Accra (Greater Accra) 18 Feb '99 Vice President John Evans Atta Mills yesterday urged the private sector, to renew its faith in the economy and work towards the nation's goal of becoming a middle income country by the year 2020. He said government's resolve to sharpen and deepen its responsiveness to the private sector will be meaningless without the corresponding role from that sector. "You must play your part too," Vice President Mills said when he launched the 1998 Ghana Club 100 (GC 100) over lunch in Accra. The occasion also marked the first anniversary of the Club. The GC 100, which is made up of the top 100 companies in Ghana from both public and private sectors, was inaugurated by the Vice President during the historic visit of American President, Bill Clinton, to Ghana in March last year. President Clinton used Ghana as the gateway to his six-nation African tour. The Club has registered 12 new members since its inauguration. Some members of the Club were honoured according to their performance in 1998.

Vice President Mills said the sustenance of the Club and the fact that new companies have managed to work their way into it despite the immense challenges that faced businesses in the past is a pointer to the growing vibrancy of the business environment. Analysing the performance of the Club which he described as encouraging, the Vice President said the Club members recorded a total of 6.5 trillion cedis in turn-over, an increase of 96 per cent as against the turn-over in 1995.

Their total net assets was 9.7 trillion cedis representing 111 per cent increase over 1995, with 1.03 trillion cedis in pre-tax profits representing an increase of 64 per cent over 1995. Vice President Mills congratulated eight companies for having the highest turnover in 1997. They are led by the Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited, which was also the leading performer in the mining sector. The others are Volta River Authority, highest net asset- based company and top performer in the energy sector, SSNIT, the highest profit before tax and highest in the financial sector and AFGO which recorded the highest return on equity.

The State Insurance Company was mentioned for topping the general services group, VALCO for topping the manufacturing sector and TAYSEC for leading the building and construction sector. The rest are Ghana Telecom for leading the telecommunication sector and Cashpro Company Limited for top performance in the trading sector and also being the only indigenous company among the top 20 of 1998 GC 100.

Prof. Mills noted that too many Ghanaian businesses either do not have any company data or are reluctant to file such particulars as required by law. He urged them to improve on the situation by filing such details as labour, turnover, management and accounting data, balance sheets, company profiles and brochures.

The Vice-President said businesses, both foreign and private, continue to grow. He cited reports by the Ghana Export Promotion Council that it registered 187 projects in 1998. The projects are estimated to cost 177.43 million dollars. They comprise foreign direct investment capital of 164.82 million dollars and a local contribution of 12.61 million dollars. There are 119 joint foreign-Ghanaian projects with capitalisation of 75.41 million dollars against 68 wholly Ghanaian-owned companies estimated at 102.02 million dollars. These projects are expected to generate employment opportunities for some 12,240 Ghanaians with minimum foreign transfers of 20.35 million dollars.