West Africa Opens Its Doors To Fordia

Canadian manufacturer Fordia is strengthening its presence on the African continent with the inauguration of its first office in Ghana as a hub to handle its West African operations covering nine countries: namely Mali, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Guinea and Ghana.

The company opened its West Africa Offices at Obuasi and was honoured with the presence of Ms. Trudy Kernighan, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana and the appointment of its first Fordia West Africa Regional Manager, Mr. Yaw Kwegyir-Aggrey, a Ghanaian with a rich professional background, to spearhead the consolidation as well as accelerate the growth of its businesses in the sub-region.

Speaking at the function, Mr. Kwegyir-Aggrey assured all existing and prospective Fordia customers of their continued prompt and efficient services in terms of placement and delivering orders and offering most appropriate, customised and timely technical support and advice.

In his message, Mr. Andre Derguy, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Fordia Global, said “Yaw has an excellent understanding of the African market, having worked for many years in the mineral exploration sector,” stressing that these were important assets for the development as well as growth of its African subsidiary and the company is confident that he’s the man for the job. Mr. Derguy further added that “he will have the complementary teams on-site in each country to support and ensure smooth operations of the respective country business.”

This first office in Africa represents an excellent opportunity for Fordia against the understanding that Africa is a vast continent with extraordinary mineral potential and a promising future. Thus, with Ghana’s position as one of the world’s largest gold producers and coupled with the fact that its exploration spending is stable, its wealth in terms of raw materials – gold, diamonds and manganese ore – are making this country a prime destination for mineral exploration to justify Fordia selecting it as its hub for the growth of its businesses in the sub-region,” Andre concluded.

Mr. Alexander Ackon, the Municipal Chief Executive for Obuasi Assembly who chaired the occasion, intimated that he is personally excited that Fordia chose to site its regional offices in Obuasi to service its West African operations – adding that Fordia made the right choice since with the on-going zip-code address system projec, Obuasi will soon be plotted on the Global Positioning System (GPS) and as such very easy to locate and communicate with clients.

Ms. Trudy Kernighan, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, reiterated that Fordia is one of the renowned companies in Canada that offers drilling solutions in the mineral exploration and geotechnical industries and commended Fordia on its bold selection decision of making Ghana the hub for its operations in the West African sub-region. She pledged the High Commission’s support to Fordia West Africa to grow and to serve not only the West Africa, but as a point for market penetration into the other sub-regions of the African Continent.

Present at the opening were Madam Patricia Filteau, Trade Commissioner, Canadian High Commission; Messr. Emmanuel Baudoux, General Manager, Fordia Europe; Stephane Larsonneur, Sales Manager Fordia Europe; and Bob Coak, Training Manager, Control Chemical Canada.