The Volta Aluminium Company Limited (VALCO) has raked in $1.3 million profit within nine months of Operations this year, giving positive signals that the company is steadily turning the corner towards its glorious days.
The company produced 30,000 tonnes of alumina as of September, this year.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VALCO, Dr Robert Makila Sambian, explained that having made that modest gains, the company was focused on making strategic capital investment to produce 1.5 million tonnes in the next decade.
However, he said achieving that feat would require $4 billion investments over the next 10 years.
Dr Sambian stated this when VALCO took its turn at the Progress Report Series, an initiative of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, where agencies under the ministry provide update on their activities to the media.
The initiative, which started two weeks ago, already seen the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) and the Lands Commission take their turn to throw light on their activities.
Updates
Dr Sambian presented updates on the situation at the company, covering where he took off over a year ago, what had been done, and the way forward.
The media
Touching on the VALCO he met less than two years ago, he said the company was producing 40,000 tonnes a year out of 200,0000 tonnes installed capacity.
Again, he said the team he led met obsolete equipment that broke down frequently; unreliable power supply and a debt-ridden operation.
"We met the plant at a point where almost all the moving equipment were being rented at a high cost," he said.
Critical steps
Dr Sambian explained that as a measure to restore the company to its glorious days and in line with the reset agenda by the government, the management implemented a five-year strategic plan, anchored on mindset change, institutional overhaul and attracting private capital.
He said the strategy was targeted at addressing operational and institutional challenges to reset the aluminum sector in line with the larger reset agenda by the government.
Dr Sambian explained that the VALCO management rolled out the optimisation programme targeted at instilling discipline in the company’s operations, restoring it to full capacity and prioritising value addition.
The VALCO CEO added that the current management replaced the rental approach that was being operated to a rent-to-own strategy that ensured that the company got its own machines and moved out of the related debts.
"We have not solved the whole of VALCO's problems, but we are making giant strides to come out of the woods," he said.
Dr Sambian said in line with the government's vision of value addition and 24-Hour Economy, VALCO had installed its first-ever rod mill, "giving practical expression to one job, four shifts, and four workers initiative of the 24-Hour Economy policy, expanding the availability of job opportunities."
He explained that the rod mill would deepen local industrialisation, create sustainable jobs and reduce reliance on imported aluminum.
Again, the CEO said the rod mill investment would enhance downstream manufacturing, increase export earnings and strengthen global value-chain competitiveness.
Dr Sambian said going forward, the company was focused on ramping up recovery efforts and consolidating the gains that had been made.
Agencies urged
The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Dr Alhaji Yusif Sulemana, said the Progress Report Series was a platform that the ministry and its agencies were implementing for national development.
He stressed that the ministry was committed to ensuring that all agencies under its jurisdiction worked and discharged their mandate in an accountable manner.