Business News of Wednesday, 11 February 2015
Source: Starrfmonline.com
Some mining firms are threatening to lay off more workers if the energy situation does not improve by the end of March.
Some of them are currently incurring huge losses by importing energy from outside the country in order to stay in business.
Last year, the sector recorded hundreds of job cuts due to the fall in gold prices coupled with the energy crisis.
But Director of Public Affairs and Environmental Director of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ahmed Nantogmah wants mining firms to be innovative to minimise such further job cuts.
“When you are projecting, you have a company and you run 24 hours, 7 days a week.
“It means some people will not have work to do, so in the short term you can manage them and push them around [or] extend their off days,” Mr. Nantogmah told Starr Business.
He is worried if the power challenges persist, mining firms will be forced to further scale down their operations.
“Scaling down means those who don’t have work would have to go home. But now as I said, it has not been down yet. It is part of the thinking aloud measure”.