Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor has pledged his unwavering support to the CEO of Electrochem, Dr. Daniel McCauley, popularly known as McDan, saying that he is impressed with the developmental projects that has started in Ada West.
The Minister said the project clearly fits into the President of the Republic’s agenda of industrialisation.
He said “What is happening here at ElectroChem fits into the grand agenda and vision of his Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The vision for the transformation of this country which is anchored on industrialisation and history teaches us that you cannot transform a country unless you build your industries”
Samuel A. Jinapor highly commended the CEO of Macdan Group of Companies, who has also been recently enstooled as a chief at the Ada West traditional area, Nene Kranteng Kabu I, for an excellent work done on transforming Ghana’s salt resource which he said had been abandoned for over 40 years.
He further stated that Macdan has proven that the Ghanaian can also engage in developmental projects to develop the country and called on all Ghanaians to take inspiration from what he has done.
” What I have seen here today, tells us that if we put our hearts and minds to any project, we ourselves as Ghanaians can build our country”
“And what we have seen today is contributing to the economy of Ada, its contributing to the economy of Greater Accra and undoubtedly to the economy of Ghana and the future for this projects is highly promising” He added.
Hon. Jinapor therefore craved the indulgence of the chiefs and the people of Ada to throw their weight solidly behind Mcdan and the ElectroChem Company to exploit the white gold resource in the area.
He explained that it will be in the interest of Ghana for this project to be embarked upon, for the country to become a distributor and exporter of salt in Africa and even the world at large.
On his part, The CEO of ElectroChem Ghana Limited, Dr. Daniel McCauley, said the multifaceted project which will see to the construction of a sports academy and other developmental projects is for the people of Ada and that he is only but ” the Moses taking the people to the promise land”
He added that hopefully, within a space of 5years, the Salt project should be best in the whole of Africa and the 3rd in the world.
The Overlord of the Ada traditional area, Nene Abram kabu Akuaku III, expressed his gratitude to Dr. McCauley, saying, he is delighted to see how he has brought so much improvement to his land and the people in it and therefore they are willing to entrust the Songor lagoon which is a treasure to the people to him.
He further called for peace from all wings of Ada stressing that ” it is peace that has brought us this far and without peace we cannot move forward with this project”
Stephen Asamoah Boateng, the CEO of State Interest and Governance Authority ( SIGA) also added his voice to the call for peace saying that the people should come together as one and also rally behind the CEO to see to the full realization of the project.
There was also a goodwill message from Nana Prah Agyensaim VI, paramount chief of Assin Owirenkwi Traditional area who doubles as the Chairman of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources Advisory Board.
Its been 10 months since the ElectroChem Ghana Limited took over operations at the Songor Salt Company under government’s diversification programme.
So far the company has employed about 1000 workers who are indigenous people of Ada. It has also started a women’s support scheme for the women in area and provides free water for members of the community weekily.
The Ada Songor salt site has a potential production capacity of about 1.4 million metric tonnes and ElectricChem limited which is a subsidiary of the McDan Group has assembled the required machinery and expertise to mine salt to it’s full capacity.