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Ghanaian registered suppliers to the mining industry in 2022 raked in over $806 million worth of contracts in the procurement of goods and services from Gold Fields Ghana alone.
The Head of Gold Fields West Africa, Joshua Mortoti, who disclosed this during the opening of a two-day Gold Fields’ Suppliers Conference in Tarkwa, added that 70% of its active suppliers are in-country suppliers, hence the need to meet to improve their working relationship.
“As a major global gold producer, we depend on our business partners to deliver products and services that are crucial to our mining operations in Ghana. In 2022, we spent 896 million US dollars to procure goods and services. Over 90% of this amount went to in-country suppliers, who make up 70% of our 1,600 active suppliers. With such many suppliers and an enormous procurement budget, it is in order to gather all of our business partners, once in a while, to deliberate on issues of mutual concern, share ideas and best practices to navigate global supply chain challenges that directly impact our businesses, as well as learn new trends to improve our business processes,“ he said.
Highlighting the benefits of the first suppliers’ conference held in 2019 for over 250 local and foreign suppliers, Joshua Mortoti said Gold Fields has learned a lot from it to improve its business relationship with suppliers.
“After listening to your constructive feedback during the conference in 2019, our supply chain management team reviewed our supply chain strategy. I’m pleased to inform you that we have restructured and improved aspects of our procurement, tender, and payment procedures to ease the process and eliminate bottlenecks that burden our suppliers. The positive changes and improvements we have made over the past few years are deeply rooted in Environmental Social Governance, ESG, which informed the theme for this conference-The ESG Culture Change: An Imperative to Building a Resilient Supply Chain Through Partnership,” he mentioned.
On concerns raised by suppliers about payment delays, Mr. Mortoti said Gold Fields has introduced a rapid payment system to address them.
“We have now implemented preferential payment terms for licensed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have established offices in our host communities. This means that host community SMEs that supply to us will receive payment within 10 to 15 days of submitting a valid invoice. This is a revision from the standard 30-day payment terms and is intended to make local businesses more competitive and advance socio-economic development in our host communities. So, if you fall within this SME category and you do not receive payment within 10 to 15 days of submitting a valid invoice, please let us know,” he noted.
Joshua Mortoti further said Gold Fields West Africa is committed to sharing its value with its stakeholders, but urged suppliers to familiarize themselves with Gold Fields’ procurement rules in order to have a better chance.
“Indeed, helping your businesses grow falls under Gold Fields’ ESG priority 6, which is Stakeholder Value Creation. This mandates us to create and share the value of gold with all our stakeholders, including you, our business partners. As such, our goal is to carry you all along as we explore various opportunities to sustain our mining operations for the long-term benefit of all stakeholders. On your part, you must learn about our supply chain procedures, understand the requirements for engaging in tender, be aware of our expectations, and most importantly, be sure to follow them. You will then be well positioned to benefit from the various business opportunities available at Gold Fields,” he advised.
The over 100 suppliers who attended the first day of the two-day conference were taken through several topics, including Supply Chain Management Governance and Compliance and the People Factor in Gold Fields’ Supply Chain Process.
The final workshop of the 2023 Gold Fields Suppliers Conference will be on Health and Safety issues.
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