No Single Person Has Been Displaced From Their Lands Or Homes- Electrochem CEO
The Chief Executive Officer for Electrochem Ghana, Abdul Razak Adam has stated that, no single individual or group of persons have been displaced from the occupation of their lands or homes as a result of operations of the company within the Ada Songor enclave.
According to him, the living standards of the people within the catchment communities where the company operate have rather improved due to the many corporate social investments undertaken by the company.
Mr Abdul Razak Adam disclosed these when he appeared before Parliament’s joint committees on Energy, Mines, Lands and Forestry on Thursday July 4, 2024.
On November 6, 2023, some irate youth of Toflokpo clashed with security officers over operations of Electrochem Ghana.
The Member of Parliament for Sege, Christian Otuteye subsequently made a statement on the floor and called for the intervention of the legislature to avert future occurrences of the unfortunate situation.
First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu who presided over proceedings, directed the then Mines and Energy committee to conduct an investigations into the leasehold agreement and the parliamentary approval that authorized Electrochem Ghana to embark on salt mining in Ada.
Responding to allegations made by other interest groups against Electrochem to the effect that the company has taken over lands that belonged to the people, the CEO emphasised the fact that, no single individual has been made homeless but rather improved their living conditions as a result of the corporate social responsibility activities.
“There is no single person that has been displaced from their home, there is no single person, even though it is 42, 000 acres, but we know that you don’t go and mine within the 42, 000 acres. The communities that we came to meet, the communities are existing, they have not been displaced, however their lives have rather been made better because we have constructed toilet facilities for some of the communities, we have also provided portable source of water to make sure that the people are not suffering from lack of water. We have scholarship scheme, renovated schools, upscale interest free loans to women from Ghc 3,000,000 to currently Ghc10,000,000 and all that, So if anything, Electorchem has come out to be a partner that is making Ada, what government is not been able to provide, Electrochem is coming into the community and filling that gap” Mr Adam told parliament.
The Electrochem Ghana CEO also refuted claims that indigenous salt miners have been displaced and explained that, the company through it’s community pans concept is ensuring that, any community it enters, a parallel mining is created for the people.
“The community pan concept is to ensure that every community that we go into, we are creating parallel mining and providing them with quality brime, an investment we have put 10 million dollars to get brime directly from the sea not only to supply our mine but also to spread it to the communities. So even though the communities have come back to say it is not enough, we’ve listen to them and every single month, I am approving additional construction of community pan to aid the community to mine parallel with Electrochem” he told the joint committees.
Mr Adam also informed the joint committee that, ASLA is a pressure group that emerged after Electrochem came into existence to derail the progress of Ada.
“A case of ASLA, ASLA was a pressure group that was formed after Electrochem came into existence to make sure that they torpedo the progress that the people of Ada are seeing, we know that, it is a couple of miners that we would refer to as atsakpo or if you would galamsay that were doing irresponsible mining, destroying the lagoon, creating very hazardous situation for the people that has been stopped in away because of the coming into existence of Electrochem, so obviously, this are people that are not there for in the interest of the entirety of the people”, Electrochem CEO said.
“Our employment generation is over 4000 and plans to double that whiles over 80% of employees are from the Ada communities.
He expressed optimism in parliament to find a lasting solution to the impasse.
“We live in a country of law and due processes, and we would not denigrate you Honorable Members as the cause of problem, we see you as the solution, and you would find solution to this problem”.
“We realized that in any nation everywhere, when you have massive transformation that is coming to the people, there would be a small percentage of the people that would attack it, that would try to reverse the fortune, we know that, I want to put on record that, over 90% of the traditional leaders, overwhelming majority of the people in Ada are very much behind what Electrochem is doing”.
“I want to put on record that, for all the salt production that has been done in 50 years, there has not been any particular year that production exceeded 300,000 metric tones with the old Songor, but we are looking at at Electrochem now is a production target of four million (4,000,000) metric tones, so if you put that in dollar perspective, you are looking at four billion US dollars, cocoa doesn’t give us this country that type of revenue. So we are looking at an enterprise that is gonna change the fortunes of this country, we are looking at an enterprise that this country is gonna rely on to reverse all the forex issues that we are facing, the depreciation of the cedi, and the economic issues, and this is done by a private enterprise. Electrochem here today has invested over 114 million dollars in the salt project”, Mr Adam said.