By Mildred Siabi-Mensah
Takoradi, July 3, GNA- Mr. Frank Bednar, the Managing Director of WAMCo says the company will continue to uphold good corporate practices to ensure the continued growth of the business.
He said the requisite structures would also be harnessed for the company to thrive.
Mr. Bednar was speaking with a team from the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC), who visited the company to receive update on their operations, avenues for support and effective collaboration to ensure that the company succeed after the 2014 crisis.
The team was led by Mr. Simon Madjie, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GIPC.
He said, the visit was part of GIPC’s ongoing Regional outreach efforts aimed at strengthening collaboration with key stakeholders and driving investment across the country.
WAMCo is a joint venture private company between Ghana government which owns 40 per cent shares and Walter Schroeder of Germany which owns 60 per cent.
But WAMCo, with state-of-the-art machinery and equipment to turn cocoa beans into various semi-finished products for export, was shut down between 2014 and 2017.
This was after the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) allegedly stopped supplying cocoa beans to the company which had an installed processing capacity of 250 tons of cocoa per day,
The situation forced about 254 employees of WAMCo to be sent home by management of the company.
During the previous regime led by Nana Akufo-Addo, a team was formed to conduct technical, structural and financial audit of the company.
A committee was thereafter constituted to oversee the reactivation of the company.
An initial 150 tonnes of cocoa was supplied to WAMCo in September 2017.
From October 2018 to May 2019, a total of 5,540 tonnes of cocoa was supplied and the company was able to employ about 170 employees.
GNA
Edited by Justina Paaga/Christian Akorlie