PBC’s GH¢100 million Golden Bean Hotel is bad business – Dep. Agric Minister

Kennedy Osei Nyarko, Deputy Minister for Agriculture

A Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Kennedy Osei Nyarko has called out the investment of some 100 million Ghana Cedis by the Produce Buying Company (PBC) into establishing the Golden Bean Hotel in Kumasi as a bad venture, MyNewsGh.com reports.

He says, the PBC, whose core mandate is to haul cash crops had no business using the company’s funds to establish that huge hotel which is struggling to break even, let alone to make any profits.

The Golden Bean charges between GH¢725 and GH¢1,050 per night for its superior and deluxe rooms respectively per information on its official website checked by MyNewsGh.com; but “you see people going inside the hotel all the time, but ask yourself if it’s yielding any profits; it is either the PBC officials or their friends who throng there to lodge for free”, he said in an interview on Okay FM monitored by MyNewsGh.com on Wednesday.

The Produce Buying Company is reported to have been saddled by a debt of over GH¢700 million which has virtually collapsed that company; “bad business ventures like the huge Golden Bean Hotel is partly to blame for the company’s challenges”, the deputy minister said.

The company is indebted to about 10 different banks and no other bank would give it a loan again because it would be unable to pay back; even COCOBOD would not bail it out without government persuasion.

To revive its operations, a six years repayment moratorium has been negotiated with the banks by government as part of efforts to restructure that state haulage company.

The Akim Swedru MP said the Minister of Agriculture would soon come out with some drastic measures to purge the PBC to save it from collapsing.

The Golden Bean Hotel is one of the stylish hotels close to the heart of Kumasi.

It offers 51 rooms in four different configurations and has 2 domed conference halls that host up to 1,000 guests either as a banquet, conference or any other event.

The hotel features among other additions, a restaurant, a patisserie and 3 bars.