Groupe Nduom breaks barriers, strategises for the future

The subsidiaries of Groupe Nduom have defied the economic challenges in the first half of the year to post impressive results, which they are now working to consolidate in the remaining half of 2015.

Although the power challenges, cedi depreciation and rising inflation, among other difficulties, forced many companies in the country to hold back expansion plans while laying off some of their employees, none of the over 35 subsidiaries under the group laid off a single employee nor reduced the size of their operations.

The Head of Learning and Development at the group, Ms Makafui Gbedemah, told the Daily Graphic that the companies, comprising mainly medium and large enterprises, rather expanded their operations and that led to the employment of many Ghanaians nationwide.

The group is owned by Dr Papa Kwesi Ndoum and his wife, Mrs Yvonne Nduom.

“At the review, we realised that almost all of them did fairly well. Things were not easy in the first half but they braced the odds and almost met all their targets,” she said at the end of a five-day mid-year review of performance targets at the Coconut Grove Beach Resort, Elmina, which is one of the hospitality wings of the group.

Ms Gbedemah said, as of June, this year, the group employed over 4,500 people directly, with the GN Bank being the highest employer.

The bank, which got its universal banking license in September, last year, employs almost 3,000 Ghanaians, Ms Gbedemah said.

Group advantage and future prospects

The General Manager of Finance and Accounts at the group, Ms Patricia Agyekum, explained that the ability of the various subsidiaries to weather the challenges in the first half of the year could be attributed to the resilience that the group offers.

She explained that although the difficulties denied some of the subsidiaries access to businesses, majority of the companies were able to benefit from businesses generated by affiliated companies and that insulated them against the challenges.

Going forward, she said heads of the various subsidiaries were optimistic of posting positive results at the end of the year to consolidate gains made in the previous years.

“If the currency continues this way into the end of the year, then we will do really well. In the hospitality industry for instead, when there are currency weaknesses, their prices become unstable and that affects demand,” she said.