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19.10.2018 Business & Finance

PMMC On Steady Rise From Doldrums

By Julian Owusu-Abedi
Kwadwo Opare Hammond – Managing Director PMMCKwadwo Opare Hammond – Managing Director (PMMC)
19.10.2018 LISTEN

In the last few years, the state of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company(PMMC) which appeared to be in an ‘Intensive Care Unit’ (ICU) is now receiving a new lease of life through the dynamic and innovative interventions of the new Managing Director(MD) Mr. Opare Hammond.

In an interview with Mr. Opare to shed light on the overwhelming turn-around of the company’s fortune in less than two year since he took charge, the MD indicated that he has a good Board of Directors and a good staff who are ready to change their psyche from the usual lackadaisical work attitude and are also willing to follow the vision and direction of management.

He said, since he took office, he’s put in place prudent financial measures to ensure that the staff whose salaries hitherto were always in arrears for two to three months are now receiving salaries one week before end of month because he believes they are the fulcrum around which the company runs and must therefore be sorted first.

The MD mentioned that he came to meet a legacy debt of Gh¢60million but has managed to pay-off Gh¢10million and is currently negotiating for a reasonable payment plan to offset the colossal debt hanging around the neck of the company.

He said, there has also been a tremendous reduction of PMMC’s net loss of over Gh¢19million in the year 2016 to Gh¢6million in 2017 whilst ensuring that recurrent expenditure such as ECG bills, property rate, garbage collection, security and the rest of them are also paid promptly.

“Currently, we have created new streams of income from transit gold and diamonds, gold buying licenses as well as doing the assaying for the large scale Mining Companies.

Hitherto the large mining companies were exporting without assaying in Ghana for right values and figures and it will surprise you to learn that this has been the norm since formal mining started in Ghana in the last 100years.

But under the Akuffo-Addo government, the PMMC in April 2018 begun to weigh, assay and determine the value of every gold bar before export at their Assay Lab situated at the Kotoka International Airport which means government is now raking-in revenue for the true value.”

The MD further intimated that “ultimately we want to establish an International Assay Lab and we already have an MOU with Baird & Co, a Gold Refinery Company in the UK which is a member of London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). This ultra-modern assaying technology will be linked directly to the GRA to ensure accurate value for gold exports so that appropriate taxes and royalties can be charged”, the MD of PMMC stated.

Again, he added that there is a joint venture agreement to build a state of the art State Refinery for value addition to gold before export and therefore there is an ongoing agreement with the Jewelers Association to regulate the industry by licensing them which will also bring additional revenue for government.

“As we speak, the old dilapidated company headquarters(Diamond House) is currently receiving serious renovation works. We have further introduced Traceability concept to tighten loopholes in the downstream gold business and also redesigned the Gold buying license with security features to prevent easy duplication and fraud”, Mr. Opare Hammond emphasized.

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