By Edward Adjei FRIMPONG, Kwatrie Small-scale timber companies are calling on government to provide them assistance to boost their financial capital and help give a face-lift to the industry.  They claim to be in dire need of financial support for importing heavy-powered machines meant for processing wood into finished products -- including doors, knockdown furniture, plywood and T&G. Information gathered by B&FT indicates that most small-scale timber companies are currently into logs and lumber exporting under the pretext of not having support to process timber locally, thus their involvement in the export activities to survive. Sources say at peak periods a small-scale timber company is able to export about 25 containers of logs within a month. This sees the sector increasingly becoming another “gold mine” for some Indians and Chinese who buy from Ghana. Mr. Ritesh Natii, an Indian timber buyer who reluctantly spoke to B&FT said that he is doing a legitimate business. “I buy the timber from Ghanaians, and I strongly believe it is a way of sustaining their source of livelihood” he said.   Against the backdrop that government over the years has been making attempts at finding solutions to the deficit in supplying timber to meet growing demand in the country, others are “recklessly” exporting timber to countries like India, China, Germany and USA. Tree species such as teak and rosewood (a new tree species) are under serious exploitation for export, regardless of the inadequate timber supply in the country.   In October last year, Mr. Mike Hammah, the immediate past-Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, during the Environmental and Natural Resources Summit held in Sunyani announced that government was making frantic efforts to import timber from Cameroun. He emphasised that the Ministry is exploring possibilities of importing logs and lumber to supplement the supply-demand gap. In this regard, he led a team to Cameroun during the first quarter of last year and significant progress had been made in this direction. Currently, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two countries has been finalised and is awaiting a response from the government of Cameroun. Mr. Kofi Vinyo, the CEO of a small-scale timber company -- Kofi Vinyo Limited at Kwatrie in the Sunyani West District of Brong Ahafo -- in an interview said until government puts in place the necessary structures and mechanisms to streamline the timber industry, it will be very difficult for Ghana to change its vulnerability status in that sector -- adding that doing business in the present-day of the timber industry is really frustrating. “Small-scale timber companies do not have the financial capacity to import the needed machines for local wood processing. Neither do we have the collateral to merit millions of dollars bank loans, thus limiting us to selling raw cuts to foreigners” he complained.   He also mentioned what he termed “snail-pace” operations of the Forestry Commission as another challenge retarding activities in the timber industry. According to him, it takes a year or two for the Forestry Commission to give the green light for harvesting a forest or plantation concession, adding that this situation is taking a toll on small-scale timber companies. This, he says, gives illegal operators an undue advantage to exploit the forest and plantations, as the hands of small-scale timber companies are tied by the Forestry Commission. Meanwhile, Mr. Thomas Okyere, the Brong Ahafo Regional Manager of the Forest Service Division of the Forestry Commission, has strongly refuted the claims of Mr. Vinyo, saying: “We only prevent them from circumventing the laws governing the sector.”    Mr. Vinyo therefore made a passionate appeal for government to provide small-scale timber companies with financial support to enhance their businesses so that they can contribute their quota to national development. He pointed out that other options like accessing credit from commercial banks are not easy to come by, hence their appeal for government to give them a helping hand. He added that they contribute significantly to national development; saying in the midst of all the challenges, they offer employment to a lot of people and can do better with government’s support to process timber locally. This, he said, would help reduce the unemployment problem by engaging many people as well as expanding the country’s economy with large-scale timber processing.

By Basiru ADAM City Waste Management Company Limited has unveiled a degassing plant imported from Germany at a cost of about €200 million as part of efforts to help recycle old fridges turned in by Ghanaian consumers in the ongoing refrigerator rebate and exchange scheme introduced by the Energy Commission. The plant will be used to degas the fridges before they are finally dismantled in order to avoid the ozone-depleting gasses being emitted into the atmosphere. The gasses collected will be sold on the international market through the carbon credit scheme. “This plant not only degasses fridges and air conditioners; it also decontaminates the oils from the compressors, which contain about 30 percent gas. This allows us to re-use or recycle these oils without any hazardous consequences,” Managing Director of City Waste Jurgen Meinel said. At the moment, the company receives fridges turned in from Accra and Tema only. When the rebate scheme goes nationwide, more fridges will be sent to City Waste for dismantling. “We are planning that in the near-future, latest by 2014, all recycling activities will be relocated to our new site at Nsawam, which will be a recycling village,” Mr. Meinel said.     Kofi Adu Agyarko, Deputy Director at the Energy Commission, said about 1,200 old fridges have been turned in so far and that annual energy savings through the rebate scheme will be between 30 to 50 percent.He stressed the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that the scheme is spread to other parts of the country to help save energy. The refrigerator rebate and exchange scheme, which began in September, is being piloted in Accra and Tema and is estimated to cost GH¢500,000. It is expected to run till the end of the year, after which it will be rolled-out nationwide. For the next three years, the Commission hopes to replace some 50,000 high-energy consuming and environmentally-destructive refrigerators out of an estimated 2 million said to be in use in Ghanaian homes.A ban on the importation of second-hand fridges is currently in force to stop the influx. Ridding the nation of inefficient refrigerators is expected to result in savings of about 216 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity, which is more than half of the electricity that will be produced by the Bui dam. The Energy Commission further estimates that aside from preventing the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the elimination of inefficient refrigerators will also save Ghana some US$72million per annum by 2020.    Residents of Accra and Tema, since the pilot started, have been turning in their old refrigerators at Somovision and Beko sales outlets in exchange for new ones -- the prices of which range between GH¢370 and GH¢1,000.Depending on the size and the energy-efficiency level of the new refrigerators, a discount of between GH¢150 and GH¢200 is applied on the purchase. To aid people who cannot make up the difference, the Commission says it has an arrangement with Ecobank to provide such persons with credit facilities. The new refrigerators are star-rated in terms of their energy-efficiency level. A five-star-rated fridge is the most efficient. According to the Commission, a highly-efficient refrigerator consumes the same energy as a 100-watt light bulb, and one can save up to GH¢200 on electricity per year by using an energy-efficient refrigerator.

By Konrad Kodjo DJAISI Agriculture and agro-processing in the West African sub-region require larger markets to be competitive and become engines of food security and economic growth. This is because small national markets and country-focused food security notions create disincentives to increasing domestic production. This observation was made by Dr. Mima Nedelcovych, a partner of Schaffer Global Group, and Dr. Denise Mainville, a senior associate of Abt Associates, when they delivered a paper on trade-barrier effects on agribusiness investment in ECOWAS. The pair, who delivered their paper at a three-day conference jointly organised by ECOWAS and USAID’s Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP) and Expanded Agribusiness and Trade Promotion (E-ATP) teams in Accra last week, conducted 40 key informant interviews with food processors, packagers, traders, farmers, associations, and transporters in major cities of Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Côte’ d’Ivoire. Dr. Nedelcovych noted that the ECOWAS Common Market is not effective in many ways -- especially with regard to lack of respect for the Common External Tariff, and uncertain internal tariffs. She said the lack of an enabling environment for regional trade results in many missed opportunities; thus hurting food security and economic development. ATP and E-ATP promote trade in major agricultural staples and livestock in West Africa. The programmes focuses on reducing physical and policy-related barriers to moving goods along key transport corridors; enhancing linkages among producers and suppliers, processors, and distributors; increasing advocacy in support of a conducive environment for agricultural trade; and improving the efficiency of trade transactions and regional market access. In the findings, Dr. Mainville also observed that opportunities exist for regional marketing of maize and maize-based products. With rice and other staples, they said it was a very politically-sensitive crop for food security -- but observed that the plethora of trade barriers limit trade of locally produced rice. The conference, which brought private and public sector players in the agribusiness trade value-chain together, shared a sense that the regional trade framework for trade and food security is sound and encouraging to the free movement of goods and people in the sub-region; but the main weakness is that national policies and practices still need to be aligned with the spirit of the framework provided by trade protocols and the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme. Important regional ECOWAS policies and protocols have already been agreed to and endorsed by all the heads of state in the region, but some of the states have not taken the subsequent steps to integrate the agreed-upon policies into their national structures and regulations.

By Patrick PAINTSIL The country’s current electricity demand has outstripped supply due to a consistent annual demand growth of over 10 percent, resulting in a critical demand-supply imbalance and complete depletion of the system reserve margin. Measures by the Volta River Authority (VRA) to address the energy gap are further delayed by non-cost-reflective tariffs, which do not attract sufficient investment to the Authority and thereby weakens its finances, Mr. Samuel Kwesi Fletcher, Head of Corporate Communications for Volta River Authority (VRA), has disclosed. “Electricity infrastructure projects are capital-intensive, which normally requires huge capital outlay -- not less than US$100million -- and takes about four years to complete under ideal circumstances. Current electricity tariffs are uneconomic, considering now that VRA has to purchase significant quantities of crude oil to generate power because there is no gas supply from the West African Gas Pipeline. “Upsurges in crude oil prices coupled with arrears owed VRA by the public sector and delays in honouring government promissory notes arising out of oil purchases constitute a colossal amount in both local and foreign currencies, thus worsening our financial situation. The aggregate of these factors are affecting the operations of VRA.” Mr. Fletcher told this to journalists during a media tour of VRA’s facilities at Tema, Kpong, Akuse and Akosombo to inform the public through the press on current operations and state of its machinery. The tour was also to provide on-site guidelines for the media on how to improve reportage on issues relating to power generation and understanding some basic terminologies and operational activities. Mr. Fletcher said the accidental damage to the WAGP continues to strain VRA’s power generation efficiency.“The damage to the gas pipeline has had its toll on our power generation capacity. We are currently losing 200 megawatts of power due to the malfunction of the Asogli power plant -- an independent power provider -- which runs solely on gas. “During elections last year, we had to import 100 megawatts of power from Ivory Coast. In the absence of gas, we have had to rely on crude oil which is very expensive -- costing double the amount we spend with gas,” he noted. On energy conservation, Mr. Fletcher said: “Economic growth comes with necessary infrastructure; the country’s energy needs keeps growing year-on-year, hence the need for the public to use power judiciously.“We don’t have the required reserve for a stable system, and therefore all hands must be on deck if we are to address the issue of load-shedding. To solve our energy problems today, we should have started four years ago,” Mr. Fletcher noted.

By Patrick PAINTSILEnterprise Life Assurance Company (ELAC) has in collaboration with the Wisewater Foundation, a private non-governmental organisation, donated whiteboards and markers worth GH¢2,800 to the Bishop Girls Basic School in Accra. The whiteboards will replace conventional chalkboards which are said to cause eye-related problems to teachers and pupils. Mr. Francis Akoto-Yirenkyi, Senior Manager, Distribution, presenting the items said: “Meeting the needs of people is core to our business and is in line with ELAC’s corporate theme for the year -- insurance delivery with a heart -- where the heart symbolises purity, its intentions toward the welfare of policyholders and the general public.” He said ELAC realised the hazardous nature of the chalk-dust, hence the need to support replacement of conventional blackboards with whiteboards. “Blackboards have been with us for many years, but notwithstanding all benefits, it has over the years proven to have adverse effects on the health and well-being of both teachers and students. “Chalk-dust accumulates in the human respiratory system, which means it can create long-term health problems due to overexposure.  â€œAs a corporate entity it is our corporate social responsibility to give back to society part of what we have been blessed with, by supporting the educational sector as well as some public institutions,” Mr. Akoto-Yirenkyi disclosed. He charged the pupils to take their books seriously so as to become responsible people in society.Mr. Emmanuel Amarquaye, Chairman of Wisewater Foundation, said the “Whiteboard Project” was born out of the harmful effects of the chal-dust to teachers and pupils when inhaled.  â€œThe Foundation believes that public schools ought to be community-owned, in that businesses operating within the community must assist in the form of corporate social responsibility. “The way forward to meeting some of the numerous challenges facing public schools is the adoption of business marketing models to raise funds, and this project is one of such,” he noted. Mr. Francis Akoto-Yirenkyi, Senior Manager, Distribution (ELAC), presenting markers for the whiteboards to a pupil of Bishop Girls School

By Benson AFFUL  Maria Helena Semedo, the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Regional Representative for Africa, has urged the continent to step-up agricultural productivity and production to meet the demands of a rapidly-rising population. “The projected increase in world population over the next 40 years demonstrates the urgency of implementing measures that favour actions and policies that simultaneously address climate-change mitigation and adaptation in agriculture while supporting development objectives and ensuring food security.” According to her, more productive and resilient agriculture needs better management of natural resources such as land, water and genetic resources. She held the view that appropriate financing mechanisms and additional investments in the agricultural sector are indeed fundamental and therefore should be a key component of the region’s collaborative endeavour. It is estimated that Africa’s agricultural sector requires cumulative investments until 2050 of US$940bn, and almost half (US$ 444bn) will be required in agribusiness and agro-industries capital outlays -- covering items such as dry and cold storage; rural and wholesale market facilities; and primary processing. The remaining US$496bn will be required for use in primary production (agriculture and livestock production). She said the task in an environment of climate change is becoming more complex, requiring the involvement of different stakeholders with complementary knowledge and perspectives. She was speaking at a workshop in Accra on “Agriculture Systems at Risk, Priority Actions toward Climate Change Adaptation”. The workshop was also used to launch the Global Soil Partnership for West and Central Africa.  Maria, who doubles as the Assistant Director-General of the FAO, explained that adaptation to climate change is a multinational, ecological and socio-economic process that requires broad-based commitment by the global community. She said the 27th FAO Regional Conference for Africa held in Brazzaville, Congo, last year endorsed climate-change among the priority areas toward agricultural development in the Africa. “Agriculture is among the sectors most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, mostly having negative consequences on productivity, production stability and income generation in areas that already have high levels of food insecurity,” she said. Acting Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture Mr. Yaw Effah-Baafi told B&FT in an earlier interview that the government of Ghana with support from the USAID and World Bank has developed the Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project (GCAP), which aims to improve the investment climate for agri-business and develop inclusive private-public partnerships. “The GCAP also has the objective of developing smallholder linkages aimed at increasing on-farm productivity and value-addition in selected value chains,” he added.

  By Kizito CUDJOE, Kumasi The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has received additional funding from the French Government to complete works on the Oforikrom-Asokwa bypass and extension of the initial 2.7km Lake Road from Ahinsan to Kumasi South Hospital in Atonsu-Agogo. The project began in June 2008 at an estimated cost of €37million and was being jointly funded by the Government of Ghana and the Agence Francaise de Developpment (AFD) of the French Government. The completion of the project as originally planned would have among other things eased the flow of vehicular movement within the metropolis. The project was expected to have been completed in 18 months’ time; however, the change of government in 2008 and some unexpected occurrences prolonged the period scheduled for the project’s completion. The first two phases of the project covering the Asokwa bypass from Anloga Junction to Timber Gardens and the drain from Anloga Junction to High School Junction also came to an unexpected end as the result of lack of funds. Though the project was about 86% complete, the sudden end of the project late last year resulted in a diminution of the impact from efforts to lessen the traffic situation on the Lake Road. The cost of works still to be carried out now stands at £40 million, and completion of the rest of the project is expected to completely eliminate the traffic congestion on the Lake Road as well as the intermittent flooding.  The drainage component of the project, which consists of continuation of the Sissai storm-drain, is part of extension plans to cover about 2.5 kilometres downstream.      These major highlights were made known to the general public at a stakeholders’ forum in Kumasi organised by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to provide information about the impending project, and also especially enable those whose properties will be affected to get feedback from consultants on the project.     Commuters and drivers who ply the Lake Road have complained about the bitter punishment of long traffic congestion they encounter on the road.  It is hoped that this latest announcement by KMA will lead to easing traffic congestion on the Lake Road.  

  By Seth KRAMPAH, Kumasi With the advent of the internet and its usefulness, a lot more institutions are making essential use of its software component, particularly in the banking industry -- and rural banks are not left out either. The IT Department of the  ARB Apex Bank Limited  is  leaving no stone unturned to explore all the opportunities necessary to run series of training programmes in ICT to enable rural banks operate more effectively and ensure efficiency in their operations. It is therefore in this regard that the Apex Bank has commenced a nationwide training programme in ICT to sharpen the skills of rural bank personnel particularly, to address the teething challenges posed by the T-24 software essentials. The training, being organised by the Training and IT Department of the Apex Bank, is currently underway and taking place in all the ten regions across the country. Participants include General and Supervising Managers, Operations Staff, System Administrators, as well as Internal Auditors. Mr. Collins Bazaana, a resource person from the IT Department of Apex Bank who spoke to Business & Financial Times in Kumasi during the Kumasi training, said the entire effort to unravel every mystery regarding ICT in banking is to ensure efficiency and become completely acquainted with T-24 essentials and its challenges so that other services like the SMS Alert and Internet Banking can be introduced. The operations of the over-130 rural banks with approximately 700 branches and agencies have so far been automated under the ARB Apex Bank’s computarisation programme. Currently, all the banks are running on the latest version of the eMerge software known as the T-24. Computarisation of the rural and community banks under the MCA took off in July 2010, by which time 130 rural and community banks with 750 head-offices and agencies had been migrated onto the eMerge T-24 platform. All rural and community banks can therefore log onto a central database system that is hosted at the Apex Bank Head Office in Accra through a Wide Area Network. The computarisation has come with a lot of challenges and high running cost, and Apex Bank is working very assiduously to resolve these teething problems and enable the banks offer quality services to their clients at a minimum cost through the introduction of products to increase income streams.  

  The opening of the branch, named the Alabar Branch, brings to seven (7) the total number of the Bank’s branches since its establishment in 1983. Mr. Patrick Owusu, Board Chairman of the Bank, in his address stated that the opening of the Alabar branch is a clear testimony of the Bank’s long-cherished dream of providing their enviable services to the central business area of Kumasi. He noted that a good number of the Bank’s clients trade within Central Market, Adum, Manhyia, Roman  Hill, Alabar and Dr. Mensah, and believes that getting closer to them will help to improve on the relationship.  

Individuals with both management and financial accounting skills seen as vital by those looking to hire new talent The vast majority of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) looking to appoint new staff for their businesses believe it is important for each potential employee to have both a breadth and depth of finance expertise and capabilities, a new report from ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) reveals. Called The Complete Finance Professional: Why breadth and depth of finance capability matter in today’s finance function, the report gathers together existing evidence about the role of the 21st century accountant. It also outlines why broad-based finance qualifications remain valuable in economically turbulent times. For the report, ACCA surveyed nearly 500 CFOs in the UK, Malaysia, Russia, China and the UAE, asking them a series of questions about what was important to them when it comes to appointing newly qualified accountants; what gives them confidence in their new hires; and what skills enable them to grow their business, particularly since the financial crisis. Helen Brand OBE, chief executive of ACCA, says: “Our research shows that recruiters are looking to appoint the complete finance professional, and seek out newly qualified accountants who have breadth and depth of skills. ACCA’s view is that the environment in which finance professionals now work requires them to bring a broader range of finance skills to the table. Finance functions now have to be excellent in a wide range of capabilities, from supporting businesses to managing risk, developing effective strategies for growth, driving financial insight, continuing to maintain appropriate levels of control across the organisation as well as ensuring its statutory and regulatory responsibilities are met.” Helen Brand added: “More than 80% of respondents said a complete understanding of the finance value chain - from budgeting to external reporting - and how all this fits together, was critical. The finance team has to meet the challenges posed by a post-crisis global economy which is increasingly volatile, complex and competitive - and given the breadth of financial activities that finance leaders are now engaged in, it is hardly surprising that they are looking to recruit employees with a broad range of skills and understanding.” Key findings from the 500 global finance professionals surveyed for inclusion in this new report show: • The importance of newly qualified finance professionals having a good working knowledge of different finance areas also resulted in high scores for each subject – for instance, 96% said newly qualified finance professionals should know about financial management; and 94% said it was important to have a good understanding of professionalism and ethics. Management skills scored 73% while stakeholder relationship management came lower down the ranking at 68%, possibly because CFOs responsible for hiring would see this as a development for the future. • The most beneficial grounding to help a newly qualified finance professional on the path to being a future leader was a full appreciation of financial and management accounting, at 61%, with 17% saying a strong strategic focus was also an excellent grounding. • 89% said that understanding the links between all areas of finance enabled recruits to minimise future financial risks and 88% said it also enabled them to deal with financial challenges. 80% said it would enable their new recruit to take their career in any direction they chose. • When it comes to sustainable business growth, 76% said it ‘really adds value to their business’ for their finance professionals to have the complete finance knowledge and skills set, from both financial and strategic management accounting. Helen Brand concludes: “The need for finance staff to have a broad range of skills and expertise throughout the finance value chain is of prime importance to CFOs - and is therefore of equal importance to individuals looking to plan their careers and maximise their employability. Traditional career routes within the finance function are changing – we are seeing new types of finance roles emerging for example in shared services or global business service operations.  In an annual survey of employers we conducted last year, nearly 90% of employers said the ACCA Qualification was relevant to all employment sectors; this confirms our belief that ACCA offers a relevant qualification that meets the needs of business, individuals and employers to ensure that we develop the complete finance professional capable of achieving strategic roles in business.”