It wouldn’t be a stretch to infer from recent discussions in Ghana that everyone in the country is obligingly following table manners at Zoomlion’s dining table. Few voices have consistently stood up to challenge what increasingly seems to be an unholy alliance between the state and a private company in a society where injustice frequently lurks behind the façade of legal contracts.
Most people might not be completely aware, but Zoomlion Ghana Limited has long benefited from a number of contentious contracts with the government, including a broad agreement under the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), which is funded by deductions from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).
Zoomlion receives GHS 850 per sweeper under this exact arrangement, pays the sweeper a pitiful GHS 250, and keeps the remaining amount as management fees. This is the best example of institutionalised injustice there is.
Under the amended Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992), Zoomlion Ghana Limited was founded in April 2006. It is entirely owned by Ghanaians and specialises in environmental sanitation and full waste management services. Zoomlion, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies, has an impressive success story on paper. From a small workforce, it has grown to employ over 3,000 core staff and manage over 85,000 project staff across various public-private partnerships in Ghana.
Beyond Ghana, Zoomlion is said to have expanded its operations to other African countries, including Togo, Angola, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea, and Liberia, with plans to extend services to Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
It boasts of offering sanitary services at important events like the 2010 tournament in Angola and the 2008 African Cup of Nations in Ghana. Underpinned by its goal to enhance lives via sustainable waste management solutions, Zoomlion’s vision is to become Africa’s premier environmental sanitation management group.
Resource Curse
However, the unsettling realities at home cannot be concealed by the gleaming corporate image. Ghana has abundant natural and human resources, much like many other African nations.
But the way these resources are distributed is still unbalanced, which keeps a society in which a wealthy few enjoy lucrative opportunities while the majority live in poverty. In light of this, the long-standing agreement between Zoomlion and the government seems not only problematic but also immoral.
As previously mentioned, it appears that practically the entire Ghanaian population is seated at a lavish banquet table, where the unfairness of Zoomlion’s contracts is either conveniently justified or disregarded. In the face of this absurdity, very few voices have persistently refused to be silenced.
Among the few who have revealed the unsettling details of the agreement, especially the Zoomlion-YEA contract, is renowned investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni.
His unwavering support brings to light a shocking truth that many influential people would prefer to conceal: a system that pays meager wages to underprivileged laborers who physically clean Ghana’s marketplaces and streets in the sweltering heat and torrential rain, while a company earns millions off their sweat.
It should be made clear that Zoomlion was not the first waste management initiative in Ghana. The sector was criticised for being mainly ineffective, dispersed, and ill-coordinated prior to its emergence in 2006.
Ghana’s Mountains of Trash, Choked Gutters
Unfortunately, not much has changed in spite of Zoomlion’s near two decades of existence. If there has been any improvement, it is insufficient to justify the billions paid to the corporation, as evidenced by the mountains of trash, clogged gutters, and ongoing sanitation problems in almost all countries urban cities.
Zoomlion’s partnership with the Youth Employment Agency has allowed it to play a leading role in sanitation throughout Ghana. Zoomlion serves as a middleman in this arrangement, organizing the labor of thousands of sweepers that the YEA has hired. Cleaning the streets, marketplaces, and truck stops throughout the nation’s Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) is the responsibility of these employees.
Although the model appears effective on the surface, a closer look reveals serious structural problems. Zoomlion serves as the only organization that makes it possible to sweep through almost every assembly in the nation, from Accra to Kumbungu, and from Mion to Nanton.
The primary query that emerges is why a third party is even required. Through a variety of models, the Youth Employment Agency interacts directly with employees without the assistance of a third party. Therefore, why should sanitation services need a middleman who keeps a large amount of the funds intended for the employees? Direct collaboration between the YEA and the assemblies would have been a sensible, effective, and decentralized strategy
The enormous administrative costs that currently benefit a single business at the expense of the underprivileged would be avoided under such a model. The way this arrangement undercuts Ghana’s decentralization culture and practice is even more concerning. The foundation of Ghana’s meticulously constructed local governance structure is giving the assemblies the authority to run their own affairs.
However, this idea is compromised by Zoomlion’s extensive monopoly. The fact that one business can oversee sanitation services for all 261 assemblies is perplexing. Due to DACF deductions at the source, Zoomlion effectively has a de facto national monopoly on waste management.
This arrangement has also sparked grave concerns from renowned data scientist and policy analyst Alfred Appiah. It is incomprehensible to him that the sanitation contract is not decentralized so that the assemblies themselves have more authority.
He claims that a third of the DACF funds allotted to assemblies are taken out at the source and sent straight to Zoomlion for fumigation and sanitation services. However, despite payments being made, the Auditor-General’s reports consistently highlight noteworthy instances of “no work done.”
Aside the countless damning revelations made by Manasseh Azure’s investigative documentary on the country’s giant waste management operation, there is also incriminating evidence in the 2023 Auditor-General’s Report on the Management and Utilization of the District Assemblies Common Fund and other Statutory Funds for the year ended December 31, 2023.
It shows that GH¢173,566,650.00 was taken out at the source to pay Zoomlion for fumigation services and Sanitation Improvement Packages (SIP). Zoomlion failed to fulfill important contractual obligations in spite of this enormous sum.
According to the report, Zoomlion has not yet delivered 24 skip trucks and 143 containers, and it has not fixed or replaced 63 trucks that broke down and 182 containers that were damaged for 68 assemblies. Even worse, Zoomlion unilaterally increased its quarterly fees without informing the assemblies, which is a breach of contract and disrespectful.
In light of all these disclosures, it is impossible to avoid wondering why the assemblies themselves are not permitted to hire, oversee, and compensate service providers solely on the basis of their performance. Since local assemblies are in a better position to oversee services and are closer to the issue, they can make sure that payments are linked to real outcomes rather than just empty promises.
The payment structure is another aspect of this problematic arrangement that is illogical. The impoverished sweepers have been receiving pitiful compensation for their arduous work since 2006. Given the nature of the work, the pay, which began at GHS 100 and was raised to GHS 250 in 2018, is still shockingly low. It’s exploitation, nothing more.
Zoomlion, meanwhile, receives enormous sums of money every year from the government. Perhaps Ghana has genuinely normalized the abnormal if this obvious injustice does not provoke a national outcry.
Additionally, the mere fact that Zoomlion’s agreement with the Youth Employment Agency formally ended in September 2024 is even more startling. According to public records, the immediate past CEO of the YEA was against the contract renewal.
Despite not having his board’s full support, he acknowledged that the arrangement “stinks” and opposed efforts to extend it. In an otherwise compromised system, his principled opposition to the renewal was a rare beacon of integrity.
But under the leadership of the Youth Employment Agency’s new CEO, a new era appears to be possible today. The new chief executive officer has pledged not to extend what he calls an “evil” contract.
The ruling party’s Deputy Communication Officer who earned the accolades of “the Basintale Boy” by many young and old Ghanaians ahead of the 2024 polls for his distaste towards the former regime’s alleged shielding of corruption has dedicated himself to putting an end to what he perceives to be a heinous exploitation of laborers, writing with a strong sense of conviction and drawing on the memory of his late father.
He listed three options: renegotiating the prior agreement, ending it completely, or greatly raising beneficiaries’ benefits. It is telling that termination is the most sensible and favored course of action.
YEA’s Vision of Decent Jobs
The Youth Employment Agency was created by the Youth Employment Agency Act 2015 (Act 887), with the goal of giving Ghana’s young people decent, long-term work opportunities. It obvious that plans that perpetuate inequality and undervalue the very young people it aims to empower are incompatible with its mission.
In light of this, it is clear that Ghana does not require—and cannot afford—a single business to control the sweeping of its assemblies. The fact that this arrangement has endured through three consecutive political changes is even more worrisome, indicating that Zoomlion’s power transcends political boundaries and that special interests have solidified the status quo.
The nation must now accept the fact that the Zoomlion contract is unworkable, even though the former CEO of the YEA deserves praise for opposing this injustice, and the new CEO deserves support for his dedication to significant reforms. Renegotiating it is not advisable. It is not worth reviewing. It should be completely revoked.
The Akan proverb “Ohiani nni adamfo“—”The poor person has no friend”—must be recalled by Ghanaians. In this instance, however, the nation’s conscience must be a friend to the poor. No longer should the cleaning of the assemblies from Accra to Kassena-Nankana West, or Atebubu-Amantin Municipal District, be a cause of oppression.
It’s time for Ghana to refocus its priorities, decentralise sanitation management, strengthen local assemblies, and—above all—make sure that the dignity of the most marginalized and the vulnerable citizens is maintained. Zoomlion’s dining table manners must end if Ghana is to create a just, equitable, and prosperous future.
The Writer: Evans Junior Owu is a seasoned Policy Activist and the Head of Political Desk at The Vaultz News
