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.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)