Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
The Managing Director of Unilever Ghana Limited Mr David Mureithi has disclosed that the company’s turnover for the period ending November 2010 stood at £75.5million (GH¢149,704,000.00) and described 2010 as “a lot better than 2009”.
“For us at Unilever Ghana, this year has been a lot better than 2009. Our year-to November turnover stands at £75.5m with an underlying growth rate of 17.3 per cent compared to same last year” he said.
The present growth rate he said “is a starting point of a growth agenda aimed at doubling the size of the our business in hard currency terms to £150 million by 2015”
Mr Mureithi made the remarks during the annual end of year Unilever Ghana\GJA press soiree held at the Press Centre in Accra.
The event is an initiative by the multi national company to bring members of the GJA together to interact with themselves and the management of Unilever at the end of every year.
The Managing Director further disclosed that the company has resolve from January next year headquarters all its West African operations excluding Nigeria at its Tema office.
Mr Mureithi said the company was pleased that despite the huge socio-economic challenges for industry in the world over the company has seen tremendous improvements in growth this year over last year.
He was optimistic that the current growth rate would propel the company to achieve its overall growth target adding that "we aim at doubling our business before 2015".
Mr Mureithi therefore welcomed plans by government to stimulate the growth of the economy in the coming year as contained in the 2011 Budget and Fiscal Policy Statement.
The Managing Director also urged the government to withdraw the Environmental Tax proposed by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planing in the budget since it help increase the cost of doing business.
"We fully share the government's position in reducing plastic waste substance in the country but however, think that the tax will only help increase the cost of doing of business in the country", he stated
"We would add our voice to that of AGI in urging the government to withdraw this tax and find better ways of managing plastic waste substance including recycling", he said
The president of the GJA Mr Ransford Tetteh thanked Unilever Ghana for supporting the association during its 2008 awards.
He also called on corporate Ghana to support the media to make the country more democratic "for if the country is democratic enough a conducive environment will be created for business to thrive".
He called on journalists to be circumspect in their reportage. "We cannot control what people say but we can safeguard what we put out there for the public" Mr Tetteh said.
Showing posts with label news stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news stories. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Used Clothes dealers challenge GSB
By Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
The Used Clothes Importers and Dealers Association (UCIDA) is challenging the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) to provide scientific proof to back its claim that used undergarments, mattresses,handkerchiefs and sanitary wares pose health risks to users hence the need to implement and enforce a Legislative Instrument which bans their use in the country.
The GSB is seeking to with effect from February, next year, implement and enforce LI 1586, 1994 which prohibits the importation, distribution and sale of used undergarments and other clothing popularly known as “obroni waa wu” in the country.
The move, according to the board, is to help reduce the possible health risks associated with people who use such clothes in the country.
But even before the implementation and enforcement of the LI begins next year, importers and dealers in the said clothing are already up in arms against the move, describing it as baseless and lacking proof.
Mr Oscar Ankoma, Patron of the National Used Clothes Importers and Dealers Association, told The Mirror “the GSB should provide us with scientific proof or complaints from people who became sick after using our products”.
According to Mr Ankoma, “the goods imported into the country as used clothing are well washed in machines and then fumigated with Methyl Bromide Gas and further given an exposure time of over 24 hours”, a move he said kills all the germs that might have been present in them.
The LI, he said, was passed in 1994 due to a petition by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) to the Ministry of Trade and Industry that the used clothes was killing their businesses.
He noted that the government at the time intended to ban the sale of used clothes in the country “but UCIDA made the government to understand that the Ghanaian textile industry is producing below standards so the people preferred our used clothes to the locally manufactured ones”.
As a result, Mr Ankoma said the complete ban “was removed and the undergarments, mattresses, handkerchiefs and sanitary wares mentioned. But because it had no bases the government relaxed it again”.
The national patron then wondered why the LI is to be implemented and enforced by GSB at this time, adding “we will petition the government because this is not going to help the economy”
Mr Ankoma also expressed fears that the law may in the near future be extended to cover other areas of their businesses, stressing that “this is a sector that employs a lot of people and pays a lot of revenue as in custom duty to the government”.
He also noted that the ban would encourage smuggling of used clothes into the country, a situation he said would deny the government the various revenues it got from them - the importers and dealers.
“This thing is going to create smuggling. If the people want the thing and they are not getting it what do you think they will do?,” he asked.
He thus called on the GSB to rather specify the standards used undergarments and the other clothes that they the importers should meet for them to comply rather than seeking to ban them.
According to the LI, the importation, distribution and sale of used undergarments such as used brassieres, pants, singlets, underwear and other clothes such as used mattresses, handkerchiefs and sanitary wares in the country are prohibited.
However, these products are imported into the country, openly distributed and sold throughout the country, notably Kantamanto in the Greater Accra and Railways in Kumasi.
The GSB is now bent on implementing and enforcing the LI and has since been holding fora with the UCIDA in Takoradi, Kumasi and Accra.
The Accra forum was held at the Allen Gyima Hall in Kantamanto, a place where such clothes are largely distributed and openly sold to the general public.
The meeting was attended by officials from the GSB, Ministry of Trade and Industry and members of the Greater Accra regional UCIDA and the media.
Speaking at the meeting, the acting Director, Inspectorate Division at the GSB, Mr Kofi Nagetey, observed that importers of used clothing were still importing used undergarments after the passage of the LI.
Mr Nagetey said the prohibited goods “are always hidden among other used clothing like trousers and jackets in the bales, thus making it difficult to detect them at the ports ”.
He stressed that used undergarments, handkerchiefs and mattresses posed serious dangers such as skin diseases and bacterial infections to consumers due to their direct contact with the skin and their absorption of fluid from the body.
Mr Nagetey therefore called for the support of the importers and other stakeholders to enable them to implement and enforce the legislation to enable the country to cut down the risks associated with using the used clothes.
As part of measures to ensure the strict and successful implementation and enforcement of the LI, the board, according to Mr Nagetey, would from the first quarter of next year begin the inspection of consignments of used clothing at the various ports and entry points.
“Any consignment of used goods found to contain any used clothing will then be confiscated and destroyed”, he added.
Should the LI be effected, Mr Ankoma, the UCIDA patron said the association would for the time being comply with it but would not hesitate to advice itself at the appropriate time.
During the forum, Mr George Sarpong, Manager of Bast and Son’s Limited, a used clothes company at Kantamanto and member of the Kantamanto branch of the UCIDA, rejected the move and rather called for the review of the LI.
“We have to revisit that LI; it is repugnant, it needs to be reviewed. Even the Constitution is undergoing review, how much more that LI,” Mr Sarpong said.
He further alleged that the confiscation of consignments found to contain used undergarments as indicated by the GSB “is going to create job for the boys” and asked “where will the confiscated goods be sent to”.
Mr Sarpong was also of the view that the February deadline given by the GSB was too close since most of their consignments could take up to six months to arrive in the country.
Responding to their concerns, the acting director urged the members to be dispassionate about the LI, adding that the implementation and enforcement process would be done with a human face.
He further called on them to stop reading politics into the implementation and enforcement process.
The Used Clothes Importers and Dealers Association (UCIDA) is challenging the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) to provide scientific proof to back its claim that used undergarments, mattresses,handkerchiefs and sanitary wares pose health risks to users hence the need to implement and enforce a Legislative Instrument which bans their use in the country.
The GSB is seeking to with effect from February, next year, implement and enforce LI 1586, 1994 which prohibits the importation, distribution and sale of used undergarments and other clothing popularly known as “obroni waa wu” in the country.
The move, according to the board, is to help reduce the possible health risks associated with people who use such clothes in the country.
But even before the implementation and enforcement of the LI begins next year, importers and dealers in the said clothing are already up in arms against the move, describing it as baseless and lacking proof.
Mr Oscar Ankoma, Patron of the National Used Clothes Importers and Dealers Association, told The Mirror “the GSB should provide us with scientific proof or complaints from people who became sick after using our products”.
According to Mr Ankoma, “the goods imported into the country as used clothing are well washed in machines and then fumigated with Methyl Bromide Gas and further given an exposure time of over 24 hours”, a move he said kills all the germs that might have been present in them.
The LI, he said, was passed in 1994 due to a petition by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) to the Ministry of Trade and Industry that the used clothes was killing their businesses.
He noted that the government at the time intended to ban the sale of used clothes in the country “but UCIDA made the government to understand that the Ghanaian textile industry is producing below standards so the people preferred our used clothes to the locally manufactured ones”.
As a result, Mr Ankoma said the complete ban “was removed and the undergarments, mattresses, handkerchiefs and sanitary wares mentioned. But because it had no bases the government relaxed it again”.
The national patron then wondered why the LI is to be implemented and enforced by GSB at this time, adding “we will petition the government because this is not going to help the economy”
Mr Ankoma also expressed fears that the law may in the near future be extended to cover other areas of their businesses, stressing that “this is a sector that employs a lot of people and pays a lot of revenue as in custom duty to the government”.
He also noted that the ban would encourage smuggling of used clothes into the country, a situation he said would deny the government the various revenues it got from them - the importers and dealers.
“This thing is going to create smuggling. If the people want the thing and they are not getting it what do you think they will do?,” he asked.
He thus called on the GSB to rather specify the standards used undergarments and the other clothes that they the importers should meet for them to comply rather than seeking to ban them.
According to the LI, the importation, distribution and sale of used undergarments such as used brassieres, pants, singlets, underwear and other clothes such as used mattresses, handkerchiefs and sanitary wares in the country are prohibited.
However, these products are imported into the country, openly distributed and sold throughout the country, notably Kantamanto in the Greater Accra and Railways in Kumasi.
The GSB is now bent on implementing and enforcing the LI and has since been holding fora with the UCIDA in Takoradi, Kumasi and Accra.
The Accra forum was held at the Allen Gyima Hall in Kantamanto, a place where such clothes are largely distributed and openly sold to the general public.
The meeting was attended by officials from the GSB, Ministry of Trade and Industry and members of the Greater Accra regional UCIDA and the media.
Speaking at the meeting, the acting Director, Inspectorate Division at the GSB, Mr Kofi Nagetey, observed that importers of used clothing were still importing used undergarments after the passage of the LI.
Mr Nagetey said the prohibited goods “are always hidden among other used clothing like trousers and jackets in the bales, thus making it difficult to detect them at the ports ”.
He stressed that used undergarments, handkerchiefs and mattresses posed serious dangers such as skin diseases and bacterial infections to consumers due to their direct contact with the skin and their absorption of fluid from the body.
Mr Nagetey therefore called for the support of the importers and other stakeholders to enable them to implement and enforce the legislation to enable the country to cut down the risks associated with using the used clothes.
As part of measures to ensure the strict and successful implementation and enforcement of the LI, the board, according to Mr Nagetey, would from the first quarter of next year begin the inspection of consignments of used clothing at the various ports and entry points.
“Any consignment of used goods found to contain any used clothing will then be confiscated and destroyed”, he added.
Should the LI be effected, Mr Ankoma, the UCIDA patron said the association would for the time being comply with it but would not hesitate to advice itself at the appropriate time.
During the forum, Mr George Sarpong, Manager of Bast and Son’s Limited, a used clothes company at Kantamanto and member of the Kantamanto branch of the UCIDA, rejected the move and rather called for the review of the LI.
“We have to revisit that LI; it is repugnant, it needs to be reviewed. Even the Constitution is undergoing review, how much more that LI,” Mr Sarpong said.
He further alleged that the confiscation of consignments found to contain used undergarments as indicated by the GSB “is going to create job for the boys” and asked “where will the confiscated goods be sent to”.
Mr Sarpong was also of the view that the February deadline given by the GSB was too close since most of their consignments could take up to six months to arrive in the country.
Responding to their concerns, the acting director urged the members to be dispassionate about the LI, adding that the implementation and enforcement process would be done with a human face.
He further called on them to stop reading politics into the implementation and enforcement process.
Manufacturers receive less at shop floors
Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
MANUFACTURERS in the country received less cash for their produce in November, compared to October since price inflation at the shop floors recorded a dip of 1.18 per cent, after recording 1.45 per cent last October, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has said.
The Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures the average change in the prices received by domestic producers over time for the production of their goods and services recorded, dipped by 1.47 percentage points to 16.01 per cent in November from the October figure of 17.48 per cent.
The PPI reports the price indices with reference to the base period of September 2006.
The Head of Industrial Statistics at the GSS, Mr Ebo Duncan, told the media that the 16.01 per cent producer price inflation for November was an improvement over the 20.36 per cent inflation recorded for the same period in 2009.
While the all industry year-on-year average inflation for the first eleven months of 2010 stood at 18.85 per cent, the sectors recorded mixed rates.
Mr Duncan said manufacturing, the largest industrial sub-sector, recorded the lowest yearly inflation rate of 3.83 per cent. Within that sector, he said, statistics showed that manufacturing of machinery and equipment recorded the highest inflation rates of 33.79 per cent, while publishing, printing and reproduction of recorded media, manufacturing of motors and vehicles, among others, recorded negative inflation rates.
The mining and quarrying sub-sector recorded an inflation rate of 20.35 per cent.
On the other hand, utilities, which include production, transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as the collection, purification and distribution of water, recorded the highest inflation rate of 71.50 per cent.
The sector's 0.02 per cent monthly change rate, however, is the lowest among the three major sub-sectors: manufacturing, mining and quarrying, and utilities.
According to the head of industrial statistics, the inflation rate for mining and quarrying, which recorded the highest monthly inflation change of 3.22 was 20.35 per cent year-on-year.
The all industry inflation rates for the twelve month period of November 2009 to November 2010 was characterised by a hike of 27.71 per cent in December 2009 followed by a decline in the rate between January and May 2010 but increased again in July and September 2010.
It again increased slightly in October 2010 but declined further in November this year.
MANUFACTURERS in the country received less cash for their produce in November, compared to October since price inflation at the shop floors recorded a dip of 1.18 per cent, after recording 1.45 per cent last October, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has said.
The Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures the average change in the prices received by domestic producers over time for the production of their goods and services recorded, dipped by 1.47 percentage points to 16.01 per cent in November from the October figure of 17.48 per cent.
The PPI reports the price indices with reference to the base period of September 2006.
The Head of Industrial Statistics at the GSS, Mr Ebo Duncan, told the media that the 16.01 per cent producer price inflation for November was an improvement over the 20.36 per cent inflation recorded for the same period in 2009.
While the all industry year-on-year average inflation for the first eleven months of 2010 stood at 18.85 per cent, the sectors recorded mixed rates.
Mr Duncan said manufacturing, the largest industrial sub-sector, recorded the lowest yearly inflation rate of 3.83 per cent. Within that sector, he said, statistics showed that manufacturing of machinery and equipment recorded the highest inflation rates of 33.79 per cent, while publishing, printing and reproduction of recorded media, manufacturing of motors and vehicles, among others, recorded negative inflation rates.
The mining and quarrying sub-sector recorded an inflation rate of 20.35 per cent.
On the other hand, utilities, which include production, transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as the collection, purification and distribution of water, recorded the highest inflation rate of 71.50 per cent.
The sector's 0.02 per cent monthly change rate, however, is the lowest among the three major sub-sectors: manufacturing, mining and quarrying, and utilities.
According to the head of industrial statistics, the inflation rate for mining and quarrying, which recorded the highest monthly inflation change of 3.22 was 20.35 per cent year-on-year.
The all industry inflation rates for the twelve month period of November 2009 to November 2010 was characterised by a hike of 27.71 per cent in December 2009 followed by a decline in the rate between January and May 2010 but increased again in July and September 2010.
It again increased slightly in October 2010 but declined further in November this year.
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