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Coronavirus: Kempinski to sack workers – Finance Minister

Management of the plush Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra is to lay off about 85% of staff as the novelย Coronavirusย pandemic has had a negative impact on their business.

The hotel, in addition, will close down four floors of its multi-storey building with the aim of cutting down its operational cost.

According to Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, for a huge hotel like Kempinski to take such a decision, it really tells us that we are in a very difficult moment.

โ€œFor a hotel like Kempinski which has about 400 workers, they are letting 340 go home. They are closing about four floors of that hotelโ€ฆit is a sobering momentโ€ฆ we do get panic attacks as we wake up thinking of how best to do it,โ€ he said on the floor of Parliament late Friday night.

Mr Ofori-Atta disclosed that some players within the hospitality industry are going through difficult times as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and occupancy rate for them has dropped by 5% to 20%.

โ€œSome companies are laying off up to 90% of their employeesโ€ฆ And there are issues of job losses that we have to contend withโ€ฆ It is time to look at unemployment benefits,โ€ he said.

He further announced to parliamentarians that the Government of Ghana will soon roll out new strategies to support struggling businesses. The new initiative is dubbed COVID Care and Re-Vitalisation of Enterprises Programme.

He noted that the new programme will among other things ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as micro-small scale institutions and big industries, get some relief.

Source:ย www.ghanaweb.com

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