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On August 14, 2024, the Executive Chairman of the McDan Group of Companies, Daniel McKorley, widely known as McDan, appeared on Accra-based Joy FM’s morning show.
Mr McKorley discussed a wide range of topics from industry to politics and highlighted several opportunities for Ghana to enhance its economic fortunes.
As the owner of a new salt mine, he took the opportunity to discuss how his company, ElectroChem Ghana Limited, would contribute to Ghana’s development if given the needed support.
When asked about Ghana’s expenditure on salt imports and what his company could offer, Mr McKorley said the country spends more than $300 million on refined salt and close to $700 million on chemical salt annually.
Fact-Check Ghana has verified the claim and presents the facts below.
Claim: “Currently, Ghana is spending over 300 million dollars to import salt into this country every year. This is just the raw and refined salt. Not to talk about chemicals, talking about chemicals, we getting close to 700 million dollars Ghana is spending on salt and its other affiliates.”
Verdict: Completely False
Explanation:
According to Ghana’s 2023 Trade Report compiled and published by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the country’s total import cost last year was $16.3 billion.
For Ghana to have imported raw or unrefined salt at a cost of over $300 million would mean that not less than 1.84% of the country’s total imports in 2023 were spent on salt.
Additionally, the claim that Ghana spent close to $700 million on chemical salt would imply that 4.3% of the total imports were allocated to chemical salt. This would also mean that the importation of raw or unrefined salt and chemical salt must rank among the top ten most imported commodities in Ghana in 2023. For the claim to hold, unrefined salt would have had to surpass the importation of cement clinkers, which was the third most imported product in Ghana in 2023, accounting for 1.8% of total imports.
Again, if the claim of 4.3% for chemical salt importation were accurate, chemical salt would need to be the third most imported product in Ghana per the percentage breakdown in GSS’s Trade Report.
However, this is not supported by the data in the Trade Report. Even the third most imported product was not 4.3%, it was 1.8%.
GHANA’S TOP 10 IMPORTED COMMODITIES IN 2023
| Rank | Product | Share of Imports |
| 1 | Diesel – automotive gas oil (AGO) | 15.0% |
| 2 | Light oils, motor spirit, super | 12.3% |
| 3 | Cement clinkers | 1.8% |
| 4 | Medium oils, Kerosine type jet fuel (ATK) | 1.5% |
| 5 | Cereal grains, worked but not rolled or flaked, of other cereal, nest | 1.5% |
| 6 | Second-hand vehicles with engine sizes ranging between 1500cc to 3000cc | 1.4% |
| 7 | Herbicides, anti-sprouting products and plant-growth regulators: Other. | 1.3% |
| 8 | Self-propelled bulldozers… with a 360| revolving superstructure | 1.3% |
| 9 | Rice, semi-milled or wholly milled rice, package > 5kg or bul | 1.1% |
| 10 | Shea nuts (karate nuts) | 1.1% |
| – | All Other Products | 61.1% |
| – | Total Import | 100% |
Source: GSS
The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) provides the geography and dynamics of economic activities around the world.
In 2022, the OEC reported that Ghana imported $4.51 million worth of salt, placing it 88th globally among 222 countries. Domestically, salt was the 428th most imported product out of 1,129 commodities. Egypt was the primary supplier, contributing $1.92 million, followed by China ($1.17 million), Namibia ($615,000), Turkey ($294,000), and Senegal ($107,000).
Meanwhile, according to the OEC, Ghana exported $4.36 million in salt during the same period, ranking 59th among 184 salt-exporting nations. Salt was Ghana’s 82nd most exported product of 885 total exports.
TrendEconomy provides annual statistics on international trade. It focuses on specific commodities and tracks import and export trends over time for various countries across the globe. Among other kinds of data, it provides data on raw or unrefined salt, ‘chemicals,’ and value-added salt imported by Ghana over the past decade.
According to TradeEconomy, in 2023, Ghana imported $15.8 million worth of this category of salt. This figure represents only 0.096% of Ghana’s total import value of $16.3 billion for the same year. This data is corroborated by the latest report from the GSS on Ghana’s trade in 2023.
In conclusion, the total importation of unrefined salt in 2023 was worth $4.51 million. The importation of unrefined salt and other salt affiliates in 2023 was worth $15.8 million in 2023, which represents 0.096% of the country’s total import value of $16.3 billion.
Based on the data provided, the claim by McDan that Ghana spends over $300 million on unrefined salt and close to $700 million on chemical salt is entirely false.
