Lands Minister backs Electrochem on Ada Songor salt project, appeals to Chiefs for support

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has pledged his unwavering support to ElectroChem Ghana Limited, the largest salt and chlorine-akali manufacturing company in West Africa, for its Ada Songor salt project.

Having visited the company and been briefed about their operations, the Minister said, has been impressed with the developmental projects that has started at ElectroChem in Ada West.

He has, therefore, appealed to the chiefs and the people of Ada to throw their weight behind McDan and the ElectroChem Company to exploit the white gold resource in the area.

He explained that it would be in the interest of Ghana for the project to be embarked upon, for the country to become a distributor and exporter of salt in Africa and the world at large.

Mr Jinapor, “what is happening here at ElectroChem fits into the grand agenda and vision of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The vision for the transformation of this country which is anchored on industrialisation and history teaches us that you cannot transform a country unless you build your industries.”

He commended the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the McDan Group of Companies, Daniel McCauley, for a “good work done on transforming Ghana’s salt resource, which he said had been abandoned for over 40 years.”

He stated that McDan has proven that the Ghanaian could also engage in developmental projects to develop the country and called on all Ghanaians to take inspiration from what he has done.

“What I have seen here today, tells us that if we put our hearts and minds to any project, we ourselves as Ghanaians can build our country. And what we have seen today is contributing to the economy of Ada, it’s contributing to the economy of Greater Accra and undoubtedly to the economy of Ghana and the future for this project is highly promising,” he added.

For his part, Mr McCauley, said, the multifaceted project, which would see to the construction of a sports academy and other developmental projects is for the people of Ada and that he was only but “the Moses taking the people to the promise land.”

He added that within a space of five years, the salt project should be best in the whole of Africa and the third in the world.

The Overlord of the Ada traditional area, Nene Abram Kabu Akuaku III, expressed his gratitude to McDan, saying, he is delighted to see how he has brought so much improvement to his land and the people in it and, therefore, they are willing to entrust the Songor lagoon, which is a treasure to the people to him.

He further called for peace from all wings of Ada, emphasising that “it is peace that has brought us this far, and without peace we cannot move forward with this project.”

The CEO of State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA), Stephen Asamoah Boateng, added his voice to the call for peace, saying that the people should come together as one and also rally behind the CEO to see to the full realisation of the project.

There was also a goodwill message from Nana Prah Agyensaim VI, paramount chief of Assin Owirenkwi traditional area, who doubles as the Chairman of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources Advisory Board.

It has been 10 months since the ElectroChem Ghana Limited took over operations at the Songor Salt Company under government’s diversification programme.

So far the company has employed about 1000 workers who are indigenous people of Ada.

It has also started a women’s support scheme for the women in the area and provides free water for members of the community weekly.

The Ada Songor salt site has a potential production capacity of about 1.4 million metric tonnes and ElectricChem, which is a subsidiary of the McDan Group, has assembled the required machinery and expertise to mine salt to its full capacity.

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