Beneficiaries of the West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP) have urged Ghanaian Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to consider clustering as an approach to remaining competitive.

They said cluster development would allow MSMEs leverage opportunities presented by the single African market through a unified approach to market source.

Also, the approach, they said would facilitate sharing of tools that would positively impact industrial and economic development through cost sharing initiatives.

The beneficiaries were panellist who addressed the topic, “Clusters Joint Actions Towards Competitiveness” at the second edition of the WACOMP Ghana International Cluster Conference.

The conference held under the theme, “Ghanaian Clusters, A Driving Force for the Economy”, was organised by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the European Union (EU) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI).

Clusters are the sectoral and geographical concentration of enterprises and individual producers who manufacture a similar range of goods or services and face similar threats and opportunities.

Its development entails understanding the value chain, identifying advantages and disadvantages, challenges and opportunities and defining a comprehensive and collective strategy that would be analysed continuously to adapt to changing environment.

Under WACOMP, UNIDO, an implementing agency of the programme established 17 clusters across the country for businesses within the value chain of Cassava, Mango, Pineapple and Cosmetics.

Madam Mabel Akoto Kwuzdo, Chief Executive Officer of Okata Farms and a member of the Northern Volta cluster, said they had problems of marketing their produce until the cluster was formed.

Through the formation of cooperatives and associations in a newly created region that mainly specialised in planting and processing of Cassava, she said the farmers were able to get together to among other things tackle sanitation issues and established demonstration farms to test new variety of cassava with higher yields.

“Initially when we formed these cooperatives, there was nagging among the members but when we put across our ideas about how to bring out cassava products that would meet international standards, that was when people started joining us,” she said.

Mr Asenso Mensah, Managing Director of Plant Pests and Disease Control management Limited and a Member of the Middle Belt Mango Cluster, said the creation of cluster had improved the manpower of farmers to control diseases on 18 out of 20 mango farms.

“Indeed, it was so tremendous that our output increased from 1.2 tonnes per acre to five tonnes per acre,” he said.

Mr. Stavros Papastavrou, UNIDO Representative in Ghana and Liberia, said the UNIDO -MOTI collaboration on the implementation of WACOMP in Ghana had made Ghana a shining example for other components in the sub region.

“The next phase of WACOMP will be implemented by the ECOWAS Commission using the same models implemented by the Government of Ghana and UNIDO.

“This is another success we would like to see Ghana working to sustain over the coming years using Cluster methodology,” he said.

WACOMP is a partnership initiative between the ECOWAS) and EU, which has a bearing on regional economic integration and highlights commitment to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and West Africa.

It has an overall objective of strengthening the trade competitiveness of West Africa and to enhance the ECOWAS countries’ integration into the regional and international trading system, including the newly established African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

This is to be achieved through an enhanced level of production, value addition, and export capacities of the private sector in line with regional and national industrial, Small and Medium Enterprises support strategies.

WACOMP is funded through a €120 million contribution from the Regional Indicative Programme (RIP) for West Africa (2014 – 2020) under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) of the European Union.

In Ghana, the EU is contributing a total of €6.2 million with €150,000 from UNIDO, totalling €6.35 millions of donor fund to the programme that seeks to enhance value-addition, engineer low carbon sustainable production and processing with the aim of increasing access to regional and international markets.

WACOMP Ghana, launched in March 2019 and expected to end in January 2024, embraces the vision of the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III) and is also aligned to UNIDO’s mandate of fostering Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID).

The Bank of Ghana has cited the risk of earthquakes as one of the reasons for moving from its current location in Accra’s Central Business Area to Ridge.

It claimed that a structural integrity examination on its structure had shown that it was unfit for its intended use.

There is increasing pressure on the Central Bank to be transparent about the procedures used to acquire the land for the new headquarters building, as well as the names of consultants and project managers, financing arrangements for the construction of the headquarters, and the cost, scope of work, bill of materials, and contract start and completion dates.

Below are details as presented by the Bank of Ghana:

Background

In the 1990s, the Bank of Ghana began the search for adequate and secured land for a new Head Office, given that the Central Business District had caught up with the existing Head Office and the need to expand to meet its growing operations.

i. In the year 2011, the Board of Directors of the bank agreed that the Bank must consider looking for a suitable land for the new headquarters.

ii. In 2012 the Bank was allocated an 5.19-acre land at Accra Central by the Lands Commission and a total of GHS 791,580.00 was paid. The Bank however was not given access to the land as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration refused to grant the Bank vacant possession on the grounds that they had never agreed to give up ownership of the land.

iii. Several offers were made to the Bank between 2012 and 2016 including parcels of land near the Ridge Hospital, Airport City, around 37 Military Hospital, Achimota Forest among others. Due diligence made on these plots indicated that they were either encumbered, had unfavourable terms or that these lands were not suitable for the Bank’s purpose.

iv. The requirement for land for the new Headquarters became urgent when the structural failure on the existing Head Office became pronounced with more serious cracks showing on the building and portions of the structure falling off. Having been apprised of the nature of the Head Office building on Thorpe Road through a Condition Survey by the Estate Office, the Bank commissioned ESPCo, a third-party Engineering Firm to undertake a Structural Integrity Audit of the facility, which revealed that the current Bank of Ghana Head Office, built by the Nkrumah Government in the late1950s was no longer fit for purpose and could not withstand any major earth tremors.

v. The Board of the Bank at its 662nd Regular Meeting directed the Corporate Management and Services Department (CMSD) of the Bank by a decision dated 18th December 2019 to initiate all proper processes for the development of a New Corporate Headquarters for the Bank.

vi. Subsequently, the Bank went through the required processes to acquire a parcel of land at West Ridge, which was previously owned by the State Insurance Company (SIC). The land was compulsorily acquired by the Government of Ghana by Executive Instrument, 2020 E.I 304 for the New Bank of Ghana Headquarters, a building of national interest. The compulsory acquisition process started in 2019 and the Executive Instrument was published and gazetted in 2020.

Approval from Public Procurement Authority

• The need to procure a highly complex Central Bank accommodation meeting national security considerations, as well as the Bank’s highly classified information security needs, informed the selection of the firms. The Bank wrote to the PPA on 14th January 2020, for approval to use the Restricted Tender Method. This procurement method was on the basis of national security considerations. The following firms, known to be operating in Ghana, were shortlisted:
  o MAN Enterprise

o WBHO Ghana Ltd

o De Simone Ltd

o Goldkey Properties Ltd

o Ronesans Construction

• Ronesans Construction, though not wholly Ghanaian, had partnered with David Walter Limited a local partner, during the tendering process.
• The PPA by a letter dated 29th January 2020 conveyed the Board’s approval to the Bank of Ghana. This approval to use the shortlisted contractors for the Restricted Tender, also revised downward the estimated cost of the project from USD100,857,942.48 to USD81,882,640.00 without any justification.

Solicitation of Tenders

• Invitation letters to the Tenderers with the Request for Proposal (RFP) documents were issued to shortlisted firms on 21st February 2020.
• A Pre-Bid Conference for Tenderers was held on 19th March 2020.
• The RFP was reviewed after the initial pre-bid conference and re-issued on 4th May 2020 to the Tenderers.
• Tender submission was revised to 5th June 2020 with another pre-bid conference held on 13th May 2020.
• In view of the COVID-19 restrictions, the Bank by a letter dated 22nd May 2020 issued addenda and revised the deadline for tender submission to 19th June 2020.
• Tenders were opened on 19th June 2020 at 11am in the presence of all relevant stakeholders and Tenderers who chose to be present.
• The tenders were evaluated between 6th – 17th July 2020.

Approvals

• After evaluation of tenders were received, the Entity Tender Committee (ETC) of the Bank at its meeting held on 6th August 2020 considered Tender Evaluation Panel’s recommendation and approved the award of contract for the project to Messrs. Goldkey Properties Limited at the cost of $121,078,517.94, the least cost evaluated bid, under Turnkey (Design and Build) contract arrangements.
• The ETC further directed for concurrent approval to be sought from the Central Tender Review Committee (CTRC) of the Ministry of Finance.
• The PPA in a response to the Bank’s letter dated 31st August 2020 reviewed the initial PPA approved estimated amount from USD81,882,640.00 to USD121,078,517.94.
• The CTRC on 4th September 2020 granted concurrent approval to the Bank to engage the recommended Tenderer, Messrs. Goldkey Properties Limited at a contract price of USD121,078,517.94 under Turnkey (Design and Build) contract arrangements, which was the least evaluated bid.

Contract Award

• After a series of pre-contract meetings on contract agreements, the Bank signed a contract with the Contractor on 26th November 2020 for the Construction of a Corporate Headquarters for the Bank via Turnkey in 30months (6 months for design, 24 months for construction).

Commencement of Project

• The project site was formally handed over to the Contractor in March 2021 for commencement of preliminary site works and designs.

Engagement of Employer’s Representative

• The Bank’s search on all iconic projects at the time such as the KIA Terminal 3, SU Towers, Ecobank Head Office, Standard Chartered Head Office, Cal Bank Building, MTN Head Office, 335 Place and other emerging projects such as the ABSA Bank Building pointed in the direction of several firms, some of which were not based in Ghana, others which had local representatives and some local experts.
• The following were invited to express interest in leading the Bank’s project in the area of project management commensurate with the level of complexity of the Bank’s building:
• Profica
• GHC Africa
• Diagonal
• DAR
• AECOM
• MULTICAD

Following a scrutiny of their profiles, the Bank settled on MULTICAD, a Ghanaian consultancy firm which had partnered other consultants in all the identified projects.

In July 2021 the Bank invited a proposal from MULTICAD to be considered for single source based on the following:

• Demonstrable experience and association in managing projects of similar nature; Fidelity Bank Head Office Annex, the Octagon, Standard Chartered Bank Head Office, Accra Mall, Kumasi City Mall, Achimota Mall, SU Tower, 335 Place, Oxford Street Mall, Tulip Inn and others.
• Technical team of experts in the fields of Engineering, Cost Management, Building Information Modeling (BIM), ICT, Health, Safety & Environmental Impact (HSE).
• MULTICAD’s profile, which also includes details of its company registration, were scrutinized and same submitted to PPA for review.

In addition to MULTICAD’s outstanding project portfolio, the main consideration for adopting the single source was hinged on Section 40 (f) of the PPA: “where the procurement entity applies this Act for Procurement that concerns national security and determines that single source procurement is the most appropriate method of procurement.”

• MULTICAD is numbered in the topmost tier of Architecture and Multi-Disciplinary Consulting Firms in Ghana, in rigorous practice for more than 29 years. MULTICAD’s registration date, boldly cited on its RGD Certificate is 11th July 1994. A re-registration was done on 10th December 2021.
• MULTICAD’s vast portfolio of diverse projects is primarily focused on the commercial and industrial sectors with a well-known reputation for handling projects other firms are incapable or unwilling to take on. The firm’s portfolio ranges from humble tasks through shopping malls and offices to midtown and peri-urban satellite cities. The firm has been involved in most large commercial retail projects and most notable Grade “A” office buildings executed in the country.
• MULTICAD was adjudged uniquely qualified in its knowledge of the larger cultural context of the local design and execution environment and its depth of knowledge of the statutory context and having been partners in design and execution of several notable buildings afforded the Bank de-risked fluent Project Design Management and Construction oversight.
• A consultancy fee of 3.36% of the contract sum (translating into USD3,450,417.00) was negotiated, mindful of the Ministry of Works & Housing’s recommended threshold of 16.5%. MULTICAD, has since their engagement, lived up to expectation by adequately representing the Bank’s interest in delivering the project.

Design and Cost Reviews

The initial design proposals projected a gross floor area of 73,000 sq.m with the following details:
▪ 25-storey Tower Block

▪ 4-storey car parking facility,

▪ 2 level basements

▪ Auditorium.

The need to reconfigure the spatial requirements in order to meet all relevant statutory requirements and functionality of the building resulted in modification of the initial design concept to the current gross floor area in excess of 100,000sq.m.

The project consists of three main blocks namely the Tower, Urban and Amenities Blocks including basements, podium and ancillary facilities.

• Tower Block – 20-Storey Tower Block
• Urban Block – 8-Storey Urban Block
• Amenities Block – 6-Storey Amenities Block
• Podium – Upper Ground
• Podium –Lower Ground
• Basements – Three (3) level basement car parking areas
• Ancillary facilities
• Energy Farm
• Treatment plants
• Security Gate Houses

Key Design Considerations:

• In addition to meeting the requirements of all relevant building codes, the building has incorporated Sustainable Design Concepts, such as energy conservation, water conservation, material selection, recycling and reuse of waste (liquid and solid), humane adaptation, etc.
• The design satisfies the EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) green standard. Minimum certification shall be EDGE

Advanced

• The Design’s innovative damping design approach adopted ensures Seismic and wind loads are to be resisted.
• The building’s design deploys a Building Management System (BMS) to monitor key energy and utility infrastructure.
• The ETC of the Bank at its meeting held on 19th December 2022 considered and approved the design review and revised project cost of USD2,068.00/m2. This figure compares favourably with data from the Africa Property & Construction Cost Guide 2021/22 (USD2,658/m2) and 2022/23 (USD2,720.00/m2) as average construction costs for Prestige High Rise Office spaces in Africa.
• Even though the comparable data from the Africa Property & Construction Cost Guide relates to Prestige High Rise Office spaces, the unique features of a Central Bank (including vaults and security installations) rank higher than the considerations for the former. This makes the figure for the Bank’s building more competitive.
• CTRC subsequently granted concurrent approval for the revised scope of works at cost of USD2,068.00/m2 on 17th January 2023.
• The Bank was guided by all legal requirements in going through all the processes from inception to its current state. All internal due diligence protocols were strictly adhered to.

Current Project Progress Update

Currently, physical progress on site stands at 41% and is summarized as follows:
▪ Tower Block

Up to 13th Floor slab casting completed.

▪ Urban Block

Upper Roof Slab casting completed.

▪ Amenities (Auditorium) Block

Upper Ground slab Casting completed.

▪ Other works

Internal blockwork ongoing at various levels in both Tower and

Urban blocks.

Mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) first fixes ongoing at

various levels

The Project is expected to be completed in September 2024.