Employees of B-BOVID Limited, an agro-processing company in the oil palm industry in the Western Region, have expressed worry about the closure of the company following a dispute.
The company, which has about 100 direct employees and work with over 5,000 oil palm farmers, has been shut down due to a dispute between the founder, Issa Ouedraogo, who is now a minority shareholder, and Moringa Investors who are majority shareholders and foreign investors of the company.
The dispute is as a result of a decision by the board of the company to change the management and reassign the founder of the company who is a Ghanaian agribusiness entrepreneur and the CEO as the president of the company.
Subsequently, a new CEO was appointed but the founder of the company did not agree with the changes made by the board and prevented the newly appointed CEO from taking his new role.
The company has therefore, remained closed since July this year and all employees are currently at home and the farmers are also unable to sell the palm produce.
The workers have therefore called on the government and in particular, the Ministries of Food and Agriculture as well as Trade and Industry, to intervene in the matter to resolve it so that their jobs could be protected.
Addressing a press conference in Takoradi, the spokesperson for the concerned employees, Gabriel Teye said B-BOVID has the potential to meet the demand of smallholder farmers and double its employment capacity.
“But as it stands now, the factory which is worth millions of dollars is at the mercy of the weather as the metal components have started rusting,” he explained.
He asserted that the founder of the company took a unilateral decision and closed down the company when the board made changes in the company’s bank account signatories.
The founder of the company has sought a court order to freeze the company’s bank accounts and restrained the new management from operating the accounts, and so for sometime now workers have not received salaries.
He said Mr. Ouedraogo has also served the local union chairman of the employees a notification letter declaring all employees redundant.
He said however, the shareholder dispute sent to court by the foreign investors to return the company into operation has taken an unexpected delay.
“This is due to the legal vacation of judges and the continual adjournment of hearing since July this year. We are of the view that the court case can go on while the workers could be allowed to work,” he added.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi