The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation who is also the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Manso-Adubia in the Ashanti Region, Yaw Addo Frimpong has called on political leaders and all stakeholders to support the Jospong group of companies for its immense investments into the waste management, environmental and sanitation industry.

The MP who could not hide his excitement during a joint select committee tour of the Integrated Recycling and Compost Plant (IRECOP) and Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited which are all subsidiaries of the Jospong Group of Companies in an interview with journalists underscored the need for all stakeholders to rally behind Jospong to help grow other waste management companies to solve Ghana’s sanitation challenge.

The joint select committee made up of Sanitation and Water Resources, Environment, Science and Technology, Local Government, Works and Housing are touring major waste management facilities and landfill sites across the country to ascertain their conditions after the recent intermittent fire outbreaks at the Kpone landfill which have become a public health threat.

Frimpong also proposed a small increment in the Value Added Tax (VAT) to help finance waste management in the country. “I am proposing that if we add some small percentage on the VAT for sanitation, I don’t think any Ghanaian will kick against that idea,” he stated.

The General Manager of IRECOP, Ms Betty Brown Nyadu who conducted the MPs through the workflow of the IRECOP technology in an interview indicated that the facility charges very little which is far below the world bank recommended fee of $30 for managing a ton of waste.” The tipping fee we charge is so little that it does not cater to our operational cost”, she pointed out.

She was hopeful that the government will intervene to make waste management more sustainable and effective.