The West African Mills Company, (WAMCO) has made a US$ 2 million profit after its comeback within a period of one and a half years.
The factory, which became redundant and laid off hundreds of its workers for lack of cocoa beans was revived following a campaign promise by the NPP. Mr. Joseph Boahene Aidoo, the Chief Executive of the Ghana COCOBOD, told the President during a visit to the Factory as part of the President’s two-day tour to the Western Region that “we now have enough beans for both domestic and foreign supply”.
He said currently, local businesses in the cocoa value chain such as Cocoa Processing Company and Plot Enterprise were being supplied with beans, adding, “we will continue to feed the local factories to create jobs for our people”.
The CEO said the factory separated from CPC in 1992 as a joint venture private company between the government (COCOBOD) – 40 percent share and Walter Schroeder GmbH of Germany- 60 percent share. He said the company had three plants and at full capacity can process 55,000 tonnes of cocoa. Analysis of the company’s performance for the period of 2004-2016 showed that the year 2007 was the best in both operationally and financially.
For the period of 2013-2016, the company shut down due to its inability to acquire raw cocoa beans for processing. The failure of the company to produce then resulted in the sending home of 254 employees whilst others even lost their lives. A Technical Team was put together to conduct a technical, structural and financial audit of the company and a committee was thereafter constituted to oversee the re-activation of the company.
The President lauded the zeal of the Western Regional Minister, Kobby Okyere Darko and the COCOBOD Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Boahene Aidoo for working hard to bring the company back to its feet. He mentioned that making the company buoyant one more time, was significant to growing the local economy and the industrialisation drive of the country.
The Regional Minister said the comeback of the factory gave credence to right leadership, “When you vote for the right persons, things change” and appealed to the President for more support for development in the Region.
Credit: GNA
