Cocoa Processing Company pays 1.5 billion cedis dividend to State

Cocoa Processing Company (CPC), a major confectionery manufacturer, on Tuesday paid 1.55 billion cedis in dividend to the government of Ghana, its majority shareholder.


This is the first time the company has paid any dividend to government since it was listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange three years ago. CPC successfully floated 40 per cent of the shares of the sole shareholder to the public in 2003.


Nana Obiri Boahen, Board Chairman of CPC, said the initial challenges faced by the company had been subdued while its expansion and rehabilitation programme embarked on in 2004 with the view to increase overall throughput capacity from 25,000 to 65,000 metric tonnes annually was well on course and substantially accomplished.


The first phase of the programme involving the construction of a state-of-the-art 30,000-metric tons per annum capacity liquor plant was completed and commissioned in November last year.


Nana Boahen said the second phase, which will deal with the refurbishment of the old cocoa factory in order to increase its capacity from 25,000 to 35,000 tons per annum had started and expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2007.


The expansion is expected to generate an annual turnover of 100 million dollars for the company. Besides this physical transformation, the company was undergoing a major structural reorganisation, which will substantially boost its efficiency, Nana Boahen added.


This is expected to result in job cuts, he said, but added that the company was committed to an amicable settlement for the job losses. He appealed to government to continue to support the company to achieve its set goals.


In response, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance, said government would do all it could to support local industries and companies to become competitive.


He said the expansion works being carried out by the company was in line with government’s vision to process at least 40 per cent of local production of cocoa, which had been growing steadily reaching 730,000 tons in the 2005/06 cocoa season.

Water, electricity tariffs go up from November 1

Water and electricity tariffs, which were to go up from last May, come into effect from Wednesday, November 1, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) announced on Tuesday.

A gazette announcing the increases said for residential units, consumption of between one and 300 units of electricity would attract 700 cedis per unit, from 301 to 600 units would attract 1,200 cedis per unit while 600 units and above attract 5,000 cedis per unit.

For non-residential areas, 1-300 units attract 1,029 cedis per unit, between 300 and 600 units would be 1,250 units while 600 units and above attract 1,450 cedis per unit.

For water, the rate for between zero and 20,000 litres for metered domestic use would attract 4,850 cedis per 1,000 litres while consumption of 20,000 litres and above is 6,750 cedis per 1,000 litres.


The rate for unmetered houses the flat rate per month is 28,794 cedis per 1,000 litres, while the rate for public stand pipes is 4,850 cedis per 1,000 cedis.


The flat rate for commercial in industrial oranisations and public and government departments is 8,150 cedis per 1,000 litres while the special commercial rate is 20,375 per litre.


A statement signed by Mr Kwame Pianim, Chairman of the PURC, said in line with the policy of discontinuation of the automatic adjustment, the utility companies were being invited henceforth to submit their request for tariff adjustment based on detailed cost buildup to enable the Commission to minimize inefficiencies and avoid transmitting such management inefficiencies to the consuming public.


The PURC said the utility companies should endeavour to cut cist and improve the delivery of utility services to consumers. "The VRA (Volta River Authority) and ECG (Electricity Company of Ghana) are requested to adhere strictly to the load shedding programme in order to minimize inconveniences to the consuming public.


"Investors are being encouraged to explore opportunities to invest in the energy and water sectors to take advantage of the obvious shortages in the supply of these essential services."


The statement said it had become obvious that the country could no longer depend upon government resources and those of VRA to provide adequate and reliable energy supplies needed to fuel the nation's accelerated growth agenda.


"We need to make the environment attractive to independent power producers. For these investors, an economic tariff is of strategic and primary consideration."


The PURC said for the average consumer, it had become increasingly clear that conservation must not only be encouraged but be enjoined by a realistic tariff structure that reflected the scarcity value of the utility services.


"For the average worker, it is in the long term more desirable to pay a little bit more for dependable and realistic electricity rather than continue with current uneconomic tariff and its accompanying unreliable and disruptive supply that destroy people's appliances acquired after long years of savings."
GNA

Government will take decision on ex-President when necessary - Bartels

Mr Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Information and National Orientation, on Tuesday said the government would take a decision on ex-President Jerry John Rawlings when it became satisfied with the intelligence information gathered on his reports of his bid to stage a coup.

He said it would not be wise to disclose security information to the
public and that the decision as to whether the ex-President should be arrested and prosecuted would be done when necessary.


For now, however, government would just give him “close marking”, Mr Bartels said at a press conference to react to some statements the ex-President made last Thursday when he reacted to accusations by President John Agyekum Kufuor that he had allegedly been soliciting funds from an oil rich country to stage a coup in Ghana.


"When you have a man with the kind of history Mr Rawlings is made of, you don't play with him, rather you give him close marking.” He said the conference was unique because it was the first time the New Patriotic Party had decided to respond to the many effusions of the former President which had come to be known as "boom speeches".


Some of the statements that Mr Bartels reacted to included whether ex-president Rawlings was planning a coup, whether President Kufuor was being whitewashed by the West, alleged complaints of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan about the conduct of the judiciary in Ghana as well as allegation of corruption and cocaine scandals.


Mr Bartels said ex-President Rawlings was expected to deny that he was planning a coup and it would have been strange if he actually admitted it. "Ex-President Rawlings is known in this country as a serial coup-maker involved in three coups, one of which failed...but we all have the history of Rawlings' second coming which brought in the PNDC era to guide us."


He said nobody in Ghana who had the experience of ex-President Rawlings from 1979 to date and had even made a cursory study of Ghana's history would make the mistake that given the chance the ex-president would not organize another coup.


Part of the problem between the ex-President and President Kufuor started soon after he handed over in 2001 and he and his wife went to Switzerland and instructed the Ambassador to release 30,000 dollars for her treatment which the Ambassador politely refused.


Touching on the other allegations, he said it was not US President George Bush and UN Prime Minister Tony Blair alone who held President Kufuor in high esteem but that most world leaders admired him for his ability to turn Ghana's economy around, respect for human rights and the rule of law, among other things.


He said it was strange that ex-president Rawlings could think that the government could control CNN and the BBC and other foreign media, adding that government remained committed to freedom of speech, expression and independence of the media and did not even control Ghana's state media.


He said this was in contrast to what happened during the PNDC and NDC eras when the media was controlled and gagged by subtle methods and journalists were detained.


On cocaine Mr Bartels said under the administration of the former President, the US 1999 report on narcotics said 300 cases of illicit drugs, including cocaine had gone unpunished between 1994 and 1999 in Ghana.


He said it was unfortunate that ex-President Rawlings was trying to bring Mr Annan into partisan politics in Ghana and asked the public should ignore those remarks.


Mr Bartels said the Armed Forces had appealed to the ex-President to stop drawing them into politics when he had a problem with the government. Mr Bartels said at the conference, during which slides of atrocities committed during the PNDC era were shown, that there had been no kangaroo courts and political detainees in Ghana's prisons, adding that 146 people went missing or were murdered during the PNDC era.


In an answer to a question as to whether those slides undermined the national reconciliation process, Mrs Gloria Akuffo, Aviation Minister, said "it was important to remind ourselves of where we came from in order not to repeat those mistakes as we move forward".
GNA

Beauty queens call on Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations

The Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations,Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, on Tuesday reiterated his call to Africans in the Diaspora to pool their resources to develop Africa.


He said the continent was stricken with immense poverty and governments alone could not marshal the huge resources required to bring about development.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey made the call when both Miss Caribbean Commonwealth 2005 and 2006 called on him in Accra.


The visit of the beauty queens formed part of the award package of the pageant, which provided air tickets to travel to any country of her choice.


The Minister noted that it was high time Africans living in the Diaspora reunited with their roots and contributed their quota to the development drive of the continent.

Mr Obtsetsebi-Lamptey explained the Joseph's Project to them saying it formed part of Ghana's 50th anniversary celebration where Africans abroad would be encouraged to come back home.

Miss Shaheroh Williams, Miss Caribbean Commonwealth 2006 expressed gratitude for the Ghanaian hospitability saying she was pleased to be visiting the country for the first time.

In another development, students from the Sunamis in the Netherlands paid a courtesy call on the Minister as part of their education tour to the country.


The students who are basically Ghanaians born abroad and Africans in the Diaspora would visit some the tourist sites in the country to acquaint themselves with the slave trade.
GNA