Ghana’s state-owned tech hub suspended every employee’s contract after last week’s floods. The government reversed the decision less than 48 hours later.
Ghana Digital Centres Limited, which houses numerous startups and tech companies in Accra, was hit hard by the June 29 floods that affected 23 tenant businesses on site.
On July 1, GDCL management issued a circular suspending all staff employment contracts, pending what it called a comprehensive assessment.
Deputy CEO Christine Adwoa Agyapomaa Ansong later defended the decision on Citi FM, saying it wasn’t a dismissal and that parts of the facility remained unsafe with no revenue coming in to sustain salaries.
She described the flooding as a force majeure event the company deliberately chose not to use as grounds for outright termination.
The Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations didn’t see it that way. In a statement issued that same day, the Ministry said it took “a very strong view” of the directive and instructed management to reverse it immediately, telling staff to disregard it entirely. It also confirmed GDCL management would be summoned to a meeting to discuss the matter.
To be fair to GDCL’s management, the floods were real, the damage was extensive, and by Ansong’s own account the intent was financial survival, not malice.
But for staff who had just been personally affected by a disaster, a contract suspension notice was the last thing they needed to wake up to.
The Ministry’s intervention came fast. The question worth sitting with is what would have happened if it hadn’t.
