Kofi Bosompem Osafo-Maafo
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has justified its decision to sell 60% shares of its hotels to Rock City Hotel.
Speaking at a press briefing yesterday in Accra, Director General of SSNIT, Kofi Bosompem Osafo-Maafo, said selling the stake to Rock City Hotel was the last option as its hotels failed to pay dividends but consistently made losses.
“These hotels are capital-intensive businesses, they require continuous capital expenditure. SSNIT doesn’t have the necessary funding to do that as the businesses have been making consistent losses,” he added.
According to him, to help solve this issue, they sought a strategic investor after all efforts to revamp the hotels failed.
He also refuted claims by some critics that his outfit breached the procurement process to give undue advantage to the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, even though the entire process started as far back as 2018.
He said other options including divesting Labadi Beach Hotel to Legacy Company to manage for sometime could not yield the desired dividends as expected though the hotel was performing better than others.
“We’ve been through quite a lengthy process to do so. Bear in mind, we’ve also tried having external management companies running the SSNIT hotels and that hasn’t resolved the problem either.
“For us, we look at it in two folds; that we are looking to resolve a problem and do so with the introduction of a strategic investor”.
He said SSNIT followed through with all the procurement processes and all that was needed to arrive at a decision to sell off a percentage to Rock City Hotel which was financially viable to take over the hotels.
He added that the hotels have currently not been sold to any entity as SSNIT is still engaging relevant stakeholders to address some concerns that have been raised by the public.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah