Electrochem to list on Stock Market
Electrochem Ghana Limited a wholly-owned indigenous salt mining firm, says it expects to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange this year.
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Speaking to the Graphic Business during a tour of the operations of the salt mining firm, the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mr Bernard Tetteh said the idea of listing on the stock market was to give every Ghanaian the opportunity to owe a part in the business.
He said the company has engaged licences dealing investment firms to help the process of listing the company this year and was upbeat that the process will begin soon.
The company says it hopes to fully operationalised its commercial exports of salt this year, haven already done test-run export of over 600,000 metric tonnes of salt to Europe.
The 41,000 acres of concession can produce two million metric tonnes of salt for exports and employ directly 2,000 people at full capacity.
Electrochem has invested $88 million so far into the operations of the company to bring up the salt mining firm to world-class standards and changing the entire landscape of the Ada Songhor or area which hitherto was near collapse.
The Group Executive Chairman of Macdan Group of companies Daniel McKorley, and indigene of the land has braved the storm to go ahead despite the many challenges to revamp and reconstruct the concession.
During a tour of the site, the Chief Operating Officer of Electrochem, Mr Bernard Tetteh, said at full capacity the salt mining firm could be counted as one of the biggest in Africa and that there were plans to expand the business into Ada the “Salt City of Africa”.
“The whole idea of the name Electrochem, as envisioned by the Group Executive Chairman, is to build linkages of the salt industry into many other chemicals that can be derived out of processes such as caustic soda,” he emphasised, adding that the development of the concession also includes an electrochemical university and a port to help easy transport of the salt.
The company has invested in machinery to pump sea water to the 10,000 acres of lagoon area which had prior to Electrochem involvement had dried up.
The artisanal salt winning had rendered the see water from flowing freely to the lagoons. Currently, about 90 million litres of seawater are pumped into the Ada Sea lagoon using 3 highly mechanised pumps.
CSR
According to Bernard, as part of the process to ensure sustainable livelihoods of the indigenes, Electrochem has front-loaded its social responsibility programmes even before the company could lay a brick of stone to commence operations.
This, according to the COO was contrary to what pertains in other mining concessions, where most companies would start making profits, out of which they undertake their CSR initiatives.
Among some of the initiatives include the building of community pans across the entire 41000 acres of the concession. “The idea is the create 32 acres of community pans for each of the communities along our operation area”, the COO explained.
Communities whose land were unsuitable for salt mining however, decides their development needs and the company has readily support.
These includes, public places of conveniences, water tanks, the grading and rehabilitation of old roads, school blocks among many other projects.
These community pans include several enclaves of pans to enable the communities whose sole livelihoods have depended on salt mining to continue their artisanal salt mining with a much-improved brine supplied by the company to the community pans.
Others CSR projects are; an astro-turf football field, schools infrastructure, scholarship for brilliant but needy students to complete their education.
Electrochem has also provided a revolving fund of GHc3 million to support the market women to enable them expand their businesses within the distress.
