Mahama urges increased industrialization in Africa
President John Mahama says African countries must begin adding value to their raw materials to create more jobs for the continent’s youth.
The President said this Sunday when he addressed the Sustainable Development Summit 2015 at the United Nations in New York.
“The path to sustainable development for my country Ghana, and many other African countries, has been a difficult one. We are still the main producers of primary commodities while secondary and tertiary processing are done in the developed worlds and finished goods are exported back to us,” he told world leaders at the summit.
Ghana Gas Company increases capacity to process more gas
The Ghana Gas Company says it is upgrading its infrastructure to enhance the capacity to receive all the gas from the Jubilee Field for processing.
The development is expected to help improve the country’s current energy challenge.
Speaking to Joy Business about concerns that excess gas may have to be flared due to the lack of capacity, Chief Executive Dr. George Sipa Yankey differed.
He emphasized that Ghana Gas has more capacity to process gas from the current facilities, dismissing concerns that his company may not have the capacity to take up excess gas produced.
Dr. Yankey added that “when the Tweneboa-Enyenra Ntomme – TEN and what we call ‘the Greater Jubilee’ comes on stream that will increase the amount of gas to about 250 million standard cubic feet of gas. The second train will take all the gas from TEN and Jubilee.”
Natalia Koliadina takes over as IMF country boss
Dr. Natalia koliadina is heading to Ghana as the new International Monetary Fund country representative.
Madam Koliadina who is the immediate IMF mission Chief to Lesotho is replacing, Dr. Samir JahJah who has ended his three-year service to Ghana.
She is expected to assume office in the coming weeks.
Madam Natalia Koliadina, a Russian, is a senior economist in the African Department of the IMF.
She holds a PhD in Economics from the George Washington University and another PhD in Political Economy from the Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences and a M.A from Moscow Academy of Finance.
Within the IMF, she has worked in the European, Policy Development and Review and African Departments and was once the IMF Resident Representative to Belarus
Anglogold to reinstate dismissed workers
AngloGold Ashanti has hinted to Citi Business News that most of its workers that were laid off in its retrenchment exercise last year are likely to reinstated.
The move according to AngloGold Ashanti, operators of the Obuasi mine, is part of the company’s partnership with Randgold Resources Limited. Late last year AngloGold Ashanti Ghana laid off some 4,300 of its workers as part of cost-saving measures and part of measures undertaken by the mining company to make the Obuasi mine profitable. AngloGold Ashanti budgeted to spend 220 million dollars in the major retrenchment exercise.
Aluworks makes loss of GH¢4.4m
Aluworks Ghana Limited made a loss of GH¢4.4 million after tax in 2014.
In 2013, the company recorded a loss of GH¢1.5 million, and the increase in the losses has been attributed to financing costs, which overwhelmed the relatively good margins that had been achieved.
In 2014, exchange losses amounted to GH¢6.7 million, well above the budget of GH¢1.97 million and the previous year’s GH¢3.2 million, which was considered high at the time.
The Managing Director of the company, Mr E. Kwasi Okoh, who disclosed this at the company’s 28th annual general meeting (AGM) in Accra, said “financing costs were extremely high in 2014 mainly because of the unprecedented cedi depreciation”.
Exporters welcome sanctions by government over international exhibitions
The Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana have welcomed government’s decision to sanction exporters who fail to honour invitations to participate in international exhibitions at the expense of the state.
According to the Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association Samson Awingobit Asaaki tax payer’s funds must not be allowed to go waste. His comments comes after the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) Gideon Quarcoo said government will penalize businesses which fail to honour invitations to participate in international exhibitions at the expense of the state.
Producer Price Inflation for August decreases to 4.4%
The Producer Price Inflation (PPI) for August 2015 saw a decline from the 10.2 per cent recorded in July 2015 to 4.4 per cent.
The figure represents a 5.8 percentage point decrease.
This means that the month-on-month change in Producer Price Index (PPI) between July and August 2015 was -3.4 per cent.
Producer inflation, which is measured by the price index, looks at the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services.
Briefing the media in Accra, the Government Statistician, Dr Philomena Nyarko, attributed the decrease to the decline in the prices of crude and gold on the world market.
Economy to grow by 4.1%
The economy is expected to grow a little over 4 percent this year. That’s according to the Ghana Statistical Service.
The service disclosed this when it released figures covering the performance of the economy for the second quarter of this year.
The quarter on quarter report projects that the economy will grow at 4.1 % this year, higher than government’s own projection of 3.5%.
According to the report, industry recorded the highest growth figures.
Provisional Real Gross Domestic Product (including Oil and Gas) for the 2nd quarter of 2015 grew by 3.9 per cent (year-on-year).
Credit: Joy Business Graphic Business Citi online
