Cocoa beans being supplied to WAMCO
The management of West Africa Mills Company Limited (WAMCO), a cocoa processing company in Takoradi in the Western Region, has commended government and Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) for fulfilling their promise to revive the company.
The cocoa processing company was shut down for years under the previous NDC administration, which failed to cooperate with the foreign partner to revive the company.
However, when the current Akufo-Addo administration assumed office, the Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen-Aidoo, gave the assurance that WAMCO located in Takoradi would be revived.
According to the management, under the current government, COCOBOD has stated supplying the requisite cocoa beans to WAMCO to commence production.
To this end, the company, which provided employment for many people in the Western Region, particularly Sekondi-Takoradi, is working again.
This was after repair and maintenance works at the liquor plant and the expeller machines had been carried out.
Government has 40 per cent shares in WAMCO while other investors hold 60 per cent majority shares.
In an exclusive interview with DAILY GUIDE, Frank Bednar, acting Managing Director of WAMCO, confirmed that the company was in recession for close to three years under the previous NDC administration.
He indicated that “our collaboration with COCOBOD now has been good so far. WAMCO has received the requisite quality and quantity of cocoa beans for processing. We have even secured beans for processing up till the end of this year.”
“We stated receiving cocoa beans for production in September 2017 and started the production test run in October last year.”
“Since that time significant progress has been made and the company has used $10 million to purchase over 7,000 tonnes of beans to boost production,” he added.
Mr. Bednar mentioned that the company was currently processing about 1,100 tons of the cocoa beans per month, adding “we process 600 tons at the expeller plant and 500 tons at the liquor plant of WAMCO 1.”
“We are currently producing 200 metric tons of butter and 380 metric tons of liquor and 300 metric tons of cake for export”, he added.
The acting MD pointed out that the company would gradually increase its production capacity and that next year WAMCO would process approximately about 20,000 tons of cocoa beans in 2019.
He indicated that the company has now employed about 80 staff and 20 casual workers, adding “we now operate two shifts and are operating at a profit”.
“We intend to scale up production and start with the three shits model at the beginning of next year and increase the staff strength to about 100”.
He observed that the company was also poised to raise the necessary funds to start the rehabilitation works at WAMCO 2 and make it operational in 2019.
He mentioned that both the majority and minority shareholders had contributed to the revival of WAMCO by injecting funds or pre-financing cocoa beans to help the company to operate.
He indicated that the workers had done an excellent job so far and were passionate to bring the company fully back to work.
Tdi MP Visits WAMCO
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Takoradi, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, who has been working in diverse ways to ensure the revival of the cocoa processing company, recently visited the company’s premises to assess the progress of work.
The Takoradi MP expressed gratitude to the government of Ghana and Mr Boahen-Aidoo for revitalizing WAMCO.
“In terms of the personnel capacity, the company has recalled about 70 of the old workers and would soon add about 25 of them to boost their production capacity,” he added.
Isaac Opoku, Production Manager of WAMCO, disclosed that over the last 16 months significant success had been chalked by the company after the repair and maintenance of liquor plant and the expeller.
He added that the company would increase the workforce when WAMCO 2, a sister company, also becomes operational in 2019.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi