Ghana Aluminium Industry: A sector to be worth $10 billion, can create 30,000 jobs

Africa is a continent which is rich by raw materials, concurrently economically poor. The biggest reason for this situation of the African continent is the exports its precious raw materials that are processed somewhere else, thus failing to add value to the resources. This has been causing continuous economical fall-outs and many African governments are trying to figure out the problem. Ghana, a West African nation is working out to augment its economy, launched the campaign one district one factory project to create a factory in each of its 216 districts to transform raw materials into products with high added value.

The government of Ghana has plans to open three bauxite mines and to build two new alumina refineries, as well as to upgrade the existing aluminium smelter, to transform the sedimentary rock into aluminium, to add value to these minerals and have a greater economic impact, which can be valued up to 10 billion dollars - as well as the creation of more than 30 thousand direct and indirect jobs.

The government believes that aluminium can be an essential strategic sector for the creation of vital manufacturing units and the plan is part of a wider project aimed at stimulating the birth of a manufacturing industry locally and for this reason, the government is ready to seek the collaboration of international partners who can help achieve the goal.

Volta Aluminum Company Limited (VALCO) is one of the companies involved in transforming bauxite into aluminium which has a rated capacity of 200,000 tonnes of primary aluminium annually and is currently operating 20% of that, now aims to go public on the London stock exchange to raise the capital needed to finance its future investments.