I am not a greedy businessman - Zoomlion founder

Chief Executive Officer of the Jospong Group, the parent company of Zoomlion Ghana Ltd Joseph Siaw Agyapong, says he is not a greedy and corrupt businessman who seeks to rip off the state as perceived by most Ghanaians.

The owner of 45 businesses in Ghana, says he rather has a lot of passion to create employment opportunities to make a positive impact on society and the country at large, stressing that all he did was to find a niche in an unventured area of waste collection to propel his business.

In an interview with JoyFM, Mr Siaw Agyapong said had he been greedy, he would have stuck to only one business, which would be enough to feed his family. His quest to create jobs has spurred him on to set up multiple companies in Ghana, and other African countries such as Liberia, Togo, Guinea, and Angola which employs nearly 600,000 in the West African Sub-region.

The Jospong group of companies have for the past few years been embroiled in numerous controversial government contracts.

JoyFM's investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni in 2013 brought to light series of corrupt practices by the company in a sanitation contract with the government. Under the contract signed in March 2011, Zoomlion Ghana Ltd was paid an amount of GHC500 per person a month under the youth and sanitation module of the Ghana Youth Employment Development Agency, (GYEDA). 

It however emerged the company paid the workers only GHC100 and retained  GHc400 or 80% of the amount as management fees. The company defended its action with the explanation that the management fee was to provide sanitation materials for the job.

The then President, John Mahama directed the termination of the contract after a committee set up to probe the matter determined that the state did not get value for money under the deal. 

The Jospong group was in 2014 blacklisted by the World Bank and banned from bidding for the institution's contracts for indulging in fraud in a contract to build a landfill site in Liberia.

Responding to these proven case of corruption against the company, Joseph Siaw Agyapong admitted mistakes had been made in the past but he has learned from the errors and turned the company around to become a transparent accountable company, leading to the lifting of the ban by the World Bank.

He lamented what he believes is the tendency to paint black successful local businesses simply because the company is Ghanaian. According to him, the negative cases of his company have been overly highlights and exaggerated to drown the many successes it has chalked in the sub-region.

Mr Agyapong said what the Jospong group of companies needs is support from citizens to do the right thing, and not the constant foul mouthing and public ridicule of the company spearheaded by some journalist in the country. 

 

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