public private partnership mode”, adding that the VCTF would continue to work closely with permanent source of funding to the fund.
Mr Duku said the fund, in collaboration with its partners, had committed GH¢3.7 million in commodity value chain activities which included sorghum and soybean production as “import substitution”.
According to him, the said capital had yielded an estimated 12,600 metric tons of sorghum, which had a market value of GH¢7.4 million, twice the cost of the capital invested.
The CEO noted that 8,000 smallholder farmers were integrated into the value chain activity which led to the creation of 1,400 full time employment in the participating communities and farmerbase organizations, adding “GH¢45,400 were paid to those communities and districts as local councils tax”.
Touching on the fund’s plans for 2011, Mr Duku said an “Investor Learning Journey” to attract both local and foreign strategic investors will be organised to raise funds.
“Emphasis will be placed on new initiatives such as yellow maize financing to support the poultry and livestock industry”, the CEO said, adding that the vegetable sector would also receive the needed attention from the fund.
Mr Duku said the fund had also resolved to establish and deepen relations with various professional bodies including the Bankers’ Association, Association of Ghana Industries, the Ghana Bar Association and the Private Enterprise Foundation.
He said the Ghana Club 100, an annual award scheme for companies that had excel in their areas of operations, had not targeted the SME’s a situation Mr Duku observed had not motivated the SME operators to excel.
“To spur entrepreneurship within the economy”, VCTF, he said, had thus resolved to collaborate with various industry associations and stakeholders to “institute an SME awards scheme to honour Ghanaian SMEs entrepreneurs who have established and sustained successful profitable businesses”.
The management of the Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) says it is increasing its fund pool to over US$100 million in 2011 to enable it support small medium enterprise investments.
To achieve that, the management said it expected to leverage its new capital injection with funds from foreign investors as well as local financial institutions to establish new funds.
It will also intensify its public awareness campaign as a way of educating SMEs on the benefits of equity investments as it seeks to attract more funds from local financial institutions.
Addressing a press conference in Accra to launch the fund’s vision for 2011, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the VCTF, Mr Daniel Duku, said the fund had partnered both local and foreign investors to create a pool of GH¢ 83 million for SME investments as at 2010.
“In doing so, the Trust fund has established five venture capital funds and invested the Ghana cedi equivalent of US$ 17 million, adding that more than 1,000 direct jobs have been created by 39 portfolio companies.
The VCTF was established in 2006 by the Ghana Government tasked with the responsibility of providing capital to SME’s and also to promote venture capital, funds set aside to use in assisting SME’s to expand.
The fund started operations with GH¢22.4 million as seed money from the then government and has since vetured into many SME’s in the country.
The CEO said the VCTF recognised the need to complement the government’s efforts toward supporting SMEs and “wil1 continue to secure additional funding through our flagship public private partnership mode”, adding that the VCTF would continue to work closely with permanent source of funding to the fund.
Mr Duku said the fund, in collaboration with its partners, had committed GH¢3.7 million in commodity value chain activities which included sorghum and soybean production as “import substitution”.
According to him, the said capital had yielded an estimated 12,600 metric tons of sorghum, which had a market value of GH¢7.4 million, twice the cost of the capital invested.
The CEO noted that 8,000 smallholder farmers were integrated into the value chain activity which led to the creation of 1,400 full time employment in the participating communities and farmerbase organizations, adding “GH¢45,400 were paid to those communities and districts as local councils tax”.
Touching on the fund’s plans for 2011, Mr Duku said an “Investor Learning Journey” to attract both local and foreign strategic investors will be organised to raise funds.
“Emphasis will be placed on new initiatives such as yellow maize financing to support the poultry and livestock industry”, the CEO said, adding that the vegetable sector would also receive the needed attention from the fund.
Mr Duku said the fund had also resolved to establish and deepen relations with various professional bodies including the Bankers’ Association, Association of Ghana Industries, the Ghana Bar Association and the Private Enterprise Foundation.
He said the Ghana Club 100, an annual award scheme for companies that had excel in their areas of operations, had not targeted the SME’s a situation Mr Duku observed had not motivated the SME operators to excel.
“To spur entrepreneurship within the economy”, VCTF, he said, had thus resolved to collaborate with various industry associations and stakeholders to “institute an SME awards scheme to honour Ghanaian SMEs entrepreneurs who have established and sustained successful profitable businesses”.
New entertainment centre opens in Accra
Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
THE Chief Executive Officer of the Eldorado Gaming International, Mr John Kivinen, says the springing up of more entertainment centres in Ghana will go a long way to enhance the country’s foreign investor attraction potentials.
He said entertainment centres such as Eldorado which operated slot casinos, roulette, and lounge bars “help the overall package of foreign investor attractions”.
Mr Kivinen said tourist and business investors who came into the country always needed entertainment places such as casinos where they would spend their time.
He made the remarks during the opening of Delfino Entertainment Limited (DEL) in Accra. The DEL is the first unit of the Eldorado Gaming International, a Sweddish and Canadian owned entertainment company which operates 70 casinos in 10 countries throughout four continents.
The DEL, located at Osu, currently operates 32 slot machines in the ordinary session and eight in the Very Important Personalities’ (VIP) session.
Mr Kivinen said plans were far advanced to open more gaming centres in Accra and in other regional capitals before the end of the year.
Mr Jerry Hanson, a sound engineer who himself had done numerous researches on gambling and the society said such a game “is the fastest paying and killing game in the world”.
He said the habit of people wanting to win more prices after an initial win is what makes most to loose instead.
According to him “games like these are just for fun and if you want to take them as money making ventures, then you would spell your own doom”.
“In this game, the word is always enough; if you come in with Gh¢ 50 you may leave with Gh¢ 100, but some think they should get more than that and that is what leads most to loose instead”, Mr Hanson added.
An Administrator at the DEL, Mr Alex Kwasi Wiredu, told the Daily Graphic that the focus of the DEL was for its customers to win.
“Our focus here is for you to win; we don’t leave you empty handed”, he said.
THE Chief Executive Officer of the Eldorado Gaming International, Mr John Kivinen, says the springing up of more entertainment centres in Ghana will go a long way to enhance the country’s foreign investor attraction potentials.
He said entertainment centres such as Eldorado which operated slot casinos, roulette, and lounge bars “help the overall package of foreign investor attractions”.
 |
| The Managing Director of the DEL, Mr Tomi Korpela, (left) with the CEO of EGL (the mother company of the DEL), Mr Jon Kivinen playing with the slot machines at the ordinary session. |
Mr Kivinen said tourist and business investors who came into the country always needed entertainment places such as casinos where they would spend their time.
He made the remarks during the opening of Delfino Entertainment Limited (DEL) in Accra. The DEL is the first unit of the Eldorado Gaming International, a Sweddish and Canadian owned entertainment company which operates 70 casinos in 10 countries throughout four continents.
The DEL, located at Osu, currently operates 32 slot machines in the ordinary session and eight in the Very Important Personalities’ (VIP) session.
Mr Kivinen said plans were far advanced to open more gaming centres in Accra and in other regional capitals before the end of the year.
Mr Jerry Hanson, a sound engineer who himself had done numerous researches on gambling and the society said such a game “is the fastest paying and killing game in the world”.
He said the habit of people wanting to win more prices after an initial win is what makes most to loose instead.
According to him “games like these are just for fun and if you want to take them as money making ventures, then you would spell your own doom”.
“In this game, the word is always enough; if you come in with Gh¢ 50 you may leave with Gh¢ 100, but some think they should get more than that and that is what leads most to loose instead”, Mr Hanson added.
An Administrator at the DEL, Mr Alex Kwasi Wiredu, told the Daily Graphic that the focus of the DEL was for its customers to win.
“Our focus here is for you to win; we don’t leave you empty handed”, he said.
 |
| Mr Korpela in a "freaky-treaky" move |
GRA adds new component to its Employee Well-being Programme
Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) have added another component, financial wellness and social security, to their Employee Well-being Programme (EWP).
The EPW is an initiative of the two institutions meant to oversee to the well-being of their respective employees, their immediate families as well as their areas of operations.
The country Co-ordinator of the EWP, Dr Aduana Ignea, who announced this at a sensitisation workshop in Accra, explained that the new component was aimed at counselling employees on how to manage their finances, expenses, investments and also on retirements.
The workshop was among others meant to review the operations of the EWP in 2010 and was attended by representatives from the GRA, GCNet, and the EWP as well as the Ghana Aids Commission, Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Services, National Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis Control Programmes, National Disaster and Management Organisation, all partners of the programme.
Dr Ignea said the EWP evolved from an HIV/AIDS screening exercise in 2006 -2009 for the respective workforces of the then revenue agencies; Customs, Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS), the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), and the Value Added Tax (VAT) which have now been merged to form the GRA.
She said staff of the GRA and GCNet under the financial wellness component would be individually counselled on how to handle their finances to check mismanagement.
Dr Ignea later dispelled notions that the new component was meant to bring employees of the two institutions money.
“Some people always think I will come and give them money, no; The financial wellness component does not give money, rather we counsel employees on how to handle their financial matters, be it indebtedness, investments, retirement planning among others”, Dr Ignea noted.
She said the EWP enjoyed both financial and technical support from the German International Corporation (GIZ), and thus, disagreed with suggestions that the EWP was venturing into an area it had no expertise in.
According to the Co-ordinator “the programme will reach approximately 38,000 people by 2012”
Mr Anthony A Minlah, Commissioner, Support Services at the GRA said the EWP had helped reduce sicknesses among the authority’s staff and further reduced their medical costs.
He said; “The authority would start budgeting for the programme this year” explaining that the partners in the programme had called for a spread of the cost incurred instead of them (the partners) fully taking care of it.
“The GRA needs a healthy staff to achieve its revenue targets for the year”, Mr Minlah said and thus advised the staff to take the programme seriously.
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) have added another component, financial wellness and social security, to their Employee Well-being Programme (EWP).
The EPW is an initiative of the two institutions meant to oversee to the well-being of their respective employees, their immediate families as well as their areas of operations.
The country Co-ordinator of the EWP, Dr Aduana Ignea, who announced this at a sensitisation workshop in Accra, explained that the new component was aimed at counselling employees on how to manage their finances, expenses, investments and also on retirements.
The workshop was among others meant to review the operations of the EWP in 2010 and was attended by representatives from the GRA, GCNet, and the EWP as well as the Ghana Aids Commission, Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Services, National Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis Control Programmes, National Disaster and Management Organisation, all partners of the programme.
Dr Ignea said the EWP evolved from an HIV/AIDS screening exercise in 2006 -2009 for the respective workforces of the then revenue agencies; Customs, Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS), the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), and the Value Added Tax (VAT) which have now been merged to form the GRA.
She said staff of the GRA and GCNet under the financial wellness component would be individually counselled on how to handle their finances to check mismanagement.
Dr Ignea later dispelled notions that the new component was meant to bring employees of the two institutions money.
“Some people always think I will come and give them money, no; The financial wellness component does not give money, rather we counsel employees on how to handle their financial matters, be it indebtedness, investments, retirement planning among others”, Dr Ignea noted.
She said the EWP enjoyed both financial and technical support from the German International Corporation (GIZ), and thus, disagreed with suggestions that the EWP was venturing into an area it had no expertise in.
According to the Co-ordinator “the programme will reach approximately 38,000 people by 2012”
Mr Anthony A Minlah, Commissioner, Support Services at the GRA said the EWP had helped reduce sicknesses among the authority’s staff and further reduced their medical costs.
He said; “The authority would start budgeting for the programme this year” explaining that the partners in the programme had called for a spread of the cost incurred instead of them (the partners) fully taking care of it.
“The GRA needs a healthy staff to achieve its revenue targets for the year”, Mr Minlah said and thus advised the staff to take the programme seriously.
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