Watch KT Hammond demand sacking of cement manufacturers at meeting with Chamber of Construction

Minister for Trade and Industry, KT Hammond

Amid the ongoing debate over government attempts to regulate cement prices, Minister for Trade and Industry KT Hammond demanded that representatives of the Cement Manufacturers Association leave a meeting.

A video from the meeting, called by the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industries, shows the minister insisting that the cement manufacturers depart before the meeting began.

"I was invited by the Chamber of Manufacturing, not the Association of Cement Manufacturers. Can they leave?" the minister requested.

He explained that he had already met with the manufacturers and that the purpose of this meeting was specifically to engage with the Chamber of Construction.

"It's either I leave or they leave," the minister firmly stated, despite efforts from representatives of both associations to justify the manufacturers' presence.

Following the minister's persistence, Chairman of the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industries, Emmanuel Tettey Martey, asked the cement manufacturers to exit the meeting.

“Respectfully, our manufacturers, our minister has stated clearly that he has already met you and you have articulated your issues to him and to us. He thought that he was meeting only the chamber. So that is where we stand. We don’t want a situation where the minister will leave, then we wouldn’t have achieved the purpose for which the meeting was called,” he pleaded.

An attempt by Vice Chairman of the Ghana Chamber of Construction, Nana Opare Kwafo, who also serves as the Kyidomhene of Aburi, to intervene was strongly opposed by the minister.

On July 1, 2024, representatives of the Cement Manufacturers boycotted a meeting with the trade minister.

They decided to boycott the meeting after the minister insisted on having the meeting in the presence of the media, despite their request for a private session.