Chief Executive Officer of the McDan Group, Dr. Daniel McKorley, is confident that the ongoing Songhor Salt project located at Ada, will vastly boost Ghana’s economic export regime and local economy.
According to him, the natural resource [salt] will earn the country huge export revenue and an advantage in key markets which will in turn help stabilize the local currency.
Speaking in an interview on TV3’s Business Focus segment, McDan said the Songhor salt project is targeting to produce some 1 million metric tonnes of salt which will be exported and help reduce dependence on imports.
“I went to develop Songhor for the benefit of this country. Songhor salt exports will also bring in enough dollars to help stabilize the Cedi. I am not going to repatriate my dollars outside, every single dollar earned from exports will remain in Ghana.”
“This is what can help stabilize the Cedi and if more of such projects like the Ada Songhor are hovering around the country, we can only imagine how beneficial that will help in stabilizing the local currency and this is where the country and government should be looking at giving maximum support,” he added.
When asked why the Songhor project has courted some controversy, Daniel McKorley argued that many persons including investors from Brazil have tried to undertake the salt mining project but failed due to certain challenges.
“During President Kufuor’s era, some Brazilian investors came with US$3 billion to develop the Songhor project but they weren’t able to do so.”
When questioned whether he had a ‘magic wand’ to secure the project, he replied; “I don’t have a magic wand but what worked for me was the respect for the culture and tradition of the people. My roots are from the streets where I grew my businesses so this helped me to navigate by showing people of Songhor the needed respect and I gave them what they asked.”
The Songhor Salt project is being operated by Electrochem, an entity of the McDan Group.
The company was granted a 15-year mining lease to explore the salt resource in the Ada Songor area to support the economy with a target to produce 1 million metric tonnes of salt per annum for supply to both local and export markets.
Dr. Daniel McKorley, CEO of the McDan Group