When Kwame Nkrumah dreamed of the Akosombo Dam, he needed a customer for its electricity. The answer was an aluminium smelter at Tema, built by American companies and powered by the Volta River. The Volta Aluminium Company, known as VALCO, began production in the late 1960s. For decades it was one of Ghana’s largest industrial plants. Its history, of booms, shutdowns and changes of ownership, mirrors many of the challenges of Ghanaian industry.
The Volta River Project and production
The Akosombo Dam and the VALCO smelter were planned together as part of the Volta River Project, which aimed to industrialise Ghana. VALCO was built and owned mainly by Kaiser Aluminum, with Reynolds Metals holding a smaller share. The smelter began producing aluminium in 1967, using imported alumina rather than Ghana’s own bauxite.
VALCO received electricity at low prices under its agreement with the Volta River Authority, a deal later criticised as too favourable to the company. Critics noted that Ghana’s bauxite was not used, so the country did not develop a full aluminium industry.
Shutdowns, state ownership and struggles
When droughts lowered water levels at Akosombo, power supply to VALCO was cut, forcing shutdowns. In the 2000s, the Ghanaian government bought out the foreign owners and took control of the smelter. Under state ownership, VALCO has operated below capacity, with power costs and old equipment as major problems. Ghana has announced plans to develop an integrated aluminium industry, linking bauxite mining, refining and smelting.
VALCO has provided jobs for many workers in Tema and supported related businesses. VALCO’s story shows the difficulty of building industries that depend on cheap energy and foreign markets. The smelter remains part of debates about Ghana’s industrial future.
The smelter today and its workers
The smelter’s potlines need steady, affordable electricity to run. When power prices rise or supply becomes unreliable, production is cut, which affects workers and suppliers in Tema. Successive governments have searched for partners to modernise the plant and make it competitive again. Many former VALCO workers live in Tema and have watched the plant’s fortunes rise and fall with each change of government and power price.
VALCO was built to give Akosombo’s electricity a purpose. Half a century later, Ghana is still trying to turn its bauxite, power and smelter into the industry Nkrumah imagined.
