APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report of the commissioning of Africa’s largest industrial salt production mine located in the Dangme East District in the Greater Accra Region is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that Africa’s largest industrial salt production mine located in the Dangme East District in the Greater Accra Region has been commissioned.
The $88-million Electrochem Salt Washing Plant processes 650,000 tonnes of industrial salt per annum, mined from a 41,000-acre field, straddling at least 33 communities in the Ada Songhor Salt site.
Operating an initial 15-year lease, Electrochem, which employs more than 3,000 inhabitants from Ada and surrounding areas, is one of the companies to trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The plant, already in operation and producing at 99.99 per cent purity, has become the biggest in Africa, larger in acreage than the Walvis Bay of Namibia, which is about 16,700 acres hitherto known to be the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Production is expected to ramp up to around two million tonnes per annum by 2027 and the number of employees also expected to increase to 7,000 with the completion of the second phase.
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who commissioned the multi-million dollar project yesterday, stated that the Electrochem salt mine was an example of what governmental policy, backed by strong private sector participation could achieve.
The President recounted how successive governments had tried without success to harness the full value of the Songhor Lagoon for the past 54 years and noted that under his government the project had become successful for the benefit of the residents of Ada and the citizenry.
“The man who is to receive the plaudits for the brilliance of what we are witnessing today is the courageous and excellent entrepreneur, Daniel McKorley. This is the first time in recent history that an indigenous businessman will own one of the biggest extractive industries in Africa,” he said.
The Ghanaian Times says that the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) received 913 complaints from consumers against utility companies in the first half of the year as against 1,011 complaints the same period last year.
The complaints against the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) were damage to property, unlawful disconnection and payments, quality of service and consumer service billing.
According to the Greater Accra Regional Manager of the PURC, Mrs Gifty Bruce-Nelson, 896 of the cases were resolved representing 98 per cent of the complaints.
In a similar vein, the Commission also received 1,000 complaints from utility companies against consumers within the same period for non-payment of bills and assault on their officers.
Mrs Bruce-Nelson who was speaking during a media engagement, said as a result of the intervention from the regional office, GH¢249,776.97 was recovered in favour of ECG and GWLC customers, adding that two customers were compensated by ECG.
The Regional Manager said the PURC (Consumer Service) Regulation LI 2413, allowed utility companies to lodge complaints to the commission.
She said if consumers made complaints such as walk-in, phone calls, field and written, the regional office investigates such complaints and seeks ways to resolve them.
Mrs Bruce-Nelson said to reduce complaints the region embarked on sensitisation programme in the communities, schools to educate both consumers and the companies on how to prevent such issues.
The newspaper reports that Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) in collaboration with the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) has organised a business forum focused on Ghana’s investment and regulatory landscape.
The event availed an opportunity to orient the Japanese business community on the investment trends and opportunities within the different sectors of Ghana to guide their expansion and investment decisions.
The forum also provided an avenue for existing Japanese investors operating in Ghana to know about the role GIPC can play to facilitate their business operations in the country and learn more of its unique Aftercare services, purposed to address post-establishment issues.
Speaking at the event, the Centre’s CEO, Mr Yofi Grant, underscored that Ghana’s engagement with the Japanese business community over the years had been a dynamic one, with Japan being the 12th highest FDI contributor to Ghana within the period of 2017 to 2022.
He mentioned that though the current economic landscape faced some challenges as countries emerge from the global political and health crisis, there were still several opportunities in Ghana, and Africa at large, that investors could leverage.
“Beyond all that is happening in the world, there is a tacit agreement that Africa has a significant role to play in reviving the global economy, considering its vast unexplored resources and market. We believe that Ghana is an entry point to this real potential,” Mr Grant said.
He added, “Ghana recognises the quality of Japanese business operations and is very keen on exploring and maintaining mutually beneficial partnerships with the Japanese business community.”
Taking his turn to address the audience, the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Hisanobu Mochizuki, noted that the past decade had seen increased Japanese investments in Ghana, with a potential for more.
He also touched on some issues besetting the investment environment, but reassured the Japanese investors of GIPC’s commitment to helping them address those challenges.
The Ghanaian Times also reports that fuel prices are anticipated to remain steady during the first two weeks of next month, the Institute for Energy Security (IES) has projected.
According to the IES, the projection is based on the back of the slowed down of international movements of all petroleum products together with a stable cedi against the U.S. dollar in the second pricing window of August 2023.
“The various finished petroleum products as monitored on Standard & Poor (S&P) Platt platform within the past window exhibited the following dynamics; Gasoline (petrol) traded at $989.48 per metric tonne against the previous $967.29 per metric tonne, Gasoil (diesel) also moved from $901.73 per metric tonne to $912.68, and Liquid Petroleum Gas price moved to $557.05 per metric tonne from $547.52 per metric tonne. These changes led to price effect of 2.29 per cent, 0.13 per cent and 1.7 per cent increase in all 3 products prices; Gasoline, Gasoil and LPG respectively,” it said in a statement.
It said the IES Economic Desk’s analysis of the foreign exchange (forex) market over the last two weeks revealed that the Ghana cedi depreciated against the U.S. dollar, moving from GH¢11.39 to GH¢11.45, representing 0.52 per cent depreciation of the Ghana cedi over period.
The second pricing window of August saw prices of domestic petroleum products increased by the following margins; 5 per cent for diesel and 3.90 per cent for petrol.
A simple random sampling of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) price data by the IES over the two weeks put the national average prices per litre of petrol at GH¢13.02, GH¢12.85 for diesel and GH¢13.14 per kilogramme for LPG.
GIK/APA
Ghana: Press zooms in on commissioning of Africa’s largest salt mine, others
