It is interesting to learn that for half a century attempts to redevelop the Ada Songhor Salt Project, a salt-mining concern in Ada West District of the Greater Accra Region, were not successful until Electrochem Ghana Limited stepped in.
On Wednesday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo inaugurated the $88-million first phase of the redeveloped Songhor Lagoon Salt project.
We are happy that while doing the inauguration, the President reiterated his government’s commitment to make Ghana the preferred destination for mining investment in the world.
This is a significant statement and gives the impression that the government has already started taking the necessary steps to ensure the fulfilment of its vision.
Knowing how new political administrations abandon the visions of predecessors, we want to conjecture that the Akufo-Addo government has done or would do the necessary arrangements, including the documentation, to ensure that such a wonderful vision will not be killed after his reign.
Also, we want successive governments, no matter their political affiliation, to keep alive President Akufo-Addo’s determination to make Ghana an example of rapid economic growth within the contest of developed market economies where the private sector does not only survive but actually thrives.
This is a vision in the ultimate national interest and so must be pursued by anyone who succeeds him on January 7, 2025.
Having said that, we wish to state that we are happier that the company that has succeeded in revamping the Songhor salt mining project is an indigenous firm,
Electrochem Ghana Limited is a subsidiary of the McDan Group of Companies, a wholly-Ghanaian-owned concession.
We remember how Electrochem had to settle a misunderstanding between it and some communities in its operational area.
At a point, specifically two years into its operations, Electrochem had to release parts of its concession for free to some 10 communities along the operational concession to give them some relief from their economic hardship.
We think that gesture was a show of Electrochem’s determination to have a cordial relationship with neighbouring communities and also an expression of its understanding of local problems, as well as respect for the local people.
This is commendable because we have heard stories of how some businesses in the country, particularly the foreign ones, mistreat Ghanaians.
Electrochem projects that it is going to produce about 650,000 tonnes of salt by the end of this year, one million tonnes by the end of 2024 and finally two million tonnes in 2025.
This means that an expansion in the next phase(s) will result in the production of more salt, to actually make Electrochem rub shoulders with world-class salt mines like the Danakil Salt Pan in Ethiopia and Prahova Salt Mine in Romania, the largest in Europe.
Electrochem is a venture to support because it is currently offering 3000 direct jobs to the local people and aiming to increase the number to 7,000 and with the ambition to build a chlor-alkali plant, a chemical research university in Ada, a jetty in Ada East and, among others, develop a two-kilometre port from the salt mine to ease the pressure the carting of the salt would put on our roads.
We therefore implore the government to increase its support to it and other indigenous private-sector business because their success eases socio-economic pressure on the government.
