A pro-government pressure group, Concerned Voters Movement (CVM), is appealing to the government to intervene to save Neoplan (Ghana) Limited, a bus manufacturing company partially owned by the country, from closure.
The company is slated to close down all of its branches on January 31 2020. The closure, as stated in an internal memo from the company, dated January 15 2020, is largely due to the lack of support and contracts from the government as well as recurring monthly losses.
The Government of Ghana owns the largest shares in the bus manufacturing company, about 55 per cent of the shares. The remaining 45 per is owned by a private company, Fadoul Group.
Support
The erstwhile John Kufuor’s administration, in 2002, supported the company by contracting it to build 450 DAF/VDL buses for the Metro Mass Transit. The contract ended in July 2010. However, successive governments, since 2010, have not renewed the contract, a move which the company says is starving it of finance and thus hampering its ability to stand on its feet.
CVM is therefore urging the government to take another look at the company and save it from going down.
A statement released yesterday by the group, and signed by its president, Razak Kojo Opoku, said that since the President is constantly looking for employment opportunities for young people in the country, and with employment as one of the key challenges of the country, “he must turn his eyes to the company to save it from total collapse.”
“We are urging President Akufo-Addo to intervene and save the collapsing of Neoplan (Ghana) Limited since his appointees at the Transport Ministry have failed woefully to support the company.
“Government has an obligation towards Ghanaians, the Government cannot continue to rely on the importation of Chinese, Korea and Indian buses at the detriment of Neoplan (Ghana) Limited, a 55 per cent Government owned company. This is absolutely unacceptable,” the statement said.
