Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company gets new Board
A new Board was on Friday inaugurated for the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company (GCMC) with a call on members to work in harmony to make the Company a more viable entity.
Mr Joseph Cudjoe, the Deputy Minister of Energy, who supervised the inauguration in Accra, urged the members to ensure that they dealt with the challenges confronting the Company during their term of office.
The Board was sworn in by Mr Ernest Kwabena Addo, the Energy Ministry’s Legal Practitioner, who took them through the Oaths of Office and Secrecy.
The nine-member Board, chaired by Alhaji Abubakar Abdul Rahman, was urged to address the major challenges facing the Company, which includes its inability to procure raw materials for continuous production of cylinders and the lack of access to cheaper funding and grants.
Members of the Board are; Madam Frances Awarabena Asiam, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company, Mrs Angelina Baiden-Amissah, Awulae Annor Adjaye III, Nana Forson Danso and Mr Crisler Akwei Ankrah.
The rest are Mr Kwadwo N. Poku, Mr Michael Abbiw and Mr Wahab Suhiyini Wumbei, all of whom the Minister described as having the right expertise to turn around the fortunes of the Company.
The GCMC, which hitherto was incorporated as a Private Limited Liability under the Companies Code, 1963 (ACT 179) in 1998, is now 100 per cent fully owned by the State.
It was established to promote wider usage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as a substitute for charcoal and firewood, and thereby curtail some of Ghana’s environmental challenges of degradation, deforestation and desertification caused by excessive use of firewood.
This accounts for over 71 per cent of energy consumed in the domestic sector.
Thus, the GCMC, aims to achieve profitable growth as the premier manufacturer of LPG cylinder and other metal fabricated products in the West Africa Sub-Region.
Mr Cudjoe, who supervised the inauguration ceremony, congratulated the incoming Board but charged them to “justify the existence of the Company with good corporate governance and ensure increased production for profitability”.
Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, the Executive Secretary of the State Enterprises Commission, expressed optimism that the reconstituted Board, with their high expertise, would “focus on the job at hand”.
He said: “The difficulties we have encountered are in the past and they are gone, and I want you to start afresh”.
It is a common knowledge that we need peace, harmony, unity and support in the Company to move it forward.
He said since Ghana was moving into gas production, the GCMC would be at the forefront of that sector and it could do lots of innovation to make the Company one of the biggest in Ghana and in West Africa.
Alhaji Rahman, who spoke on behalf of the Board, said the members would “live up to expectation and take the Company to the desired destination,” adding that; “The past is past, the future is ahead and we shall get there”.
Later in an interview with the media, Alhaji Rahman said the Board would adopt good strategies, which were in consonance with the rule and objectives of the Company and with a lot of lobbying and hard work, it would change things around.
Madam Asiam, on her part, said the Company now had a well-motivated staff and a very competent Board who would work as a team adding that the challenges that arose between management and the former board belonged to the past.
“We are going to work as a team, the Board will give me all the support and I’m going to give them all the respect, so that we move the Company forward,” she said.
Source: GNA