Commodities Exchange still on course

Trade and Industry Minister Ms. Hannah Tetteh has said that the Ghana Commodities Exchange (GCX) will be ready this year.

She told the media in Accra this week that a national technical committee chaired by herself has been set up to manage establishment of the Exchange.

The GCX will be a market for trading agricultural products and raw materials using contracts that guarantee the price for both buyer and seller.

“The legal and regulatory framework of the GCX has been prepared with funding support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and is expected to be submitted to Cabinet for approval.

“A two-week training programme has also been organised for key stakeholders by the Ethiopian Commodity Institute as part of the preparatory activities,” Ms. Tetteh said. 

She said one of the mandates of the Ministry is to help address inadequacies in the distribution and marketing of locally produced commodities, particularly agricultural products. 

The GCX when established will create an orderly, transparent, and efficient marketing system for the country’s key agricultural commodities to promote agricultural investment, enhance productivity, and encourage market access and fair returns for smallholder farmers. 

The exchange will also guarantee buyers of the minimum quality, weight and prompt delivery of their purchases through a Warehouse Receipts System.

Ms. Tetteh disclosed that government has set up a special body made up of officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Food and Agriculture, Trade and Industry as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to design models for the Exchange, which will be adapted to the country’s business environment.

SEC, the lead promoter of the Exchange and the warehouse receipts system, has developed the necessary regulatory framework to support its establishment.

The framework will regulate the way in which the exchange is established, organised and operated to ensure that all those in the supply and value chain of the agricultural sector benefit from their involvement.

Millions of farmers stand to benefit from the GCX as it will help them manage price fluctuations, stabilise their incomes, and gain access to credit. 

After three failed attempts, the GCX will make Ghana the fifth country in Africa after South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia to operate a commodities exchange. 

Properly functioning exchanges are reckoned to play a big role in poverty alleviation by increasing the incomes of agricultural producers, especially in sub-Saharan Africa where the majority of them are poor.

“There is no doubt that a commodity exchange for futures trading is necessary for the efficient functioning of an economy,” said Joe Tackie, National Coordinator for establishment of the GCX.

GCCI signs MoU with Turkish Chamber

The Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ankara Chamber of Industry (ASO) from Turkey.

The two chambers will create more development through the promotion and diversification of trade, economic cooperation, and exchange of information, commercial and cultural relations.

They will seek to work for their mutual interest in accordance with the laws and regulations of both countries.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Accra, Mr. Seth Adjei Baah, GCCI President, stressed that the two chambers will work together to establish business contacts.

He said for that purpose a joint committee will be established to ensure that both partners come together to encourage institutional partnership in research.

Mr. Nurettin Ozdebir, the President of the ASO who signed on behalf of the Turkish Chamber, said the MoU might be subject to revision and extension based on written and mutual consent of both organisations.

He said: "ASO and GCCI shall encourage the exchange of trade delegations, experts and economic missions; facilitate one-to-one interaction between representatives of business and government, and shall help make such visits successful."

The ceremony was witnessed by representatives from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and also Mr. Aydin Nurhan, the Turkish Ambassador.

Netherlands to support small businesses

Local private businesses can now access financial and other logistical support from the Netherlands government’s Private Sector Investment (PSI) programme.

The programme seeks to stimulate financial growth, create employment opportunities, and generate income for businesses through creating opportunities for the local private sector to partner their counterparts from the Netherlands in investments.

Speaking at a meeting with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in Accra, Ms. Frokje Verreijt, Project Officer of the PSI Programme, said the programme consists of two thematic areas -- both of which have been designed to boost local private businesses.

“The Netherlands PSI programme is targetted at offering expertise from the Netherlands to local private companies that are interested in acquiring specific knowledge from the Netherlands to boost business growth.

“The other is a matchmaking facility that will help local private companies find business partners in the Netherlands either for trade, business or investment.

She encouraged small and medium enterprises to take advantage of the facility to grow their businesses.

“The PSI is a programme for entrepreneurs because we want to start innovative businesses in Ghana. The most important material for this programme is that the local company has an international partner who wants to invest in their business.

“You can also apply for the matchmaking facility, which is here to support existing industrialised companies that are financially feasible. With this, we can arrange business plans for the local company to meet business partners in the Netherlands,” Ms. Verreijt explained.

Executive Director of the AGI, Mr. Seth Twum-Akwaboah, said small businesses need to form joint ventures with international counterparts, and the Netherlands government attaches great importance to the private sector in developing countries because it is the driving force behind poverty alleviation.

 “Creating employment and transferring knowledge contributes to economic development, and the PSI assists the business community to bring this about.” 

PSI is a programme of the Dutch government that supports investments in emerging markets in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

The programme aims to stimulate investments in developing countries and develop long-term commercial relations with companies in those markets. 

It is funded by the Ministry for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands and executed by the Agency for International Business and Cooperation (EVD).

Trade Min, UNIDO sign €1.28m biogas agreement

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry have signed a €1.28 million agreement to promote the transfer of industrial-scale biogas technology.

The project will involve piloting industrial-scale biogas plants, providing business and enterprise development support to biogas companies, conducting collaborative targetted research on industrial-scale biogas, and raising awareness and recommending policies for biogas industry development.

Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, Director-General of UNIDO, at the signing of the agreement in Accra said: “The main objective of the project that we have launched is to provide a solid and technically sound framework for a broader and accelerated drive to promote biogas technologies in Ghana and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a whole.”

 He said the project will use the experience and technologies of the Republic of Korea, which will also fund it for the next three years.

It will also be implemented in close coordination with the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), with a view to developing a regional programme on biogas technologies with Ghana acting as a centre of excellence in the region.

 “This project will transfer knowledge on biogas technology from the Republic of Korea to Ghana. It is up to Ghana to receive, adapt, and utilise this knowledge to the benefit of the country. UNIDO stands ready to support this project and to mobilise other partners in the expansion and replication of the project in Ghana and the whole of the ECOWAS region," he said.

 Industrial-scale biogas technology development in Ghana, according to him, will present a lot of opportunities and help industries that currently dump bio-waste into water-bodies to comply with environmental laws, and in the process produce heat and power to enhance their operations and productivity.

He added that the success of biogas technology hinges on the establishment of mutually beneficial and stronger partnerships between market players and market enablers.

 In particular, he said, policymakers should support the dissemination of biogas technologies by creating an enabling environment for private sector investment. On the other hand, the private sector, both local and international, should take advantage of such initiatives to invest in Africa so that the continent can meet its sustainable development objectives, he said.

Ms Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, said the agreement will help stem the excessive dependence on wood-fuels which causes deforestation.

 “The management of waste has become a major challenge, and this waste to energy technology seeks to address the significant amount of both liquid and solid waste generated in the country. The project will provide a sustainable avenue for the treatment and disposal of liquid and solid waste.”

She said biogas development presents opportunities such as increasing access to energy, raising productivity in local industries, reducing the risk of diseases related to waste water, and limiting emissions of dangerous chemicals. UNIDO also presented to the Minister a report from a study it undertook to map and measure Ghana’s “National System of Innovation”.

The National System of Innovation measures the strength and quality of the systematically organised interactions and linkages between the government, knowledge-based institutions, industry, and financial arbitrageurs.

B&FT wins Business Newspaper of the Year

The Business and Financial Times, the most relevant and credible business publication, has been adjudged the Business Newspaper of the Year 2012 at the maiden Gold Awards for Business Journalism.

 A Chief Correspondent of the paper, Mr. Ekow Essabra-Mensah, was also adjudged the Investigative Reporter of the Year and the Mining, Oil and Gas Reporter of the Year. 

The awards, sponsored by the World Bank, Stanbic Bank, UT Group and the State Housing Company Limited, is aimed at rewarding outstanding journalists and media organisations in the areas of business, economic and financial reporting.

 It is also aimed at improving the quality of economic and business reportage in the country.

The event was put together by Masoe Productions West Africa in partnership with the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists, the umbrella-body for business and economic reporters in the country. In all, about 14 awards were given out on the day.

The organisers of the award said over 34 entries were received, with conspicuous similarity of style and occasional lack of depth in research and analysis in most of the works.

However, the finalists had a marginal edge over the other entries, they said. A seven-member jury vetted entries for the various categories and selected the nominees.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Adu Anane-Antwi, the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said: “The press is very important in providing information to the public. For the capital market, the work of the financial journalist is very crucial to expose market abuses such as insider trading.

This is why we need trained and well-resourced reporters to continuously give us quality reportage.”

Mr. Prince Kofi Amoabeng, the Group Chief Executive, UT Group, said there is need for financial and business journalists to upgrade themselves to be able to advance corporate Ghana and to keep government in check.

Ms. Tash Morgan, Corporate Communications Coordinator of Finatrade Group of Companies who was part of the jury, said three entries were chosen per category -- except in categories where there was either insufficient entries/entrants or the quality of works submitted were not worthy of recognition.

Samuel Doe Ablordeppey of Graphic Communications Group Limited was adjudged the overall Best Business Journalist of the Year.

His prize package includes a trip to the United States for a training programme and an iPad. Other award winners were Mr. Lloyd Evans, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Financial Journalism; Mr. Kwaku Effah Amponsah, SME Reporter of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year; and Mr. Felix Dela Klutse, Reporter of the Year 2012.

Citi FM won the Business Radio Station of the Year; TV3, the TV Station of the Year; and Business World won the Business Magazine of the Year.

Huawei unveils three smartphones

Huawei Technologies Ghana has launched three smartphones and one tablet onto the Ghanaian market to deepen competition in the country’s smartphone market.

 The phones include Ascend P1, Huawei Honor, the dual-SIM Huawei Ascend G302D, and the 7-inch tablet, the Huawei MediaPad.

“Our smartphones are of the highest quality and comparable to any smartphone on the market; but ours are affordable and so we are targetting that in the next three years we will become one of the top-three brands on the market in Ghana,” said Head of Devices at Huawei Ghana, Yang Futu, at the launch in Accra.

 “A lot of Ghanaians still use 2G phones because the smartphones on the market are generally expensive and the smartphone market share still remains very small.

The smartphone market in Ghana still presents a huge potential for any new entrant in spite of the big brands like Samsung, Nokia, BlackBerry and Tecno already on the market,” he added.

Mr. Futu explained that all the devices, especially the Ascend P1, combine smart features and a sleek design, representing a significant milestone for Huawei devices in the country.

 “The Ascend P1 is the epitome of beauty colliding with brains -- proof that technology and good looks can go hand-in-hand,” he said.

Ascend P1 runs on Android 1.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, features a dual-core 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4460 Cortext-A9 processor and measures 7.69mm thin and 64.8 mm long, providing a very comfortable grip.

 The handset has a 4.3-inch super AMOLED 960 x 540 touch-screen with Corning® Gorilla® Glass, an 8-megapixel BSI rear-facing camera with AF and a Dual Flash, as well as Dolby Mobile 3.0 + 5.1 surround sound technology, and it provides a home theatre experience in the palm of the user’s hands. The retail price is GHȼ799. The Huawei Honor presents itself with an excellent HD display with 4.0 inch LCD.

It measures 10.9mm in thickness and just 122mm in length, offering it a compact design and very much desirable to handle. It also features a 1.4GHz processor and an 8-megapixel high definition camera, and it is a perfect smartphone with a 1900 mAh big capacity battery lifespan.

The Ascend G302D comes with dual-SIM functionality, giving the user options to make life more wonderful and simple. It offers a better view experience on a 4.0 inch IPS hard screen without extrusion deformation, and protects the eye.

The handset runs on a 1GHz high performance processor with a 5-megapixel plus 0.3MP Dual camera offering users an excellent entertainment experience. The retail price is GHȼ499 The Media Pad also presents itself as fast, very slim, light and clear.

It is the first tablet computer to support Android Ice Cream Sandwich and phone call function and comes with 7-inch screen 1280 x 800 WXGA IPS, leading as the industry’s clearest screen with an incredible 3D visual experience. The Media Pad has a powerful processing capacity of 1.2GHz dual core CPU. The retail price is GHȼ899.

SEC gives boost to housing sector funding

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it is developing various rules and regulations to pave the way for establishment of a Real Estate Investment Trust by next year.

The regulation, which forms part of the commission’s 5-year strategic plan for developing the capital market, is aimed at creating a deeper link between the real-estate sector and the capital market.

Ghana has a housing gap of 1.5 million units that keeps increasing every day, according to the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing.

While the provision of housing has expanded over the years, most developers have gone up-market and there is a large deficit in low-cost housing requirements.

 Director General of the commission, Adu Anane Antwi, told the B&FT in an interview that SEC is seeking to promote the Real Estate Investment Trust as an instrument for real-estate investment to help solve the housing deficit in the country.

 “We need to develop the Real Estate Investment Trust so that there can be a link with the capital market which will be providing these funds through these trusts, and there will be subsequent investment of these funds in real-estate,” he said.

 This, he said, will also be targetted at addressing the funding constraints of the real-estate sector by providing the funding for developers as well as prospective home owners.

 “The product will help to address the issues of lack capital for real-estate sector and bridge the gap between the supply and demand of houses in Ghana,” he said.

He disclosed that investors have already begun expressing great interest in investing in the country’s real-estate sector, which holds huge prospects.

 “People have been coming and calling the SEC offices always, expressing their readiness to enter the real-estate sector.

 “We are encouraging people to bring in more products once they meet the standard and protect the investor. We ourselves are trying to talk to issuers -- a lot of them wanted to come out with new instruments and we are there to help,” he added.

The Securities Industry Law at present allows mutual funds to invest only 10% of their net income value in real-estate.

 “There is a restriction on how much a unit trust can invest in real-estate. The draft or new law would seek to remove that restriction,”

Mr. Anane Antwi said. He explained the operation of Real Estates Investment Trust should be different from other mutual or unit trusts. “The real-estate trust has so many things to do which may be different from the normal unit trust, and the new guidelines will seek to ensure that.”

The new rules will include the determination of how properties are valued, the frequency of property valuations, how to price the properties, and the kind of people who will be in charge of the Real Estate Investment Trust.

“Since the Real Estate Investment Trust deals in property -- which cannot be valued daily like other unit trusts -- the new regulations will stipulate how the property is to be valued,”

Mr. Anane Antwi said. Real Estate Investment Trusts have been in limited existence in Ghana since 1994.

HFC Bank, which has been at the forefront of mortgage financing in the country, established the first one in August of that year.

 HFC has used various collective investment schemes and corporate bonds to finance its mortgage-lending activities.

Collective investment schemes, of which Real Estate Investment Trusts are a part, are regulated by the SEC.

A Real Estate Investment Trust is a company that owns -- and typically operates -- income-producing real-estate or real-estate-related assets.

 Real Estate Investment Trusts provide a way for individual investors to earn a share of the income produced through commercial real-estate ownership, without actually having to go out and buy commercial real-estate.

The income-producing real-estate assets owned by a Real Estates Investment Trust may include office buildings, shopping malls, apartments, hotels, resorts, self-storage facilities, warehouses, and mortgages or loans.