Ghanaians Drink Alcohol on Every Occasion: How Can You Be in Debt? President Mahama Slams GIHOC

President John Dramani Mahama has questioned the top management of the state-owned GIHOC Distilleries over their failure to make a profit over the past eight years despite Ghanaians being lovers of alcohol.

Speaking during the 2025 May Day parade held at the Independence Square in Accra, President Mahama took the top brass at several state-owned enterprises to task over their failure to properly manage their agencies over the past eight years.

According to the President, he had recently been made aware of the debt levels at numerous state-owned enterprises, and the level of debt they displayed alarmed him. Mahama called on workers at such enterprises to speak up if management is mismanaging the company.

Targeting GIHOC Distilleries, the President noted that the last time he was in office, GIHOC was a profitable company that paid dividends to the government. Over the last eight years, the company fell deeper and deeper into debt.

Mahama expressed incredulity that a company that sells alcohol, one of the favourite pastimes of Ghanaians, would fail to turn a profit.

“The question I ask is, how can you sell alcohol and be in debt?” he queried. “When Ghanaians are happy, we drink alcohol. When we are sad, we drink. When we are not happy, we are not sad, we drink. So how can you sell alcohol and lose?”

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The President concluded that his administration would not tolerate such mismanagement, calling on leaders of such agencies to step up and make the companies turn a profit.

“…We are charging the management of state-owned enterprises. And the workers, let us work together to make sure that we make these institutions viable because those institutions belong to all of us,” he charged.

GIHOC Debts

The former Managing Director of GIHOC Distilleries, Maxwell Kofi Jumah, was sacked by President John Dramani Mahama in January 2025, shortly after taking office after winning the 2024 elections.

Jumah, an in-law of former President Nana Akufo-Addo (his son Kwabena married Akufo-Addo’s daughter Edwina in 2022), oversaw a period of increasingly alarming year-end losses of the state-owned company.

In 2023, staff members of the company protested for Jumah’s removal, citing mismanagement manifesting in delayed salaries and the failure of the company to pay social security contributions for their workers.