Two subsidiaries of the Jospong Group of Companies operating within the waste management value-chain have called on the Government of Ghana to ensure timely releases of funds due them for the financial year. A dedicated funding source was created for sanitation following the passage of the sanitation and pollution levy in 2021 by the erstwhile administration. The two subsidiaries, Zoomlion Waste Management Limited and Sewage Systems Ghana Limited (SSGL) made this call during an interaction with journalists after a tour of facilities owned and operated by the companies.
According to Lola Asiseh Ashitey, General Manager in charge of private sector business at SSGL, her outfit has plans to replicate its operations in all 16 regions of the country therefore it would help if government releases funds on time in order to carry out its objective of eliminating water-borne illnesses such as cholera from the country. She intimated that SSGL since its establishment in 2017 has helped to significantly reduce cholera outbreak in the Greater Accra Region. Before the company became operational, liquid waste collected from households in the metropolis were discharged into the sea, a phenomenon that was prevalent in Accra for many years became a source of cholera in the city.
She said, “if we get the right support we should be able to replicate this because we are going Africa but we like it that if I am going into an African country and I am talking about the number of plants we have, I should say 16 out of 16. But if I say I have 6 plants in Ghana and there are 16 regions, what am I doing here. And I want to grow; I want to sell if I get the enabling environment I have to be able to do more business here before I start to do business elsewhere.”
The sanitation and pollution levy imposes a 10 pesewas charge on every purchase of petrol and diesel by vehicle users in the country. It was introduced under the Energy Sector Levy (Amendment) Act, 2021 to fund projects improving air quality, waste management and sanitation with the goal of eliminating open defecation and supporting waste treatment facilities. In that year of implementing the levy, government had raised an amount of GH¢ 313,579,550 from sanitation and pollution however no project was undertaken by the then Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources even though the Ministry’s medium-term expenditure framework had budgeted to undertake re-engineering works of Oti and Kpone landfill sites for the 2022 budgetary cycle. The projects were funded by donors to the tune of GH¢ 42,729,749.33. The Minister of Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, in his presentation of the 2025 Budget and Economy Policy statement on Tuesday, March 11 indicated that government will review the ESLA to consolidate the various levies under the Act into one.
“Without increasing the levy, we will also review the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA) to consolidate the Energy Debt Recovery Levy, Energy Sector Recovery
Levy (Delta Fund), and Sanitation & Pollution Levy into one levy and use the proceeds to cater for the energy sector shortfalls and service the inherited debt service obligation.” – Budget Statement and Economic Policy, 2025
Madam Ashitey underscored the need for government to consider other sources of funding for sanitation in the country in addition to the levy but the problem is that “they [government] don’t pay regularly, or if they pay regularly it’s not punctual” for the company to continue to provide a humanitarian service to Ghanaians. The tour took journalists other facilities such as the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant at Adjen Kotoku and a Zoomlion Transfer Station in Pantang both in the Greater Accra Region.
Source: ceditalk.com