Atta Akyea during the visit
Samuel Atta Akyea, Member of Parliament for Akim Abuakwa South Constituency and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy, on Friday assured the management of Electrochem Ghana Limited of the full support of government in ensuring that Ghana reaps the full benefit of the Ada Songor Salt Mining Factory initiative.
He has against this background, issued a final warning to all feuding saboteurs who have sought to fuel unnecessary hatred, acrimony and inciting the Ada community against salt mining firm Electrochem Ghana Limited.
He has warned such groups to take their war away from Ada if they do not wish that Ada and Ghana for that matter, will see development and progress.
This came to light when the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy paid a working visit to Electrochem Ada Salt Mining Factory.
The engagement formed part of a monitoring exercise being undertaken on the orders of Parliament.
It would be recalled that the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, directed the Committee on Lands and Forestry and Mines and Energy to conduct a probe into the leasehold agreement that authorised Electrochem Ghana to embark on salt mining in Ada.
“I’m using this opportunity to sign a note of caution to those who believe that economic conditions of the people of Ada should not improve when you have a committed investor seeking to improve livelihoods of the people,” he said.
Atta Akyea added, “We have engaged all the stakeholders especially with the company undertaking the salt mining project, Electrochem Ghana Limited, and we have learned about all the challenges they are facing.
“For the moment, I’m very amazed that here is another undertaking that if given our full support would even rival what we are getting from Gold and Cocoa. We might not even have to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seeking for a bailout if we pay attention to the natural resource salt,” he added.
Continuing, he said, “what amazes me is that so far they haven’t even done 40% of the capacity of this setup…They’ve sunk about US$88 million into the undertaking.”
The Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy has held a closed-door meeting with the management of Electrochem Ghana.
The committee also used the opportunity to embark on a tour of the facilities at the Electrochem Salt Mining Factory, where they were shown around the salt refinery and other areas of the mining site.
On his part, the Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee in Parliament, John Jinapor, had this to say: “We are here on a monitoring visit, on a fact-finding mission. It is obvious that this is a very huge project and has the potential of impacting positively on the economic fortunes and activities of the people of Ada and the community.
“…So right from here when we go back to Parliament, I’m sure that we will report back to the Speaker and the House in general.
“We interacted with the staff, we interacted with the management of Electrochem Ghana Limited and its group Chairman, McDan. They told us some of their challenges and what they expect from the state to help them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Electrochem Ghana Limited has denied any involvement in the shooting incident that occurred at Toflokpo in the Ada West District of the Greater Accra Region, which resulted in the death of one person and the injury of several others.
The company added that it is awaiting the police to conduct an investigation into the shooting and report its findings accordingly.
Electrochem is a subsidiary of the McDan Group of Companies. It is the largest salt and chlorine-alkali manufacturing firm in West Africa with a concession spanning 41,000 acres at Ada Songor.
The company, which was granted a fifteen-year mining lease to explore the salt resource in the Ada Songor, launched its operations in November 2020 with a target to produce one million (1,000,000) metric tons of salt per annum to supply to both the local and export markets.