'I won’t collapse your business' - What Atta Mills told Jospong

The Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyapong is succeeding as a businessman today because a sitting President under the NDC, John Evans Atta Mills, chose to save his business instead of collapsing it as his party people were urging him to.

Dr. Agyepong made this disclosure himself when he spoke at the 6th John Evans Atta Mills Memorial Lecture at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ho, the regional capital of the Volta region over the weekend.

Established in 2006, and with NPP leaving power in 2008, there was pressure on the new NDC government led by Atta Mills to “retaliate” by collapsing companies perceived to be backers of the NPP. 

But President Atta Mills, known for his “father-for-all” and “asomdwee” policy refused.

Atta Mills himself approached Jospong to confess to him that there is pressure on him to kill his business but he should rest assured he won’t.

Jospong was speaking at the 6th Memorial Lecture for Mills.

“One day during the launch of one of our subsidiaries, we received a call that the late former President was coming but we didn’t know what to do and expect, but he came and told me I won’t collapse your business, although calls have been made to collapse it because you were established during the reigns of the previous administration," Jospong told the gathering.

Not only did Mills not touch his business, but the late former President also helped him to grow more by facilitating an $80 million loan in 2012 to start the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant which now processes 1,200 tonnes of waste daily in Medie Kokoku area.

The theme for the lecture was “Sustaining Environmental Sanitation Gains Through Specialized Education” and was delivered by Dr Siaw Agyepong.