Alcoholic beverage producer, GIHOC Distilleries, has temporarily halted its operations in Nigeria due to the negative impact of the economic recession in that country last year.

Wholly owned by the government, the company is the only one among 16 divisions of GIHOC Ghana Limited which has not been divested.

It was the first modern distillery to be established in West Africa and produces for the African and European market.

Marketing Manager of GIHOC, Elvis Blankson, says they will only resume operations in Nigerian when the economic situation the West African country improves. 

“You could not even repatriate your money. You could not bring dollar back to [Ghana]...the Nigerian economy was really in a bad shape,” he laments.

He adds unreliable power supply in Nigeria is another operational hurdle that the company had to contend with.

Nigeria was hit by a recession because of a significant decline in GDP in the first and second quarters of 2016.

Official data revealed that GDP decline in the first quarter of 2016 was -0.36%, where the second quarter shows -1.5%.