STC sends SOS signal to stakeholders

The Intercity/STC Company Limited has only 39 fleets of buses with 24 of them operating on limited routes in the country, Ghana News Agency investigations established on Monday.

The STC is also going through serious financial challenges and needed an urgent recapitalization to help improve its operations.

GNA also observed the existence of operational turf-war between Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and Government over the management and control of the dying national asset.

Meanwhile, in an interview with GNA, Mr Charles Thomspon, STC Managing Director called on the stakeholders to recapitalize the company to ensure that it was able to compete favourable in the industry.

“It is either the shareholders put more money into the operations of the company or go into partnership with other private companies to improve its financial position,” Mr Thompson said.

He lamented that for the past two years, there had been too much talk about improving STC operations, but not much had come to help turn the fortunes.

Mr Thompson said: “Notwithstanding all these challenges, the corporation is still operating and taking care of its 500 workers,” adding: “money is the number one challenge of the corporation as we can’t buy materials and pay suppliers”.

He explained that the future of the business would be bright when its financial position was improved through the acquisition of new buses and new routes opened.

At present, Mr Thompson said the organization owed its workers financially, which ignited some industrial agitation last year, which was impacting negatively on the operations of the STC.

He said many of the workers were unhappy; many of them were unable to feed or cater for the health needs of their families and appealed to shareholders of the organization to find solutions to the challenges facing the company.

In a related development, the management said they were not aware of any merger plans with the Metro Mass Transport (MMT).

“If the MMT has plans to merge with STC, we are still not in the know,” Mr Thompson stated.