VALCO needs revamping – Ashitey Adjei

Mr Stephen Ashitey-Adjei, an Executive Member of the Tema East Constituency of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), on Monday appealed to the government to revamp the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO).

He called on President Nana Addo-Danquah Akufo-Addo to assist in the process of revamping VALCO since it still holds many prospects for the nation.

Mr Ashietey-Adjei told the Ghana News Agency in an interview at Tema that it was necessary to revamp VALCO.

He said a revitalised VALCO would impact positively on the Tema Communities “as resuming full operation would also help Tema in many respects”.

Mr. Ashitey-Adjei observed that currently, the technology VALCO was using known as P69 which was old, and noted that countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), were using the advanced P19 and P20 technologies.

He, therefore, called for more investment were needed to bring VALCO up to speed with existing technologies.

He observed that currently, VALCO was operating just two potlines out of five and therefore the nation was under benefiting from the smelting industry.

Mr Ashitey Adjie claimed that the major problem of VALCO was not power since there was enough electricity to serve the plant but capital injection that would enable it to secure modern equipment and machinery for its operations.

“If that is done, VALCO could employ more workers and rid many idle youths from the streets and also give employment avenues for the many graduates,” he observed.

Mr. Ashitey-Adjie said VALCO could also be of benefit in their Corporate Social Responsibility to the people of Tema since, in the past, it used to offer scholarships to many young people and provided many infrastructures in the area of sanitation.

Source: GNA