Tow levy: Come for equity; let's save lives - Siaw Agyepong to operators

Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies, Joseph Siaw Agyepong has thrown a challenge to towing companies and any Ghanaian interested in securing equity as far as the towing contract is concerned to approach him to that effect.

He explained that the invitation is to prove that the contract, contrary to what many believe, is targeted at ridding the country’s roads of damaged vehicles which can go a long way to save several lives.

“I’m inviting all Ghanaians and anyone who is interested in taking equity that they should come immediately, they should take equity of this contract and operate it.

I’m inviting anyone, anyone who is interested, I even wish that about 40 people should own this road safety management. They should come, if they come, I will sign agreement with them, let them take equity of this business and let them run it,” the business mogul said in a rare radio interview on Tuesday.

Government awarded a contract binding all motorists in Ghana to pay a mandatory towing levy beginning July 1, 2017. The contract according to projections, will see the Jospong group whose subsidiary won the bid receive 85% of the levies.

Speaking on the controversies that have come with the announcement of the levy however, Dr. Siaw Agyapong explained that the projected 85% is not invariable. According to him, majority of the monies may end up being channeled to other tow companies if they take up the challenge and present their proposals.

“Those who have that assumption are not telling the truth…There are many people coming that I have invited, the tow contractors, many of them I’ve met several times and told them that the trucks are going to be given to them to operate, and there are also third operators. It’s going to run like the Uber system. You can buy a towing truck and then join in….That 85%, by the time we finish the calculations, perhaps 10% will come to me, the rest is going to all these existing operators…I’ve told all the existing operators that I am not going to operate this”, he explained.

Dr. Siaw expressed disappointment in the misreportage by a number of media houses on the exact role of Road Management Services Ltd, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group, in the management contract between the company and the Government of Ghana. He insists that the move is to prevent accidents that are caused by broken down vehicles on Ghanaian roads.

“People are not looking at the details of the contract and how it is going to operate but are just making assumptions that it is not good…. It is the lives of people that I am concerned about, can you put value on death of a person? It is not my pride to own this and parade myself in this town, it is the solving of problems, and people are dying. These Kotoko players, it shouldn’t have happened. And as we are talking, it is happening. Don’t you think about people, the blind, and the aged, who is thinking about them?” he quizzed.

Responding to suggestions of greed by a section of Ghanaians owing to the fact that he owns a horde of companies, he said; “I don’t say that I’m greedy…One company is enough to take care of me and my five children. When I create a business, it’s because of employment,”

Joseph Siaw Agyepong owns over 45 companies including the country’s largest waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited.