‘Remove subsidies on LPG, Premix,

Two private sector advocates have called on government to take a second look at some selected petroleum products, which are subsidized to benefit the poor and vulnerable but are being exploited to enrich others in the country.

While Ato Ampiah, who is now the Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery wants the subsidy policy on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to be removed, the immediate past president of the Association of Ghana Industries, Dr. Anthony Oteng-Gyasi wants to see a review on the subsidy on Premix fuel.

They said this at the first Centre for Freedom and Accuracy business roundtable in Accra on Wednesday, which brought together private sector enterprises and regulatory agencies to deliberate on ways to maximize real benefits from the private sector for economic advancement.

Mr. Ato Ampiah, once the President of the Ghana Employers Association noted that some private and commercial drivers have changed the carburetor systems in their car to take in LPG in order to avoid paying more on petrol and diesel.

“The policy to subsidized LPG is to encourage people to move away from using firewood for cooking but commercial drivers are now using LPG in their cars because they find it cheaper than petrol.

“And as a result more households are reverting to the use of firewood because of the occasional shortages in LPG caused by the activities of drivers.

“So I would want the policy to be reviewed to benefit the right people,” he said.
Dr. Oteng-Gyasi on his part said the subsidy on premix fuel is impacting negatively on fishing as more people including some fishermen have found business in dealing in premix fuel more profitable than fishing.

“In a year (2009) when government gave more premix fuel to the fishermen, the contribution of fishing to GDP declined by about two per cent and you ask yourself why. The answer is that the policy is not working.

Currently, premix fuel is sold to fishermen 25 per cent less the market price.

“Who doesn’t know that when you have four gallons of premix fuel and you mix it with one gallon of normal fuel to run any vehicle? All the commercial drivers know that except maybe us (policymakers).

“So you ask yourself why would the fishermen go fishing with all the hazards involved when they can make money from dealing in premix fuel.

“Government always has good intentions but the implementation of its policies yield bad results,’ he said.

Dr Oteng-Gyasi suggested that government sells the premix fuel to the fishermen at normal price and then build cold stores at the fishing coasts to keep the fish from rotting.

“We must think through our policies before we implement them. If we don’t do that and we go ahead to implement the policies, it will be difficult to take them away,” he added.

The Executive Director of the Centre for Freedom and Accuracy, Andrews Awuni said the first business roundtable conference was to give an overview of the business environment and how private sector enterprises and government can collaborate to achieve their economic goals.

He added that subsequent meetings would be sector specific to address challenges facing each sector of the economy.

“We need to move away from making lip service to the private sector and work together with them to achieve economic advancement,” he said.

CEOs schooled on crisis and investor communication

An international communications expert, Robyn de Villiers, Chief Executive Officer of Arcay Communications, an internationally acclaimed communication consultancy in South Africa has called on corporate businesses in the country to pay attention to investor relations and crisis communications because of its positive impacts on corporate reputation. 

Speaking at a CEOs luncheon lecture on the theme, ‘How Crisis and Investor Communications affect Corporate Ghana’ in Accra, she said as pressure mounts on the investment community to choose the most attractive option, effective investor relations provides a channel for time-sensitive and complex information to be presented in favourable light to potential stakeholders and influencers.

She said investor relations is achieved when there is relationship between a listed company and its private investors, securities analysts, fund managers and employees and is founded in the accurate portrayal of the company’s performance and prospects.

“Today’s stakeholder’s priorities are the quality of the company’s products and services and trust and confidence and it is therefore up to businesses to get the right information across,” she said.

Mrs. De Villiers said the need for companies to integrate social, environmental and economic issues especially the communities in which they operate, noting companies these days are integral to society, being considered as much a citizen as a natural person, as such being bound to responsibility.

In crisis communication she said the inclusivity of stakeholders is essential to achieving sustainability and regaining reputation while advising it is always good for companies to restrict communication in times of crisis.

“Customers today expect reliability, investors and suppliers demand credibility, employees expect trustworthiness while communities expect responsibility,” she added

She said companies that are able to maintain their reputation attract investor interest, create customer preference for its products and services and are also able to gain public trust in times of crises.

She said that nothing tends to compromise companies and often leads to market share loss, heavy litigation costs and significant declines in value.

“In today’s environment, brand loyalty is weaker coupled with greater public scrutiny of companies and hostile political and economic climates for businesses in the country. Without careful communication management, issues impacting your company that might have been harmless embers in the past can become a raging blaze within seconds,” Mrs. De Villiers noted.

Erudite software launched

Dream technology in collaboration with Ben-Multi group of companies and Centre for Academic Excellence (CENFAX) has launched Erudite Software to be used by schools from the Basic to Senior High level in record and information management.

Mr. Robert Afanu, a software developer with dream technology, said “the software is a student’s model for storing and retrieving information instead of searching through piles of files which teachers spend so much time in doing.”

He said the motivation leading to the establishment of the software was that, through his time in school, he realized that teachers and the management of schools spent much time in searching for information of students and spent much more time calculating marks, all of which was time-consuming.

Erudite Software can be used to check school attendance of both staff and pupils. This can assist with the performance assessment of both teachers and pupils.

It is also a tool for the academic assessment of students, a task teachers spend so much time in doing. It can calculate the academic scores of pupils. “On the click of a bottom, erudite will do this in seconds.” Mr. Afanu confirmed.

According to Mr. Bernard Essibuah, CEO of Ben-Multi Group of Companies and CENFAX, the software has been experimented on a number of schools and the outcome was positive and very efficient.

“The head of those institutions were very excited about such a product on the market. They said that in this age and time of technology, things had to take shape.” He added.

The market value of the software together with an additional computer and after-sales service goes for GH¢1000. As part of the package, an expert is available upon sale to take takes teachers and management of the buyer or school through the software. The software together with two or three computers went for GH¢1500 and GH¢2000 respectively.

The CEO indicated that interested persons could grab a copy for themselves at the Ben-Multi book services or Centre for Academic Excellence (CENFAX).

FirstBanC launches new products

FirstBanC has launched two products, known as the Provident Fund Migration Service and the Heritage fund, in Accra.

The Provident Fund Migration Service is a free service designed to help businesses and institutions - both public and private - to design, restructure and make their Provident Funds compliant with the new Pensions Act 2008, Act 766.
Under this service, FirstBanC will assess and transfer existing provident funds to make them compliant with Act - including registration with the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA).

It also provides tax-free mortgage-financing benefits for employees of the business and institutions. The service is for employees of all businesses and institutions whether in the private or public sectors, including government, NGO’s, CBOs and FBOs.

For organisations and businesses with an existing scheme, FirstBanC will provide professional valuation services to determine the fair value of the scheme.
The Heritage fund is an open-ended equity market mutual fund with the primary aim of achieving long-term capital growth and building wealth for its shareholders.

The fund seeks to raise a minimum amount of GH¢100,000 during the Initial Public Offering (IPO) at an initial cost of 20Gp per share. The offering for shares of the Heritage fund began on Monday and ends on August 16.

The investment can be used to meet your medium to long-term financial needs, which includes financing of education, acquisition of property, retirement planning and so on, and is intended to build a similar solid foundation for investors to achieve solid growth, sustainable income and long-term value.
It operates by mobilising funds from shareholders which are then invested in high-yielding equity and fixed-income instruments.

Mr. Richard Kwame Asante, Chairman of the NPRA, said the outfit will continue to regulate the movement of schemes at all times to ensure that everyone enjoys the service, and added that there are lots of benefits in registering with the NPRA.
“There are opportunities under the scheme, but you have to take advantage of these opportunities and I encourage other financial institutions to introduce similar products to bring competition in the marketplace.” He made these comments at the launch of the new products.

Mr. Mawuli Hedo, CEO of FirstBanC, said the company would introduce more products and services in order to attract more customers, since it provides investors with the aim of long-term capital growth and wealth-building, and enriched every individual to go in for such products. Interested persons can acquire application forms from branches of FirstBanC, Stanbic bank, Zenith bank, Agricultural Development Bank and The Trust Bank across the nation.

Mr. E. K. Akoto, Chief inspector of Taxes, Internal Revenue Service, advised employers that filing of taxes returns is very necessary and therefore encouraged them to take up the two funds since they had lots of benefits.

Western Union Rewards Loyal Customers

Western Union Ghana brought its World Cup 2010 promotion to an end last week, rewarding many loyal customers.

The promotion was to build up excitement towards the just ended 2010 FIFA World Cup Tournament in South Africa.

The draw for the promotion took place at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) at Ring Road branch, Accra, with presence from the various banks that transact business with Western Union.

The winners were picked in a random selection of entry coupons submitted by participants.

Ten customers were proud winners of flat screen television and 200 customers won Western union branded T-shirts and baseball caps. The ten winners were: Emmanuel Ayayi, Sarfo Kwabena, Ouedrago Abdul Razak, Stephen Simms Mensah, Joshua Dankwah, Gibril Mutala, Akwasi Boateng, Ellen Boakye, Akupem Frank and Abass Mohammed.

In the previous draws, four customers qualified to be sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to South Africa to watch the just ended FIFA World Cup and many others won consolation prizes.

The marketing officer of money transfer and remittances, Mr. Karikari Kyei, said that the only qualification to be part of the promotion was that one needed to just receive money from abroad through any Western Union agent nation-wide and fill a coupon.

“Though the Black stars could not make it to the semi-finals, we still had to fulfill our promises,” he added.

He also congratulated the winners of the draw and assured that, Western Union is fast and saves time; as such they wanted their customers to benefit always from their transactions.