GHANA – The Jospong Group of Companies, a diversified holdings companies, has signed a contract worth €50 million (US$60.5m) with the government of Hungary for the construction of wastewater treatment plants in Tamale in the Northern Region and Takoradi in the Western Region.

The projects will be funded by the EXIM Bank of Hungary.

The Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group, Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, signed for his company, while the Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana, Mr András Szabós, signed for his country at a ceremony at the Embassy of Hungary in Accra yesterday.

Already, work is ongoing on a similar project in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, where the company is constructing a 1,000-cubic metre capacity plant.

“Ghana is blessed in its relationship with Hungary; such initiatives will help resolve the sanitation challenges in the country.”

Joseph Siaw Agyepong – Executive Chairman, Jospong Group

According to Mr Agyepong, the said projects are expected to be completed within 15 months. He gave an assurance that once work started, efforts would be put in to complete the projects within the scheduled period.

He described the decision of the government to create the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources as laudable, since it would facilitate the realization of its vision to make the country the cleanest in Africa.

“Ghana is blessed in its relationship with Hungary; such initiatives will help resolve the sanitation challenges in the country,” he added.

The Hungarian Ambassador said Ghana-Hungary relations dated back to five years, and that their collaborations had since yielded remarkable results.

He said the construction of the waste treatment plants would put Ghana on the path to achieving SDG Goal 6 of the UN, which is on clean water and sanitation.

The Director of Sanitation at the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr Anthony Mensah, said the ministry was working towards ensuring that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s vision of a cleaner Ghana was achieved in due course.

Apart from the Kumasi waste treatment plant which according to Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong was near completion, the other two which were yet to commence would be completed within schedule considering the urgency of the need of the plants for the treatment of liquid waste.

He noted that the vision of creating the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources was a laudable one which would facilitate the making of Ghana the cleanest country in Africa.

The Hungarian Ambassador, András Szabó noted that the Ghana-Hungarian relationship dated some five years ago, so it was not without reason that the relationship has yielded this remarkable feat.

He said that the construction of the waste treatment plant means Ghana was in the process of achieving SDG goal 6.

They prayed that the relationship would grow bigger yielding greater gain going forward.