COMPANIES IN THE NEWS

Ghana Bans Transit of Foreign Cocoa Beans

Ghana has banned the overland transit of cocoa and cocoa waste from neighbouring states across its territory to stop it being used as a cover for smuggling Ghanaian beans out of the country, states Reuters report.

Mr. Stephen Ntim, the Deputy Chief Executive of industry regulator, Cocobod, said some foreign cocoa merchants who obtained customs permit to transport cocoa from Cote d’ Ivoire through Ghana to Togo were found to have been smuggling beans produced in Ghana’s high-yielding Western cocoa region.

“We did our search and found that these people were operating along the borders in the Brong Ahafo Region and part of the Western Region,” he said.

Mr. Ntim said significant volumes of Ghana’s cocoa had been trafficked out through what he called, “cunning way of smuggling”.

However, he declined to give an estimate of the amount involved.He said although Ghana paid high farm-gate prices than its neighbours, including the world’s leading cocoa grower, Cote d’ Ivoire, merchants in those countries often preferred to have Ghanaian cocoa to mix with their stock and to improve its value.

Ghana’s cocoa is ranked among the world’s best in terms of quality and enjoys a high premium. Ghana now pays a farm-gate price of GH¢ 950 per tonne of cocoa, higher than the equivalent farm-gate prices in neighbouring countries.


Bank of Ghana issues 3 and 5-year bonds

The Bank of Ghana’s three and five-year bonds started selling on December 12, 2007. The Central Bank intends to raise some $30 million with the issue of the three-year bond while the five-year bond will raise about $50 million.

Investors had up to 12 noon Wednesday to buy the bonds. Foreign currency dealers believe this bond will strengthen the cedi against the foreign currencies.

This is because they expect many foreign investors to come in with their currency to buy the bonds.

Ghana to adopt new accounting standards

Ghana is to adopt the new accounting-reporting standard, International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), to bring its public sector accounting practices in line with international standards.

This has become imperative, especially following revelations of alleged embezzlement at the public accounts committee sittings and Ghana’s fast integration into the international financial system.

IPSAS represents a set of high quality international accounting standards designed to meet the specific requirements of public sector institutions, which is also important in view of the country’s fast integration into the international system.

It is expected to make public sector accounting more transparent, reliable and trust worthy.
The United Nations (UN) system, for example, has declared 2010 for all governments, agencies, departments and non-governmental organizations that deal with it to be IPSAS compliant.

This means that Ghana government has to take immediate steps to adopt IPSAS, which prescribes the preparation of accounts based on “accruals basis” and not on cash basis, as is the case with Ghana’s public sector.


ProCredit supports farmers

ProCredit, a Savings and Loans Company, is giving Agricultural loan (Agro-Loan) to farmers to help them develop their agricultural and fisheries businesses.

About $450,000 have been set aside to support the farmers in their agricultural and processing activities, such as crop development, livestock breeding and fish farming or marine fishery.

Both small and large-scale farmers are qualified for the loan and must meet requirements such as the proof of ownership of a business, experience for at least three production cycles and ownership of a voter’s ID, a passport or driver’s license.

Ms. Edwige Takassi, Managing Director of ProCredit, said the support was necessitated by the lack of credit facilities for farmers and the decreasing economic margin for crops such as maize, millet, sorghum and cassava.

She said ProCredit, as a development-oriented institution, was willing to promote the development of agricultural activities as part of its commitment to support the national economic development.

Nsoatreman Bank Introduces New Education Product

The Nsoatreman Rural Bank in the Brong Ahafo Region has launched a new product dubbed:

“Adesua Ahoboa”, which literally means, “Preparation Towards the Child’s Education”.

The product is aimed at helping parents and guardians to save the little money that they might consider as insignificant, and spend it on the education of their children and wards.

A prospective client only needs as little as GH¢1 to open the savings account with the bank to benefit from the product, which has a high yielding interest rate.

Launching the product at Jinjini, a farming community in the Berekum District in the Brong Ahafo Region, Mr. Philip Appiah-Mensah, General Manager of the bank, said the decision to come out with such a product, was to help minimize the burden and frustration parents had to go through to raise money to pay the admission fees of their wards after they had gained entry into senior high schools (SHS).