The Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) is rolling out an aggressive revival plan to ramp up production after years of operating far below capacity, a situation the company says has hurt both its performance and the wider national economy.
Speaking to the media after a facility tour by the Board of Directors on Monday, January 5, 2026, Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Robert Makila Sambian, said VALCO has decided to stop “waiting” for external rescue and is now driving its own transformation.
“Over the years we have been in a state of waiting as a plant for external help, and that has been the danger because the plant was going down. When we came into office, we took the decision that the wait is over. We no longer wait,” he said, linking the move to the government’s broader economic vision. “In fact, the President is in a hurry to transform the country.”
Dr. Sambian explained that the initiative forms part of VALCO’s contribution to the government’s transformational agenda, which is already yielding results in other sectors. “We’ve seen what has happened in other sectors of the economy and we didn’t want to be left behind, so the agenda is firmly on course here,” he noted.
“We took this decision to ensure that we take our destiny into our own hands and transform this place. If help comes later, it will only come to support what we have already done,” he added.
Established in 1964 and operational since 1967, VALCO was designed with an initial production capacity of 200,000 tons of primary aluminium annually. That level was sustained for more than three decades until 2005, when Kaiser Aluminium and Chemical Corporation, then the largest shareholder, exited and handed over full control to the government of Ghana.
Production, however, had begun declining even before Kaiser’s departure, largely due to power supply challenges. Those same constraints continued to affect output under government ownership, leaving the plant running well below its installed capacity.
According to Dr. Sambian, VALCO has been operating at about 23 per cent capacity for the past 15 years. Management is now pushing to reach 40 per cent capacity by the end of the year to attain break-even.
“When we took over early last year, our mandate was to boost capacity – it’s currently below break-even. So we’re targeting 40 per cent from 23 per cent,” he stated, stressing that the turnaround plan hinges on strengthening key support systems.
He pointed out that critical mobile equipment and other machinery have been repaired or replaced to underpin the first phase of the transformation. This initial phase focuses on fully maximizing two out of the plant’s five cell lines and is expected to create about 25,000 direct and indirect jobs.
While VALCO has opened its doors to strategic partners, Dr. Sambian emphasized that the company is not waiting passively for investors. Instead, it is proactively scaling up its own operations to position itself as a stronger and more attractive partner.
The ongoing transformation, he added, is expected to make a substantial contribution to Ghana’s GDP and restore VALCO’s central role in the country’s industrial and economic development.
Story by: Mercy Addai Turkson #ahotoronline.com