Ghana cocoa loan
THE GHANA Cocoa Board received a $225m Receivables- Backed Trade Finance Facility from a
syndication of 32 banks
arranged by Standard Chartered to finance cocoa purchases for the 1995-1996 marketing season.
Ghana's High Commissioner in the UK, Mr Kenneth Dadzie,
said the facility would enable the Cocoa Board to allocate more resources towards paying cocoa
farmers, thus improving their standard of living.
Standard's executive director, David Brougham, said Ghana was a model of political stability in West
Africa which had successfully implemented the IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programmes.
He hoped that with continued political stability and pragmatic economic reforms, Ghana would
benefit from international support for its development programmes.
'Britain means business'
BRITISH businesses had a successful outing in Johannesburg during the "British Means
Business" trade exhibition with companies attracting new orders at the event, according to Trade
Minister Anthony Nelson.
"It is not only the large companies that have been successful but also some of the smaller
companies participating at Nasrec," he said.
Besides trade, the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra announced plans to sponsor talented musicians
who participated in the music workshop in Soweto.
The British Council is prepared to put up 10,000 towards supporting other major South African
cultural initiatives, according to the Minister.
The "Britain Means Business" initiative is a major campaign to encourage UK companies
to participate in South Africa's Reconstruction and Development Programme.
Currency union
KENYA, Uganda and Tanzania agreed to use their respective currencies to conduct cross-border trade
from next year, it was announced.
This followed an agreement reached in Arusha, Tanzania by central bank governors from the three
countries who resolved to have their three currencies fully compatible by December 1995.
At present, traders convert their local currencies into US dollars or that of their trading partners
before making any transactions, a situation said to be responsible for the low volume of trade between
the three East African states.
ANGOLA THE CONSUMER price index went up by 43.3 per cent in August, meaning that consumers lost
slightly more than 300 readjusted kwanzas out of every K1,000, according to figures released by the
National Statistics Institute.
Goods which reflected the worst price increases were furniture, household appliances, clothing,
shoes, health products. Medical care also witnessed a rise. Foods and beverages went up by 40 per
cent.
COTE D'IVOIRE THE JAPANESE government decided to establish an office in Abidjan to strengthen technical
and economic cooperation between the two countries.
Meanwhile, the World Bank granted a loan of $150m to Cote d'Ivoire for its agriculture sector,
particularly coffee and cocoa.
Nigerian oil output
NIGERIA produced a total of 58.9m barrels of crude oil in May, the Central Bank of Nigeria
announced. Out of this figure, 49.9m barrels were exported.
The CBN said the output however represented an increase of only 1.1 per cent over the April
production level while exports declined by 0.6 per cent.
SOUTH AFRICA MINERAL and Energy Minister Pik Botha called for a "reasonable" gold price to
enable the local jewellery industry to become internationally competitive.
He said foreign investors interested in financing jewellery manufacturers were being put off by the
high price of raw gold. Although South Africa is the world's largest gold producer, jewellery design
and manufacture lag way behind.