Economy records 12 per cent growth

THE national economy recorded a 12 per cent growth rate in the third quarter of 2011.



The third quarter growth rate was mainly as a result of strong growth recorded in the industry sector of the economy.

The quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - a measure of the market value of goods and services produced in the third quarter - came down to GH¢6,912.3 million from the GH¢6,923.7 that was recorded in the second quarter of 2011.

The third quarter GDP represents a 0.2 per cent marginal decline from the second quarter’s value.

The acting Government Statistician, Dr Philomena Nyarko, said this in Accra last Wednesday at a press conference to simultaneously release the 2011 third quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the economy and the December 2011 Producer Price Inflation (PPI) .

Dr Nyarko said the industry sector recorded the highest growth rate of 37.2 per cent followed by the services sector which grew by 5.8 per cent. The agriculture sector, she said, witnessed the lowest growth rate, growing by 5.2 per cent in the third quarter of last year.

Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister, Finance and Economic Planning

“Within the industry sector, the influence of crude oil pushed the growth of the mining and quarrying sub-sector to 263.1 per cent,” she added.

In the crops sub-sector, which includes cocoa, Dr Nyarko said growth in crops and livestock production rose by 10.2 and 3.6 per cent while that of forestry and fishing declined by 11 and 29.9 per cent respectively.

She said the transport and storage, information and communication, business and other services among others were the main contributors to the increased economic activity in the services sector.”

Strangely, however, the financial and insurance sub-sector witnessed negative growth in the period under review as against the booming growth rates the sub-sector has been recording in the previous quarters.

On the producer inflation for December 2011, Dr Nyarko said the rate declined to 15.19 per cent from the November 2011 rate of 17.94 per cent. The December producer inflation rate represents a 0.17 per cent dip from the November one.

Producer inflation measures the monthly average change in the factory gate prices received by producers for their respective goods and services produced in the country.

The mining and quarrying sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer inflation price change of 18.23 per cent followed by the manufacturing sector with a 17.23 per cent. The utilities sector recorded the lowest price change rate of 9.07 per cent.

Relax taxes on mining industry

FOR the government, enabling infrastructural development for economic growth means more revenue and this could also mean more taxes. For industry, however, taxing more means shrinking growth. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare reports 


THE Ghana Chamber of Mines (GCM) has signaled to the government to consider relaxing the totalled 20 per cent taxes imposed on companies within the country’s mining sector or risk shrinking growth and job creation within that sector of the economy.

The chamber is of the view that the said taxes will tighten internal investments within the companies and the sector as a whole, suck deep into their margins and in effect limit them from expanding to spur growth and job creation in the coming years.

The government, through its 2012 Budget and Economic Policy Statement increased corporate taxes for mining companies by 10 per cent, introduced a windfall profit tax of 10 per cent but gave a 20 per cent rebate on all capital allowances spanning five years.

Such taxes, according to the Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, who read the budget last Wednesday, were premised on the fact that “the economic and social benefits that the sector provides (to Ghana) do not meet our expectations.”

The imposition of the taxes on the mining sector which formed part of the government’s wider aim of mobilising revenues to support infrastructural development and job creation trailed an earlier recommendation by the IMF team that the government considered innovative ways of raising more revenues from the country’s mining sector.

Dr Toni Aubynn, CEO, GCM

The Chief Executive Officer of the chamber, Dr Toni Aubynn, however, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in an interview that the present resorting to increasing corporate taxes and imposing a windfall profit tax on the companies will rather discourage growth in the sector.

“Imposing a 10 corporate tax on the industry and another 10 per cent of windfall profit will very likely have a rather uncomfortable impact on the industry.

“The jump from 25 per cent of corporate taxes to 35 per cent is huge and you can imagine the impact on the companies, the industry and the economy in general,” Dr Aubynn said adding that the result could possibility be a shrink in companies’ investments, growth and consequently job creation.

“The 2012 Budget’s objective is to create employment by spurring growth and so you would think that the government will want to be careful not to kill the hen that lays the golden egg. But once you impose 20 per cent of taxes on the sector at a go, then you indirectly tire the hands of the companies from expanding to create the jobs you want,” he said.

He has meanwhile indicated that the chamber was “not against government maximising revenues from its extractive industry but you also don’t have to do it such that the companies suffer at your expenses.”

On the 10 per cent windfall profit tax, Dr Aubynn said “the chamber is not even sure of how it will be calculated; what is a windfall profit and who determines that,” he asked noting that although windfall profits are normally determined by global prices vi-a-vis the price targets set by the company on the product concerned, “rising mineral prices in the global mineral market mean rising cost for mining companies and that impacts negatively on the revenues generated.”

The GCM CEO said his outfit would have wished to be part of the discussions that led to the fixing of the taxes, particulary the windfall profit tax.

He was thus hopeful that the government, through the MoFEP, will reconsider its decision on the taxes by meeting the chamber in the coming days “to atleast clarify issues on the taxes especially the calculations of the 10 per cent windfall profit tax.”

Dr Aubynn also wondered why Dr Duffuor intimated during the presentation of the budget to Parliament that there was lack of transparency in the country’s mining sector after the chamber was instrumental in getting Ghana to sign onto the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a programme aimed at opening up extractive industries to public scrutiny.

“And if the government even has an issue with any company regarding transparency, cann’t they order such a company toopen up its books for checks by the government? So why this issue of lack of transparency,” he asked.

On the whole, Dr Aubynn said the country needed to change its mindset towards mining “as a sector that does not contribute to economic development.”

According to him, although Ghana has mined minerals for a long time, the country was yet “to understand how to use mining to develop the economy.

“It is not mining companies that will develop our economy for us,” he said noting that Ghana has over the years “thought that mining companies in the country should contribute to economic development through higher taxes. But that should not be the case.”GB

Internet Journalism - A mounting threat to the newspaper industry

Analyses by: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare

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, this time round, not the theatre industry but the country’s newspaper businesses.

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.

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

FRUSTRATIONS OF APPLICANTS,GES act now!

Of late, senior high school leavers nationwide have come to patronize the country’s nursing training college (NTC) so much that, the institutions seem to have taken advantage of this mad rush and its related difficulties to exploit applicants

Almost every senior high school leaver in one way or the other aspires to enter NTC in other to realize what is fast becoming a “day dream”. To some, it is only a stepping stone for them to spring up into their real careers in life. Others however, think they have been called to heal the sick. This in itself is not surprising due to the various incentives that await them whiles they are students and the subsequent job assurances which comes alongside motivational packages that are lacking in most sectors of Ghana’s job market.

The institutions concerned- the NTCs and other tertiary institutions having realized the craving and crazy demands for their so called hot cake have kept in place wild measures to the disadvantage of these poor applicants.
One has to attend and pass an interview, the fairness and transparency of which I should think still remain a doubt and of course, remain uncertain and undecided after universities and teacher training colleges have released their admissions.
Due to the keen competition in getting admissions into the country's tertiary institutions for reasons beyond the length of this article, most students have resorted to the idea of multiple admission form purchasing.
As a result, applicants who buy university and or other training college admission are normally faced with choosing to forgone an admission at hand to await and earnestly hope for favorable results or the other way round.But this in itself is not easy handling since most are often victims and would rather be careful this time round.

It is at this time that, other tertiary institutions in the country particularly the late admission re leasers, pray to take advantage of. Due to the non-refundable nature of the admission fees in the countries institutions which to me is questionable, a lot of applicants end up paying monies to institutions they will not attend. This is normally the case were the student's preferred institutions grants him\her admission to pursue a course of ones choice.
Some, due to meager finance which is fast becoming a normality, will have to forgo the admissions received earlier while they wait for their second fate to be decided by the other institutions. Most of these students end up wailing with hands on heads with the usual “had I known” which may demand a concluding part like “leads to the Island of no return’’

The others may be the lucky ones will then have to gather courage and vigor to forgo the earlier admissions received.With hopes and faith chocked to their neck, they will embark on a massive week after week fasting and praying for the second release, which is mostly from these professional institutions (Nursing / Teacher Training Colleges, Ghana Institute of Journalism– GIJ ) to be favorable.

These practices frustrate and traumatize students a lot and end up heaping large sums of money into the accounts of these institutions. The end destination and final usage of those monies still remains a mystery. Or, is it accounted for by government? What if the principal, chancellor or rector of an institution after unanimous decision has been reached from management, decides to say that, they did not record such an incident? I mean fees paid without students attending the said institution? If no, are those monies used judiciously to the benefit of these schools? May be we should channel these questions to our able Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, or better still the Public Accounts committee (PAC) can add it to their agenda. For we are actually keen in knowing
These acts of robbing students, mostly unemployed to pay government resource institutions is unfair. It has existed for long and must be solved immediately. Not the usual pen and paper solution which end up in the already congested offices of these seemingly insensitive offices.

A good measure will be a coincident release of admission letters. This can be made possible if institutions with longer admission procedures - applicants sitting for interim exam and (or) attending an interview, are made to start earlier than others. This may call for directives from GES to help break the existing autonomy of these institutions to admit at their own convenience. The admission fees can also be made refundable to enable students who may get admissions into a school of their choice and preference take back the money paid into other institutions.

I am of the opinion that, Ghana Education Service is conscious of these inconveniences in the system. They, including other concerned stakeholders should therefore act fast to correct what I may be tempted to describe as “a well coordinated and intentional machinery” to rob students of their meager incomes. And on top frustrate and disappoint the tender minds of applicants.
A practical measure towards the immediate and practical correction of this ever-existed problem will help buttress The Mills-led Administration's intention of giving much attention to education.It will become a justifier to the "I care for you" mania that was released on January 7 that will be remembered and rehearsed by all especially the innocent victims.

Well, I’m only among the many that are crying loud for the correction of this “master minder” for the benefit of all and beloved Ghana as well. But until this is done, victims of the said incident will continue to rain curses on these institutions and the possible beneficiaries of the booties.
The end result, I cannot tell.