ohene kena for ministry of mines and energy

accra, anglo-american mining company made an unsuccessful bid to get control of the ashanti goldfields company limited (agc), fredinand ohene kena, a former deputy secretary for lands and natural resources said today.

mr kena said the company bought about 30 per cent of agc shares from lonhro and tried to take over the company but this was resisted.

mr kena, 61, disclosed this to the press after appearing before the parliamentary appointments committee for the consideration of his nomination as minister of mines and energy.

mr kena who is ghana's ambassador to the czech republic repeated this at the appointments committee without disclosing the name of the company and its interests in agc.

he said he does not think the leadership of ghana will ever accept such a takeover since the company serves as a model which government will wish all other companies will rise up to.

there are laws to check these take-overs and we would evoke them to protect such companies from foreign control, the nominee added.

the government controls 20 per cent of the company's shares. the nominee an engineer, said the laws of the country stipulate that companies should not control a certain percentage of shares in a mining concern without prior approval from the sector minister.

mr kena is married with six children.

reacting to a question that agc declared a small dividend, mr kena who also represents shareholders on the agc board, said most of the profits are ploughed into expansion activities, especially exploratory works.

he said dividends in mining shares are often not much but the shares are something one would like to hold onto. the ploughing of the profits into investments are necessary since agc is a single mine with limited reserves and it has to go in for companies endowed with reserves.

mr kena said the concentration in the mining sector now is for gold because of its comparative abundance and large market for it, adding that the turn of the other minerals will come some day.

he gave the example of bauxite which is in abundance but which the country will gain little from in investing in it now. "it is there for us always."

on what he did for ghana as a diplomat, the nominee said trade between ghana and the czech republic was minimal but with his three year stay this stood at four million dollars last year.

slovakia where he also represented ghana, has started importing bauxite, manganese and coffee from ghana.

on the fuel shortages being experienced in some parts of the country, mr kena said it should be possible for ghana to build up enough reserves so that any shortages do not reflect in the street.

on pricing of fuel, he said there are moves for a transparent system that will not bring any divisions to society. he said liquified petroleum gas still continues to be cheap despite the outcry against the recent hike in its price.

mr kena suggested that communities should be encouraged to grow woodlots for charcoal instead of poaching on the forests and reserves. he said it is unlikely that the 3oo per cent hike in tarrifs being proposed by the volta river authority will happen.