Executive Chairman of Electrochem Ghana Limited (EGL), managers of the Songhor salt works, Dr. Daniel McKorley has disclosed that US$77 million dollars have so far been invested in seed projects since the takeover of the Ada salt field in 2017.
Significant improvement work, he said, has been carried out to enhance and increase production and the company expected to hit its one million tons of production target in the not too long distant future.
Dr. McKorley disclosed these during an engagement with the media at the Electrochem facility in Ada on Saturday 24th September 2022.
Success
According to him, the four salt pans that were inherited by Electrochem have increased to 38 with the sizes also being increased over time to 15 acres per pan and plans are already in motion to increase the sizes to 25 acres to maximize production.
He indicated that these efforts have already been crowned with a result, albeit a modest one, with Electrochem making its first salt export, Ghana’s first, through the Tema Port to Cameroon and Spain not too long ago and then receiving a $30 million loan from Ecobank for expansion works.
He indicated the works that Electrochem has carried out are just about 10% of the entire concession and stressed the potential of the Songhor salt works cannot be over-emphasized because it has the capacity to provide Ghana with an export commodity of choice that could surpass or equal cocoa.
Challenges
Dr. McKorley indicated, however, what has been achieved so did not come without a price and stressed he had to do a lot of legwork to ensure those he will acquire the concession from are the legitimate owners.
According to him, with the support of the Queen of the royal Adibiawe clan of Ada, Naana Adiki Manyeyo Adi I, he was able to meet all the chiefs and stakeholders to agree to the project and for the government and Parliament to approve the concession for Electrochem Ghana Limited.
Clarifying alleged brutalization and standoff between the company and some community members, Dr. McKorley noted that contrary to erroneous reports, the development of the salt field by EGL has not affected the Ada communities negatively.
According to him, as part of the concession agreements, all the communities have benefited from ten pans each to ensure the locals continue to mine and live off the salt deposits in the area.
This, he said, was, unfortunately, the genesis of the problems of the company because some few people who had vested interest in these fields and have monopolized for generations have lost their influence because of the many salt pans that EGL constructed for artisanal salt mining.
“Unfortunately for these few people, all the community members can now engage in salt mining in the community pans without having to be held back by the demands of a few.”
“These are the people causing the problem because they do not want to share this rich resource with the rest of their community members. They wish to control the ability of the community to mine and make a living of the salt deposit hence the fabricated stories about EGL and the lies that we have taken over the livelihood of the people and causing bloodshed.”
“These are not true because the majority of the time the stampede and bloodshed that you hear in the media are between some few youths supported by some elders and the police.”
“They are the ones that have attacked our workers and in the effort to stop the mayhem they have also visited their rage on police officers but they then turn around and accuse Electrochem of assault.”
“Nothing is further from the truth,” he said.
Songhor potential
Business Consultant of the McDan Group, Dzigbordi Kwaku-Dosoo, explained that Ghana’s potential in the salt industry is very huge because it has the largest land area for salt production in Africa about 41,000 acres.
According to her, incidentally, while Egypt produces 17.5 million tones of salt per 1000 acres of its total 25,000 acres it has, and Namibia produces 956,000 from its 15,000 acres of total salt production, Ghana with its massive salt fields since 2013 produced just about 250,000 from all its salt fields from Volta to the Central region.
The salt industry, she said, is a 28.9 billion dollar industry with countries like China, Brazil, USA and Canada and in Africa Egypt, Namibia and Senegal dominating.
Ghana with all the salt fields, she said, has not been able to cut a niche for itself in this multi-billion dollar industry, which is very sad.
She said, “When we came in our target is to produce probably two to three million tonnes starting with one million. We were able to move straightforward from approximately 20,000 tonnes to over 30,000 and then to 60,000 tonnes.”
“We’re now projecting about 150 tonnes at the end of this year and by next year we are projecting 600 to 700 tonnes and the year after we are looking to achieve our first one million tonnes target.”
“This target can be achieved but it takes that understanding and peace of mind to work because we need the stability of community to be able to focus on expanding and increasing production and achieving set targets,” she added.
The visiting journalists were later taken on a tour of the facility pans and an ongoing installation of equipment that will enable Electrochem to wash the salt after mining in order to add value to the salt before export.
