Akufo-Addo gov’t saved GIHOC from collapse – CEO

The CEO of GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, has said the Akufo-Addo led administration saved the company from a total collapse.

GIHOC Distilleries, established in 1958, operates under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Mr Jumah said: "On my first day on the job, I came to meet employees wearing red headbands at the entrance”, adding: “These aggrieved employees had not been paid for over a year”.

“Some staff were taking as low as GH¢250 and even that they could not pay”, he revealed.

“All furniture in the company was broken, as well as machinery. The company couldn't produce anything unless an order came in to generate money to buy raw materials”, Mr Jumah added.

According to him, under the new management, things have changed.

He said it all started with an increase in base pay for employees, which, he said, helped in relieving most of the employees from their loan obligations.

"The first thing I did was to increase the base pay of the lowest-paid employees from GH¢250 to GH¢1,000. We have also started an in-house canteen and clinic to meet the basic needs of our workers while at work."

He also added that staff are now entitled to some incentives, aside from their monthly salaries, ranging from free transportation to a refund of medical bills.

“We rely on the extra talents of workers to fix issues at GIHOC to reduce costs,” Mr Jumah disclosed in an interview streamed live on social media handles of NPP Loyal Ladies on Thursday, 18 June 2020.

Mr Jumah, who is a former mayor of Kumasi and former MP for Asokwa, was the special guest on the group's ongoing social media initiative with government appointees and party executives aimed at highlighting the achievements of the NPP administration.

In furtherance of the President's promise to create more jobs through enhanced industrialisation, Mr Jumah said the company has increased the number of employees from 150 to 400.

GIHOC is collaborating with the 1D1F Secretariat to set up 10 factories to make the superior GIHOC brands more available to the citizens of Ghana in order to reduce foreign exchange leakages through importation of goods, which can be produced locally.

"[The workers of GIHOC and I] know that without the vision and support of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP government, the story of GIHOC would have been a very sad story. So many people, families would have been struggling. But today, I, Kofi Ghana, Kofi Jumah, can say that Nana Akufo-Addo has saved GIHOC and lives."