Kofi Ahovi

Standard Bank and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have collaborated on the Africa Carbon Asset Development (ACAD) Facility to fight against climate change in Africa. The Facility which is the first facility dedicated to boosting the African carbon market is a partnership between the UNEP, Standard Bank and the German Government’s International Climate Initiative, administered by its Federal Environment Ministry. ACAD supports African carbon projects through a combination of technical assistance, grants and preferential access to corporate finance and transactional guidance. ACAD takes a new approach toward capacity and market development, sharing costs and risks with African banks such as Standard Bank to realize and replicate projects. “Huge investments, especially in Africa, will be needed if we are to minimize the effects of climate change,” said Sylvie Lemmet, Director of UNEP’s Paris-based Division of Technology, Industry and Economics. “Government investment alone wi...

By Kofi Ahovi Microsoft, a software manufacturing company, has introduced a new operating system dubbed Windows7 and an antivirus, Microsoft Security Essentials, that only works on Microsoft genuine windows. The new products were introduced to the company’s distributors and resellers in the country at a day’s seminar organized by ProTech, a software and hardware distribution in Ghana. Explaining the features of Windows7 to the participants, Uzo Okpaka, Channel Compliance Manager of Microsoft, said the new product was developed based on a survey conducted among its clients who requested for a more convenient, faster and safer operating system. Windows7 was built on windows Vista due to its security features making it safer compared to other operating systems. According to Okpaka, Windows7 has been tested with more that 8000 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) “and it was more responsive compared to other operating systems” she noted. Windows7 comes in for categories and these are Win...

Stanbic Bank group profits down 17% By Kofi Ahovi The headline earnings of Standard Bank Group, the parent company of Stanbic Bank Ghana, were down by 17% recording SAR 11,718 billion in 2009. The bank also recorded a 20% reduction in its headline earnings per share recording 757 cent per share in the same year. The group further recorded 13.6% return on equity (ROE) compared to 18.2% in 2008. Based on this, the bank maintained its total distribution per ordinary share at the same level as 2008, resulting in a total distribution for the year of 386 cents per share. Announcing the annual results of the bank for 2009, the Group Chief Executive, Jacko Maree said “It was an extremely tough year, but one in which our focus on developing markets stood us in good stead. Our vision to be a leading emerging markets financial services organization remains unchanged. Our resilience in the face of the severe challenges of the past two years confirms that the group is strategically well placed.” Em...

Esolution Consulting, a risk management consultancy, has organized a workshop on Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Management to ensure the achievement of business goals. The workshop was to create awareness and the need for organizations, businesses and government to develop the capacity to continue critical business activities in the event of any disaster. The Chief Executive of Esolution Consulting, Solomon Adiyiah, observed that, effective business continuity and disaster recovery must be informed by clear understanding of critical processes that must be conducted in order to achieve business goals and key supporting objectives. He added that, to ensure that the processes are adequately protected, business continuity planners must have clear and comprehensive understanding of all critical business elements in an organization, including their relationships, inter-dependencies and relative priority to the businesses. “So risks can be identified, assessed and appropriately pla...

By Kofi AHOVI The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulator of the capital market, will this week finalize the approval of the prospectus of Comet Properties Limited, a wholly owned Ghanaian real estate company, for listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). Comet Properties late last year got its provisional listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange. Provisional listing was introduced to the Ghanaian stock market a couple of years ago to help small and medium companies list on the GSE. Companies have to complete all processes to get fully listed on the exchange within 18 months after provisionally listing on the exchange. However, management of Comet Properties promised to complete the processes within six months. After the approval of its prospectus by SEC, the company would commence its Initial Public Offer to enable the general public to invest in the company. The company, which started operations in 2002, is ranked as the 47th company in the Ghana Club 100 magazine. Since ...

By Kofi Ahovi Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) has unveiled five new additions to its Bancassuarance product suite. These are Drive Safe (motor insurance), Live Safe (personal Accident insurance), Travel Safe (foreign Travel insurance), Cargo Safe (marine insurance) and Home Safe (home and personal assets). Bancassurance is a bundle of insurance solutions that enables customers of the bank meet their insurance needs along with their banking needs, under one roof. These solutions are underwritten by Ghana’s oldest insurance providers, Enterprise Insurance Company and the Enterprise Life Insurance Company. The new offer complements the Family Funeral Insurance, Educare Insurance and Term Assurance Products already on offer from the bank. With this development, standard Chartered, which pioneered this innovation in Ghana in 2007, now has on offer the most insurance products than any bank in the country. The general manager of wealth management/insurance and transactional banking of SCB, Ben ...

By Solace AMANKWA Government has constituted a high level committee of security and legal experts to draft a policy document, aimed at safeguarding operations in the oil and gas sector. The policy will protect the petroleum industry against acts of terrorism, sabotage, piracy and vandalism. This would create a safe, secure and enabling environment to facilitate the exploration, exploitation and distribution of oil and gas. Besides, it would prevent the diversion and stealing of petroleum products, and further prevent other users of the sea from interfering with operations. According to the Minister of Energy, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei, government is putting up measures to give a timely response to emergencies in the oil and gas sector. He said efforts should be made to ensure that transparency goes beyond the monitoring of the flow of oil revenues to all contracts signed between the extractive companies and the government. Ghana signed up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiati...

By Kofi AHOVI The Ghana Institution of Surveyors, in consultation with other stakeholders, is preparing the Real Estate Agency Bill, to regulate the property market and help bring sanity in the industry, as well as to reduce fraud. The bill provides for the training and licensing of real estate brokers, sales people and institutions and requires them to provide bonds as guarantees to their clients in the property market. It also seeks to ensure players within the field to have the capacity and capability to handle clients with professionalism. The bill also has the capacity to check the land guard menace, which will check insecurity of title and ward off criminal elements. The practice of real estate brokers in Ghana has grown considerably in recent years as the property market has become more active with the buying, selling and leasing of property for investment. The role of the real estate agent has traditionally been as an intermediary between the purchasers and vendors of property....

By Kofi Ahovi The Ghana Geological Survey Department (GSD) with technical cooperation from the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) of Germany has prepared a new geological map. The new, updated geological map of Ghana which now stands at the scale 1:1 million replaces the existing geological map which dates back to the 1955. The rapid advancement in geosciences and technology as well as the wealth of newly acquired knowledge in geology called for the preparation of a new geological map. The newly prepared map will contribute towards a better understanding of the general geology of Ghana and also help to promote mineral exploration activities in the country. Data used in the preparation of the new map include the 1962-19666 geological works by the GSD-Zarubezhgeologia (former USSR) on the Voltaian Basin, systematic geological mapping including Mineral Development Fund (MDF) sponsored programs by the GSD geologists and the current EU-sponsored Mining Sector Supp...

By Solace AMANKWA Tullow Oil, one of Europe's largest independent oil exploration and production companies, has upgraded its estimate of reserves at its Tweneboa field in Ghana by 60%. The field, according to Tullow, could prove to be much bigger with the tendency to be upgraded further. According to the company, the successful drilling in the past year showed potential resources of 4.5 billion barrels across all its prospects and fields in Ghana. BusinessWeek gathered that the company plans to develop the Jubilee field well gradually, starting at a rate of about 60,000 barrels a day, at which point the cash will start to flow, helping to finance future investment to raise production between 250,000 to 300,000 barrels per day. It had also agreed on a framework deal to bring in China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and French oil company, Total, as equal partners in its Ugandan assets, which would involve Tullow selling more of its share than earlier planned. Exploration d...

An indigenous Ghanaian bank, UT Bank, has found innovative ways of using the e-zwich card and platform by disbursing loans through the card to its customers in the remotest part of the country. Over GH¢ 920,000 was disbursed to customers of the bank three weeks ago in a loan scheme to micro and small scale businesses. Some of the loan recipients are as far as the Upper East Region, where UT bank has no branches. According to the UT e-zwich Project Officer, Mubarak Niriganlibir Bowan, the bank has found several uses of the e-zwich electronic platform and the biometric smart card and it is determined to use the plethora of services available to the benefit of the bank and its customers. He said the bank has a department dedicated to e-zwich and is constantly researching on how to effectively deploy the electronic service in innovative ways. Regarding the loan disbursement, Bowan said the bank decided to enroll the beneficiaries onto the e-zwich and after their loan applications were app...

Editorial The latest figures emanating from the Ghana Statistical Service indicate that consumer price inflation continues to fall, the rate of 14.23% for February being the lowest in 22 months. For an economy where monetary policy centres around inflation targeting and fiscal policy is also largely influenced by the desire to minimize the rate of price increases, this counts as a major achievement for what it is worth, despite the obvious downside of the deflationary policies used to achieve it, in the form of damping of overall economic activity and business expansion. However, past experience has shown that bringing relatively high inflation down is one thing but keeping it down is another thing altogether, especially in Ghana’s current economic circumstances which are still tenuous at best. Which means government’s economic managers will need to tread very carefully if the gains of the past consecutive eight months of falling inflation are not to be lost even faster than they were ...

By Toma IMIRHE An air of cautious optimism prevailed at the end of last week on the trading floor of the Ghana Stock Exchange as signs of the bull market’s return became clearer despite a 1% fall in the GSE’s all-share index during the week. Even though the fall lowered the year-to-date yield to 3.73% down from 4.78% a week earlier, stockbrokers and investors alike took heart from the fact that last week six stocks appreciated in price compared to just one which saw its price fall. The GSE all-share index’s fall last week was only because the price loser, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) which shed 6.67% off its share price, is the second highest capitalized stock listed on Ghana’s bourse. Because the all-share index tracks the weighted average price change on the stockmarket, the most heavily capitalized stocks therefore have an inordinately large effect on the index as a whole. Bullish sentiments as at the close of last week’s trading were driven by the fact that there were s...

By Kofi AHOVI Statisticians from across Africa last week met in Accra during a four-day workshop under the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) - ECOWAS Statistical Capacity Building Project (ESCAP) to discuss the legal framework affecting statistical activities on the continent. The four-day workshop, which was held under the auspices of the ECOWAS Commission, is designed to undertake region-wide activities to deal with issues relating to the legal framework and co-ordination of statistical systems, monitoring household living conditions, poverty, and statistical data dissemination. The project, which has a four-year implementation period, is expected to develop a framework to assist countries to update their laws and other regulatory instruments affecting statistical activities, taking into account the emerging need for statistical development designs. Project implementation and management will be undertaken by the Research and Statistical Department of the ECOWAS Commission, ...

Surveyors urge parliament to expedite action on bill By Kofi AHOVI The Ghana Institute of Surveyor has urged parliamentarians to expedite action on the passage of the Survey Council Bill. The bill, which was submitted to the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, was forwarded to Parliament, but nothing has been heard of it. The Survey Council Bill is intended to regulate and monitor the practice of surveying professionals and firms in Ghana. The passage of the bill would also ensure that foreign firms that wish to practise in Ghana would first have to register in the country. This is to foster professional streamlining, technology transfer and technological enhancement. According to the president of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS), Osei Asante, the absence of an elaborate legal framework to regulate the practice has created room for unqualified persons to pose as surveyors and thereby creating undesirable consequences, such as land disputes, poor land use planning a...

Renewable Energy Bill goes to Cabinet By Solace AMANKWA A bill seeking to promote the use of hydropower, as well as biological and solar energy in Ghana, will be presented to the Cabinet for scrutiny and approval this week, and thereafter forwarded to Parliament for consideration and approval. The bill, when passed into law, will speed up the development of solar energy and also integrate renewable energy into the energy supply mix of the country. It would provide a holistic framework for renewable energy development in the country, which would further help the recognition of the different sources of energy. It would also reduce inferior solar systems in the country since the standards that have been developed for photovotaic systems would be strictly enforced. BusinessWeek gathered that the passage of the Renewable Energy Bill by the end of this year is one of the main targets of the Ministry of Energy Currently, the Energy Commission is collaborating with all stakeholders with the vi...

By Solace AMANKWA The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWCS) has announced its preparedness towards the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) by July, this year. To this end, the process of migrating salary data onto the SSSS has begun and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) has already started work to off-load salary data from the various public service institutions onto the SSSS. In addition, a joint technical committee on the FWCS and CAGD has been established and is currently working to ensure smooth migration of all public institutions’ payrolls onto the SSSS. The committee is using the current payroll data as reference point to map out existing payrolls of the various institutions onto the SSSS. Government has however issued a white paper on the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP), stating its position on the policy and all the arrangements for its implementation by the set date. The white paper indicated that the new pay policy would be ...

Oil price surge threatens Ghana’s balance of payments By Kofi AHOVI The rise in crude oil prices to around US$80 per barrel last week, with the likelihood of further rises, at least in the short term, is threatening to significantly increase Ghana’s import bill and put pressure on the country’s already tenuous balance of payments position. Although the Ministry of Finance has declined to make public the average crude oil price on which its projections for 2010 have been made, senior economic planning officials are said to be uncomfortable by the current price surge. Indeed, only last month, the Bank of Ghana’s Monetary Policy Committee warned that rising crude oil prices on the international market pose a risk to Ghana’s efforts at restoring macro-economic stability. Crude oil prices are currently at a 17 month high and are expected to rise further over the coming months, as the global economic recession recedes and is replaced by an economic recovery that will intensify demand for ene...

MOFEP on oil and gas road show By Kofi Ahovi The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy is embarking on a road show to solicit views and suggestions on the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill from the general public. Experts in the oil and gas sector are expected to make input into the draft bill to ensure a comprehensive document that would be used to manage the expected revenues from the oil find which would be extracted later this year. The road show, which is being organized through out the country, started on February 23 and is expected to end on March 12, 2010. A comprehensive revenue document would enable the government to address all the bottlenecks that are expected to be associated with the management of oil and gas revenue. It would also ensure that funds accrued from the industry would contribute to sustainable development and poverty reduction. The Petroleum Revenue Management Bill, which was drafted by the Ministries ...

Inflation continues to decline, recording 14.23% By Fred SARPONG Year-on-year inflation measured by the consumer price index (CPI) dropped by 0.55% for the 12-month period ended February 2010 from the 14.78% recorded in January 2010, according to figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS). The February 2010 inflation rate is the lowest in the past 25 consecutive months. The monthly rate of inflation in February 2010 was 1.51%, which was the lowest figure, as compared to 1.59% recorded in January 2010. Inflation had since been on the increase since October 2008 recording 17.30% and in June recorded its peak of 20.74%, but has in recent times started declining significantly until it recorded 14.23%, the lowest since January 2008. Non-food component of the CPI, which constitutes 55.09% of the weighted items in the basket, contributed to the decline for February 2010 inflation more than the food component. Non-food inflation for February was 18.54%, while food inflation for th...

Guidelines for insurance premium collection out soon By Elorm DESEWU The National Insurance Commission (NIC), the statutory regulator of Ghana’s insurance industry, the Ghana Insurance Association (GIA) and the Ghana Insurance Brokers Association (GIBA) are currently developing premium collection guidelines for the insurance industry. The guidelines, which are intended to provide a framework for insurance companies to adopt a standardized approach in premium collection, would be ready this year, BusinessWeek has learnt. Currently, the NIC is in discussions with other major stakeholders with regard to fixing the rates on the premiums. Insurance chieftains that BusinessWeek spoke to say the guidelines would increase the level of transparency as well as ensure policyholder’s protection in the country. Currently, up to 50% of premiums recorded by general (non-life) insurance firms as having been generated through insurance policies they draw up are not actually collected. In effect, such p...

GSE trading results now on Bloomberg website Real-time market data feed from the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) is now available to investors across the globe via the Bloomberg Professional® service. With this development, Bloomberg users can access GSE real-time trade reports, quotes and index pricing. Bloomberg is the first vendor to carry GSE data. In a statement released by the GSE, Managing Director, Kofi Yamoah, said, “This new development is in line with the GSE’s vision of reaching out to investors globally and ensuring that timely and efficient trade information is available at all times. It is our belief that the relationship with Bloomberg will enhance the attractiveness of our market to both local and international investors and position the GSE as the preferred investment destination in Sub-Saharan Africa.” “Bloomberg is the first vendor to offer the global distribution of real time exchange data from Ghana. This addition recognizes the increasing investor appetite for investm...

Govt. plans to provide 1,500 houses By Kofi AHOVI & Solace AMANKWA The government has drawn up a plan to provide 1,500 housing units to its workers nationwide from the third quarter of this year. The housing units would be put up across the country to ensure equal distribution, Businessweek has gathered. It also includes the construction of 10,000 safe, decent and low income affordable housing units on 74 acres of land at Nsakina, near Amasaman in the Ga East District, which has been awarded to Messrs Agu Resources. The plan is different from the 200,000 housing-unit project secured by the Vice President, John Mahama, in South Korea recently. The housing units would be offered for mortgage to workers by the Home Finance Company Bank (HFC). The provision of the housing units is to curtail and eventually bridge the housing gap, which is currently estimated to be in a deficit of one million. The plan is multi-pronged, addressing issues of financing, land acquisition, the use of altern...

Gov’t urged to support cocoa farmers By Solace AMANKWA The Africa Cocoa Coalition, a group of non- governmental organizations promoting quality cocoa production in Africa, has urged the government and all stakeholders in the cocoa industry to ensure cocoa farmers benefited from their labour. The group observed that farmers in cocoa producing countries, particularly Ghana and Cote d' Ivoire, appear to be the most vulnerable to the inequity in the distribution of the returns along the cocoa value chain. At a roundtable discussion on the theme: "Sustainable Cocoa Economy in Ghana," the national coordinator of Africa Cocoa Coalition, David Kpelle, said farmers were ageing as well as their cocoa farms and noted that incentives to encourage the youth to take over from the ageing farmers were not enough. He noted that there is the need to define a sustainable cocoa economy as one in which each person investing time or money into the cocoa supply chain would earn a decent income....

Ghana spends $367m of MCA By Kofi Ahovi Ghana has so far spent about $367 million of the $547 million Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), three years after signing the compact, Business week has gathered. The figure represents actual payments for projects executed so far. The Government of Ghana received grant funding of approximately USD 547 million from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the Government of the United States of America to support a five year compact aimed at reducing poverty through modernization of agriculture in three designated areas of the country in the Northern Agricultural Area, Afram Basin Area and Southern Horticultural Belt Area. The MCA was signed between the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the United States and the world’s poorest countries who are committed to good governance, economic freedom and investments in their citizens. The MCC, created by the US in January 2004, is an innovative and independent U.S. foreign aid agency that is helpi...

Ghana Revenue Authority commences operation in 2012 By Fred SARPONG Indications at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) project office show that the full operation of the authority will start in two years’ time. The Value Added Tax (VAT) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which will fall under the authority, will be fully automated by the end of the year under the new name of Domestic Tax which, although under the GRA, will have its own commissioner. This is to solve the thorny issues of revenue mobilization and meeting targets affecting government’s revenue institutions, including Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS. The GRA, which will have one Commissioner General as the head, has already begun educating stakeholders on its operations. Currently, targets are still being set by the various revenue agencies separately. Meanwhile, BusinessWeek learnt that the President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, has already nominated the Commissioner-General whose name would be announced ...

Ghana discovers more oil By Kofi Ahovi There has been a new discovery of crude oil in the Dzata field offshore the West Cape Three Points area. According to an announcement made by Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the discovery is quite different from the Jubilee Fields discovery where crude oil production is expected to commence later this year. Russia’s second biggest oil producer OAO Lukoil, together with GNPC and Vanco Energy of the US, own the field where the discovery was made. Lukkoil has 56.66% stake in the find, while US Vanco holding holds 28.34% and GNPC 15% stake. However, further appraisal work needs to be done to establish a fair estimate of crude oil contained in the field, which will also enable them to design a plan of action to drill the oil. The total area of the block is about 5,200 square kilometers, while the water depth within the block ranges from 200 meters to 3,000 meters. The Dzata-1 structure lies at a depth of almost 2 kilometers. Ghana is at t...

Ghana Boundary Commission Bill passed By Jeorge Wilson KINGSON Parliament last week passed a bill that will make it possible for the establishment of a Ghana Boundary Commission, BusinessWeek has gathered. The commission, when established, will negotiate to determine and demarcate the country’s land boundaries and delimit its maritime boundaries. The bill which was passed under a certificate of emergency will ensure the proper development of a team of experts to engage and provide continuity in negotiation processes concerning land boundary demarcation and maritime boundary delimitations. This follows the recent threat to Ghana’s oil find by Cote d’Ivoire, which claims that a portion of the Dzata field area in Cape Three Points in the Western Region treads into that country. Currently, there is no commission in Ghana that deals with issues relating to maritime boundary demarcation, even though the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) which Ghana is a signatory to r...

GBC launches 75th anniversary By Kofi AHOVI The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) last week launched its 75th anniversary celebration in Accra on the theme “The national broadcaster-agent for development.” The Minister of Information, John Akologu Tia, said government will continue to invest in the corporation’s infrastructure to ensure that it can continue to mobilize the citizenry for national development He however called on the corporation to revamp its marketing activities in all the sectors to ensure revenue increase to facilitate its investment driven. According to the minister, at 75, GBC has paid its dues as far as its contribution to Ghana’s development is concerned “and we can not fail to recognize the efforts of the GBC in the mobilization of the youth and also the whipping up of interest in national issues.” The minister raised concerns about certain programmes which are exploitative of women, sexually explicit and obscene but are aired on TV. “The influx of foreign con...

Fund for microfinance institutions established By Kofi AHOVI The first ever equity microfinance fund in Ghana, Goodwell Africa Fund, was launched in Accra last week, with the aim to bridge the credit gap between the Micro-Finance Institutions (MFI) and the small and medium enterprises. The introduction of Goodwell Africa Fund is a partnership between JCL and Goodwell Microfinance Development Company. The fund seeks to boost the capacity base of the numerous MFI by providing them with equity fund to on-lend to SMEs. The fund is targeted at micro-finance start-ups and growth-phase Micro Finance Institutions to capture growth opportunities and help create new distribution channels. The fund has a portfolio of 17 million Euros and is expected to last for a five year period before the commencement of a second phase. The fund is part of a larger US$60 million fund allocated for the microfinance investments in Ghana and Nigeria. Launching the fund, the director...

Banks reduces base lending rates By Kofi Ahovi A total of 14out of the 26 commercial banks operating in the country have slashed down their base lending rates, in response to the policy rate cut by the central bank. Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) has the lowest base rate so far reducing it rate from 28.5% to24.75% representing a 3.75% reduction. Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), Unibank, and Ecobank have reduced their respective base lending rates to settle at 28.7%, 25.5%, 28.5% and 26.5% respectively. SGSSB 25.7% and Zenith Bank 29.5%. Amal Bank too has reduced its rate from 29.75% to 27.75 representing a 2% reduction The rest are HFC Bank, which reduced its rate from 31.5% to 29.75% representing a reduction of 1.75 percentage points, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) also reduced its rate from 29% to 27% representing a 2% reduction and Stanbic Bank from 29.7 to 26.7% representing 3% reduction. Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) from 32% to 27.5% representing ...

Australia hosts film festival in Ghana The Australian High Commission, in collaboration with the Ghana Film Producers Association and Ekwiti Ghana, umbrella body of artists, last week hosted the first ever Australian film festival at the Silverbird Cinema in Accra. The festival forms part of a cultural programme which facilitates the screening of Australian films in ‘mini-festivals’ organized by Australia’s overseas missions. The festival, which was free to the public, saw the screening of eight Australian films, Australian Rules, Crackerjack, Unfinished Sky, Swimming Upstream, Ten Canoes, the Magic Pudding, Bootmen and the Black Balloon. The films were selected to provide a window into the identity and character of contemporary Australia. Mark Lazarus, the producer of the festival’s flagship film, Australian Rules, visited the country as part of the festival. Lazarus has a wealth of experience in film production and film financing and is currently Drama Investment Manager at Australia...

By Kofi Ahovi AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) has listed an additional 33,282 ordinary shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) bringing the total number of listed shares to 362,273,951. This was as a result of the company issuing and listing additional ordinary shares in January this year on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange in South Africa. The shares were issued under the AngloGold Ashanti Share Incentive Scheme. Currently, AGA Share price is trading at GH¢30. The company has a stated capital of US$3,364,000,000 and it was listed on GSE in April 2004. Recently, Anglogold Ashanti and Randgold Resources jointly acquired a further 20% of the Moto Gold Project, increasing their stake to 90%. The two institutions acquired the 20% stake for an aggregate consideration of approximately US$113.6 million from L’Office des Mines d’Or de Kilo-Moto (OKIMO). A feasibility study in March last year envisaged an operation with probable mineral reserves of 5.5 million ounces, which is planned to produce a...