BY EVANS OWUSU

Accra (Greater Accra) 17 Feb. '99,

The 1998 Ghana Club 100 members recorded a total of 6.5 trillion cedis in turnover last year exceeding the 1995 value by 96 per cent. Net assets realised 9.7 trillion cedis and pre-tax profits was 1.03 trillion cedis surpassing 1995 figures by 111 per cent and 64 per cent respectively. Vice President, Prof. John Atta Mills made these disclosures in Accra when launching the 1998, Ghana Club 100 (GC 100) on Wednesday. It was also an occasion for the celebration of the first anniversary of GC 100. The club is a group of the top 100 companies in the country for a given year. "The first analytical report on Ghana Club 100, has contributed enormously in marketing Corporte Ghana", Vice President Mills said.

Professor Mills said it is re-assuring that competition to join the GC 100 has been very high, adding that it is a positive pointer to the growing vibrancy of the Ghanaian business environment. He reminded the GC 100 members that Ghana's intention is to become a middle income earning country by year 2000 and that the government is resolved and ready to sharpen its responsiveness to business especially, the private sector. Ghana's continued attraction of respectable levels of direct foreign investment is an indication of the increasing faith of foreign investors in the Ghanaian economy and the private sector. The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) registered 187 new projects last year with an investment total 177.43 million dollars.

Inflows amounted to 164.82m dollars with a local component of 12.61m dollars. There were 119 joint foreign and Ghanaian projects with capitalisation of 75.4 million dollars and 68 wholly foreign owned to generate 102 million dollars. These, he said, should create job opportunities for 12,240 people. Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, Chief Executive of GIPC said GC 100 was established with an intention to sensitize the opertives to develop an open information culture needed for 21st century global competition. He said it is intended to provide the business database requisite for meaningful national planning, governmental support and interventions to enhance Ghanaian enterprise competitiveness. He said twelve new companies have joined the club.

Mr. Ahwoi said it was a daunting task to rank so many companies in different sectors of the economy with different economic activities adding that companies were evaluated on the basis of their net asset size, profit before tax and the number of employees. Also used were Return on Equity and Growth Trends. Ashanti Goldfields Company who remained at the number one spot in the club's ranking had the highest turnover in 1997 while Volta River Authority was adjudged the highest net asset based company and doubling as the top performer in the energy sector.

Social Security and National Insurance Trust won the highest profit before tax ranking with African Ground Operators (AFGO) taking the highest return on equity.

The following also took the accompanying rankings State Insurance Company - General Services group Volta Aluminium Company - Manufacturing top performer TAYSEC - Leading in Building and Construction Section Ghana Telecom - Leading in Telecomminication. Cashpro Company Ltd. - Top performance in Trading Sector.

Mr. Ahwoi said the GHANA AIRWAYS has offered discounted rates for club members travelling and said the Network Computer Systems (NCS) and the Ghana classifieds are also offering free web hosting for six months to members.