Ghana Cotton Company on Verge of Collapse

Almost four hundred workers of the Ghana Cotton Company Limited (GCCL) may be rendered jobless within the shortest possible time, as the company, which is one of the major sources of raw material to the textiles industry in Ghana, faces imminent collapse.

About 367 service providers of especially, fertilizers, cotton seeds and other input suppliers are also to suffer the same fate, since they can no longer supply the GCCL with their products, for onward distribution to the farmers at reduced prices.

Reliable information reaching the Northern Regional Bureau of The Chronicle indicates that the GCCL owes its workers three months accumulated salaries, and other entitlements due them. Additionally, about 80% of all the tractors and other vehicles of the company have broken down completely.

The few functional ones have also been parked in the yard of the company, because management, according the workers, could not afford to fuel them.

When The Chronicle visited the Northern Regional headquarters of the company, the whole premises was completely deserted, with all the machines shut down.

However, the agitated workers said Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister for Food and Agriculture, assured them that he would settle their arrears during his last working visit to the company in April 2009, but up to date, nothing had been done.

They accused the management of GCCL of having misplaced priorities, and alleged that at the peak of the company’s financial crisis, the management wasted ¢147 million (old cedis) to renovate the residence of one of the officers.

The aggrieved workers also slammed the management over salary disparities, and alleged that some management members receive more than GH¢18,000, whereas the labourers and drivers are pegged between GH¢100 and GH¢150.

The Chronicle’s investigations also uncovered that farmers in the three regions would soon leave the cotton business, since the company can no longer buy their produce, coupled with the management’s inability to pay for earlier supplies, running into millions of cedis.

It was also discovered that the Volta River Authority (VRA) had disconnected the company’s power supply, in demand of full payment of about a GH¢50,000 debt.

A deep throat source close to management hinted the paper that the Northern Central Division of the GCCL also owes fuel suppliers over GH¢90,000.

What seems to irritate the workers, is the alleged poor utilisation of an amount of GH¢260,000, released by the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in 2008, to support the company’s operations and boost cotton productivity.

The Ghana Cotton Company Limited, established in the 1960s, and named Cotton Development Board, operates in the three Northern Regions of Ghana, with offices in Tamale, Bolgatanga, where the ginnery is located, and Tumu in the Upper West Region.

The Managing Director of the company, Mr. George Oseiku, confirmed to The Chronicle that the workers had not been paid for sometime now.

He also confirmed that the management was finding it difficult to fuel vehicles belonging to the company.

Mr. Oseiku further told this reporter, in a telephone interview from Accra, that the workers would soon be paid, but could not give the precise date when this would be done.

According him, his management team was doing everything possible to revive the company, and even extend its operations to cover the Mamprusi areas.

He therefore appealed to the workers to exercise restraint, and wait patiently for what the management had for them.