PMMC legacy debt reaches GH¢65 million – Managing Director

PMMC inherits legacy debt from 2017 - Managing Director

PMMC implements internal measures to settle debt – Akwasi Awuah

PMMC incorporated as SOE

Managing Director of the Precious Mineral Marketing Company (PMMC), Nana Akwasi Awuah, has disclosed his outfit has been saddled with a legacy debt amounting to GH¢65 million.

According to him, the legacy debt of the State-Owned Enterprise (SOE), which was inherited in 2017, has resulted in the interest of the debt compounding each passing month.

Speaking in an interview with Graphic Business, Nana Awuah recounted the complexity of the situation which has made it difficult for the company to operate effectively and declare dividends to government.

“At the time it was inherited, it was about GH¢30 million, with the dollar component of about US$4 million. For the dollar component, it has been completely paid off but the cedi component continues to grow because of interest,” he is quoted by www.graphic.com.gh

“For the dollar component, we managed to negotiate with the creditors that they should not litigate and interest should be frozen on the debt amount and therefore we managed to come up with a payment plan and paid that off. The cedi component continues to be a challenge because these are debts being held by banks, some of which have been taken over by the receiver,” Akwasi Awuah explained.

He continued, “but for the debt situation, the company would have been a very profitable one, paying huge dividends to the government. This is why we have continued to appeal to government to assist and we are aware that work is ongoing on that.”

“The Ministry of Finance continues to engage with us on the best arrangement to deal with that legacy debt.” Akwasi Awuah added.

The PMMC Managing Director further said although the company has implemented a number of internal measures to retire the legacy debts, it has also appealed to government to offer some reliefs to enable it to pay the debts.

Touching on other measures implemented to keep the PPMC operational and profitable, Akwasi Awuah said, “We have come up with the vault services where we are offering to the general public the opportunity of storing their items of precious value with us here at a fee, fully insured."

“Beyond that too, we are exploring strategic partnership such as the one we have with Manhyia concerning the Otumfuo commemorative gold coin. We will continue to seek new revenue streams in order to keep us afloat to be able to meet our monthly obligations,” he added.

The Precious Mineral Marketing Company was first established in 1963 as the Ghana Diamond Marketing Board charged with the sole responsibility of the purchase and marketing of Ghana’s diamonds.

In 1965, it was later incorporated by a Legislative Instrument (LI) 401 as a State-Owned Enterprise (SOE).

Currently, the PPMC buys and sells precious minerals such as diamonds and gold. It also develops the minerals to add value to Ghana’s jewellery industry.