Ghanaian investor faces frustration

When President J.A. Kufuor embarked on his Special Initiative for Garments through the Ministry of Trade and Industries with the aim of attracting a selected number of garment and textiles manufacturing firms overseas to relocate in Ghana and produce for the export market, MARC Industries Ltd., owned by Mark Kofi Osei, (fashion designer and Managing Director) embraced the initiative and established his factory at Spintex Road, Batsona.

MARC Industries, which has the capacity to produce over 5,000 dresses a day and large quantities of clothing for both local and the export markets (America, UK, Germany, etc) has suffered a major setback as a result of encroachment on its land bought and duly registered with the Lands Commission. Mr Osei revealed this to The Crusading Guide recently.

Mr Osei who showed different documents from the Lands Commission, the Survey department and the Metro Works Department, Town Planning Office, Accra to support his claim on the land was disappointed that after numerous appeals to those organisations as well as the courts of the land, nothing had been done about the problem, leading to the encroachers building on his land. He disclosed that he had sent a number of petitions to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to no avail.

“Its rather unfortunate that a petition was sent to the office (AMA) at Labadi but the officer in charge told me that when the encroacher completes his building on my land, they (AMA) would come and write stop work.” Mr Mark Osei added that the encroacher (Ladi Amina) had started carrying out work on the land rapidly, “on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and even in the evenings so as to quickly finish her building on my legally acquired land”.

The MD who took the paper to the encroached portion (90ft, leaving 25ft) of the land, stated that, it would be difficult to bring in materials and machinery to the factory because the encroached portion is near the major road, which would have been used as an entry point to the factory.

Following the visit of the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Biniface Abubakar Sadiq to his factory recently, Mr Mark Osei hinted that he was going to petition the Ministry to intervene to find a solution to the tussle over the ownership of the land. On how he acquired the land, the MD said that he bought the land from one Madam Borbu Borley, a citizen of Nungua after all the documents had been cross-checked at the Lands Commission.

When Madam Borbu Borley was contacted at her residence, she confirmed having sold the land to Marc Industries, adding that she was surprised about the encroachment on the land and challenged this paper to check up with the Lands Commission on its true owner. A search by the Crusading Guide at the Lands Commission revealed the land is not a state land and is indeed registered in the name of Mark Osei.

When a Fashion Designer of Marc Industries, Akua Serwaa Osei was interviewed, she disclosed that the garment industry, which has the capacity to generate over US$50 million export revenue and to employ thousands of Ghanaians, should not to be toyed with by government in the present “Golden Age of Business”.

Akua Serwaa reiterated that the company has a lot to offer both on the local market and international export market, adding that the Ministry of Trade and Industry should intervene in the saga over the encroachment of their land and resolve the matter to avoid frustrating investors who come to offer employment opportunities to Ghanaians. Marc Industries Ltd. according to management cannot carry on with its expansion work, which would enable them employ many Ghanaians.

“The company is deeply frustrated and its clearly a disincentive to the President’s Special Initiative on Garment. If we want Ghana to develop, some of these issues must be properly dealt with to restore investor confidence in the country. It is my hope that the Ministry of Trade and Industry would immediately step in to stop the encroachment of my legally acquired land”, concluded Mr Mark Osei who stayed in Spain for over 22 years but has decided to relocate in Ghana as result of the President’s special initiative.